Viewing All Posts Tagged ‘job seeker’

Job Seeker Advocate

I’m ushering in a new look (Thanks NZ Team!!), new name and new focus on the AllianceQ Blog.  I hope you like the changes and enjoy reading “Recruiting on Q”.

Today, my focus shifts to the Job Seeker.  Of all the reasons to focus on this population of people, none is more compelling than spending time with Recruiting departments and hearing some of the prevailing attitudes toward them.  Wow!  You’d think the job seeker was put on the earth to bog down and frustrate corporate recruiting departments.  I think your Marketing and Executive teams might have something to say about that!

The job seeker is inextricable tied to your corporate profits.  Follow me here; a job seeker applies to one of your jobs – why?  Probably for a myriad of reasons but one of them is always “money”.  I don’t hang with a lot of independently wealthy folks so everyone I know works for pay.  What do we do with that pay?  After taxes, we buy “stuff”.  Therefore, every job seeker is also a consumer, and a potential consumer of your company’s “stuff”.  Or not.

• 1 in 4 job seekers has been badly treated by a prospective employer.
• 53% of job seekers will not purchase products and services if they have been badly treated.
• 55% tell at least 3 people about their bad experience.

There are many ways a company can increase the positive feelings these job seekers have with their brand.

None is more important than simply acknowledging there is more to do and committing to doing it.

The Message is Now Mainstream

For the last year, I’ve been writing on, quoting, tracking back to etc. any hints that the “candidate is customer” message may be getting the attention it deserves in Recruiting.

While AllianceQ is making great gains in membership and therefore the message is getting out, having it written about in the New York Times means that the message is finally mainstream:

In this new world, candidates’ correspondence to companies is rarely acknowledged. Calls are seldom returned. Status updates are not routinely provided. Rejection decisions are not consistently communicated.

I highly recommend that you read Jon Picoult’s article.  Job seekers will be expecting more civilised treatment now that word is out.

Frustrated Job Seekers

Here is an interesting article that comments on the frustration most job seekers experience in online recruiting.  Speaking of the difficult time job seekers have of actually finding their “dream job” online, Jennifer Hamm says;

Still, trolling job boards remains a very time consuming process, contends Richard H. Beatty, author of “The Ultimate Job Search.” There are over 40,000 career websites, including mega job boards, industry-specific sites and listings on company sites.

“Job seekers are faced with the daunting task of somehow screening through this bewildering array to discover those sites that will prove most productive for them,” Beatty says. “Huge amounts of precious job-search time can be completely wasted.”

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Open Letter to Job Seekers

After a comment on my blog (yes, some people read it!) asking “what is an exact fit?” and the general exacerbation that the job seeking process causes most job seekers, I thought I’d write an open letter to all job seekers, allowing them a peek into the recruiting process:

Dear Job Seeker,

We know you are frustrated with the job search process.  We understand that you apply and apply and are rarely granted an interview or even an email communication telling you why you were not selected.  We also understand that even when you get a phone call or email telling you that you were not selected, you would like details on why.  Here is a glimpse into the world of recruiting and HR so perhaps you will understand the method to the madness.

• Our lawyers prohibit us from giving you detailed feedback on why you were not selected for an interview.  We can give you a broad category of why but not specifics.  Why?  Because you sue us.  If the company gives you feedback that you misinterpret as discrimination or bias, we get sued.  We mitigate our risk by being vague.
• We have a timer on positions and have to get them filled.  Even in this economy, most positions have a cost of vacancy associated with them.  As such, we have to fill our roles in a timely fashion.  Sometimes, this means that the best candidate for the job is not considered because they applied late to the opening.  This TIMING element of filling jobs is the most misunderstood by job seekers.  We hire the best candidate in a given timeframe otherwise we’d never fill our jobs because we’d always be waiting for YOU to apply!
• You apply to the wrong job a lot.  Sometimes it’s because you think by applying to every job we have posted, you’ll get noticed.  You do, but not in a good way.  Most of the time it’s because we’ve posted a vague, laundry list of requirements that could be you but is probably not.  We need to do better and really put a great job description up.  A video of the hiring manager telling you what she needs in the ideal candidate would be best.  We’re working on it.
• We have less jobs to fill (75% less in some cases) but we get between 100 – 300+ applications for every job we have posted.  Most recruiters carry between 20 – 25 openings.  Do the math.  To require that we personally contact each person and give them feedback and advice is simply not reasonable.  We are trying to let you know your status.  If you get an email from us we really ARE doing our job.
• Interviewing and hiring are human processes and as such, are inherently flawed.  Recruiters make suggestions on who to interview – sometimes geting it wrong but mostly getting it right (meaning the people who are interviewed are good candidates).  Hiring Managers make hiring decisions – sometimes getting it wrong but mostly getting it right (meaning the person they hire is usually a good hire for the job).

We empathize with your frustration (there are a lot of us out of work today too) and just want to tell you that we are doing the best we can and are constantly looking for ways to get better.  One way we’ve found is AllianceQ – where at least we can offer you the option of continuing your job search with our fellow Member companies and 3000 small and medium sized businesses.

Good luck with your job search

Sincerely,

Corporate Recruiting

The Oscars – Extreme Branding for Job Seekers

As I watched the annual parade of glam last night, it dawned on me that each and every one of the movie stars is an extreme brand manager.  In any economy, job holders and job seekers should take notice of how these folks manage their personal brands because, like in Hollywood, it really is all you have to offer.

Top 5 tips from Hollywood’s Extreme Brand Managers: 

Dress.  “Who are you wearing” may not be something that you hear in interviews or after a particularly rousing corporate presentation but it IS noticed by people, some who count and some who don’t.  Presentation is one key to Personal Branding.

Pride.  Being proud can be a slippery slope.  It can escalate you to the front of the pack or relegate you to forever bringing up the rear.  The key in Hollywood is that actors are proud of the “work” not of themselves (for the most part).  Speaking proudly of the work your teams have accomplished in the past is a great way to stand out in a crowd.

Humility.  The balance to #2 is humility.  Being humble is a parallel slope to Pride.  If you are to humble and never speak of YOUR accomplishments you may come off as a coat tail rider.  Be sure to speak proudly of your team’s accomplishments and also of your unique contribution to the organization’s success.

Grace.  I’m always impressed with the Red Carpet ride these stars take and that they are willing to speak to people like Ryan Seacrest and Joan Rivers.  At each interview stop they smile, answer truly inane questions and always thank the microphone monkey as if it was a fantastic experience.  Leaving everyone feeling positive about your interactions with them is one of the fastest ways to get or stay employed.

Gratitude.  Ok, so thanking a handwritten list of everyone who’s ever been part of your career (like some did last night) can come off as contrived, being grateful for those who have made an impact on you and letting them know regularly is crucial.  Read “regularly” because being grateful only when you get laid off (and start re-connecting with everyone in your network because you need them) is the antithesis of gratitude.

I think the greatest job seeker lesson from the Academy Awards last night lies in Slumdog Millionaire taking the night with 8 Oscars.  Why?  Because there were no Brad Pitts, no Meryl Streeps and no Batman special effects.  It was a medium budget foreign film with children and teenagers as stars. 

Proof that success lies, not in what you see and expect, but in what you can imagine and create.

Monster.com – Wrong end of the Moose

Many of you are aware that, for the second time in 18 months, Monster’s database was compromised.  This time the personal information of 1.2 million job seekers was stolen, in 2007 it was the username and passwords of legitimate Recruiters. 

According to the dictionary;

Hack; to damage or injure by crude, harsh, or insensitive treatment; mutilate; mangle:

Using this definition of HACK; we can safely say that Monster’s inability to secure the sensitive data of jobs seekers and paying customers has created the “follow on” hacks below: 

They hacked the confidence of millions of job seekers and paying customers world wide

They hacked the job board industry by creating distrust in eRecruitment

They hacked the hopes and dreams of millions of job seekers who will now get phishing emails instead of bona fide communications for employment

They hacked a percentage of these job seekers lives because they will naively give personal information to criminals who call or email them based on this stolen data

They hacked  customers in 2007 when they used the breach of their database as the reason to squeeze hundreds of thousands of additional license revenue out of us, saying that it was OUR fault for sharing passwords!

 And finally, another definition of HACK from the dictionary – this time in reference to the person who made the decision to spend $3 Million on a Superbowl ad instead of on additional security measures:

Hack
Noun;
1. A person who engages in an activity without talent or skills

Enjoy the humor, marvel at the irony!

Job Seeker “Bill of Rights”

Seems the Universe is sending messages about the idea of a job seeker “Bill of Rights”.  I just finished watching the HBO series “John Adams” (highly recommend it) where the story of the original bill of rights was told.  Then I hear a caller on a radio show speak of how she wished our forefathers had also written a “bill of responsibilities” in exersizing these rights.  Really good idea.

So I wrote previously of a job seeker’s bill of rights and now I’m going to add a bill of responsibilities. 

2009 Job Seeker Bill of Rights

1. WE have the right to know if the position you have posted is an open, viable role and that you are currently recruiting and interviewing candidates to fill the role.
2. WE have the right to apply for a job and not get spammed with junk email offers for garbage jobs and poorly disquised get rich quick schemes.
3. WE have the right to know if we are being considered for the position to which we applied.  If not, simply tell us but don’t leave us hanging.
4. WE have the right to know why we weren’t selected.  If you didn’t consider us for the job, we just need to know why. 
5. WE have the right to disagree with your decision.

2009 Job Seeker Bill of Responsibilities:

1. We have the responsibility to honor your decision to pass on our application even though we may disagree with it and move forward in our job search without attempting to dispute your decision. 
2. We have the responsibility to NOT adjust our resume to fit the job description.  This wastes time and money and the truth always comes out in the interview process.
3. We have the responsibility to educate ourselves on the company and position we are applying to.  Not knowing the basics about a company when invited for an interview shows lack of earnesty.
4. We have the responsibility to only apply for jobs we are qualified to do.  Applying to jobs with a lack of qualfications is never a way into a company.
5. We have the responsibility to use the full array of tools availble to us in a job search.  Applying to jobs online is only ONE of the many tools and if we rely solely on this method our search will stall.

All rights come with corresponding responsibilities that must be adhered to to protect those rights.  If job seekers conduct a job search adhering to the responsibilities, it is our responsibility as Recruiters to ensure their rights are protected.

Ipso Facto

It is January so I still have time to get my “2009 Predictions” in along with the hoards of others.  In the Recruiting community, predicting what will happen in our industry has become not only a tradition, but a somewhat stale one at that (like Aunt Ruth’s Thanksgiving Turkey, who everyone has to eat even though it’s dry and overcooked every year) with most “predictions” being nothing more than observations of what’s happening already:  (these are actual predictions from our thought leaders)

There will be less hiring this year

There will be fewer recruiters employed this year

Social Networking will continue to expand

Recruiting vendors will suffer

Less business travel

and so on.

Not exactly Nostradamus-worthy predictions right?  Since much of this was already happening in 2008, these just don’t seem like predictions to me.

So I’m not going to make a bunch of “observa-predictions” – you can read it in the Wall Street Journal and make your own.  I’m simply making one prediction.  One thing I can see on the horizon that, if things don’t change, will come true by Christmas this year.

I call it the “Ipso Facto” prediction.  Here it is;

I predict that 2009 will be the year that Job Seekers take back their job search.  I predict a “revolution” of sorts where job seekers, tired of being treated like a commodity, begin to fire their job boards and begin to demand tranparency from corporations they apply to.  If we are going to see 10%+ unemployment and it hits all industries and socio-economic levels – I believe the 21st century internet job seeker says, “ENOUGH ALREADY”.

So why “Ipso Facto”?

There will be no one to blame for this trend but job boards and corporate career sites!  Allow me to elaborate;

Job Boards today are flush with “false” jobs – jobs put there by anyone with a checkbook  who can pay for a posting.  At worst, they are people/firms who want to lure candidates into the false hope of finding work (to feed their family) so these predators can build a multi-level marketing organization or get someone to work for commission only with false promises of big returns (Madoff style).  Anyone posting a resume on a big board should have the Arnold Schwarzenegger of spambots on their computer – it’s really ugly and people are tired of it.

Corporate Career sites have no fraudulent intents but commit similar “crimes against job seekers”.  Even though there is no law requiring private sector companies to post their jobs externally, many HR departments are convinced this is a best practice for Equal Opportunity reasons.  In times of growth and expansion it may be a good idea as you can gather the best internal and external candidates for consideration.  In times of contraction, when you are already planning on filling that role with an internal candidate or a pre-determined candidate – this “artifical posting” is simply cruel hope to the millions of unemployed Americans.  These same job seekers who gleefully complete your online profile and apply for the “artifical posting” or even the real postings are, more often than not, rarely communicated with once their application has been acknowleged.

I think job seekers will be pushed past the tipping point and begin to demand better from eRecruitment.  They will flock to solutions that put the control of their job search in THEIR hands as they once and for all tire of putting it into the hands of people who don’t handle it with the care it deserves.  They will demand a “job seeker bill of rights”:

There are recruiting solutions today that treat the job seeker with the dignity they’ve always deserved and I’m happy to say there are corporations out there who treat job seekers the same way.  The partnering of these corporations and these solutions vendors will become a force in 2009.

I’ll answer to my peers if none of this happens but I think it may already be taking hold as you’ll see when you read this post from a blog titled; “The Day I Fired Careerbuilder”.

Power to the Job Seeker!

Job Seekers are from Venus; Recruiters are from Mars

As a Headhunter or Corporate Recruiter I always felt my job was to create matches.  Long before eHarmony, Match.com or any other “matchmaking” service, Recruiters have been bringing together candidates and hiring managers in what one of my early mentors described as “having two hands full of jello and trying to get them together before one flops off”.

So today I take up the Matchmaker role again and try to patch a misuderstanding between Job Seekers and Corporate Recruiters.

It seems these two groups don’t understand each other: Venus and Mars.  I’ll explain.

Job Seekers want a job, first and foremost.  Many are quite persistent and most are quite professional.

Recruiters want to fill jobs, first and foremost.  Many are thorough in their search and most are quite professional.

On the surface, this is a match made in heaven – both have virtually the same goal.

Where the relationship breaks down is when the decision not to hire (or interview) someone is made.  This creates several misunderstandings on both the Job Seeker and the Recruiter sides of the equation:

Job Seeker:

You were not selected for hire or interview because there are better qualified people out there who want the job too.  Millions of job seekers, one job – the chances that you are the most qualified are not in your favor.

The decision not to hire/interview is not made in a vacuum; Recruiters and Hiring Managers collaborate to choose the best pool of available candidates.

This decision is subjective and not worth arguing or complaining about.  As a BMW owner, you don’t try to convince the Mercedes owner of the mistake they made in car selection, don’t try to convince Recruiters that they’ve made a mistake in NOT hiring/interviewing you. 

The more you argue and fight with a Recruiter, the less and less chance you have of EVER working for that company.  Recruiters talk to each other and if you find doors closing faster than opening at certain companies, you probably chose to argue a decision at one time a little to persistently.

Remember that timing plays a KEY ROLE in this decision.  If you applied for the role anytime after it has been open 30+ days, chances are you won’t get to interview.  The reason is simple but never explained to you – Cost of Vacancy.  This is a calculation of the cost to the company for each day that position is open and once a viable pool of candidates is moved into the inteview process the clock is ticking on getting it filled.  Understand that, as in life, in recruiting timing can be everything.

Recruiter: 

Job Seekers are frustrated.  Why?  Go to any job board, search for jobs, post for jobs, hear nothing and get spammed to death. 

Job Seekers are frustrated.  Why? Go apply for one of YOUR OWN jobs.  Fill out a complex profile and hit apply.  Then be told you’ve created your “account” (did I really want an account? No, I want a job.  See #1under Job Seeker above) and NOW you need to actually apply for the job.  Be told “Thank you” but never hear from anyone about anything again. 

Job Seekers DO want to be told what happened to their application.  If Job Seekers can live with 3 and 4 in the Job Seeker list above, you OWE it to them to tell them what’s going on.  Let them move on, let them get closure.  Do the right thing.

More is more.  I know Legal and HR tell you to be very tight lipped about the reasons people didn’t get interviewed or hired but c’mon – common sense says that there is information you can provide a job seeker that may actually HELP them get the next job they apply for.  Don’t be callous, it could be YOU.  Treat job seekers the way you want to be treated.  Don’t be too busy, don’t be too cold, don’t be put out by their need for information.

I’m not writing a book or going on Oprah but I am simply saying that the Recruiter can do his/her job without aggravating the frustration of the job seeker and that the job seeker can seek jobs without causing Recuiters to withhold information and be non communicative.

Job Seeker, meet Recruiter; Recruiter, meet Job Seeker.

The “New” Monster?

Monster.com unveiled its new and improved site claiming;

Monster’s new job search is easier than ever! To apply for the job is 65% faster than before!

I know Monster has a crush of cubicles staffed with Product Managers who no doubt spent hundreds of man (or woman) hours talking to job seekers to develop their “new and improved” hyper-speed application process but Monster, did you also spend that time on the Recruiter side?  You know, that side that pays your fees and determines your future?  It seems that the New Monster is simply speeding up a problem created by the Old Monster.

After spending 15 years at a recruiting desk and having been a Monster, Careerbuilder et al user since their inception I can unequivocally tell you that allowing candidates to apply for the wrong jobs 65% faster is NOT what your paying customers want!  Monster added questionnaires, pre-screening tools etc to try to mitigate this issue but the facts are that a majority of candidates apply for a job they are not qualified to do.  This creates the millions of excess applications for jobs every year to Corporate America.

Proof that Monster didn’t do the due diligence on the Recruiter side is evident in this sales pitch to employers from their new site;

For employers, a faster, easier search process for seekers means more candidates than ever will make time to apply to your Job Posting.

I don’t know of 1 Recruiter who is looking for MORE candidates to apply to their postings.  As a matter of fact I would estimate that over 90% of Monster’s employers are looking for ways to streamline that number, not increase it.  By increasing the number of people who can now, faster than ever, apply for your jobs Monster is exacerbating the job posting issue for employers, not solving it.  The steps in the process are:

Job seekers search for postings that match what they want to do.  Maybe what they have actually done but certainly what they want to do even if they aren’t qualified. (no one applies for jobs they don’t want to do right?  Just see all the postings on Monster stating. “stay home, make millions” – the process appeals to the WANTS of a job seeker, not the qualifications of one)

Job seeker hits “apply now” button on Monster job posting which traditionally takes them to the employers career site where they actually apply for the job in the employers ATS.

Recruiter sifts through the first 20-25 applications until a viable pool of candidates is found (5-7) and then begins the interview process.

Recruiter rarely if ever reviews any applications that come in after interview process has started (#26 +) THUS creating the black hole of recruitment.

I know of Recruiters who get between 100-250 applications for every job they post (multiply times 30 open positions and you can see why “More” is not “better”)

If Monster was listening to the people who pay their bills (hefty bills with the Super Bowl ads to come this year) they would be focused on making it slower and more thoughtful to apply for a job not 65% faster and easier. 

New year, same Monster.