I was contacted by someone in my role as a headhunter who wanted me to represent them in their search. I wouldn’t. I think it was several years ago, maybe even 10 years ago, they contacted me. We had a had had a good conversation and then I called with interviews and never received a called back. Six times I called. Not a callback. That is already found something I could handle just say hey contacted you late in the process but you can’t to the job the problem but instead calls life is too short for this stuff when is the last time is the job of I called and doesn’t really was and never got a call what’s different this time so so bold he treated me like I will top the job is you are overwhelmed agency calls just to apologize is back to you
I would have understood if they called and said they already found something. I could handled if they just said, “Hey, I contacted you late in the process and I found something.” but you can’t to the job the problem but instead calls life is too short for this stuff when is the last time is the job of I called and doesn’t really was and never got a call what’s different this time so so bold he treated me like I will top the job is you are overwhelmed agency calls just to apologize is back to you
[/spp-transcript]
Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.
The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter points out a common misconception people have when they think about recruiters.
[spp-transcript]
Recruiters. Very charged topic. When I look around at people and their opinion of recruiters, they are universally criticized, complained about and thought poorly of.
Part of it stems from the fact that you have a misconception about who the recruiter works for. Most people think that recruiters work for them; it doesn’t work that way.
If the will, how much you paying for that service? And you think you’re working for you?
The fact of the matter is that recruiters are hired by organizations to fill jobs. If you fit the requirement do you think you’re going to get on the phone and call companies and say, “hi! I’ve got this great candidate! You’ve really got to talk with them! They are terrific! Best person I’ve ever spoken with! Sorry, you don’t need someone like that?”
And may call after call on your behalf trying to market you the companies.
It doesn’t work that way. Recruiters work with organization that defined a need for a person with a certain kind of background and go out and find. They are paid for that service. To do that they need to find someone like you.
I say like you because it may not be you. It may involve someone with a different set of skills. Even if you have the same skills as the firm is looking for, do you think they’re only sending in one person? Of course not!
They are going to send it is many is the client will let them submit in order to ensure that they collect the fee. By sending in a lot of people the recruiter is hoping to encourage them to make a choice of one of the candidates.
Why do they do this? Because they want to earn a fee.
They are not relying upon placing you and you don’t fit. What they care about is referring someone… Anyone… Will satisfy the client and being hired by, then work 90 calendar days and receive a check from the company.
Recruiters need to look out for themselves because you are not going to pay them anything! This is not social work; this is recruiting. Unless they refer someone who is hired, a contingency third-party recruiter will not be paid.
Why do you think they are any different than you in looking out for their own interests? Respectfully, when you think the recruiter is working for you you are deluding yourself.
Yes, to earn their fee, they have to find someone who fits the role the client to specified and will work there successfully for 90 calendar days.
Why do you think this person is any different than you in looking out for their interest?
At the end of the day if it is not you, they are hoping that it is someone else that they are representing. That way, they will make a substantial chunk of money.
So don’t kid yourself and think that recruiters are working for you. As many of you know they aren’t and that’s a fact
[/spp-transcript]
Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.
The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.
The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
Q. References are important. How do you stay in contact with them?
[spp-transcript]
So the question is, “My job search is going to be a long one. How do I stay in contact with my references?”
This is an interesting question. So much of it reveals a lack of confidence on the part of the job hunter.
Now we don’t know what a long job search is to this job hunter but let’s accept this on face value. They know is going to be a long job search because they are a beginner or perhaps have antiquated skills that make them less marketable.
So first of all you’re going to need to do work to prevent this from being a long job search. There are skills you will need to learn or relearn in order to avoid it from taking as long as you fear. After all, you don’t want to be like a feather in the wind blowing from place to place. You want to be someone who is desirable marketable and is in command of your situation.
The next step is to stay in contact with your references on a limited basis, not an abusive basis. You write what seems to be a personal note instead of a BCC or bulk copy to a lot of people. Instead, copy and paste an individual message to individual people. It can be the same message but give the illusion that it is a personal individual message.
The subject line can read something like, “status update.”
The body of the message could read something like, “I’m not at a point in my search where I feel like I’m close to anything. I thought I would just ask you to keep this in your mind and if you hear about something that makes sense for me, reach out and let me know about it or give the recruiter my contact information to reach out to me directly.”
Send a note to them every 4 to 6 weeks – – that’s fine. You have to mention who your interviewing with of the number of firms you spoken with unless, of course, the person you’re writing to has contacts there or is a former employee.
Tell them you’re not at the point where you think you’re getting an offer but just wanted to stay in touch with them so that in case they do their of something they should feel free to reach out to you
[/spp-transcript]
Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.
The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.
The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
On this show, I explain how to answer this question in a way that allows you to hit a home run with the interviewer.
[spp-transcript]
Today I will do one of those tough interview questions there designed to make you quaking your boots… Stammer out an answer… And generally look foolish.
These questions are so difficult. They just require a few seconds of thought.
This is a fun one and gives you a great opportunity to sell yourself hard… Unless you’re unprepared in which case you will sell like a dope.
So today’s question is, “why are you interviewing for this job?” Or, “why did you apply for this job?”
These translate into, “why are you sitting in my office and why am I talking to you?”
This is a great opportunity to sell yourself into the role. Speaking in a crisp sort of way because people associate that style of speech with self-confidence. You can’t speak as though you’ve never given it any thought or have no degree of certainty. You really have to sounds certain with your answer because, remember, part of what an employer is looking for is someone who can inspire confidence that they are to the solution to a need.
The ability to speak with certainty is critical when answering this question.
The answer the question, said with certainty is, “I understand the position is for such and such. What I understand your organization is about is that it’s a leader in its field or an organization with great adaptability or a place where people with talent in advance…” You have four or five different criteria in quick succession.
You continue, “that’s exactly what I’m looking for. You see my background with such and such would fit in nicely with what you are looking for. From the standpoint of what I bring to your organization, I bring a lot of driving passion for what I do, a determination to be successful, I play well with others but not to the point of subjugating a good idea and not trying to advance the idea.”
“I work well with others but not to the point of letting myself be pushed around. Ultimately what you will have is an individual with a strong belief in themselves, a determination to excel. I work well with others but not to the point where I push them around or let myself be pushed around will work hard to make you look good.”
So the idea, again, is to give yourself a commercial for why you are fit for the role and how you ever tried to be successful, your passion for what you do (you demonstrated to how you answer the question) because it’s not just what you say that counts is how you tell your story that will come out in the interview.
And you can really bang this one out of the park if you take a few minutes to think in advance as to how you’d answer the question.
[/spp-transcript]
Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains the importance of not just uploading a resume to job boards but suggests a free alternative that allows recruiters to find your resume for free.
[spp-transcript]
SUMMARY
A lot of people use job boards. They shouldn’t be the only tool in your quiver but their great tool.
Here’s another tool to use.
Instead of just putting your resume upon a job board, why don’t you set up a website purely for your reume? You can use a service like wix.com and creaEte a one-page website (wix allows more),keyword optimized, SEO optimized so people can find it through Google.
Wix is free to there’s no excuse for a financial standpoint not to do this. All were talking about is taking your existing resume and putting it up on the web for people to find it for free.
Now if you make changes to your resume and other places, you will also need to change it on wix.
You know about LinkedIn and making sure your profile is set up well so that it is also keyword and SEO optimized. You need to do the same with your resume on wix or any other site you put your resume on.
The only cause that you will have is if you want to get your own domain. Otherwise they will issue one like jeffaltman.wix.com (that is not my real address. If it is a website is up your accident). That address is fine but you wait may want something specific to you and your taste. It would cost $10/$14 to get a custom domain.
Since you are giving it out to anyone it doesn’t matter if you have your own domain or not.
[/spp-transcript]
Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
I will answer this from the perspective of a recent grad as well as the vantage point of an experienced professional.
[spp-transcript]
SUMMARY
I’m going to answer this question from the perspective of a new grad as well as a very experienced worker.
Here’s the sub-question was asked: I’ll be graduating with my Bachelor’s degree by next year and I want to get into software engineering. I did not go to a well-ranked school for computer science. I’m looking for some ideas of how to attract recruiters.
I’m going to address this in a few parts. The first part is I didn’t go to a great school.
How do I attract their attention?
The answer is it’s probably too late. What you are going to need to do is to invest some time and do some great work that’s noticed in order to get into that organization.
Why? Because they are not there to satisfy you. They have established criteria for hiring and you don’t meet it. Early in your life, you may decisions that are impacting you now – – you chose not to study all the time, hanging out with friends was more important to you than getting an A in that course. Maybe your fear got the better of you at the time you took that standardized test.
Whatever it was, the result was you can get into that great school that these firms believe is a good benchmark for success with their company.
They are trying to find exquisite talent for the organization and that is and you. You are a stretch at best, probably a loser from their previous experience.
You may not believe this but I’m not being critical of you. They just develop these formulas that are proven and over time as the new will be successful in your organizationAnd it’s not the person who went to the “C” school. They are not there to make you happy; they are there to solve a problem. They are not doing social work. It’s business; not personal.
You’re going to have to up your game and instead of doing mediocre work that caused you to be in this “C” school, you are going to have to up your game. You can do that in your next job, you can do that in projects that you do on the side that get noticed. However you do it, the going to have to step up your game so that they want to notice you.
For the new grad who hasn’t played big yet, you got work to do too. Had you come from a name school, it would have been easier because you come with that brand that the school has the creates an impression before you even walk in the door. The school you went to also has a and it rubs off on you too.
If you attended Stanford, they have a positive halo around them but you still need to deliver the goods. “Positive halo” means that they have a positive experience with previous graduates who come to work for them. You need to find alumni from your school who have been successful at their organization and see if they will provide you with entrée to the firm. From there, it is having a positive LinkedIn profile that causes them to want to reach out to you.
Speak to your career services office to see if they can set you up.
Summarizing up to this point, working with alumni who already work at the firm, using career services to be introduced and having a profile that makes them want to reach out to you, Reaching out to HR and hiring managers.
Lastly, for the experienced person, if you have done great work, if you are marketing yourself beyond simply doing your job, being in your silo, doing your tasks
. . . If you are out promoting yourself (After all, your career is part of what you do and marketing) . . . After all, you know these firms because they branded themselves from a career standpoint, right? You have to follow their example and brand yourself and market yourself outside of the cube you work in. Your LinkedIn profile is a small piece. Your public persona, Where you put yourself out, Where you can connect with these people who work with these firms, Speakers from these organizations– Can you get introductions to them when you see them?
The big thing though is making sure that the world knows about you.
I’m going to repeat that.
Making sure that the world knows about you and doing it consistently.
[/spp-transcript]
Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.
The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
What are good reasons to give the interviewer for why I want to change jobs?
[spp-transcript]
Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.
The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
Here, Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains the value of stories when you interview and suggest a format for your stories to create the best impression with an interviewer.
[spp-transcript]
Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
