Month: September 2016

Why Is It So Difficult for an Unemployed Person to Get a Job?

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5dPGDNqaS0[/svp]
The answer is simple and, no, it is not that all employers have entered into a conspiracy against unemployed people.

[spp-transcript]

The question is, “Why is it so difficult for an unemployed person to get a job?”

To me, the answer involves confronting a belief that a lot of people have about all the bias that companies have about hiring unemployed people. That’s the easy answer; the honest answer, the one that you don’t want to hear is that (#1) you don’t have the skills that the market wants or (#2) you don’t know how to job hunt. Let me break it down for you.

In terms of job hunting, if you’re not getting interviews, your resume stinks. If you getting interviews but not being invited back, you don’t interview as well as you should. If you are being invited back and nothing is happening further, you are connecting with people as well as the need to.

See where I’m going with this? There are clear skills deficiencies that you have that can be corrected.

There are lots of different ways to learn how to do things better. Yes, you can hire a professional resume writer to write your resume for you. You can also join the site like mine, JobSearchCoachingHQ.com, where I have curated information that can pick you up all along the line and help you dissect the problems plus you can ask me questions so I can help you dissect it.

After all, as Malcolm Gladwell points out so well in, “Outliers,” an expert would be someone with 10,000 hours of job search experience. You have how much? You are by no means an expert and you have about no idea what firms look for. You are guessing at it.

Get some help. That’s the thing you really need at this point. It’s not that firms go out of their way to discriminate (although some firms do for chronic long-term unemployed people). They do it because they believe that in a good job market, as they believe it is now, there is a reason why someone is unable to get a job for a long period of time. For those people, they use the fact that you been unemployed for a long period of time as code for, “Other people have screened he or she. They found you deficient. We’re not gonna find anything different.”

That’s the problem – – you know how to do the search right. You’re an amateur and you think you know how to do the search better than you do.

Tough message but one that needs to be heard.

[/spp-transcript]

Do you really 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.

Connect with me on LinkedIn http://bit.ly/thebiggamehunter..

Do What Rookie Recruiters Do – Job Search Radio

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You can respond to work the recruiter by the superficial questions they ask and the lack of understanding of your answers.

On this podcast, I encourage you to act like a rookie recruiter, learn and grow.

[spp-transcript]

Years ago, I used to train beginning recruiters–

You know, little puppies who never did the job before eager wanted to do the right thing. Always asking me, “what do I do now? What do I do now?” Like a big sheepdog… loveable . . . You would like them and they want to do the right thing . . . They would get on the phone and sound horrible! They we get off the phone very depressed.

“I did a terrible job on this one.”

I would pack them on the head. “This is your time to make some mistakes. I’m going to give you a list of firms to call and I want you to practice saying what I tell you to say and with time you are going to get better. You’re going to have to make your mistakes and get used to the fact that at the beginning you just don’t know what you are doing.”

“When you interview job applicants, I’m going to give you some basic questions but, at the end of the day, you don’t really know what you doing yet. You will only collect basic information and, from there, I will send you back for more.”

They would follow my instructions and, from there, they would get more confident and get further down the interview Road. If they were doing business development, they would get better at it because they were learning along the way. From those experiences, they would develop more confidence and more expertise.

You know where I’m going with this one, folks?

I’m talking to you. There are times you just got to make your mistakes. I want you to call firms and talk with them about opportunities. Don’t start with the “A” organizations That you really want to work for. Start with the “C’s,” the ones you don’t really care about that much.

Just get on the phone, call them and talk to the hiring manager. Making mistakes and get better. It’s not going to take you all that long, just like a dozen with these people.

With the rookie recruiters, they usually don’t even know the feeling that they’re working in. Thus, in IT, they had to learn the basics of technology in order to discuss it intelligently. They have to learn the tech terminology. You wouldn’t have to do that, would you?

Of course not! You would have to learn the sales stuff just like they had to learn. It doesn’t take long and you start to get better as you start to have successes.

That’s really my advice for you– start getting on the phone. Start calling people. Introduce yourself, tell them what you are trying to accomplish and start to promote yourself. Start getting information about you out there. Reach out to people, ask for advice. Make your mistakes (yes I want to practice before you call, like I would with the rookie recruiters. I expect you’ll become fearful like most people do at the beginning but then, after the call you all grown and say to yourself, “That was awful. That was terrible.”

Then, I will ask you to ask yourself, “What could I have done better? Where was the mistake? How did it break down? What can I do differently next time?”

This is a learning process.

You see, you’ve been trained out of this industrial mindset to be perfect. You’re not. You won’t be. But, I want you to start getting better.

The only way you can get better is by practice, repetition, making your mistakes and not really worried about the consequences of it. Do you think this hiring managers going to say, “Hey! I spoke to this one. He’s an idiot!” Do you think

He’s going to say that to you? Do you think she’s going to insult you over the phone? Do you think she’s going to yell at you, “What is wrong with you?”

Of course not. So what are you afraid of? Just start talking to people, like working recruiters for 20 years old and no less than the door and just are making your mistakes.

You are not going to make many in the basic mistake you’re going to make is going to come from the fear. The way you overcome fear is through practice and repetition.

So practice, then repeat. Practice. Repeat. Get better things and then, lo and behold, you will have great conversations with people

Should you expect it to be your first call? Probably not. Do you think you will get better by the fifth or sixth call? Probably. Are you going to be perfect? No. With time and practice you will be getting better..

[/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 … Read more about this episode…

Getting Ready for a Cold Weather Interview (VIDEO)

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Watch the video

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter offers several simple tips to help you prepare for a cold weather or nasty weather interview.

 

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.

Connect with me on LinkedIn 

The Thursday Supplement to No BS Coaching Advice August 25, 2016

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The Thursday Supplement to No BS Coaching Advice August 25, 2016

 

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.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Start at the Top

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter encourages you to do what headhunters are trained to do — start at the top.

[spp-transcript]

This is one of those classic tips. It’s absolutely timeless. I’ll talk with you about how I’ve been trained as a recruiter to give you a sense of why I’m suggesting this.

I’ve been a recruiter for more than 40 years and, again, no disrespect to HR, I was always trained to circumvent HR– to try and go directly to hiring managers, to go the top of the organization and work my way down from there, to have the management of that organization, the management of that function, tell HR that they want to work with me, rather than have HR decide that they wanted to work with me.

Why was that important? Because HR is …the term as a gatekeeper, but it’s a really a misnomer. Human resources is designed to to shield hiring managers from decisions and to save them time. Some are exceptional, but they tend to be the exceptions. Most are average, they are overworked, overwhelmed and have too much on their plate and very rules driven. Discernment is not their strong suit; again, no disrespect to HR, but recognize that the typical day for HR professionals may involve interviewing X number of people, returning phone calls, trying to get a clearer picture of what a particular hiring manager’s doing, writing reports on the interviews that he or she did the previous day… on and on and on with a lot of drudgery.

It’s hard to maintain the sense of life and not become a bureaucrat. In contrast, the hiring manager has a vested interest in bringing on the best talent, not that HR doesn’t, but they are measured in different ways. They’re critiqued in different ways versus the hiring manager who was exceptional talent.

My encouragement to you is to do like what I was taught – – start at the top work and your way down. If you are a marketing professional, contact the CMO over the organization. If you are a salesperson, contact the head of sales of that organization. If you work in IT, contact the chief technology officer or the CIO of the organization.

Start at the top and work your way down. Make sure that you understand what it is that you’re asking for when you contact them and don’t just simply wander in your like a jerk, completely unprepared because all that you do is waste then is waste your time and theirs. A simple thing to say when contacting them is, ” I understand that your organization might benefit from. I’m an individual who’s been doing this for X number of years with so and so. I’d like to speak with you about what I’m capable of. Can we schedule time to do that? What would work best for you?” It’s that simple.

It was three, maybe four sentences in total. You want to rehearse this so it sounds natural and NOT rehearsed. Natural but not rehearsed.

[/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.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

The August 23, 2016 issue of No BS Coaching Advice Ezine

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The August 23, 2016 issue of No BS Coaching Advice Ezine 

 

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.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Using a Proper Handshake or Bow

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains the importance of using correct body language at the beginning of your interview.

[spp-transcript]

I want to talk with you about body language today and a very simple piece of body language that some people in the US get tripped up on.

I’ve spoken about the smile; I’ve spoken about the positioning of yourself in a chair during an interview but they were but, today I want to about the handshake. If you are born in the US, you understand that in the US a handshake is firm that you and maintain eye contact while you are shaking hands. If you’re from other cultures, that would be considered rude; but if you are interviewing in the US that is the appropriate thing to do.

So I want to encourage you to practice the proper handshake if you are not US born and if you are US born and interviewing outside the country, remember, culturally, it may be different. You may not be interviewing with an ex-pat working abroad. You may be interviewing with someone local who is used to, we say, a milder handshake.

In some cultures, the appropriate thing is not a handshake. It’s a bow. if you’re US-born, you have no experience with this. It’s the equivalent of someone being foreign-born and shaking hands in the US. You have to learn to bow. I can’t do that because different cultures do it differently but wherever you are, if you are interviewing with someone who’s expecting a bow, because you are interviewing in and other country (that is a non-US country), you have to come to someone to practice with.

This is an example of one of those “practice ahead of the interview” kind of things I talk about with regularity and being rude and not bowing, being rude and not shaking hands properly, will hurt you in the interview because it will temporarily distract the interviewer from paying attention to who you are or what you can give them.

[/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.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Why Do Recruiters Ask About The Interviews I’ve Been On?–Job Search Radio

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Serious mature businessman on call in front of laptop at desk in a bright office

There are many possible reasons that recruiters do this. Some are innocuous . . . and then there are the others.

On this podcast, Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains the various reasons for asking.

[spp-transcript]

I want to answer the question is someone sent to me. Why is it that recruiters ask me about the places I’ve interviewed? They may ask me about the numbers of places. The firm’s I’ve met with– stuff along those lines.

There are many reasons why recruiters do this. Some of them are completely innocuous and then there are the others.

Starting with the innocuous wants, they want to figure out how active you are in a search and how far along you are. Have you been on 15 interviews and been turned down. Been on 15 interviews anger close to a job offer. If you’re close to a job offer, the likelihood is that their client is a be able to move fast enough to compete. So they’re trying to do that kind of reconnaissance right out of the box.

They also want to find out if you interviewed with the client. You may ask yourself, “Why don’t they just will tell me who they are representing?”

The answer is that sometimes people are thieves just like recruiters are sometimes seen that way as well. We’ll get to that of the second.

Here’s the scenario that comes up (I know it’s happened to me way too often). Let’s say that I tell them that my client is Blah Blah company (obviously if there’s a company by that name I made it up on the spot; this has nothing to do with any firm by that are similar name). I have had many instances where I’ve told people the name of the company and their next phone call is to that company, perhaps even to someone that they know there, they get the interview without me but use my information to find out about the job and who doesn’t get paid? Me.

“I wouldn’t do that!” How do I know that? It’s always been seen that way in the four instances that cost me over hundred thousand dollars where I know it happened to me and I’m sure there are other instances that occurred to. I only caught four. That hundred thousand dollars was 25 years ago. I’m sure it happened more than that.

So, I’m not forthright about it; I’d rather hear it from you as to where your interviewing so that I can determine whether or not you’ve already met with my client and not put myself at risk.

They also want to see if you have received any job offers yet, what you liked and disliked about the firms that you’ve met with so far. This way they can learn from your experiences how you evaluate and assess jobs.

The last thing I’m going to bring up today is that they want to get leads of firms that are hiring. This is an example of recruiters taking that information that you provide in the interview with them and trying to convert it for their benefit.

Like job hunters who steal that information and act on it, recruiters do the same thing. If you want to avoid that, say, “I interviewed with a financial firm,” or a manufacturing firm or a consulting firm. Describe it by industry and I was talking with them about such and such type of position. It seemed interesting but they chose someone else. I got there a little late to the party and the rest someone further along and we really didn’t get far.

If they asked, “What firm was that?”

Answer, “I would prefer not really mentioning it. No disrespect is intended but I’ve had instances where recruiters have immediately contacted the firm that I mentioned and its costly opportunities.”

If they start to debate you about it, simply say “Look, I’m not going to identify who the firm is. It certainly doesn’t benefit me and I can tell you who the hiring manager as either.”

So those are the basic reasons why recruiters do it. Most of them are completely innocuous and then there is those last one.

[/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 … Read more about this episode…

Stop Spamming Your Resume!!!

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter speaks bluntly about resume spam.

[spp-transcript]

I believe lots of resumes today I got to a point where I have stared at so many resumes that in no way shape or form fit what my clients are looking for.

Let me give you an example. I post a position for a global data center manager. The spec I posted was very clear about what I was looking for and what the expectations are. A person is going to run data centers. Even if you know nothing about that, you know that you are expected to have experience running a data center. #.

Why?

What did you see that in any way shape or form see the major qualified for that job?

Do you see the word, “qualifications,” in the job description? That is what the firm is looking for. That’s what the recruiter is looking for in order to identify someone that fits the job.

A CVS store manager. Give me a break. You are a spammer. You are no different than the Viagra people except your stuff isn’t blocked; yours actually gets through… But not anymore. I’m blocking 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.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

The Bear

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boUaUf-vJRE[/svp]
A story, mostly true, about the opening of a camp.

[spp-transcript]

Most of this story is true. I listen to me last night and maintain a liberty or two along the way and retelling it.

I was listening to a man who runs a camp talk about the first day of camp. He was in his office as the cancer being dropped off, about 300 campers plus parents and grandparents, figure about 1000 people are coming into the parking lot saying goodbye to the kids for the summer.

He received a call from one of the counselors who he knows to be a prankster saying, “there’s a bear and a tree next to the parking.”

“No, tell me the truth.”

“There’s a bear in a tree next to the parking lot.”

I from the camp director knows that if he diverts people to a different direction, he will be answering questions from 350 pairs of parents and grandparents I want to know what’s going on.

Regards the parking lot and finds the truly, looks up and, yes, there is a bear there. Four paws dangling down, sound asleep.

He decides to station a counselor nearby and deflect people away from the area, thus avoiding all the questions being asked. The bear continues to sleep, everyone goes on their merry way, everything is fine.

In telling the story my friend continue to by saying (and I think it’s a lovely point), when you think about it, when you meet a bear, what do you try to do?

The idea with the bear is to get as big as you can and as loud as you can and is while this you can, knowing that most of the time you will chase the bearer way.

It begs the question, “What about the Bears in your life?” You know, those big bogeyman that wrestle with your mind. Should you let them sleep or should you scare them away?

What would really work best in your life?

When you think about it, there are lots of berries that are rumbling around in your life that live in your head and cause you a lot of distraction. They keep you awake at night and keep you from having the life that you want and keep you from making the choice that you know you need to make.

It’s a great metaphor; I hope you enjoyed it.

So remember, sometimes let the bear sleep but many times, you need to get BIG and scared off before it eats you up.

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been coaching people to play their professional and personal games BIG for what seems like 100 years.

For more No BS Coaching Advice and encouragement, visit my website,
www.NoBSCoachingAdvice.com” >www.NoBSCoachingAdvice.com

Ready to schedule your first coaching call? https://gum.co/JAcoaching