Day: November 26, 2016

What Are Some Good Ways to Turn Down a Counteroffer? (VIDEO)

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-1bXEhZ8kA[/svp]
In this video, I describe a scenario that someone faces where they need to turn down a counteroffer… And it is very painful.

counteroffer

[spp-transcript]

Someone wrote to me about how to best turn down a counteroffer and I am compelled to give you some texture to this so that you can understand the dilemma this person has.

The person is happy in their current job, but they were recruited by a foreign firm that offer them a salary double what they are currently earning.

Wow!

But we don’t know if this is a $40,000 a year person who has been offered $80,000, a $100,000 a year person who has been offered $200,000… We have no sense of the numbers.

They really like the job and found it very interesting, they love the money and gave notice. At this point, the persons manager does their version of, “But why? We love you! Don’t go! We need you! Don’t do anything yet. I’m going to talk to my boss.”

His boss is the owner of the firm and comes back to the job hunter (as I am recording this, it is November) and says to the job hunter, “we are going to be able to pay you much more (but not as much money as the other offers for).”

In the position with the foreign firm, the person can work from home, and double the money.

It is an interesting choice for the person but after some weighing alternatives, he or she has decided to turn down the counteroffer. What are some good ways to do this?

I want to address one detail head on. If this is the owner of the firm, what is going to change between now in November and December other than the fact that the other offer has been turned down. That will allow them to increase it then and not today? <Sniff> <Sniff>

I smell something unpleasant here but let’s give him the benefit of the doubt.

You made a decision that you want to leave. Great. How do you turn down the counteroffer gracefully?

You sit down with your manager, you look them square in the ally and you say, “You know, I really spent a lot of time thinking about it and I decided that I am going to take the other offer and go.”

Because you are responsive to the counteroffer, they may try to take another run at you to try to persuade you to stay.

“Wait! Don’t do anything yet! I’m going to bring in the owner. He or she is going to make a different!”

You know, create a big drama to try to stop you.

So if and when this trauma occurs with the president of the firm, all I want you to calmly say is, “Look, I’ve no complaints about this firm. You guys have been great to me but this is my time to go. And if I discover that I made a mistake,.I will have weighed the alternatives and I will learn something from it.”

They may turn around and try to exert pressure on you. Thus I want to remind you that you need to speak with a very calm tone, sounding like you are reflecting. “This is been a hard decision to make and I hear you. Please respect my choice.”

“I’m giving 2 weeks notice. I’m sure you can find someone to do the job within 2 weeks. Just go out there and try; after all, there are people out there looking for work. I’m sure someone is qualified to do the job.”

Just maintain your calm and, if for some reason, they get under your skin, PLEASE do not react. Do not be reactive and lashing out.

Try to maintain your cool and simply say, “Again, we are going around in a circle here. I have made up my mind. Please respect my choice.”

Stand up. Shake their hands and leave.

 

[/spp-transcript]

 

Do you really think employers are trying to help you?

You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much 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 changes 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

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

 

Wake Up! The Next One Is Coming! | No BS Job Search Advice Radio

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter encourages you to be proactive not reactive.

recession

[spp-transcript]

I want to have a real straightforward conversation with you and say something that I’m sure that you don’t want to hear, I’m sure you don’t want to act on, but you need to hear it and you need to act on.  What’s that advice?  It’s real simple.

The next recession is coming.

I don’t know when it’s going to happen, but do you think we are not going to have another session?  Do you think that the US and global economies going to be so stalwart that nothing bad is ever going to happen again?  Do you think you are not at risk if the next slowdown occurs?

Of course, you are.  Of course you are at risk.  Of course there is going to be another recession.

It is important to start taking action NOW before you need resources available to you, in order to protect yourself and your family in case this occurs sooner than you are prepared for.  If you listen to this, you would’ve heard me hesitate because I wasn’t sure whether to say it the way I did, or whether to say in case he catches you by surprise.

When all is said and done, cut your spending habits down now.  Save some money.  A statistic I saw recently sent almost half the US population lives paycheck to paycheck.  How could you afford to write to restore if those are your circumstances?  Cut your spending.  

Next, do networking now.  Build up your connections. Communicate with your connections.  Communicate with friends, former colleagues, former managers… I’m not saying doing daily or weekly.  Don’t let them slide. Reach out to people.  Get involved with meet ups.  Get involved with professional associations.  Do stuff so that people know you.

Does that guarantee anything?  No.  Obviously, every resource you connect with can wind up needing you more than you need them.  But, number 1, you could be prepared to help them. If that happens. And, number 2, if you need them. You are not coming in as a stranger. You are someone who is coming in with social proof, who is light and has capabilities and they will be there to vouch for you.  Again, start preparing now. Don’t waste time.  Time is not your ally here. The next recession is coming and don’t be a fool by avoiding doing your homework.

[/spp-transcript]

Do you really think employers are trying to help you?

You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much 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 changes 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

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes

 

Why Won’t They Give Me Feedback When They Reject Me? | Job Search Radio

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One of the great complaints the job hunters have, both from corporate and agency recruiters, is that they do not get feedback when they are rejected for position.

On today’s show, I explained why they don’t get feedback when they reject you.

rejected

[spp-transcript]

Why don’t companies give feedback?

I am going to give you very, succinct answers.1. By not responding, they are giving you feedback.Your background doesn’t fit a job you applied for. That is very clear feedback. You just don’t like it. You want to be told why.

Why they don’t tell you why they don’t respond to your resume or chose someone else to interview, why your interview, cause them to reject you in the 1st place, the 2nd plot point, the final interview… Why aren’t they communicating?

Why should they? Because you want to know? When did you wind up on their payroll? When did you become the individual that they were supposed to focus on?

“Oh, it would be very nice if they did that. It would show great respect and care for me if they did that.“

That is not the job. Their job is to fill positions and to hire people to do stuff.

“But it would only take 2 or 3 minutes!“

Not when you start arguing with people and that is really what happens a lot of times. People go, “But but but but but… I know I can do this job!” And there is no convincing them at that moment that their background doesn’t fit.

As a result, firms have learned by the behavior of your predecessors not to risk wasting time by giving you honest information.

Sorry, the people who have preceded you have soured the well. They have poisoned it by arguing. They’ve done it by behaving in ways that cause employers, “Screw it. There is nothing in it for us. Don’t bother.”

I know as a third-party recruiter, every once in a while, I have shown mercy and have told someone what has been said. I want to acknowledge that at times I have heard discriminatory things from firms and I argued with them about their bigotry and been taken off the vendor list as a result. I won’t stand for bigotry.

That’s the issue, often with employers. They don’t want to be identified as bigots because the real reason is you are too old, you are too young,, you are to this, you are to that.

If it is a knowledge issue, let’s break it down further.

Your resume doesn’t show that your background fits the job. Sorry. What else are they going to tell you. They didn’t respond.

They saw better resumes. “What made those better resumes?” What difference does it make? Your background wasn’t good enough to get in the door.

If it is in the interview phase, I must, in all honesty tell you that you already know.You know there are points in the interview that you didn’t perform well so just accept the fact and you learn something from it. 

You don’t have to be told to your face that the issue was your performance.

Duh!

You sensed it during the interview, you lost their attention at particular points… If you are a fresher or an entry-level person at 1 of these mass interviews (a firm brings in 40 people), a certain number of people performed better than you, they had better education, the better answers to interview questions, they prepared better for the occasion.

A lot of the reasons you don’t get results, I cover at JobSearchCoachingHQ.com because the issue often is lack of preparation or poor preparation. I coach people through the site and answer questions. But, more importantly, I provide time by offering great content that you can review at your leisure. Videos, podcasts, articles, all my books are there to teach about job hunting. Everything is there that allows you to learn you need to know in order to be effective with your job search. 

You don’t need them to tell you. You see where it is breaking down. As I’ve said many times, if you are not getting calls about your resume, your resume stinks or you don’t demonstrate that you have the skills to do the job that you are applying for.

If you’re getting to the phone interview, but not being invited in for an in person interview, you don’t phone interview well.

If you invited in for the in person with the hiring manager and you are not invited back,… You see where I’m going with this? Everything in the process gives you feedback.

The thing you need to do is improve, not whine. That’s really what this question is. “Why didn’t they give me any feedback? I want to know why question!”

They are telling you and they are giving you feedback. The system demonstrates why and where it is breaking down. Don’t be foolish. Just improve.

[/spp-transcript]

If you have a question about job hunting, email me at JobSearchRadio@gmail.com. I can’t answer every question . . . but you knew that!

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

Please give “Job Search Radio” a great review in iTunes. It helps other people discover the show and makes me happy!

What Does It Mean When The Recruiter Isn’t Returning My Calls or Emails? (VIDEO)

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAvCs5PFdf0[/svp]
If I’m a job applicant and the recruiter I’m working with stops returning my calls and emails, what does that usually mean?

fingers-crossed

[spp-transcript]

The question for today is:

If I’m a job applicant in the recruiter. I am working with stops returning my calls and emails, what does that usually mean?  

Well, let me pose a different scenario.  If you are going out with someone and they stop returning your calls, texts and emails, what would that mean?

You know what it means. Who are you kidding?  You just don’t like it.

Here is what often happens.  Job hunters have this mistaken notion that recruiters work for them.  They don’t.  They work for employers who pay them.  You aren’t paying them anything, right? You have to get this notion out of your head that you are working with them.  You aren’t working with them. They are trying to fill the positions.  Your background either fits or it doesn’t.  When they have something that makes sense, they will be in contact.  

You can drop them a message every once in a while (that doesn’t mean daily) to say, “I just wanted to let you know that I’m still available. If something comes up.”  

Often, what job hunters do because they are “working with the recruiter” is nag and pester the recruiter. 

Understand you are getting a message in the behavior in much the same way as in a dating scenario, if someone you were going out with stop returning your calls, you will get a message from that that they didn’t want to talk with you, right?  

So, you know what it means.  You just have to adjust.

Some people will say you have to work with a lot of recruiters.  I have no idea where you are, geographically, or where you are in your career.  For most people who do not have unique skills or are not at a leadership level, yes, you do have to connect with multiple recruiters.  Recruiters are not pounding on doors to persuade employers to speak with you.  That isn’t how the business works.

They are hired by employers and give them requirements for positions that they need to have filled and, if they find the right person, they will be paid for that.  They are not getting on the phone to make 100 phone calls to companies just for you using a call was that they have prearranged so that whenever someone walks in the door they call 100 people every single day.

No. They are filling jobs. They are not “placing people.”

Let’s assume that you are a relatively inexperienced person, you do need to be contacting multiple people and, more importantly, you do need to be contacting people who graduated from the school that you went to and learn how they got there current job and whether there might be something of their employer that might fit you. You are trying to work with multiple recruiters and responding to ads.  Networking to people that you don’t already know and doing informational interviews, networking, going to networking groups, telling everyone that you know repeatedly that you are looking for work…

It’s not enough to just simply tell them one time, you have to say it multiple times and the people are reminded that you are looking for job.  After all, when someone has a cold, do referred your doctor to them?  Probably not.  People need constant reminders to refer you to things that they care about.

Back your original question.  It probably means that they don’t have anything for you right now and leave them alone.

[/spp-transcript]

 

Do you really think employers are trying to help you?

You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much 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 changes 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

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”