[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtMUlG2KLTs[/svp] So often, people put limitations on themselves or limited choices. Perhaps there is another way to look at things.
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Many people, whether they are job hunters were business owners, when they look at their life, they have it set up with a blind. The bind is that they limit their options to either one thing or another.
With job hunters, they think, “I work for a bank and that’s all I can really do. I would really like to change this but I don’t see how I can get there.” If you’re in business for yourself, you’re in a situation where all you see is how you can take a trivial job with another firm.
You don’t see any other possibilities for yourself. Or, maybe, you’re a virtual assistant and you like theater. You haven’t figured out how to tie the bow and bring these things together for yourself.
The problem is that when you see things as in either-or. With no other possibilities, you have really limited what your choices are. This becomes a problem because life becomes miserable.
There is a way out and I’ll just simply say that whether it is me or someone else, a few coaching sessions goes a long way toward helping people break their self-imposed limitations and do something very different.
It’s like the old “Saturday Night Live” skit with Roseanne Rosannadanna, if it’s not one thing it’s another. When you’re set up in this small space and can’t see any other options, life becomes very painful and you start to feel stuck. Worse than that, you don’t get any help for yourself which I know is a cultural taboo in the United States because you have to figure things out for yourself… But that’s a lie and excuse that you use to keep yourself in this position.
What I want to encourage you to do is work with a coach for a few sessions and (1) get some ideas for how to 2 things differently than the way you have it set up and, more importantly, doing in a way worrying and have some fun… Play, experiment, do things differently.
When you were a kid growing up, not everything that you did work out, did it? But it was fun! In college, you try different things and when they didn’t work out, you thought, “Oh, well. Onto the next one.” As adults, we forget that, “Oh, well onto the next thing” attitude. .
As a result, we, don’t do as much stuff outside of that self-limiting box that we have put ourselves into.
Working with a coach, someone who could help you have some fun, encourage you to play, experiment and try things like you did when you were young… Things may not work out. That’s the reality to it. Along the way, you will learn to not beat yourself up or punish yourself for “MAKING A MISTAKE.”
Making a mistake. How many mistakes did Alexander Graham Bell make before he created a telephone?The phone itself was a mistake but that’s a different conversation.
[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1GlP5amfRg[/svp] The question isn’t as clear as it seems.
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I was asked a question by someone:
“Should you trying to bypass recruiters and apply for job directly?”
As clear as the question may seem, I want to show you how ambiguous and confusing the question is before it started answering it.
First, what kind of recruiters? Corporate or agency?
Bypass the recruiter? If this is an agency recruiter, did they speak with you about the job? Did they identify who the firm is? If this is a corporate recruiter, did you find out about the job on your own and want to apply directly?
Then, there is the language of, “apply for job.” Are you going to be emailing your resume? Applying for job through an applicant tracking system? What are you doing here?
Let me start breaking things down for you.
The 1st thing is, “bypass recruiters.” You don’t have to work with agency recruiters. If you have contacted a number of them, if you are spoken with 1 of them about this job, and particularly if they have spoken with you about who their client is, do not go around them. What you are doing then is stealing. I don’t want to steal information for your own advantage. What you do then is an attempt to work with our recruiter to get the interview.
If no one has spoken with you about the job, feel free to contact that firm. Don’t apply for a job. Don’t go through an applicant tracking system. Don’t go through corporate HR. Find the hiring manager.
How do you do that?
You call the firm and ask who’s responsible for that function in the organization. Thus, in this situation, I am encouraging you to bypass the corporate recruiter, not the agency recruiter. Again, if you spoke with the agency recruiter about this job, you are using their information and it would be stealing from them, costing them tens of thousands of dollars that can affect their family, affect their business. You are being a thief.
What are you getting out of it anyway?
They’re going to do all the legwork for you. They probably have a relationship with this firm where they can, if you have the right skills, actually get you the interview. What’s in it for you anyway?
I do believe you should bypass corporate recruiters, particularly if the 1st point of entry is the applicant tracking system.
I want to repeat something I say all the time. Never EVER apply for a job or make it a 1st point of contact through an applicant tracking system.
Number repeat that.
Never EVER apply for a job or make it a 1st point of contact through an applicant tracking system.
Instead, find the hiring manager. Get introduced to the hiring manager by someone you know or someone you are connected with. It is better to do a pre-interview with someone you know who knows this hiring manager and can walk your resume over to them. They can tell the manager, “This person contacted me. I think they have a terrific background. Go for it.“
On the off chance that you are a lunatic they will walk directly to the firm, drive to the firm, take the subway to the firm to walk in the door and demanded to be interviewed, don’t.Don’t do that, please.
Some will disagree with me and say, “It shows how eager and motivated. You are.“
Look at it from the employer side. 1st of all, particularly if you are in an urban area, most buildings have security and you will get past them.You will not get past security. The 2nd thing is that what you are expecting someone to do is, without any preparation or forewarning, interrupt what they are doing at that moment and talk to you.
Think about it. Is that how you want to be treated? Do you want to be interrupted all the time and have to contend with someone who, I must and will honestly tell you, almost all the time when people have tried to do this with me, it has been a waste of my time. All I would do is a security to send a resume to me.
After all, I have had a Purdue chicken plucker apply for a software engineering position.
Don’t apply for jobs that you are not qualified for. Seriously, all you doing is wasting your time and theirs. It is going to be more of your time, but they’re going to take one look at your resume and think you are an idiot.
Don’t show up at someone’s doorstep, expecting to be interviewed. It is annoying.
But back to the original question. Should you bypass recruiters and apply for job directly? Corporate recruiters? Yes.
Agency recruiters? If you are working with one who will introduce you to this firm, no.
If you want to network you way to that firm, you have to go to an agency. Screw it! Just go directly to the firm and go directly to the hiring manager.
You can call up on the phone and ask, “Who’s the manager who is responsible for such and such?” If they tried to direct you to HR, simply say, “No! No! No! I’m not looking for HR. I’m looking for the manager that is responsible for that function.“
If they sound unsure, go to the head of the function and work your way down. In technology, it could be the CIO or CTO. It is an accounting, it might be the CFO or controller… Just work your way down from the top and reach out to them.
[/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.
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.”
[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.
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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.
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.”
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter encourages you to be proactive not reactive.
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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.
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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.
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.”
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.
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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.
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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.
[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?
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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.
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.”
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter encourages you to give endorsements on LinkedIn in order to get endorsements on LinkedIn.
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Here’s a way to really stand out from your competition.
Understand that there are a lot of recruiters both corporate and third-party recruiters who are using a product called LinkedIn Recruiter to identify candidates on the web. What we are doing is going out there to evaluate skills and (1) search engine optimizing your profile with keywords that might be used as part of the search for what you do is a big part of how you might become visible. Another way to stand out is by receiving endorsements.
You can ask your entire network to endorse you, but, frankly, you look like a mooch when you do that. I want to suggest that you reach out by giving endorsements. Remember the old saying, “Give more. Get more.” Giving endorsements, particularly to those who know you so that they profit by the relationship, will help you get endorsements back in return.
I want to say that there is reciprocity because I don’t give endorsements because I don’t really know the work that you do. I don’t sit next to you. I’m a coach. I’ve done recruiting. If I give endorsements, people will believe that your entire list of endorsements is bogus!, Instead, I want to encourage you to give endorsements to those who you have a basis of judging their work. Complement people.
You’ll discover that your number of endorsements will increase. Knowing that there is a bias that recruiters and employers have toward passive candidates, you will look like the superior person to them by having large numbers of endorsements. After all, when you think about it, when you look at my LinkedIn profile and see that I have been endorsed 500 some odd times for one attribute or another, there is a message and that, especially, especially when you notice that the average recruiter may have fewer than 20.
Stand out from my work because people have seen it and like it. Look for that same thing, too, but give it in order to get it.
[/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.
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.”
[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYu8MhJ35NQ[/svp] I don’t believe you can ask about work-life balance directly. I do believe you can get the answer your question indirectly. Here’s how.
[spp-transcript]
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves life coaching, as well as executive job search coaching and business life coaching. He is the host of “Job Search Radio,” “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” and his newest show, “No BS Coaching Advice.”
Are you interested in 1:1 coaching or interview coaching from me? Email me at JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us and put the word, “Coaching” in the subject line.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com offers 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.
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.”
If you want to know how to win more interviews, order “Winning Interviews.” You’ll learn how to win phone interviews, in-person interviews, the best question to ask on any interview and more.
What do recruiters do or not do to advocate for you? How do they generally operate? I answer this and more on today’s podcast.
[spp-transcript]
Let me speak to you today about how recruiters handle salary negotiation.
If you think recruiters go through mortal combat to advocate for you, and demand that employers pay you what you are asking for, you are kidding yourself. Let me walk through the typical process that recruiters go through. This is true of both retained a contingency search terms.
The employer contacts the search for; they contact an agency; I’m going to give both perspectives. They identify a role to be filled in the compensation that might be paid. They suggest a salary range and what bonuses might be like, what the benefits are… A whole host of things.
If the search firm has a relationship with this particular client, do you really think that this recruiter is going to start yelling and screaming at someone from his firm to get the money that you are asking for or are they more concerned about preserving the relationship with the firm that writes the check to them?
Yes, you can argue the case that without you. They are not going to get that check. But, at the end of the day, there is always another “you.” Yes, there can always be another employer, but there is work to open up their relationship and create that relationship again so they tend to advocate for the people who write the check.
For Example
So, starting with the process of your resume being submitted, they have a sense of the range and I’m going to use simple numbers here. $60,000. $100,000. $250,000. Here are 3 different salaries
Let’s say, for a $60,000 person, let’s say the range is $55,000-$75,000. For the $100,000 person, is $95,000-$110,000. For the $250,000 person, is $240,000-$275,000.
They know these are the ranges for these positions. So they may indicate what your current salary is and the sense of what you are looking for, or may just tell them your current salary.
If you attempt to to simply tell them what you are looking for and not talk about what you are currently earning, often (like, always), a firm will turn around and ask, “What’s he earning now?” “What is she earning?“
They do that because they refuse to give someone a prohibitively high raise.
Sales may be different. Sometimes, this will be called off. But for other types of positions, this is what happens. It is very very rare that a huge percentage increase will occur. Why? Because they are all operating under budget guidelines where HR is being reviewed and all their behaviors are being analyzed and when there is a percentage increase above a particular mean that is mandated by corporate HR, they turn around and ask, “What the hell was this all about?” It adversely affects them and how they are seen. So they operate within these guidelines basically say, “if a person makes $60,000, you offer them $66,000. That is a 10% raise. That is good enough.“
Guidelines
“If a person makes $100,000, you offer them $105,000 or $110,000. That is a 5% or 10% raise. That is good enough.”
“If a person is making $250,000, or for them to earn $260,000 or $265,000. We don’t give 10% raises at that level. We give X percent increases.“
See where I’m coming from?
That is the behavior that starts off. Thus, when the offer comes in, it might be low. Let me go back a step.
You are interviewing along the way and now, if you are out of work, you may be asked in the course of your interviews, “So, what’s going on for you in your search? Are you close to anything?” If you say you don’t have anything going on right now, you just hurt yourself. You have lost your leverage. They can issue an offer to you and say, “Take it or leave it. It’s your choice. We have other people that can do what you do. We’ll go find them and you are out of luck.“
If you are working or are asked this question, you say, “I have some other options. Firms have expressed interest and I have final interviews with 3 other firms,” then they understand is competitive and they may push things up. If they ask which firms, you say, “I would prefer to keep their name out of it so that everyone is bargaining with the same degree of knowledge.”
“If I say to you, I’m interviewing at this firm or that firm or this firm, and I do the same thing with them, I think that is unfair. I want to see what your best offer is based upon your assessment of me, not based upon the competition.” But, what you are doing is creating competition because they don’t know what the target numbers.
If you tell them what the target number is it these other firms, that’s probably what they’re going to come in for anyway. No one tends to go much higher.
If there is a low offer that comes in, a search firm is going to advocate for you. They will spend some time talking with the client. The client will counteract that remark, generally with a comment that says, “Well, based upon a comparison with people who we already have working here with that amount of experience in this level of skill, we assess this person would be worth X number of dollars.“
Most of the time when it really comes down to is that you didn’t do a good enough job you’re interviewing to demonstrate your value at the level that you are asking for. Thus, they are making a lukewarm offer based upon the opportunity that has been presented.
Your recruiter is not going to go into a death-match with the hiring firm in order to get you the position. They would rather go into that death-match with you, to manipulate you or persuade you to accept the offer at the level that is been offered.
Why is that? The job under is easier to change then the employer is and they know the relationship with the employer can continue afterwards, particularly if they got you to say yes to the low offer.
That’s the scenario that normally comes up.
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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.
[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THcBElp12QQ[/svp] I answer a question for someone about whether they can use a fake reference and get away with it.
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I was asked the question:
Can I get away with using the fake reference?
I’m not going to give you the morality speech. I will simply say that it is absolutely wrong and it is possible to get away with it, but harder than you think it is.
It’s possible to get away with it. If your “reference” has been properly briefed, speaks with confidence, understands the field of work that you are in, can talk in detail, not just simply about the simple work that you’ve done, but about the more nuanced work that you did for your organization. Most people can’t pull that off.
This is 1 of the ways that people get caught. These days there is LinkedIn. Someone says that they work for your firm and they don’t work there. Lo and behold, you are exposed as a liar.
They can’t speak in detail about you – – what you did and how you went about doing it. Any follow-up question other than name, rank, and serial number questions receives very thin answers and lo and behold, you are a liar.
Is that how you want to lose an opportunity? By faking it?
Let me also going one extra layer. If you have to think the reference to get the job, you’re probably not qualified to do the job will probably be fired.
Do you want to put all your blood and guts into getting a job and then, because you’re not really qualified, get fired?
Is it possible? Yes. Is it likely? No.
A quick story. In days of old, someone told me about how they went so far as to send someone in for their medical exam before they were hired! When it came time to do the drug test, because the real person look different and had a different handwriting than the person who is actually taking the test for them, they put a splint on the hand of this person. They got away with it, except when the person was on board, the person was fired for drug use.
Invariably, the chickens come home to roost. You really don’t want to do this but recognize, if you do, you are putting your career at risk yet again. There is something you are not qualified for in this job and need to have a liar life for you.
Don’t do it.
[/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.
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.”
