job search – Page 13 – Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter's Blog

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

November 26, 2016 by Jeff

[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?

[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.”

How Do I Get a Recruiter to Respond to A Salary Negotiation?

October 31, 2016 by Jeff

[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7Zlwr8Xamw[/svp]
There has been no response to emails or instant messaging. I don’t want to bother my boss. Why aren’t they getting back to me?

[spp-transcript]

I was asked, “How do I get a recruiter to respond to a salary negotiation?”

The person has been an intern and they have made an offer to them. The recruiter for this firm hasn’t been responding to emails or instant messaging and the intern is frustrated. They want to find out how they can reach this person for negotiating.

Here are a few points:

As an intern who is converting to full-time staff, you are small fish on their plate. I have other, more important fish to fry, too. HR has a lot of things on their plate; they have hiring managers who are demanding service; they are interviewing; they are trying to fill positions; they are writing a heads… There are many things that HR is doing… You are not a big concern for them.
This HR person may be out of the office. They may be traveling. They may be doing campus recruiting, hence why they may not be responding to you.
You are right not to trouble your boss. This is not a major priority. If the rule, they offered you a job and you have already done parts of this job before. They will probably be asking themselves, “What’s the big deal? You knew what the price point was we brought you want for this internship?”
They just don’t care. There’s no point or concern that they have, because, after all, it’s not like you’re the only intern on the planet or qualified to do this job. There are others. Their desire to negotiate is really small.

Let me summarize for you where you stand.

On the one side there is a rock. On the other side, there is a hard place. You are somewhere between the two.

If your goal is to just make the connection and they are not respond, send an email to HR with the subject line, “Are you okay?” The message may read something along the lines of, “I have emailed and I am do you and had not received a response. I have a few questions about the job offer. Would you give me a call, please? I just want to make sure you are okay? My experience of you is that you would normally get back to me but since I haven’t heard, I just want to make sure that you are all right.”

That will usually “guilt them” into surfacing.

[/spp-transcript]

Do you 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.

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.”

Job Search Lessons from the Presidential Election of 2016

October 13, 2016 by Jeff

[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3-ASGxxvbg[/svp]
I believe there are lessons that can be learned from the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Sec. Clinton that you can apply to your job search. Both made mistakes that you can learn from.

[spp-transcript]

Today, I want to point out another one of those lessons that’s coming from this year’s presidential election. The lesson I want to point out comes from the debate that took place this week with Donald Trump and Sec. Clinton and entering “the deathmatch.” One on one. “Manno a Femmo.” I want to offer a less biased opinion of what I saw and what the media seems to be providing.

Universally they seem to say Trump was awful. When I saw was that in the first 30 or 40 minutes of the debate he matched up well. They obviously disagreed on items and you would expect that. I thought he was accurate and some of his statements on the impact of trade policy and matched up well with her there.

There was a point after the 30 or 40 minute mark where the tide clearly turned. At this juncture, Sec. Clinton’s preparation served her very well. For you as a job hunter, I believe there are lessons that you can learn from both candidates. Critiquing both of them I think there are things that you can take away.

He was not as well prepared as he could have been. Yes, we all read these stories about how he wasn’t going to be doing debate prep and a variety of other things. It’s kind of like going to an interview without preparation and deciding to “wing it.” Presidential debates on job interviews and were seeing the two people in making decisions about them.

Trump didn’t do well he did well in the first part of the interview but in the next hour of time, I thought he did poorly and revealed his lack of preparation. The words didn’t come out well. Even his snarky comments where he whispers into the microphone to disagree with her, he hadn’t done them with an audience before and appeared to be snarky.

I think Clinton made mistakes, too, and the biggest one was that she was smug. She appeared to bask in her own magnificence and missed opportunities to connect with the audience. Yes, she had punches to the ribs and kidneys throughout. Here is one example. Talking about how Trump and his businesses didn’t pay bills to small businesses like her father’s. Her father’s business never did business with Trump. she used it to illustrate that a lot of small business owners who were stiffed by Trump.

She would have a smile on her face that was arrogant, smug and not likable.

To me, that was a missed opportunity. Yes, the intelligence is there but part of what you try to do as a job hunter is connect with the audience, the interviewer, the panel. You can’t sit back and be so cocky that you turn people of.

So, I want to point out that there are lessons we can take from their mistakes that you can apply to job hunting. I’ve done shws about dumb interviewing mistakes that candidates make involving lack of preparation and being so full of yourself that \\you are sitting there with a big smile on your face, enjoying yourself, instead of focusing on the audience.

[/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

How to Ask for the Job – No BS Job Search Advice Radio

October 4, 2016 by Jeff

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to ask for the job at the end of your interview.

[spp-transcript]

Today, we’re going to talk about ending the interview and asking for the job.

Asking for the job is one of those classic pieces of advice that recruiters offer and no one really explains how to ask for the job. You never want to go into that situation by saying, Please give me the job! I need a job!” or anything that could be interpreted in that way; instead asking for the job is really a euphemism for expressing interest. So, I don’t think it’s appropriate at the end of the interview to say things like, I would be a perfect for this job. When are you going to hire me?” . . . or words to that effect or anything they could be interpreting that same way. Instead you want to express interest.

So at the very end, when they signal they are wrapping up,” I think the smoothest way to end is to say,”I just want you to know how interested I am in this role. Have I answered all your questions? Is there anything else you need to know in order to feel comfortable with me in this role? Is there anything that’s left unaddressed that you might want to ask me?” In this way, you have you given them one more cut at asking you questions you also expressed interest.

When they say “no. I think I’ve gotten everything I need.”

“Great! What would the next step be there in the hiring process? When might expect to hear back from you in one way or another?”

“Well, I expect we’ll finish first round interviews next week. We’ll be back to you right after that.”

“As things stand now, how do I rank? Again, I’m very interested.”

That’s it of very blunt question that requires that they give you a candidate assessment. To me, it’s best that you know right then and there, but you don’t have to necessarily be that blunt if you’re not comfortable with that. You can again say,”Again, I want to be clear, I am very interested in this role and look forward to hearing from you about next steps in the process. If I heard correctly. I know this isn’t cast in stone, because sometimes cancellations and reschedules occur but I might expect to hear back from you within the next week.

“Yes.”

“Terrific, thank you so much look. I look forward to meeting you again as well as other people on the team.”

The idea is to express interest. I happen to like that question about where you rank in the process because I would rather have you get honest feedback than the current BS where they don’t respond back right away and getting delays and you are holding out hope unecessarily. Sometimes, people make the mistake of freezing other interviews, waiting for that one thing.

You keep going out there interviewing until you have the offer in hand because otherwise, you can get caught short. You can be misled by someone who doesn’t have the courage to be honest with you. And, again, if they say to you, “You did really well. We think very highlyof you,” they still not committing themselves to you. At least you’re getting good feedback by being told you interviewed well.

There may be reasons why they choose someone else that include in differences in the compensation, personality and fit and a variety of other things.

At least for now, you’re getting feedback that you interviewed well. So, to me, the best way to ask for the job is to simply say, “I just want to know how interested I am in this role. What would the next steps be like? When would I expect to hear back? How would I rank amoung the other people you’ve interviewed so far?

[/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.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

How to Respond to a Low Ball Job Offer – No BS Job Search Advice Radio

September 28, 2017October 3, 2016 by Jeff

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter offers a simple strategy for responding to a job offer lower than what you are looking for.

[spp-transcript]

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.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

When Your Current Employer Wants More Than Two Weeks Notice

September 29, 2016 by Jeff

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to respond when your current manager asks for more than two weeks notice.

[spp-transcript]

I want to talk with you about those instances when you are giving you notice in your current employer turns around and says, “No! No! No! Not two weeks notice. We need four, six, eight weeks notice two months notice! Two years notice!” Whatever it is, it’s more than two weeks.

Here’s how you respond to it. I want to understand that the reason you doing this is that if you agreed to their unreasonable request (and it is an unreasonable request), it has an impact on your relationship with your future employer. That’s where you are going to be for the next period of your life, not with your former employer.

You just very simply respond by saying, “I understand your concern. I want you to know that I’m very prepared to do over time in order to ensure that this is a smooth transition. I given a commitment to my future employer on a particular date. My commitments are important to me; it’s important to them as well and I’m going to be there on that date.”

“If you need me to work overtime or participate in the interviewing for my replacement and assist with the hand off , I can take phone calls, not a ridiculous number of phone calls but I can take a phone call or two when my new job and will be happy to answer the new person’s questions. However, again, I need to be there on this particular date.”

If you work for big or midsized company, you don’t have to worry about this, because sometimes we work for a small firm or the owner is very hands-on you, may have to contend with an owner who says, “What! If you feel that way, get out of here now!” And they throw you out of your job now. If that happens, they obviously didn’t need you for more than two weeks, right? If you want to start sooner at your next employer you can contact them and say, “The person I was working for decided it would be better if I left now and I would like to join sooner.”

“Why did they feel that way?”

“They had an emotional tantrum when I gave them two weeks notice and they asked for four and I said I’m going to keep my commitment.”

That reinforces an ethical quality in the mind of the next employer in you.

[/spp-transcript]

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.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

A Creative Way to Use Facebook for Job Hunting

September 26, 2016 by Jeff

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter discusses a creative way to use Facebook for job hunting.

[spp-transcript]

This is a creative tip and I say it’s a creative tip because it is an underutilized one. I know with Google, you are used to seeing advertising around the page and I’m sure you’ve noticed that Facebook does the same thing.

Facebook is remarkably inexpensive and terrific way to promote yourself. For you people in a creative field, why not do a campaign on Facebook. It’s very inexpensive; you can choose the demographics of who the ad is displayed to. You can run campaigns for a few dollars per day and put your impressions in front of people, perhaps link it back to a website or page on Facebook where you can promote yourself and your capabilities.

Creative ideas like this for creative professionals go a long way toward helping you stand out from your competition. Don’t just go for the conventional route. Look for ways that you can reach out to individuals who might be a position to go, “how. That’s a great idea!” Click through to you and then be interested in meeting with you.

[/spp-transcript]

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.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

How Do I Find a Job Without a Resume?

September 21, 2016 by Jeff

[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyrVRz4eC8g[/svp]
I was asked this question on Quora and thought to be a good way to encourage you to think creatively.

[spp-transcript]

The question I was asked was, “How do you find a job without a resume?” I think the answer comes down to two ways.

If you are very inexperienced and looking for a job, let’s say, in retail or a job at a fast food restaurant, you don’t need a resume. They may ask you to complete an application but the idea of a formal resume is not important.

However, if you are in a professional discipline, how do you find the job without a resume? The answer comes down to, “Why would employer want to talk to you without you following the convention of you submitting your resume?”

I think the answer is clear. They had a particular need and you have the experience they are looking for. How do they know that?

Perhaps they have seen your LinkedIn profile. Perhaps you referred to them by someone who knows your work and is a strong proponent of it. Perhaps they saw you speak at a group were you are the expert on stage, presenting on that situation.

Being the expert in the field changes the rules because, “the rules,” are designed for the average individual– the one who is compliant. There is no reason to bend for them. If you are seen as the expert, you have opportunities that other people don’t have.

How do you present yourself as an expert? I gave one example earlier – – you are up on stage at a conference and are presenting.

Here’s another. You have written about this subject for years. Books are a business card for a lot of people. After all, when you think about it, what is a book telling us? Is telling us that you have knowledge and expertise on a particular subject that makes you different than other people. Pretty simple.

So if you want to be found, If you want to be sought after, If you want to avoid the resume trap so that when they call you up and say, “Jeff, we would like to talk with you about an opportunity with a client of ours.”

“Great. Let’s talk!”

“Do you have a resume?”

“No. I don’t have resume. You know about my background. You reached out to me, remember? Look, you found me on LinkedIn (or saw me speak or read my book), and time to write a resume. I have a full plate ahead of me.”

That’s the easiest way to do it.

[/spp-transcript]

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.

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

Stop Hitting Your Head Against the Wall

September 19, 2016 by Jeff

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter speaks to those who are finding it impossible to find work and offers them a suggestion that will help.

[spp-transcript]

For some of you, you been hitting your head against the wall in your job search now for what seemed like an eternity. Your getting no results. And by the way, an eternity is not a week. But this can apply to you as well during the time that you are searching. But this is really a tip for the long-term unemployed. For folks who are just hitting their head against the wall. And this could be true of veteran individuals and it’s certainly true of people who try to launch – – graduated school – – and just not getting anywhere.

What can you do? What can you do in the face of all this mounting pressure that you’re feeling to find work? All the the lack of results that you’re getting. What can you do? The answer is create your own job.

Creating your own job can be as simple as, if you’re a writer, you start doing freelancing. You market yourself as a freelancer. You blog. You do a variety of different things that help other individuals through your efforts. Through that, you are going to publicize yourself. People will find your the web. You will mobilize yourself to get out and about in completely different ways so that, when all is said and done, people are going to learn about you.

I found with one person I was speaking with yesterday, she wound up with offers based upon her writing and her blogging and a variety of other things that she was doing. The same can happen for you.

You may be a marketing person. You may be a salesperson. You can still teach others to sell and market. You can still write about some of your ideas along these lines. You can pick up freelance work in your local community or around the country… or for that matter around the world.

Do you have to get the highest rate imaginable? No. You just need to work and, through the working, to build relationships and develop the skills and efforts that are going to be very helpful to you. So don’t just simply look for big companies to hire you. Don’t just simply try and knock on doors of small companies and say things like, ” Hi! I am a fast learner. I can learn anything you give me to do.” No one cares.

What they care about is can you give the results that helps them based upon what they need. Starting your own firm, creating your own job, starting your own small business, marketing your skills and talent – – I’ve seen it help so many people land work during this “great recession/depression” everyone referred to it as.

So don’t just settle. Promote yourself. Create effort. Pick up freelance work. There are online sites like Upwork, for example, to help you find work. Get out there.

[/spp-transcript]

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.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Job Search Lessons from the Broadway Show “Cats”

August 22, 2016 by Jeff

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter invokes a memory of the Broadway show, “Cats” to remind you of making your answers to interview questions seem fresh.

[spp-transcript]

I want to talk with you about one of the mistakes the job hunters make way too often. It is the me a mistake but very experienced job hunters make. It’s the mistake of letting their interviewing get stale.

What often happens is that the job hunter has been on so many interviews and they were asked the same questions repeatedly.

Why are you looking for a job?
Tell me about yourself?
Do you have any questions for us?

Even if you’re in the area with very specialized skills, the question start to get very predictable. The result is that people start to get bored with the interview and get stale.

Understand that from the employer’s perspective, they are only hearing your answer for the first time even if you answered the same question for others 20 times.

Someone remind you of something that I learned many years ago. I used to live in New York. Do you remember the play, “Cats?” The one with the song, “Memories?”

I thought about it one day that in this long-running show (a, yes, the cast changed many times over the years) and that normally cast members and apart for at least a year or so. This performer is saying the same lines, seeing the same songs, night after night. They are performing six days a week, eight shows a week. Their commitment is to make it seem as fresh as it was on opening night. After all, the audience may only be watching the show for the first time and they are paying full price.

You can’t imagine that the actors and actresses have gotten bored by now is saying the same things and singing the same songs over and over and over again.

Remember, your job is to be like performer in a Broadway show on opening night, delivering your lines like it is on opening night, making each performance seem fresh, just like this performer stating, “Cats” so that the audience can see you in your magnificence and applaud ferociously at the end of the performance.

[/spp-transcript]

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.

Connect with me on LinkedIn