Category Archives: Recruiting

Even Kanye Uses Staffing Firms!

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Kanye West is starting up a clothing line and apparently needs some additional staff to get the line off the ground.  How do I know? The staffing firm he is using posted the openings on LinkedIn!  Yep, the kind of personal branding is using a firm to find his next CFO and VP of Production.  From Bloomberg:

“Two ads appeared on the site over a week ago by Decision Toolbox, a staffing firm in Irvine, Calif., that are looking for people to be chief financial officer and vice president for production at what is vaguely called the “Kanye West clothing project.” “[U]nlike those in which celebrities merely lend their name to a label, this venture will have the star power of Mr. West’s artistic vision at the heart and soul of it,” the ads say, although they neglect to mention that sometimes that vision is just a white T-shirt.

When asked if the posts were real, Decision Toolbox said that they were and that the person behind the new Kanye line was Richard Dent III, the former chief operating officer of Victoria Secret’s (LTD) PINK line who since 2012 has been the chief executive of custom menswear company Astor & Black. Dent did not reply to e-mails asking him to explain the new venture, so it’s unclear if Astor & Black is producing the line for Kanye or if the rapper is creating it himself and has just put Dent in charge.”

Here’s the thing – Decision Toolbox is your average, everyday staffing provider.  I’m sure they would say they’re special, but the reality is they do a little RPO, a little contingent and probably some contract work.  Besides Kanye’s VP and CFO positions, they are also looking for a Machinists and Automotive Service Manager.  Sound specialized to you!?

My first reaction — I’m a little surprised on how such a huge celebrity didn’t get roped into an expensive retained boutique firm!  My next reaction — I want to meet the person at DT who pulled in Kanye as a client!  There’s a story there, and I’m 100% sure it isn’t because they have the best customer service!

This does uncover a couple of issues, though, within the staffing industry:

1. If you can recruit, you can recruit.  Staffing providers sell the fact they specialize, but the reality is, you can either find talent or you can’t.  Given, you might get talent faster with someone who spends more time in a certain industry or classification of jobs, but good recruiters will get you people regardless.

2. Retained searching is the biggest waste of time and money ever created by the staffing industry, but it’s good work if you can get it!

3. If your ‘special’ staffing firm you just hired puts your CFO and VP positions on LinkedIn as their strategy to get you the top talent in any industry, you made the wrong choice of staffing companies!

3 Ways To Make Contract Hiring Work For You

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I was in a meeting with an HR executive recently talking about some pain points they are having.  You see, in my business of staffing, you don’t get in the door unless someone in HR is unhappy with some kind of results in their hiring.  It’s the game.  You’re unhappy, I come in and tell you how I’ll make you happy.  This HR Pro was having a hard time finding engineering talent.  They did what a the majority of corporate recruiting departments do – they used a number of sourcing options, posting options, looked at hiring incentives, made sure they paid competitively, etc.  Not bad, hit all the basics.  After this failed, they went the direct-hire agency route.  Made some hires.  Some worked out.  Some didn’t.  Paid fees on all of them, since all made it past the guarantee.

So, how are you going to help me?

Fair question.  Really the only question she needed an answer to.

I dig in and find out that while the direct-hire agency route worked.  It left them feeling ‘unsatisfied’ because although they didn’t blame the staffing firm they were working with for the turnover, they couldn’t get over paying all those fees, and now have nothing to show for it.  The reality was, they have a tough environment, a challenging workplace culture, and some managers who aren’t the best managers.  This caused the turnover.  Still, they are left in the same place they started — ‘we still need engineers’.

Okay, now it’s my turn.

Me: “How about you try contract?’

Her: “We don’t use contract, we want to hire direct.”

Me: “Why?”

Her: somewhat stunned I asked this question and expected an answer — “Well, we need these people long term, not temporarily, and we want top talent and I don’t think hiring contractors would give us top talent.”

Here is HR executive’s dilemma: first, they need engineering talent; second, they turn over talent because of their environment; and third, they don’t want to pay fees.  Whether she wanted to hear it or not, Contracting was the answer to her problem.

Here was my conversation with her:

“You need to bring in Contract Engineers to fill these jobs.  We will find talented people, you will be amazed.  After 12 months, I’ll let you have them for no buy-out.  Thus, you’ll have no fees.  You have a bad environment with high turnover, you need us to find you engineers who can survive this environment and help you move forward all at once.  Contracting is great for this.  For many reasons people decide to contract.  Folks like you judge them for that, and consider them low talent.  I can give you a list of clients we are working with right now that will share stories with you about how wrong this is.  You will find great loyal talent when using contractors.”

“But it costs so much!”

“That is another misnomer! Let’s say your total hourly cost for an engineer is $60/hr, which includes pay, benefits, PTO, bonus, 401K match, taxes, etc.  I can get you that same level talent for $60/hr.  I can do that because I don’t pay all the fringes you pay, I pay the same taxes, and lower amounts of PTO.   Your cost on a 12 month contract hire is virtually the same as if you would have hired the person direct, plus if you fall in love with them, you pay nothing after 12 months.”

It’s not a sales pitch.  It’s just the facts when you work out the numbers.  She signed up.  I’ll let you know how it works out, but to be honest I already do.  We’ve been doing this for 33 years.  It will work out great, and she’ll solve her problem.

There are 3 concrete ways which Contract Hiring is a no-brainier:

1. High Turnover positions.

2. Short Term Projects – 3 months to 3 years – but basically we don’t nee the person on after that

3. Beginning or Ending of a location.  Need to grow quickly, or shutting down a location

There really isn’t any reason to be paying 20-35% fees (yes, I spoke to a company paying 35% the other day!) for direct hires.  The industry found a better way, HR Pros just struggle to change.  One other major factor that makes contract hiring work, is it seems to make companies more comfortable in taking some risks in hiring people they normally wouldn’t.  ‘What the heck, they’re on contract, if we don’t like them, we can replace them.” Every time I hear this, it makes me smile, because I know they’ll like the person!  But if contracting gives them that ‘freedom’ then I’m all for it!  I hate telling them they have the same freedom hiring direct!

 

 

 

Do You Have A Resume Commerical?

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Being that I run a recruiting agency, in the Technology space, I always find it funny to read and hear people talk about how ‘resumes are dead’.  It seems that if you talk to anyone who thinks they know and understand the IT industry, this is especially true.  CIO Magazine recently had an article: IT Hiring: Your Text Resume Is Soooo Last Century, which laminates on which type of resume is now the ‘in’ thing.  From the article:

“It’s no coincidence that LinkedIn recently began encouraging its users to amp up their profiles with videos, illustrations, photography and presentations. And Toronto startup Vizualize.me has attracted 200,000 users to its tool, still in beta, that turns text-based resumes into online infographics.

“People are open to new formats, new ways of presenting credentials,” says John Reed, senior executive director of Robert Half Technology, an IT staffing firm based in Menlo Park, Calif. “People are trying to figure out how to stand out in the crowd, how to bring life to their profile and experience, and they’re using social media tools to do that.”

Reed says that neither he nor his colleagues have seen a lot of applicants submitting videos yet. When they do, they function more like cover letters than resumes. “The videos are ‘let me introduce myself before you look at my resume,'” Reed explains. “The companies look at it and say, ‘That’s cool, that’s an interesting twist, that makes the candidate stand out.'”

So, are resumes dead?  I don’t think so.  Here’s what happens, as an industry heads toward ‘zero’ unemployment like the IT industry is heading, hiring managers, recruiters, HR, etc. become more open to anyway they can find talent.  This means you’ll run into many ‘candidates’ who are not really actively looking — those all powerful Passive Candidates — and don’t have a traditional resume.  Many of these folks will be open to talk to you, but really don’t want to take the time to put a resume together.  In a traditional recruitment process, 90% of Recruiters would walk away from these candidates – “Well, if you won’t put a resume together, then you must not want to really work here!”  This is why so many people hate recruiters and HR!  Because we say stupid stuff like that.

The best recruiters and HR Pros will find a way to get these candidates in the door without a ‘traditional’ resume.  As the article in CIO points out – video is one way to do this.  I’m a huge video fan, not necessarily as a resume replacement, but as a compliment to your resume.  Where HR, Recruiting, and/or a hiring manager might skip over your resume because of some illogical preconceived notion of what they think they want, many will see a short 90 second video introduction of a candidate and say “let’s get this person in for a face-to-face!”  That’s very powerful.  Whereas a passive candidate might not be willing to take an hour or two piecing together a traditional resume, most are willing to join a Google Hangout for a couple of minutes to introduce themselves and give some highlights.

It’s like a commercial in very modern day sense, and does what your resume might not be able to.  It’s not perfect.  Just like a resume, a short video might attract you to a candidate you ultimately find out is not a good fit for your position.  The video resume commercial does, though, give you one more short piece to the puzzle, and honestly still so few people are doing it, it will help set the candidate apart, and your HR/Recruiting shop apart from the competition.

There Are 2 Kinds of Leaders

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College football season is upon us and one of things I enjoy most is reading all the leadership articles written about college football coaches.  These types of articles come out in two ways during the year: 1. preseason when everyone is still in love with their coaches; 2. post-season when certain teams and coaches overachieved.   GQ came out with one recently on one of the most polarizing coaches, and most successful coaches, in college football, Nick Saban.  People assume I hate Nick because I’m a Michigan State fan and he left us to go to another college football team, LSU, that was in a better ‘football’ conference and had more tradition.  I don’t hate Nick.  I was disappointed he left, because he was good!

Nick Saban is probably the most hated coach in college football because his teams kick everyone’s butt!  3 out of the last 4 national championships and favored to win another this year.  He doesn’t joke around with the media and he never looks pleased.  Here are some tidbits from the GQ article:

“A few days after Alabama beat LSU to win the 2012 national championship, Rumsey and Saban were on the phone together…The two men almost never discuss football—Rumsey is the rare Tuscaloosan who doesn’t know or care much about the game, which, he suspects, has something to do with why he and Saban have become friends. But given that his golf buddy had just won the national championship, Rumsey figured he ought to say a few words of congratulations. So he did, telling Saban his team had pulled off an impressive win.

“That damn game cost me a week of recruiting,” Saban grumbled into the phone.”

Being upset over missing a week’s worth of recruiting because you had to play, and win, the national championship.  HR folks should love that.  It’s about the process.  Have the right process and the results will happen, but please don’t change or stop my process!

“Saban’s guiding vision is something he calls “the process,” a philosophy that emphasizes preparation and hard work over consideration of outcomes or results. Barrett Jones, an offensive lineman on all three of Saban’s national championship teams at Alabama and now a rookie with the St. Louis Rams, explains the process this way: “It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it.”

Taken to an extreme—which is where Saban takes it—the process has evolved into an exhausting quest to improve, to attain the ideal of “right is never wrong.” At Alabama, Saban obsesses over every aspect of preparation, from how the players dress at practice—no hats, earrings, or tank tops are allowed in the football facility—to how they hold their upper bodies when they run sprints. “When you’re running and you’re exhausted you really want to bend over,” Jones says. “They won’t let you. ‘You must resist the human need to bend over!'”…

Jones says that while all the talk of “the process” can sometimes seem mysterious—the cultic manifesto of that demonic head coach—it’s actually quite straightforward.

“He pretty much tells everybody what our philosophy is, but not everyone has the discipline to actually live out that philosophy,” Jones says. “The secret of Nick Saban is, there is no secret.”

I think there are two kinds of leaders in the world:

1. Charismatic Leader — This is the leader you love and will follow over the edge of a cliff.  You feel connected to this leader.  Your organization might be very good results with this type of leader, but that isn’t necessarily a guarantee.  99% of folks think they want this kind of leader. It’s Steve Jobs, Tony Hsieh and Barack Obama. They capture your heart and mind.

2. Directed Leader — This leader seems more aloof when you meet them one-on-one, but they have laser like focus of your organization’s vision and mission, and they will not let anyone or anything take your off course.  In the long term, if you buy-in to the vision and get to know this leader, you’ll do more than follow them over a cliff, you’ll throw others over the cliff for them!  Saban falls into this camp. So would Abraham Lincoln.

I don’t see these two leaders being at polar ends of leadership. They are actually running parallel, like two behavioral traits, because the best leaders have some of each. Steve Jobs could hold the stage, but he also had great vision.  Some leaders just have more of one bucket than the others.  To be a directed leader, to be so focused in on a singular vision, you have to be a little odd, a little different from what people perceive  you have to be a little odd, a little different from what people perceive as normal. The fact is, most people don’t have the capacity to have the kind of focus it takes to be as successful as Nick Saban. One last thing from the GQ article:

“Saban is a fit 61, owing in part to regular pickup basketball games with staff, a frenetic pace on and off the field, and a peculiarly regimented diet. He doesn’t drink. For breakfast, he eats two Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies; for lunch, a salad of iceberg lettuce, turkey, and tomatoes. The regular menu, he says, saves him the time of deciding what to eat each day, and speaks to a broader tendency to habituate his behaviors.”

Same meal every day, so you spend no extra time or energy even thinking about what to eat.  Focus. Laser focus.  Does your leader have this?

 

Should Colleges Give Job Seekers A Refund?

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Can we all dispel the notion that Colleges and Universities are non-profit institutions?  They’re non-profit like hospitals and churches are non-profit!  Have you seen what those types of organizations are building nowadays!   These types of non-profits are not really in business to make a profit, but to grow and keep growing.  They don’t have a ‘profit’ for the simple fact is that they spend each dollar on their ‘mission’, which mainly entails continued growth.

Many recent college grads who started college believing a college education was a way to a high paying, or at least a normal paying, career have become disenchanted with this notion.  College graduates find it more and more difficult to find good entry level professional employment.  Colleges and University marketing machines keep churning out the ‘dream’, though, with little disregard that this graduates can actually get a job.  You see, universities aren’t job placement agencies, they are educational institutions.  People get confused with this – it’s great marketing.  It’s like when that creepy old guy buys the Corvette with the notion he’ll be sexier – he’s not!   You bought into the commercial – “Come to our School! You’ll have a great career!” Not necessarily!

By the way, the U.S. Circuit Courts agrees with the Universities.  You, college graduate, have no right of an expectation that you’ll get a job from attending a certain university. Here is what the courts have to say:

“The court ruled Tuesday in a case involving a dozen unhappy graduates from Thomas M. Cooley Law School, which has campuses across Michigan and in Tampa, Fla.

The graduates claimed they were fooled by rosy employment statistics published by the school. The appeals court, however, said Michigan’s consumer protection law doesn’t apply, and the graduates put too much reliance on Cooley’s job survey of other graduates.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, 3-0, affirmed a similar decision by a federal judge in Grand Rapids…

The graduates who sued Cooley said they had difficulty finding full-time, paid jobs. Shane Hobbs of Pennsylvania graduated in 2010 but has worked as a substitute teacher and at a golf course. Danny Wakefield of Utah graduated in 2007 but ended up managing the delivery of phone books, according to the 6th Circuit decision.The Cooley graduates accused the school of fraud by reporting in 2010 that 76 percent of graduates were employed within nine months. The graduates claimed that should be interpreted as full-time positions requiring a law degree. But it actually included jobs outside law.”

Can you imagine if most companies ran their business like this?   Yeah, I know you just paid $30K for that new car to take you to and from work – but we can’t guarantee that will actually happen!  Would you buy the car?  No, you wouldn’t.   What if a university ran a commercial saying:

“Hey! Come to our university and we Guarantee that you’ll get a job in your chosen career path degree, or we’ll give you a 100% tuition refund!”

Would that change where you went to school?

But don’t fret recent grads, if you didn’t get a job with that degree you just got – the university will more than willing to take you back for that graduate degree! Then you’ll really get a job! Or not – there’s no guarantees!

What The ‘F’ Do Recruiters Know?!

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FYI – Gang!  I’ve been asked to be a part of a panel discussion at SXSW 2014!  I’m super excited because I’ve never been to SXSW, but everyone tells me it’s something you have to do, if your anybody.  And if I’m anything, I’m somebody.  Being somebody, I’m asking you to vote for our session.  The voting seems a little American Idolish, reality TV show, but, Hey, give the people what they want and they’ll return the next year.  SHRM should take note…

Here’s the details on the Session:

What the F*ck Do Recruiters Know?

What the F*ck do recruiters know? They know most of you have no freaking shot at ever being in a management position, but all of you think you want to be and can be. They know your too fat and too ugly to have a great career – but you have zero self-insight and think ‘that stuff really shouldn’t matter’ – when it does to those making the decisions. Recruiters know that they don’t have to know your job, to find someone better to replace you. Recruiters know nothing about what you do – and they’re completely fine with that – but you’re not. Recruiters know how to get shit done in your organization and what buttons to push to get stuff over the finish line.

The gang from America’s Snarkiest HR and Recruitment Blog – Fistful of Talent – takes the filters off and shows you that the shit that recruiters know.

Session synopsis: Recruiters don’t know shit, except some shit you want to know, come and get to know their shit and you’ll be the shit.

– See more at: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/20816#sthash.fZL1hSBn.aIWAdapn.dpuf

I’m guessing it will be fun.  Probably won’t change my life, but a cool experience talking with like-minded people, and beer.

Go vote, please.  Takes like 2 minutes to register and vote.  Look at it this way – each day I provide free content.  2 minutes to vote for this session is payment for sucking all of my ideas into your work places’ for free for the past 2 years.  BTW – I have tracking program that shows me who reads each blog and exactly where they go after leaving my blog – so I know.  I know if you truly care about me or not.  And much like Santa, I’m making a list.

It’s your move.

– See more at: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/20816#sthash.fZL1hSBn.aIWAdapn.dpuf

Top HR Lies

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In the never ending quest to beat a blog series to death, let’s hope this is my last installment of “Top Lies” (Top Candidate Lies, Top Recruiter Lies).

At this point I’ve completely pissed off ‘candidates’, made some fun of Recruiters, so now it’s time to really have some fun with the easiest target of all  — HR!  For the most part my peers in HR have fairly thick skin.  HR is actually use to being made the joke in the professional world.  The only profession that gets made fun of worse is probably lawyers!  I could do an entire post on why HR lacks respect, but that has been done a thousand times and in reality having respect in HR isn’t a professional dilemma, it’s a personal one!  If you’re in HR and don’t have respect in your organization, don’t blame the HR profession, you need to look in the mirror!

All that being said, HR might be the king of the liars in your organization!  Let’s break down a few of Top HR Lies:

– “In HR we are here for ‘our’ Employees!”  — HR is not an employee advocate.  HR supports the organization’s leadership and mission.  BTW – many HR Pros don’t even get this concept! When push comes to shove, HR will always support that way leadership wants to go, not the way employees want to go.

– “You can tell HR, we are always confidential!” — No we’re not! HR has an obligation to look out for the best interest of the organization, not you.  If you tell HR something ‘confidentially’, there is a very good chance that information will be shared with others in the organization.  The reality.  HR has to mitigate the risk of the organization.  Your craziness has risk to it.

– “We had no idea layoffs were coming…” —  Sorry, but we did.  But we just can’t tell you that and create panic throughout the organization.  So, we lie. It sucks, but there isn’t any other way.

– “No, you can’t change your health benefits until next Open Enrollment, it’s the law!”  — Yeah, that’s kind of a lie as well!  There are laws governing when we ‘have’ to allow you to change your benefits (marriage, child being born, divorce, etc.), but HR can decide to change the plan rules and allow you to change if we wanted. But, that becomes a logistical nightmare!  Even with keeping our plan rules intact, we can still get around it.  Let’s say you are a young employee and chose the crappy low-cost catastrophic major medical plan that basically covers nothing, but you’re young and nothing will ever happen to you. Then, something does happen to you.  You come to HR. HR says, “We told you so! Sorry, you have to wait until next Open Enrollment, have fun with that cancer!”  HR could actually fire you on a Friday, hire you back on Monday and have you sign up for the ‘new’ insurance.  Based on your plan there could be some audit risk based on IRS code, section 125 – so check it out before you go do this. But, it’s not like you’re doing this all the time – this is maybe once a year for a desperate situation – I’ll take that risk (and have) to help my employee in this situation!

– “We fire people!”  — HR has never fired anyone, ever.  Managers of of employees fire people.  HR just supports that decision, and frequently influences a manager to make that decision, but we don’t pull the trigger.  Managers blame HR — “HR is telling me I have to do this”, but that’s a lie as well.  HR advises of the consequences if certain actions aren’t taken. Ultimately, leaders make the final decision on what is actually going to happen.

– “Top performers get rewarded!” — Actually, in most organizations even average performers get rewarded….and low performers.  We have a compensation plan and don’t want to leave anyone out. So, you can be great and get a 3% raise. Your cube mate could be a slug and get a 1% raise.  How does that feel?

–  “We treat everyone equally!” — The reality is we treat certain employees better and give them more leeway to screw up, because they are more valuable to the organization.  Not all employees are create equal.  That was just something that sounded good on the poster for the break room.   Some employees are actually substantially more valuable to the organization than you are.  We treat them differently.

– “We value diversity and inclusion!” — We actually really don’t give a crap about this.  It gets shoved down our throats, legally, organizationally, etc. What we really care about is filling positions with solid talent.  But leadership makes me provide a report that counts the color of faces, so now we have to care.  So we care about the number of faces, not the true sense of diversity.  Don’t hate the players, hate the game.

Alright HR Pros – What Lies Did I Forget?

 

 

How To Get An Entry Level Job, Part II

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The most read post at the Tim Sackett Project is: How To Get An Entry Level Job.   Check it out, if you haven’t already. It’s my advice to a new college grad about how to get that first job. That grad is Christina Hart, and I wanted to do a follow up to the original post to see if my advice worked, or if it’s just B.S. like the rest of the stuff I write!  Here are the questions I asked Christina and her responses, unedited:

(Tim) What worked in your job search in finding your first entry level job after graduating?

(Christina) “When we spoke a little over a year ago, I was just in the process of picking up and moving to New York City. Before that point, I had been applying for full-time jobs while working a few part-time jobs in my hometown in Michigan. I knew that NYC was my desired location, so I made a commitment to move and give it a try. It was a struggle to get interviews before that point, because many companies were looking for individuals who were already in the NY area, and could come in at little more than a moment’s notice. For me specifically, moving to NYC made all of the difference. Within 24 hours of being in the city I had a job, and it’s highly unlikely that I would be where I am without having taken that step first. My first job in the city was temping as an administrative assistant, which lasted about 2 months, and from there I was offered a great full-time position at that same company.

The temping agency route is something I never really considered, a somewhat atypical path for most graduates to think about. That being said, it got me in the door and from there it gave me an opportunity to prove my worth. I networked within the company, which led to a career sponsor, and my current role.

At the end of the day, the thing that worked for me was taking that giant risk and moving across the country to the city I wanted to be in – even without having a job first. I think for graduates who have that same mindset with being in a certain geographical region, the best thing really is to just go, and once you’re there, network like crazy.”

(Tim) What didn’t work?

(Christina) “I tried a lot of different things when I was looking for my first entry-level role. Some of which, seems silly looking back. I remember seeing a lot of students who were doing social marketing campaigns for themselves on twitter or starting websites dedicated to hire so and so dot com. I had one of those websites. I was on just about every website at the time to create my personal brand. I had an about.me, a website, twitter, facebook, blog, and personal QR code – and most of it was redundant. While it’s still incredibly important to be cognizant of your online presence, quantity does not equal quality. I was hyperaware of every social platform and making sure that I was on each and every one. I don’t think that’s necessary, nor helpful in your search. I think you need to be very aware of what you want your social brand to reflect, but at the end of the day the company is not going to care whether you have 3 or 10 sites dedicated to such. Most of them are gimmicky anyways, and that’s often not what’s going to get you ahead. My advice to myself looking back, focus on understanding a few platforms really well and showcase that, instead of spreading yourself over every trend at the moment (like those hireme websites).

Continuing on the topic of social, I did a ton of online networking while looking for my first job. I participated in a ton of twitter chats, reached out to lots of people on LinkedIn, and applied online to every job imaginable. Looking back, I’d tell myself to get off the computer and get to every in-person networking event I could. I relied on social too much. I think it’s pretty typical of students now to rely on those indirect forms of communication (that’s how we communicate, right?) – but business and relationships still need to be nurtured in person. Go to networking events just to talk; talk to anyone you can. Don’t always greet that person with your pitch, instead try to form an authentic connection and from there people are more willing to help.”

(Tim) What advice would you now give someone graduating and looking for their first job?

(Christina) “Intern. Take a volunteer or part-time internship in the area or field you want to work in. You’re going to need it.

Customize your resume for each job/company. It should be tailored based on the job description and should include key words relevant to that industry. If you don’t know what those key words are, do a quick Google search and chances are you’ll learn pretty quickly. If the position says it’s looking for someone who knows Radian6 or CSS or WordPress – make sure those words are on your resume.

Speaking of platforms and programs, if the job or industry you want to be in requires knowledge or expertise in those areas – learn them. Take a class. Teach yourself. Make yourself an expert.

Get offline. LinkedIn is still my most successful and important networking tool, but turning those relationships into real life ones was the most important thing I could do. Go to large networking events or meet people for coffee. It doesn’t matter what size, as long as you’re talking. Show your value, so that people will remember you when they hear of a job. Make sure you’re the person they remember.

Nurture those relationships. Check back in every so often. A relationship is two ways; make sure you’re not just taking.

If you want to work in a specific industry or at a specific company reach out to people in those areas and get to know that industry. Use LinkedIn to ask people to share their expertise. Use informational interviews to find out what it takes to succeed, and what skills you need to have. Don’t be afraid to be concise in what you want. Tell them you want to work in X and ask them how to get there.

Everyone has to start somewhere – if you want to work at a company or in a certain industry bad enough, take whatever job will get you in. I know we all want to be running the company from the get go, we want the prestige, but you’re only going to get there if you get in first. Be the low man on the totem pole and use the opportunity to learn from those above you. If you work hard you will go far, no matter where you start. Humbleness, and a strong work ethic, will show through.

Find a career sponsor, and a few mentors. Know the difference between the two.”

(Tim) What was the hardest part of your job search?

(Christina) “Realizing the skills gap exists, and also that I didn’t want any of the jobs that were typically associated with my degree. I was applying for jobs and industries with which I had no expertise. I expected people to see what a great candidate and person I was, without the credentials to back it. We all assume a liberal arts education from a good school will get us a job, in reality; technical training and internships are imperative.

I’m introverted in nature, so learning to utilize my strengths to my advantage was a struggle. Working a room a large networking event was difficult. Learning to define what makes me the best candidate and how to describe my qualities took time.”

 

4 Big WOW items I got from Christina’s Experience —

1. Commit!  If you want a certain job, certain industry, certain location, certain company – y0u have to commit 100% and go after it.

2. Get in anyway possible.  Christina took a temp job into the industry and location she wanted.  People shit all over the idea of temp work, but the reality is, most companies frequently hire on temporary workers who are awesome into full-time roles.  It’s hard to find great talent, when a ‘temp’ proves themselves as ‘great’ talent, rarely do they get let go!

3. Get Experience.  I have so many HR friends who hate that I say this, but you need to do an unpaid internship if you can’t get a paid one!  For the betterment of your job prospects you have to get some experience.  Many times that experience will come in the form of an unpaid, volunteer professional type of a position.  It is the reality of many companies today that they can’t afford to have paid interns, but would love to have interns.  Go offer yourself up for free.

4. Have Lunch!  You have to network with ‘real’ people, live, face-to-face.  Social has a part in this — initial networking, follow up, etc. But nothing replaces the good old sit down and talk one on one type of networking.  It takes time, but it’s the best way to spend your time.  People can ignore you on social media, they have a very hard time ignoring you when you’re sitting across from them!

Why Shrinking College Enrollment Is A Bad Sign For HR

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Colleges and Universities will have fewer students this fall as enrollments across the board are falling.  The reasons?  It’s a number of factors – decline in college-aged kids, rising tuition costs and continued soft job market for new college grads, is making it a perfect storm for students to decide to forgo college and try and get into the job market in any job they can.  The idea being  – why go to college and come out in debt, when those who have are getting the same job I’ll get – service oriented, lower end jobs, sales positions that don’t require a degree, etc.

Here’s the big issue for employers – we need those kids in school to fill future jobs!

While the government and analyst continue to say the U.S. has a soft job market – those HR/Talent Pros in the trenches are seeing something very different!  Not enough ‘qualified’ workers for the jobs we have.  Not enough skills and training, increasing numbers of retirees and 5 plus years of not funding our own corporate training programs, have left many employers short on talent.  Having fewer college graduates in the future will only add to the shortage of a trained, technical workforce.   The current lack of STEM talent in all areas of the country is startling – and this only gets fixed by having more students in those programs, not less.

In the last year alone Microsoft released a report showing that the unemployment rate for STEM related jobs is at 3.4% – where ‘full employment’ of a field, by government standards, is considered to be between 4-5%.  These figures are during the recession!  In Michigan alone the automotive industry is searching for thousands of engineers and IT professionals – with graduates of STEM programs coming out to multiple offers and compressing salaries in many organizations.  Many other parts of the country are showing positive signs of coming out of the recession as well.  This adds to the issue of lower college enrollment as employers will soon be taking more STEM kids before graduation with the lure of money and instant employment.  We are already hearing stories about this during this summer’s internship season where engineering and IT interns are being asked to stay on full time and salaries very close to those who have already graduated.  Many students will drop out, figuring there is no need to finish, or that they’ll finish later in non-traditional formats.  Most never will.

All of these factors adds to that giant tsunami of retirements that will continue to hit over the next 5-10 years as baby boomers continue to leave the workforce.  How will companies cope?  Many will do what they have been doing for years – moving technical and engineering centers overseas where other countries have far surpassed the U.S. in STEM graduation rates.  It’s a complex time to be in HR in America – on one hand we still have relatively high unemployment as a country, but on the other we have a severe shortage of skilled workers.  The President and Congress believe ‘training’ unskilled workers to be skilled workers is the answer.  It’s not.  That is like telling a Doctor that they will be trained as a Dancer!  It takes more than desire to want to be a talented Engineer or IT Professional – it takes more than being an expert on Xbox.  It takes some real analytical ability – which most unskilled workers don’t have.

What can HR do?  Keep your workers.  Find ways to ensure those who want to retire can continue to work but add flexibility and part-time arrangements where you didn’t have them before. Continue to invest in technology – because you will have to do more with less.  Get ready to pay – because STEM workers will hold the negotiating power – more than they hold it now!  What else?  Don’t let your babies grow up to be Cowboys. Don’t let them pick guitars and drive them old trucks….Get it?  When your kid says they want to go to college and study something that they struggle to get a job – do what parents do – help direct them down another path – an easier life path of being employed.

 

The “Lost Dog” Recruitment Strategy

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I’m up today over at Halogen Software’s HR Blog talking about the time I lost my dog and what it taught me about recruitment. Here’s a snippet:

“When I was a kid, our family dog, Tippy, ran away. We’d had Tippy for a number of years, so as you can imagine, this situation was heartbreaking.

I think we did what any family would do to find our lost dog.

My Dad worked the neighborhoods by car — window down, yelling Tippy’s name, stopping to speak to neighbors to see if they had seen our little dog.

My Mom, sister and I made signs. You know the ones:

LOST DOG! Reward! Please call!

And of course a picture.

We posted the signs on every telephone poll within a half mile radius of our house.

Within a few days, we got a call from a retired guy who’d seen our signs, found our dog in his yard, and was able to coax him into the garage for safe keeping until we could come and get him.”

Click here to find out how your recruitment Strategy, is like me losing my dog…

I’m kind of like Paul Harvey today – click over you’ll get to find out the rest of the story…