Increasing your visibility on LinkedIn

The one thing that everybody asks me is if recruiters use LinkedIn. The answer is yes. We do. And yes, you should be on it. But if you are an active job seeker, it's not enough to simply upload your resume and sit back waiting for a call. Here are a few tips from a headhunter about how to better use LinkedIn to your advantage:

Make your profile search-friendly. The best thing about LinkedIn is that everyone is on it. Of course, that's the worst thing about LinkedIn too. As a recruiter, I use LinkedIn to identify who's who in a particular job market. But when I do a broad search, I'll often generate hundreds of names. In order to make the tool work better for me, I have to set fairly narrow parameters. I'll often specify a job title or a particular skill set. If you do not have these terms in your profile, I might miss you, even though you'd be an ideal candidate for the job. Take the time to list all of your skills.

Use common terms. Perhaps you are King of Brand Philosophy. That's cool, but if I'm searching for a Marketing Director, I might not find you. If you have a job title that is not obvious, include a subtitle that explains exactly what you do.

Join industry and functional groups. When I am doing a search, I often look at related groups to see who is a member and who is actively participating. Join groups and be an active participant. Make it easy for me to see that you are a leader in your field. 

Look to see who is looking at you. You can choose to see who has been looking at your profile. If you see a recruiter has been looking at your profile, send them a message or link up with them. Having a good relationship with a few recruiters is never a bad idea. If you don't want to publicly link with a recruiter, we are always happy to get an email or a call from you. 

List contact information. Make it easy for us to contact you. Recruiters are discouraged from linking up with people we don't know. We can pay to use LinkedIn's mail function but we only get so many mail opportunities each month. Unless you are the obviously perfect candidate, I might not contact you if you don't list your contact information. If you are an active job seeker, make yourself easy to find. 

Be honest. If you are looking for a job, tell me that in your summary. As a recruiter, I am interested in finding people who are looking for work. It's tempting to try to hide that you are not employed but if you want to find a job, it's good to let people know that you are actively looking. 

Happy hunting!

Nancy

Onboarding the new hire

After a long search, you've finally hired the ideal candidate for the job. Today is her first day of work. What she experiences will have a major impact on her future with your company. As the commercial says, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

Most companies know to show a new employee the location of the washroom and coffee machine. Often the hiring manager will take the new hire to lunch. The new employee typically gets a binder from HR outlining all of the company's policies and procedures to minimize the potential for lawsuits. And sometimes there is a formal new employee orientation session where all new hires are put in a room and given fairly generic information about a company's culture.

These sessions tend to be fascinating...

Most people are nervous on their first day of work. Often, they've resigned from a job that - while not as intriguing as yours - offered some positives. Just as it's easy to see the old high school boyfriend who has turned up on Facebook through rose-coloured glasses, it's easy for a new hire to remember how great her last job was - and have regrets about yours - if you don't make the onboarding process more engaging.

In his book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel Pink explores the key factors that motivate employees: autonomy, mastery and purpose. In other words, we all need to "direct our own lives, learn and create new things, and do better by ourselves and our world."


Autonomy: New employees want assurance that they and their ideas matter and are important to the company. This gives them the sense that they will have some control in their new environment. It's hard to send out this message if the onboarding process focuses on generic training sessions and binders filled with policy. Let people know that they were hired because you need them. And that you cannot wait to see what they can contribute. Let them know that while the company has a great culture, you are eager to see how they shape things too. Everyone likes to feel valued.

Mastery: People hate feeling incompetent. When you do not know where the bathroom is, it's hard to feel confident about anything. The first weeks on the job can be highly demotivating since it's so hard to feel a sense of mastery. You hired the candidate for their skills and expertise. Let them use them right away so they gain an immediate sense of competence in their new environment. Tap into the new hire's greatest strengths. You know that thing he talked about loving to do in the interview? Make sure he does a lot of that as soon as he starts work.

Purpose: Everyone wants to feel part of something bigger. That's why people get satisfaction from work. It's up to you to make the connection between what this new hire can do and the goals of the organization. A new employee orientation session that focuses on the company's mission, vision and goals is time well spent if you link those elements to the skills and experience of the new hire. (Hey Mr. X, here at Corporation Z, we pride ourselves on being the number one seller of widgets in the world. It's a pleasure to know that we have just hired the number one sales guy on the eastern seabord in sprockets. You'll be a fabulous fit here! Now let's talk about what we are hoping to accomplish together...)

Making an employee feel valued, competent and part of something great will go a long way toward making that person feel he has made a great career move. The quicker an employee feels this way, they faster she will be able to contribute to your organization. Which, of course, was the whole point of the hire.

Happy hunting!

Nancy

(Not) winning the interview

When you are interviewing for a job, it often feels like a competition:

Often, there will be several candidates applying for one position. Many of us are naturally competitive and it's natural to want to win the competition and get hired. It's tempting to see the interview as a platform to show off your strengths and engage in a one-sided conversation as you seek to win over the recruiter and earn the job offer.

Repeat after me. My career is not a contest.

You are not trying to win a position, but rather find out if the open position is an ideal job for you. The interview process should be an open dialogue between you and a potential employer to see if you might work well together. If you are currently working, the job interview should be an opportunity for you to determine if you really want to change jobs. If you take a job that is not a good fit, it puts the company in a bad position and prevents you from finding a really great job more suited to your skills and personality.

Here are some ways to make the interview as productive for you as it is for the hiring company:

Be honest. The company's recruiter knows what skills and experience they require. They also have a good understanding of the company's culture. The best thing you can do is be honest so the interviewer can assess if you have the skills needed and are a good fit. Often, it seems that hiring managers and recruiters act as gatekeepers and are more concerned about keeping candidates out. As a recruiter, I can assure you that what companies want most in the world is to make a hire. There is huge pressure to fill open positions and companies tend to err on the side of hiring the wrong person rather than leave the position unfilled. Trust me on this one. Just as the credit card company might not tell you that you really ought not get that increased limit, a hiring firm might not tell you that you aren't right for the job. You need to figure that one out for yourself.

Ask questions. This is the chance to ask lots of questions. Hiring companies like people who ask questions. It shows you are interested and engaged. Ask about the role. Ask how you will spend your day, who you will interact with most, and what the deliverables will be. Ask what the performance management system looks like. Ask what the next logical position would be. Ask how much travel there will be. Ask why the position is open. If you are interested in flexible hours or work from home, ask about that now.

Make sure you meet your potential team members. Some companies have Human Resources do most of the hiring. While HR can answer questions about the position requirements and the general corporate culture, they cannot always tell you everything you want to know. Request to meet with the hiring manager. Ask to meet with someone from the team. The main reason why people love or hate their jobs is the people. It's not unusual to have several interviews with HR, but make sure you know what the team looks like before signing on the dotted line. These are the people you'll be sitting with at 10pm when the project is overdue, not HR.

Make sure your new job is not your old job. Often there are things you do not like about your old job: a difficult boss, no upward movement, a company in financial trouble. Now is the time to make sure you are not going from the frying pan into the fire. If you are joining a publicly traded company, there will be lots of information available. If it's a private company, the interview is a great time to check things out.

Turing the interview process into a two-way dialogue will give you the confidence to take on a new job. When we find candidates getting cold feet at the 11th hour, it's often because they know what their current job looks like and can't imagine the new one. Ask questions until you have a good sense of the new environment. And if you still insist on seeing the job search process as a competition, know that companies are impressed when they see you doing your due diligence. It implies you are through, curious, and have enough confidence in your skills to know that the hiring process is a two-way street.

Happy Hunting!

Nancy

Surviving the First Few Weeks

So, for the last few weeks, we've been taking you from getting hired to having a successful reference check and giving your notice to dodging any counter-offers. Now, it's the first day of your new job. How can you best prepare for success?

1) Make sure you arrange the details of your first day before you start. Large organizations like Fortune 500 companies or government, have a fairly standard procedures in place to onboard new hires. If you are employee number four at a tech start-up, however, don't assume that there are standards in place. The first few days of a new job can be nerve-wracking for everyone, so make sure you know who you are meeting, what time they want to see you, and exactly where you should go. This sounds pretty obvious, but if you arrive at 9am on a Monday, you may find yourself standing in front of a locked office door while your hiring manager leads the morning sales call. Plan ahead.

2) Find out what to wear. Yes, in interviews you likely trotted out your Sunday finest. But if you are working for a start-up filled with 25 year-old surfer-types, you don't want to show up dressed like an undertaker. If in doubt, ask HR or the hiring manager. Nobody will judge you harshly for wanting to respect their corporate culture.

3) Don't bring your entire office on the first day. Yes, your Hang in There cat poster was the hit of the office at your last place, but take a look at the offices of your colleagues before you start to decorate. Often interviews are held in boardrooms that give you little sense of the culture of the organization. Many companies have moved towards a hoteling concept where you are assigned a new workspace everyday depending on what you are doing. The last thing you want to do is drag in your ficus plant only to find out that your officemates survive with a rolling file bin and a laptop.

4) Ask whoever lets you in where everything is. Bathroom, photocopier, file area, coffee area. Ask how you get in and out of the building and how your passcard works. Think of Maslow's hierarchy of needs: the sooner you get comfortable with the basics, the sooner you can start to self-actualize and earn your keep.

5) Be friendly to everyone. Even if you are the world's biggest introvert and have been hired for a job where you talk to nobody, plaster a big smile on your face and be friendly to everybody. Most people will judge your character in a minute or less. Based on what they think, they can be helpful or not helpful. Yes, over the next few weeks you will be judged based on merit, but the first few days are more like speed-dating. Be cheerful, be charming, and avoid any conflict or controversy (I don't have to tell you to hold open elevator doors and avoid cutting anyone off in the parking lot.)

6) Ask what they'd like you to start working on. Often your manager will hand you a pile of work from whoever held your position last. Ask specifically what you can work on and arrange a time to meet to hand over some deliverables. You will all feel better once you actually produce some results.

7) Clarify any buzzwords. Every organization has its own lingo. If you don't know what a term means, ask. You have a month to be stupid and ask questions. After that, people start to judge.

Most of all relax, have fun, and find out when people go out for drinks night (and make sure to attend it!) You've worked hard for this moment so enjoy.

Happy hunting,

Nancy