New Year, New Job?

So, this year, instead of giving you a holiday bonus to pay for your new swimming pool, your boss signed you up for the Jelly of the Month Club.

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Hopefully you did not take Cousin Eddie's approach to the situation...

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Instead, you likely made a New Year's Resolution to find a job with a company that better appreciates you. If you made a resolution to find a new job in 2014, you are not alone. According to a poll by Right Management, only 5% of employees plan to stay in their current jobs through the end of the year.

Of course, changing jobs is easier said (particularly with a belly full of rum and eggnog!) than done. The reality is that only 23% of people achieve their New Year's Resolutions. Life gets in the way. One week into 2014, you are probably up to your eyeballs in work from your current job and feel that you are too busy with kids' activities, commuting, and paying down the holiday bills to think about a job change.

I hope you really like jelly…

If you are serious about changing jobs in 2014, there are some practical steps to follow that will significantly increase your chances of finding a new place to hang your proverbial hat this year.

1.       Polish your resume. While you were putting away the holiday lights in the basement, perhaps you dug through your files to locate an old copy of your resume. The good news is, you found it; the bad news it, it lists "WordStar" and "Lotus Notes" as your key skills. Now is the time to do a new resume. The universe works in funny ways and once you put the "I want a new job" vibe out there, you will get requests for your CV. Take the time before you kick off your job search to think about what kind of job you want and articulate why you'd be the ideal candidate for the role.

2.      Send your updated resume to your favourite recruiters. A perfect resume is a beautiful thing but it's not going to do you any good if nobody sees it. Send a copy to any recruiters you know or do some digging to see who the recruiting experts are in your field. Choose at least three recruiters and let them know you are open to new opportunities.

3.      Put together a list of the top 10 companies you have always wanted to work for and do a little research on them. If you have any industry association meetings or trade shows planned, use them as opportunities to speak with other people in your field. Find out who's hiring, who's firing, and a little about the corporate culture of your target companies. Perhaps your industry is going through hard times and you are lucky to be getting a year's supply of jelly. Better to know that upfront and consider making a more radical change.

4.      Get your references in order. There is nothing worse than being offered the job of your dreams only to realize that there is nobody who can vouch for your skills other than your current boss. Scan your LinkedIn connections and see who might be willing to give you a glowing review. Take your former boss out for lunch to reestablish a connection before you ask for a favour.

5.      Commit to two networking meetings a month. People who are successful at achieving their New Year's Resolutions put clear action steps into place. It's easy to get to December 2014 and realize you've done nothing to push your dreams forward. Meet with your old colleagues. Ask someone respected in your field if they'd consider mentoring you. Taking specific steps towards your goal will help keep you motivated.

6.      Spruce up your look. Have you ever watched the TV show What Not to Wear? There is something transformational in improving your appearance: everything from your self-confidence to people's first impression of you tends to improve. Take advantage of the January sales to buy a new interview suit or get a new haircut. Embracing small physical changes can help you prepare for larger emotional changes such as switching jobs.

7.      Prepare for any major changes. Perhaps you are an investment banker who wants to become a chef. If you plan to make a drastic career change, it pays to do some upfront research. Talk to people in the industry to make sure you know what you are signing up for. Meet your potential future colleagues. Sign up for a class or get the accreditation required. You try on a pair of shoes before buying them to make sure they are comfortable: take the same approach with your career.

8.      Start talking about your goals. Job searching while still employed is an activity that requires some discretion. Obviously you don't want to change your Facebook status to "Peeved off with the boss and looking" unless you know you can wrangle a package and start elsewhere right away! But it's OK to let trusted people in your circle know that you'd be open to new opportunities. Statistics show that at any given time, most people are open to new employment opportunities so while you don't want to advertise it on a t-shirt, it's not a state secret.

9.      If you identify a company you might like to work for, ask for an informational meeting. It's good to kick the tires of a company you are contemplating joining. Arrange a meeting with a line manager in the area where you want to work (you can cold call or, even better, get someone in your network to help arrange it.)  Find out what the company is really like and increase your chances of getting hired when a position opens. We've observed that successful informational interviews lead to an eventual job offer 80% of the time, as you've demonstrated your initiative and have some insight into the organization when you have your initial screening meetings with Human Resources.

10.   Have fun. Hey, you might be on the brink of changing your life for the better: it's exciting! It can also be stressful so surround yourself with friends and family who support your goals and can act as cheerleaders. Celebrate little victories such as getting your resume done or booking a key meeting. People who celebrate their small achievements along the way are much more likely to reach their major goals.

Making a resolution to improve your career can lead to a major life improvement. You can surround yourself with more like-minded people, improve your financial situation, and increase your daily satisfaction. And unlike those who resolved to lose 10 pounds, you can still have cheesecake (so much tastier than jelly…)

Happy hunting!

Nancy

The Tough Search: Please Don't Shoot the Messenger

In an old episode of Roseanne that seems to run permanently on late-night TV, Roseanne has taken a job helping out at a hair salon. She observes a client showing Iris, her hairdresser, a photo of a model in a fashion magazine:

Customer: Now, Iris, I love what you did last week, but can you make me look like that?  

Roseanne: Oh, I'm sure you can, Iris. I'll go get the wand.

As a recruiter, there are days when I could really use a magic wand too. Clients often come to me when initial efforts to find a candidate for a particular role fail. Often, through research and networking, I am able to find that needle in a haystack candidate they could not unearth though casual networking or a newspaper ad. But sometimes, I gather market intelligence that tells me that the ideal candidate for the role simply does not exist.

And clients hate that.

In an ideal world, wand or no wand, we could all have magazine-worthy hair. In an ideal world, each job search would yield 3 or 4 candidates with perfect resumes, sparkling personalities, a proper motivation for leaving their current jobs, and a strong desire to work for less than the going market rate; we could simply pick the one whose interview outfit best matches the office decor.

The research I do for my clients paints a realistic picture of the current market. It provides valuable information about the industry and competitors that, beyond the job search, can be used as general market intelligence (who's hiring, who's firing, salary info etc.) For some positions, there is a large pool of candidates with the necessary skills and experience. If a competitor has recently downsized, there may be lots of excellent people looking for a new job. In this case, where I add value is finding the people who are the best fit for a client's corporate culture. In highly specialized positions where there is a small pool of candidates, it is sometimes hard to find anyone who wants to change jobs. If a job contains any perceived risk factors (lower salary, high turnover, extensive travel, industry instability), finding good candidates becomes even harder. If I can present a shortlist of one or two people with 90% of the requirements, that may be the best the market has to offer. As a recruiter, I'm simply the messenger: please refrain from shooting me!

I know quite early in the search process if there are lots of candidates or very few. If the market is telling me that there are very few people out there who can fill this role, I will feed that information back to my client. At this point, we have a few options:

Revise the job spec: The more flexibility a client has, the more candidates I can bring to the table. Is a particular degree a must or a need? Is 20 years of experience necessary or is 10 years fine? Can any specific skills be added through training once the candidate is hired? Great managerial abilities can sometimes trump specific technical expertise: can someone outside the field fill the role?

Change the job level: Sometimes, there are few people with the desired skill set at the job level on offer. If a client can consider increasing the job level or salary, that can widen the talent pool. Other times, there are not many senior people available (especially in firms where senior people have golden handcuffs tying them to a particular firm) but a very talented, slightly more junior person could stretch into the role.

Look at relocating someone. Sometimes the perfect person is in another geographic market but would be willing to move. If a client will consider paying relocation costs, that could broaden the pool of candidates.

As a recruiter, my commitment is to find the best, available candidates for a position. While the ideal candidate is not always available, my commitment is to work with my clients until we can find someone who can effectively fill the role. If, as the messenger, I'm not afraid of being shot, I can work much more effectively and spend more time finding the best people for the job.

Everything we know about recruiting we learned on our summer vacation

Well, not really, but it makes for a snappy title, doesn't it. There are a lot of career lessons that can be taken from our holidays if we think about it though. Here are five:

Like potato salad on a picnic, jobs have an expiration date. If you have been in a job for years with no upward or sideways movement, at some point you get stuck there. After a while, people don't just take you for granted (have you ever been at a picnic without potato salad?) but they start to avoid you too (the warm mayonnaise becomes a worry.) It's important to ask to take on fresh challenges and learn new skills. If your current role offers no movement, perhaps it's time to update your resume and look around. Reinvent yourself: become a devilled egg.

Careers can be like a roller coaster or a ferris wheel. Some people's careers look like the ferris wheel. It's an easy and steady journey up and then, once the apex has been reached, it's a fairly steady ride down into retirement. You get a good view, you are rarely surprised, and you finish with your hair neatly in place. Other people's careers are like a roller coaster. There are big ups, big downs, the pace is fast, and nobody knows what to expect. Like the ferris wheel people, the roller coaster people end up in the same place (where they began, only with a fatter 401K Plan or RRSP than in the beginning.) The difference is, the roller coaster folks will either feel exhilarated or dizzy and sick upon their arrival. There is nothing wrong with either ride. Some people prefer the ups and downs of working for startups. Others like to join a big company and have a smoother experience. The key is to know if you are a ferris wheel person or a roller coaster person. As a recruiter, I sometimes find that ferris wheelers seek a roller coaster ride in later life. That's cool. Just make sure you read all the warning signs first. And for the roller coaster lovers who decide middle age better suits a ferris wheel, I urge you to take up a hobby to supplement your need for adrenaline. We hear that BASE jumping is fun.

Work is like baseball: when you hit a home run, everyone wants you on their team. If you are thinking of making a change in your job, don't wait until things get really bad at your current place of work. It's hard to interview well in this state. The time to start looking is when you've just done something well. Perhaps you just finished managing a high profile project. Perhaps you just won an award. If you've been thinking about leaving your role, try doing so when you are on a high. Everybody wants a winner on their team.

It takes three to waterski. If you want to waterski, you need three people: the skier, a boat driver, and a spotter to tell the boat driver if the skier falls.  What looks like a one-person recreational activity is a three-person endeavour. When you want to find a new job, it takes a village too. A close friend or family member can be your driver: proofreading your resume, practicing interviewing skills with you, and helping you craft those cover letters. You also need a spotter: someone to tell you what jobs are out there and alert you if something is going wrong. As a recruiter, I'm never the driver. I work for my clients, not the candidates, and it's not my job to get you employed. But I can be an excellent spotter and tell you what jobs are out there. I can also tell you if another boat has cut in front of us and you need to jump the wake.

Don't let a skunk ruin your campfire. At work, we will all meet skunks. If you engage with them, you might end up stinking too. The best thing to do is avoid them. Don't yell at them and don't try to remove them from the area unless you are a trained professional. If they refuse to leave your campsite, throw some food into the bushes (perhaps there is a side project you can give them...) and they will likely leave you alone.

If you want to enjoy the fireworks, you have to prepare. Fireworks are awesome but they don't just happen. Somebody has to buy them. Somebody has to set them up in the bucket of sand. Somebody has to wait until it's dark enough to light them. A good fireworks display requires some planning. You don't want to set off all the chrysanthemums right away and close the night with some sad looking burning schoolhouses. Be organized, persevere, and plan: the results can be spectacular!

Happy hunting!

Nancy

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