Chelsea Recruiter Blog

Interview Tips

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:05:00 +0000

Another article brought to you by the Recruiting Blogswap!

Article Title: Lights, Camera.....Interview: Tips for an Award Winning Performance
Author Byline: Christina Archer is a Career Agent, author, expert resume writer and presenter.
Author Website: http://www.I-CareerSearch.com

You’ve been applying for various positions in your field for a number of months, and finally have received the call to schedule an interview. Are you ready for an Academy Award winning performance?

Top candidates understand the importance of preparation. They realize it can take hours of practice to answer an interview question with the level of confidence and professionalism an employer expects of their next hire. Keep in mind, your interviewer is not looking for “canned” responses, but they do want answers that illustrate your value as a potential employee.

Let’s take a look at the top five tips every job seeker should consider, to ensure they’re ready for ACTION!

1. Review a list of most commonly asked interview questions by clicking here – http://wp.me/pL3D6-2t.

Print out the list, and write down your answers. Know in advance how you will answer each question on the list. After you’ve finished, review your answers, and tweak as necessary. Practice, practice, practice!

2. Visit the employer’s website and read, read, read.

Take notes while on the site, and create a list of ten questions you can direct to the interviewer – specifically about the company. For instance, let’s say the organization just donated one-million dollars towards the Haiti relief effort. What a fantastic opportunity for you to weave this in to your conversation during the meeting! If you’re not utilizing this resource to prepare for your appointments – you’re really missing the boat.

3. Know who you’ll be speaking with, and always address them by name when you first meet.

Remember the old saying – “first impressions are lasting.” When you look a hiring manager in the eye, have a firm handshake, and refer to them by their name, you’re off to a good start.

4. Dress to impress.

We’ve all heard it before, and it seems very common sense. The problem is, we all have a very different sense of style and fashion. In the world of job search, business suits are king. Whether you’re applying for an entry level job or as CEO, you won’t be dressed inappropriately if you’re in a suit.

5. Look the interviewer in the eye.

Many people avoid eye contact, because they have personal insecurities. They may feel intimidated, outside their comfort zone, or simply lack confidence for the interview. When you look the hiring manager in the eye, you appear professional, confident, and focused. What you actually feel on the inside at that very moment – they’ll never know.

The secret to having an award winning interview is being prepared for the unknown. Research the company, practice all possible questions, and dress like you’re the boss! Follow these simple tips, and it won’t be long before you hear…..”and the next job goes to, YOU!”

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

Quick Information on Informational Interviewing

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:49:00 +0000

The informational interview can be a powerful networking tool for all levels of professionals, and particularly for people early in their careers. There is surprisingly little information that I could find on how to use informational interviewing in your job search and career progression, so I thought I would collect some links of good information in one place.

Informational Interviewing Tutorial: A Key Networking Tool

How does informational interviewing work?

Another Primer

"How to Run a Great Informational Interview"

Wikipedia

As a recruiter, I learned early on that people generally like to talk about themselves and their work. Targeted informational interviewing can be a great source of intelligence on target companies, types of jobs (when evaluating a career progression), and just to make useful professional connections. A full disclaimer, I have never done an informational interview, which is why I'm relying on the "experts" on the internet. There are some professions (legal, for example) where this is commonplace, however, I firmly think that this is one of the most underutilized career management tools available.

New Job Board Resources

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:43:00 +0000

This article comes courtesy of the Recruiting Blog Swap.

Article Title: The New World of Job Search Vol 2
Author Byline: CareerAlley
Author Website: http://careeralley.com

Yes, the world of job search has changed. The most dramatic change has been to job search boards (the fathers of which were Monster.com and HotJobs.com). But this change was on the horizon long before the current recession. New innovations and new approaches in an already crowded field (and getting more crowded every day). Some of the mainstays have adjusted their models, look and feel to match (or try to match) some of the "new kids on the block" with limited success. If I had to pick any one characteristic that sets apart the new world sites it would be their simplicity. Rather than trying to be "all things to all job hunters", many of these sites have decided to focus on one aspect and to be outstanding at that one aspect.

Which leads us to the second in a series of reviewing job search boards. No one site does the trick as they all have some aspect that is better or different than the others. Not to say you should be reviewing or registered on the hundreds of job search boards, but you should be picking the 5-10 that best meet your needs.

Pulled from or Linked to Company Career Sites:

Hound.com – This is a different type of job search site from what I’ve reviewed in previous posts. Rather than listing jobs from recruiters or from other search sites, hound.com pulls jobs directly from employer career pages (their tag line "Search Jobs Direct from Employer Career Pages"). However, this is not free. Hound.com charges a fee (based on the length of time you subscribe). Due to the fee, I’ve not fully reviewed the site, but there is a free video you can watch on the main page of the site.

Job-Hunt – Job-Hunt is a free online search site which offers advice, job search news, and a comprehensive (and quite amazing) list of job search sites (categorized by location, networking, industry/profession, etc.). You could easily spend a few days leveraging the links from this site alone (and maybe you should). Unlike other search sites, it does not appear as if jobs are posted directly to Job-Hunt. Rather, it provides links to other sites which have posted jobs.

Matchmaker Search Boards:

Employersjobs.com – This is a free site that claims to link employers and candidates. The set-up is a 3 step process: upload your resume/cv, create your profile (I don’t recommend entering your date of birth) and create email alerts. The password is assigned to you (you will receive it in an email). You can set-up a job alert, but I’ve not been able to find out how to run it. If you try to edit the alert, you get an error. After creating an “advanced” search, specifically indicating the US and NY, it only produced jobs in York (the UK) and other UK locations. Clearly, this is a UK based search site which either needs additional work or should not show locations it can not support.

Trovix.com – Trovix, which is in beta (and is free), matches your “dream job” and your resume versus open jobs. It also looks like they are creating a social network (like LinkedIn) at the same time (but you can skip this step). When joining, the site analyzes your resume and some basic information (location and title). After analyzing your resume, the site asks you to confirm some basic information from your resume, then you complete the sign-up process. The site also lists several employers on the main page that are currently hiring. The matching seems to work well and is easy to use.

Job Search Boards by Industry:

Casino Careers Online – Yes, there is a job board dedicated to Casino careers and this particular one is celebrating its 10th year! The main page has job search by department (such as food and beverage) or by keyword. You can also select advanced search and add additional criteria. The right side of the page allows login for those who have registered before (or registration for first time visitors). Resume posting is permitted, and the site provides news and additional links.

BioSpace.com – This job search board is focused on the Biotech and Pharmaceutical industries. The main page is jam packed with information and tabs and is somewhat confusing. The first set of choices (along the top tabs) are Biotech/Pharma, Medical Device/Diagnostics and Clincial Research, each of which takes you to dedicated pages (which have the same look and feel). A wealth of news, career info and additional resources is listed down the left-hand side of the page. Additional choices include Job Fairs and Career Network. Job search is also available from the main page. I could not find a link to post your resume or register, but applying for a position does take you to additional information request screens (I did not follow them all the way through).

BankingBoard.com – The BankingBoard focuses on Banking and Finance. Homepage has job seeker information on the left-hand side and allows login, career resources and resume posting. Featured jobs are shown down the left-hand side of the page and specific industries (such as Escrow and Real Estate) are listed in the middle of the page. The generic job search link is at the top of the page and this takes you to a traditional search page. The site is well organized and easy to follow.

Blueline.com – This site is dedicated to law enforcement. The main page lists logos for featured cities/towns recruiting for various law enforcement positions. Left-hand side of the page is divided into Police Jobs, Fire Service Jobs and Civilian Jobs. Career resource links are listed at the top of the page and specific search functions are listed on different parts of the page (such as “by State or Title” on the left-hand side and “Find a Job” on the top). Seems well organized, lots of resources, job leads and information.

Good luck in your search.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

Quick Post - Making your Monster Resume Searchable

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:07:00 +0000

This was just a random thought as I was assisting a colleague in crafting some boolean searches. When you post your resume on Monster, they send you through a resume-building exercise that allows you to either upload a resume, or build one through their service. Nowadays, almost everybody has a resume to upload, so they choose that option. The kicker, however, is that Monster requires you to complete their resume-builder for your current or last position.

When I first saw this as a candidate, my first instinct was to put "see resume" or something like that, since I knew that my full resume would be searchable anyway. However, I quickly realized that because of the way Monster runs searches from the recruiter's perspective, candidates need to take a different approach.

Monster allows recruiters to search by "Most Recent Employer," "Most Recent Job Title," among other things. It pulls this information exclusively from the info you put in their resume-builder step rather than from your uploaded resume. While your full resume is searched in a general search, if a recruiter is only looking for people who were Software Engineers in their last job, they may use this search functionality. As discussed here, your resume should already have different job titles to be conducive to search, but it is absolutely essential here. If you are a Software Engineer, when asked for your last title you should put "Software Engineer, Programmer, Systems Engineer, Software Developer" and anything else that describes what you did or want to do. This information appears at the bottom of your searchable resume, so your resume, when viewed, will have the appropriate title listed first, but it will get your resume more eyeballs, which is the most important thing.

If you utilize this strategy, make sure that you include your actual title in the description. Example:

Job Title: Production Supervisor, Production Manager, Manufacturing Manager, Shift Supervisor

Description: As a 3rd Shift Production Supervisor for XYZ, Corporation, I oversaw....

The description put in the resume-builder should also be similarly comprehensive since that is searchable (although I don't use that search function, I'm sure others do).

IT Resume Advice

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:40:00 +0000

Another recruiting blog swap article. This is pretty sound resume advice and a good addition to the mix of resume information here on the Chelsea Recruiter Blog (see here, here, and here).

Article Title: Resume do's and don'ts for the IT Job Seeker
Author Byline: Laura Vezer is an IT recruiter and creator of the blog, IT Matters Canada! The blog contains resources and advice for IT Professionals looking for work in Canada.
Author Website: http://itmatterscanada.blogspot.com

Today I would like to offer you a few valuable tips on your resume. Over the past couple of weeks I have seen some resumes that have had really effective formatting, and some resumes that... well, could use some work.

In this post I will share with you some top tips that I like to see in a resume.

(Please remember that all resume readers have their own preferences, and I am no exception. I will try to remain as objective as possible. Please add your own favourites in the comment section below!)

Remember your target audience.

Your resume may travel through several sets of hands before reaching a technical hiring manger. Often a HR intern with little to no technical experience may be screening potential applicants. Can you imagine how confusing a generic technical resume could be to a fresh HR intern? If you feel that your resume could use clear keywords to help it get to a hiring manger, consult your recruiter. Recruiters are familiar with their clients internal hiring processes and can offer a wealth of information on how to effectively market your resume.

The easier your resume is to read, the more effective it will be.

Resumes are more often scanned rather than read. On average a client may take seven to twelve seconds before deciding to move onto the next resume. Having a resume that is detailed, easily readable, and truly sells your capabilities is the key to capturing their attention during that critical twelve seconds. Here are a few effective techniques to really give your resume an edge:

Keeping your resume to one font,
Formatting a 1.5 spacing between bullet points
Keeping your bullet points succinct, yet detailed enough to really highlight your abilities
Add a link to your LinkedIn profile to supplement your resume – the reader is likely to search for you anyway, why not make it easier for them
Creating a skills matrix in a table that highlights all your technical capabilities, from Networking through to coding languages, and rating your own ability. (example below)

TECHNOLOGY	YEARS USED	RATING
*Software Development*
Java	6 Years	Expert
.NET	4 Years	Intermediate
C#	4 Years	Intermediate
*Methodologies*
Agile	1 Year	Beginner

Include a one to two sentence synopsis at the top of every job you have worked. This is a great introduction to the reader of who the company was that you worked for, and what you did there.

If anyone tells you that you must restrict your resume to two pages, don’t listen to them! Putting a two page limit on YOUR career will hinder you from selling your true abilities to the reader, and will put undue pressure on telling your story. I’m not saying to make a 20 page resume, but don’t be afraid if it goes to five or six pages. If it still reads simply and easily, go for it!

Don't be an job seeker wall flower! By submitting generic resumes, you will become invisible!

A generic resume to a specific job description will not maximize your chances of being picked out from the crowd of applicants a company might receive. By spending an extra ten minutes on tailoring your resume to the job description, you will be received by the reader as a great breath of fresh air amongst the stale boring generic resumes that were clicked over without a second thought.

To Whom it may concern? No thanks.

Don’t EVER send a cover letter addressed to “HR Director,” or “Dear Manager,” If there is not a name on the job ad, pick up your phone, call the company, and ask the receptionist who you should address your cover letter to. It will take 30 seconds, and will give you a leading edge by personalizing your application.

Location, Location, Location!

Don’t leave your location a mystery. If you don’t want to include your address, fine: but include your city of residence, and appropriate contact details so the reader can connect with you straight away.

What's your word count?

Don’t write an ‘essay resume.’ If your paragraphs are turning your resume into a memoir, I invite you to give your draft to a parent, relative or friend who is NOT in your field of expertise, and ask them to read and judge your resume in 10 seconds. If they struggle getting through the first page, you know you have written the beginning of your life story, and not your resume.

Finally, my last recommendation would be to ask for help. You will be amazed at the amount of knowledge your recruitment consultant has. Recruiters look at resumes every day, and see what works and what really doesn’t.

I hope this is helpful to you. If you would like me to read through your resume, and offer some tips to help make your resume more effective, please email me at itmatterscanada@gmail.com

Thanks and enjoy your week!

Laura

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

Posting Your Resume On-Line

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 20:38:00 +0000

So this is partly to test out Google Chrome's "Blog This" add-on (which seems to work beautifully, by the way). Personally, I don't see any reason not to have a resume posted on the major job boards when you are engaged in a job search. I have received positions through my Monster resume, and have placed numerous candidates, both active and passive, while I was in both agency and in-house recruiting positions.

MN Headhunter/Nerd Search: Increase Your Odds. Candidate Job Board Tricks

Paul has a Recruiting Blogswap article about increasing your odds of getting contacted. They read as general resume advice to a certain extent. I only want to highlight these points (again, they are not Paul's, but Jessica Miller-Merrell's)

4. Update Your Profile Weekly. Job boards list resumes by most recently updated and allow recruiters to use search by resumes updated daily, weekly, and monthly. Keep your resume at the top of the pack by updating it weekly. You can also take advantage of CareerBuilder’s advantage option which automatically provides you this service but at a fee.

5. Use Searchable Buzzwords & Keyword Terms. Recruiters resume mine for qualified candidates also by keyword search. Include terms relevant to the industry or job you are interested in. Include any specialized certifications and their abbreviations as well as other specific qualifications to increase your exposure.

First, the major job boards no longer default to listing resumes by most recently updated. They have some kind of similarity score algorithm to sort by relevance instead of date posted. A recruiter can sort by date if the recruiter wants (I do, but most probably don't), and some recruiters will only search the last week or month of resumes for a given search, so updating is important, but having a searchable resume is far more important.

Regarding keyword terms, it is important to realize how recruiters search for resumes. Many will use complex boolean logic to target resumes for a specific position. Here's a search I might run for a software engineer: (embedded and ("C++" or ADA) and ("DO 178*" or "DO-178*" or "DO178")). I might run 20 different searches for this position to target people who highlight specific skills. Using buzzwords and keywords only makes sense if you actually have substantive skills in those areas. The job boards highlight the keywords in the resumes when viewed, so if I looked at a resume and it only mentioned DO-178B in passing, or in a section that looked like it was intended for keywords, the resume will get passed over quickly.

Some recruiters, however, do not yet know how to use boolean searches. They might do a search for: Software Engineer, Aerospace. Then they will try to weed through many more resumes to try to find something useful. To accommodate both parties, here are the two things to do when posting a resume:

1. Title your resume with a short objective statement so your resume gets opened. If you are a software engineer, your resume title should be "10 year Embedded Software Engineer, Aerospace and Medical Device Experience." Or whatever happens to be relevant.

2. Include all relevant job titles in your resume. I would say that the most common keyword searches run by recruiters will include the job title. I tend to run searches for all possible job titles ("Director of Operations" or "VP of operations" or "vice president of operations" or "general manager" or...etc.) to make sure I don't miss anybody. Most recruiters won't be this diligent, so the job seeker needs to make sure that they are. This is one case where having a keyword section could make sense, but it would be better to try to include it in the resume. So if you were VP of Operations, your title on the resume should say VP of Operations, but then in your description you might say "As Vice President of Operations...." Or if you had a funny title (Value Stream Leader), you could list it as "Value Stream Leader/VP of Operations," to make sure that it gets picked up in both basic and complex searches.

Career Sites Revisited

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:13:00 +0000

Another article from the recruiting blogswap...

Article Title: Job Search Sites Revisited Vol I
Author Byline: CareerAlley
Author Website: http://careeralley.com

“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” - Albert Einstein

Searching for a job (especially if you are out of work) can sometimes feel as if you are running through a maze. Submitting your resume when there have been countless resumes and too many qualified applicants is frustrating as well. So, not only is the secret to creativity knowing how to hide your sources (as Albert Einstein says above), but it also applies to your job search.

The beauty of the information provided on this website is that most of it is timeless. Advice, links to job search boards, recruiters and company career sites is fairly static (but not always). The sheer volume of data on the web regarding job search is overwhelming to say the least. So now that we've established that you can't look at everything, I can explain the purpose of today's post. This series (and the topic will alternate) is meant to provide a recap of the numerous sites related to job search without the need to do additional research.

What to look for on a Job Search Site:

Resume Posting: Many sites allow 1 or more resumes to be posted. Sometimes there are options to build your resume online, upload a Word doc or cut and paste your resume into their form (depending on the site).

Privacy: A Privacy option (which allows you to block companies) can be very useful. Blocked companies either be companies that you don’t want to work for or your current employer (the last thing you want is for your name to come up in a search by your current employer!).

Job Search: The job search function allows you to narrow your job search to certain criteria (varies from site to site). Some also allow you to save 1 or more searches (with a number of options). This allows you to quickly run searches for specifics (as decided by you).

Job Match Notification: Some sites will send an email to you with the results of your searches.

Other Stuff: Some sites offer career advise, resume building techniques, samples of resumes, samples of cover letters, etc. Some free, some not.

Monster.com -Monster is one of the more popular job search sites. As with most sites today, there is a free version and a premium service. A brief overview.Resume Posting: The free service allows up to 5 resumes to be posted. You can build your resume online, upload a Word doc or cut and paste your resume into their form. Privacy: There is a Privacy option which allows you to block companies. Job Search: The job search function in Monster is very good. You can save up to 5 searches. Email notification is available.

Hotjobs.com - Hotjobs is another popular job search site. This one is owned by Yahoo!, so you can use your Yahoo! username/password (if you have one). A brief overview: Resume Posting: This site also allows up resumes to be posted. You can build your resume online, upload a Word doc or cut and paste your resume into their form. Privacy: There is a Privacy option which allows you to block companies. Job Search: The job search (”My Searches”) function in Hotjobs is also very good. You can save searches (can’t easily see if there is a limit). Hotjobs also allows “job alerts” which will send an email based on your criteria.

Careerbuilder.com - Careerbuilder is one of the largest online job sites. It has in excess of 30% of jobs posted on the web. Similar to some of the other popular sites, Careerbuilder allows you to create an account, post your resume, search for jobs and receive job alerts. Additionally, there are numerous tools and advice. This is a site that should be on your list. If you haven’t visited this site yet, it should be the next on your list.

Jobfox - This site is different than most of the other sites I’ve reviewed. The site tries to match job seekers with potential employers. It includes a number of tools including resume tracking as well as suitability. The site presents the user with jobs that match the user’s profile (rather than the user having to do a search). This site has a unique process and should also be on your short list.

Indeed.com - Indeed.com is a job search engine. it aggregates jobs from websites, newspapers, company sites and other sources. As with other sites, you can create a free account which allows you to create specific searches as well as alerts. Another great resource in your job search.

Coolworks.com – Coolworks.com is a really different site. This site is about finding a seasonal job (”in some of the greatest places on Earth”). Ski resorts, National Parks, etc. This is great for summer work (college students, etc.) or working in great places for parts of the year. I’m not sure this is the right site for those looking for traditional “9-5″ jobs, but is certainly a great resource for individuals with the flexibility (or sense of adventure) to work when and where they want.

Craigslist.org – Who would have thought – certainly not me. Craigslist, which is categorized by city has an impressive list of jobs. If, as an example, you look at Craigslist for NY, it lists jobs by category. Click on a category, and you are presented a list of jobs. Very well done, very easy to use and a great source for job hunting.

Realmatch.com – Three easy steps to finding a listing of jobs that match your criteria. Easy interface that quickly allows you to narrow down the list of jobs. You then submit your resume and you are done. You can also add a profile with username and password.

Simplyhired.com – “Job search made simple” – Allows key word search or searching by category by location. Very easy to use and a very quick interface. You can search with or without joining, although there are advantages to joining (for free) as there are with most sites (saved jobs and searches).

USAjobs.gov – This is the official job search site for the US Government. If you are looking for a government job (numerous industry backgrounds are available), this is the site for you.

Moneyball and Recruiting

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:43:00 +0000

Michael Lewis wrote a book, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game in 2003 to chronicle the unusual strategies employed by Billy Beane, GM of the Oakland A's, to keep his team competitive even though he was at a severe financial disadvantage compared to the Yankees and other big-market teams.

The book has received a lot of condemnation by the traditional baseball folks, it is largely misunderstood. Lewis' main point was that the A's did a good job exploiting market inefficiencies by using advanced statistical analysis to gain an advantage. In the early 2000's, teams cared less about On Base Percentage, so the A's were able to acquire high OBP players for below market rates. As time went on, other teams properly valued OBP and it was no longer a market inefficiency. Last year, my Mariners exploited an inefficient market for defense, and improved their team significantly at a below-market rate. General Managers are all trying to find out what the next undervalued skill is to put their team ahead.

So what does this have to do with recruiting? I think that there are undervalued resources and techniques that could allow recruiters to get ahead of the curve.

Lou Adler addressed this in an article back in 2003 (I didn't realize this until I started writing this post, but it's too late to turn back now), and approaches it from a "challenging conventional wisdom" approach. I like to think about what is undervalued, and I'm thinking particularly about the agency recruiting model right now. The only way to test these theories is to collect data, but I think it's interesting to think about.

Here are three off the top of my head that I think are assumed in the industry, but that most agencies probably don't have the data to support:

Job Boards

There was a time when finding candidates posted on Monster was a fools errand. There weren't very many candidates, and there were lots and lots of recruiters. A generation of recruiters has been brought up with the mantra that "job boards are useless." What if that isn't true? I have found many great candidates on Monster and CareerBuilder and have found less competition for their services than in years past. I think there is a chance that it is becoming an undervalued resource.

Perhaps if you relied on easy-to-reach candidates, you will end up filling more jobs more quickly than your competition (perhaps not too).

Meeting Candidates

I think it's important to meet candidates, but what if it isn't? I wonder if any agencies have run detailed studies to compare the profitability of meeting all of your candidates vs. meeting none of your candidates.

Perhaps sending candidates without meeting them will allow you to react to your clients faster and fill more jobs than your competition (again, perhaps not).

Submitting a lot of Candidates

This is as much a question of approach as results, but is it more effective (i.e. profitable) to submit a lot of candidates and hope that one sticks, or to interview a lot of candidates and only send one or two? Well a lot of it will depend on what your clients' expectations are, but the standard answer is that the latter will be more profitable, but one of the most successful recruiters I've ever known relied on the former.

Perhaps sending a lot of variably qualified candidates will result in more fills than your competition that tries to find just the perfect fit (or not?).

Conclusion

I could go through this all day, but the take home is this: Top billing recruiters do things differently than average recruiters. Average recruiters need to figure out what that is, and emulate it. It might not be something obvious, and it might not work for everybody, but I guarantee that top billers are exploiting some kind of market inefficiency. I would love to be able to break down the numbers of a broad range of recruiters to see what it would teach me, but I don't have the resources. Here's what I would start with:

# of Job Orders

# of Clients

# of MPC Calls

# of Ad Chase Calls

# of Submits

# of Sendouts

# of Placement

# of Types of placement (different jobs)

Geographic distribution of placements

% of contacts that are HR

% of contacts that are Managers

% of placements by source

Some quantification of boolean search skill

Today's Jobs Numbers

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:52:00 +0000

There is a lot of hoopla being made about the jobs numbers released today that show the economy only losing 11,000 jobs. As is frequently reported, the unemployment numbers only measure the number of people who are able and actively looking for work. They do not count the underemployed (people with part-time jobs), or the discouraged (those that have given up). The BLS also publishes a number that somewhat includes those workers that is called the U-6 unemployment rate (rather than the U-3 rate that gets reported). That rate is currently at 17.6%, which gives a better picture of what the unemployment situation is actually like. (Thanks, MintBlog!)

I had heard some time back that the economy needs to create 120,000 or so jobs per month just to stay even because of population growth. So even when we hit positive job growth, the economy could still be considered to be shedding jobs (unless there are no new immigrants or new entrances to the workforce, which of course never happens).

I thought I'd look at the BLS numbers that include those outside the workforce to try to get a different picture of the jobs situation between, say September and November, the time that the media is reporting sharply reduced job losses (Is that a double negative?).

(Source: BLS) Numbers in Thousands from the Household Data:

September November

Labor Force 154,912 154,006

Employed 140,591 138,502

Unemployed 14,321 15,375

Not in Force 80,547 82,866

So by my back of the napkin calculations, there are 1,400,000 more people counted (adult population), and 2,089,000 fewer people working. While there are 3.3 Million more people in the country who are not working, only about 1 million of those are counted as additionally unemployed.

There may be all kinds of reasons to look at the data the way the media does, but the situation is not likely to be felt as improving by real people until these trends start to turn around and there is a net gain of jobs and employed people. The household data did show 227,000 more people working in November than October, so perhaps that is a sign of things to come.

Networking Tools

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:28:00 +0000

**Editor's Note**

This is an article from CareerAlley published here courtesy of the Recruiting Blog Swap. I'll be periodically posting external content like this that seems interesting or useful.

Article Title: Job Search Marketing Toolkit - Networking
Author Byline: CareerAlley
Author Website: http://careeralley.com

Networking for job search is under-rated. For some of us (like me) there is nothing I like less than "bothering" a former co-worker, friend, relative or business associate to let them know that I am out of work and/or looking for a job. There are, of course, many people who don't have a problem with this.

There are a number of ways you can leverage your network without calling people as the first step (although this is not a bad way to start). Business social networks have been covered in a number of previous posts (quick links are listed below), so I won't cover that topic again in this post. I will, however, provide some basic Networking concepts and methods. But first some quick links to business social networks:

Leveraging Social Networks for Career Management

Who’s Your Daddy? – Leverage Your Job Search Network

Leveraging Diversity Networks in your Job Search

Job Leads and Links from Friends – Did You Network Today?

Okay, you’re Networking, but are you Working your Network?

The first myth of Networking is that you must have a Network of hundred's of people to have any hope of finding a job (take a look at LinkedIn these days). While the larger your Network the better your chances, it is really the quality of your Network that will improve your job search prospects.

Seven Networking Myths: Fact or Fiction? - This article, by Robert Half International and posted on Careerbuilder.com covers some of the misconceptions regarding Networking. This is a very helpful article for those of you (like me) who are terrified about Networking. Just read the comment regarding the myth "You need to be an extrovert" and you will see what I mean. There are only 7 and they are relatively short so you should take the time to read it.

You've got Networking on your list (everyone tells you that this is a "must do") and you really do mean to get to it (because you feel like you are missing a trick and you feel guilty), but you just can't seem to get around to it - read on.

Top Ten Excuses Why People Don't Network - This article, on Certified Career Coaches, sounds like the read my mind for the article. This is just about every excuse I can think of (and have thought of). If this sounds familiar, read the article because it turns the excuses into actions for the right way to leverage your Network.

Okay, so now I've covered the myths and the excuses, but what about the best practice for Networking? There are plenty of ideas out there, and most of them are good (and some of them are a bit wacky). So now let's cover the "how to".

Successful Job Search Networking - How to Use Job Search Networking to Find a Job - Another article from About.com, gives some helpful advice (as well as the elusive statistic on the percentage of jobs found by networking). Of course the days are gone where the only ways to network were by phone or in person. Email (according to the article) is a perfectly acceptable way to network (excellent, I don't actually have to speak with anyone). Certainly a worthwhile article to read and it includes additional links to relevant information.

What is Networking? - One of my personal favorites for advice and resources on job search, the Riley Guide provides this article. It tells you what networking is (and isn't) as well as how to use the Internet, Netiquette, where to network, making contact and additional links to relevant information (such as Enetworking).

Just-in-time Recruiting

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:55:00 +0000

Glenn over at Boolean Black Belt has a great post that's the third in a series about pipelining vs. what he is calling "just in time" recruiting based on the Toyota quality program (Lean). When I briefly made the transition from agency recruiting to corporate recruiting, I started hearing a lot about pipelining candidates and how recruiting needed to be "proactive" rather than "reactive," in the context of developing candidate pipelines. This always seems to fall in line with discussions about employment branding and so forth.

I've run into similar attitudes on the agency side, particularly related to so-called "purple squirrel" job orders and candidates. I am 100% with Glenn on this one, however. I am not convinced that qualifying, establishing relationships, and keeping track of a pipeline of potential future candidates is worth any recruiter's time, whether on the agency or corporate side.

I think that the time spent on candidate pipelining would be far better served building your network of raw materials (resumes and profiles) so they are easier to pull when the need arises. This is done through capturing potential resumes from sources that are not permanent (like job boards), building your network on social networking sites, and continually acquiring referrals. One of Glenn's main points is that it takes time to "maintain your inventory" when you have active candidates without corresponding needs. Agency recruiters do some of this because having good passive candidates opens doors on the client side, but too much of it would too severely limit your time for active searches. There is little reason for this as a corporate recruiter.

I do not know much about Lean Manufacturing, but I know that it could be applicable in recruiting in more ways than this. Quality programs always start "closest to the dollar" (i.e. in Manufacturing, then Engineering, then Finance, then everything else). I would be very interested to learn of other applications of Lean or Six Sigma fundamentals being used in recruiting...perhaps that could be the source of a future post.

Recruiting and Sports Analogies

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:37:00 +0000

Two sports analogies to recruiting caught my eye this week and I thought I'd mention them here.

Baseball

As an avid baseball fan, the title of this article: I learned All That I Needed to Know About Recruiting From The New York Yankees naturally caught my eye. Upon reading it, it really seemed that the author was trying to relate the Yankees to things he already thought about recruiting, or at least basing his article upon the stereotype of the Yankees as a team that can go out and "buy the best players" or "buy championships."

For example, point #10 is "recruit rather than train," and cites Alex Rodriguez. What it doesn't mention is that some 44% of the Yankees roster were players that the Yankees developed themselves. Take away Matsui who they got from Japan, and it's still 40%, which is higher than their rival Phillies who only developed 36% of their talent and go the rest through free agency or trade. Other studies that I've seen say that the Yankees develop their talent at an above average clip compared to the rest of the league.

I think the most salient point to be learned about the Yankees related to recruiting is that an organization has to do a good job acquiring talent from all sources in order to be successful. Even the Yankees with their $200MM payroll still relies on drafted players developed through their system in order to propel them to championships, or as trade bait to acquire players that will help propel them to championships.

Talent acquisition departments cannot rely only on high level recruited candidates, that would be inefficient. They need to have some combination of "drafting" young talent through internship programs and college recruiting, as well as hiring talent away from competitors.

Football

I love the premise of this article, Five Football Analogies That Will Resonate With 80% of Hiring Managers.

"I also have noticed that most men use football to talk to each other on holidays, campouts, and soccer games. I would imagine it accounts for about 70% of all guy small talk. So I started thinking about using football as a metaphor for getting managers to do what I want, which is help me sell the company, the candidate, and get me hires."

At first, I was convinced this was a sexist notion, that guys like to talk about sports, so you should use sports to connect with hiring managers seems to presume that most (80%?) of hiring managers are men. Obviously there are female football fans, and the author is trying to pursue a point, not present a statistical argument, but it stood out to me nonetheless.

The idea of using trying to connect with hiring managers is of course important. I would feel ridiculous bringing up football to try to convince a hiring manager to hire a candidate; it would certainly come across as disingenuous. Perhaps if I were a football fan and it seemed natural, it could come up, but the notion seems silly.

Most hiring managers are concerned about having a quality team and staying within a (hopefully expanding) budget. My experience is that most people can be reasoned with without using gimmicks and that a partnership-based recruiting model with hiring managers will lead to the best results for the organization.

Conclusion

I think that most metaphors have to be stretched to prove a point, I mostly just thought it was interesting to see two sports metaphors in the same week. I'm working on my own sports/recruiting metaphor post; we'll see how silly that ends up being.

Cover Letters

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:41:00 +0000

I've been thinking about cover letters this week, and decided that it is an are of job searching about which I have very mixed feelings. There are numerous places to find tips on cover letters, but the question that I always come back to is: Are traditional cover letters necessary? I think that in many circumstances, they are not at all necessary. I'm going to address this in a Q&A format, just for a change of pace.

Do you read cover letters?

Personally, I only very rarely even read cover letters. This is a mistake in some cases, since there can be very interesting information in cover letters, but with common wisdom being that most resume reviewers only spend 15-45 seconds on a resume, how much time do they spend on a cover letter? In my case, it's none.

Now, as a contingency recruiter, I tend to review more resumes than a typical hiring manager (the target audience for your resume), and I tend to have specific things I'm looking for in a resume. My caveat, is that I generally read the introduction e-mails that people include with their resumes (as long as they are brief). However, if I receive a resume via mail, or if there is a Word document attachment of a cover letter, I will not read it.

What if the job posting asks for it?

Many job postings still ask for a cover letter, and I think that the general tips about a cover letter are appropriate when it is requested. However, as long as you are doing the due diligence and calling and speaking to the hiring manager before sending a resume, I think that a cover letter is still an unnecessary distraction. Whoever is looking at your resume should be expecting it, and the content that would normally be in a cover letter would have already been discussed over the phone.

What if I never reached anybody on the phone?

A brief introductory e-mail (2-3 sentences) is all that is necessary. Example:

I have attached my resume for your review for the Sr. Recruiter position. I have 10 years of contingency and corporate recruiting experience and have billed an average of $1,000,000 per year for the last 5 years. Please call me at 202-555-1212 and we can arrange a time to get together to discuss further.

Your resume should do all of the talking about your background, and you shouldn't be applying to positions for which you aren't qualified, so that should just about cover it.

In what circumstances would a cover letter be appropriate?

1. If you are applying to a position for which you are not qualified, you need a cover letter or introductory e-mail that explains that you understand you aren't qualified.

2. If you are sending a job inquiry without a resume (advocated in this book that is worth looking at), a well-crafted introduction letter will look similar to a cover letter.

3. If you are applying for a position that is not in the city in which you live, you must include a cover letter or e-mail that explains your relocation status immediately. Are you willing to relocate at your own expense? Do you have connections to the area? Are you already planning your move? Unless the company was explicitly considering out-of-town candidates, you should explain this.

Does it hurt to send one?

In most cases, no. But if it isn't helping you or the hiring manager, why bother?

Fortune 100 Job Openings (61-80)

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:52:00 +0000

Continuing the series...

#1-20

#21-40

#41-60

61. Altria Group ** Trends

62. Supervalu ** Trends

63. Kraft Foods ** Trends

64. Allstate ** Trends

65. Motorola ** Trends

66. Best Buy ** Trends

67. Walt Disney ** Trends

68. FedEx ** Trends

69. Ingram Micro ** Trends

70. Sysco ** Trends

71. Cisco Systems ** Trends (Am I the only one that thinks it's funny that these are consecutive?)

72. Johnson Controls ** Trends

73. Honeywell International ** Trends

74. Prudential Financial ** Trends

75. American Express ** Trends

76. Northrop Grumman ** Trends

77. Hess ** Trends

78. GMAC ** Trends

79. Comcast ** Trends

80. Alcoa ** Trends

Behavioral Interview Preparation - Addendum

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:02:00 +0000

I was just preparing some interview questions for a round of interviewing I am conducting for a retained search, and got to thinking that the previous preparation update I gave didn't really go into any depth on how to prepare for behavioral interview questions. There is a pretty good guide here that covers most of what I would recommend.

I would say that there are very few companies that engage in full-on behavioral interviewing, most will use some combination of behavioral-based questions (tell me about a time...) and traditional questions (what are your strengths...). I generally tell candidates that preparing for a behavioral interview will make them more prepared for any non-behavioral questions as well. Therefore, it is important to prepare for both!

The idea behind behavioral interviewing is that if somebody cannot walk the interviewer through a specific situation, they probably have not done it. I had a candidate tell me in an interview that in 9 years as a supervisor, she had not ever had to discipline one of her employees. I found that hard to believe, but she seemed like a good candidate so I went along in the process. When I checked one of her references, I learned that she had not been a supervisor at all! This reinforced the premise of behavioral interviewing. That she couldn't describe an instance where she had disciplined somebody meant that she didn't know how to do it.

The most important part of preparing is to do a thorough reading of the job description to identify the key competencies for the position at hand. Sometimes, the description will just include them in a section simply titled "competencies." Other times, they will not. If they don't, look for competency-based language "must work well under pressure," "must have excellent problem-solving skills" etc.

Write each competency down, and think of a specific situation from your work history that demonstrates your competency in that area. The article linked above advocates a STAR approach:

Situation: Use specific details about a situation or task.
Task: Tell what led to the situation or task?
Action: What action was taken; discuss what you did and who was involved.
Result: Communicate the outcome.

This seems about right. I always tell people that few details are too mundane. Your interviewer will tell you if they've gotten the point to their satisfaction. The key is to have your situations ready to go for whatever competency is mentioned or seems appropriate, and to have a plan to address what seem to be the keys to the position.

Each answer should start with a description of the situation, so if the question is "Tell me about a time you had a conflict with a co-worker." The answer should start out: "Last August, another mechanical engineer and I disagreed about a design component for the new XJ-152."

Then backtrack and give the background: "She and I had been tasked with re-designing the actuation mechanism to the XJ-152 because the previous design failed in live testing 20% of the time, which is far more than the 5% that is deemed acceptable."

Then go back and describe the situation in more detail: "I was convinced that pneumatic actuation would be a more stable mechanism than the existing hydraulic system, but she was convinced that we only need to redesign the hydraulic actuation."

Then discuss how it was resolved: "I proposed that we step back and make a matrix of the customer requirements and go through the designs point-by-point to determine the best result."

Then discuss the result: "In the end, we determined that my design really was more stable, but that given the pricing requirements of the customer, it was clear that the hydraulic design was the only one that would be feasible. I was able to identify two key places where stability was compromised in her proposed design, and we worked together to resolve those and come up with a design that we were comfortable with."

I am not an engineer, so hopefully a scenario like this would include more technical details, but you are demonstrating your ability to resolve disagreements in a process-oriented fashion and give your interviewer a really good idea of how you would handle similar situations that arose. You can demonstrate this similarly even if the question is asked in a non-behavioral way, like "How do you deal with conflict?" or even "How would you describe your ability to work in teams." Describing this kind of situation in that level of detail will tell your interviewer more about you than an answer that you would typically hear to those two questions "Well, I try to work out conflicts in a way that best achieves customer goals." Or something like that.

Going into an interview with 5-10 specific situations that highlight your strengths and successes will make you a more effective interviewee, regardless of the techniques used by the interviewer.

Interview Preparation Guide

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:37:00 +0000

Preparing for the Interview - Understand your background

Review your career history thoroughly. Review dates, positions, responsibilities, and accomplishments. Know your strengths and weaknesses. Be prepared to cite specific examples of accomplishments and how your experience can help the company reach some of their goals. Concentrate on your most recent positions but don't neglect the skills you developed early in your career.

How to Prepare

Consider each position and educational period of your life separately, as an individual “section.” Break each section into three preparation steps, as shown below. Writing out answers for each section will commit it to memory and help you easily recall this information during an interview. It will also allow you to review it later or before your next interview. Be sure that you can answer each of the following questions about each position or educational period.

1. Why you took a position

2. What did you do while in the position; what did you gain from it, how will that experience help you succeed in this position.

3. Why you left a position

Preparing for the Interview – Know the company

Gather information on the company before going into the interview. Learn about their history, current situation and their future goals and objectives. Your search consultant will have a great deal of this information, but you may also want to reference the library for website, periodicals, trade journals, articles, annual reports and D&B reports, etc.

Have a thorough understanding of the position, its responsibilities, expectations and goals. Prepare questions about the position to learn as much as you can and to effectively align your skills with the needs of the position.

Talk to your search consultant about any specific issues that may be addressed in the interview or if the client has any concerns about your background you may have to elaborate on.

Sample questions to ask about the company and position follow: (Choose those appropriate to your situation)

Questions About The Company

What are the primary goals and direction of the company?

Why did you join the organization?

How has your career progressed since you've been here?

What is your style and philosophy of management? Would you say it is the same for upper management?

What kind of individual are you looking for?

Can you tell me about the history of the company?

What do you think are the advantages of working here?

Questions About The Position

What are some of the immediate challenges I should expect in this position?

How will my progress be evaluated?

What are the three most important things you would need me to accomplish in the first six months on the job?

After I prove my capability and potential here, what are my opportunities?

What would a typical day involve? Typical week?

What kind of experience did the previous individual in this position have?

What happened to that person, were they promoted, transferred, fired, etc?

What have other candidates lacked that you have interviewed?

How many candidates have you interviewed?

When would you ideally like the person on board?

Based on my skills and experience, what might my biggest difficulty be?

Helpful Reminders

Arrive at your interview early so you have time to check your appearance and breath right before your interview (especially if it's after lunch).
Bring a portfolio and a nice pen (Cross, Mont Blanc, etc.) to take notes.
Bring extra copies of your resume.
Ask for their business card before you leave so you have the address to send a thank you letter.
Write out the questions you have for them so you are well prepared.
Listen carefully to the questions you are asked, make sure you answer precisely that question! Answer directly and concisely, don't be evasive. They'll let you know if they want additional information, so don't ramble.
Keep good eye contact and a relaxed posture throughout the interview, don't let your eyes roam and don't squirm in your seat.
If you bring along information to share during the interview, be careful to judge their interest level, some people don't like show and tell during interviews and will become bored quickly.
Remain poised and attentive during the entire interview, don't unconsciously play with anything. For example, pen, paper, card, coffee, etc.
Be sure to thank them before you leave and offer a firm handshake.

Closing the Interview

Successfully closing the interview is a major step in your ability to land the position. Many interviews end in an uneasy manner. Use the following three step approach. Your last impression could be the most important. REMEMBER: Companies want to hire people who want to work for them. Be enthusiastic.

1. Ask if they have any reservations about your ability to do the job.

Address any concerns openly and honestly and try to overcome any obstacles before you leave.

2. Summarize how your skills and experience will address the client's needs expressed during your interview.

Discuss how your experience and skills will help the company either solve their problems or achieve their goals

3. Express your interest sincerely and ask what the next step in the process will be.

Don't ask for the position prematurely. It is great to show enthusiasm, but wait for the appropriate time, most likely the second or third interview.

Counter Offers

Surveys still show that eight out of ten employees who accept counteroffers don't complete the following year with their employer, so why even consider one. Emotions run high when a resignation is received and promises tend to be made that are unrealistic. A natural fear of change could make you do something you would not ordinarily do. Never underestimate the value of your integrity in this situation.

Have you ever thought about the reasons why a company will extend a counter offer?

It is much cheaper to keep you than to lose you. There is always a downtime expense when someone leaves. It is costly to train a new hire.
Morale suffers. Your company runs the risk of others following your lead. Under staffed departments are not happy departments.
Counter offers protect management from looking bad. Everyone has an ego. Your manager is being evaluated by his/her ability to retain staff.

8 Reasons for Not Accepting a Counter Offer

1. The same circumstances that now cause you to consider a change will repeat themselves in the future.

2. Statistics show that if you accept a counter offer, the probability of voluntarily leaving in six months or being let go within one year is extremely high.

3. Why is it taking your resignation to receive the compensation or position that you seek?

4. The money for the counter offer, is it your next raise early?

5. Your company may immediately start looking for a new person at a cheaper price.

6. You have now made your employer aware that you are unhappy. From this day on your loyalty may always be in question.

7. When promotion time comes around, your employer may remember who was loyal, and who wasn’t.

8. When times get tough, your employer may begin the cutbacks with you.

Dress the part

You put a lot of work into making your resume look great. You were successful at landing an interview. Now is the time to shine!!

People generally feel more confident about themselves when they look good, so take some extra time to pick out what you'll wear for your interview to ensure you look your best.

Men and women: when choosing what to wear for a professional position you are safest with conservative dark suits and long sleeve shirts or blouses.

For men: ties should be conservative but "in style," dark socks, shined shoes and a well groomed appearance. Belt should match your shoes. Facial hair should be very well groomed. The clean-shaven look is usually the best bet.

For women: keep to an overall conservative look. For example, knee length skirts, moderate heels, minimal jewelry/makeup and simple hairstyles. As far as briefcases go: a briefcase before a purse - never both.

NOTE: Be sure all your clothing, shoes, hand bags, briefcases, etc., are in good condition.

Fortune 100 Job Openings (41-60)

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:37:00 +0000

This is really going to take a long time. Please report any dead links in the comments...I'm linking to the search page when possible rather than the general careers page. It's nice to know all of the jibberish about what a nice place XYZ corporation is to work, but if you are a job seeker, you first are probably wondering if there are any openings that could be a fit.

I'm also utilizing my new favorite tool, Indeed Job Search Trends, to add a link to see the general employment trends at each of these companies.

#1-20

#21-40

41. Wells Fargo Jobs ** Trends

42. Dow Chemical Jobs ** Trends

43. Met Life Jobs ** Trends

44. Microsoft Jobs ** Trends

45. Sears Holding Jobs ** Trends (Check out the spike in Winter '07!)

46. United Parcel Service Jobs ** Trends

47. Pfizer Jobs ** Trends

48. Lowe's Jobs ** Trends

49. Time Warner Jobs ** Trends

50. Caterpillar Jobs ** Trends

51. Medco Health Solutions Jobs ** Trends

52. Archer Daniels Midland Jobs ** Trends

53. Fannie Mae Jobs ** Trends

54. Freddie Mac Jobs ** Trends

55. Safeway Jobs ** Trends

56. Sunoco Jobs ** Trends

57. Lockheed Martin Jobs ** Trends

58. Sprint Nextel Jobs ** Trends

59. Pepsico Jobs ** Trends

60. Intel Jobs ** Trends

#61-80

Passive vs. Active Candidates...discuss

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:26:00 +0000

I am going to get myself into some trouble for this discussion, but contrary to the popular opinion of many people in the agency recruiting industry, I firmly believe that there is no substantive difference of quality between your average passive candidate and your average active candidate. I'll clarify the implications of this, but I have heard many many people tell me that they don't use job boards to search for candidates at all for a variety of reasons which I will address herein. Now this opinion isn't shared by everybody, but I would say that most agency recruiters are taught that job board candidates are not worth your time.

Our job as recruiters, whether we are on the agency or corporate side, is to find the most qualified candidate for whatever job we are working on. Now statistically, something like 10-15% of the workforce is actively looking at any particular point in time (depending on the unemployment rate, of course). A larger percentage will consider opportunities if they make sense, and then a larger percentage won't consider new opportunities at all. I think that the goal should always be to cast as wide a net as is feasible to make sure that as a recruiter, you are able to speak to the highest number of qualified candidates as possible.

So why wouldn't recruiters use job boards? The three most frequently cited reasons are as follows.

1. Why should a company pay a fee for a candidate they can find on their own?

I think this is presumptuous on a number of levels. Firstly, not all of our clients have access to job boards and a small percentage of them know how to use them as effectively as a talented recruiting professional should. It is irresponsible to assume that just because a candidate posted a resume on Monster that the client has reviewed their resume. If you find a candidate that has not talked to your client, that person is by nature somebody that the client couldn't find on their own.

2. The job boards are full of unemployed and otherwise less-qualified candidates.

I know from experience that this is not true. I suspect that the distribution of candidates on the job boards is similar to that of the population as a whole (a few bad, a lot of average, and a few good). It is important to remember that very talented candidates change jobs on their own as well.

3. The job boards are full of candidates who will be interviewing all over town.

The implication here is that either there is more competition for their services (which kind of flies in the face of #2), or that they will have already submitted their resume to every employer in town. Neither of these is necessarily true. As with #1, it is presumptuous to assume that your average candidate knows how to conduct a job search. Even if they have submitted a resume to your client, taking 5 minutes to call them and find out can yield enormous amounts of other information (Where else are you interviewing? Where else have you sent resumes?). If there actually is demand for their services and the recruiter is concerned about it being harder to close them, then that is tough luck! We owe our clients the best possible candidates regardless of their employment situation.

Summary

This isn't the most insightful post, except to reinforce the notion that our goal as recruiters is to find the best candidate. If the candidate who is most qualified for job X happens to be unemployed, then so be it. If they happen to be happily employed and you have to pry them away from their current employer, that's what you do.

Personally, I follow a strategy of moving from easy sources of candidates to most difficult. With job board candidates, the competition for the submittal can be fierce and time is of the essence. If a fee is going to be paid for John Doe to get a job, I want to collect that fee; I don't want my competitor to get it just because I was going after "passive" candidates.

This is also a lesson for corporate recruiters. I have worked in-house for corporations that I know paid fees for candidates that were on Monster when they had access to Monster. Having a competent talent acquisition team is vitally important to prevent this from happening, but until every one of my potential clients has in-house recruiters that call all of the job board candidates before putting the job out to recruiters, I will continue to use Job Boards as an integral part of my sourcing strategy.

"Competition" for jobs at record levels

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:55:00 +0000

Yahoo (via the AP) is reporting "Job competition toughest since recession began." The takeaway:

There are about 6.3 unemployed workers competing, on average, for each job opening, a Labor Department report shows. That's the most since the department began tracking job openings nine years ago, and up from only 1.7 workers when the recession began in December 2007.

What I find stunning is that there were 1.7 unemployed workers for every job posting when the recession began in December 2007. I can't decide if that is efficient or not! What that indicates to me is that even when things were going well, there were still more people than there were available jobs. Our economy seems to require a certain amount of unemployment, of course, so what do we take from this?

It is clear that there is a talent gap. That is, that there are always jobs being created for which there aren't enough qualified individuals to fill, and there are always jobs being eliminated that have a surplus of talent. Efforts to address this usually involve displaced worker retraining, but that is always a reactive outlook. Is there a better way?

Up until the 1990's, a lot of companies would retrain workers with skills that were no longer needed. The linked article articulates many potential reasons, but what I take away from it is that it is clear that individuals need to take this upon themselves to do. Is that asking a lot? Probably, but it is always easier to find a job when you are currently employed (or at least it feels easier because there is less pressure).

Here's the simplistic advice:

First, seriously evaluate your current job and its future prospects. Both within your current company, and what would happen if you lost your job. If you have a job on this list, it doesn't matter how secure you feel with your current employer; if something happens, it will be difficult to find a similar job in a similar industry.

Second, pick a new career likely to experience job growth.

Third, train for the new career and leave your current job when you have lined up a job in the new career. There is a lot of advice on how to do a career change; but the key is to commit to it before it's too late.

Unlisted Jobs

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:03:00 +0000

There's a pretty good post up at the Career Rocketeer about finding and acquiring jobs that are never listed on job boards. I think that the advice is generally good, but I sometimes wonder if we are reaching a point where there are fewer unlisted jobs than before.

Before the internet, companies relied on the newspaper classifieds if they needed to advertise a job, and many jobs went unlisted because of the expense in advertising. Headhunters were fat and happy. As the internet developed, things didn't change much because it still cost hundreds of dollars to advertise a job on a major job board.

Now, it is still expensive to advertise a job on Monster ($395 or so), but almost every company has a careers section on their website (which is free), and many if not most of those jobs get picked up by Indeed and/or SimplyHired. Additionally, most OFCCP programs require posting to certain state employment and/or diversity sites to remain compliant.

So the question is: How many jobs are filled with an external candidate without ever being posted to a readily available internet source. I'd venture that the answer 4-5 years ago was well over 50%, but that today, the answer is probably closer to 25-30%. I can't find any sources that have actually studied this, but I'm fairly confident that the trend is correct.

Networking will always be important, and even 25-30% is a lot of jobs, and these are generally jobs at small, growing companies that offer a lot of opportunity. But the takeaway is that you need a strategy to address posted jobs in a similar way to rise above the heap.

Fortune 500 Job Openings (21-40)

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:15:00 +0000

Continuing the series after a really long break. I actually think that a new Fortune 500 list may have come out, so if there are duplicates, I'm really sorry.

#1-20 are here.

21. Morgan Stanley Jobs

22. Home Depot

23. Proctor & Gamble Jobs

24. CVS Caremark Jobs

25. UnitedHealth Group Jobs

26. Kroger Jobs

27. Boeing Jobs

28. Amerisource Bergen Jobs

29. Costco Wholesale Jobs

30. Merril Lynch Jobs

31. Target Jobs

32. State Farm Insurance Co. Jobs

33. Wellpoint Jobs

34. Dell Jobs

35. Johnson & Johnson Jobs

36. Marathon Oil Jobs

37. Lehman Brothers Holdings Jobs (oops)

38. Wachovia Jobs

39. United Technologies Jobs

40. Walgreen Jobs

#41-60

#61-80

Indeed job trends search

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:45:00 +0000

I just discovered this trend search available at Indeed and it is incredible! You enter search terms and you can see the trends of job postings back to 2005 (I'm assuming that's when Indeed started) in graphical form. Their example shows an astronomic rise in the frequency of the term "social networking" appearing in job postings. I think the possibilities are endless in exploring this data.

The "Absolute" tab will show the percentage of all jobs that contain a given search term, so you can see, for example, which states are doing better relative to others. Minnesota peaked in January '09 at .6% of the total job postings (not perfect, since the state name isn't always mentioned in the job posting, of course). Iowa, however, has been holding steady for 2 years.

What about job titles? Engineer also peaked in January '09, but Accountant has been falling since January '08 or so. If you want to put two terms in the same graph, separate them with a comma in the search box (Here's the example comparing engineers to accountants in relative terms).

accountant, engineer Job Trends

accountant jobs - engineer jobs

Anybody doubting that Healthcare has fueled a lot of job growth can look at the chart for Nurse and see that it has more than doubled its share of the total job postings and hasn't fallen yet, while you can clearly see that certain manufacturing jobs have been plummeting.

The other option is "relative" which shows the percentage growth over time compared to the same search terms. So you can see that our manufacturing jobs have fallen over 50% while our Nurse search has increased over 100% since 2005 (that is there are more than twice as many nurse job postings today than there were 4 years ago).

nurse, (assembler or machinist) Job Trends

nurse jobs - (assembler or machinist) jobs

I could get lost in this data, but it could be useful for recruiters deciding where to specialize or focus, or for students deciding on a field of study, or any number of other reasons.

Oh, and for the curious, I think that the Recruiter search probably most closely matches the overall job trends...down about 12% from Fall '07, and about 25% from its peak in July '07.

recruiter Job Trends

recruiter jobs

Unemployment up, but jobs still hard to fill

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:02:00 +0000

The BLS reported that the economy lost some 263,000 jobs last month, more than anticipated. ERE highlighted a TalentDrive survey that reported:

"Despite filtering through the online resume pandemonium ranking as a top challenge for recruiters, when asked if, once the resumes had been located, the quality of candidates met or exceeded their expectations, over half (54% of those surveyed) said yes, the quality of candidates was of the caliber they required."

I found this both surprising and unsurprising at the same time. That means that 46% of the corporate recruiters that responded to the survey are still not getting qualified candidates on their own. As an agency recruiter, I am not surprised because we know that the best talent usually has to be found and recruited.

I don't know how many hiring managers I've spoken to, however who will say "we are getting flooded with resumes, so we don't need to use recruiters." But by their own admission, they aren't getting the caliber of candidate that they want or need. This means that their jobs are staying open longer than they need to, or being filled with inferior talent. I don't know what the percentages would be in a thriving economy, but I bet it would not be terribly different. For mid- and senior-level professional positions, you need a talented recruiter (internal or external) who can go out and find the most qualified candidates for your needs...even in the worst job market in 25+ years, they aren't necessarily knocking on the door.

Over/Under Qualified Candidates

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:55:00 +0000

ERE.net has a good post about what to do with overqualified candidates who apply for positions. This is a fairly unique phenomenon to recessionary periods. The article is written from the perspective of the corporate recruiter and hiring manager, but it got me thinking about it from the candidate's perspectives for both over and under-qualified candidates.

Candidates

When you are unemployed and actively looking for a job, there is a strong inclination to apply to any job that is close to being a fit, no matter what a stretch it is (in either direction). The thinking goes, "I have nothing to lose!" That is absolutely true in one sense, but needs to be considered in the appropriate context.

Generally, if you are over or under-qualified for a job in this economic climate, you are not going to get it. I hate to say it, but with so many people available, companies can choose to be picky. Blasting your resume to everything hoping that something will stick is not going to do you any favors. Obviously, this is pretty common advice, but if you read through the archives, my advice holds true especially in this circumstance.

If you are on either end of the qualification spectrum rather than being a perfect fit, prefacing your resume with a call is vitally important. The old adage that HR spends no more than 30-60 seconds on a resume will doom you if you aren't a perfect fit.* What you are hoping for in applying for positions that are not a perfect fit is either 1) Somebody will see my resume and think of me for another, unadvertised position, or 2) Somebody will see my resume and think "You know, this person isn't quite what we were looking for, but they might be better for the position anyway."

*I'm stealing a "Pozterisk" here from Joe Posnanski, one of my favorite baseball bloggers. Remember that for HR and sometimes hiring manager, a perfect fit means that you are currently or most recently in the same role as the one to which you are applying as well as meeting the education and experience requirements. If you are applying to a Cost Accountant position, but your last job was "G/L Accountant," you may very well be able to do a cost accountant position, but you are not a perfect fit. You MUST explain this.

First, you need to make it entirely clear to the prospective employer that you understand that you are either over or under-qualified for the position at hand. You have to decide whether you are taking tack 1 or 2 from above. Finally, call the hiring manager and introduce yourself with something along the lines of:

"Hello, my name is Jane Smith. I saw you were looking to hire a Jr. Software Engineer. I have 10 years of Embedded C development in aerospace which probably doesn't make me the right fit for that opening, but I wanted to introduce myself to you anyway to see if you had any current or upcoming needs for somebody at my experience level."

If you are taking tack 2, your script might be something like:

"Hello, my name is Jane Smith. I saw you were looking to hire a Jr. Software Engineer. I have 10 years of Embedded C development in aerospace. I realize that this is more experience than you call for in your job description, so I wanted to introduce myself to you and get a better idea of your needs and we can see if my experience might still be a good fit."

As in the previous post about not sending a resume, your goal is first and foremost to give your resume the highest chance of being reviewed at all. Since you know that you are either over or under-qualified for the position (for the sake of this discussion), taking this approach will also give your resume a better chance of being reviewed in the right context. So the resume reviewer won't say "why did this person send a resume, they are clearly over-qualified," but rather "Oh, this person said they were over-qualified, let's just have a look because they left such a nice voicemail." Obviously we prefer to get people on the phone, but a voicemail followed by an e-mail often has the same effect as far as your resume is concerned.

Rejection Letters

ablower@chelsearecruiters.com (Aaron) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:00:00 +0000

I think almost everybody has gone through an interview process and received the dreaded rejection letter. More and more, however, it seems that people are going through an interview process and not hearing anything. Recruiters are very busy people. We always have many things to accomplish, and those of us on the agency side, are always encouraged to "work closest to the dollar."

Large companies generally have automated systems for generating rejection letters when a job is closed through the Applicant Tracking System (ATS), however smaller companies and almost all agency recruiters have no such mechanism. To compound that, when a company is working through a recruiter, they typically assume that the recruiter will let the candidate know while the recruiter sometimes assumes that the candidate will be included in the blanket rejection letter.

I know that I personally have left people hanging longer than I would like to be left hanging myself. I generally tell candidates "If you don't hear from me by X, call me and I will tell you everything I know." But really, leaving it all up to the candidate is not responsible recruiting either as it relates to simple human courtesy, or as it relates to maintaining your candidate database. I think that recruiters in general would be wise to make sure they have or build an automated mechanism to ensure that every candidate whose resume gets sent to a client (at the very least) gets a final disposition.

This can be easy to do if you use good recruiting software, but difficult if you use something less sophisticated. Either way, candidates appreciate it because contrary to popular belief, having bad news is better in many cases than having no news.

For candidates, what do you do if you don't hear anything? When do you follow-up? Kathryn Lee Bazan says seven days from last contact for most professions. She encourages (as do I) asking about the hiring process in the interview so you have a better idea. If they say they are interviewing for two weeks, than wait two weeks to follow up. Following up will rarely make a difference in the hiring process (it won't make it any more or less likely that you get the job unless you are either unusually annoying or unusually persuasive), but it may speed up your access to the information. It's also good practice calling hiring managers and HR people which is something everybody needs to be able to do before the process begins.