The difference between being busy and being productive during your search

I spend a good amount of time every day talking with people who reach out to me and people who are referred to me for help with their job search.  I make time to talk with everyone personally and help in any way I can. 

“How is your search going?” This is a common question I ask.  I receive a range of responses from “GREAT! I have a bunch of stuff in play,” to “just awful! I can’t seem to get people to see what I have to offer them.”  Hmmmmm, is it everyone else’s fault that you don’t have a job? REALLY?!!

The other question I generally ask is “How do you spend your days?”  About 99% of the time I will hear some form of “Responding to open positions and searching the job boards.”

It’s easy to be incredibly busy when you are looking for a job.  Job boards will suck the time away – and the life out of you – hoping that perfect job will surface and you’ll  be the only one who sees it…….need I say more?

There is a difference between being busy and being productive.  Just as there is a difference between dribbling the ball and moving it forward (in honor of the Nuggets playoff drive).    Let’s explore:

Busy:  Spending the entire morning trying new keyword searches on Monster, DICE, CareerBuilder and Linked In searching for new jobs to apply to.  No time for the gym – you’ve lost the entire morning and now you have to get ready for your lunch meeting with another guy you met last week who is also unemployed.

Productive:  Setting up an Indeed alert for the keywords that ideally describe me and spending 10 minutes moving thru them quickly in the morning.  Spending 45 minutes reading local business news to make sure I know what’s going on in town – looking for new companies to research, trends, executive appointments, earnings announcements – there is soooo much great information! The next 30 minutes are dedicated to responding to email inquiries and Linked In requests.  Off for a good workout and shower before your 10 AM coffee meeting with someone who works at one of your target companies.

Busy:  You found 5 new jobs that might work for you on the job boards.  Each of them has a long and involved application process with essay style screening questions.  The application asks for detailed work history and salary information.  Then, when you get to the end – a magical application review robot tells you that you aren’t qualified for the position because your college degree is in the wrong discipline.  You have no idea if the other applications went thru because you don’t receive a confirmation from the company – so you’ll just wait.  The kids will be home soon – another day – and no movement.

Productive:  Your coffee meeting was amazing!  The woman you met with offered to endorse you to the hiring manager for a position that isn’t posted yet – that you’d be perfect for!  Now, time to review the Google alerts you have set up on your target companies – WOW!  A bunch of great information today.  A lot of notes to send to your executive contacts to let them know you’re watching.  Also, you received calls on a couple of inquiries you made last week – need to follow up with them as well.  Oh, and you have a great business idea for one of the executives you met last week – who knows?  Maybe he’ll be interested in meeting with you to discuss it.  Just enough time left in the day to plan tomorrow’s attack before the kids get home.  Moving the ball forward!

Busy job seekers will always find a way to fill their time with mundane tasks that they THINK are helping them get hired.  Productive job seekers will engage in conversations and dialogue with hiring managers that will elicit interest.  These people are passionate about who they are, what they know and how their experience will add value to companies.  They are very clear about their strengths and precisely target the companies and individuals who want to hear what they have to say.  They don’t ask for a job when they meet someone – they have a business discussion.  They offer help, ideas, thought leadership and they are well prepared for each conversation.  In the end, the productive job seeker “selects” his/her next position – instead of “being selected.”  This is a VERY IMPORTANT distinction – wrap your head around it until next month.  Move the ball FORWARD!

Lately there has been a lot of commentary around something called the ‘candidate experience.’  Personally I think this is just common sense, but I’m coming from the perspective of someone who works with candidates and hiring managers all the time – as a matchmaker.  Everyone is busy – really busy this year.  The interview process is typically an additional weight placed on hiring managers who already have 50 hours of work to do each week.  This is especially true in emerging organizations where executives are wearing more than one hat.

Creating a positive candidate experience means that you are making each person who approaches your company about a position feel positive about the company, you, your team and your opportunity.  That doesn’t mean you have to hire them or like all of them – but it does mean they should walk away thinking, “Wow! What a great company!”

Why is this important?  Every person you encounter has a circle of influence (think FaceBook).  That circle of influence contains potential employees, potential business partners, potential investors and potential customers.  When you leave a candidate feeling good about their experience with you and your company – they will tell others.  Need I say more?

How do you create a positive ‘candidate experience?’  It’s so simple – do unto others what you would have them do unto you – sound familiar?  Here are some tips:

1. Pretend you are looking for a job at your company.    Go ahead and read the website. How does it make you feel?  Read the career page.  Would you want to work for your company?  Are the positions posted accurate?  Are they interesting?  Submit an application and resume for a particular opening.  Is it easy?  Do you feel like someone will actually read it?  Did you receive a thank you when you completed the process?  Does it take more than 10 minutes?
2. Make sure the person in charge of screening candidates has some domain knowledge of the position.   It’s very frustrating  for a candidate to phone screen with someone who can’t answer their questions or has no idea what they are talking about 
3. Set realistic expectations.  Sometimes the interview process just takes time – not ideal, but so be it.  If you have a lengthy process, or you are struggling with travel schedules for interview team members that’s fine – just let the candidates know up front.  They will appreciate that you respect their time
4. Be gracious.    When you invite someone into your home, you are the host.  You are on time, kind, polite, offer them some of whatever you are having – you know the drill.  When you invite a candidate into your company – the same rules apply.
5. Keep your word.  If you ask a candidate to follow up – expect that they will.  If you commit to following up, making a decision or getting them additional information – then do it.  If you can’t meet your commitments then call them and let them know.
6. Be honest – kindly.  Looking for a new job is a very emotional experience for most people.  Honest and kind feedback is really important to their professional development.  If there is something they should improve, let them know.  If they are a strong contender but you selected someone else, let them know you will keep them in mind for the next position.  If they aren’t a good fit with your company, tell them straight.  In all cases, if you can offer them suggestions for other companies or positions please do so.

Creating a positive candidate experience is not difficult.  Establish a hiring process that you would enjoy, treat each individual with respect and thankfulness.  After all, their circle of influence can absolutely have an impact on your company.

Let me know if you’d like more ideas on creating a candidate experience – I am full of ideas! 

I had the opportunity during the first few months of the year to speak at a few job seeker events.  I also regularly spend one on one time with professionals who are looking for a new position or thinking about looking around.   If you are unhappy in your current position then it's time to do some thinking before you make a move - or it's likely you'll end up in an in a similar situation again. 

Try this exercise.  Get yourself in a good head space (whatever that means to you) and take an inventory of your career. 

1. What was your favorite position? Why?

2. What was your least favorite position? Why?

3. Are there any similarities? What are they?

4. What are the biggest differences?

This is harder that it sounds. Once you get started you'll know what I mean.  Ok, now you have a bunch of random thoughts down -let's do something with them.

Think about the characteristics of a job that would make you happy.  Maybe it's a short commute, visibility at the executive level, having a direct impact on customers, income, work schedule flexibility......this list is completely yours.  This is your top ten.  You are essentially writing your ideal job description. 

Next, we need to identify the bottom 3.  What three tasks that, if they were a big part of your next position would drive you crazy?  Try not to make these antes of the top ten.

Once you have this list complete, record it and put it in a safe place.  Now you have your ideal position… onward!

List your 5 greatest strengths. What do you consistent excel at in each of your career positions?  What do you repeatedly get recognized for?  Here's a secret... Some of these may match components of your top 10 list.  Also, you’ll need to identify the things that you aren’t good at.  Although I believe that working to improve on some of your professional weaknesses is important in your personal growth, it’s not a good idea to look at positions that will cause you to work on them 40-50 hours per week.  Let’s identify these things now so we don’t end up in a position where you dread going to work every day.

Let’s review:  You have identified your ideal job; you’ve listed your strengths and weaknesses as a professional; now it’s time to refresh your resume so that (on paper) you look like the person you identified and are attractive to the position you want.

For this exercise, you may need another pair of eyes.  Engage the help of a friend or family member who is also a hiring manager (accustomed to reading resumes).  Does the information on your resume “speak” to the type of company and position that you identified in your top 10 list?  Do the strengths you listed come out?  Do you reveal your personality in the tone of your resume?

Take the time to remodel your electronic persona (resume and Linked In profile) to match you and your ideal position.  I’m amazed at how many people talk to me about who they are and when I look at their resume, they convey a completely different message. 

It’s actually quite remarkable!  When you have truly identified the position you would love, where you excel as a professional and how you articulate it in your resume the opportunities you are REALLY looking for begin to reveal themselves.  My best wishes for your success!

Time to hire is one of the primary metrics we use to measure our success.  Regardless of whether you are working internally to fill a position or engaging the services of an outside recruiter – time is money.  The faster you can source, attract, interview and hire – the better your return.  Every position has a written job description.  This is the document that you, or your human resources team, puts together to describe the tasks, activities, responsibilities and experience requirements for the position.  If you don’t have one of these you should.

Now, the “candidate profile” is a separate document.  This is an illustration of the person you want to hire.  The words on this document are much more descriptive of the PERSON, rather than the POSITION.  Here are some of the essentials of a candidate profile:

1. Where did they work in the past?  Look around at the rest of your team.  Who are the most successful?  Where did they come from?  What did they do before you hired them?
2. What did they study in school?   List at least 3 different degrees that most generally provide the foundational skills you are looking for. 
3. Where have they demonstrated the top three technical requirements?  In my experience, candidates emphasize their strongest technical skills on their resume.  They will also elaborate on their favorite tasks and activities when they talk about their work experience.  Use this newfound knowledge when you are reading resumes.
4. What is their personality like?  What personality traits will gel with your team?  How important is a professional appearance, writing skills or a sense of humor?  Is it important to you – or the company – that they are involved in the community?  How about leisure-time pursuits?

Once you’ve written down a description of your ideal hire then share it with the person/people who are screening candidates for you.  As well, share it with the members of your interviewing team and use this profile as a basis for your interview evaluation.  You’ll be surprised at how smoothly your hiring will go since you know EXACTLY who you are looking for.  By doing a little extra work up front you’ll be more decisive and you’ll know the right person when you meet them.

We’ve seen a dramatic decrease in our time to hire by using this method.  In fact we’ve even seen some 1:1 interview to hire ratios!  Oh, and our 12 month retention rate is over 90% - it works!  Happy Hiring!

Last year, the Society for Information Management (SIM) teamed up with the Denver Business Journal for the first annual CIO of the Year.  It was an amazing success as Christopher Avery delivered the awards ceremony keynote address and SIM named four winners:

• Corporate -  Greg Lems is a problem-solving rock star at ClickBank
• Emerging Business - Philip Winterburn believes in team effort
• Large Enterprise - Lynn Fischer at forefront of health care technology
• Non-Profit - Mary Anne Leach leads hospital through major changes

We would like your help to find the best CIOs for the 2012 CIO of the Year. 

Do you know a CIO who demonstrates these 6 characteristics?

1. Leadership
2. Business And It Alignment
3. Strategic Clarity
4. Innovation
5. People Focus
6. Community Involvement

Please take a few minutes and nominate a CIO by March 2nd at SIM-Colorado.org or pass along this information to your marketing, PR or HR leader.

Thank you!

About The Denver Business Journal

The Business Journals is the premier media solutions platform for companies strategically targeting business decision makers.  We deliver a total business audience of over 10 million people via our 42 websites, 62 publications and over 700 annual industry leading events. Our media products provide comprehensive coverage of business news from a local, regional and national perspective. We have more people, publications and websites covering our nation’s business than any other business media organization.

About Society for Information Management

The Society for Information Management (SIM) is a not-for-profit organization of information technology experts, including CIO's, CTO's and emerging IT leaders, as well as key professionals within the IT community, such as academicians and consultants. SIM's mission is to support IT leaders in the greater Colorado area by increasing the knowledge base of members, giving back to local communities, increasing awareness on issues of importance to our local community, developing the next generation of effective IT leaders and establishing a forum to bring together IT professionals across industries.

Increasing the effectiveness of your talent advertising

If you are still using your internal HR job descriptions when you post openings on an external job board or your company website for that matter, then please write a check and hand it to a stranger on the corner for the price of that posting.  Either way, you are wasting the company’s money.  That’s a pretty strong assertion for so early in the year, huh? 

Here’s my point:  Posting job openings is a form of marketing.  You spent a boatload of money on your website and your brand to make sure that you are engaging your target audience; in this case, customers.  Your marketing department carefully monitors all outgoing documents, campaigns, website changes and brochures.  However when you have an open position in your company you post a boring, sterile description that completely alienates potential employees (and potential customers).  So, how do you fix it?

1. Get your Marketing folks involved:  Your company brand is very important in the market.  Job advertising is a part of the market.  Walk over to your marketing group and ask them to help you develop some interesting ad copy for your open positions.  It will be easy for them to refactor your content into a voice that is consistent with the brand.  If this is a difficult exercise, then you have bigger problems.
2. Compose an amazing company introduction.   Every job posting should have a short paragraph that describes your company.  This introduction will set the tone for the rest of your job ad.  Consider a short quote from a new employee – or the CEO in this introduction.  Include information that will get the attention of the kind of candidates you are looking for.
3. Speak to your audience.  Spend the time to rework your sterile task list and put it into conversational English.  Instead of: “the candidate will have 5+ years of experience ….”  Try a more intimate approach: “you’ll leverage your 5 years of experience as an integral member of your team…..”  Which statement do you identify with?
4. Talk about interesting work.  Get your candidate interested in the work they will be doing.  Tell them about projects, technology and talk about how they will spend their day.  Remember, this is an advertisement, not the formal job description you have internally.  Don’t worry about turning off some candidates – you really only want to interview people who connect with your words – right?  It’s ok to let some candidates self-select out.
5. Post as a real person.  The ultimate personal touch is to post as a real person.  Include your name and contact information.  Yes, this will elicit phone calls and emails.  That’s ok! After all, you are trying to hire great people – and great people will be aggressive about connecting with you.

This approach takes time and energy.  However, the outcome will be a much better candidate pool, a more consistent branding for your company – and ultimately a shorter hiring cycle – quality vs. quantity.  To your success!

Last month we talked about the state of the job market and the lack of available qualified talent.  You must change your classic methods of finding and attracting talent if you are going to be able to compete in the New Year.  Here are some steps you can take to immediately improve the quality of your sourcing efforts.

1. Referral Bonus.  Pay your employees to be unofficial recruiters!  Make it worth their while.  True story:  We screened a candidate a few weeks ago who said, “I know a couple of people at that company, I didn’t know they needed someone like me but I sure would like to work there.”  If I were the hiring manager that would hurt.
2. Social Media.   The big three are Linked In, Twitter and Facebook in that order.  However, there is a bunch of chatter on the industry boards that Facebook is going to attack Linked In in a big way.  Think about it – How many people log into Linked In on a daily basis vs. the number of people who monitor Facebook CONTINUOUSLY!  Stay tuned for further developments
3. Meetups.  An amazing collection of people who gather together around a common interest – professional profiles, contact information thru the group – and in many cases discussion boards specifically for job postings.
4. ATS.  In my humble opinion, if your ATS doesn’t allow you to engage with your candidate audience (email alerts when a new position opens up), or have a one-button social media posting option – you have the wrong system.
5. Face Time.  Want to find talent?  Then get out from behind your desk and out into the community.  As a hiring manager, or an HR professional, you need to be out and active where your target market is.  Those who are serious about their careers are, your competitors are – you need to be.
6. Trade Shows and Conferences.  If your company is already spending time/effort/money on industry-related events, why not extend your reach beyond just attracting new customers?  Let folks know that you are also looking for great talent – you know that the brightest folks in your industry will be there – use this time to begin to recruit them!
7. Your company website.  Make sure that your open positions are posted and highly visible (first level navigation) on your website.  List your site with the large job aggregators (Indeed, Simply Hired) to make sure that you get visibility on the www.  Keep your open position postings current.  There is nothing more frustrating to a candidate than aged or inaccurate postings on your company website.
   

I’m a fan of metrics.  Measure any new programs or methods you employ in 2012 and at the end of the year evaluate what worked – and what didn’t work.  By the end of 2012 we’ll most certainly have additional channels to investigate – that’s what keeps it interesting.  Happy Hiring!

Hi everyone!  I wrote this article a couple of years ago - seems timely - enjoy!

I had the pleasure of speaking at an industry event last week to an incredible group of technology executives.  The program title was ‘Building your Social Capital.”  We spent some time talking about networking and the benefits of being prepared for your holiday cocktail parties.  One of the members told a story of receiving a job offer as a direct result of meeting someone at a holiday mixer.  He’s a die hard fan of holiday parties!

Some of us spend a good deal of time meeting new people, seeking out opportunities to network as part of our business development efforts (like me).  Most of the rest of us do not have an opportunity to hone our cocktail conversation skills – except in small doses.  Now, we’re heading into the holiday season, you’re unemployed or considering looking for a new position; and you understand the importance of building your personal/professional network.  Where do you start?

Here are some easy to follow tips on how to make more of your holiday events:

1. Do your homework.  One of the benefits of our electronic society is that the attendee list is often accessible prior to the event.  Spend some time reviewing the list in advance to identify people you would like to meet.
2. Seek out the hosts.  When attending a new group introduce yourself to the hosts (or board members) and ask them to introduce you to some key individuals to get you started.
3. Arrive early.  There are fewer people to navigate, less disruption, it’s easier to get early introductions and start conversations
4. Introduce yourself in line.  You’ll be in line at least two times (food and drink).  You have a captive audience so introduce yourself to the person in front of you, and the person behind you.  “How do you know the hosts?”  Have you been a member of this group for long?”
5. Keep your introduction brief.  Networking is about gathering information, be interesting – and more importantly, be interested.
6. Make eye contact.  Hold your attention on the person who is speaking.  Its rude to be in a conversation and looking over the speaker’s shoulder for someone more interesting.
7. Involve others in the conversation.  Welcome newcomers to your huddle and create a crowd.  Others will be drawn to your circle and you’ll meet more people.
8. NEVER sell.  Enough said – keep it conversational and don’t launch into your sales pitch.  That’s for next week’s follow up.
9. Carry plenty of cards and a pen.  Jot notes on interesting facts, follow up requests, write referrals on your business cards.  This list goes on…
10. Need to exit a conversation gracefully?  Ask for a card, offer your card, thank your new contact for taking time to speak with you and wish them fun at the event.
11. Work the edges of the room.  These are the people who want to meet folks but are more nervous than you.  Start engaging them and you’ll create energy around you.