The Executive Update

Twitter Reaches New Hiring Highs and Lows

When it comes to hiring, social networking can be a real jungle. I ran across this news from the CareerXroads newsletter – apparently when the company Twitter recently completed a hire, they alerted 186 other job applicants, via Twitter, that they had not been hired. Apparently, the plan was to alert each of the applicants with a “personal” email, but apparently all the candidates received the same message and were openly copied in the cc: line.

Naturally, there was a furor that followed. ValleyWag posted an article on the inhumanity of human resources and the arrogance and ignorance of HR professionals. There were numerous comments from everyone, including an insightful comment by one of those rejected who offered a link to his blog.  As a result of being “outed” in e-mail, this candidate found the size and quality of the candidate pool interesting and insightful. It gave him some insight into what he could do differently in the future in his job search.

Despite their hiring faux pas, Twitter is becoming a more important resource for recruiters (which is why you should be twittering). Check out the short recruiter “how to” video posted by Jim Durbin on RecruitingBlogs.com on how to use Twitter to find job candidates. It’s a short video piece and not hard to follow, but it demonstrates the power of Twitter to find job candidates in target markets. This is all the more reason that your Twitter and LinkedIn profiles need to be crisp and reflect your personal brand.

“Liar, Liar, Profile on Fire”

I recently returned from a conference about building online communities (yes, we consider NETSHARE an online community, even a family), and I learned something very interesting – people lie online. Okay, this is not a huge revelation, but the thing that I found surprising was that experts from a wide variety of leading companies are seeing an increase in online liars. People are padding their LinkedIn profiles. In fact, when asked what would be the most significant improvement you could make to online communities, one executive suggested adding a “Liar, Liar” widget to identify online exaggerators.

I have some personal experience here. NETSHARE has been around for some time, and we don’t have a huge staff, so it’s easy to look around the office and know who is here. When I did a LinkedIn lookup for my company, apparently I have more employees than I know about, including a C-level executive.  Okay, some of this is just outdated information that never fell off the ‘net, but a lot of it is just flat-out lying to pad your profile.

In talking to other attendees from Cisco, AOL, Microsoft, Motorola, and other well-known companies, I discovered all of them are seeing an upsurge in people posting exaggerated, puffy, and flat-out wrong information in their profiles. People are inflating titles and responsibilities.

Let’s be blunt. Lying online is dumb! It’s too easy to out a fraudulent profile, and those lies live on forever. Like elephants, the web never forgets. You need to be very careful about how you present yourself online. You will be outed.

A classic example is of the MBA who was offered a very cushy job with a leading Silicon Valley company who then went on Twitter and tweets to his/her friends, “I’m going for the fat paycheck and a job I’m going to hate.” Well it went viral and, needless to say, the job offer was rescinded. As I said, dumb!

I suspect that people are padding their online profiles to get attention. They are trying to add in titles and keywords that will attract recruiters and hiring managers and land them an interview. Again, dumb! It’s too hard to defend the lies in an interview, and too easy for recruiters to check up and uncover the lies. If you are caught in an online exaggeration, it voids the veracity of your entire profile.

Lying in an online profile is the same as lying on your resume. People do it, but when they get caught the consequences are dire indeed. Be smart, and be honest.

Ask the Coach: The New Basic Training for the Newly Unemployed

Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from the most recent session with Peter Engler, president of the Engler Career Group.

There is a new phenomenon emerging with the economic downturn. More job seekers are finding themselves out of work for the first time, and frankly, most of them are out of step with the way job search works today. If you have been actively employed for the last 10 or 20 years and suddenly find yourself out of work, what are you supposed to do? Are there guidelines?

In this week’s coaching call, Peter explained that there are rules and guidelines, but that what works for one job seeker won’t work for another. He said that joining NETSHARE is a great place to begin. There are lots of resources available through NETSHARE, as well as exclusive job listings.

The first step is to identify what you are really looking for. Remember, companies don’t want to hear “I can do anything.” Peter noted that Kathy Simmons NETSHARE welcome call is a great way to help you focus. She can help you fine-tune your search and make valuable connections. If you have been with NETSHARE for a while, you might consider joining a call for a tune up.

Peter also offered some additional thoughts to help you get focused: 

1.       Decide where you want to live. If you are an experienced executive and have paid your dues, you should be able to live where you wish.

2.       Be aware that many companies prefer to deal with local candidates. They don’t want to pay for relocation and want someone with local contacts, so plan accordingly.

3.       Consider talking to a career coach. They can help you fine tune your value messages and show you how to promote yourself and your skills. They can help you identify and reach your goals.

4.       Network! You should always be networking, but you certainly need to reach out and share with your network what you are doing now. Bring them up to date on your skills and where you are looking to ply them. You’d be surprised how many new jobs started with leads from the clerk at the grocery, your mail carrier, or the receptionist at your beauty salon. 

5.       Identify the companies you want to work with. Draw a circle in a 30-mile radius on your map and start reaching out. Identify board members, key executives, hiring managers, and be proactive. Writer letters, explain that you respect the company and have identified a problem that you are uniquely qualified to solve. Set a time to discuss a meeting and then call!

 

You Are Now in Sales…

We all know the job climate has changed. If you have been reading this blog regularly, you will know that I have been sharing the insights I have been gathering talking to hiring managers and recruiters around the country.

A lot of these insights are included in an interview I just did with Peter Clayton of Total Picture Radio for the Career Transition Channel. In this latest interview that Peter has entitled “Report from the Trenches,” I discuss how the climate has changed, and how every job seeker is now their own sales representative. Now more than ever, it’s important to understand your value proposition and know how to articulate it. You need to understand how you will help a potential employer make more money, save money, or more importantly these days, stop the bleeding right now.

I invite you to check out the podcast and offer feedback. You can either post comments here or e-mail me directly at ksimmons@netshare.com. I always look forward to your feedback.

Creating Your Own Stimulus Package

With all the talk of bailouts and the need for a boost to the economy, I thought it was time to talk about creating your own personal stimulus package. I have been hearing from a number of NETSHARE members lately who are feeling burned out. Particularly those who are unemployed; they are feeling the fiscal pressure from all sides and are starting to take a serious look at where they can cut corners in order to stay above water. Where do you invest, and where do you draw the line?

The first thing you have to understand is that you OWN your own recovery initiative. No one is going to come along and bail you out or hand you a job. You need to get smart, get focused, and start planning your next move. There seem to be more first-time job seekers out there these days (or at least professionals who have never really had to “look” for a job). The competition is stiff and the rules have changed so it’s time to get smarter about how you approach job search.

Most first time or novice job seekers really don’t know how much they don’t know, and I notice they spend a lot of time trying different strategies and waiting for instant results. Finding an executive job takes time. You have to look at career management as you would running any business. You have to invest time, energy, and intelligence, build a strategy and stick with it. There is no instant gratification, and if you think about it, it was that drive for instant returns that brought us to our current economic crisis.

Recruiters Are Reinventing The Rules

For those of you who have not seen it, there was a recent news brief in BusinessWeek profiling how Heidrick & Struggles is looking to compete in the future. The vision of CEO Kevin Kelly is that the war on talent won’t be won with executive hiring, but instead with executive consulting:

“Over the next five years, Heidrick & Struggles will change its strategy dramatically. While executive search is currently more than 95% of Heidrick's business, search will shrink to 50%. Leadership advisory services will expand to roughly 40%, and developing new technology tools for consultants and clients will become the remaining 10%. With a debt-free balance sheet and $183 million in cash as of the last quarter, Kelly is looking to acquire companies with expertise in topics ranging from executive retention to succession. He is also providing additional training for his consultants cross-selling their new services and investing in closed technology networks for top executives.”

This falls very much in line with the insights I have been hearing from recruiters and HR professionals. It’s about finding work not finding a job, and to compete in the new economy, you need to be nimble enough to adapt to the new market conditions. You need to rent your expertise, not sell it. Start looking for new opportunities that make maximum use of your expertise, and deliver maximum return. You need to find a way to become a strategic partner that offers real value to companies, not just another employee (C-level or not).

Take a lesson from one of the big recruiters. Rethink your search strategy. It’s about finding meaningful work, not necessarily finding a job.

Ask the Coach: Hit or Miss with Mass Mailings

Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from the most recent session with Debbie Ellis, President of the Phoenix Career Group.

Our Ask the Coach calls always cover a diverse range of topics. This week one of the callers asked about mass mailings. With hard times, everyone has been hit with advertisements offering resume mailing distribution services. But are they worth it?

As Debbie points out, it is important to be in the databases, but only the right ones. You don’t want to forward your information to a company that you are not interested in, and that has nothing in common with your skill set. Nor do you want to talk to recruiters who specialize on sales if your expertise is in something completely unrelated. If it’s not a fit, then it’s a waste of your money and their time.

Remember that “big blasts” are a big waste. They also serve to make you look desperate. Recruiters want some exclusivity; someone they can offer as a unique resource. If you sign up for a mass mailing, the hiring company will tell the recruiter, “We already have that one,” then you look desperate and everyone loses.

A selective mailing to a finely tuned group will produce better results for all. Debbie says there are a few reputable mailing services that can help you reach your targets. Check the Resources section of your account on NETSHARE.com. You need to work with resources that take the time to understand you, what you are looking for, and then set you up the right hiring companies and managers.

How many mailings to you send? Depending on whom you are targeting, it can be from 50 to 450, but remember that fit is everything.

Hair Apparent: Does Your Coiffure Inspire Confidence?

Here’s a new wrinkle on the interview front. According to a report in the Roanoke Times, how you part your hair has an impact on your job interview. Catherine Walker, a cultural anthropologist, has devised a theory with her brother John that how you part your hair could have an impact on how people perceive you.

Okay. This may not be earth-shattering news. I, for one, find Donald Trump’s hairdo very intimidating. However, according to their “Hair-Part Theory,” Walker and her brother have determined that men who part their hair on the left are favored by the majority of men. The part is perceived as traditional and therefore strong, successful, friendly, and popular. And men who part their hair on the right are perceived as being defensive and weak, or radical and atypical.

The same study shows that women who part their hair on the left are perceived as popular and trustworthy, where women who part their hair on the right are considered more gentle and feminine (read docile and pushovers).

And then there is the middle group. If you don’t part your hair because you are bald or for some other reason, then you are considered to have a balanced personality. It’s interesting that neither President Obama nor Senator McCain part their hair.

So what are you supposed to “do”? According to the research, the “hair-part theory” reveals that the best hairdo is the anchorman-do – a super-short cut requiring styling gel. This is the look favored by politicians, but whether you can engender trust in your next job interview with a new coiffure is still open to speculation.

Getting Unstuck

All of us feel a sense of malaise about our job at one point or another. Sometimes it’s the result of simple job frustration, or a manifestation of career burnout, or being faced with a sudden change, like losing your job. How do you get your career back on track and reachieve a life/work balance? First you have to pause and assess your position before you can move forward. In fact, hitting a point of impasse is essential if we are going to continue to grow, both professionally and personally. That’s the observation of Dr. Timothy Butler, a Senior Fellow and Director of Career Development Programs, MBA Program Administration, at the Harvard Business School. He wrote a book on Getting Unstuck: How Dead Ends Become New Paths, and some of his insights are valuable to any professional feeling burned out or facing a dramatic career change.

As Dr. Butler notes, everyone hits an impasse for different reasons, both professional and personal, but basically it’s driven by a demand imposed on each of us to reassess how we fit in the world around us. It’s all about dealing with change, particularly our changing roles and responsibilities. In fact, professionals who work in particularly volatile markets might be more susceptible to feeling “stuck.” They are continually being asked to accommodate change on short notice, at the same time they are striving to plan for the next 12 to 18 months, to create a clear path of achievement:

“Well, that certainty can change radically on fairly short notice. When it does, the first response is to just muscle through. Keep on pushing and throw more resources at it. But often what a clear impasse signifies is that you need to stop and realize that your model does not capture the reality of your business right now and the reality of your position within your organization.”

With economic upheaval and a dramatic change in plans, many of us are facing an impasse. What do we do next? Some of the times from Dr Butler’s books might prove useful. He outlines six phases in the impasse process that help break things down into manageable steps (although they don’t necessarily follow a certain order):

Phase 1 is arriving at a crisis. The normal response is to keep on plugging.

Phase 2 is the deepening of the crisis. Old methods aren’t working and you feel emotionally stuck, and many of the old self-doubts creep in. You start to doubt your value professionally and personally.

Phase 3 is when you realize the old model just isn’t working any more. You cast a fresh eye on the problem and start to ask what’s really going on, and how can apply what you really know to address it.

Ask the Coach: Don’t Compromise In Tough Times

Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from the most recent session with Debbie Ellis, President of the Phoenix Career Group.

The job situation has changed in the last six months, and so have the rules for job search. In this week’s call, Debbie reminded all of us even if the unemployment rate is 8 percent, that means 92 percent are still working so you just have to pursue your objective, if at a slower pace.

One caller shared his dilemma, which served as a capsule for the current job situation. He had lost his CEO position due to the economy almost six months ago and has been unable to land a comparable position. What area his options?

Debbie’s advice: go for fit. Target companies that fit his qualifications and for which he is qualified. Still, at the C-level finding a fit is more challenging. Companies generally aren’t hiring for C-level positions unless the stars align and you are a perfect fit for an existing opening. You will need stronger recommendations from the right person – a hiring manager, board member, or C-level executive. And you will need to demonstrate that you understand their problems and can solve their problems; that you have done it before.

Given the current economic climate, there’s a temptation to “dumb down” your resume and marketing documents to get your foot in the door. Don’t do it! Any relationship needs to be built on trust. If you enter into an interview being less than honest, you will be doomed from the start. Acknowledge your experience and work history and use them to best advantage.

One caller added that you can step back if you are moving to a larger firm that needs the same skill set in a reduced management role. He said he was facing that exact situation; trying to get hired into a role that was perfectly suited to his experience doing work he loved to do, but at a lower title. You have to adjust your cover letter and don’t get hung up on titles - it’s all about fit.

 The key to job search success is to look at hiring from the company’s perspective. It’s expensive to hire, train, and retain new employees. If you undersell yourself and apply for a position that is a step back, then the company will assume you will leave once things improve. What you need to do is be focused, and show that what you bring to the job is more than everyone else who applies.