The Executive Update

Ask the Coach: Getting Recruiter Attention

Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from this week’s session with career transition coach and career management consultant Randy Block.

We had a number of queries in this week’s coach call from executives looking for a new position and in transition. The common theme seemed to be how best to deal with recruiters.

One employed executive asked about the most productive way to reach retained recruiters. Randy’s response was to address your correspondence only to those recruiters who conduct searches in your target market or discipline. Also be sure to narrow your search by geography and other factors. If you can, get a friend or associate to introduce you, but before you reach out, be sure to have a clear idea of where you want to go with your career. If you are looking in “stealth” mode, the next session of Experts Connection is focused on “The Undercover Job Search: Stealth Tactics for Employed Executives,” and will include tips and techniques on how to work with recruiters and stay under the radar.

Another caller in transition asked about the value of signing with an outplacement firm. Are they worth the money? Randy noted that these firms are used to soften the blow during a layoff, but they charge between $20,000 and $25,000 for their services. They have started marketing to individuals as a sign of hard economic times. You want to assess the value of working with an outplacement firm versus a personal career coach who will work with you one-on-one. Both have to bring personal accountability to the process and help keep you on track with your job search, but beyond that you have to assess their real value for yourself.

A third caller asked why he wasn’t getting any positive responses to his cover letters and resume. He notes that he spends considerable time research each target company and targeting his marketing materials. Randy replied there can be any number of factors, but in the current job climate you need to match what the recruiter or hiring company is looking for pretty closely. If you are not a 90-percent match to the job specification, then you may not get a response. If, however, you are a close match to the job criteria and you still aren’t getting a response, then go directly to the hiring manager who needs the position filled. He or she may have a more precise set of hiring criteria than the recruiter or HR department.

Remember that NETSHARE hosts an Ask the Coach call for NETSHARE members on Monday at 2:00 Pacific time. The next Ask the Coach call is scheduled for January 23.

Some New Year’s Resolutions for Your Career in 2012

It’s a new year, and that means a renewed effort to manage your career. If you are like most people, you have made some New Year’s resolutions to improve performance for the coming year, and you may abandon those resolutions before January is over. However, if you are serious about making a positive career move in 2012, consider hanging on to some of these New Year’s resolutions:

1. Complete your LinkedIn Profile – If you haven’t done it already, complete your LinkedIn profile, and if you have completed it, consider revising it. Spend some effort reworking your profile to integrate the right key words and make it compelling. Talk to co-workers and others who can offer recommendations. Add a professional photo. Think like a hiring manager and look at your profile and ask yourself, “Would I contact this person?”
2. Network with a Purpose – Networking is important, and with social media it’s easy and it’s free! However, remember that you get what you pay for. Making thousands of LinkedIn connections has no value unless you know what those contacts can do for you. Identify a handful of networking groups and dig in so they know who you are. If you identify four LinkedIn groups, for example, each with 50 members, and you target those four groups, you emerge with 200 people who know who you are and what you have to offer.
3. Clean up your digital dirt – It’s time to do some housekeeping. Look at some of those old accounts you never use and close them, or refresh them if you have to. Do a Google search on yourself and see where you might have to do damage control, or where you might have to focus your energies to improve the rankings for content that matters to your personal brand. Try to remove those embarrassing photos on Facebook and check for past rants about your coworkers and your boss on Twitter and elsewhere. Resolve to be a clean and sober cybercitizen this year.
4. Determine your true value – Times have changed. Rather than chasing the salary you used to get three or four years ago, determine what your true market value is today. What are your skills worth today’s market, and how can you maximize your value? Check out Payscale.com, Glassdoor.com, Salary.com, and your peers and network contacts to reset your market value.
5. Focus Your Efforts – Don’t throw your resume at any job that appears. Don’t pursue arbitrary networking opportunities to build your contact list. Focus. Determine where you are going to get the most traction. Identify your skills, what market you want to work in, and focus your efforts to network into that industry, targeting company and people who can help you achieve your goals. Apply laser-like focus to your career goals.

Of course, these aren’t just New Year’s resolutions but are useful the year round. The beginning of a new year is a good time to re-think your career objectives, and how best to achieve them.

“I Know We’re Connected on Facebook. Who Are You Again?”

So can you identify every one of your contacts in Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter? Do you know who they are? What they do? Where they work? How you know them?

Social networking has overwhelmed us with contacts, but those connections don’t have much value to you unless you understand where they fit in your universe. As Keith Ferrazzi said in Never Eat Alone, “it’s not enough to collect names and numbers (and email addresses), we should know how strong the relationship is with our contacts” (with thanks to Jason Alba at JibberJobber for the reminder).

You should understand how each contact has value to you and your job search, and how you can assist them in return. Some networking systems like JibberJobber give you a star ranking system, with five stars being highly connected. Facebook has a new way of tagging friends, family, and acquaintances, and Google+ lets you create circles of contacts to help you stay organized. You can come up with your own system but you should be able to understand where every one of your contacts fits in your world.

If you want to use a ranking system from 1 to 5, 5 being your best contacts, consider this approach:

1. Someone you met, either in person or via email, but you aren’t sure where they fit in the greater scheme of things.
2. Someone you met and you had a good conversation. This could be the start of something valuable to both of you, but you need to see what that might be.
3. This contact is someone you have spoken to more than once and who is interested in networking because you can assist one another. This is a contact worth getting to know better because you are confident you can help each other.
4. This is a contact that is worth cultivating and you feel really good about developing a stronger relationship. Your goals align and this contact could prove to be an ally or champion in the future, and you may have contacts that are valuable in return.
5. You are lifelong chums and this contact will come to birthday parties, hang out at the ballpark, and give you the shirt off of his or her back. These are the close contacts you can call on at any time for help or advice.

If you have emails and phone numbers for people you don’t remember, then you can probably purge them from your database, or at least push them to the bottom of your contact list. Keep your contacts up to date, and remember how you know them and why you are connected to them and you will be able to do more with your network than shouting at unknown faces on the online crowd.

Time Management: The Underappreciated Skill in Job Search

Time management is one of the biggest challenges facing career changers. Where do you spend your time most effectively? How much time do you dedicate to online search? How much time do you apply to online networking? How much to materials development?

Time management is a skill set like any other and successful time management takes planning. So whether you are working on a major project or undertaking a career change, you need to have a strategy to allocate your time. Here’s a strategy outlined by Anne Lueneburger at North of Neutral:

1. Define your goals – Anne suggests you be “SMART” about establishing your time management goals. The acronym SMART stands for:
   • Specific – you want to be exact about your objectives. “Finding a better job” is much too vague. “Finding a vice president of marketing role with a major retailer within six months” is more specific. Use who, what, when, where, and why to guide you.
   • Measurable – You need to know success when you see it. If your time management strategy calls for making 30 new contacts a week, then that’s measurable.
   • Attainable – Don’t set your sights so high that you are destined to fail. If 30 contacts a week is too ambitious, for example, adjust your goal to 15.
   • Relevant – Be sure your goals are in line with your overall objectives. For example, building your personal network is important, but it’s only relevant if your new network contacts can help you achieve your objective.
   • Time-oriented – Establish deadlines and time parameters. For example, set yourself a realistic long-term deadline to find a new job, such as six months. And be sure to set yourself a short-term goal for time allocations, such as one hour a day for networking.
2. Prioritize – The challenge with time management is all the smaller tasks that are easy to accomplish, but distract from the larger tasks that should be a priority. Those things that are important and urgent usually get dealt with in a timely manner, but the important items that are less urgent often get set aside. Be sure to focus effort on action items that will accomplish the goal.
3. Overcome procrastination – We all have challenges with procrastination. The best approach is to recognize when procrastination starts and the take steps to eliminate it. There are some steps you can take to help, such as contacting a mentor or career coach for assistance getting focused, breaking daunting projects into bite-sized steps, addressing “worst things first” to get them out of the way, and setting yourself a small reward for accomplishing something unpleasant or difficult.
4. Manage disruptions – If you have incoming disruptions, manage them as part of the process. Build the new requests for your time into your priority list; are they urgent or can they wait? You can minimize disruptions by turning off your phone, shutting down your email, or closing your door. Set aside dedicated time to pursue your job search without interruption.
5. Take charge of your schedule – Set time aside every day for job search but be sure to balance your career management schedule with other demands on your time, such as family, friends, and work. Try to find a time that you can dedicate every day or every week to your career pursuits that won’t interfere with other activities.

Structuring your time is a good way to increase your productivity, but you can’t be too rigid about time management. If you don’t get everything done on your list, don’t punish yourself. Just be sure you make the most of the time you have allotted for your job search.

“Creative” No Longer Cuts It – the Most Overused Words on LinkedIn

We spend a lot of time and space on this weblog talking about the need to network and how important your online profile is. In fact, today we sponsored an Experts Connection webinar with social media expert Glenn Raines talking about how to create professional social media profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google. As part of that process, it is becoming increasingly important to stand out from the crowd. Hiring managers and recruiters are using social media outlets to find fresh talent, and they are using proactive search terms. That means you need to keep your social media profiles fresh as well.

According to the latest poll from LinkedIn, users continue to use the same hackneyed adjectives in their profiles. “Creativity” is the most overused buzzword for 2011, followed by “organizational” and “effective.” The problem with all these buzzwords is they do not differentiate you or your expertise. Everyone can make claims about vague capabilities like “creativity” and “effectiveness.” And such platitudes don’t promote searchability. No hiring manager is going to search for the term “creativity” or “effective.” They will search for nouns, such as “sales manager,” “telecommunications,” “top seller,” “Ruby on Rails,” and other specific terms that will help narrow their search. In his Experts Connection presentation, Glenn Raines noted that you need to keep your keyword density at 3 percent if you want your profile optimized for the search algorithms.

So don’t waste precious space on adjectives that are meaningless, actually less than meaningless because they just make you part of the herd. Try to use terms that differentiate you, and your expertise. Identify key phrases and terms that speak to your expertise and your profession. Think like a hiring manager. How would you find, well, you? What search terms would you use to find a hot property like yourself? If you can describe yourself as you want others to find you, you can build a solid social media profile without falling prey to buzzword bingo.

Who’s Hiring Whom? How to Spot a Bad Boss During the Interview

Too many job candidates fail to grasp that they have power during the interview. Too often a candidate walks into an interview setting trying to determine the best way to grovel to get a solid job offer. Instead, they should be approaching the interview as an opportunity to assess their potential employer, and not only impress them with his or her credentials but to create an opportunity to be impressed in return. It’s a golden opportunity for you to interview the interviewer.

A job interview is a two-way interaction. The job candidate is interviewing the company to see if he or she is a good fit for the position, and that includes interviewing the boss. Checking out your prospective boss in advance is essential. According to a recent study by Baylor University, an abusive boss can have a huge effect on your health and your family life, so you want to make sure you know what you are getting into. There was an interesting story in Forbes this week on how to spot a bad prospective boss in an interview. Here are some tips to consider:

1. “You” versus “we.” Pronoun usage is a telltale. If during the interview the hiring manager talks about how “you” will be responsible for tough challenges or dealing with something negative, he probably won’t be a mentor. And if he talks about “I” in the context of department successes, then he is not a team player and may deflect blame. Observe how he talks about his employees and his department.
2. Fishing for personal information. It is natural to try to get to know a candidate and learn about some of their outside interests. It is something else to ask probing questions about life outside of work. Be wary if the hiring manager moves from a healthy interest in your hobbies or charity work to a nosy interest in your personal commitments. The interviewer can’t legally ask about your marital status or your family, but by probing about your personal life they may be trying to get you to surrender information to determine if you have too many commitments outside the office.
3. The distracted interviewer. You should command respect during an interview, including the undivided attention of the hiring manager. If your prospective boss is distracted by his iPhone, or email, or telephone calls, of if he is late for your interview, that’s an indication of their normal operating style, and you probably can’t expect them to make much time for their staff, including you.
4. You can’t get a straight answer. If you can’t get a direct answer to a direct question, that could be an indication that they are covering something. For example, if the last person who held the position for which you are interviewing may be characterized as a “bad fit,” which may be an indication that the company didn’t spend enough time on employee development. Listen for awkward pauses and evasive responses. Also look at things such as turnover rates and where others have a path for advancement.
5. What’s the hiring manager’s track record? How long as he or she been with the company? Where did they come from? Look for indicators about their performance and management style. For example, bosses from large companies may want more formality where managers with a history at start-ups may have a less formal approach. Which suits your work style?

Be sure to ask around about the company and your new potential boss. You can search sites such as eBossWatch or ask your network on LinkedIn. There’s nothing wrong with getting references about your prospective employer. You will want to think about the context of what you might uncover, but look for glaring inconsistencies or differences between what you were told and what you discover on your own. It’s better to have more information in advance and avoid a potentially disastrous job than to realize your mistake after you have been hired.

Five of the Biggest Blunders of Online Job Search

We have been talking a lot about networking lately, and I thought it was time to get back to basics with a short blog post on some of the most common blunders job applicants make when submitting their resume or other credentials electronically. These five points seem basic, but it’s amazing how often even the most experienced professionals forget the basics, whether they are looking for full-time or consulting work:

1. Keep it relevant. When searching for work, the natural tendency is to want to make things easy on ourselves. Often we reuse cover letters, resumes, or other content to apply for a position, which means we often fail to customize the message to suit the situation. If you insist on using cut and paste, review your text to make sure it’s on target. If you are asked for work samples or examples of your expertise, keep them relevant to the role. If you are using an online portfolio, consider splitting it into sections to keep your samples focused. Take the time to focus and give your prospect the information they are looking for, not just what’s at hand.

2. Use the subject line. Most of our communications these days is electronic, which means it’s easy to create and just as easy to ignore. Electronic mailboxes fill up fast with junk mail, and it’s easy for your communications to be lost or ignored. You can overcome that with a strong email message, starting with a catchy subject line. Sometimes companies specify the topic of their email correspondence to help filter email messages. Keep the subject line relevant, interesting, and be sure to check your spelling.

3. Ask simple questions. Show your interest by posing one or two leading questions to help promote a dialogue, but keep it simple. Don’t ask obvious or annoying questions, or questions that require a long explanation. Those are better left for an interview. Instead, use simple questions such as “can you tell me more about your company’s specific goals?”

4. If you are overqualified. Portraying yourself as qualified but not overqualified can be tricky, especially if it’s clear you have more experience than the job requires. Don’t sound arrogant or dismissive; “Of course I can do this…” Don’t offer a long list of relevant achievements. Instead, be focused, be positive, and let your marketing documents speak for themselves.

5. Follow directions. If you are applying for a specific position or if an ad or request has specific criteria, follow them! It’s amazing how many people fail to follow simple directions. If you don’t, it shows you lack an attention to detail and it could offer a precursor to your on-the-job performance. Be sure you provide the information requested, or at least acknowledge there is information missing to demonstrate you understand the directions.

Common sense counts for a lot when you are looking for a new job or contract, but we often get so busy that we forget the basics and overlook the details. When you are looking for a job, the details matter so slow down, take a moment, review what you are sending, and think before you click the “send” button.

Ask the Coach: The Holidays Are the Time to Reconnect with Lost Contacts

Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from this week’s session with Barbara Safani, owner of Career Solvers based in New York City.

In our last blog post we noted that this is the perfect time to be networking. This week’s career coach, Barbara Safani, concurs, noting that this is the time to make the most of holiday cheer and to get back in touch with those contacts who may have fallen off your radar.

It can be a bit awkward reaching out to someone who has fallen out of your professional life. Things happen and people get busy and you don’t have time to keep up, and after a time you realize that you have not been in touch and maybe you have even fallen down on the job and missed a promise or two. Your friends and contacts who may have been close at one time have all but disappeared.

No matter! The holidays are the perfect time to re-establish those connections. You feel guilty about letting the relationship lapse, but chances are so does the other party. Networking is a two-way street, and if you were busy and forgetful then probably the other person shares the same feelings. The holidays offer you a chance to get reacquainted.

Use holiday greetings as an excuse to reconnect on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Plaxo, etc. Reach out with an e-card or an email or a telephone call. Ask about their family, their hobbies, or some personal concern. What are their goals these days? If you open with such an icebreaker chances are the conversation will turn around to “and how are you,” which gives you a chance to bring them up to date on your successes and your goals. This is an excellent opportunity to ask if they know any experts who can offer counsel about a target company or market.

Remember that “out of office” responses are normal when you reach out via email in December. You should not be discouraged. Many recruiters may take time off until the New Year, but in tough economic times many are working through the holidays, while others leave someone to mind the store. Since things are slower and they are in a holiday mood, they might be more receptive to phone calls or even a chat over coffee. You can stand out from the crowd if you haven’t already packed it in for the season.

One of executive on the coaching call noted that whenever a recruiter views his LinkedIn profile, he immediately sends that recruiter a note offering to help with his search through his own network, and he almost always receives an email back from the recruiter.

Timing is everything, and the holidays are the perfect time to renew your connections and make some new ones. It’s also a good time to refresh your LinkedIn, Google, and Facebook profiles – our next Experts Connection session shows you how to approach low-maintenance social networking.

'Tis the Season to Be Searching!

The holidays are approaching and for many, it is a time to celebrate with friends and family and to forget about the woes of work. However, the holidays are the time you should be stepping up your job search. It is the season when companies are thinking about the year ahead, including staffing challenges, and when a little good cheer in the right quarters can land your next interview.

Why are the holidays a good time for job search? There are a number of factors:

1. Planning for a new year – For many companies, the New Year is a new fiscal year as well and they need to plan their staffing before January 1. Since many of the other executive candidates will be taking off during the holidays, this is your chance to step in and demonstrate your expertise because there will be fewer competitors and possibly more opportunities.
2. Vacations create opportunity – The holidays are the times when many key decision-makers are out of the office, which can complicate the hiring process. This also creates opportunities for creative job seekers. Business is slower so you make get key decision-makers on the phone. And if they are out of the office, they still need to hire for the coming year so they may actually call you back if you can address their problem. Executives have been known to interrupt their vacations to meet with short-listed candidates. Remember, they may have vacation days they need to use while balancing their hiring needs for the coming year, which could be a winning combination for you if you can get in front of the right hiring manager.
3. Good will toward men and women – The holidays also are the ideal time for networking. Use the excuse of holiday cheer to get together with former colleagues and others. Show some interest in their holiday plans and forge a deeper relationship. Send holiday greetings to your online connections to promote conversation. Catch up with an eye toward your contacts’ needs for the coming year.
4. Use the time to strategize – While others are taking time off, you can use the time to strategize to improve your search. Research potential hiring companies and refresh your existing research with an eye toward competitive challenges that you can help address for target companies in the year ahead. Use the time to refresh your marketing documents.

Remember that the season of holiday parties is full of networking events and companies are looking to fill positions before the New Year. Don’t take a break for the holidays but be even more aggressive in getting out there to rub elbows will holiday merrymakers. Who knows, Santa may put a new job in your stocking for Christmas.

Online Networking Hinges in the Right Questions

Most people have poor online networking skills. That’s not because they are antisocial or unable to hold a conversation, but making a connection online is different from meeting someone at a conference or a cocktail party. And those who master the art of online networking find a multitude of rewards.

Consider that there are 500 million Facebook users. That is one out of every 13 people on the planet. And each of those users has an average of 130 friends. So when you think about the exponential possibilities of tapping into the larger Facebook network, you can understand why online networking has become such an important part of job search. With the right series of introductions you can meet almost anyone online.

The challenge is using the proper approach to get the desired results. The right exchange of information can open the right doors to your next career move. However, most job seekers don’t understand their networking needs. They don’t understand that nurturing connections leads to other connections that lead to desired contacts. Job seekers are too quick to say “hire me” and not open to exchanging information to deepen a relationship. You have to ask the right questions and have a clear idea of what you need to get from those questions. You can use questions to move the conversation from casual chat to information sharing. However, you also want to keep the questions friendly to build a rapport and not make the other party uncomfortable.

The best approach is to pose open-ended questions, rather than “yes or no” questions. You want to enter into a dialogue and give the other party a chance to demonstrate his or her interests and expertise. If you put these open-ended questions to work in the right way, you can forge a connection that can be valuable in your job search and in other aspects of your career. Try questions such as “What advice would you give someone starting in this business?”or “What credentials to you look for in this position?”

At some point in the exchange that follows, you will be able to steer the question to getting the insights you want for your job search. Don’t ask “Do you know anyone…?” That’s too direct and will turn off a potential contact. Back into the question by asking “who do you know…?” instead. A lot depends on how you ask the question. If you pose it in the right way, you are more likely to get the right answers.

Of course, you can’t make the conversation all about you and consider it a dialogue. You need to be able to offer assistance and information in return. Find out what your contacts are interested in. What are their networking objectives? And offer what assistance you can from your network of contacts or whatever resources you can provide.