The Executive Update

The Unicorn Theory – Why Companies Take So Long To Hire

Guest post by Matt Gill

Matt Gill, is the Managing Partner and a founding member of MICA Consulting Group, a retained recruiting and consulting firm specializing in connecting people in marketing, interactive, creative and advertising disciplines. Matt has been a key participant in the recruiting industry for the past 17 years. He is also a certified Behavioral Interview Trainer.

Marketing teams have been re-orged and RIF’ed - some of them multiple times over the past few years. As the tide rises, slowly but it is rising, companies are approving headcount additions to their marketing teams. Good news. Unfortunately, the hiring managers are hesitant to pull the trigger.

I’ve consulted with a number of CMO’s over the past couple of quarters on how to get the most out of their precious few hires. The conversation usually starts out with the CMO trying to figure out how to get all the skills and capabilities from three hires that are approved when he really needs seven people to get everything done. For example, they may have a position approved with a list of requirements that looks like this:

· 12+ years mobile, Ecommerce experience – (one of my absolute favorites)

· 10+ years in consumer goods marketing with expertise in channel development with major retailers

· Brand planning expertise with products for the baby boomer demographic

· Social and digital media expertise for new product launch in the infant care category with significant experience managing a co- branded product launch

· 5-7 years managing a global PR campaign

· One horn protruding no less than 12” from the middle of the forehead

I know CMOs and marketing folks fancy themselves able to solve difficult problems, but no matter what the impact of the recent economy, it hasn’t changed the rules of common sense. Unfortunately, the apprehension about making the wrong hire and the hope that this person exists is drastically impacting the length of our jobs recovery and why hiring managers will pass over great candidates.

To combat the Unicorn Hunter you have to start early on in the interview process. Work very hard at uncovering what the priorities are for the job. These will vary based on who you ask during the interview process, not only do you have to prioritize for the position but you have to assess the influence of the person you are asking. For example if the CEO ranks “Brand planning expertise with products for the baby boomer demographic” as #1 and the junior team member ranks it as #6 you can estimate where it sits on the overall list. If you make uncovering the “experience priorities” part of your interview process from the very first contact and all of your research you may be able to coach and consult your potential new employer in the direction of your strengths. At the very least it will allow you to self-select out if you don’t fit so you can focus your time in higher potential opportunities.

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.

“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.

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.

Ask the Coach: There Is No Shame in Networking

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.

A common fear among those who are working is that if they start networking, their bosses will suspect them of “looking.” What if you boss spots you on LinkedIn networking with another company, or even a competitor?

As Randy told callers this week, relax! LinkedIn is the place to be. Everyone is there (or anyone you probably care about). LinkedIn now has more than 100 million members, and only 25 percent are actively looking for a new position. The other 75 million are building their professional network for other purposes, although many are probably passively looking for greener pastures as well. There are a lot of people out there worth connecting to since they, in turn, can connect you to their professional networks and help build your personal network.

Even if you are not actively looking, you need to be nurturing your personal network. Start by reaching out to the first connection. Make yourself known. Once you start each step becomes easier. Just remember that with all your networking activities, be transparent and authentic. You want to build a solid base from which you can build your business network, and that you can tap for new career opportunities in the future, so make sure those in your network know you and your personal brand.

Build your online presence by commenting in the LinkedIn forums. Comment on the blogs, or even start your own blog. Be sure you are branding your expertise in a way that you show you know your stuff, and in a way that will attract the kinds of companies you want to work for. And don’t worry about your boss spotting your online activity. Tell them you are building your professional presence so you can do a more effective job. It’s true, after all. Social media is here to stay, and all professionals are engaging.

If you can, engage in a face-to-face meeting once a week. Check out local meet-ups, meetings of professional associations or the Chamber of Commerce, or meetings of local business groups. Make connections and be social; break the ice and talk about sports, local business conditions, whatever works to forge the connection. Once you connect you can deepen the relationship over lunch or coffee. In turn, your new contacts will Google you, check out your LinkedIn profile, and your blog, and if you have laid the proper foundation, they will understand your personal brand.

Now you aren’t just an e-mail address or a resume or online bio; you are seen as a three-dimensional contact with a unique value proposition. That will be to your advantage when the time comes to change jobs.

The Face-to-Face Interview: Maximize the Opportunity

The Face-to-Face Interview: Maximize the Opportunity

Guest post by Randy Block

Randy Block is an executive coach specializing in career transition. He also serves as a staffing and onboarding consultant for high tech start up companies. He has over 30 years experience in executive search/recruiting. Randy’s executive consulting practice includes both tactical and strategic issues; i.e. Interview Preparation, Personal Branding, Onboarding, Consulting/Freelancing Opportunities, Boomer issues, etc. Randy will be the featured presenter on this month’s Experts Connection. His topic, “The Face-to-Face Interview: Making the Most of Every Minute” will be presented on Wednesday, October 26th.
experts-connection.com

From my perspective in working with executives, particularly over the past few years….two things have become apparent:

1. Everyone purports to know how to interview…but few execute well.
2.The most qualified candidate does not necessarily get the offer…the offer usually goes to the candidate who interviews the best.

So, if you have survived the emailing, the phone interview(s) and made it to the face to face interview, you’ve done well…and you really deserve to maximize this opportunity that you have earned.

In my workshops on interviewing, I ask the audience this question: “If you are going to paint a room, what is the most important step in that process?” The answers vary from picking the paint color to choosing the right brush. The answer I’m looking for is “the prep.” If your masking is sloppy or you have not filled in the picture hook holes, you could pay $50/gallon for the paint and it will still look unprofessional. Your prized antique furniture or meaningful art will not cover up the mistakes.

When it comes to interviewing, we all know the preparation is important. So what do most people do for prep…check out the company website, study industry/product trends and Google the interviewer. And of course, review the job description. After all, we want to be knowledgeable and “right” with our answers.

This is helpful, but there is much room for improvement. Let’s examine one of these more closely; the job description. The job description is typically broken into three general parts:

1.Description of the company products and its industry.
2.The title, job duties/responsibilities and reporting structure.
3.The candidate profile –the person with these skills and qualities.

Numbers one and two are quantitative and the basis of your research. In my view number three is the most important part of the interview preparation. Here is where the all important “fit” comes into play.

The candidate profile is divided into “hard skills and experience” and soft skills i.e. leadership, decision making, management, etc. And of course all of them are grouped into “required” (usually in descending order of importance) and “preferred.” The “fit” is determined by relevancy (your skills and experience against their definition of what skills the successful candidate should have) and that indefinable something called “will you like doing the job and will I like you doing the job”.

To determine relevancy, I recommend the following as a guide. (Excessive humility or braggadocio will not help you here.)

1. List their required skills (again, whether you agree or not)
2.Then evaluate your skills (both hard and soft) on a scale from 1 (never heard of that acronym let alone do I know what it means) to 10 (I have current and direct experience, achievements and knowledge.)

Companies today want 8’s, 9’s and 10’s.

• For any low scores (7 and below) prepare an “equivalent answer”. For example, if the position requires an MBA and you don’t have one, your response might be “I have 20+ years of successful business experience.”

• For all of the soft skill questions, prepare a story of about 3 minutes that is a solid achievement supporting each soft skill.
Let’s consider the elements of that softer side of “fit” by today’s definition.

(Your technical competence is assumed at the time of the in person interview. Yes, they will check your references. Initially, technical is the focus of the phone screen with soft skills to be screened in the face-to-face meeting. You don’t even get the face-to-face interview unless you have the right background.)

1. During the interview, they want to know how excited you are about the position and the company. Have you chosen them? Be prepared to discuss why (from your heart as well as your head)
2.Will they like you doing the job? (This will be influenced by how you express yourself in #1) It is my opinion that #2 is at least 50-60% of the hiring decision today.

There are definite measures and tactics that you, the interviewee, have control over: your preparation, the interview itself and the followup. When following up with clients and their interviews, the question comes up …"would you do anything different?" If yes, we learn from it and move forward. If the answer is no, then we know we maximized the face-to-face interview. In these cases, we get and go out on another interview stronger and wiser and increasing the probability of success.

From Blog to Job: Demonstrate Your Domain Expertise

Jason Alba, author of “You’re On LinkedIn, Now What?,” is a frequent contributor to our Experts Connection series. He recently wrote a blog about Blogging in a Job Search, which prompted me to think about different ways that NETSHARE candidates can differentiate their personal brand by demonstrating domain expertise.

Blogging about your area of expertise is one method, but as Jason notes when he recommends blogging, “When I speak, it’s one of the tactics I always talk about, but I don’t spend much time on it. It’s scary for a lot of people.” However, blogging is a great way to show your stuff in a manner that is easy to leverage for your job search. Think about how blogging works in a practical way:

Step one: Identify a topic that you are passionate about and that you can sustain as an ongoing blog. If your expertise is selling, then blog about sales strategies. Of if your specialty is logistics, set up a blog about procurement strategies. Whatever the topic, make sure you have enough content to add to the blog on a regular basis.

Step two: Surf the web for ideas. Most blogs aren’t based on original ideas but are spawned by other blogs (just as this blog post was inspired by Jason’s blog). Find other sites that inspire your thinking. Comment on those sites and adapt the discussion to demonstrate your own domain expertise.

Step three: Blog it. Write about what you are thinking and about your reactions to what you read on the Web. Be sure to attribute your sources, both because it is the right thing to do but also to build crosslink traffic.

Step four: Promote your blog. Once you have the source material posted on your own blog site, peddle it. Go to LinkedIn and other sources and offer your insights as expert commentary. For example, you can ask questions on LinkedIn groups and offer your blog posts as conversation starters. Or you can comment on other blogs adding, “This is what I think,” with a link back to your blog.

Step five: Include your blog in your marketing materials. Just as your resume and your executive bio are part of your job searching arsenal, so is your blog. As you identify contacts you want to network with, use your blog to start a conversation rather than sending a resume. It’s less threatening and doesn’t say “I am looking for a job.”

You also can use your blog to talk about target companies and their strategies. If you write about a company you are targeting for a job, that company is likely to pick up your comments and they might start tracking you. Or your comments might come up in a Web search once you get your foot in the door.

A blogging strategy is not that difficult to implement, although it does demand some time and some thought. You want to make sure you think through your blog strategy, and execute it well. However, a solid blog can help build your online presence and crystallize your personal brand; at the same time it gives you a new tool to start a conversation.

Ask the Coach: Be the Hunted, Not the Hunter

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.

This week’s call with career coach Randy Block was a lively one. The discussion began with a discussion of social networking and how to use it effectively as part of your job search.

Randy opened the call with a story about a group of hunters who were very excited about the opening of moose season. They packed up and heading toward their cabin the woods to get to bed early to bag their first moose of the season early the next day. Imagine their disappointment when they awoke to find a dead moose on their doorstep. The point, of course, is that you want to be hunted rather than being the hunter.

The first caller talked about his LinkedIn strategy. He has a profile on LinkedIn but was only using it to network with contacts and he kept a lot of the information private; accessible by invitation only. Randy notes that that is a mistake. LinkedIn sells sophisticated SEO software to clients to help them find candidates on LinkedIn using sophisticated search criteria. In order to be found, you need to put your best foot forward in a searchable profile. Highlight your best achievements and make sure you are discoverable using keywords and other means.

Randy also emphasized the need to be perceived as a subject expert. Participate in the forums and offer expert opinions on various topics related to your personal brand. You become known by the groups where you are active and how you rank as an expert, so participation is important.

Another caller asked about the new social network Google+ and how important that is to job search. As Randy noted, some folks like to start with a Google search, and if you are active in Google it increases your rankings. Google+ is another tool that you can add to your job search arsenal to supplement your hunt-ability. The more Google tools you use, the higher your rankings.

Start by doing a vanity search and uncovering what you can on your name and your personal brand. Then you can help shape your brand with a Google profile and using Google+ to build your network. As Randy noted, relevancy is the key to job search today. To be found and considered, you need to be perceived as relevant, so you need to plant your brand footprint in as many searchable locations as possible.

Ask the Coach: When Everything is Hurting, Offer Targeted Pain Relief

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.

This week, career coach Randy Block observed that in hard times, gift stores tend to do well, where in good times high-end stores do well. When things are going well, we tend to go to great lengths to impress others through our shopping habits, spending money at the high-end stores that have a lot of offer. However, when times are hard, we tend to gravitate to the gift stores and target our shopping to meet a specific, immediate need.

The same is true in recruiting. Companies can’t afford to shop for high-end talent that offers multiple skills. They are not looking for a jack-of-all-trades. They need a skilled expert who can stop their pain in one specific area. If you muddy the waters, and your value proposition, by bundling your specific value with other traits, it will be lost. You need to be able to address their specific point of pain without making them wade through excess information.

Be sure to present all the pertinent information right up front! Make it easy to find and easier to understand. There can be no question about the value you bring and that it’s aligned with what the target company needs now!

If you are worried about your age getting in the way, turn it to your advantage. Offer to use your expertise and wisdom to help solve their problem through a specific assignment. Contract work is less “age sensitive” and can lead to full time positions.