Beware The Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt. It's a book by Harvey MacKay but, more importantly, it's a way to say don't follow the advice of people who can't offer the advice you need.
A so-called employment expert who can't show you how and why to use Linkedin is a naked man offering his shirt.
You wouldn't take French lessons from somebody who doesn't speak French or guitar lessons from somebody who doesn't play guitar, so why would you take career advice from somebody who isn't on Linkedin and can't show you how to use the most important job search tool there is?
Savvy HR people, recruiters and headhunters use Linkedin to network their way to job candidates they'd like to hire so if you ask for employment help from somebody who isn't on Linkedin, doesn't know how to use Linkedin, doesn't know why people should use Linkedin and can't show you how to use Linkedin, a naked man is offering you his shirt.
Learn how HR managers, recruiters and headhunters use Linkedin to network their way to the job candidates they want. If you learn that, you can learn how to use Linkedin to network your way to employers faster.
If you live in or near St. Albans, WV and you need to learn how to use Linkedin, call me for a free tutorial. (304)550-6710 or JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com.
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For more straight talk on finding a job, go to my archive (at right) and read my previous 3 posts.
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Higginbotham At Large will not PUBLISH your anonymous or pseudonymous comments. If you submit a comment that doesn't clearly tell readers who you are, your comment will die in the moderation queue where I will read it but will not publish it.
Showing posts with label headhunting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label headhunting. Show all posts
11 March, 2013
23 August, 2012
Open Letter To An Undisclosed Advisory Board : How To Promote Your Events Without A Budget Or A Marketing Guy
Your recent hand-wringing discussion about how to publicize your events was painful to hear. I was just a guest so I couldn't offer advice but I wanted to stand up and shout "Why are you pretending that you're still living in a time when you couldn't get your message out unless you owned a radio station, a newspaper or a TV station or unless you paid those media gatekeepers to publicize your events?"
In an age when every one of you can instantly notify hundreds of people abut your events through Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin or through your own personal blog or website, you're like a man who freezes to death in the middle of the forest when he could have gathered some sticks, built a fire and kept warm.
While I like your idea of buying a sign, I'd like you to start using the free means of information dissemination that are already available to you.
And don't wait for your org's marketing department to do this for you. You can do it better, faster and cheaper yourselves. Let me prove it to you.
A few years ago I was part of a community-based effort to provide a job search seminar/workshop to help "older workers" who had recently been "right-sized" out of their jobs and were experiencing age discrimination as they attempted to find new jobs. We put together a coalition of headhunters, staffing agencies, a major university and, of course, AARP.
The AARP rep told us AARP would take care of publicizing the event. They had been involved in these workshops before and they knew that if they sent 5,000 post cards to members in the area they'd get about 30 attendees. Yeah, that's right; AARP's plan was to spend a lot of money to send 5,000 pieces of mail and only get 30 attendees. Phooey on that.
Had we left it to the AARP marketing department, we would have provided a workshop for about 30 older workers when we knew we should be reaching HUNDREDS of older workers. So we didn't leave it to AARP's marketing guy. We did it ourselves and we reached hundreds of older workers - and we did it at almost no cost at all.
First, we took advantage of "Earned Media". I took it upon myself to write a simple media release which I sent to a handful of radio stations, newspapers and TV stations. I think I mailed about 10 releases at my own expense. As a result of these media releases, I was invited to be a guest on 2 local radio talk shows and was given free space in 2 local newspapers.
And, of course, we used social media. Linkedin. Facebook. (I don't think any of us had Twitter yet but you do.)
Registrations for our older workers job workshop went through the roof. Even after our university partner provided us with a larger venue we had to waitlist hundreds of people and repeat the workshop. It was a smashing success. The only people who weren't happy were the AARP experts who had been shown up by our amateur efforts.
Don't freeze to death in the middle of the forest and don't wait for your marketing people to come save you. You can build your own fire. Let's see, there are 12 people on your board. Let's say each of you types your event as a "status update" and puts it on your Facebook pages, your Linkedin pages and your Twitter feed. Let's say some of you put it in your blog or your personal website. How many people will you reach? Hundreds? Thousands?
St. Albans is a small town. It's easy and free to reach most of the households in town. Don't pretend you don't have the means. I just told you how to do it.
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Higginbotham At Large reads all submitted comments but only publishes comments from identifiable submitters. In other words, no pseudonymous or anonymous comments will be published.
In an age when every one of you can instantly notify hundreds of people abut your events through Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin or through your own personal blog or website, you're like a man who freezes to death in the middle of the forest when he could have gathered some sticks, built a fire and kept warm.
While I like your idea of buying a sign, I'd like you to start using the free means of information dissemination that are already available to you.
And don't wait for your org's marketing department to do this for you. You can do it better, faster and cheaper yourselves. Let me prove it to you.
A few years ago I was part of a community-based effort to provide a job search seminar/workshop to help "older workers" who had recently been "right-sized" out of their jobs and were experiencing age discrimination as they attempted to find new jobs. We put together a coalition of headhunters, staffing agencies, a major university and, of course, AARP.
The AARP rep told us AARP would take care of publicizing the event. They had been involved in these workshops before and they knew that if they sent 5,000 post cards to members in the area they'd get about 30 attendees. Yeah, that's right; AARP's plan was to spend a lot of money to send 5,000 pieces of mail and only get 30 attendees. Phooey on that.
Had we left it to the AARP marketing department, we would have provided a workshop for about 30 older workers when we knew we should be reaching HUNDREDS of older workers. So we didn't leave it to AARP's marketing guy. We did it ourselves and we reached hundreds of older workers - and we did it at almost no cost at all.
First, we took advantage of "Earned Media". I took it upon myself to write a simple media release which I sent to a handful of radio stations, newspapers and TV stations. I think I mailed about 10 releases at my own expense. As a result of these media releases, I was invited to be a guest on 2 local radio talk shows and was given free space in 2 local newspapers.
And, of course, we used social media. Linkedin. Facebook. (I don't think any of us had Twitter yet but you do.)
Registrations for our older workers job workshop went through the roof. Even after our university partner provided us with a larger venue we had to waitlist hundreds of people and repeat the workshop. It was a smashing success. The only people who weren't happy were the AARP experts who had been shown up by our amateur efforts.
Don't freeze to death in the middle of the forest and don't wait for your marketing people to come save you. You can build your own fire. Let's see, there are 12 people on your board. Let's say each of you types your event as a "status update" and puts it on your Facebook pages, your Linkedin pages and your Twitter feed. Let's say some of you put it in your blog or your personal website. How many people will you reach? Hundreds? Thousands?
St. Albans is a small town. It's easy and free to reach most of the households in town. Don't pretend you don't have the means. I just told you how to do it.
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Higginbotham At Large reads all submitted comments but only publishes comments from identifiable submitters. In other words, no pseudonymous or anonymous comments will be published.
06 July, 2012
Higginbotham At Large Welcomes Your Job Search Questions
A few days ago a fellow board member told me I should re-introduce myself to the Kanawha County Workforce Investment Board and write a little bio to remind them of why I was appointed to the WIB in the first place.
OK, I'll do that in a moment but first I want to invite my fellow WIB members to submit suggestions about the topics I should write about on my blog.
As my regular readers know, I already write a considerable number of posts about job search and career topics but now that I'm on the WIB I think I should do more.
Send your topic suggestions or job search questions to JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com.
Here's why I'm qualified to write about job search:
Over the past few decades I've earned a considerable percentage of my income by finding executive and technical talent for clients. I'm not a "recruiter I'm an executive search consultant or "headhunter".
I've found architects, engineers, sales reps, licensed healthcare professionals of all types and managers at all levels of responsibility for both private and publicly-traded companies.
I've served as an expert panelist for college career counseling departments, an on-air job search guest expert for radio stations, a job search workshop presenter/facilitator and, of course, I've written job search and career articles for magazines.
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Higginbotham At Large does not publish comments submitted anonymously or pseudonymously. For example, a comment submitted by JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com would be published. A comment submitted by "anonymous" or by "FuzzySlippers@Morons.com" would not be published.
OK, I'll do that in a moment but first I want to invite my fellow WIB members to submit suggestions about the topics I should write about on my blog.
As my regular readers know, I already write a considerable number of posts about job search and career topics but now that I'm on the WIB I think I should do more.
Send your topic suggestions or job search questions to JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com.
Here's why I'm qualified to write about job search:
Over the past few decades I've earned a considerable percentage of my income by finding executive and technical talent for clients. I'm not a "recruiter I'm an executive search consultant or "headhunter".
I've found architects, engineers, sales reps, licensed healthcare professionals of all types and managers at all levels of responsibility for both private and publicly-traded companies.
I've served as an expert panelist for college career counseling departments, an on-air job search guest expert for radio stations, a job search workshop presenter/facilitator and, of course, I've written job search and career articles for magazines.
--
Higginbotham At Large does not publish comments submitted anonymously or pseudonymously. For example, a comment submitted by JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com would be published. A comment submitted by "anonymous" or by "FuzzySlippers@Morons.com" would not be published.
04 July, 2012
Why Employers Should Learn To Use Linkedin (Instead of Paying For Employment Ads That Bring The Wrong Candidates)
Paid employment ads are helpful when you need to hire 100 call center workers or 50 temps but they aren't very useful when you need to hire a one-of-a-kind professional with very specific SKEs (skills, knowledge, experience).
For example, Charleston area DME (durable medical equipment) companies recently paid Charleston newspapers for ads they hoped would attract sales reps, customer service reps and managers. Whether the ads said so or not, these DME companies were hoping to attract applicants with DME experience. In fact, they hoped to attract applicants who were currently doing these jobs for a competitor but they probably didn't because people who already have a job aren't usually looking at employment ads. These people are called "passive candidates" because you can't attract them by running an ad, you have to go out and find them. You could hire a headhunter to do the job or you could learn how to use Linkedin and do it yourself. Over the years I've found respiratory therapists, pharmacists, physical therapists, sales reps and all levels of managers and executives for DME companies and collected some ridiculous fees for doing so but I never, ever paid for ads since, as I said, ads only bring in people who are looking at ads, so why didn't these three Charleston area DME companies use Linkedin?
With my free Linkedin account and a few minutes of my time I found dozens of "passive candidates" within 25 miles of Charleston who currently work in the DME industry. Do you suppose some of these people might know somebody with DME experience who would be interested in a DME management, sales or customer service job? I also found hundreds of health industry people within 25 miles of Charlelston who work in places where they come into contact with DME people. Social workers. Physical therapists. Case managers. Respiratory therapists. Nurses. Pharmacists. Do you suppose some of these people may know people with DME experience who might want to talk to these paid advertisers about their management, sales and customer service openings? Of course they do.
There are also dozens of DME-specific and health industry groups in Linkedin where these paid advertisers could meet thousands of DME professionals who might know somebody who wants those management, sales and customer service openings.
During my decades of headhunting I never found a DME sales rep or manager that the client couldn't have found on their own had they simply networked a little. In fact, on several occasions I was paid 5 figures for "finding" candidates the employer already knew.
To find such passive candidates all they need is a free Linkedin account and the willingness to learn how to use it.
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Have a comment? Here's how to get your comment published:
Comments submitted by anonymous or pseudonymous submitters will not be approved for publication by Higginbotham At Large. For example, a comment submitted by JosephHigginbotham@gmail .com would be published but a comment submitted by "Anonymous" or by OneWildAndCrazyGuy@idiots.com would not be published.
For example, Charleston area DME (durable medical equipment) companies recently paid Charleston newspapers for ads they hoped would attract sales reps, customer service reps and managers. Whether the ads said so or not, these DME companies were hoping to attract applicants with DME experience. In fact, they hoped to attract applicants who were currently doing these jobs for a competitor but they probably didn't because people who already have a job aren't usually looking at employment ads. These people are called "passive candidates" because you can't attract them by running an ad, you have to go out and find them. You could hire a headhunter to do the job or you could learn how to use Linkedin and do it yourself. Over the years I've found respiratory therapists, pharmacists, physical therapists, sales reps and all levels of managers and executives for DME companies and collected some ridiculous fees for doing so but I never, ever paid for ads since, as I said, ads only bring in people who are looking at ads, so why didn't these three Charleston area DME companies use Linkedin?
With my free Linkedin account and a few minutes of my time I found dozens of "passive candidates" within 25 miles of Charleston who currently work in the DME industry. Do you suppose some of these people might know somebody with DME experience who would be interested in a DME management, sales or customer service job? I also found hundreds of health industry people within 25 miles of Charlelston who work in places where they come into contact with DME people. Social workers. Physical therapists. Case managers. Respiratory therapists. Nurses. Pharmacists. Do you suppose some of these people may know people with DME experience who might want to talk to these paid advertisers about their management, sales and customer service openings? Of course they do.
There are also dozens of DME-specific and health industry groups in Linkedin where these paid advertisers could meet thousands of DME professionals who might know somebody who wants those management, sales and customer service openings.
During my decades of headhunting I never found a DME sales rep or manager that the client couldn't have found on their own had they simply networked a little. In fact, on several occasions I was paid 5 figures for "finding" candidates the employer already knew.
To find such passive candidates all they need is a free Linkedin account and the willingness to learn how to use it.
--
Have a comment? Here's how to get your comment published:
Comments submitted by anonymous or pseudonymous submitters will not be approved for publication by Higginbotham At Large. For example, a comment submitted by JosephHigginbotham@gmail .com would be published but a comment submitted by "Anonymous" or by OneWildAndCrazyGuy@idiots.com would not be published.
27 June, 2012
Top Ten Reasons Blind Employment Ads Are Fishing Expeditions And You Shouldn't Bite
10. Blind ads are only seen by a small segment of the workforce, e.g., "active" job seekers.
9. Blind ads are not seen by "passive" job candidates, e.g., people who are currently working, are relatively happy in their current jobs, and aren't actively seeking new employment.
8. Smart job seekers won't answer blind ads since they can't know who is behind the ad and what that person may do with the information received from respondents.
7. This leaves stupid job seekers, therefore, the employer ends up with resumes from verifiably stupid people.
6. Top employers wouldn't knowingly hire stupid people.
5. Employers stupid enough to hire demonstrably stupid people are probably employers you wouldn't want to work for.
4. The smart employers who don't hire people stupid enough to answer blind ads know there are better ways to find great employees.
3. Smart employers know that using headhunters brings candidates who would never see an employment ad.
2. Smart employers who are proud of their brands know that running branded employment ads helps overall recruitment while running blind, unbranded ads does nothing to build the brand.
1. Smart employers have Linkedin accounts and know how to use Linkedin advanced search to generate lists of passive candidates by geography, by experience, by skills and by education.
For more on blind employment ads read my archived 17 Feb 2010 post.
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Higginbotham At Large does not publish the comments of pseudonymous or anonymous submitters. Your comment does not publish anless I approve it and I only approve comments from submitters who use their real names.
9. Blind ads are not seen by "passive" job candidates, e.g., people who are currently working, are relatively happy in their current jobs, and aren't actively seeking new employment.
8. Smart job seekers won't answer blind ads since they can't know who is behind the ad and what that person may do with the information received from respondents.
7. This leaves stupid job seekers, therefore, the employer ends up with resumes from verifiably stupid people.
6. Top employers wouldn't knowingly hire stupid people.
5. Employers stupid enough to hire demonstrably stupid people are probably employers you wouldn't want to work for.
4. The smart employers who don't hire people stupid enough to answer blind ads know there are better ways to find great employees.
3. Smart employers know that using headhunters brings candidates who would never see an employment ad.
2. Smart employers who are proud of their brands know that running branded employment ads helps overall recruitment while running blind, unbranded ads does nothing to build the brand.
1. Smart employers have Linkedin accounts and know how to use Linkedin advanced search to generate lists of passive candidates by geography, by experience, by skills and by education.
For more on blind employment ads read my archived 17 Feb 2010 post.
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Higginbotham At Large does not publish the comments of pseudonymous or anonymous submitters. Your comment does not publish anless I approve it and I only approve comments from submitters who use their real names.
04 March, 2011
"What Are Headhunters Looking For?"
I'm often asked what headhunters are looking for.
Headhunters are looking for their next check. Headhunters are mercenaries. Headhunters don't represent the candidate, they represent the employer.
Yes, I know, when you ask what headhunters want you mean what do they want in a candidate.
See first answer. A headhunter is looking for his next check so he presents candidates that he thinks can lead to that next check. If the headhunter believes his client will only hire someone with a Ph.D. then he's looking for a Ph. D. If the headhunter knows his client is ageist and homophobic and racist he won't bring that client a gay, black, 60-year-old no matter how well-qualified that person may be. Why? Because the headhunter is looking for his next check.
"How do I get the attention of headhunters?" people sometimes ask me.
First, refer to my previous post about why headhunters prefer "passive" candidates and why you shouldn't send your resume to headhunters unsolicited and unbidden.
Second, be good at your job. Headhunters network til they find what they need. That means that if somebody mentions your name to a headhunter, you just got on his radar and he will call you if he can find contact info. Make sure headhunters can find your contact info in case people are mentioning your name. if you look at my previous post about passive candidates and how I found Bob Maynard and collected a handsome payment for bringing him to my client, then you will understand how headhunters find candidates. Headhunters network until they find what they need. After a half dozen people told me Bob Maynard was the oxygen king of the Florida panhandle, I knew he was what I needed. That's very typical of how to get on a headhunter's radar. Be good at your job like Bob Maynard then make sure people who are looking for you can find you.
Is there contact info on your Linkedin profile? Are you sure? Only about 3 or 4% of the Linkedin profiles I see have any contact info on them so go look at your profile and ask yourself if you can be reached.
But don't wait for a headhunter to hear your name. Get your friends and colleagues and former co-workers and former bosses and every professional contact you've ever had to say your name to employers. Getting a great new job through a headhunter is good. Bob Maynard has thanked me two or three times for not giving up on him and for persisting until he agreed to meet my client. BUt don't wait for a headhunter. Read my posts about "professional co-signers" and start getting your professional contacts to say your name to people who can hire you. Do it now. Don't waste another day sending resumes to strangers. Yes, there's a chance you may get a job that way but play the high percentage game, not the low percentage game.
Higginbotham At Large no longer accepts or publishes reader comments. You may send questions, comments and hate mail to JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com.
Headhunters are looking for their next check. Headhunters are mercenaries. Headhunters don't represent the candidate, they represent the employer.
Yes, I know, when you ask what headhunters want you mean what do they want in a candidate.
See first answer. A headhunter is looking for his next check so he presents candidates that he thinks can lead to that next check. If the headhunter believes his client will only hire someone with a Ph.D. then he's looking for a Ph. D. If the headhunter knows his client is ageist and homophobic and racist he won't bring that client a gay, black, 60-year-old no matter how well-qualified that person may be. Why? Because the headhunter is looking for his next check.
"How do I get the attention of headhunters?" people sometimes ask me.
First, refer to my previous post about why headhunters prefer "passive" candidates and why you shouldn't send your resume to headhunters unsolicited and unbidden.
Second, be good at your job. Headhunters network til they find what they need. That means that if somebody mentions your name to a headhunter, you just got on his radar and he will call you if he can find contact info. Make sure headhunters can find your contact info in case people are mentioning your name. if you look at my previous post about passive candidates and how I found Bob Maynard and collected a handsome payment for bringing him to my client, then you will understand how headhunters find candidates. Headhunters network until they find what they need. After a half dozen people told me Bob Maynard was the oxygen king of the Florida panhandle, I knew he was what I needed. That's very typical of how to get on a headhunter's radar. Be good at your job like Bob Maynard then make sure people who are looking for you can find you.
Is there contact info on your Linkedin profile? Are you sure? Only about 3 or 4% of the Linkedin profiles I see have any contact info on them so go look at your profile and ask yourself if you can be reached.
But don't wait for a headhunter to hear your name. Get your friends and colleagues and former co-workers and former bosses and every professional contact you've ever had to say your name to employers. Getting a great new job through a headhunter is good. Bob Maynard has thanked me two or three times for not giving up on him and for persisting until he agreed to meet my client. BUt don't wait for a headhunter. Read my posts about "professional co-signers" and start getting your professional contacts to say your name to people who can hire you. Do it now. Don't waste another day sending resumes to strangers. Yes, there's a chance you may get a job that way but play the high percentage game, not the low percentage game.
Higginbotham At Large no longer accepts or publishes reader comments. You may send questions, comments and hate mail to JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com.
Why Headhunters Prefer "Passive" Candidates
The job search discussion we're having in my Linked Liberals group on Linkedin reveals some misconceptions about headhunters and how to work with them.
Many job seekers think they increase their odds of getting the attention of a headhunter if they send out their resume -unsolicited - to as many headhunters as they can. Wrong. Don't send resumes to headhunters. When you send an unsolicited resume to a headhunter he knows you've also sent it to every other headhunter and employer and that you have wallpapered Corporate America with resumes. The headhunter who receives your unsolicited resume sees you as a lightweight. The headhunter who receives your unsolicited resume would rather work with a "passive" candidate, not an active candidate.
What is a passive candidate? Instead of just giving you a lifeless definition, let me draw you a picture of an actual passive candidate I recruited for a client way back in the early 90s.
My largest client needed a GM for one of their offices in the South. I knew that qualified managers in that market would likely be under non-compete contracts so I focused my attention on markets that were a commute away in hopes of finding someone who would either relocate or commute the adjacent market. Back in those days we didn't have Linkedin and Google so we had to identify good candidates the old-fashioned way. I started with my Rolodex - remember those? - and started calling everybody I knew in the markets surrounding the market in which my client needed the GM. One name kept coming up: Bob Maynard.
"The guy you need for this job is Bob Maynard", they'd say. "I don't know if Bob is looking, but he's great."
Not only was Bob not looking, Bob wouldn't talk to me at first. Bob had a steady job with a company that didn't appreciate him. Bob was underpaid and he probably knew it but, emotionally, he was at a place in his career where he was willing to swap job security for the chance to make more money and get on a track to career advancement. My client offered all that and I knew that if I could just get Bob to talk to me I could get him to meet my client and that when he met them he'd leave his old employer and come to work for my client. I was right. Bob started as a GM and worked his way up to a VP job. He stayed with my client for 15 years and had what we call "a good run".
Incidentally, while it was a headhunter who got Bob to come in and talk, he was not unknown to my client. People in the organization knew who he was. His reputation had preceded him. All I did was get him to the table but Bob really earned the job by being a great center manager for a competitor.
Bob is the perfect example of a passive candidate. He was a great manager who didn't have a current resume and wasn't looking for a job but deserved a better job than he had. That's a passive candidate. Headhunters love passive candidates.
Had Bob been sending his resume to everybody I could have invested a lot of time in him and lost him to another employer.
I was once an "expert panelist" at a career night event. Someone in the audience asked me how to find headhunters. I said, "You don't find the headhunter, the headhunter finds you - if you're good."
As I've said in previous posts, headhunters network until they find what they need.
But it's still better to be introduced to an employer by your professional co-signer than it is to be introduced by a headhunter. I'll tell you why in tomorrow's post.
Higginbotham At Large no longer accepts or publishes reader comments. You may send questions, comments and hate mail to JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com.
Many job seekers think they increase their odds of getting the attention of a headhunter if they send out their resume -unsolicited - to as many headhunters as they can. Wrong. Don't send resumes to headhunters. When you send an unsolicited resume to a headhunter he knows you've also sent it to every other headhunter and employer and that you have wallpapered Corporate America with resumes. The headhunter who receives your unsolicited resume sees you as a lightweight. The headhunter who receives your unsolicited resume would rather work with a "passive" candidate, not an active candidate.
What is a passive candidate? Instead of just giving you a lifeless definition, let me draw you a picture of an actual passive candidate I recruited for a client way back in the early 90s.
My largest client needed a GM for one of their offices in the South. I knew that qualified managers in that market would likely be under non-compete contracts so I focused my attention on markets that were a commute away in hopes of finding someone who would either relocate or commute the adjacent market. Back in those days we didn't have Linkedin and Google so we had to identify good candidates the old-fashioned way. I started with my Rolodex - remember those? - and started calling everybody I knew in the markets surrounding the market in which my client needed the GM. One name kept coming up: Bob Maynard.
"The guy you need for this job is Bob Maynard", they'd say. "I don't know if Bob is looking, but he's great."
Not only was Bob not looking, Bob wouldn't talk to me at first. Bob had a steady job with a company that didn't appreciate him. Bob was underpaid and he probably knew it but, emotionally, he was at a place in his career where he was willing to swap job security for the chance to make more money and get on a track to career advancement. My client offered all that and I knew that if I could just get Bob to talk to me I could get him to meet my client and that when he met them he'd leave his old employer and come to work for my client. I was right. Bob started as a GM and worked his way up to a VP job. He stayed with my client for 15 years and had what we call "a good run".
Incidentally, while it was a headhunter who got Bob to come in and talk, he was not unknown to my client. People in the organization knew who he was. His reputation had preceded him. All I did was get him to the table but Bob really earned the job by being a great center manager for a competitor.
Bob is the perfect example of a passive candidate. He was a great manager who didn't have a current resume and wasn't looking for a job but deserved a better job than he had. That's a passive candidate. Headhunters love passive candidates.
Had Bob been sending his resume to everybody I could have invested a lot of time in him and lost him to another employer.
I was once an "expert panelist" at a career night event. Someone in the audience asked me how to find headhunters. I said, "You don't find the headhunter, the headhunter finds you - if you're good."
As I've said in previous posts, headhunters network until they find what they need.
But it's still better to be introduced to an employer by your professional co-signer than it is to be introduced by a headhunter. I'll tell you why in tomorrow's post.
Higginbotham At Large no longer accepts or publishes reader comments. You may send questions, comments and hate mail to JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com.
03 March, 2011
Answers To Questions About Working With Headhunters
Lately, I've been getting some questions about headhunting and headhunters. How to "hire" a headhunter to find you a job. How to attract headhunters.
Since I'm not interested in writing about boring, "inside baseball" stuff and since I'm not interested in starting a war with headhunters whose methods I dislike, I'm going to use the question of how to work with a headhunter as an excuse to show readers how to exploit this arcane information in your job search whether or not you ever talk to a headhunter.
First of all, headhunters don't usually "find" candidates that were previously unknown to their clients nor do headhunters usually bring their clients candidates they couldn't have "found" for themselves. This was true in 1993 when I first started "finding" talent for a a few clients and, in the age of Linkedin and Google, it's even more true today. Over the years I have placed nurses, respiratory therapists, sales reps, managers, engineers, architects, marketing gurus, pharmacists, etc., with clients only to find that my client either (a) already knew the person they had just paid me to find or (b) my client could have easily found this candidate for themselves by leveraging their existing network of professional contacts. After I have arranged a meeting between the client and the successful candidate, we learn that Bob in accounting knows the new hire from a previous job or Sally from R&D knows the candidate from a civic group or the hiring manager actually knows the candidate from church or because their kids go to the same school.
On a few occasions, clients have actually provided me with the names of people they wanted me to recruit.
"Why" you may be wondering, "would an employer pay a headhunter to "find" someone he has already found?" There are several reasons: A lot of employers are like insecure high school boys who won't ask the pretty cheerleader to the dance until he knows for sure the answer is "yes". Also, employers don't want to lose the upper hand in salary and benefits negotiations so they don't want the desired candidate to know he or she is on the short list of preferred candidates. If the headhunter fee is less than the salary, perks and benefits advantage the candidate would gain by knowing how badly the employer wants him, it makes sense to pay the headhunter, not the candidate.
Notice that if the hiring manager wants to talk to you about a job but he doesn't want to appear too eager, it really doesn't matter if you're brought to him by a headhunter or by Karen in marketing who knows you from a previous job.
Knowing that employers are so bad at leveraging their own networks that they will actually pay headhunters to bring them candidates they could have "found" and hired without the headhunter provides you, the job seeker, with a great opportunity to exploit their ignorance or laziness. How? Networking is a 2-way street. If the boss is too lazy or too networking-challenged to use the network that connects the two of you together, then you can use the network the boss is ignoring.
Remember the list I told you how to make 2 posts ago? Perhaps Karen in marketing is on that list and perhaps the hiring manager wants to talk to you but he'd rather somebody brought you to him. You need a job, right? is Karen from marketing on the list? Call Karen and ask her to be your professional co-signer.
Second, make yourself easy to find and contact. Headhunters and enlightened employers use Linkedin. to identify people with the right degree or the right experience so make sure your Linkedin profile has actual contact info on it and make sure it's replete with all the appropriate buzzwords that show off your SKEs - skills, knowledge and experience. When using Linkedin to identify prospective candidates, a headhunter may type "P&L" instead of "profit and loss" so put both in your profile.
About 97% of the Linkedin profiles I see contain no contact info. Make sure either your phone number or your email address or both are on your profile. If you don't know where to put it, look at my profile.
Join Linkedin groups that connect you to the kind of people who might want to hire you and to the people you may have worked with in a previous job.
This piece of advice may seem counter-intuitive but don't send your resume to headhunters.
Headhunters prefer "passive" candidates, not "active candidates". I'm not saying you should play hard to get but I am saying that desperation gives off a bad smell that repels everybody. I could write an entire blog post on that last point - and perhaps one day I will - but for now, just know this: there is no reason to send your resume to a headhunter unless he asks for it and has a specific job opening in mind. Sometimes I don't ask for a resume until I've already arranged the meeting between client and candidate. Sometimes I don't even send the client a resume, just my own notes on what I know about the candidate.
Finally - and this may be the most important thing I can tell you about working with headhunters - it wouldn't have been necessary for the employer to secure the services of a headhunter had the employer's existing network brought employer and candidate together so work proactively to network yourself to the employer whether or not there's a job opening that you know about. If Bob in accounting or Sally in R&D are on that legal pad list I told you how to make two posts ago, call them and get yourself recommended to your next boss.
Higginbotham At Large welcomes comments as long as those comments are not anonymous or pseudonymous. Readers and "lurkers" may remain anonymous but there will be no anonymous or pseudonymous comments at Higginbotham At Large. No Ring of Gyges for you.
Since I'm not interested in writing about boring, "inside baseball" stuff and since I'm not interested in starting a war with headhunters whose methods I dislike, I'm going to use the question of how to work with a headhunter as an excuse to show readers how to exploit this arcane information in your job search whether or not you ever talk to a headhunter.
First of all, headhunters don't usually "find" candidates that were previously unknown to their clients nor do headhunters usually bring their clients candidates they couldn't have "found" for themselves. This was true in 1993 when I first started "finding" talent for a a few clients and, in the age of Linkedin and Google, it's even more true today. Over the years I have placed nurses, respiratory therapists, sales reps, managers, engineers, architects, marketing gurus, pharmacists, etc., with clients only to find that my client either (a) already knew the person they had just paid me to find or (b) my client could have easily found this candidate for themselves by leveraging their existing network of professional contacts. After I have arranged a meeting between the client and the successful candidate, we learn that Bob in accounting knows the new hire from a previous job or Sally from R&D knows the candidate from a civic group or the hiring manager actually knows the candidate from church or because their kids go to the same school.
On a few occasions, clients have actually provided me with the names of people they wanted me to recruit.
"Why" you may be wondering, "would an employer pay a headhunter to "find" someone he has already found?" There are several reasons: A lot of employers are like insecure high school boys who won't ask the pretty cheerleader to the dance until he knows for sure the answer is "yes". Also, employers don't want to lose the upper hand in salary and benefits negotiations so they don't want the desired candidate to know he or she is on the short list of preferred candidates. If the headhunter fee is less than the salary, perks and benefits advantage the candidate would gain by knowing how badly the employer wants him, it makes sense to pay the headhunter, not the candidate.
Notice that if the hiring manager wants to talk to you about a job but he doesn't want to appear too eager, it really doesn't matter if you're brought to him by a headhunter or by Karen in marketing who knows you from a previous job.
Knowing that employers are so bad at leveraging their own networks that they will actually pay headhunters to bring them candidates they could have "found" and hired without the headhunter provides you, the job seeker, with a great opportunity to exploit their ignorance or laziness. How? Networking is a 2-way street. If the boss is too lazy or too networking-challenged to use the network that connects the two of you together, then you can use the network the boss is ignoring.
Remember the list I told you how to make 2 posts ago? Perhaps Karen in marketing is on that list and perhaps the hiring manager wants to talk to you but he'd rather somebody brought you to him. You need a job, right? is Karen from marketing on the list? Call Karen and ask her to be your professional co-signer.
Second, make yourself easy to find and contact. Headhunters and enlightened employers use Linkedin. to identify people with the right degree or the right experience so make sure your Linkedin profile has actual contact info on it and make sure it's replete with all the appropriate buzzwords that show off your SKEs - skills, knowledge and experience. When using Linkedin to identify prospective candidates, a headhunter may type "P&L" instead of "profit and loss" so put both in your profile.
About 97% of the Linkedin profiles I see contain no contact info. Make sure either your phone number or your email address or both are on your profile. If you don't know where to put it, look at my profile.
Join Linkedin groups that connect you to the kind of people who might want to hire you and to the people you may have worked with in a previous job.
This piece of advice may seem counter-intuitive but don't send your resume to headhunters.
Headhunters prefer "passive" candidates, not "active candidates". I'm not saying you should play hard to get but I am saying that desperation gives off a bad smell that repels everybody. I could write an entire blog post on that last point - and perhaps one day I will - but for now, just know this: there is no reason to send your resume to a headhunter unless he asks for it and has a specific job opening in mind. Sometimes I don't ask for a resume until I've already arranged the meeting between client and candidate. Sometimes I don't even send the client a resume, just my own notes on what I know about the candidate.
Finally - and this may be the most important thing I can tell you about working with headhunters - it wouldn't have been necessary for the employer to secure the services of a headhunter had the employer's existing network brought employer and candidate together so work proactively to network yourself to the employer whether or not there's a job opening that you know about. If Bob in accounting or Sally in R&D are on that legal pad list I told you how to make two posts ago, call them and get yourself recommended to your next boss.
Higginbotham At Large welcomes comments as long as those comments are not anonymous or pseudonymous. Readers and "lurkers" may remain anonymous but there will be no anonymous or pseudonymous comments at Higginbotham At Large. No Ring of Gyges for you.
24 September, 2010
Why Your Online Branding Strategy Backfires
“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. re: his 1961 Mother Night character, Howard Campbell, who survived WWII by helping the Nazis and pretending to be a Nazi.
There are two kinds of people I don’t trust: I don’t trust people who, in this “reputation economy”, have no online footprint. As some of you know, I own a Linked group called “Linking Liberally”. About a week ago I received a membership request from someone whose values and beliefs were impossible to discern from her Linkedin profile so I did a Google search. Nothing. I used her email address to search for her Facebook account. There was no Facebook account associated with the email address associated with the applicant’s Linkedin account. So I started sending Linkedin messages to my considerable liberal network in her area – even at her place of employment. Nobody had heard of her. Before I rejected her membership request I gave her a chance to send me some evidence of her liberalism; the name of a person who could vouch for her liberalism, for instance. She couldn’t. If people who work where she works do not know she’s a liberal, I’m not convinced she’s a liberal - or even that she gave her real name. And it's not just that people she supposedly works with had heard of her, it's that she left no online footprint at all. In this age of Google and Bing and social media, how do you not have some online identity unless you're using a fake name?
I also don’t trust people who have a carefully-crafted “online brand” – especially the ones who want me to pay them to show me how to have a carefully-crafted online brand. Unlike many of the so-called marketing gurus who are trying to revive or extend their marketing careers by pretending to be “social media experts”, I have actually read dozens of books on branding and I understand what a brand is and that’s why I don’t trust people who want to use a “social” medium or a “relationship-based medium” as if it’s TV. The whole point of social media and relationship-based networking is that people should know who you are and what you stand for and what you believe in and who your associations are and either resonate with your or not based on those values, beliefs and associations.
And while I’m on the subject of trying to create an online persona or brand, let me say this to people who have drunk the Kool Aid that you can be one person on Facebook and another on Linkedin. Headhunters and recruiters and others who have a need to know who you are will look at everything – your blog, your Tweets, your Facebook, your LInkedin. Everything. I never cease to be amazed at the people I encounter online who keep their Linkedin profile “strictly professional”, scrubbed of all evidence of their interests and values but whose Facebook page is a disturbing look into their immaturities, prejudices and shady associations.
People who think they can get headhunters to look only at their Linkedin profiles remind me of the idiots who say “We have to fight ‘em over there or we’ll have to fight ‘em over here”. You have no control over where terrorists or headhunters go. They go everywhere. Just as you can’t keep terrorists from fighting us here by offering them the shiny object of a war in the Middle East, you can’t stop a headhunter from looking at your Facebook page and your Tweets by offering him the shiny object of a Linkedin profile. Headhunters and terrorists go everywhere, they look at everything.
For the record, I have no “online strategy” or “online brand”. This blog is not part of any “online strategy” to mislead you about who I am. I am the same in my blog as I am on Linkedin or Facebook. You don’t need one of those so-called “social media experts” to help you be yourself unless you don’t know who you are.
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