Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter's Job Hunting Advice

Saturday, March 29, 2008

The New Way for Resume Inconsistencies to Be Uncovered.

Last week someone senta resume to me who was already in our ATS (Applicant Tracking System). ATS's are used by recruiters and employers alike to track resumes received and actions taken with candidates.

So, having looked at the resume and having a perfunctory sense of the background, my eyes noticed something--the dates were changed and a few months added to their employment last year (this was a resume inputted by a former colleague so I was not familiar with them).

At that moment, I debated about whether to hit the delete key.

Why? Because if they insisted upon perpetuating the lie I would have to confront them and no one likes a recruiter doing that to them, right? We're all so, "pushy" and concerned about "making a buck."

So, I decided to call the person and, in the midst of qualifying them, ask them about it.

After a brief denial, I asked, "How do you think your resume from one job ago got into our system with these dates unless they were on your resume?"

Silence and then the admission.

Look, I took the time because we all make mistakes (Hillary Clinton "misspoke", right?) but employers are rarely so kind as to tolerate being lied to.

If you have ever sent a resume to a company or a recruiter has emailed a resume to a company, it is likely in an applicant tracking system where a lie will be caught and your ability to work for that company destroyed.

DON'T DO IT!

Jeff Altman

He is the author of “Get Yourself Hired NOW! The Big Game Hunter’s Guide to Head Hunting Your Next Job and Every Job After That” (in ebook and audio formats) and “Get Your Job Search Organized NOW!” (ebook) Both are available at www.getyourselfhiredNOW.com Register at the site and you will receive free copies of The International Job Board List and a Guide to Resume Writing.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals
HeadHuntYourNextJob.com: 3 Search Products in one place
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Passively Looking Aggressively: Ten Things You Can Do To Be Found and Why You Need To Do Them.

Having been a recruiter for almost 40 years (GASP!), I started in the industry at a time where running ads meant in a newspaper and cold calling candidates from company telephone directories and lying to them was far more common than it is today (thank goodness).

We were trained to present ourselves as updating telephone books to get names, to call the operator at a company, pretend we were at the airport and . . . I'll skip telling you all the fraud that recruiters would engage in in "days of old."

One of the things I was extremely proud of was helping to create a myth that has gained such wide acceptance today--The Myth of The Passive Candidate.

The way the story goes is that passive applicants are superior to active ones because they are busy doing their job and not reading the newspaper looking for work. That you could run the largest ad in the newspaper and it wouldn't be sen by this person because they were too busy working to know.

As a result, through "aggressive recruiting," I was representing the best person available and not just the best person reading the newspaper on a given Sunday.

I started using this strategy because at the time I started my first business, I didn't have the budget to compete with the larger firms with enormous ad budgets. Thus, in the mind of many clients and firms I was marketing to, I diminished the referrals from my competitors who did advertise and put a halo around mine all at once.

Today, I read posts from recruiters who swear on a stack of Bibles that passive candidates are superior to active ones. It is ridiculous how easy it is to put a hole in the argument but, no mind, zealots exist in religion, politics and recruiting.

However, YOU need to understand that the bias exists and, in good times and bad, construct your job search in such a way as to maneuver some of the people who have this belief system, particularly if you are at a C-level.

Why?

Because to these people, the active job hunter is inferior an unworthy of their client's time.

So here are some strategies to entice and seduce this segment of the search profession.

1. Start by understanding what is your online persona by searching your name. When you run a Google search on mine, I show up in the 4th position behind the comedian, Jeff Altman (he is very funny). When you add "The Big Game Hunter" to the search, there are about 3900 answers including job ads I've written, my websites, articles I've written and much more.

What is yours?

2. Write a professional bio for yourself and post it on your own website (You do have a website, don't you).

3. Use LinkedIn, Xing, Konnects and Zaabiz.
LinkedIn is the largest in the US; Xing, the largest in Europe and growing in the US as is Konnects and Zaabiz (they are Australia/New Zealand based and growing in the US, and Asia).

4. Write articles about your competence for trade publications.

5 Become active in online communities.

6. Give referrals to recruiters.

7. Blog about your work.

8. If you aggressively look for work, only post "blind resumes." Post a resume with your name on it and a different one that does not and is different than in some respects from the public one.

9. Collect contact information from people when they leave your firm. They may be great sources of leads, particularly if you send them

10. Christmas and holiday cards that tell the detailed stories of the year for you professionally and personally.

Remember, for this class of recruiter, you can not look good to them if you are looking for work publicly. Thus, put yourself in the position to be "found" so that they can have the false feeling of success and accomplishment.

Jeff Altman

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals
HeadHuntYourNextJob.com: 3 Search Products in one place
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India

Thirteen Sites for Finding an Internship

This job (and technically it is not a job) may not be for you, personally. It may be for the teen in your family. Regardless, I hope it helps whoever reads it.

According to the US Department of Labor, an internship program must meet six specific standards.

1. The intern has to receive training that is equivalent to a vocational school.
2. The intern benefits from the experience
3. The intern cannot displace an employee
4. There is no immediate advantage from the Intern's Activities
5. There is no guarantee of a job
6. There is an understanding that the intern will not be paid

To translate the legalese, an intern is an unpaid person who works for a company that should get nothing substantial from the work the intern performs, yet the interns learns from the experience, doesn't replace a current employee and receives no promise that they will be hired.

Sounds real enticing!

In addition to the support provided by your student's university, here are a few websites that can help your "intern-to-be" find an internship program

1. Search4JobLeads.com: This site aggregates information from thousands of other sites as does
2. Indeed.com: I carry Indeed on www.jeffaltman.com/links.htm
3. CollegeRecruiter http://tinyurl.com/25jsn2: This site focuses on the college age person to recent grad
4. Careerbuilder: I have convenient Careerbuilder links on www.jeffaltman.com Search using the entry level link.
5. Monster http://tinyurl.com/yuof36 The Big Daddy site has many openings
6. Internjobs www.Internjobs.com
7. FashionInternship http://tinyurl.com/2qmlyf
8. AdvertisingInternships http://tinyurl.com/2sbbel
9. Entertainment Internships http://tinyurl.com/3by8ze
10. Marketing Internships http://tinyurl.com/359jro
11. Music Internships http://tinyurl.com/368gwm
12. PublicRelationsInternships http://tinyurl.com/2m2cxh
13. Yahoo HotJobs http://tinyurl.com/ytpnje

I hope these sites help.

Jeff Altman

He is the author of “Get Yourself Hired NOW! The Big Game Hunter’s Guide to Head Hunting Your Next Job and Every Job After That” (in ebook and audio formats) and “Get Your Job Search Organized NOW!” (ebook) Both are available at www.getyourselfhiredNOW.com Register at the site and you will receive free copies of The International Job Board List and a Guide to Resume Writing.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program,go to www.jeffaltman.com.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals
HeadHuntYourNextJob.com: 4 Search Products in one place
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India

Friday, February 29, 2008

You Hate Spam, Don't You?

So Why Are You Spamming Me?

One of the reasons I like Gmail as much as I do is because its spam filter is extremely good. The spam filter or local ISP provides is horrible and requires that every time I open it, I have to manually create rules that direct future spammer emails to go directly to my delete files. It is too time consuming, so I've switched to Gmail and abandoned the ISP's email account for me to the spammers.

At work, every day, I arrive to at least 100 and, more often, 150+ emails from individuals whose resumes in no way shape or form reflect the specifics of the requirements of the job description they are applying for.

I wonder why they sent the resume.

Many people are brought up with the idea that if your resume fits 20% of the requirement, you send it because maybe . . .

Or that if a recruiter does work in a specific field, but the ad doesn't fit your experience, you send them your resume because they might have something else. This strategy may work with junior recruiters but is frustrating to people like me who have high demanding and extremely demanding clients.

So let me explain why this is so troublesome.

On Monday, if I walk in to 100 new resumes, call and speak to each person for 5 minutes, I will take 5 hours qualifying every person. I will have done nothing to help the people who contacted me on Friday who may or may not fit the requirements. I probably won't actually speak to everyone; I'll need to leave messages that may or may not be responded to that day. I will need to keep everyone's resume organized and easily locatable so that when they decide they have the time to call back, I can easily retrieve it which delays my contacting someone from that day's group of 100 resumes.

And then I will have discovered that the resume was sent speculatively.

I know I am not unique in having this problem. Recruiters I connect with all over the country lament that they spend all day reading one useless resume after another.

So, here's a piece of simple and EXTREMELY USEFUL ADVICE. If you have the experience that is required of the job, make sure it is in your resume, even if that means adding it to your basic resume.

Do not just include it in a cover letter or cover email; PUT IT IN THE RESUME. Pretend that someone even busier than I will be reviewing it so MAKE YOUR RELEVANT EXPERIENCE OBVIOUS.

By doing that, you will get many more interviews and your resumes won't look like spam.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2008 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a retired certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

He is the author of “Get Yourself Hired NOW! The Big Game Hunter’s Guide to Head Hunting Your Next Job and Every Job After That” (in ebook and audio formats) and “Get Your Job Search Organized NOW!” (ebook) Both are available at www.getyourselfhiredNOW.com Register at the site and you will receive free copies of The International Job Board List and a Guied to Resume Writing.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals
HeadHuntYourNextJob.com: 3 Search Products in one place
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Mapping Your Network

As you start to prepare to change jobs, one of the many things you can do to prepare to change jobs is to map your network. What's that?

Some of you may be familiar with the term from technology where a diagram or schema of a local, wide or metropolitan area network may be developed so that everyone has a sense of how the network has been constructed, who is on it and what the topology is.

Mapping your network is similar.

Start with your first level of relationships--who do you know? Look in your phone book, your online address book, your online connections and accumulate office and home email addresses, phone numbers and addresses. How about people you know from religious relationships? People you connect with on Facebook, myspace, LinkedIn and other social network sites

Your second level of relationship is to ask yourself who they might know who you could ask them to put you in contact with. Do they have a spouse or partner who works for a desired organization. How old are their adult children. Where do they work and what do they do professionally. How about the people from the online networking services. Who are they connected with and who is in their families?

Keep expanding outward for each person and develop a schema of your relationships and of those you are connected with. Once you've done this, you can figure out who you can ask for help and to do what for you.

Jeff Altman

He is the author of “Get Yourself Hired NOW! The Big Game Hunter’s Guide to Head Hunting Your Next Job and Every Job After That” (in ebook and audio formats) and “Get Your Job Search Organized NOW!” (ebook) Both are available at www.getyourselfhiredNOW.com

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals
HeadHuntYourNextJob.com: 3 Search Products in one place
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India

Are You The Target?

If an earthquake had devastated your home, would you sit and complain about it or would you be making new plans?

Too often, the first thing people do when their firm is experiencing problems is to sit and mope, complain, do anything other than fit for their jobs or hit the exits. After all, complaining does nothing. Action does.

So if you learn your firm is experiencing financial problems severe enough to put layoffs in the cards or your job in jeopardy, here are a few things to do.

If you run a business unit or a company and the numbers disappoint, don't just take it; make your case to the board, to the president, to anyone who should hear it. Don't let the numbers stand unchallenged. Make sure people know that it is not unique to your firm and that you have a plan to change things.

If you're the Average Joe or Josephine, be the "backbone of the organization." Come in early and leave late. Care about what you do and document everything. Make sure people know how much effort you put in without seeming like a martyr.

If you're fairly new to the firm when problems occur, become "the eager beaver" by becoming a sponge for knowledge. Ask lots of questions and get advice from everyone important. Get going!

If you're an "old timer" become a work machine. let everyone see you as important so that they don't believe that you and your high salary are disposable.

And while all of this is going on, prepare your resume and start connecting with people inside of your organization to see if you can transfer to a division where layoffs are unlikely or outside of your organization so that you can start interviewing before you are fired.

Jeff Altman

He is the author of “Get Yourself Hired NOW! The Big Game Hunter’s Guide to Head Hunting Your Next Job and Every Job After That” (in ebook and audio formats) and “Get Your Job Search Organized NOW!” (ebook) Both are available at www.getyourselfhiredNOW.com

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals
HeadHuntYourNextJob.com: 3 Search Products in one place
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Long Distance Job Hunting: Not For the Faint of Heart

More people are looking for jobs away from their home territories in order to defeat regional issues that make it difficult to find work near home. They hope that their next employer will provide benefits that make it easy to move (some do; many don't), but forget that long distance job hunting is extremely difficult.

Here's why.

1. You are at a major competitive disadvantage with local talent. Local job hunters can come to interviews tomorrow or the next day. You may have to take a day off from work, drive 250 miles for the meeting, stay overnight, interview and return home. You may have to book a flight (at their expense, you are costing them money; at your expense, to get cheaper rates, you may need a few days to get a reasonably priced air fare).

2. Firms worry about you adjusting after the move. Even if you are 22 and living with a roommate, employers wonder about how you're going to find an apartment or new home, move your things and be able to perform given the stress of the move.

3. You cost an employer more. Look at these costs--flights, meals, hotels, a car to take you o their offices and to and from the airport, relocation, temporary living, travel to a second and perhaps third interview. Some firms don't want to bother, especially during slow economic times.

Ideally you don't want to be planning a move "under the gun" of needing a job. Hopefully, a move is a planned event in your life.

To help defray some of the costs and make more opportunities available to you with firms that do not pay interview and relocation expenses consider these alternatives:

a. Accumulate frequent flyer points and use them for interviews.

b. Group your interviews so that you can do several on your trip

c. Find a friend or family member with whom you can stay when interviewing

d. Make sure your wife, husband, partner and kids are OK with moving BEFORE you begin interviewing

If you are out of work, or if you making an interview trip as part of a job search, the more you can do while on a trip, the better (for you),

If firms in your new market don't usually pay interview or relocation expenses, the more you can do to erase their apprehension of hiring someone who is not local to them, the better off you will be,

He is the author of “Get Yourself Hired NOW! The Big Game Hunter’s Guide to Head Hunting Your Next Job and Every Job After That” (in ebook and audio formats) and “Get Your Job Search Organized NOW!” (ebook) Both are available at www.getyourselfhiredNOW.com

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals
HeadHuntYourNextJob.com: 3 Search Products in one place
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India

Monday, January 28, 2008

A Creative Idea for Marketing Skills

Time Magazine carried a story a few years ago about an unusual auction on eBay.

"Team of 16 employees from major ISP willing to leave as a group," the posting read. "Total minimum bid would be $3,140,000."

Although the team did not sell, it does open the idea into your mind that in certain areas and with certain skills it might be possible to market group of skills collectively and get a number of people hired.

For example:

Complete trading team (this is pretty common)
Entire sales department
7 Accountants
6 architects
5 engineers
4 systems administrators
3 French hens
2 turtle doves

And a partridge . . .

Joking aside, why not market a group as a package?

If you are laid off, why not ask your former employer to create a website, complete with domain name registration, web design and the like for everyone affected to have their resume available for search?

Jeff Altman

The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2008 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a practicing psychotherapist and is a retired certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search job openings, use his free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe. to subscribe Jeff’s free job search ezines, Head Hunt Your Next Job and/or Natural Selection (his free recruiting ezine), or to find out about his VIP Personal Search Agent service, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff or locating consultants, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Priorities

A new client contacted me about a consulting assignment that they needed filled.

I found someone who fit their requirements called and left a message with the wife who told me that he would call back after taking their child to school/

No problem.

Three hours later, I called again and spoke with him, reviewed his experience, discovered he was out of work for 8 months (red flag) but decided to go ahead with trying to arrange an interview for him.

The client liked his background and I called him to alert him to the probability of receiving a call from them late that afternoon.

"But I'm grouting the floor!"

"Sir, you;v been out of work for 8 months, are not close to landing a new job, I waited three hours for a return phone call and never received one, despite your wife's promise that I would receive one about a half hour later. Now you have an interview and you tell me you would rather grout your floor? Help me undertsand this."

He hung up and I was glad. A colleague called him back in an hour and gthe man described me in unkind terms for having pointed out how inconsistent his behavior was (I want a job, I won't call you back; I won't interview at the time I told you I could interview in our first conversation because I would rather grout the floor). I was thankful for not having my time wasted any more.

Jeff Altman

Everyone Should Know You're Looking

I sat with John Sampson last week for an hour and talked with him about the importance of networking. If you don't know John, he is a technology manager in New Jersey who rums a large networking group called MIS Network Associates as an act of giving back (I know, I suggested ways he could make it more profitable and he rebuffed the ideas, saying it was an act of love for all the help he has received.

Beyond helping people develop their elevator pitch (you know, the 30 second commercial about your work), John encourages members to tell everyone that they are looking for work and what kind of job they do.

Can your wife explain what you do in 30 seconds or less? Make sure they can!
Blogger: Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter's Job Hunting Advice - Create Post
He told a wonderful story about how one of his members has being pushed by their cleaning person for a resume. Eventually, the man's wife told him, "Give her the resume so I can get her off my back!"

It seems that the woman's husband managed a function at a large employer in the area and hired him for a terrific job.

Have you told your mechanic, doctor, hairdresser, accountant, lawyer, best friend, pastor, rabbi, monk, priest, nun, shoemaker, former boss (gasping for air) that you're looking for a job?

Tell everyone and tell them what you do!

Jeff Altman

Sunday, January 20, 2008

The Top Six Ways You May Be Sabotaging Your Search: #2

#2: Circumventing Your Recruiter to Do Your Own Negotiating

Too often people subscribe to the thinking that trusting a recruiter during financial discussions costs them money. In fact, not listening to their recruiter will cost you everything.

You see, a recruiter is having conversations with their corporate client (in my thinking, the real client since they are the ones who are paying them) and have access to their tyhinking.

Sometimes this will come across in how they "manage you" into accepting a particular salary or package.

Read between the lines in what you are being told. After all, recruiters, whether retained or contingency are paid for success and failure does not help them achieve their fee (or the balance of their fee if they are retained) and additional business.

So, often they are sending messages to you about what their client is thinking.

Contacting a firm behind their back, attempting to negotiate a salary different than what you are telling them hurts you, not them. After all, the recruiter is the trusted party by the client, not you and they will thow you under the bus and align themselves with their client's interests at that moment to preserve the relationship rather than defend you, despite what you may think.

A friend with another search firm told me a story recently about an applicant who she was representing who after two interviews decided they wanted another $20,000 more than what they had expressed to the recruiter and to the firm directly. The reasons are unimportant; the reaction is.

The client was bewildered; they asked the recruiter about the candidate and their thinking; the recruiter was dumbfounded by being blindsided, pointed out that this was the first she had heard of the applicant changing their thinking, and calmly accepted the rejection of this candidate by the client.

If you have issues with the salary that is being discussed or might be proposed, talk to your recruiter.

They may not be able to get any more because, after all, budgets are fixed for particular jobs.

But if they can, they will. Why, because it is their interest to. After all, recruiters are paid a percentage of your compensation. The more you make, the more they make. But they make nothing unless the negotiation is successful AND they come out with less than what they started with if, in fact, you embarrass them and they defend you without being prepared to do so.

Avoid this tactic unless you believe that scorched earth is the best environment to start a relationship.

Jeff Altman

The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2008 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a retired certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals
HeadHuntYourNextJob.com: 3 Search Products in one place

Saturday, January 19, 2008

The Top 6 Ways You May Be Sabotaging Your Job Search: #1

Having been in the search profession for more than 30 years, I have seen a lot of ridiculous things that people do that subvert their efforts.

Yet there are six things that I believe do so much harm that I can't sit still any more and allow you to make these mistakes any more. Time will be too short for many of you and even in markets that will not suffer the effects of a slow down, correcting these mistakes is critical to making sure that you don't lose opportunities that you really want.

This is the first in a series of articles designed to help you avoid many of the mistakes people make when they look for work. I am not presenting them in any particular order.

#1 Way People Sabotage Their Job Search: Flipping Resumes to Job Ads Like They Were Flipping Hamburgers in the Kitchen of a Fast Food Restaurant.

Think of that image for a moment. A fry chef kid at a fast food restaurant is preparing orders for lots of people. Lots and lots of people. He or she has to turn them over and is flipping so many of them.

Well people keep submitting the same resume to job after job as though the job requirements in every position they are applying for are identical. They do nothing to emphasize particular skills that the employer might care about. They just keep sending out the same resume again and again without tweaking it.

The broken watch is right twice a day and sending the same resume again and again will get some interviews but miss far more.

Don't you really want the interview when you send the resume? If you do, tweak your resume to make it obvious that you fit the ojb, instead of just sending the same resume again and again.

Jeff Altman

Friday, January 18, 2008

Be Conscious When The Phone Rings

I was calling a job hunter this week for a relationship manager role (with this client, it is a sales role for farming existing clients for new business) with a client. I introduced myself, confirmed that it was a convenient time (it was).

I described the job I was recruiting for to which he had forwarded his resume and started to ask a few warm up questions like "Why are you trying to make a change" and "Tell me about the work you've been doing," when I had to stop and ask myself, "Did I wake this man because he is dead and its almost noon."

His voice showed no life; he answered questions sloppily.

I asked him point blank whether I had interrupted him from something else (it wouldn't be the first time I interrupted someone doing some "personal" [wink. wink}).

"No, I've been up for hours, he told me.

I paused and decided to be helpful, explaining how I was disappointed in his presentation; that for someone with his experience I was expecting a lot more of him than what he gave me.

Then he said those immortal words, "Well, you're only the recruiter," and explained that he didn't think he had to sell to me.

So, in a polite manner, I explained that I was there to evaluate and assess people for my client and not "flip resumes like the staff does with burgers at a fast restaurant." I wished him well and left.

So, the moral to this story is take no one for granted when you are looking for work. Although I believe that many skilled professionals will be safe during the 2007-2008 recession (yes, I believe it has already started), many people won't be and shouldn't cavalierly come to interviews unprepared.

Jeff Altman

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better
The Shopping Universe: More than a thousand stores in this mall AND help a child at the same time.

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals
HeadHuntYourNextJob.com: 3 Search Engines in one place

Monday, January 07, 2008

Text Messaging: The New Tool in Job Hunting

Many of us have been brought up to believe that testing is for kids. That email and cell phones are far better ways to communicate.

But if you work in an environment where you can't take calls (others are close by, you work on a trading floor, to name two reasons) and people need to convey info to you quickly, what can you do other than demand they call you off hours (I'm not the only person with a family in the search profession; plus how many corporate people are going to call you at 8PM)?

Get a text messaging plan for your cell phone and let people know on your resume that they can text you (next to your cell number, xxx-xxx-xxxx cell/text).

In this way, you can get critical information that can't wait for you to get to your personal email account outside the office or to a private place to make a call. You can handle everything via text easily.

Jeff Altman

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better
The Shopping Universe: More than a thousand stores in this mall AND help a child at the same time.

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals

Saturday, January 05, 2008

Don't Just Answer Ads and Network

Most people make the mistake of conducting a job search just like people did in the 70's--they answer ads in the newspapers or online and wait for th phone to ring.

Others think that they are doing a good thing by networking. Networking is a terrific way to use your relationships in order to make contacts that leads to work. (By the way, if you want to network with my 1300+ contacts on LinkedIn, send me an invitation through their system. My public page is http://www.linkedin.com/in/thebiggamehunter (Please note I do not connect with third party recruiters).

The third way to find work is using a two pronged approach--find a company that has a need and then either network to the person or people who are charged with fixing the problem or use Jigsaw to find the person or someone near the person who you can contact.

Jigsaw is an online directory of business contacts; they have a pay service where you are charged $25 at registration, receive 25 contacts and get access to 25 contacts and can purchase more as needed' they have a free service where you get 25 contacts but also commit to adding 25 names and contacts per month or else you are charged $25.

However you do it, adding the effort to contacting companies with needs to your repertoire will widen the scope of your search quite a bit.

Jeff Altman

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better
The Shopping Universe: More than a thousand stores in this mall AND help a child at the same time.

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals

January Isn't Just For Resolutions

Every January, people sit down and resolve to lose weight, save money, stop smoking and a host of other things.

For years, I have suggested that people use the start of the new year to take a career and job inventory, something that will be far more likely to be useful than the well intentioned resolutions that will be forgone by the second week.

What are your career goals?

Are you still pointed in the right direction?

How is your job helping you on the path to achieving them?

Are you reading about your company in the newspaper for growth or struggle?

How does your salary match up with the job market for what you do? Is the difference worth sacrificing (sometimes it is)?

What do you need to learn in order to advance yourself? Should you go back for another degree or will a different type of training be sufficient (and cost thousands less).

Write down your accomplishments for the past year. These will be particularly helpful at review time. As a matter of fact, if you can do this at least every six months or, better yet, every three months, you will have the best information imaginable when you are reviewed by your boss.

Making a regular habit of professional critiquing will help you waste less time on doing things that are not useful for you professionally and keep you pointed in the right one.

Jeff Altman

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better
The Shopping Universe: More than a thousand stores in this mall AND help a child at the same time.

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

How Do You Want Someone to Contact You?

The job market, by definition, is competitive. You compete with people for interviews. You compete with people to get their attention? By the time you are hired, you have fought off many challenges. Many more than you will ever be told about.

So why don't you put a telephone number on your resume?

You don't want to receive a call at work? OK.

How about one at home? No, huh.

And your cell phone? Don't want to run up your minutes. I see.

How do you expect someone to evaluate whether you are worth interviewing? By your resume alone?

how do you expect the interview to be coordinated between the various parties? Oh, you are available at 12.15 for 30 minutes.

No phone number. No interview. It is as simple as that. Figure outa way to let people comtact you and then stick with it.

Personally, with a young child at home, I don't work 24x7 so I rarely make evening calls to screen someone. I save those for scheduling interviews, debriefing interviews and presenting job offers.

Maybe you'll find a beginner who will call at night . . . but then you'll complain about the poor service you receive.

And it all started off with not putting your number on the resume.

Jeff Altman

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better
The Shopping Universe: More than a thousand stores in this mall AND help a child at the same time.

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001

Saturday, November 24, 2007

What Kind of Job Will You Be Asked to Do? A Reminder.

I like to distill things into simple ideas in order to help people see things more clearly. That is how I came up with a simple model for determining what you will be expected to do when you join a new firm.

In my way of thinking, employers ask people to do one of three tasks in a new job:

Manage people who do stuff.
Do stuff.
Think about how things could be done better.

Most jobs have a certain amount of each as part of their description; however, the weight of the job will emphasize one component or another.

So when you are interviewing for a job where you expect to manage and the employer is spending most of their time talking about “doing stuff”, how much managing will you be doing.

If you interview for a job where you expect to be “thinking about how stuff can be done better,” and they talk about managing staff or “doing stuff”, how much planning or thinking do you think you’ll actually be doing?

Do you think you’ll be happy doing what they want you to do?

I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t accept such a position if offered; in fact, many people will strengthen their credentials and make them stronger candidates for better firms if they do.

However, I do want you to make a conscious choice and not be surprised as so many are.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better
The Shopping Universe: More than a thousand stores in this mall AND help a child at the same time.

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001

Perspectives from Hiring Authorites

When I sit down to wrote a column, I try to instill the idea of looking at every thing from a hiring authority's perspective--what is it that your behavior communicates to them that will affect their decision about you.

Here are a few that I have compiled over many years:

One client has us ask potential employees to go to their website to learn about their business. The often tell me about people who lie about reading what is on the site and then tell them about experience they have that would help them immensely--experience in fields that have no relevance to their business.

Where do you see yourself five years from now? Apparently doing work that doesn't fit with what the business the employer does. Not too smart.

How about being taken for lunch by an employer, confirming a date, time and place well in advance, and then trying to juggle everyone else's schedule because you need to be back for a meeting . . . or trying to move three other people to meet much closer to you so you don't have to travel. Smart move, huh?

How about arrival time? Does arriving a few minutes early to complete paperwork seem like good sense? Apparently fewer people think so, preferring to arrive late instead. Then, the lateness is compounded by not acknowledging it or explaining it with something as simple as a call in advance (there was an accident that is delaying me a few minutes) or an explanation (I'm sorry I was a few minutes late; I was detained at a meeting that was called by someone I am supporting; it usually lasts 45 minutes; today it ran close to two hours because of a few problems that had occurred).

Have manners become unimportant?

Everything you say and do at an interview sends a message to an employer about what they can expect from you as an employee.

Has your behavior been sending the right message?

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a retired certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better
The Shopping Universe: More than a thousand stores in this mall AND help a child at the same time.

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
Search4JobLeads.com : The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001

Friday, November 09, 2007

Lead or Follow: Both Strategies Work

I receive a call from a man who I helped find a Director's job for in the late 90's. He had been CIO for a firm for 5 years and when the company was packaged for sale by a private equity firm, the firm slashed costs which means that he and a number of executives were fired.

He has been in outplacement since the middle of the summer with some of his former colleagues, some of whom are fairly close to landing positions with portfolio companies of other private equity firms. As a result, some of them have started to speak with him about joining them in their new firm.

And, despite the fact that networking doesn't come easily to him, it sounded like being dependent upon others to find a job to have one of his own was sitting uneasily with him.

I said to him, "It seems like your search methodology is to be the puppy that follows the owner. Have you considered working to aggressively create some options of your own?"

Is that your strategy? Waiting for someone else to find a job to bring you along?

You have to do your own networking and your own search work to find your next job. I provide access to a lot of sites to post your resume at www.jeffaltman.com including convenient and easy to use Careerbuilder links, plus more than 40 sites to post your resume to.

Are you on LinkedIn? Connect with me and get access to over a thousand of my contacts there.
How about Xing? Or some of the networks on Ning?

Do you know former colleagues from your last job? How about people from your children's school? Your church, temple, synagogue, ashram or mosque?

There are so many venues where you can aggressively pursue your search, too and not just be a puppy.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

www.jeffaltman.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a retired certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to

Visit DiversityJobs.com for information on Diversity in the workplace

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Your Answering Machine

They spoke individually."

"Hi! This is Karen."

"This is Corky," said their daughter.

"This is Mike," said their son.

"And this is Glenn," said their father.

Together they said, "We're the xxxxxxxxxxx family (I'll leave out their name to avoid embarrassing them). We're not home right now so leave your name and number and we'll call you back. BYE!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Your personal life is yours and I want you to enjoy it.

Your professional life is another thing.

A potential employer might call and leave a message for Glenn or Karen to schedule a time to speak.

Quite a first impression, huh?

Or, take a look at your email address and what it says: cutechick@deli.com or radicaldude@incompetentcode.com. In some industries, these addresses work extremely well.

In others, go to Gmail or Yahoo and open a new account with something simple and have the emails automatically forward to your real address. By doing this, you can cut off contact from spammers and recruiters by canceling your account when your search is over . . . or just keep the account open for job hunting purposes.

Find thousands of Bilingual jobs at LatPro.com.

A Cute Way to Target Your Job Searches

When you do searches on some of the meta search sites like Job Search Universe, or Indeed (available at www.jeffaltman.com), have you ever tried entering a zip code into the search in order to see if you can actually find something close to home?

Another little technique on Google (you knew you could use Google for job leads, didn't you?As a matter of fact, Job Search Universe is a custom Google search engine that works just as Google would) is to add your search criteria and phrases like "Email your resume your resume" or submit resume to" in order to avoid some of gthe articles and other extraneous information."

(If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Visit DiversityJobs.com for information on Diversity in the workplace

Your Search Can End With Your Last Exit Interview

Someone I commute with received a "heads up" from her boss that her position might be eliminated as part of a consolidation caused her company being bought. A person with almost 30 years of experience, she was a classic target of downsizing and at risk of a long job search.

Except for one thing.

She remembered that at the exit interview from her previous job of almost 25 years, the Chairman of the bank she worked for before taking this job told her that if she wanted to return to contact his office.

So, that became her first call--to the Chairman's office.

Within a week, she had four interviews with the bank, 2 very good ones that offered her terrific visibility and a new job. One of the perks in the new job was the ability to add to her pension.

At the HR interview, she was told by the recruiter representing the bank that in his years with them, he had never seen an exit interview report with such glowing comments in it including the word "YES!" written twice next to the checkoff box indicating whether the person should be eligible for re-hire.

Her search began at her former employer. Yours can too if you treat the exit interview as something more than a waste of time. You don't have to accept their attempt to extend a counteroffer (nor should you in my opinion).

However, if you have built strong relationships and do NOTHING to burn bridges, you might wind up with a terrific package like my friend did.

Visit DiversityJobs.com for information on Diversity in the workplace

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Your Hardest Task in Looking for a Job is Dealing With "The Question"

Imagine this scene.

You're at a gathering with family at some holiday or at a get-together with friends when someone tries to make conversation with you by asking "The Question."

Or maybe "The Question" is asked by someone out of the blue who calls you.

What's "The Question?"

"The Question" is, "how is your job search going?"

Or maybe it's "How did that interview turn out?"

We all have questions like that in life. Mine is, "How is your book coming along? It used to turn my stomach because it is asked by people who want to see me fail and have no real interest in me succeeding. Maybe your circumstances are different but those are mine.

So the hardest task you have in looking for is managing your own emotions throughout the process. Even when an interview is internal to your organization, the impact of an interview failure can be emotionally disastrous.

A friend (who i hope remains a friend after reading this) had a disastrous internal interview that would have involved a transfer. His failure was humiliating and took several months to recover from.

You cannot afford several months of recovery time after coming in second.

More than a decade ago, I ran and finished the New York Marathon and from that experience, I learned that much of life is more like a running a marathon, instead of a sprint. You need to be prepared to go longer and further than you ever have, instead of just running for 9 or 10 seconds.

This is another of those cases where patience is a virtue.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better
The Shopping Universe: More than a thousand stores in this mall AND help a child at the same time.

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001

Visit DiversityJobs.com for information on Diversity in the workplace

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

How Do I Choose?: 6 Steps to Choosing Between Job Offers

I want to offer a methodology for choosing between alternatives.

Step 1: BEFORE you start interviewing, jot down what the most important things are in your next job or organization.

Step 2: During the search, as companies start to come into focus and you start to see the choices that will be available. Make up three lists.

a. What do I like about this opportunity
b) What I do not like about the opportunity
c) What am I unsure about in this opportunity

Step 3: Get answers to your uncertainties and move them the questions to one of the other two lists.

Step 4: Negotiate your job offer

Step 5: Prioritize the alternatives based upon Step 1 (REMEMBER: NO PLACE WILL BE PERFECT. Some will be less perfect than others.

Step 6: Decide!

Jeff Altman

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001

Visit DiversityJobs.com for information on Diversity in the workplace

Sunday, September 16, 2007

6 Ways to Know It's Time to Go

For years, I have said that the person who gets ahead, isn't always the smartest or work the hardest . . . although those are great qualities to have. The person who gets ahead is the one who remains alert to opportunity. Sometimes those are internal to your organization. Sometimes, those are external.

On the other hand, the person who avoids professioanal disaster is the one who remains alert to signals and can "read the tea leaves." Here's what to look out for:

1. You suddenly report to someone different. If you are a senior professional, the reporting structue has changed and you now are reporting a ruing or two down from where you were reporting. If you are on staff, you are suddenly re-assigned without even the pep talk about this being the great opportunity.

2. You've gone as high as you can. Look up from your desk and see a manager or director who is around your age and content with his job. Hmm. When you ask yourself the question of "Where can I Really go from here," your answer suggests improving your skills , rather than job function because no one of value will ever leave.

3. Your firm is up for sale or was recently sold. These are pretty similar problems but slightly different. In the first case, there is a warning that business is sour or that management would like to cash out. In the second, the deal is done.

In both cases, the result will be the same--you will help the new management integrtae the operation of the two firms, transferring knowledge that will help make for a smooth operation. Then you will be invited to accept a package to leave or pushed into a dead end job. Sounds exciting!

4. Everything is just being maintained or that's the only kind of work you're assigned. The people who tend to advance are the ones who deliver new "bright shiny objects" to management--the new projects, the sexy work that makes everyone go, "Ooooooooooh." If you are being asked to maintain stuff, you are on the
Dilbert career path."

5. Your new boss is a jerk. No amount of charm on your part will ever take away the loathing you feel when you go to work because you dislike the person you work for. it is compounded if you get the idea that the feeling is mutual.

6. Your industry is on its death bed. Part of what makes a person successful is business knowledge. There was a time where the "buggy whip industry" in the US was huge. Now, you are probably wondering what I'm talking about. In 2001, every telecom firm in the world was doing extremely well. Since, some of them couldn't get themselves arrested.

If your industry is dying, it's time to go before people start attending your career funeral, too.

Giving yourself time to execute an effective job search before things reach crisis proportion is critical. If you stopped and started thinking about any of these signals, it's time to act.

NOW!

Jeff Altman

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001

Find thousands of Bilingual jobs at LatPro.com.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

The Top 25 Places for a Person to Begin a Career

The September 2007 issue of Businessweek lists these companies as the top firms to begin a career:

1. Deloitte & Touche

2. Pricewaterhouse Coopers

3. Ernst & Young

4. IBM

5. Google

6. Microsoft

7. Walt Disney

8. Acecnture

9, Lockheed Martin

10. Teach for America

11. KPMG

12. General Electric

13. Goldman Sachs

14. Boeing

15. Abbott Labs

16. Merrill Lynch

17. JPMorganChase

18. BP America

19. US State Department

20. General Mills

21. Hyatt

22. Capital One

23. Peace Corps

24. Johnson & Johnson

25. Macy's

What was noticeable to me were the number of accounting firms on the list and how well rated they were.

Jeff Altman

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001

Have You Ever Be Wrong?

People have opinions.

Most are wrong but people believe they are right about anything they say. I know that's true because, like you, I do it all the time.

I see something or someone and, when I listen to the voice that pops into my head, I notice how stupid or ridiculous those opinions are. My mind makes up stories about what that person is like-- How smart or stupid they are. How successful or what a loser they are.

As smart as I am, I have learned how ridiculous my mind can be.

When I interview people, I always ask, "Are there any firms, that for any reason, you would not consider working because of things you've heard, opinions you have? Any reason whatsoever?"

I do this, not to get into an argument but to learn the biases someone has.

So imagine my surprise when I called someone to schedule an interview and discover that my client was one of the firms that they wouldn't work for (even though I had asked them).

I listened for a while and then said, "Please go. I think your judgment of this firm smacks of the sort of criticism of people who left there some years ago. Maybe they failed. Maybe they were passed over for a promotion. I don't know. Just check it out for yourself.

"If, at the end of the day, you have the same opinion you do now, I promise I will not argue with you. I'll ask you what you saw and what gave you that idea so that I can learn from it. But I promise not to argue."

I would have kept that promise but it became unnecessary when I received a call after the person spent three hours with them and called me and said, "Jeff, I have never been so wrong about something professionally as this."

I won't go into all the details (I wouldn't be able to quote them like this anyway). They had spent three hours with them, met five people, gotten a feel for the firm and fallen in love.

So, I want to suggest to you that, when confronted by a situation like this, don't cancel the interview. Go, prepared to ask questions about the things you've heard. As my friend David did before an interview, he used Google to find former employees in the department he was interviewing for to learn about the good, the bad and the ugly about the firm so that he could ask great questions.

At the end of the day, if you don't feel differently or hear answers that make sense, if you don't trust the people or find the work boring, DON'T TAKE THE JOB.

But you may also have gotten a jaded former employees opinions that have nothing to do with you. You may, like this person, discover that the job is one you want and crave.

Jeff Altman

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent

The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Have You Looked at the Stock Chart

Sometimes, people have silly ideas of a firm and its success through no more information than what seems like tea leaves or gossip.

Have you ever looked at a firm's stock chart for advice? Have you read Marketwatch, Google Finance or Yahoo Finance to geta sense of the stock and how it is doing?

I don't mean is the stock up or down for the day.

I men is the trend of the stock for the past year or two up or down? Have you read any of the business news about the stock or gotten research from your online broker?

This will help you with larger public firms and not with small firms where 85% of all new jobs are created in the US. Yes, 85% of new jobs are created by small business, rather than by the Fortune 500 behemouths you tend to think about.

For them, do Google searches (or use the search engine you prefer) to see if you can find any news about them.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a retired certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to me at: thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Blogging: It's Not For Kids Any More

When I started using blogs in August, 2001 (see www.thejobmarketblog.com), blogging was a pretty new idea, Blogger had just been bought by Google and was about to go mainstream.

Blogging as a recruiting tool has arrived with a bang as search professionals and corporate clients use Google and other search tools to locate blogs where the author might represent a possible fit for a job, as they try to get a sense of the person beyond the resume or find a reason to disqualify someone.

So what do you need to know about blogging that will help you with your search?

1. Firms look for confirmation that someone has good writing skills and good oral communications capabilities. Your blog needs to model those qualities, too. If you hastily write about something and show sloppiness, it may come back to haunt you . . . and you may never know it because you may never receive the phone call to interview you.

You see, the web, as we all know, has changed how available information is about someone.

2. Where possible, demonstrate that you are a "go to" person, a subject matter expert or just plain knowledgeable on a subject.

You may have started the blog to talk about life, the universe and everything but, heck, your work is part of the equation, too. If you have just had a technical or professional triumph, reveal it and go into details (without revealing anything that would violate confidentiality). The read what you've written as an outsider would. Would they find this interesting? Ordinary? A triumph?

3. Please don't talk politics.

Blogs are no longer private things and you're blogging to share a part of yourself with the universe. All that can happen as a result of your political rant is that you may offend someone who may not call you.

Recently, while doing a search for a client, I found a blog written by a contender for a role that was homophobic, to say the least (it was him--pictures don't lie). Suffice it to say, I withdrew the person, politely telling the client that I had no question about their professional capability but that I found something of a "personal nature" that caused me to recommend withdrawing the candidate.

After a few seconds that seemed like 10 minutes, they accepted the recommendation.

You may disagree with what I did and that is your prerogative. From my vantage point, that person could have acted in damaging ways that could have create risk to his new firm, a colleague or subordinate where the bias could have exploded.

No, thank you.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to me at:
thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

What's That Old Saying about Lemons and Lemonade?

You made a serious mistake in your life and now you've returned from paying the ultimate price for it. Whether you call it jail or incarceration, you've been to hell and now you want to become an ordinary person with a job again.

What do you do?

One Canadian came up with an idea. In the "Jobs Wanted" area of his paper, he ran an ad:

Former Marijuana Smuggler

Having successfully completed a ten year sentence, incident-free, for importing 75 tons of marijuana into the United States, I am now seeking a legal and legitimate means to support myself and my family.

Business Experience: Owned and operated a successful fishing business -- multi-vessel, one airplane, one island and processing facility. Simultaneously owned and operated a fleet of tractor-trailer trucks conducting business in the western United States. During this time I also co-owned and participated in the executive level management of 120 people worldwide in a successful pot smuggling venture with revenues in excess of US$100 million annually. I took responsibility for my own actions, and received a ten year sentence in the United States while others walked free for their cooperation.

Attributes: I am an expert in all levels of security; I have extensive computer skills, am personable, outgoing, well-educated, reliable, clean and sober. I have spoken in schools to thousands of kids and parent groups over the past ten years on "the consequences of choice," and received public recognition from the RCMP for community service. I am well-traveled and speak English, French and Spanish. References available from friends, family, the U.S. District Attorney, etc.

Can you see where I'm going?

Whether it is from criminal action or professional mistake, there are ways to translate your skills into ways that are useful to someone.

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to me at:
thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

The Most important Lesson From the Last Recession PLUS 5 More

Last time, the job market started to slow down in March, 2001 and was about to exit recession in August, 2001 when millions of people lost their jobs and struggled for years to find work.

Because the job market collapse was so sudden and so deep, few were prepared for what happened.

That won't be the case with you.

It is pretty apparent that the financial markets in the US are suffering now and that CFO's at corporations will be hard-pressed to authorize much, if any, new hiring in 2008.

Layoffs have been plentiful in manufacturing for several years and, I expect, will broaden to other sectors.

The most important lesson I can give you from the last recession is this:

1. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A FUNCTIONING NETWORK OF RESOURCES IN PLACE IN CASE YOU NEED IT.

Connect with as many people as you can on LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, Xing and any other social network site that you can.

2. Exchange personal email addresses and phone numbers with co-workers and former co-workers.

3. Stay in the "good graces" with as many leaders in your organization, former organizations, as you can.

4. Have lunch with someone new and/or different every day.

5. Write your resume.

6. Get involved with a networking group pro actively.

If I am right, the US job market will slow down a lot beginning in the late 3rd quarter with more and more firms suspending new hires.

Don't wait for a crisis to take action.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a Leader Emeritus of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To subscribe to Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, or receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Monday, August 13, 2007

Working with a Recruiter: Who to Choose?

I've been a recruiter for more than 35 years and, frankly, few people have more or better experience than I do.

Yet, I am not for everyone, nor am I interested in representing you. My focus is on serving my corporate clients--they pay me, of course, and you don't . . . unless you are in my VIP Program, a service I created to help me help more people and justify taking the time to do so.

Does this mean that I ignore individuals? Of course not. But the fact remains that my interests start off with the fact that I am paid to fill jobs for a living in service to my corporate customers. I don't "place people".

When you evaluate who to work with, I would try to see who has a job that fits what I do? Are they with a firm that seems to have positions for what I do? What is the experience level of the search professional (I am sorry to say that many have been schooled to lie when they answer that question so listen to what they say in order to figure out whether to take their advice with a grain of salt).

Unless you live in country where the norm is to pay the fee, do not pay for service.

A specialist or specialist firm does not guarantee success. Frankly, after spending most of my career as a technology recruiter, several of my clients pushed me into a few other areas, making me more of a generalist with strong technology capabilities. Does that make me "less competent" than a specialist with three years or thirteen years experience? Obviously, not.

If they ask to meet you, ask them what they will be screening for and what they hope to find out about you? Although many years ago, meeting you was designed to give you the "once over" to see how you presented yourself, most experienced recruiters are now capable of discerning what they need in a ten minute phone call. Why be dragged in for a meeting that does little more than seek confirmation that you know how to dress and can string three sentences together?

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search job openings, use his free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe. to subscribe Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, or to learn more and sign up for his VIP Personal Search Agent service, go to, http://www.jeffaltman.com. To subscribe to Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, Natural Selection Ezine, subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

References: At Least Do The Minimum

We recently had someone go on three rounds of interviews with a client and he won the battle for the job with a close contender. Our client asked us to check his references.

Here's what happened next.

Of the first four references provided, we received no phone numbers or email addresses. Two no longer worked there; one worked for a firm that did not allow him to provide a reference (he suggested we speak with the consulting agency that provided him to them); one was a divisional executive whose administrative assistant who, after several calls, politely said, "She doesn't remember him).

On to the second set of references and day 3 of the request that they be checked. Four more names provided. Two no longer worked at his firm, one was bank president who did not return calls; I was able to speak with and was very flattering.

On to the third set of references and 5+ days has gone by.

I reached three more people; they were all fairly junior and offered the best of what I had.

Folks, there are two basic points I want to make.

One is obvious--if you plan on using someone as a reference, get personal email addresses and phone numbers for them so you stand a chance of reaching them when you need them and then STAY IN TOUCH WITH THEM.

The other is that the delays in reaching people and being pushed away offers another possible interpretation--theis person was not particularly good and no one wanted to put that on record.

Great references, especially for positions in leadership can put someone over the top in someone's mind or create doubt which may cause an opportunity to fall apart.

Stay in contact with your references. In make all the difference in the world.

Jeff Altman

The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a practicing psychotherapist and was a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search job openings, use his free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe. to subscribe Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, or to learn more and sign up for his VIP Personal Search Agent service, go to, http://www.jeffaltman.com. To subscribe to Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, Natural Selection Ezine, subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Friday, August 03, 2007

The Pre-Employment Credit Check

Given the stories of foreclosures we are reading about in the financial markets these days, I believe that it is important to be aware of whether the firm you are interviewing with does a pre-employment credit check.

From a process standpoint, what will happen is that you will do several interviews, receive an offer of employment, be ready to say yes and discover that the firm administers a background check.

Although part of that check will cover dates of employment, confirming your wages and checking your references, many firms do a credit check, particularly financial institutions.

Trust me that there are few things worse than deciding to take a job after multiple interviews, telling every one of your friends that you've gotten a great offer and then losing the offer because you failed a drug test, background check or credit check.

If your credit is atrocious or if you have had a bankruptcy, find out at the beginning of the interview process whether the adverse credit information will make this job a non-starter.

Otherwise, why bother interviewing with this company if you know that you will be rejected.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Managing Two Agencies When The Offer is Extended

Managing two agencies when the offer comes in?

Recently, an hr manager from a not for profit called me looking for advice.

He had interviewed at one firm through a recruiter and almost gone through their entire process when a firm he interviewed with at the beginning of his search re-contacted him and asked and asked him to interview for a different position that opened up that fit him like a glove.

Within a week, he was about to receive a job offer and called me in a panic.

“What do I do now? The (second) company wants to know what the first firm is offering.”

“Well, tell them.”

“But the first company will be mad at me.”

“Here’s what you do. Call up the recruiter for the first company and tell them that a company contacted you out of the blue, you met them and you expect that tghey will be extending an offer and that you are leaning toward them.”

“Oh, my! Oh, my!” He spoke in a very pained way.

“It won’t get any easier if you don’t tell them because, eventually, if you accept the second offer, you’ll have to turn down the first and tell them then.”

“But the client may raise their offer.”

“This is what I call a pleasant problem--two good offers. How can you go wrong? But the mistake is not telling the first recruiter about he second offer. It won’t get any easier if you don’t tell them and just surprise them when it is time to turn down the job.”

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He was a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and is a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search job openings, use his free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe. to subscribe Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, or to learn more and sign up for his VIP Personal Search Agent service, go to, http://www.jeffaltman.com. To subscribe to Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, Natural Selection Ezine, subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Friday, July 20, 2007

What Kind of Contact Do You Expect from a Recruiter?

I received an email from someone who emailed their resume for a job a client was trying to fill, asking me about the status of their resume. Two weeks had already gone by and, I'm sure most of you know that two weeks normally means no interest on their part.

I responded to his email letting him know that they weren't interested and received a response back that I interpreted as being sarcastic. I then thought that if he thinks this way, certainly others do, too. That is the germination of this article.

A typical day has me arrive at my office between 8 and 8:30 AM to somewhere in the area of 100 emails (spam is filtered out via Postini; it does a very good job of it). As I start to read them, more keep arriving and calls start to come in. I try to respond to every email I receive with a call, an email acknowledging that I received their email and offering some services through my website that they might find helpful or with an email asking a few questions.

Often, these calls require additional action--interviewing someone, calling someone, inputting their resume into our system for later retrieval, submitting a resume to a client.

I leave messages; I read more resumes, receive more calls, schedule some interviews,

Opportunities start to present themselves that require that I check back to see if someone is still available. Sometimes I need to re-schedule an interview because one party or another needs to make a change.

Oh, yes, I eat lunch, do some networking, write an article or two for my blogs, ezine or book and answer a call or two from my wife or a friend.

So, what gives if I respond to everyone who wants to check and find out "what's going on"?

Unless someone is in my VIP program, you don't pay me for anything I do; I am paid by the institution to evaluate and assess people for their suitability for a job and I am paid quite well, thank you.

Obviously, I need to understand a person and their needs, wants, skills and such in order to bring the two sides together. But until someone starts paying me, I'll decide how I manage my time to help the most people.

Oh, yes, if you work with a recruiter who has the time to take all your calls and tell you ever piece of minutiae that they are doing to help you, there will come a time where they will not be there to help you in the future.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to me at:
thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

Friday, July 06, 2007

Phone Interviews: 5 Things NOT to Do to Avoid Shooting Yourself in the Foot?

More than two years ago, I wrote an article called "Phone Interviews: Prepare to Ace Them!".

It was an article that provided a number of things you should do when you prepare for a phone interview. After all, more and more firms are doing phone interviews as an initial screening step before meeting you.

So, this time, I want to remind you of some things NOT to do.

1. DON'T sound boring, dull, somber, flat. Energetic is the way to go.

2. DON'T use lots of negative sounding words in your conversation. Avoid frequently using no, don't know, can't, won't, don't know, not or similar words.

3. DON'T talk too much. People can't listen to answers longer than 30-45 seconds in person. Most people can't hold an attention span for that long over the phone.

4. If you are out of work, DON'T wait for them to ask you why or what happened. Volunteer it so that it doesn;t hang over the interview like a gallows blade.

5. DON'T avoid rehearsing. Practice makes perfect for interviews and athletes.

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to me at:
thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

What Did He Say???

I don't know about you, but I am married. In addition to my wife at home, I have an "office wife" and, in the past, I had a "train wife." These wives are good friends and we look out for one another, covering for one another when one of us is on vacation and bouncing ideas off of one another when we are unsure.

Yesterday, my office wife, Terry, was speaking with someone who had replied to an ad she had run on the web for a client, an airline targeting an upscale market. The ad was clear that airline industry experience was required.

So she calls up the person, whose resume does not mention airline experience and asks, "So what's your experience with airlines."

And then he answered those words that instntly became legendary in my office:

" My wife works for an airline."

HUH?

I understand. A wife replies for a surgeon position at a hospital with the explanation, "My husband is a surgeon and we sometimes talk about his day and operations over dinner."

How about this response to a teaching position:

"My daughter is in 4th grade!"

Please only reply for positions for which you meet minimum qualifications or are extremely close to meeting minimum qualifications.

If you do this you will have a chance of being interviewed and eventually hired . . . depending upon your interview and competition, of course.

If you don't do this, you are stealing time that the potential employer or recruiter can never regain with no purpose other than to hope against hope and reason that they interview you.

Outplacement firms often encourage people to blanket every ad with resumes . . . but they don't have to open and read all the emails or mailed resumes. They just have to talk and offer advice that may or may not be good.

Trust me, you don't like to get spam and neither do recruiters, managers and business owners. Make sure your resume demonstrates a fit before you send it and only send it if it meets or is extremely close to meeting minimum job requirements.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Manners Aren't Just for 6 Year Old Boys and Girls

My son, Jack, is six years old as are his friends. I get to watch he and his friends eat with some regularity and I'll just say Hannibal and the Roman armies as they are depicted in old movies eat with better manners than they do.

Food lands on their clothes and flies everywhere. It is eaten with hands despite frequent demands not to do so.

And then I started to notice how job applicant manners can sometimes be infantile, too, and decided to write this column. Here are a few reminders about do's and don'ts.

1. Arrive at the interview early, particularly with human resources. It should go without saying but, unfortunately needs to be said because people keep arriving at their interviews late. Five minutes. 20 minutes. 45 minutes late. It's all rude.

2. If you are late, apologize and explain. Don't pretend that nothing happened. Acknowledge it. Two of my clients will reject someone for not explaining a lateness, thinking that if they are rude when they are supposed to be polite, what will they do when they are comfortable.

3. Remember to spell check before you hit send. I confess to making this mistake, particularly with my blog and ezine, and, fortunately, I have gotten better with this mistake. Readers have told me how a spelling mistake (they are generally caused by typos) irks them. Now imagine what it is like when someone reads your resume and it is replete with spelling errors.

4. Turn your cell off and make sure your PDA/Blackberry doesn't chime, chirp or beep during the interview. I recently wrote about the job hunter who took a call for 5 minutes while in an interview, keeping the hiring manager waiting throughout. UGH!

5. For lunch or dinner meetings, don't focus on the food and forget the person. Your interview is more important than fixating on the appetizer, no matter how good it is. Oh, yes, don't eat like Jack.

6. Don't rush through or brush off the application. An application is a legal document. At most companies, completing it inaccurately or falsely is grounds for dismissal. Rushing through it, unless asked to do so, sends a message to the employer of disrespect (they will have trouble reading your handwriting when you rush). Do everything well.

7. Make sure your voice mail at home, at the office and on your cell sound professional. A child's voice is adorable. Really. But put yourself into the caller's shoes and imagine what it is like to listen to the voices of so many children's and family's messages. Something like, "This is Adam (the child), Lois (the mother) and Roger (the father). (TOGETHER) Please leave a message when you hear the beep."

8. Send a "Thank you email" after the interview. Look them right in the eye, shake their hand and thank them for interviewing you and tell them of your interest in the job. Speak sincerely. Then send a thank you email afterwards.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

If you would like me to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to me at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to me at: thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

LinkedIn and Xing: Get Found!

The person who gets ahead isn't always the smartest or work the hardest . . . although those are great qualities to have. The person who gets ahead is one who remains alert to opportunity. Sometimes those are internal to an organization; more often than not, it is external.

Most people have heard or understand the importance of networking and LinkedIn and Xing are the two premier business networking sites to help you be found or find others.

Both have international penetration but LinkedIn is stronger US and Xing in Europe.

Often, people make the mistake of presenting a bland commercial about themselves into their listings instead of using an aggressive commercial about their experience and interests into the posting.

Why not have a focused version of your resume on your page?

Why not put your email address next to your name in order to invite contact?

Why not update your listing on a quarterly basis with new accomplishments?

Making it easy for others to find you will help you be perceived as an expert in an employer's mind so that they are favorably disposed to hiring you before meeting you?

LinkedIn and Xing can not only help you find a job, but help you shape your career.

Wouldn't job hunting be easier if they wanted to hire you at the time they contact you?

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search job openings, use his free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe. to subscribe Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, or to learn more and sign up for his VIP Personal Search Agent service, go to, http://www.jeffaltman.com. To subscribe to Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, Natural Selection Ezine, subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Making A Decision: How Do Do I Choose

For those of you who have received coaching from me, I have a pretty simple way of helping people decide between offers. I ask them to have thought long and hard about their goals at the beginning of their search, prioritized them and then asked to evaluate how each offer meets the criteria they set out.

Sounds pretty simple but there is skill to it.

In a recent issue of Businessweek, Jack and Suzy Welsh (he of GE success and fame) offer five other criteria that I think can help those of you who haven't engaged in the process I coach. They are offered in response to a question from a reader who has to choose between two offers where the writer has an offer from a respected company for a job with work they are passionate about but unpleasant co-workers without team spirit and from a so-so company with work they are OK with and people they really enjoy. The money is the same.

Jack and Suzy offer these criteria:

1.Will the new job be filled with workers who share my sensibilities, or will I have to zone out or fake it to get along?

2. Will the new job stretch my mind and build my skills, and otherwise take me out of my comfort zone, or am I entering at the top of my game?

3.Will the new job open or close doors for me should I ever leave?

4. Will the new job turn my crank, touch my soul and give me meaning?

5. Who am I making happy by taking this job, and am I OK with that bargain?

Jeff Altman

The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to him at:
thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

Friday, May 04, 2007

Your Cell Phone and You

Let me paint the picture.

You're about 25 minutes into your interview. You and your potential manager are having a very good conversation. Everything feels good about what is going on.

Suddenly, a tinny version of La Cuccharacha starts to pervade the room. You reach into your pocket or bag and take out your cell phone. A recruiter is calling. You answer the telephone and have a one minute conversation and then end it and return to the interview.

Was it really necessary?

Couldn't you have turned your phone off so as not to interrupt the interview?

What's the message you send to the interviewer through your actions?

This week, events like this happened twice. In both cases, the interview seemed as though it was still going along well when resumed but the feedback said something else. "I started to time how long the candidate was on the phone." REJECTED!

There was one set of circumstances where I found it OK to keep the phone on and it was handled well.

A person had to postpone an interview for three days because his son was hospitalized. When he arrived at the interview, he set his cell to vibrate and before the interview started as he and the interviewer sat down to speak, he said somethingt o the effect of, "Thank you for your flexibility with my need to re-schedule our meeting. On Monday, my son was hospitalized suddenly with _____. He is out of the hospital now and my wife is with him. However, I would like to keep my phone on in case of emergency; I don't expect one but, just in case, it is set to vibrate and I will not answer it unless there is my wife calling."

Good manners are so important on interviews.

And bad manners are the kiss of death.

Jeff Altman

The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To subscribe to Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, or receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Planning Your Search: What Should You Apply For?

Organizing a job search is not about flipping resumes to job ads like a cook in a fast food restaurant, nor is it only about what you want to do. It also involves careful thought and understanding about how your experiences "fits" the job market.

You see, most people begin their job search by saying to themselves, "I've had it. I think it's time to make a change." They know what they don't want but haven't taken the time to figure out what will satisfy them or what will please them.

In addition, you must know who you are and what motivates you as well as what criteria are important enough to be uncompromising about and on which ones you're willing to be flexible.

For example, you must know if you function better in a large environment - whether or not it's corporate, or a non-profit environment, a team one, or one in which you're required to motivate yourself in order to perform. To do this examine your previous jobs - what you liked and didn't like, what worked or didn't work, and why.

Once you know what you want, then start reading ads on the job boards, research some search professionals that specialize in your field, network with your co-workers from previous jobs, contact employers at companies in the area that seem seem right for you.

Working in this way will keep your search focused on what it is you want in your next job and not just on sending out resumes and going on interviews.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to him at:
thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Job Hunting and American Idol: Similarities??

Every job search is an audition, just like the auditions are on American Idol. You step in front of Simon and the others, sing and dance your heart out in what often seems like an arbitrary exercise where you are sent home with less self-worth than you arrived . . .and sometimes you are chosen and it feels great!

How is job hunting like an audition?

Well, as I wrote in my article Cx5=PL, casting directors are looking for "it"--that special quality that makes someone standout fro others. Rarely is that purely the ability to read your lines (or answer their questions). It is a combination of charisma, that special quality that makes the entertainer shine brilliantly plus fit into the ensemble and not steal the scene.

You will have a fixed period of time with the casting director and they want what they want--don't beg for the job. No one ants to hear it. They want someone with self confidence and the ability to perform at the drop of a hat. They do not want to hear you being needy, frightened or begging. You have a few minutes at the beginning of each interview/audition to get their attention. Don't waste time "feeling them out". GO FOR IT!

To get to the casting call, actors and actresses send a small package of material including a cover letter, head shots, resume and video of their performances. In your case, send a resume that fits their job requirement (don't just flip the same resume to every ad you respond to), and a cover email, rather than a cover letter, that calls attention to how you fit their requirements. Skip the YouTube video resumes. I've only seen one good one so far (other than for entertainment professionals). Most are dull and boring.

When you come to the casting call, be kind and polite to everyone who you meet from building security and the receptionist to the managers who interview you. I can point to specific instances where rude treatment dished out to a receptionist resulted in an actor/job hunter being rejected.

Oh, yes. Frequently to even get invited to a casting call, you need to use your connections. Start making lists of all the people you have met personally and professionally and figure out ways to stay in contact with them. This way, when you need support to get through the door, you have people who know you who will help you.

Don't be a prima donna at your interviews. Be flexible if you can. Few of us have favorable impressions of those who demand star treatment in their dressing room. You are no different when you make unreasonable demands.

If a casting director makes a mistake, the movie or album fail and their career is shot. The same is true in the business world, too. Remember, that in the few minutes you have in front of a director, make your time worthwhile or be prepared to go home to Kansas!

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free meta job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to learn about his VIP program, or to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, designed to help human resources professionals, managers and business owners make even better hiring decisions, ,subscribe at www.thebiggamehunter.net.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to him at:
thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

Saturday, March 10, 2007

What Am I Worth?

If I had a dollar for every time I'm asked that question, I would be wealthier than I am now by a lot. So let me offer you the simple answer and then the more complex answer.

The simple answer is, "I don't know. Let's let the market figure it for for us."

You see the real question being asked is "How much can you get me?" I understand that and also understand that when I quote a range, you only hear the highest number of the range. Often, people get stuck on that number and cause their career more pain than it needs.

So let me offer a simple way of figuring out your approximate value.

Go to a few job boards and look for job descriptions that read like what you do. Make the job description as focused as possible. Do you see a pattern?

That pattern is your approximate value.

Remember that if you are working under a visa, you will be offered less.

If the work is not current, you are valued less.

If you are a consultant, trying to enter industry at a staff level, you are OK. If you are a technical consultant whose work is primarily programming and trying to earn $150000 or more, you are over-priced for most markets. Firms pay that salary for people who manage, are involved with the budget process, and lead. They, generally, do not pay that to someone who wants to be doing that and hasn't done it yet.

If you require relocation to do the job you believe you are qualified for, you may need to take a little less.

Jeff Altman

The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free meta job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to learn about his VIP program, or to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to him at:
thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

Preparing for an Interview

There is one thing that job hunters do that makes me nervous and it happened the other day. A

As I was preparing someone for a phone interview, the person I was speaking with kept telling me how well they did on all of their previous interviews and that I had nothing to worry about.

It has been my experience that such overconfidence (some might say, arrogance) is rarely rewarded.

So when I called the person after their phone interview and asked about it, they started by telling me about a question that they had gotten hung up with about something they had done six years ago.

"Why did they ask me about that? I can talk about my work in recent times but I kind of fumbled around with this one."

I replied, "I emailed some advice about phone interviews to you yesterday. Did you read it?"

"I, uh . . ."

You obviously didn't see the suggestion to keep your resume in front of you nor act on my advice to prepare to discuss your experience in the context of the job they are trying to fill, nor probably ask, The Single Best Question You Can Ask on Any Interview."

Stop going to interviews unprepared. Even if you are successful "winging it," it costs you money. Imagine how well you could have done had you done a few minutes of work.

Oh, I don't believe a job offer is forthcoming to our person who always impresses people on interviews.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free meta job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to learn about his VIP program, or to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to him at:
thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Do’s and Don’ts After The Interview

7 Steps You Can Take to Help You Gain The Advantage

Things you do after the interview can influence a firm to hire you or to turn to someone else. Here are a few things to remember to do AND NOT DO.

Obtain a business card from everyone you meet at the interview so that you can address them properly when you . . .
Send a thank you letter via email to the people you met with. Express your interest in the job and reinforce why you believe you are qualified to be hired. Spell check and grammar check the email before sending it. I receive so many emails with lazy spelling mistakes.
Don’t send the same thank you note to everyone. Personalize it
Don’t forget to spell and grammar check each note.
Establish contact with your references to insure that they will be sjupportive of your candidacy and to hear what they have to say about you; if their reference is lukewarm, replace them with someone else. Such references are as useful as having a bad reference.
Follow up after a few days to continue to express interest and to determine their timetable for making a decision. Be patient and don’t call too often.
People often make the mistake of putting all their efforts on hold when they did well on the interview. The problem is that sometimes a job goes “on hold” or “the perfect candidate” walks in the door and you’re rejected for the job. KEEP LOOKING. KEEP INTERVIEWING. KEEP NETWORKING.

Following these steps will help you in many ways.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Get Your Resume on the Web and Not Just on Job Boards

Free Sites Make It easy

More and more companies and search firms are using tools like Talenthook and Infogist to search the web and job boards for resumes. They do so because these tools allow a company to locate resumes that fit their requirements on multiple job boards and websites concurrently and then send an email to them requesting the individual to contact them This is an enormous time saver for businesses.

But the problem still remains the results of all contacts. The major job boards fill fewer than 10% of available positions! They fail more than 90% of the time! Even if you believe that employment firms who advertise there and fill jobs should be included in the number of jobs filled and add every single position that employment agencies and search firms fill into the job board number, both categories fill no more than one third of all available jobs.

Part of the reason for that is that job boards are so expensive. To purchase access to the resume data base of one the major job boards, a firm must be willing to spend $100000 - $25000. How many small to midsized firms, the place where most of the major job creation has been in the US for the past decade ,do you think are willing to do that?

One way you can get your resume found by these firms is to have your resume posted on the web. If you have your own website, you create a page within your domain, optimize it for search engines, robots and spiders and get yourself found.

If you don’[t have a website, Microsoft and Google, to name a few will provide you with a free website where you can register a domain or an address to have your resume hosted. Microsoft’s service is located at http://www.office.live.com. There you can register a domain of your choosing (as long as it is available) and get your resume online.

Google’s PageCreator will offer you a sub domain of Google (www.yourname.google.com) Neither software they offer is sensational but they will do the job.

Make sure you optimizes your site for search agents. The geographic area where you are willing to work, your current salary and compensation plus your legal right to work in the country of your choosing (US examples would include citizen, green card holder, EAD, H-1b, F-1, B-1, to name a few) and then (SHAMELESS PLUS COMING) email the link to your site to theresumeuniverse@gmail.com and we will include it in our new free search engine. The Resume Universe uses Google technology to allow employers and search firms to search for resumes for free (and your resume is posted for free, too!

Using tools like Talenthook and Infogist, or just searching using The Resume Universe or Google will go a long way toward helping you add choices to your job search and more businesses being able to find you . . . for free!

Jeff Altman

The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search job openings, use his free meta job lead tool or to subscribe Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to, http://www.jeffaltman.com. To subscribe to Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, Natural Selection Ezine, subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com For information about personal search services, go to www.VIPPersonalSearch.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Start Your Next Job Looking Great!: Two simple steps to getting a head start on everyone.

No matter if you are a beginner or a senior executive, you arrive at your new job with a "halo" around you. You were the one they chose; you are the solution to what they needed.

Halos don't last forever and your path to career success can be smooth or paved with ruts. How would you like to arrive at your new job with a leg up on everyone else and it might only take you two hours. TOPS!

Would you want to know two simple techniques to creating a great impression?

Step #1. Meet with your new boss and/or colleagues to get a clear picture on what you will need to do in your first 30 to 60 days to get off to a great start. It doesn't matter what they told you during the interview; things change AND they will probably be more forthcoming out their needs so that you can start mapping out solutions, milestones and targets that make sense

Step #2: Select 2 or 3 goals to accomplish during that time. Often, you will be handed a list of objectives and need to prioritize them for maximum impact.

DO IT!

Following this advice will often get you off to a great start and help cause people to notice you in a good way.

Jeff Altman The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search job openings, use his free meta job lead tool or to subscribe Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to, http://www.jeffaltman.com. To subscribe to Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, Natural Selection Ezine, subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com For information about personal search services, go to www.VIPPersonalSearch.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Monday, February 05, 2007

Creating a Resume for the Web

Don't Just Rely on Job Boards

Most people believe that when they create a resume, all they have to think of is posting it on the major job sites and a few minor ones, send it to a few ads and, voila, 15 interviews later the job of their dreams appears.

What if I told you that the major job boards are only filling approximately 7% or 8% of the available positions would I have your attention?

You see the problem with the major job boards is that your resume will only be seen by companies that are willing o spend the tens of thousands of dollars to subscribe to their resume data base.

And the others, like the small and midsized firms that have been driving job growth in the US for the last 20 years are often shut out from seeing it.

So when I speak about putting your resume on the web, I mean posting a search engine optimized resume online that can be found by robots, spiders, crawlers, Google, Talenthook, Infogist (Talenthook and Infogist are tools that search the web and multiple job boards concurrently) and others and not just simply post it on job boards.

So what can you do if you don’t operate a website and want to post your resume?

Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and others will all give you free space to post your resume.

Once it is online, these tools plus my new addition to “The Universe series” of search engine products will allow your resume to be found by anyone.

My new search engine, The Resume Universe (www.theresumeuniverse.com) is a free search tool for everyone. Free to have your resume included in the search results; free for companies to search. After all, do you want your resume to be found by the best company or the best one willing to spend $15000 a year to search?

To have your resume included, email the link to your resume (not the resume, the URL where your resume is) to theresumeuniverse@gmail.com.

I believe this new tool, coupled with my job led search engine Job Search Universe (www.jobsearchuniverse.com) will go a long way toward helping people find work.

Oh yes, if you want to have your resume re-done, contact my friend, Matt Sislowitz at Radical Resumes (www.radicalresumes.com); Matt does great work and is fairly priced

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search job openings, use his free meta job lead tool or to subscribe Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to, http://www.jeffaltman.com. To subscribe to Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, Natural Selection Ezine, subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com For information about personal search services, go to www.VIPPersonalSearch.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Saturday, January 20, 2007

The Smartest Lesson to Learn About Looking for Work

During this most recent recession, technology professionals learned a lesson that people in other industries learned a long time ago.—the best time to look for a new job is when you don’t need a new job.

By not heeding the lessons of other industries, when hundreds of thousands of people were laid off in technology with little notice more than, “Can I speak with you for a minute,” they were completely unprepared to look for work. No resume. Their professional contacts in disarray. They were, as they say in 12 step, “at bottom.”

As a person who has been a search professional for more than 30 years, I’ve learned that the person who gets ahead professionally isn’t always the smartest (there’s ample proof of that) or work the hardest . . . although those are two great attributes to have. The person who gets ahead actually is the one who remains alert to opportunity. Sometimes those are internal to an organization. More often, they are external.

Many people were hurt during the last recession by thinking that if they worked hard, played by the rules and their boss liked them, they would be protected from layoff.

What can you do?

1. Keep your resume up-to-date. Every 3-4 months, update your resume. If you don’t want to take the time to do that, jot down a summary of your accomplishments during the quarter.

2. Stay in contact with your professional references. When you lave a job, make sure you have home and office numbers, as well as personal and professional email addresses to reach them. When a person is close to receiving a job offer, it sends a poor signal to the employer when references are not ready in advance. Also, member that you may remain in a job for several years but your boss may change, move or be transferred. Getting as much contact information as possible will allow you to re-establish contact quickly and easily when it counts.

Maintain and expand your professional network regularly. A quick note to the recruiters you worked with before telling them about what you are now doing. Joining professional organizations. Writing for industry publications. Joining social network groups and websites (more about this in another article) will help you connect with others.

Don’t be embarrassed about what you do. Feel free to talk about yourself and your work with anyone. It is amazing how people sometimes find work Don’t assume that you can only speak with people you met as professional contacts. Speak to anyone. You never know who their friends are, or who their spouse or partner is and how they might be able to use someone just like you.

I know that I have met many wonderful people and been able to help them staff positions or find new careers by just talking about what I do with complete strangers. You can too.

Jeff Altman

If you have a question that you would like me to answer, email it to me at:

thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free meta job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to learn about his VIP program, or to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsesarchuniverse@gmail.com.

For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, to help human resources professionals, managers and business owners make even better hiring decisions, ,subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com .

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Counteroffers: Should I?

You should not be amazed to receive a counteroffer after you give your notice because in times of labor shortages, the cost of replacing you can be enormous. Those costs can include:

1) the impact of stretching your colleagues while they look for a replacement

2) the cost of advertising and responding to each and every respondent

3) the cost of taking people away from their tasks to interview

4) the cost of the fee to a search firm

5) the cost of getting your successor “up to speed”

Yet, the question remains, should you actually take a counteroffer? Should you actually consider accepting your current company’s proposal? Here are a few things to consider.

What kind of company do you work for if you have to threaten to leave to get the salary you want or title you deserve? This is not a question of ego; it is recognizing that there is a message in every action or inaction a company makes. You can expect the same inertia the next time.
Your company may start looking for your replacement. Now that you’ve announced that you’re unhappy, your firm may start looking for a replacement that meets their timetable, rather than yours.
Where is the funding coming from for this? Since companies generally have guidelines for increases, are they only giving your next raise to you a little early?
Your loyalty may be questioned in the future. The next time a promotion is in order and the choice is between you and “the loyal one,” who do you think will be rewarded?
When the next cutbacks occur, who becomes an obvious target? Right now, we are in good times. Those times eventually end and firms make cuts in those times. You are an obvious target.
The circumstances that caused you to want to leave will reoccur. It’s like the spouse or partner who promises to act better when they are threatened by you leaving. They may act better for a while, but the old behaviors repeat themselves after the crisis disappears. As a result,
Statistics show that the person who accepts a counteroffer is far more likely to leave their job within a year of accepting it. Pretty grim, huh?
You are being “bought” to overlook other faults. Your job is frustrating, your manager is a jerk, the location is wrong, the benefits are terrible, you received a bad bonus and your colleagues are incompetent. Here’s a few thousand more to forget about these other things.

As tempting as it may be to accept a counteroffer, you must carefully evaluate the benefits of leaving with the risks of staying. Most people are far better served by leaving, rather than staying.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2006 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

If you have a question that you would like me to answer, email it to me at: thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s new meta job lead tool, Job Search Universe, or to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsesarchuniverse@gmail.com.

For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, to help human resources professionals, managers and business owners make even better hiring decisions, ,subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com . For information about personal job search services, go to www.VIPPersonalSearch.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume)

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Job Search Universe: A New Google-Powered Job Lead Tool

Job Search Universe

A New Google-Powered Job Lead Tool

From Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

When most people look for job leads, they go from web site to website, posting their resume and searching job listings.

Job Search Universe is a Google-powered meta job lead tool that, as of today, searches more than 1600 job sites concurrently and returns jobs that meet your search criteria.

Jobs in the US, UK, China, India, Pakistan, Canada, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Germany, the Middle East, . . .even space

Positions in technology, accounting, journalism, construction, healthcare including specialties, logistics, farming, finance, media, aviation, space careers, woodworking, plastics, forestry, academia, museums, public relations.

Full time, consulting, part time, telecommuting.

Check out “The Universe” at www.jeffaltman.com or www.jobsearchuniverse.com

And, if you have a website and want to carry it, send an email to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com and I’ll forward code to you.

If you want your company’s career page include, send an email to the same address and we’ll add it (No employment agencies or search firms at this time).

Reference Checks: Do or Die Time

It should go without saying that having good references prepared to give to a perspective employer are an important part of the job search process. The employer who is evaluating you has only met you on a few occasions and seems that you have the skills required but your references are people who have worked with you regularly and who know your work first hand.

Ideally, your references should be former managers; peers are definitely second choices, particularly for non-manager level job hunters.

So what’s the biggest mistake that job hunters make with their references?

They don’t have the references checked to hear what is said about them!

(The second biggest mistake is presenting inaccurate contact information to the employer and then having to correct it.)

Recently, someone I was representing for a senior position with a major firm took “the lazy man’s approach” of turning over unchecked references to a prospective employer.

They were given at the time of the first meeting on the employment application.

Three interviews later, the employer called them and heard one of them offer what can only be described as a “candid assessment” of the individual and their (lack of) success.

It was impossible to fix.

For less experienced people, the reference may not be skillful at describing their successes, contributions and experience, presenting information in a “lukewarm” manner that is interpreted as ambivalence or neutrality, rather than the lack of experience the reference provider may have.

Make sure your references will speak in glowing terms about:

Skills competence
Character
Personal leadership
Work ethic
Ability to work with Superiors, peers, subordinates and others you may interact with
Self-Motivation
Personality
Ability to work independently
Ability to work with a team
Your ability to work under pressure

Not preparing your references may result in your candidacy crashing and burning.

Preparing them well, can give you that extra inch that puts you over the top . . . and pays you better!

Jeff Altman

If you have a question that you would like me to answer, email it to me at:

thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, to help human resources professionals, managers and business owners make even better hiring decisions, ,subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com . For information about personal job search services, go to www.VIPPersonalSearch.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Friday, November 24, 2006

Cover Emails, Not Cover Letters

I detest cover letters. They arrive as an attachment in an email and require me to open a second file that rarely tells me anything interesting or useful to my decision-making about the sender. I always recommend that people use their actual email to include the information that they would in a cover letter.

A well-written cover email will engage the reader and encourage them to read your resume. Before you start off writing your cover letter, write down what you want to tell someone because in three to four paragraphs, someone will make a decision about whether to open up the resume you sent them with interest or indifference.

Here’s some simple advice:

Use your cover email to highlight elements of your experience that fit the job description you are responding to. Generic cover notes waste an opportunity to cause someone to be interested and excited in your background. Your cover email should make it obvious to a 6 year old reader that you have the experience to do the job by showing that you have the experience and skills they are looking for.

Keep your sentences short. Avoid using really long sentences because you don't want someone to need to read something twice to understand what you're trying to say.

Keep your language simple. Although in some cultures a note that includes a sentence like "I take immense pleasure in applying for this esteemed position in this esteemed organization," is proper, in U.S. culture it is not.

Organize the content of your cover letter into small paragraphs or bulleted points, not exceeding three paragraphs.

Spell and grammar check your email! Visually re-read what you wrote because some words may be spelled correctly when misspelled.

Use the subject line of your email to tell them what job you are applying for. If their ad included a job code, include it. People are often trying to fill many jobs and this will focus them on the one you are applying for.

Explain why you think your skills and the skills are a good match for the position. Include a reference to a particular achievement in your current or previous job (current job is preferable) that is.

DO NOT LIE! They always find out.

Sign your cover email with “Sincerely,” "Yours truly" or "Best regards" and use an Italic font to “sign” your name under it.

Doing a few of these simple things will give you more AND better opportunities to win the job you want. Don’t be lazy and send the same email over and over again. Tailor your cover email, like you do your resume (you are tailoring your resume) and you will get superior results.

Jeff Altman

If you have a question that you would like me to answer, email it to me at:

thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, to help human resources professionals, managers and business owners make even better hiring decisions, ,subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com . For information about personal job search services, go to www.VIPPersonalSearch.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Interesting Statistics About Job Searches Reveal Changes in How Searches Are Conducted

Here’s some data from a survey conducted by Weddles:

"A total of 1,270 people participated in our survey. Here's how they think they'll be successful in future job search campaigns:

- 57.6% Responding to an ad posted on an Internet job board
- 16.8% Networking at business and social events
- 7.2% Responding to an ad posted on an employer’s Web-site
- 7.6% Sending a resume to an employer by mail
- 3.9% Receiving a call from a headhunter
- 1.9% Receiving a call from a staffing firm
- 1.9% Attending a career fair
- 1.6% Responding to a newspaper ad
- 0.7% Joining a social networking site

There are a number of stunning changes in the thinking of job seekers:

Newspapers, once the primary domain of job hunters, have become unimportant in their mind.

Receiving a call from a recruiter out of the blue, a methodology used by search professionals to identify top talent, has become a “trivial pursuit” of theirs.

Networking remains an important approach to finding work.

More than half of you expect to find a job via a web ad. I expect that this percentage also includes people who post their resumes on the web because that alternative is not included among possible answers.

More than 15% expected to have success through direct contact with an employer, either through mailing (GASP!) a resume or their website. Company websites are becoming more important in the scheme of job hunting. This gives an advantage to well-known companies who are not necessarily the places where greatest job growth is occurring.

A product like my new meta job lead tool, Job Search Universe, which concurrently searches over 800 sites and growing can go a long way to simplify your search.

Jeff Altman

If you have a question that you would like me to answer, email it to me at:

thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, to help human resources professionals, managers and business owners make even better hiring decisions, ,subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com . For information about personal job search services, go to www.VIPPersonalSearch.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Do You Need to Relocate and Find a Job?

Are You Finding It Hard?

I often speak with people who need to relocate. Sometimes, they are moving because they need to be closer to family; some need to do so to accommodate a spouse whose career or academic pursuits require the entire family to move.

Whatever the reason may be, long distance job hunting tends to be far more difficult because firms don’t want to incur the expense or the logistical challenges. After all, for many of them, they believe there is an ample pool of talent near where they live so why should they bother? The result is, people who are not local seem to find the job search more challenging.

What can you do? There are a two main choices.

In your email that accompanies your resume, tell them the reason you want to move to their area. If you are willing to pay your own interview and relocation expenses, mention that, too.

A second choice comes from an email I received from a former subscriber, Pete, now from Virginia who was living outside of the US and kept finding that he was finishing second on his interviews. He switched his address to one in Miami where he had family. Once he did that, his interviews started to increase and he was hired to work for a firm in Virginia.

If you are moving to where you have family, use your family’s address on your resume and provide your cell phone. More firms will call you and give you a chance despite the only thing changing being the address on your resume.

Jeff Altman

Friday, October 27, 2006

Video Resumes: The Next Trend???

A newspaper reporter interviewed me recently for a story about vieo resumes. Sparked by a recent incident of a trainee for a Wall Street job, Aleksey Vayner, who sent a video resume called “Impossible is Nothing” that resulted in howls of laughter, ridicule, condemnation and a prominent position on YouTube.

According to Wikipedia, “Aleksey Vayner is a Yale student who became known after sending an 11 page resumé accompanied with a video in which he discusses his philosophy on success and shows off his physical prowess to various Wall Street firms.

In his 11 page resumé, Vayner claims that he: runs a charitable organization, is the CEO of an investment firm and has written a book on the Holocaust, among other things. Independent research has shown many of these claims to be false. His book was at least partially plagiarized, his investment firm's website lists a non-existent address and the charitable organization is using an unauthorized Charity Navigator logo.”

Putting aside the “errors” in his resume and watching the video, it proves the point I made to the reporter:

DON'T DO IT!

Very few people perform well in front of a camera in this context; very few people work with skillful enough interviewers to make you look good. Vayner’s video, including shots of him playing tennis, skiing, lifting weights, dancing and breaking bricks with him speaking over the scenes is symptomatic of how this form fails.

Now, for some fields—acting is the obvious example that comes to mind—the idea of an audition tape is considered normal and acceptable. But for almost all other occupations, it fails—plus it exposes you to the impact of bias in the work place.

For example, for older workers who have learned to disguise age in a resume through the absence of dates and deleting early job history, the video resume exposes you to age-ism. For the foreign born job seeker, it may expose your limitations in oral communications before a company has had a chance to see your real knowledge and get a sense of your ability. For the minority job seeker, it becomes another way racism can be rationalized.

So if you get an email solicitation to do a video for your job search, or if you have a well-meaning friend suggest to you this real cool idea, RUN!

Jeff Altman

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search job openings, use his free meta job lead tool or to subscribe Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. To subscribe to Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, Natural Selection Ezine, subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com For information about personal search services, go to www.VIPPersonalSearch.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Changing Careers?: Do You Know What You Need ?

While attending the New Kadampa festival in New York State, as is often the way of life, we met a couple who Sharon and Jack met previously in England. As is often the case, the wives talked about children and the men talked about work—but it was his wife’s.

She is teaching at a university and was thinking of leaving academia for industry. She has undergraduate and advanced degrees in applied math; I thought of her for quantitative jobs and asked:

Does she know what she needs to know to make the change in career? Meaning, has she spoken about different career alternatives and learned about the experience and training she will need to have?

When I was asked how to research new requirements for the field, I politely said that often guidance counselors, academic advisors and others in the career advice industry are lagging the field.

I offered a simple suggestion

Use Google.

Do a Google search for resumes in your new field in your region of the country and call up the person and speak with them? Tell them that you saw their resume on the web, weren’t trying to hire them but wanted to pick their brain.

Ask them about how they broke in and what their firm looks for in the way of training a and experience Ask if there are any industry groups you could point you to that you could join and then thank them profusely for their generosity.

Most people are very generous with their time as long as you aren’t abusive.

And then return the favor when someone calls you.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2006 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search job openings, use his free meta job lead tool or to subscribe Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to, http://www.jeffaltman.com. To subscribe to Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, Natural Selection Ezine, subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com For information about personal search services, go to www.VIPPersonalSearch.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Tailoring Doesn’t Always Refer to Your Wardrobe

He has been a friend and client for many years, has heard me talk about it for at least a decade and still made the mistake that kills more resume submissions than anything else.

For my search firm readers, how often do you receive a resume that causes you to scratch your head and wonder what the person was thinking of who sent their resume? With me, it happens more than a hundred times a day.

Almost every resume I receive does not show the skills required to do the job even when I make it clear in my advertising to send their resume in Word ONLY IF YOU HAVE THE REQUIRED SKILLS.

And if you think I have time to call everyone and ask them about the experience they have that fits the position for which they forwarded their resume, you’re wrong. I don’t. If I called everyone who emailed, waited for them to get back and qualified them for the missing part of the fit, I would never have time to do the marketing that helps people land the jobs I get for them.

So here is the simple solution—stop flipping the same resume to job ads like they are burgers at a fast food restaurant. Tailor your resume to the position.

Pretend a six year old is going to read it. Would your son or daughter at that age be able to figure out that you are qualified to do the job?

Yes, that means you will have 50 or 100 versions of your resume and you will need to track which version you sent to whom.

So what.

A broken watch is right twice a day and a generic resume will get you some interviews.

You will get more and better interviews if you tailor your resume to the specific job description, rather than sending the same one over and over again.

Jeff Altman

The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2006 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s new metajob lead tool, or to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, to help human resources professionals, managers and business owners make even better hiring decisions, ,subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com . For information about personal job search services, go to www.VIPPersonalSearch.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Who Do You Work For?

We are all influenced by brands and I can prove it to you.

When you by detergent to do your laundry, I bet you don’t read the list of chemicals from one brand, compare it with three others and say, “Hmm. The combination of these in this brand will probably be far superior to the combination in these other three.” You never say that, do you?

Instead you assume they’ll all do the same job and buy one as opposed to another because it’s on sale, you have a coupon, or has no scent or maybe your wife, husband or mother specified what they wanted. You do anything other than figure out which will actually make your laundry cleaner.

When companies hire and when recruiters screen resumes, we’re also influenced by brands. We see names we know like a large company or a “hot” company or a recognized leaders in our market area and we believe this person is better than someone at a company we’ve never heard of. Right or wrong, that’s human nature.

What can you do if you work for a small company or a “no-name company?” What can you do to create a better impression?

The answer is to define it for the recipient.

For example, a person works for Jillie Jack Jay Consultants (I made that up), what do you write? You might write something like 32 person regional strategy and operations consulting firm focused on the hospitality industry.

If you work for Benoit Fashion (again made up. Any similarity between this name and a real one is accidental), you might say that they are a $50 million dollar swimwear firm. Get the idea?

Leaving a company that few have heard of to stand on its own does little to create a positive impression. Defining it gives people a better opportunity to understand it, understand your experience and be interested.

Jeff Altman

The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2006 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To subscribe to Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to www.headhuntyournextjob.com. For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you or search for openings, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. For information about personal search services, go to www.VIPPersonalSearch.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Stop Being So “Professional”!

A recent conversation with a consultant after a successful interview reminded me of a coaching session I did years ago with a young business school graduate who was having trouble getting hired for her first job.

The student had graduated #1 in her class from an elite business school and kept striking out on interviews. I sat with her for about 10 or 15 minutes and taught her a simple technique to counter what had plagued this consultant for so many years.

The consultant told me that for much of her early career was told that she was so pretty that getting a job would be easy for her. It angered her so she set out to make sure that she was hired for her ability and not her looks.

And that leads to today’s lesson:

Stop being so professional!

As I have written many times, people are not hired purely because of skills competency but because someone likes them. You create trust in their mind as someone who can solve their problem and they are willing to choose you.

The notion of being “professional” (I hope you detect oozing sarcasm) is artificial and eliminates any human qualities from an interview that would cause someone to like you and trust you. Given that skills competency is only one small measure of why someone is hired (See my article Cx5+PL: What Every Employer Assesses For When They Hire or go to www.jeffaltman.com and read the article in my blog), eliminating the personal connection from you interview technique makes it much harder to be hired.

The B-school student went on to 10 job offers and a successful career. The consultant remarked after a Thursday interview where she spent three hours, met three people she truly liked and was accepted for a long term assignment that could go on for years, “I have spent so much time fighting to be hired based upon what I knew and not based upon my looks, that here, I went in and was myself and was hired based upon what I knew.”

That is a lesson for us all.

Jeff Altman

The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2006 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To subscribe to Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to www.headhuntyournextjob.com. For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you or search for openings, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. For information about personal search services, go to www.VIPPersonalSearch.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

The Fly-In

Early this week, I received a call from someone referred by a friend of mine in Utah. He was being flown in for an interview by a firm with whom he had been in conversations for quite some time and wanted some coaching before his interview. After all, it had been a decade since he interviewed!

In circumstances like this, I try not to overload someone; in his case, he had an advantage because as a long term consultant, he was used to selling his abilities.

I asked him about a few details.

What time is your flight?

Who’s going to pick you up?

What’s your schedule that night?

In his case, he had an afternoon flight. After he landed, he was going to rent a car and drive to a restaurant to meet the person who is sponsoring his candidacy for dinner; the next day would be when the heavy interviewing would occur.

For one of my clients, they fly people out the day before, have a driver take them to a hotel to stay overnight, then interviews start in earnest the next morning (they bring people in the day before so that if flights are delayed or even cancelled, the interview schedule isn’t impacted).

Given that he was meeting someone from the employer for dinner (I thought of how rumpled I can be after a flight), he planned to change at the airport into appropriate attire for dinner, rather than travel in his suit.

I have had companies treat the driver like a surveillance member and report back any rude or obnoxious behavior. I have had job seekers abuse the ability to charge by expensing expensive liquor to their room.

Be smart about lies ahead of you.

You will be someone else’s control for a day or so. What can you do to perform at peak?

Try to get a sense of your schedule. I have a client that will interview for five or 6 hours. Can your blood sugar hold that long?

Traveling across time zones? East coast people have it easier interviewing on the West coast. They may be up early but, a 9AM interview is like interviewing at noon for them. If you reverse it, a West coast person is interviewing at 6AM and may be up at the equivalent of 4 for breakfast, appearance preparation and to get to the interview (always arrive on time).

I remember Muhammad Ali would always start and finish each round strong to create an impression with the judges. Do the same. Start and finish each meeting at peak.

Read some of earlier writings on interviewing at my blog which you can access at www.jeffaltman.com

And, remember, you are not a rock star who will expense a limo and numerous expensive bottles of champagne!

Jeff Altman

The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2006 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To subscribe to Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to www.headhuntyournextjob.com. For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you or search for openings, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. For information about personal search services, go to www.VIPPersonalSearch.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Rainmaker

Now is the time to really leverage your rolodex

Yesterday, I was speaking with a senior manager who was referred to me by someone for a position. Although he did not fit the role, as often happens, we got to talking about a broad spectrum of things and then evolved our conversation to his job search.

“Right now,” I said, is the key time for you in your search for this year.

“Why is that?”

“Because your old friends are creating their budgets for next year and they can carve out a place for you. More than anything for a senior professional, the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth are the key times in their search when they can leverage some of their contacts and really make something happen.”

If you wait until December, budgets are already in place for the next year and it’s too late for them to be creative.

Instead, get on the phone and/or get together with as many former colleagues as you can who are in leadership roles with their firms or joining new organizations in leadership roles. See if there is space for you or can be space for you in their new budget. If not, see if they can point you to someone who they hear may need someone like you.

Use your time wisely now. If you do and are fortunate you can bank your severance and land in a new role with a halo around your head.

Jeff Altman

The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2006 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To subscribe to Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to www.headhuntyournextjob.com. To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you or search for openings, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. For information about personal search services, go to www.vippersonalsearch.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Out of Work since 2005? Hustle NOW!

I started in the search business in 1972 (GASP!) and it didn’t take long for me to notice a few simple, yet understandable behaviors among employers.

They include:

The longer someone is looking for work, the few choices they have. Companies start to look at your resume and believe that others have interviewed you and found your skills lacking so why should they waste their time meeting you?

The longer that someone is out of work, the less negotiating leverage someone has come salary negotiations. Firms often adopt the attitude of giving you two choices when they make an offer—Take it. Leave it. They act from the belief that you don’t have many choices (and they are probably right) so they don’t feel a great need to extend themselves.

If you’ve been out of work in your field for a year, it is hard (or impossible) to re-enter at the same level . . . if at all.

For those of you whose resumes indicate that you worked for your last employer until 2005, I encourage you to hustle during the next few months to find something . . .anything . . . even if it means profound compromise (to you) because, with 2007 just around the corner, your choices will become microscopic and the likelihood of you returning to your career as you’ve known it unlikely.

Jeff Altman

The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2006 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To subscribe to Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to www.headhuntyournextjob.com. To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you or search for openings, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. For information about personal search services, go to www.vippersonalsearch.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

The Two Peak Times for Job Hunting

For many years, I have tracked the cycles in hiring and job hunting to see if there are discernable patterns to job hunting success.

Although there have been exceptions (such as in the opst-9/11 recessions), the two best times of the year to find work are in the period following Labor Day and in the period following the start of the new year.

The reasons for this are pretty simple.

In the post-Labor Day boomlet, job hunters believe that with summer vacations over, companies can get back to hiring. This longstanding myth creates a self-fulfilling prophecy that helps to create the result (in fact, summers are very strong periods for looking for work because companies find fewer choices so job hunters get great results).

In addition, managers want to exhaust their budgets and fulfill their commitments so more hiring is done to help them achieve objectives.

In the period after January 1, new budgets start to go into place, bonus are already determined (even if they haven’t been paid yet, people know when they will be receiving them and are willing to end a “bad situation”) and the Christmas lethargy comes to an end.

So, if you’ve been thinking of looking for work, act now.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2006 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To subscribe to Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to www.headhuntyournextjob.com. To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you or search for openings, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. For information about personal search services, go to www.vippersonalsearch.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Friday, August 18, 2006

Most Job Hunters Miss the Sweet Spot in the Job Market?

The propaganda is pretty consistent and it gives the advantage to big companies.

People tell me all the time that they want to work for a large company. Generally, they believe that there is stability working for such a firm that doesn’t exist in a start-up or small company.

It’s all propaganda.

Yes, in the last recession, small companies went out of business. But large companies fired hundreds of thousands of workers, including over 400000 in technology in a two year period. Does this sound like stability to you?

Read the reports from The US Labor Department.

90% of all job creation is going on in smaller businesses.

Why are you only investigating large companies when the greatest opportunity to find work is with small companies?

Jeff Altman

The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2006 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To subscribe to Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to www.headhuntyournextjob.com. To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you or search for openings, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. For information about personal search services, go to www.vippersonalsearch.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Is Your Career Path Blocked?

Have you noticed how old your boss is?

How about your boss’ boss?

Do you think they’re going anywhere or are they in it for the long haul?

According to a 2005 survey, the number of baby boomers is 78.2 million. With all the fear that existed in American business circles about the potential loss of labor and their intellectual capital, we now have a new problem and, if you are in your 30’s, you may be acutely aware of it.

The number of workers in their 30’s is only 40 million,

This means that if you are a Gen-X worker in your 30’s, your career path is blocked by a boomer (like me) in their 50’s.

The good news is that companies caught discriminating against an aging worker will get hammered by the government, the bloggers and a million other constituents. They will embarrassed in the media and run the risk of losing access to valuable potential workers.

The bad news is that where do you go? What is the upside for you? If you’re a Gen-X worker, how do you advance your career?

If you’re a Gen-X worker who has successfully negotiated large company systems, send me an email at thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

Tell me how you negotiated the promotion landscape and we'll turn it into another article.

Jeff Altman

The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2006 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To subscribe to Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to www.headhuntyournextjob.com. To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you or search for openings, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. For information about personal search services, go to www.vippersonalsearch.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).