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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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?
4. 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?
5. 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.
6. 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,
7. 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?
8. 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)

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

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).

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

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

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

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

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).

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

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).

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

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, 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).

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).

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).

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).

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@TheBigGameHunter.us

© 2006 all rights reserved.

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).

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).

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).

How Long Can I Consider a Job Offer?

A few weeks ago, a young man I was representing almost lost a job. He had interviewed with the firm on Thursday afternoon and received a job offer that day. He wanted to consider the offer until the close of business the following Friday . . . and almost lost the opportunity he ultimately accepted by insisting that he had “a right” to “consider it” until then.

From my client’s perspective, they understood that he was comparison shopping, had actually hired three people from the firm he was waiting for an offer from, were interviewing more people from there and didn’t want to risk losing everyone.

This situation offers an opportunity to examine how long you have to consider a job offer once you receive one.

The correct answer is that you have as long as they will give you.

Most firms would like an immediate or almost immediate response. I don’t mean an answer in 10 minutes. I mean an answer where you sleep on it. After all, in most cases, you’ve interviewed there several times, why haven’t you been thinking about it before now and able to make a decision?

And delaying for too long gives a message to the hiring firm of how you make decisions . . . or that you are shopping for another option . . . or just aren’t that interested.

The fact is everything you do on an interview is a reflection of you and how you will work with your new employer. A day to think is OK (truthfully, now, you’re not going to take a day off from work, sit in a chair in isolation and contemplate the job offer, are you), two days is often OK and more gives the employer reason to feel hesitant about you and your thought process.

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).

Self-Promoting Yourself into a Job

If you’re like most people, you’ve never written a press release to call attention to a success you’ve had.

And rightly so.

But some of you should be sending out press releases or encouraging your company to promote things that you and your group are doing because they are significant.

And most of you can be doing the next best thing to a press release:

The periodic note

An old friend of mine would mail a note to all of her friends bring them up-to-date on the things that were going on in her life, her professional successes, accomplishments and, occasionally, the frustrations. It allowed her to stay in contact with lot of people who would offer her advice, suggestions and jobs.

Today, with email, it is much easier than before.

Every 6 months, send an email to all of your friends, acquaintances and former colleagues to bring them up-to-date. Skip the complaints about your boss. Former colleagues may be in contact with them and you don’t want to generate problems.

It’s easy to add people to Outlook and other products like it; you can also use services like Plaxo (www.plaxo.com) that host your rolodex online and allow others to connect with you, too.

Any way you look at it, since only 22% of positions are filled by recruiters and fewer than 6% via job boards, your connects and their ability to think of you will go a long way to helping jobs land in your lap.

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).

Using the Back Door

Sometimes It Makes More Sense to Avoid The Front Door

When you see ads in newspapers or on the web, often the ad will direct you to email your resume to an address like hrmgr@nameofthecompany.com. There, it sits waiting to be evaluated by the person who is probably the least experienced in the department.

Even if you are interviewed by the company, you will probably start by meeting a human resources person who is charged with interviewing everyone from receptionists to accountants to technology professionals to security guards. Larger firms will compartmentalize the recruiting function because they have more jobs available.

What if your resume is buried and never called on? What if you are interviewed by human resources and nothing else happens? What can you do?

If you have a friend, contact them and see if they will dig to find out who the manager is who is hiring for the job. Although the likelihood is small that you know someone, never skip the step.

Your second choice is to call the company and ask for the person who heads up the function that the job is in and work your way down. For example, call and ask for the head of security and ask if they or someone reporting to them is hiring for the _________ position.

You can also check your local library for whether it has access to www.hoovers.com or other services.

If that doesn’t work, see if your contacts on www.linkedin.com, www.ryze.com, www.openbc.com, www.soflow.com, www.myspace.com or others can point you in the tight direction.

Lastly, if those don’t work, try www.jigsaw.com. Jigsaw carries more than 3.5 million names at more than 370000 companies. The service is free if you input 25 email contacts per month (a contact is name, title, email address, phone number and address) or costs $25 per month to access 25 contacts.

I’m also going to take a demo of www.spoke.com; Spoke claims information about more than 30 million people and costs $60 per month for unlimited access. Again, I’m going to do a demo of the product but it seems interesting.

Any way you look at it, sometimes, it is far better to go through the back door.

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).