Even more cut and paste catastrophes

By Neil Patrick

My impression of the people responsible for this job ad.

I never cease to be amazed at the idiotic job descriptions for professional roles which are posted online for supposedly reputable employers by supposedly professional recruiters.

Okay I am being deliberately inflammatory. I know that most employers are good at what they do. And most recruiters are good at what they do. If they weren’t, they’d be out of business.

But amidst all the daily pressures, some things just don’t get done properly. And it’s always easier to fix little problems than big ones. Job descriptions and adverts are little things that are worth doing well, because there’s a really handsome pay-off.

Better job descriptions, means better job applicants, means better people, means a better business.

For once, it really is that simple.

Which is why from time to time, I feature job ads and descriptions on this blog. I call them 'cut and paste catastrophes'. I don't have to search very hard. This one was the just the second or third I found after a few clicks. That's hardly scientific research, but it's reasonable I think to conclude that if terrible work is so easy to find, it must be very prevalent.

So I beg anyone reading this who is in HR or recruitment to take this post in the constructive spirit it is intended. I am not just being mean-spirited – as usual this job ad is anonymous, and I have provided a commentary in italics (admittedly frequently tongue-in-cheek) to show where I think there’s erm, let's call it, 'room for improvement'.

So let’s get stuck in!

Today’s job ad catastrophe plumbs new depths of sloppiness. Not only is it full of management speak nonsense (these days though, that’s no longer enough to get you featured here); it showcases hilariously bad grammar and punctuation and is frequently self-contradictory.

But worst of all, it is unquestionably in breach of UK discrimination law.

So here it is in all its catastrophic glory:



Digital Manager - London


Salary: £60,000 per annum + car / car allowance


Are you a digital native with a real passion for what you do? Do you have gravitas and authority and the ability to guide and collaborate with those who are not digitally savvy? If so then please read on?

NO! Stop right now. This is age discrimination. And yes, that’s illegal in this country:

Put another way; you could find yourself in court very quickly with careless behaviour like this.

Exhibit 1: The term “digital native” is defined thus:

This job advert essentially excludes anyone who was born or grew up before digital technology existed. Whilst this date is not precise, the internet first became accessible for public and commercial use in mid-1989 with the connection of MCI Mail and CompuServe's email capabilities to the (then) 500,000 (!) users of the internet. Anyone born before that date (i.e. older than about 30-35) is patently not eligible to apply.

Apart from being illegal, this requirement makes the assumption that if you were born much before the mid 1980’s, you cannot possibly be competent to do this job. In this case, being the ‘wrong’ age is a definite exclusion to being hired for this post. 

But apart from being young, the employer also wants you to have ‘gravitas’. Let’s just remind ourselves how this is defined:

I might be a bit biased, but these character traits are more readily found in older not younger people. You can see now why this job description contradicts itself. Let’s face it, whilst there are exceptions of course, those who grew up taking an iPhone to school are not widely recognised for their dignity, solemnity or sobriety.

Oh and please tell me, why does the invitation to “please read on” end in a question mark?

You will be working in an FMCG business with a large global travel retail team who look after everything from Russia to Spain. You will have line management responsibility of one and be the digital guru for the business. You will know how to communicate and coach those who are keen to learn more about digital. You will also be responsible for ensuring all digital capabilities are disseminated and driven through the business, both locally and globally.

I suspect that Vladimir Putin and Mariano Rajoy Brey will be upset to hear that this job involves the jobholder’s team taking over responsibility for ‘looking after everything’ from Russia to Spain. In fact since France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Poland and the whole of eastern Europe lie between Russia and Spain, I really hope these nations have at least been consulted. Have they agreed to this? We should be told I think.

What is line management responsibility of one? One what? One person? One team? I am guessing it’s just one country. Shame, I had hoped for more, like say the whole of the EU or something.

Apparently it is a requirement to ‘know how to communicate’. No adverbs here. Such as being able to communicate clearly or persuasively. Nope. It’s just to communicate. Last time I checked, this meant being able to listen, talk, read and write. To make a phone call, write a letter or email. But this is all about digital so I guess we should assume it also means writing online content,  social media posts, compiling and disseminating online analytics, and perhaps writing a bit of HTML coding. If you cannot communicate, for example if you are profoundly deaf, dumb or illiterate and have no idea what a PC, tablet or smart phone does, how are you expected to be reading this advert or considering this job? So why is such an almost universal human skill in the 21st century mentioned without the essential adverbs?

You will always strive for digital excellence and be able to communicate with all levels to ensure the business is on board and believes in it as much as you do. You will deliver cross regional campaigns, whilst managing the KPI's for digital activations. You will provide digital training and capabilities to the wider business and work with the brand and customer teams to ensure synergy across all departments.

This is about as much as most people understand about creating synergy.

Ah synergy. Now that’s a can of worms. This is one of those wonderful management speak buzzwords which gets bandied about by those who have no idea how it is actually created, delivered or measured. Of course it’s an easy enough concept to explain; it’s the idea that 1+1 = 3. In other words, if we put A and B together, the outcome is more than A+B were worth separately. But if I were given the task of creating interdepartmental synergy in any organisation, without the essential authority to drive it through, I’d chuck it right back. Not because I have no staying power or competency, simply because for a mid-level manager, it’s like herding cats while being expected to turn them all into unicorns.

“Managing the KPI’s (sic) for digital activations.” Haha! My that sounds impressive doesn’t it? This is management speak for what normal people call hitting targets. Translation: if you can produce lots of nice graphs going ever upwards, you’ll be fine. If they don’t, you’re in trouble.

You'll be star if you can do this...

You will establish a roster of digital agencies and delivery digital asset management platforms to ensure efficiencies in delivering digital as a relevant channel. You will need to be personable, approachable and have gravitas. You will adore all things digital and this will show in your approach to everything you do.

I would adore to explain on my resume how I am passionate about “delivery digital asset management platforms”. Yes I have extensive experience of them all. From Royal Mail to Federal Express. Yup, I’m your man when it comes to delivery digital asset management platforms. And yes I really do simply ADORE all things digital especially digital delivery – analogue delivery is just like so totally ewww.

This is a 9 month maternity cover contract where you will be able to make an impact in a very short period of time.

Sorry but I don’t know how you can be so confident that I will make an impact in a short period of time. I mean, I haven’t even sent you my resume yet. I have to assume you have psychic superpowers. I admit I am impressed by that. And flattered too. Thank you.

Now for the serious bit. I will stop messing about I promise.

The point is this. Recruitment is a serious business. Every business wants and needs to get the best talent they can. But the best candidates are judging potential employers from the get go. And if you are not a big and well known business, a job ad might be the very first piece of information a prospective candidate sees. Which means the very least an employer should do is take some care to specify the job as clearly and professionally as they can. If you don’t, like here, the best candidates are going to at best ignore you and at worst put you down as a bunch of fools – which is a tragedy, because I honestly believe that's a totally avoidable own goal.

My guess is that this was written by someone in a recruitment firm and then emailed to the client for approval. Recruiters are busy people. Finely crafting words isn’t particularly high on their priorities. I get that and I understand it. Mind you, if this recruiter were recruiting staff for me, I’d definitely be on their case, because this sloppy piece of work has the potential to land us in court.

And whoever signed this off would be regretting their slackness too.

Cut and paste catastrophes – revisited.

By Neil Patrick

This feels like a topic which is going to run and run. But I couldn’t let today’s latest job description/cut and paste catastrophe that reached my desk pass without comment. It's time for yet more car-crash HR...

We want one of these and we want it cheap.

This latest example is so mind-boggling that I cannot even begin to add my usual line by line commentary. In fact I really don’t need to – anyone who's had a job in business can see that this job description has been written by madmen (or women).

It’s a job for a digital marketing manager allegedly. In reality, it’s a job for a whole department of specialists.

To perform this role effectively, you’ll need to have solid evidence of accomplishments in:

Coding, digital and traditional marketing, media planning and execution, search engine optimisation, market analysis, sales strategy development, marketing planning, data warehousing and analysis, software evaluation, PR, research and testing, creative skills, content writing and proof reading, outsourcing management, oh yes and hands on experience of the legal, property and conveyancing industries.

How anyone at the proposed salary level in this massively under-resourced jobs sector is expected to have acquired all or even the majority of these requirements is quite beyond me.

Whilst doing this, you’ll be held accountable for high quality and high volume results i.e. generating a lot of sales leads, all the while maintaining a cool head (despite your complete mental and physical exhaustion).

Obviously the people responsible for this job posting think such skills are so abundant in the marketplace that there will be an eager queue of qualified candidates, because the salary for this job is…wait for it… £25k-£30k a year – around $32k - $39k.

This is the natural outcome of what some have called the hunt for the purple squirrel. The self-defeating hiring strategy where a job is so massively, intensely and minutely specified that no-one could possibly come close to meeting the requirement – at any salary level.

How could any self-respecting HR or hiring manager sign off this job description? It almost appears as if someone has laid off a whole department and come up with the brilliant idea of replacing everyone with just one polymath (presumably supplied with large quantities of amphetamines) to do everyone’s work.

I really hope no-one I know is ‘lucky’ enough to get hired for this job. Perhaps some of my recruiting and HR friends who read this blog would care to provide your reactions in the comments section below – even if only to confirm I haven’t lost the plot?

Anyway for your delight and entertainment here’s the posting in full:



Digital Marketing Manager

Permanent, full time.



The Role:

To support the Sales and Marketing Director in the delivery of Company marketing strategies; with the main focus on managing online presence and supporting the long-term successful promotion and deployment of marketing initiatives of the businesses.



Responsibilities:

Plan and execute all web, SEO/SEM, marketing database, email, social media and display advert campaigns.

To manage PPC strategy constantly - reviewing performance and return on investment.

To oversee the online reputation management of all companies as required.

Design, build and maintain social media presence.

Measure and report on the performance of all digital marketing campaigns, and assess against goals (ROI and KPIs).

Identify trends and insights, and optimise spend and performance.

Brainstorm new and creative growth strategies.

Plan, execute, and measure experiments and conversion tests.

Collaborate with internal teams to create landing pages and optimise user experience.

Utilise strong analytical ability to evaluate end-to-end customer experience across multiple channels and customer touch points.

Instrument conversion points and optimise user funnels.

Evaluate emerging technologies. Provide thought leadership and perspective for adoption where appropriate.

Arranging the effective distribution of marketing materials.

Maintaining and updating customer databases.

Create, develop and deploy effective marketing plans and strategies.

Monitoring competitor activity.

Managing the production and distribution of marketing materials, including leaflets, posters, flyers, newsletters and e-newsletters.

Writing and proofreading press releases and copy.

Liaising with designers and printers.

Supporting the Sales and Marketing Director wherever needed.

Work closely with PR agencies to build strong relationships with the press and managing all aspects of PR for the business.



Education/Skills/attributes required:


Essential;

Proven working experience in digital and traditional marketing.

Experience leading and managing SEO/SEM, marketing database, email, social media, websites, news feeds and display advertising campaigns.

The ability to produce high quality, high volume results.

Highly creative with experience in identifying target audiences and devising campaigns that engage, inform and motivate.

Experience in optimising landing pages and user funnels.

Experience with A/B and multivariate experiments.

Solid knowledge of website analytic tools (e.g., Google Analytics, NetInsight, Omniture, WebTrends).

Working knowledge of ad serving tools (e.g., DART, Atlas).

Experience in setting up and optimising Google Adwords campaigns.

Working knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript development and constraints.

Strong analytical skills and data-driven thinking.

Up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in online marketing and measurement.

Experience in managing the production of marketing materials, including leaflets, posters, flyers, newsletters and e-newsletters.



Desirable;

Experience of the Property/Conveyancing Industry.

Relevant marketing qualification (CIM etc).

Experience handling high volume digital campaigns in the legal sector.



Personal Qualities


Managing Yourself;

Self-motivated and willing to take the lead and be personally accountable.

Copes effectively in demanding circumstances showing confidence in own ability and judgment.

Able to manage priorities and time effectively adopting a flexible approach to work, willing and able to delegate as appropriate.

Demonstrates persistence and commitment to completing tasks and objectives.

Pays attention to detail and quality of work.

Demonstrates a commitment to improving working practices and supports company plans and policies.



Working with People;

Ability to build and maintain excellent working relationships with others.

Confident, logical and articulate in oral and written communication, including giving formal presentations to groups.

Ability to project a dynamic and positive image of themselves and our organisation to those outside the business.

Uses effective skills to present a case clearly and succinctly to achieve a positive outcome.

Operates effectively as part of a team, encouraging others to contribute ideas and seek improvements.

Willing to offer help to all colleagues to ensure company success.



Managing Commercially;

Understands the commercial environment and has a clear vision of where the business needs to be, developing creative and innovative marketing plans to achieve commercial success.

Shows strong focus on satisfying Introducer and Client needs, taking positive action to ensure needs are met.

Understands the importance of business targets and how they impact on their responsibilities.

Makes sound commercial judgments based on issues key to the success of the business.

Knows when to seek guidance or further input from others before taking action.



Salary is £25,000 - £30,000 per annum


My suggestion is that this job description can be streamlined to a much more truthful and effective description:

"Company with poor understanding of marketing operations seeks broadly skilled and energetic marketer with good digital skills. You should be ambitious and resilient and know how to generate a lot of sales leads via online media. Should thrive in a chaotic environment. Salary highly negotiable and will be generous to reflect the scarcity and high value of these skills".

But then HR would never sign this off would they?

Don't fear hiring the 'wrong' person; fear not making good people great

By Neil Patrick

Fear is the new greed. And catching a dose of it is more life threatening to more people than any terrorist or viral epidemic.

Tomorrow’s UK referendum about staying in or leaving the EU has been dominating the media now for what seems like forever. Watching media interviews with the public on this topic reminded me of an old truth - many people fear change and the unknown more than anything else. Most people will stick with a terrible spouse, a toxic employer and a collapsing career rather than face up to the unknown. Their default is to stick with what they know, even to the point of it harming them.

Banks know this human failing well and even have a name for it and make a great deal of money from it. They call it customer inertia. It's what stops customers switching to another bank even when they are really unhappy about their current one.

And this fear is becoming the norm for organisational behaviours too. Risk management has become a profession which has expanded its death grip from sensible steps to mitigate calamity to an all-pervasive mind set which hampers any organisation seeking to do the sorts of things they aspire to yet often fail to successfully implement. Risk avoidance has become a surrogate for good practice.

Things like becoming agile. Being flexible and responsive. Being customer centric. The reason these management buzzwords cause me to retch every time I hear them, isn’t because they are unworthy aspirations, it’s because so few people who espouse them actually practice them, or have even figured out a way to make them a reality instead of a pipedream.

And nowhere is this commitment to mediocrity more prevalent than in the decisions around hiring people. The whole sorry process has (not unlike the EU) taken on a life of its own. It has grown from a sensible desire to avoid hiring totally unsuitable people for jobs, into an over-rigid and over-specified set of requirements which mean hardly anyone can meet such demanding criteria.

This is why so many vacancies remain unfilled. It's why employers claim they cannot find the people they seek. HR and hiring managers are so terrified that they might make a bad decision that they make no decision. So the post remains unfilled often for months, because no-one suitable can be found (allegedly). In the meantime, the organisation limps on, other employees carry extra burdens, and the whole environment becomes more toxic, more pressured and less productive.

Yet these thousands of person shaped holes are not because no-one can be found. It’s because the specifications and requirements are so extensive that almost no-one could meet them. In my career I have interviewed and hired hundreds of people and watched their careers develop. The thing I learned from this was that an average person can outperform a superstar every time if they are provided with a good environment. Put a superstar in a poor environment and the reverse happens.

And the responsibility for creating a good environment is down to employers not employees. Some employers know this and work hard at it. Too many abdicate responsibility and pass the buck for their failures to their employees.

Employers want good people. But good people are made not bought. And if your organisation is capable of turning good people onto superstars, you’ll not only have a more loyal and productive workforce, you’ll enjoy the benefits of people staying with you longer and critically, acquire the capability of attracting more good people more easily.

It’s time for organisations to stop talking about talent acquisition and start practicing talent manufacturing.

12 ways to make a recruiter love or loathe you

By Neil Patrick and Axel Kőster

I usually write this blog from the perspective of job seekers. And I often criticise employers and recruiters, but also give praise when I think it is merited. Sadly the former group is much larger than the latter.

So I was pleased recently to receive a very honest and heartfelt email from my good friend Axel Koster, the General Manager of the Manhattan Group, a major global recruitment firm based in Melbourne, Australia. In case you don’t know Axel, he is a specialist in recruiting employees for the global hotel industry. From chefs to general managers and CEOs and everything in between.

But Axel isn’t an average recruiter. For a start he has over 660,000 followers on Twitter. He’s taken the use of social media for recruitment to a level that no-one else has in his industry. This level of exposure places him in the top 10 most influential people online in Australia. That’s no mean feat considering there are at least two members of the Minogue family in that list too!

Axel Koster GM of the Manhattan Group

So today we are going to turn the lens around and look at things from a recruiter’s perspective. For job seekers, understanding how recruiters think and FEEL is critical to understanding why they do what they do. It’s called empathy. If you can empathise with someone rather than simply judge them, you are in a much better position to influence them.

And surely having influence over a recruiter is much better than simply resenting them if you don’t get the outcome you seek?

Of course no amount of empathy is suddenly going to turn you into a must hire candidate. No recruiter on earth is going to drop everything to ensure you get hired.

But when you read what follows from Axel, you’ll discover the amazing amount of nonsense, unprofessionalism, rudeness, lying, laziness and unreasonable expectations from job seekers which he experiences day in day out, 24/7.

And you will also discover how not to shoot yourself in the foot when dealing not just with Axel, but in my opinion ANY recruiter.

Simply by avoiding these obvious and sometimes not so obvious mistakes, you will ensure you get at least fair treatment by recruiters and possibly even get them to come a little more onto your side…

Remember empathy begets empathy!

And if nothing else, Axel’s comments will reveal the truly crazy expectations that some jobseekers have.

Here’s what Axel has to say:



I’ve thought long and hard about expressing my views about recruitment, candidate search and follow through and so here it is at last…note that I speak purely for myself & not the industry as a whole.

I feel terrible some days (and I do really mean that) because I just do not get the time to respond to all mails and messages sent to me via direct mail, Skype, SMS, LinkedIn, Twitter , phone and Message bank to name just a few.

Believe it or not, I'm on the job seven days a week, working long hours and always with my phone next to me. So even over dinner, or using public transport or relaxing at home or any other location, I spend my time reading messages and answering as many as I can - time is unfortunately a commodity in itself and I simply just don't have enough.

A few years ago, we established some custom built recruitment programs for our clients and in general we work mostly on retainers. Moreover, our clients actually pay us up front - and in full. We are often trusted with the most attractive jobs on the market and we enjoy a close relationship with many senior managers. These people are not just our clients but often they become our applicants as well. It is not unusual for other recruiters to ask us to share their candidates; however we never do.

9 out of 10 times we receive a clear profile of the candidate requirements. This usually consists of regional experience, a specific skill set, preferred nationalities, time lines and employer names and sometimes sex and age. In Australia, it would of course be illegal discrimination to reject applicants on age or gender etc., but many other countries have different laws, preferences and practices.

But let's face it, only one person can secure the position. Only one individual will be appointed; so from let's say 100 applicants (sometimes many more), 99 will be disappointed. The very best applicants make it quite clear why they should get the position. They explain to us WHY they are the IDEAL candidate.

Our shortlist usually incorporates a maximum of 3 people, sometimes more. If they are all turned down by our clients, then we try our utmost to find out the reasons why, so we can communicate this back to the applicant. You can be assured if we introduce you to our client, that you are matching the client’s profile. And yes we argue (we call it a discussion!) with our clients too. I do understand and respect that careers are vital for families and lives and I will go the extra mile to assist you on your journey. Many candidates of mine have over the years stayed in close contact and have become friends.

I have no time for nonsense and those people who know me understand that I hold honesty and integrity very close to my heart as this is how I was brought up.

Here are the top twelve things that candidates do which antagonize, dismay, alienate, annoy and frustrate me. Some are obvious, but I am sure some will astonish you that they happen at all!

 
1. I am not your servant: Someone sends me an invite on LinkedIn and as soon as we have connected, I receive a message – “I need a job!” (every new LinkedIn connection of mine receives a response mail very clearly stating how to approach us, even my email address is stated, and where to find open positions – do not tell me to ‘check your profile’! 

 
2. I am not responsible for your life: Don't write me letters telling me that your future or your life is in my hands as I do not own you; it’s ridiculous. It is time for many to take responsibility for their own career and choices and stop blaming others for their misfortune.

3. I am not here to do your work for you: Asking us to check your profile as you don’t have the time to apply correctly ...(I match suitable candidates for positions who are actually applying). 

4. Don’t expect me to put you forward without a resume: Applying back to me through my regular alerts but not being able to attach a resume (I clearly state on my mail that I'm working out of the office and therefore need a resume with all applications). 

5. I execute my clients’ wishes, not yours: Some people DEMAND to be forwarded to a client! (Actually you are not paying me....it is the client who pays me to find the right candidate.) 

6. Do not hide behind alleged confidentiality: Sending resumes where the last position is confidential or a cover letter masking gaps or whatever by claiming your work was confidential...if your work is confidential then please just don't apply - if you work for the CIA, better stay there. Believe me I have better things to do than to tell the world that you are looking for a new job. 

7. I am not able to provide everyone with free coaching: I do many sessions offering free advice, correct resume set up, career mentoring, etc. for people I have met but please don't demand this service from me, especially if I have never even spoken to you before! 

8. Don’t expect me to provide you with my clients’ contact information: I will never provide my clients’ and connections’ names, email addresses or telephone numbers as I work with complete confidentiality in all my placements. 

 
9. Don’t think you can jump the queue: Asking me just to set up an interview with company A or B and ‘you will do the rest’...(it never works this way and just shows me your arrogance and naivety).

10. Don’t lie: Don’t mail false resumes or place false profiles on LinkedIn ...(missing jobs, incorrect employer names, time frames wrong or false titles)...remember, if this happens I will never deal with you again and thanks to our comprehensive database you will definitely be red flagged...like the “owner representative” in Cambodia or the “general manager” in the Maldives. The list goes on...caught and never forgotten. 

11. Treat me as you would wish to be treated: Writing a personal letter to me and you can't even get my name right or you address me as Dear HR manager or Accor , or Interconti etc ...(And you are supposed to be so proud of your attention to detail?!!!) 

12. Don’t try to bribe me: Offering me money or other inducements if I manage to place you…(Once again, we charge our clients and NOT our applicants).

I hope the suggestions above are helpful. I know that in today’s jobs market, it can be hard to find the right job at the right time. But if you understand me and my life, then you will also understand how the system works and how not to sabotage your own endeavours to find a job. We may not like the ‘rules’, but the system works the way it does and none of us can change that. Trying to cheat or trick the system is a surefire way to lose.

To try and be as helpful as I can, I have set up several online resources designed to help jobseekers in the hotel industry find their next job more easily. If that’s you, you’ll be welcome to join and engage with us on our two LinkedIn Groups:

Upcoming Hoteliers & Careers Group http://ow.ly/4nlEm4 (designed for all levels in hospitality)

Hoteliers & Careers Network http://ow.ly/4mPZB7 (Department Head onward including owners, CEO's, VP's etc)

Why are so many job descriptions cut and paste catastrophes?

By Neil Patrick

As employers increasingly complain about the poor quality of job applicants and trouble finding the skills they seek, the implication is that it’s not their fault.

Despite lots of searching and advertising, they just cannot secure the quality of talent and skills they aspire to; they are deluged with low quality applications.

Maybe, just maybe, they should look at their own actions first?

The advertised job description determines who applies. So why when I look at so many job vacancies are they cut and paste catastrophes?

Here’s a post for the position of Senior Marketing Manager I pulled at random today from Linkedin along with my own commentary in italics (with a few key points removed to protect the guilty):

Key Duties & Responsibilities: 

• Work closely with ******* to identify and promote new opportunities 
• Work with the web marketing team to develop effective, distributable marketing assets (tools, banners, emails) 
• Assist affiliate team to identify potential partners willing to host content 
• Write all required copy including: emails, product copy, press releases and social copy 
• Update existing material 
• Work with the design team to produce newsletters and mailings 

Senior Marketing Manager? A Senior Marketing Manager is more erm, senior than a simple Marketing Manager. Whilst they are not the principal owner of the marketing strategy (that of course is the remit of the Marketing Director) I would expect to see at least some mention of the word ‘strategy’ in this JD.

What about leadership? Nope. This is a hands-on, get the work done role. The only action verb here beyond the hands-on stuff is “Assist affiliate team…”

The reality is that this position is mainly about content production – writing copy, a bit of design work, and developing media distribution channels.

It’s not a Senior Marketing Manager position. It’s not even a Marketing Manager role. It’s a junior marketing  job.

Desired Skills and Experience

Essential

• Degree (or relevant experience) 
• Excellent computer competency 
• A versatile portfolio showing experience with a range of clients 
• At least 3 year’s copywriting experience 
• Strong problem‐solving skills 
• Excellent written communication skills 
• Ability to effectively manage own workload and perform under pressure 
• Quick to learn and adapt to new challenges 
• Highly organised and reliable 

My diagnosis is borne out by this section. The only job specific essential requirement is 3 years copy-writing experience. The rest is more or less generic (I'm being polite - it's a cut and paste isn't it?). So with 3 years copy-writing experience do you suddenly have the necessary skills to be a Senior Marketing Manager? I'm sorry to disappoint the person that is hired for this job, but you've not become a Senior Marketing Manager...

Okay. So let’s look at the requirements that an absolutely great candidate will also possess:

Desired 

• Marketing based degree 
• Knowledge of (our) products and services 
• Understanding of affiliate platforms and tracking 
• Experience of measuring the success of your writing and PR (for example through Google Analytics, A/B testing and campaign metrics) is extremely desirable 

Studied Marketing at university? Great. Tick that box. Unfortunately if you did that and then spent the next 3 years writing copy, the stuff you studied at university was probably written no later than about 2008 – when Twitter was just one year old and still in its infancy. See my point? The speed of marketing communications development is so fast today that even if you graduated as recently as 2010, most of what you studied has already been overtaken by subsequent media and marketing developments.

I’d expect a Senior Marketing Manager candidate to have experience of things like:

• Acquiring and disseminating customer, competitor and market insights 
• Product/service development and positioning 
• Promotional strategy development and implementation
• Experience of managing specialist external suppliers 

Nothing even remotely resembling this appears anywhere in this job description.

Nowhere in this JD is anything mentioned about goals and outcomes. Things like growing market share, enhancing product/service quality, monitoring and helping respond to competitor and market movements. A Senior Marketing Manager should be tasked with delivering marketing accomplishments. So an applicant that has a stellar record of such achievements won’t necessarily even get considered for this job.

A Senior Marketing Manager spends their time making their employer more competitive, more attractive to its customers, more profitable. Not writing copy and pushing it out to anyone who’ll take it.

I'm pretty confident that this vacancy will attract plenty of under-qualified applicants and very few great ones, simply because the best candidates will be entirely uninspired by the job description.

No salary or benefits information is given for this role. If this had been present, then at least the true nature of the job and whom it would suit would be clearer than the inflated job title infers. And it would demonstrate that the firm was being transparent about what was on offer.

Instead readers are just left with a sneaky feeling that the pay package will be disappointing or at best subject to fierce negotiation.

I’m left with the distinct impression that this firm’s ideas about marketing are all mixed up…and that their HR people probably need to skill up too…

Am I being fair, or is this just a unwarranted rant?

Recruiters – don’t be a fail on social media – take the eight-point test

By Neil Patrick

A lot of recruiters follow me on Twitter. Over 500 at the last count.

And I follow them all back. I’m always interested to see what they are tweeting about. And I am hugely grateful to the select few who share my content with their followers. Thank you all!

Some recruiters really ‘get’ social media. Many more do not. So I thought I’d run through what I see as the biggest failures by recruiters that I see on social media.

The first give away of a recruiter failing on social media is nothing but endless tweets about job vacancies they are seeking to fill. Tweet after tweet after tweet with links to job postings. And not much else. Sharing your vacancies on social media is fine as part of your activity. But only part. If you are doing this and this only, you are never going to see much return on your investment in social.

Fair enough, it’s your business, and you are free to run it as you see fit. But this approach fails on so many levels and I think it’s a tragically wasted opportunity.

Here’s my list of the eight points I see most often where I think recruiters are getting it wrong.

You don’t have a social media strategy

I’m not saying that no recruitment firms have a social media strategy, but I am certain many do not. And I am certain because there is no evidence of one in most cases. And here’s my evidence that’s there’s no erm…evidence (!): 

You only have a small following

This is such a fundamental point, it’s amazing to me. But many recruiters I encounter on Twitter have less than 1,000 followers. This is such a tiny pool that it makes a nonsense of advertising your vacancies via Twitter. Let’s say you are a recruiter in the IT field. It should be your prime mission to find and connect with thousands of IT professionals. They are your audience and your revenue stream. Moreover, they also know lots of other IT professionals, so if they see your tweet and know someone who might be a great fit, they are in a position to make them aware of it.

Except this won’t happen because: 

You don’t share other people’s tweets

Social media isn’t a free version of broadcast media. It’s an interactive medium and building goodwill is an essential pre-requisite to having others like you enough to be willing to even consider sharing your content.

One retweet or comment doesn’t constitute the basis of a relationship either. Just as relationships mature slowly over time in the real world, so the same applies to the social media world.

You don’t create a sense of community

A recruiter depends for their livelihood on knowing everyone in a given field and geographic area. Or they should. And social media makes this easier than ever before. Social media allows you to build relationships with people even when you and they are really busy. So you don’t even need to meet or speak to be aware of each other. What’s more powerful, a business card at the bottom of a dusty drawer, or a living breathing relationship with a potential future candidate? 

You don’t engage or participate in discussions

With a few notable exceptions such as my friend @AxelKoster (who has over 500k Twitter followers), recruiters generally never contribute to discussions outside of the recruitment community. Big mistake. Especially when this is arguably a more powerful profile building strategy than simply making endless connections on Twitter and Linkedin.

Providing a recruiter’s viewpoint on job and carer topics is so underutilised typically, that the opportunity to steal a lead on your competitors is just there for the taking… 

You don’t make your tweets worth sharing

When I look at my own tweets, one of the things I see is that my tweets without links generally get shared the most. These are tweets when I try to provide a snippet of insight in less than 140 characters. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to do, but clearly people like the immediacy and simplicity of something which can be consumed in 5 seconds or less. And they share them. A lot. It’s not unusual for these tweets to be retweeted 30 times or more. And this attracts a lot more followers.

The life of a tweet is just a few minutes. Then it’s gone. More or less for ever. I don’t expect anyone to be so interested in my tweets that they visit my profile and scroll through my tweets. It’s not going to happen. Tweeting a job vacancy a few times to a few hundred followers will likely never get seen by anyone who is interested. Period. 

You give the job of social media management to the most junior person in the office

How I tire of the tweets I get from the office junior or worse an outsourcer in the Philippines! Whilst I genuinely appreciate the courtesy of any acknowledgment of an RT, ‘Thx!’ is so cursory, it’s almost a let-down. Office interns may have grown up using texting as their default MO for digital communication, but this is business and in the business world, what we say and how we say it determines how others perceive us. If you own a recruitment firm, do you really want to be perceived as a business junior? Because that’s what’ll happen if the intern is left in charge.

Worse, if your social media is being executed as a routine task like answering the phone, how can you expect to build any sort of interest or engagement with the people you really want to be your biggest advocates? 

You don’t give anything to your followers

In the world of social media, giving before expecting to receive is the mantra for all success. And recruiters are in such a privileged position to share the benefits of their insight and experience. But very few do. It’s as if giving is an alien concept.

It actually doesn’t take much. Build your relationships with the people you want to be your candidate pool by supporting them online. You don’t have to RT them. Just like their tweets, or comment on them. Show a genuine interest in them and they’ll show a genuine interest in you.

I am being harsh I know. And there are plenty of notable exceptions like my friends at @Intellegojobs, @HRISjobs and @RandstadUSpros and others. But many more are failing in my view.

There’s a thing called ‘first mover advantage’ in business. Right now this opportunity has been recognised by so few in the world of recruitment that the door is wide open, if not globally, then at least in local markets where the majority of recruiters operate.

And last but not least, this state of affairs ironically creates a big opportunity for jobseekers who are savvy enough to turn this situation to their advantage. If you want to get recruiters to notice you, I’ve created a social media strategy that will enable you to do just that. Go here to discover what this is and how it works if you want to know more.

And if you are a recruiter I’d love to hear your thoughts about this post!

Why it’s time for zero tolerance on resume lies

By Neil Patrick

There's a growing and hard to spot threat to recruitment and employers' carefully developed talent acquisition programmes. It's called lying...

Back in April I posted here about the damage that lies on Linkedin cause employers and employees.

So I was really interested today to discover that CareerBuilder had completed a survey recently to look in detail at the subject of the lies people tell on their resumes.

And the findings suggest that telling lies on Linkedin is just the tip of the iceberg. I always knew that a lot of people stretch the truth on their resumes, but I was wholly unprepared to find out that resume lies are now an epidemic…

The nationwide survey, which was conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder included a sample of 2,188 hiring managers and human resource professionals across all industries and company sizes.

So the sample is large and the findings can therefore be relied upon to be representative of the current state of affairs.

58% of hiring managers said they’ve caught an outright lie on a resume. One-third of these employers have seen an increase in resume ‘embellishments’ post-recession. But these numbers don’t tell the whole story as I’ll explain shortly. For now, let’s look at some of the evidence…

Most Common Resume Lies

The first interesting finding is what people lie about.

There are some fabrications job seekers try to slip past employers more frequently than others. And it seems that what gets lied about most are the things which the applicants think (a) are most difficult to verify and (b) most likely to increase their chances of being hired. According to the survey respondents, the most common lies they catch on resumes relate to:

Embellished skill set – 57%
Embellished responsibilities – 55%
Dates of employment – 42%
Job title – 34%
Academic degree – 33%
Companies worked for – 26%
Accolades/awards – 18%

It's not really surprising that skills are the top of the table. After all, if I say I know how to use a particular piece of software, I know that you’re almost never going to test me on it. And if the day comes when I need to actually use it, I’ll have an excuse about it, like “I used the older version” or, “ I never used this particular function”.

But some of these lies are so crazy, you have to wonder what the applicant was thinking…

When asked about the most unusual lie they’ve ever caught on a resume, employers recalled: 

• Applicant included job experience that was actually his father’s. Both father and son had the same name (one was Sr., one was Jr.). 
• Applicant claimed to be the assistant to the prime minister of a foreign country that doesn’t have a prime minister. 
• Applicant claimed to have been a high school basketball free throw champion. He admitted it was a lie in the interview. 
• Applicant claimed to have been an Olympic medalist. 
• Applicant claimed to have been a construction supervisor. The interviewer learned the bulk of his experience was in the completion of a doghouse some years prior. 
• Applicant claimed to have 25 years of experience at age 32. 
• Applicant claimed to have worked for 20 years as the babysitter of known celebrities such as Tom Cruise, Madonna, etc. 
• Applicant listed three jobs over the past several years. Upon contacting the employers, the interviewer learned that the applicant had worked at one for two days, another for one day, and not at all for the third. 
• Applicant applied to a position with a company who had just terminated him. He listed the company under previous employment and indicated on his resume that he had quit. 
• Applicant applied twice for the same position and provided different work history on each application. 

Industries Most Likely to Report Catching Resume Lies

The survey found that employers in the following industries catch resume lies more frequently than average: 

Financial Services – 73%
Leisure and Hospitality – 71%
Information Technology – 63%
Health Care (More than 50 employees) – 63%
Retail – 59%

At first glance, it appears that old habits die hard in the financial sector. Despite all the extra regulation, penalties, media shame and criminal proceedings, the financial workers seem unwilling to give up their devious ways of going about things. But hang on, is it perhaps quite the opposite story here…i.e. the financial sector has had to get it’s house in order and is being a lot more vigilant today than the other sectors? I don’t know, but it’s a distinct possibility in my view.

Employers are leaving themselves wide open to exploitation

Career Builder reported that employers may be taking more time looking over individual resumes. 42% of employers said they spend more than two minutes (Wow! –Ed.) reviewing each resume, up from 33% in December.

Two minutes…I cannot imagine that the IRS would manage to uncover a financial fraud in less than two weeks, so employers are hardly giving themselves chance to catch the tricksters it seems. We all know what the excuses are; we’re too busy, we get so many applications etc.

The trouble is that like all fraud, the incidence rises in proportion to the chances of getting away with it. And right now it’s a free for all it seems.

These stats also don’t tell the whole story I suspect. If employers are asleep on their watch, there are a whole lot more lies getting past them that they never discovered and which consequently won’t appear in any of these stats.

What’s more, only half of employers (51%) said that they would automatically dismiss a candidate if they caught a lie on his/her resume, while 40% said that it would depend on what the candidate lied about. 7% said they’d be willing to overlook a lie if they liked the candidate.

With odds like these, I’m almost tempted to say telling lies on your resume is a worthwhile job search strategy. But I won’t because it does no-one any good in the long run and I hate lies, whoever tells them.

I think this is a loud alarm bell for everyone in the business of hiring. There’s a huge threat emerging to your talent acquisition programme or whatever you call it and you need to tackle it right now. Moreover, a huge prize awaits whoever can be the first to produce an effective resume verification software platform...

A recruiter’s views on the 2014 job market

By Neil Patrick

If you’ve ever wondered what recruiters really think about job candidates and the evolving job market, you’re not alone. So last week I set out to find some answers. And here they are!

One of the great things about this blog is how it helps me get to speak to experts all over the world about their specialist insights into the world of jobs and careers. And recruiters are a very important group. But recruiters are very busy people. So their perspective is valuable but hard to come by.

Last week I was especially pleased to interview Laura Warnes, the Managing Director of a brand new specialist marketing recruitment agency, Proudfrog.

I wanted to get her insights into how the digital revolution is reshaping marketing jobs and what trends she is seeing. Even if you are not in marketing, it’s clear that technology is a key driver in the evolution of the jobs market and because tech is moving so fast, skill requirements are changing fast too!

A lot of great insights emerged from this interview and I’m pleased to share them here.

Proudfrog

NP: In what ways have marketing job descriptions changed in the last 5-10 years?
LW: That’s a huge gap to speak about – 10 years ago we didn’t even have apps! I’ll go with the last five years. Multichannel, Big Data, and a bigger focus on consumption/ analytics have all become more widely used in JDs since the late noughties. There is more focus on the customer journey and UX (User experience – Ed.) over simple promotion and making a sale. There is also often now a requirement for global reach.

NP: What are the most in-demand marketing skills right now?
LW: Digital, creative, content, analytics, UX and CMS (Content/customer management systems – Ed.) seem to feature everywhere.

NP: Are marketing pay rates rising or falling in real terms?
LW: In real terms, it is on par with the average rise across all sectors.

NP: Do you see any skewing between gender, age and race profiles in marketing hires?
LW: Only in terms of pay in my experience. Female hires at entry/ graduate level in general secure higher salaries, but as the roles become more senior it is reported that the gap becomes wider, with men earning around 17k more than women as Marketing Director. There is a growing trend for hiring graduates in to positions which in the past would have required a “second jobber” as well and an overall more accepting attitude of youngsters in responsible roles.

NP: If so why do you think this is happening?
LW: In regard to the younger hires, I believe the value of millennials when it comes to technical aptitude for social media etc. is recognised more as these skills play a bigger part in Marketing and the ability to pick up new skills fast is important in an age where new technologies are introduced almost daily. Regards the gender pay gap, at Director level, women have often needed to take a pay cut to re-enter the work place after maternity leave and haven’t yet caught up. This is probably true of all sectors and not unique to marketing.

NP: What’s better for a marketing person’s resume/CV, a big brand name, or a small fast growth business?
LW: It depends entirely on the hiring manager and company culture! It is very difficult to achieve, but a well-rounded exposure to both environments will generally give you the best advantage. A theme which has emerged over the past few years is a dislike for applicants who have been in the same role for too long, or stayed within one industry sector through two or three roles – unless you wish to stay in the sector in which case this will be an advantage. I remember a time when anything less than five years in a role made an applicant appear “flaky”, now if you haven’t moved on to something bigger, better, or different after a couple of years then my clients are asking me why you aren’t driven or hungry for something new.

NP: What’s the most common error made by applicants for marketing roles?
LW: Not detailing your technical skills. If you’ve used it – put it on your CV and let us know about it! A dynamic personal statement is also crucial. We expect marketing professionals to be more tech savvy and more creative than others so a dry Times New Roman two pager isn’t going to cut it. Your CV is your personal marketing tool and demonstrates the value that you place on presentation, branding, content and technology.

NP: What are most marketing people looking for in their next employer?
LW: Learning, variety, a collaborative environment, flexible working, and the opportunity to use creative skills.

NP: Do you think recruitment firms serve clients and candidates equally well?
LW: A recruiter’s fees will always be paid by the client, and with this in mind they will usually be viewed as the true customer over and above the candidate. Many recruiters treat the candidate relationship as lesser and, on a basic level, that is understandable. However, for two reasons it is very important to treat candidates with respect and professionalism in the same way we treat clients: One, it is the ethical thing to do, we should treat others as we would wish to be treated and as professionals we should enjoy passing on our time and expertise to those who can benefit. And two, from a business perspective these candidates are our “tribe”. Good marketeers hang out with other good marketeers and as such we want them out there telling their peers how great we are! I have enjoyed many occasions where a former candidate becomes a client, or recommends me to a hiring manager even when I didn’t actually place them myself, simply because I treated them with kindness during an often daunting time in their life. 

NP: What are the main tools used by Proudfrog to search for suitable candidates?
LW: In the main, traditional job boards will always play a big part in sourcing candidates, and here at Proudfrog we put most of them through their paces day and night! However, it is also important to be constantly networking with passive candidates who aren’t active in the market for everyone to see. The real value for our clients is in the relationships we have built through dedicated networking and intelligent market mapping using social media, physical market presence, and research.

NP: How does Proudfrog think and act differently from other recruiters?
LW: Everyone at Proudfrog without exception is incredibly excited by what we are achieving. Being a start-up business we have a lot to prove and have no laurels to rest upon. Given the positivity in our market, we were confident to hire big right from the off and at just eight weeks old we are a team of eight, and actively seeking our next intake of trainees. As a lighthouse customer of Proudfrog you will receive the full, undivided attention of our founders but rest assured, if you miss that boat, we have the resources to hire around your needs and would be incredibly quick to do so! We all have big characters, boundless energy and our core team is diverse. At the helm we have 30+ years of the highest calibre of recruitment experience, but amongst us we also have a budding mobile app entrepreneur, a fashion graduate, sportsmen and a holistic therapy evangelist. We think like you do and ask ourselves every day: how can we utilise every technology and personal skill in our armoury in order to do our job as well as we possibly can?

NP: What should marketing professionals do if they would like to be on your radar?
LW: There are many ways to get in touch. There is a contact form on our website for one. We are also contactable via Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. You can email me at laura@proudfrog.com, or – my personal favourite – give us a call today on 0203 0565581.


I’d like to thank Laura for her time and the insights she has shared with me. And I wish Proudfrog every success with their business. Thanks guys!

Why are salaries such a secret?

By Neil Patrick

I've noticed a worrying trend in job advertisements. It’s been going on for a while now, but seems to be becoming the norm.

Job advertisements which use terms such as, “attractive salary and benefits”,  “salary negotiable based on experience”, or similar.

This is such a waste of everyone’s time including the employer's.

Employers and recruiters are struggling to handle the volume of applications received for many positions.

This omission of such critical information makes this problem worse. Without the benchmark of salary, both under- and over-qualified applicants will apply when many of them would either not take the job if were offered to them because the salary was too low, or will be too junior to be a serious contender.

It reeks of deviousness and destroys brand value.

What message does this send to the world? That you are open and transparent? That you are trustworthy? That you care about your employees? I’d argue that it is rightly or wrongly interpreted as, “We’ll see who applies and then with luck we’ll be able to hire someone who fits the spec, but whom we can pay far less than the market rate for the job”.

All those carefully crafted brand values are brought into question by this one simple omission.

To apply a less negative viewpoint, it’s also possible, that they are thinking, “If we get an absolute superstar applying who we have to pay over the market rate for, we don’t want to put them off applying”.

I’d argue that this is wishful thinking. Not specifying the salary or even the range, will mean that the real superstars assume the worst and ignore the vacancy. After all they are probably already being generously remunerated in their present position and they know that if someone really wants them, they’ll come knocking.

There’s no excuse.

I accept that in advance of appointing someone, it's often impossible to know the exact salary that is appropriate. An employer doesn't know who is going to get hired and what their precise experience level might be. But they’ll have a clear idea. So there’s nothing to stop them specifying a range of salaries.

I think it's just plain dumb and helps no-one including the employer.

I’d love to hear what job seekers, HR and recruitment people have to say about this, so do please post any opinions below.

Recruiters need you…but do you need them?

By Neil Patrick

Over the last few days I have been spending a lot of time talking to recruiters about their businesses.

And I discovered things about them which are not typically well understood by job seekers.

Since they hold the keys to many job opportunities, I think it’s worth knowing a little about the different types of recruitment firms and how they function. If we feel they have not served our interests well, it’s not because they are wicked or unprofessional people (even if you have had some unhappy experiences), it’s because they are distinctly different types of businesses.

And of course because we are not their clients, we are their voluntary raw material.

Their business model determines how they behave with candidates

Different businesses function in different ways. So if you know what type of recruiter you are dealing with, you’ll be much better placed to understand what to expect and whether you should invest a lot or a little of your time in dealing with them.

How do you know what type of recruiter you are dealing with? If you ask them and they tell you, ‘I’m a head-hunter’, or ‘I’m a contingency recruiter’, what’s the difference?

And most importantly, what is the likelihood of each one actually landing you a job?

Here’s my five minute briefing which I hope will answer these key questions.

Placement agencies that charge you a fee

These agencies collect a fee from you, in exchange for arranging the entire placement process with potential employers. They typically handle lower-level jobs.

Many people have been burned by these types of agencies sometimes losing thousands of pounds. These types of companies prey on desperate job-seekers who have little or no other information at their disposal.

Any recruiter that asks you for any fee means that you should treat them with the utmost caution. Better still run a mile in the opposite direction!

Contingency based agencies

Contingency based agencies are also known as employment agencies and commonly recruit for administrative level jobs.

They seek suitable candidates by matching your qualifications and skills with their client’s requirements. If the criteria match, an interview is conducted followed by a background check and the taking up of references.

Some employment agencies charge a flat fee to the client company, while others take a percentage of the candidate’s first year’s salary. In most cases, the candidate serves a probationary period and the agency is only paid once you’ve successfully served your probationary period.

Now the bad news. Contingency based agencies are usually competing with others to place their candidate. And thus it often ends up as a numbers game. Their view is that putting as many candidates forward as they can gives them best chance of success.

Contingency agencies are also dealing with the lower end of the salary scale. So their fees are also much smaller than firms dealing with executive and managerial roles. For a candidate, this means you cannot expect much if any support from the agency and that you will likely be one of many candidates they find and put forward.

So what are the numbers? A contingency recruiter will typically take a fee of 15-20% of the first year’s salary.

If a contingency recruiter contacts you, what are the odds of you getting hired? 1 in 10 was the figure quoted to me. Sometimes it can be as low as 1 in 25. And if multiple agencies are involved, the figure may be even lower.

Retained search agencies

Retained agencies usually handle senior positions. These agencies are also known as executive search firms. The fee that a client company pays to a retained search agency is non-refundable and a part of it is typically paid in advance for carrying out the extensive searching needed. The remaining amount is paid once the client company hires an employee.

A retained search firm is a different proposition for the candidate. Typically, only 3-5 candidates will be put forward for interview with their client. And the agency will want to try and ensure that every single one is a good fit for their client. They also typically have a solus contract, so no other firms are involved. If you are approached by a retained agency, you should take it much more seriously than a contingency recruiter.

A retained search agency may well receive as much as 30% of the candidate’s annual salary as a fee. So for a £100,000 a year post, that’s £30,000. If you are dealing with a retained search agency, it’s not unreasonable for you to expect and receive some good support and help from them, assuming they consider you to be a good fit for the role.

If you are put forward for interview by a retained agency, then your odds are around 1 in 4 of getting hired.

Outsourcing

In the UK, James Caan (known for his Dragons' Den role on BBC television) was the first to develop Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) in the 1990s and still offers global RPO solutions with his business partners Jon Bennett and Rachel McKenzie through his company, HB Retinue.

The popularity of RPO continues to grow as HR teams seek to spend more of their time on strategic activities rather than the fluctuating needs of their employer to find and hire new staff.

Outsourced recruitment specialists also suit small organizations without the facilities to recruit. Typically, a formal contract for services is negotiated with a specialist recruitment consultancy. Recruitment process outsourcing may involve strategic consulting for talent acquisition, sourcing for select departments or skills, or total outsourcing of the recruiting function.

The solo headhunter

These are similar to retained search agencies, but work on their own. From a candidate’s point of view, they have a great deal to offer. Although they do not have the resources of a larger firm, they work on a small number of assignments at one time.

They may arrange a meeting or a formal interview between their client and the candidate and will usually prepare the candidate for the interview and help negotiate the final deal.

A good solo headhunter will expect to place around one in three of their candidates.

Strategic talent acquisition

This may sound like a load of jargon, but it’s a distinct category of specialised recruitment. The way this works is that these people aim to secure a team with specific skills from a competitor. They thus set out to acquire a complete team that enhances the value of the business, whilst reducing that of their rival(s).

Such people are often an integral part of a firm’s management team and are found in specialist areas such as financial trading, sales and technology. If you're currently unemployed, it’s unlikely you’d be targeted, but if you work in a high performing business in these sectors it’s a distinct possibility.

The success rates are also correspondingly high…congratulations, you’re in demand, so you are in the driving seat!

Temp agencies

Sometimes temp agencies are also called staffing agencies. They hire candidates to fill temporary positions. This may be due to seasonal increases or an employee leaving the organization on a temporary basis e.g. for maternity leave. Usually, the client pays an hourly rate for the candidate it hires. The temp agency will pay the candidate’s wages, benefits etc. and add this fee to the bill they send the client each week or month.

Only a minority of candidates will be interested in short-term contracts. So if you are willing to take up such a post, you’ll likely have fewer competitors than for a permanent position. And there’s a hidden bonus too… many part time hires end up becoming full time employees, either in the same post or another which opens up whilst they are on contract.

Niche recruiting agencies

Specialized niche recruiters seek staff with a narrow specialty. Because of their focus, these firms can very often produce superior results due to their ability to channel all of their resources into networking for a very specific skill set. This specialization allows them to offer more jobs for their specific demographic, which in turn attracts more specialized candidates from that specific demographic. These firms invest resources and time in building large candidate databases.

Therefore, if you have a specialised skill, then building a relationship with a niche recruiter is an excellent long-term career investment. These niche firms tend to be much more inclined to develop ongoing relationships with their candidates as it is very common for the same candidates to be placed by the same firm many times throughout their careers.

So there you have it. A five minute explanation of the world of recruiters for job seekers. They are not all the same and for good reason – they all work to different business models, ranging from the exploitative through the high volume number crunchers to the super-specialised and professional.

I hope that this post helps you know the right questions to ask next time the phone rings and the voice on the other end, says , ‘Hello, I’m a recruiter...’

How to “Wow” today’s recruiters

By Neil Patrick


Late last year, Vivian Giang wrote a post on Business Insider here where she reported the views of senior recruiters on how job seekers can really impress them.

Career community Glassdoor recently published its annual list of top recruiters. These hiring managers have seen a lot of talent, but they can still be impressed. And Glassdoor asked them to provide specific examples.

One thing really struck me about these replies. In almost every case, what is mentioned is how candidates that use social media effectively are the ones who “wow” the recruiters. And since Glassdoor’s list of top recruiters contains big companies that hire a lot of people, they are used to seeing a vast number of candidates month in, month out. So their replies deserve close attention.

The survey set out to discover exactly how candidates can impress these industry leaders. It asked them following critical question: "Was there a candidate that totally wowed you, and if yes, how did they do it?"

These are the answers that were given. If you think social media is irrelevant to your career prospects, (in spite of me banging on about it endlessly!), I think this might just change your mind.


Personal branding makes a difference

"I’m wowed when I see candidates take the same approach to branding themselves as I take to branding our business. Job seekers with cohesive messages about strengths, goals or overall work style show me they are thinking not about how to get hired or say the right thing, but about how to showcase a cohesive message and tell me something meaningful about themselves."

Carrie Corbin, associate director of Talent Attraction at AT&T


You CAN use Twitter to make valuable career contacts

"I met a very interesting executive search professional via social media. She reached out to me via Twitter to learn more about Sodexo. We set up a time to talk, and she asked questions about what it was like to work in a corporate environment. We talked about the differences between the search firm environment vs. the corporate recruiting environment. Over the next several months we had several conversations on various topics, and I was able to see her depth of knowledge and diversity of thought, and her genuine love of the profession. About a year later, when we had an opening in our Talent Acquisition Group, I immediately thought of her."

Arie Ball, vice president of Talent Acquisition at Sodexo

Getting attention is so much easier if you go multi-media

"Candidates are getting more and more creative with getting attention. I've been impressed with several candidates recently who have built infographics, videos and even full-blown websites to convey their experience! I'm a sucker for creative people with an awesome design sense. But, this is not required to get the job. Not everybody has these skills, and we always go for the best person for the job."

Steve Fogarty, senior manager of Employer Branding & Digital Recruiting at Adidas Group



Networking and doing your homework really counts

"The last few candidates to really impress me did so because they had cared for the basics so well. They had connected with our organization on Twitter, taken advantage of the information available on our company website with regards to PepsiCo's history, done their homework regarding our culture and reputation on Glassdoor and introduced themselves to other team members via LinkedIn. It wasn't about doing amazing and out-of-the-box things to get our attention as an employer, it was about doing the right things really well."

Chris Hoyt, global talent engagement and marketing leader at PepsiCo



Getting in touch directly with your ideal boss pays off

"She DM'd me on Twitter and is now my intern!"

Jeremy Langhans, manager of Global Talent Acquisition at Expedia



Helping the people you want to influence creates goodwill that eventually rewards you

"I found a candidate on LinkedIn over a year ago and unfortunately after interviewing, the position did not pan out. We stayed connected on LinkedIn and throughout this past year, this candidate reached out to me periodically as well as commented and, or, liked my LinkedIn status updates. During this time, I thought, 'Wow … this person is really engaging and really wants to work for Philips.' This past month, I had a position that became available, and I knew that this candidate was a perfect match. I shared the candidate’s information with the hiring manager as well as mentioned the level of passion this person has for Philips, and long story short, we made an offer."

Chrystal Moore, senior recruiter at Philips Healthcare



Finding shared or common ground is the basis of valuable relationships

"I think sometimes candidates think being 'wowed' needs to be flashy or complicated, but it doesn’t. One of my recent successes comes from a candidate we recently hired for a senior analyst role. He actually found me through my posts about Cleveland and our analyst opportunities at Progressive. He was relocating to Cleveland as a trailing spouse and when he found me realized we had both moved from Wisconsin to Cleveland. I scheduled a brief call to learn a bit more about him, and we hit it off from the beginning. He’d been following my posts so he asked great questions about the city, my company and then got to asking about specific positions he’d seen me post. I think the thing that wowed me was that he did his homework and was prepared to engage and ask questions. He starts with us in just a few weeks."

Melissa Smith, candidate developer at Progressive Insurance


Social media allows you to get so much more creative

"At my last company we had a candidate take our specific cloud-based presentation software and create a presentation-style resume for us. She tweeted this presentation to our company, and I noticed. After I shared this internally, the CEO tweeted back to her suggesting they talk further. Needless to say, she got the job and came in as a rock star because folks knew her unique story and were impressed by her creativity in taking our own product, using it to get noticed, and showcasing relevant skills for her position. You can read more about that story here."

Will Staney, director of recruiting at SuccessFactors



So there it is. It cannot be co-incidence that all these recruiters have described how the candidates that ‘wowed’ them used social media intelligently to find them, research them, build relationships with them and demonstrate their creativity and expertise.

And in every case that strategy paid off. And I’ll wager that many of them didn’t even have to go through ‘normal’ recruitment procedure channels.

Still fiddling around with your resume?



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/top-recruiters-reveal-how-they-can-impressed-2013-8#ixzz2taIGODJK

How to protect yourself from employers' bad recruitment practices

BY MARCIA LAREAU

Unconscionable treatment of job candidates this week has made me angry and determined.

Note: The names and places have been changed.

Client One: Tony

After numerous Skype and lengthy phone interviews, Tony was invited out for an interview. Salary requirements and other contract expectations had been discussed. The reputable regional organization (with a national reputation) informed Tony, a city planner, that he would need to pay his way for the interview. After finding out that there were only two finalists, Tony decided to go. The organization offered to pay for half of the plane fare.

The interview went famously. Tony integrated extremely well with the teams. He reviewed reports, attended planning meetings with the community, and advised members of the organization on handling current concerns. It turned out that the other candidate was internal to the organization and he and Tony hit it off as well.

He spent over $2,000 for the five-day interview. He lost a week of wages and time off from his current job, and was told after he returned home that they realized early on that they were not able to hire from outside. They knew this prior to the interview.

Client Two: Keri

Keri had several initial phone interviews with a recruiter. She had wanted to get into this specific company for several years. The first round of interviews went very well and the recruiter called to talk through salary figures for the second time.

Then Keri was scheduled to meet with several executives with the company. That went well and the final round was scheduled. When it was over Keri saw the Director in the parking lot who said, “I told them to just hire you…you were the best candidate, and I usually get what I want here.”

A few days later at midnight, Keri received an email from the recruiter indicating that they had selected another candidate!

Client Three: Geoff

Geoff received an offer from an organization in Los Angeles. It was a fair offer, however another organization had indicated they were interested and the position was higher in the organization.

So Geoff emailed them and said, “You’ve mentioned interest in me however, I have an offer. I understand that you are at the beginning stages of interviewing and if a decision is going to take two to three weeks, let’s save each other the trouble.”

The organization emails him back and asks if he can fly down three days later to interview. So Geoff talks to the L.A. office and they graciously extend time for Geoff to go to the interview.

Two days later the interview is pushed later in the week. It goes well and Geoff is told that they are speeding up the interview process. After Geoff flies home, he gets a call indicating that the decision will probably take two or three weeks.

How can jobseekers protect themselves?

Obviously, companies have been duped by jobseekers who have lied on their resume. This article indicates that 53% of resumes and job applications contain falsifications and 78% of resumes are misleading. So I can understand why hiring entities are on the lookout. But does that justify the mistreatment and misleading of jobseekers during the hiring process?

Here are some thoughts and actions that jobseekers can take to try to protect themselves.

First and foremost, it is critical that jobseekers know their fair market value for the position (and location) that they are applying for. This allows them to confidently give a fair salary range when asked. Consider www.payscale.com to learn this information. 

Jobseekers should remember that if the hiring entity isn’t spending any money to bring them to the interview, there is only marginal investment on their part. 

1. Ask specific questions before deciding to self-fund an interview: 

• How many candidates are being interviewed? 
• Is the company/business/agency able to meet the salary that we’ve discussed? 
• Are there and hiring restrictions that might hinder my being hired if I am selected as the most qualified candidate? 

2. Carefully vet the company: 

• The website www.glassdoor brings enormous value to jobseekers. There is salary information by company as well as information about company interview practices. 
• Search for the company at the Better Business Bureau website. Even if they are not a member, customer complaints are published as well as the company’s ranking from F to A+. 
• On LinkedIn, check out the company profile and also search for former employees that worked for the company. Request a 30 minute conversation with them. 

3. Get all points of the contract agreement in writing.

4. Trust your gut. If it doesn’t feel right… 

5.Give people the benefit of the doubt. 

What if the company doesn’t meet their part of the agreement?

Jobseekers are finding that once they are employed, the terms change. Perhaps they were promised a company vehicle because their job requires a lot of travel and hauling of product. Perhaps it was a raise after six months. Whatever the agreement, if the company doesn’t follow through, then the employee is free to look for other employment.

And the response is: What if they ask, “Why are you leaving after six months?” Answer: “We had agreements in place based on hopes of higher profit margins. But they didn’t happen and the company simply hasn’t been able to meet our agreement.”

You’re unemployed and can’t be picky…

This is a clear concern, especially when there is reason to believe that the company is taking advantage of the current economic situation and tries to hire under the market value.

If a jobseeker accepts the position, then my advice is to do that job as if the pay were excellent, build references and credibility, and if the company doesn’t rectify the situation, then move on.

Determined!

I am determined to do what I can to help. I will reach out to Human Resource professionals this week and begin a search for information that will lead to better practices. I ask ALL jobseekers and hiring professionals to re-establish the credibility of our business practices.

These are very difficult times. I encourage jobseekers and hiring entities to diligently and intentionally establish a foundation for trust. I challenge every employed person to do their job, to the best of their ability, to help create more jobs and get our nation back on track.

Do you need help finding a job? Forward Motion helps U.S. jobseekers worldwide. Call for a free consultation: (860) 833-4072.

Called a Creative Thinker, Career Futurist, and a person of unusual solution, Marcia LaReau founded Forward Motion, LLC in 2007. Since that time, she has become a recognized leader in the employment industry, and Forward Motion has spread across the United States and abroad to help jobseekers find jobs that fit.

Website: http://forwardmotioncareers.com/
Blog: http://forwardmotioncareers.com/category/blog/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ForwardMotionUS