Career Coach Office Hours: August 16 2022 | JobSearchTV.com
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
I answered questions about #jobsearch #hiringstaff #management #leadership #workplace issues. Join me at 1 PM Eastern on Tuesdays and Fridays. You can also message me on Linkedin before the show and I will answer it, too. #careercoachofficehours #careercoaching #careercoach #jobsearchtips #jobsearchadvice #interviews #hiring #managingpeople #leadershipskills #linkedinlive #linkedinlivestreams
Watch this video to avoid another interview mistake.
04:04
Do large companies have burdensome hiring processes? Some do. Some don’t. The one that you’re talking to might, and what does burdensome mean to you? I don’t know the answer to that. Do they want to evaluate and assess people to make sure they’re qualified? That they fit their culture? That they understand what the nature of the work is? Yeah, they do that because a mishire is expensive. It may involve a recruiters fee. It certainly involves time wasted in the course of someone doing work for them. So I’ll just simply say, yes, they do a lot of stuff to avoid a mishire. You may think that’s burdensome; they just think that smart business. I’ll let you decide whether what I described seems burdensome to you.
05:03
Is it common practice for HR departments to troll job boards looking for current employees resumes? Like I answered the last question. Some do, some don’t, yours might. I had a client, who I remember so vividly called me up and said, ‘We don’t have the req open yet but we’re going to be looking for two program managers.’ ‘Really, why isn’t the rec open yet?’ ‘Because we found their resumes on job boards. And so I know they’re looking, and we’ll have to be prepared to hire their replacements. They’re both very good. We’re talking with them about staying, but clearly, they want to go. So we’ll try and figure out if we can keep them, but we may not be able to.’ So they look. A lot of firms look. Are they sitting there all day long looking for resumes of their employees? No, not at all. So the long the short of it is, firms do it. It’s smart of them to do it because if you leave, they’re caught, right. So why wouldn’t they do it? So, again, is it common practice? A lot of firms do it, a lot of firms don’t. And it makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?
06:34
How do recruiters scan through so many resumes quickly? Tech is a big help to this. Their applicant tracking system may screen out people pretty quickly for them, and allow them to not waste their time even looking at your resume. I know from my own experience, when I did recruiting, so many people spammed the resumes, to me it was ridiculous. The Purdue chicken plucker, who was looking for the Java development role. ‘I’d really liked to do that job,’ she wrote. ‘But what makes you qualified to do it? Notice in the job system, it said ‘requirements?’ ‘I don’t have any of that.’ Okay, good luck. I hit delete, of course, I never called because it was a waste of time. So part of this is tech winds up saving time. In addition, you learn to look quickly for particular things in the resume that are important for that job. So for example, the system I worked with was an old technology. But the system that I used allowed me to import resumes into my database, would send me an email with with each resume, that allowed me to do a quick scan to see if there was something that vaguely fit the requirements of the position. From there, if I didn’t see it right away, I used the word search feature, that allowed Microsoft Word to search for it. If I didn’t see it, then delete. It’s really that simple. It was already in my system. But you learn. And recruiters learned how to spot things quickly. And it’s not like the job hunter has the bold face and underline anything. We developed eyes and senses that pick up on things. When I would scan a resume, it would be pretty simple. I’d see who the person was to see if I have any previous experience with them. And then I’d start scrolling down to see something in the current position through related to what my client was looking for. Then I went page down, which now was two page downs. If I don’t see it by then I’m not calling because in all probability, this person’s experience with it either doesn’t exist, or is antique. And if I’m not sure for some reason, because I think they may have it, again hitting Ctrl F in Microsoft Word to identify whether someone has the skills that my client is looking for. Otherwise, it’s a waste of time.
09:32
I’d like this one. And it also relates to an interview I did today, or I released today where we talked about being proactive in your job search. It’s an interview I did with Mike Podesta. And Mike is someone who owns a service called Find my profession. Again you can spot this on YouTube. I haven’t released it yet on Binge or on the Job Search TV app, that’ll probably come out tomorrow. But in the meantime, it’s on YouTube. And what I do just come back here for a second bear with me. What I would want to do is going to a LinkedIn profile. During an initial screening phone call, I would reach out to someone who fit a role with a client of mine. I was not gratuitously calling people or contacting people, because they existed on LinkedIn, I wanted someone who would help me fill a job, because they had a particular background that made sense. So I’d look for geography and skill set, I’d look for seniority level. I used a LinkedIn recruiter account. And doing that there were different filters I could use that allowed me to identify people for specific clients. So it could be the seniority of people, because there’s a difference between being a programmer and being a program manager, a difference between being an accountant and a CFO. So I’d want to make sure that we’re at the right seniority level. LinkedIn doesn’t provide compensation information. So that’s not available. But keywords were appropriate, titles were important. Geography was important. And LinkedIn did all the work from there. So I might look for people at a specific company, because I knew that that firm employed that technology, or that particular type of person professionally. So the higher level answer is, I’m looking for someone who fits what my client is looking for. From there, I’m verifying it, I’m trying to determine whether they’re qualified, might be interested, whether they’d consider other things. If not, if they’re not prepared to consider other things, I’m wasting my time. I’m not going to hypnotize someone to be able to do something that they don’t want to do. So the goal becomes to assess people for their qualifications, whether I think my client and they would get along with one another, things along those lines, that would allow me to fill a job with a client. Okay. So that’s the long and the short of what I would be looking for, when I would try and fill a position.
Recruiters Are Not Your Friends
12:42
If a new hire knows within two to three months, that the job would be a bad fit for them, should they quit then or wait a full year to not look like a job hopper? Well, I don’t think it’s feasible or smart of you to torture yourself for a year. Now, this assumes that you’re not a Job Hopper previously. If you are, you may need to tough it out a while longer. I wish it were different. But you don’t want to establish that pattern of being a quitter. Quitters don’t win. What they do is they give up. They move on to the next playpen. Not a good habit to develop. However, assuming that this is an aberration in your career, that you’re someone who is a decent professional, competent, etc, then by all means, you should wind up leaving as soon as you can.
15:07
Is it worth following up on an interview if there’s no response? So just to be clear, I’m answering a question about, you’ve already had the interview, and you haven’t gotten a response? Yes, by all means. They sometimes forget; they get busy. They’re stalling for time because they have four other people to talk to after your interview. But yes, I would message them saying, I use an example here, ‘I interviewed with so and so last Thursday. Had a great interview, I really liked the position. Haven’t heard back yet. Just want to find out from you what next steps were going to be like, and when I might hear from you about next steps. Now, at the interview, what you should have done is asked, ‘When might I hear from you about next steps?’ And then listen to their answer. They may say something like expect early part of next week or we’ll be in touch with you when we have a decision. Or we’ll be back in touch with you if we’re interested. Or I expect you to hear from us early part of next week. Or I expect you to hear from us early part of next week to schedule another interview. At that time, you’ll be meeting with so and so so and so and so and so. And this is what each of them does.’ And notice how that last answer is really very specific. The more specificity you receive from them, the more likely it is that it’s going to come to pass. The more ambiguous they are, the less interested. So the long and the short of it is you should verify their timeline during the interview by asking that question. However, you didn’t do that. You were a little chicken and thus, you didn’t ask. So yes, by all means follow up.
18:55
Got a question from James. I just want to ask you what are the background check employers conducting on international employees. My employer didn’t request for any reference from me, rather HR asked me for my international residence address and only yesterday asked for my bachelor education certificate. Background may involve work related things. It may involve financial things. So for example, they may want to see if you’ve ever been arrested in the United States. They may want to see or … I’m sorry, convicted of a crime in the United States. Arrest, legally, they can’t ask but they may want to see if there are financial indiscretions. For example, a bank may want to see if you have had a bankruptcy. A bank may want to see if you have a trading account, and thus, whether it needs to be protected. That’s independent of the fact that you’re an international student, or an international worker, I should say. And thus, they’re trying to see whether you’ve had indiscretions in your past that would be problematic. Some people do. Some people who are domestic US residents have these kinds of problems and they’re engaging in a process that allows them to see very clearly what your background is. And the only thing that concerns me about all this is your HR person, or the HR person from this firm, isn’t apparently familiar with how to do the background check for an international hire. And that’s why they’re relatively late. Because I think you mentioned two weeks ago, you were getting the offer, pending the background check. And now, this is surfacing two weeks later. So you might just contact them and say, ‘Is there anything else you might find out if you need, so that we can bring this to as speedy a conclusion as is possible?’ This way, you’ll avoid any sort of complications or delays, things along those lines that might delay you being able to start. Okay, James? If you’ve got more, as you know, always put it in the chat.
Misconceptions College Grads Have About Job Hunting
21:28
How do I become a professional sought after by recruiters? Well, you have to have required skills. Your LinkedIn profile has to demonstrate expertise. Your resume has to develop expertise. You may want to be interviewed on a podcast, write articles on LinkedIn, comment on other people’s articles. But it starts off with you and your expertise and being able to demonstrate it and have that expertise in a field that’s considered valuable by recruiters. They can fill a job with your expertise. Otherwise, you have a nice background, they pat you on th,d, nothing’s ever going to come of this. So, it involves being qualified, involves being self- confident, having character, chemistry, charisma, charismatic people always do better. In addition, that you care about your work. Got it. So you also want to be able to connect with people. So one of the ways to do this is talk to recruiters, not just simply when you’re in job search mode. Stay connected with them so that they feel like they can talk with you and get referrals to fill positions. Or that you’re a qualified individual working for a great organization who has marketable skills. So that’s a couple of different ways that you can do that.
23:26
Following a series of interviews for a leadership position done by various levels of management, the feedback on why you didn’t get the job suggests you should not be in a leadership role. Is this a sign that you should leave this company? So what I’m getting the idea is that this is an internal interview, not an external one. And as an internal interview, I think you have a better opportunity to get direct answers than an external person might. So when they’re say, you should not be in a leadership role, are you in one now? If you are, wow, that’s being very critical of the organization for having put you in one. I’d also ask them where they perceive the deficiency is in your background, that would make them think that you should not be in leadership. Because the fact is, they’re telling you very simply, you’re not qualified to do the work that you’re doing and not a leader. But obviously, your organization has you working in that way. Quitting should not be an option. What you should be doing is getting answers to these kinds of questions so that in this way, you can learn from your experience, and move on.
25:02
What types of information that most recruiters must filter? Are they most distrustful of? Well, I’ll just tell you from my own experience, a resume that smells BS. What makes it smell BS? You’ve done much too much given the amount of time you worked there. That’s problem number one. Something that seems incongruent. Like they go to your LinkedIn profile, they see certain things about your background. And it’s not in your resume, or vice versa. The things in your resume, not in your LinkedIn profile. So, you know, the result winds up being that they smell BS. They’ve got excellent BS detectors. You don’t want to be in a situation where you’re taking on work or a project where they distrust you. Right? They don’t want to distrust the person. They haven’t a role. They want to feel like the problem is solved. So backup your play by demonstrating your fit. And then, barring that, move on.
26:18
How do you re energize a sputtering job search? Well, let’s start off with what makes it sputtering? Are you getting interviews? When I diagnose a job search for where it’s breaking down, it starts off with Are you getting interviews? No, your resume sucks. Your LinkedIn profile sucks. Your resume and LinkedIn profile are incongruent. Or you’re not making a case for your candidacy. So that’s the launch point. If you’re getting to the screening round, and you’re not getting any further, these are people who are being paid to say yes to people. And yes, they screen people out. But they’re paid a commission or a finder’s fee if you get hired. So the fact that you present well is very important. And thus, what you’re going to do is review your job history to be able to present yourself well. What else causes it to sputter? A lot of different things and here smell BS? Absolutely. We all can smell BS after a while, right? It’s just one of those things. We know that. You know, we look at a resume, we look at a LinkedIn profile, and we go ‘I smell bullshit.’ Actually used that word. I apologize. So the long the short of it is, you know this to energize or re energize a job search, number one, practice interviewing. So if you’re getting past the screener to the first real round, let’s say it’s the hiring manager, you’re not getting further, you’re not connecting with them. They’re looking for competence, self confidence, character, chemistry, charisma, that you care and that they connect with you because they want to trust someone, because they don’t want to hire someone, and then start getting calls from their boss saying, ‘you know, what’s up with Jeff?’ And you just want to roll your eyes and know that because they’re telling you, ‘I don’t like this person; there’s a problem I have with them.’ So then if you’re not getting past them, or you’re going directly to the people or person who’s evaluating your skills, competency and getting further, you re-energize it by reviewing what you did and how you went about doing it, and how you’re presenting that information, connecting the dots between what you’ve done and what they’re looking for. Because without that, we’re done. It’s really that simple.
Interviewing for Young Adults/Recent Grads
29:17
What does it mean when a recruiter says they have no available positions? Answer. It means that they have no available positions for someone with your kind of background. That means that our clients are not trying to hire someone like you, someone with your experience. So, the long the short of it is go find another recruiter. There is going to be some other recruiter, corporate or third party, that has positions for someone with your background, go find them. It’ll make all the difference in the world.
31:41
How accurate do you find salary.com and other salary sites? Somewhat accurate, often the ranges are too broad. And thus, people see … I’m just gonna use a simple example. Program Manager 125 to 175. What does that tell you? The tighter the information is, the more likely it is to be reliable. It doesn’t make someone qualified at that level, at the highest level, but it gives you a sense of what their ranges are. And then I might reach out to someone on LinkedIn who works at that firm in your job title, and see what they think about that, because they have the actual insights. Often these surveys are received by HR departments who talk in terms of bands, and with bands, you may not get the best information. So some of it’s better than others. Sorry, I wish I could be more specific. But I think that gives you a flavor for how to approach this. Get a sense of the range on salary.com, Glassdoor wherever and then from there circle back to people who work for that firm, to get a sense of whether that seems accurate to them in their conversations with other people. And if they’re disappointed in what they’re earning vis a vie what those bands say, or what the website says, they maygo, “I’m getting out of here,’ and create a job for you. So they they are always imperfect guides, completed by HR when they have a few minutes to be able to provide information.
[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqdSrUmDwf4[/svp]
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves career coaching, as well as executive job search coaching, job coaching, and interview coaching. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 2400 episodes.
Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice about networking more effectively, how to negotiate your offer or leadership coaching? People hire me to provide No BS career advice whether that is about a job search, hiring better, leadership, management or support with a workplace issue. Schedule a discovery call at my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us
My courses are available on my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us/courses The courses include ones about Informational Interviews, Interviewing, final interview preparation, salary negotiation mistakes to avoid, the top 10 questions to prepare for on any job interview, and starting a new job.
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