Job Search Disaster: Too Many Eggs in the Wrong Basket

I read with great interest a post today on The Work Buzz Blog by Rachel Zupek, where she revealed that in CareerBuilder’s most recent Quarterly Staffing and Demand Outlook that 25% of surveyed candidates indicated they planned to use a recruiter over the next quarter in their job search.

What the heck does that mean for using recruiters in your job search?

Is using a recruiter mean you’re praying they find you a job at the expense of investing in personal networking?

Does it mean that you plan on contacting a recruiter?

Does it simply mean you’re going to send your resume to a recruiter and if something happens – good for you.

No fault of Rachel’s here – I’m just giving her a plug for publishing the survey results. However, my frustration is apparent that I consider most surveys to be worthless from an informational and useful perspective. Should this data give hope to recruiters? Should it convince job seekers that a major part of their job search should be working with recruiters?

Let’s be real about the effectiveness of using recruiters in your job search (By the way – 90% of my income is generated as a Retained Executive Recruiter).

1. The recruiting profession covers less than 10% of available job opportunities. The higher up the food chain you go, the lower the probability a recruiter will help you find a job. Why is this? It’s because the vast majority of jobs are in the “hidden job market” – they are not advertised, published, placed with recruiters. They are filled through networking.

2. At a managerial/executive job search level, you should be in contact with good recruiters who specialize in your area of expertise/job level/industry/geography. Your contact – interaction – time invested with recruiters should be less than 10% of your overall job search strategy.

3. Networking is KING! 80% of your job search should be focused on networking. If you would like to learn more about how networking, job search personal branding, creating an abundance of referrals and job leads can help you – be sure to visit our FREE Audio Library where Brad and I have posted all our LATALKRADIO broadcasts about job search, including networking, resumes, interviewing, and personal branding. We cover networking strategies and tactics in-depth through our “Job Search Home Study Kit“. If you want to understand how to reduce the time it takes to find a job by at least 50%, this kit has everything you’ll ever need.

4. Sending your resume to a recruiter “blindly” is a useless exercise. 99.9% of these will end up in the trash can. There are a number of techniques you can use to gain a recruiter’s attention, manage the relationship, and get your resume to “pop” to the top of the stack. Learn more about how to work with recruiters by reading our recently published book on Job Search titled “This is NOT the Position I Accepted”. We also have talked about how to work with recruiters on our Weekly Radio Show.

5. Like most networking best practices, working with a recruiter is no different. You’ve got to be able to “help the recruiter” if you want help back. Try to find ways to make referrals on their other searches, ask how you can help them, try to find ways to make the recruiter successful. It’s a two-way relationship. I cannot remember the last time a candidate said to me “How can I help you?”

Hopefully, these 5 tips should help put into perspective what “working with recruiters” really means for your job search.

Barry

Are Recruiters Looking For Qualified People?

NO.

A common assumption made by most candidates is that, “I’m qualified. Why don’t you call me?” Simply put, you answered your own question. We don’t want qualified people.

Recruiters are only looking for exceptionally qualified people.

Especially in this market, companies don’t need to hire us to find qualified people. They can do that on their own for FREE.

If you want to have recruiters notice you, if you want recruiters to call you once they receive your resume, and if you want recruiters to return your phone call, then you must demonstrate why you are exceptionally qualified. We are not looking for just qualified, or as most candidates indicate in their emails, “I think I’m a good fit.” Recruiters don’t want “a good fit” either. We want exceptional fits.

Our book, “This is NOT the Position I Accepted” was written for this exact reason. We really attempted to help candidates understand how to demonstrate they are an exceptional fit. The 5 steps in the book give great detail on being or becoming exceptional. These 5 steps closely follow a sales model, after all, you are now in sales.

1) Define the product. That is you. Why are you so different from your competition? This is the, “what makes me exceptional” part. If you can’t define this, then you are not exceptional. Don’t feel badly. Not everyone can be exceptional. Only the top 15 – 20% are exceptional.

This is probably the biggest reason most candidates fail at being exceptional. They don’t take the time to perform an in-depth analysis of their strengths and transferable skills. (We have a free skills assessment tool for you do download at the bottom of our home page CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD).

2) Identify Customers. All good sales people have a target list of customers , who they want to talk to in that company, and how to get to them. This is your network. Of the thousands of candidates I interview, very few have a real focused, targeted list and a plan to get to the person. Real sales people don’t just randomly call on companies and neither should you.

3) Marketing Materials. This is your resume. Sales people know that marketing materials are just support documents that open doors. These documents don’t close the sale. Most companies that are market focused have multiple marketing documents. They know that customers are motivated by different things and they need to get to what motivates that customer to make a sale. One size fits all, doesn’t work.

Your resume should be focused to the company/hiring manager/recruiter’s motivation. Your resume should clearly articulate the benefits to the person or recruiter whose attention you want to attract. This is not one size fits all.

You can download a free audio on, “Why Traditional Resumes Are Worthless” by CLICKING HERE

4) Sales Presentation. In the candidate’s case the presentation is the interview, either via phone or face-to-face. Sales people practice this at length. Sales reps often have the manager go along to ensure they are skilled at this. Sales reps anticipate objections, seek out the answers to overcome the objections, and then practice to make them appear unrehearsed. Sales people know exactly what questions to ask to elicit the information needed to make the sale.

Most candidates don’t rehearse their presentation to anyone. They practice answers in their head, but rarely write out the answers. I have watched more interviews collapse when the hiring manager asks, “What questions do you have for me?” The candidate sits there like a deer in the headlights. This part of the interview is so important that we have included over 150 questions to ask in an interview in our book and have even divided the questions into categories. The list includes questions on leadership, initiative, values, management style, and questions specific to the job, organization, etc.

The questions you ask are often more important than the answers you give.

To receive a free chapter on, “Winning the Phone Interview” CLICK HERE.

We also have a whole chapter on the ten most important questions to ask in an interview.

Less than 10% ever ask even one of these. Amazing.

5) Follow-up and closing. It is all a waste of time if the follow-up and closing doesn’t happen. For candidates, this happens in a couple of different areas, thank you letters (we even provide an example), second and third interviews, and of course closing the deal. This may even include a contract.

Mastering, NOT JUST KNOWING THESE, but mastering these will make you the exceptional candidate recruiters are seeking.

Knowing them will ensure you stay a qualified candidate.

For more information on becoming exceptional see all of our free resources, review the free audio library where we post new audios every week, read our other career management blog entries and even listen to our talk radio show on Monday’s at 11 – noon PDT on www.latalkradion.com.

You can receive our candidate job search workbook for FREE by CLICKING HERE

Now you have the resources and tools to become an “exceptional” candidate. We hope you will pick up the tools and begin using them.

How To Engage Recruiters In Your Job Search – Radio Show

Engaging recruiters is an important component of one’s job search. As recruiters with over 50 years collective experience we discuss the best way to ensure recruiters respond to you. It is more than just sending in resumes and hoping you get the call. This show discusses concrete things you can start doing now to build a relationship with recruiters. In addition, there are many types of recruiters and a lot of different reasons to engage some but not others. In less than one hour you can find out how best engage the right recruiter for your career.