Do You Get Mistreated By Employers as a Job Applicant?

Does the process of applying for a job feel like you’re trapped in a Rodney Dangerfield Comedy Skit?

I ran a recent blog article on Hire and Retain Top Talent Blog raising the question of whether hiring managers and human resource staff “mistreat” job applicants. The response was an overwhelming admission of guilt.

This blog article was sparked by a post I read on the About.Com Human Resources Blog. The primary point that the blog author, Susan Heathfield,  makes in her post, is that candidates deserve a response and they deserve the right to know where they stand in your hiring process. They especially deserve the right to know on a timely basis if you reject them.

I am amazed at the number of employers who don’t have the courtesy to tell applicants they didn’t get the job, employers who are rude and inconsiderate to potential future employees during the interview process, and employers who are not responsive in returning emails or phone calls to applicants.

Have employers lost their manners?

Do employers feel a sense of superiority in that they can get away with mistreating job applicants in this job market recession?

Have a large percentage of employers simply forgotten the golden rule of dealing with people “Do unto others as…”

When you can’t get an employer to call you back after they’ve conducted a phone or face-to-face interview,

What’s your worst horror story of being mistreated by employers – either the hiring manager or someone on the HR staff?

After the “mistreatment” how did you feel about the company? What were the words you used to describe this employer to your your friends and business contacts?

Barry Deutsch

If you’ve not downloaded a few of our FREE Job Search Audio Programs recorded off our live Internet Radio Show, now might be the time to find a tip or two to help in your job search.

7 Reasons Recruiters Screen You Out

I know from all of the comments I receive, the tweets on Twitter, and the comments on blogs and articles about recruiters, that one of the biggest frustrations with candidates is about recruiters. On a daily basis I read, how mean recruiters are, how people claim to be qualified for a job don’t get past the recruiter, how people with years of experience  get weeded out by recruiters, and of course, the black hole resumes go in when candidates send them to recruiters.

First, let me clarify that I’m not trying to justify bad behavior by some and maybe even many recruiters. Every profession has them, some more than others. There are even bad doctors, engineers, pastors and so on. The purpose of this article is to clarify for candidates what recruiters do and why, to help reduce the frustration. I hope by understanding, although maybe not accepting, it will make it easier on candidates.

Recruiters don’t really care if you are qualified, have years of experience, or have all the right skills, knowledge, and certifications. Obviously these are required. You must recognize that many candidates have these for every job. Recruiters don’t get paid  for finding candidates with these traits. I can tell you as a recruiter for 30 years, and one that still makes a living as a recruiter, how much I wish this was the case. If  it were the case, I would be writing this article sitting on my yacht, instead of my patio.  We get paid only for finding hireable candidates.

I learned this in my first year as a recruiter. I would ask the client if they liked the candidate and many times they would say they did. I would ask if they thought the candidate was qualified and they would reply, “Yes.” I would even ask if they thought the candidate could do the job and they would reply, “YES.”  These were all good questions that lead me to believe the candidate was going to get hired, only to find out someone else got the job other than my candidate. Why? How could this be? I was just as mad, frustrated, and upset as the candidate.

The answer was simple. One day I was venting my frustration to a much more experienced recruiter who informed me that I wasn’t asking the right question. He said those are all nice things to know, but those aren’t what I care about. The question I should have asked was, “Is the candidate hireable?” Now that question has a completely different meaning. It is what I and the candidate really wanted to know.

So what is hireable? Well, as one justice on the Supreme Court once said, “I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.”  So much of what is “hireable” is subjective by both the recruiter and the hiring team and is hard to define. The following is my best shot at trying to define it. This is by no means an all-inclusive list. Again, it is designed to simply help candidates better understand, with the idea that understanding helps reduce frustration.

1. The candidate has all of the requirements to do the job. This is a given.
2. The candidate is neither under qualified or over qualified. My experience is that candidates accept the under qualified, but rarely accept the concept of over qualified. Either one makes a candidate not hireable.
3. Presentation. I have written extensively about this. Recruiters care a great deal about how you present yourself. I don’t just mean physical presentation. I mean the complete package of presentation skills. Your presentation skills start the minute you answer the phone for the first time.
4. Communication skills must be appropriate for the position. This just happened to me recently. I was doing a search for a communications person in a PR firm. One candidate had all of the right qualifications on paper, a good background, good schools, but constantly used the word “like” in just about every sentence. One would expect a person in PR communications to know better. Sorry, but not hireable from my point of view. My client would question my judgment if I recommended them for a communications position and they couldn’t communicate properly.
5. Style is important. Granted this is very subjective, but this is why companies are willing to pay recruiters thousands of dollars. They trust our judgment on this issue. If the style of the candidate doesn’t match that of the hiring manager then the candidate may not be hireable. It doesn’t mean that  the person isn’t a good person, it just means that they aren’t the right person.
6. Fit is another highly subjective characteristic that determines hireability. If your personality isn’t going to meld with that of the hiring manager or the company’s culture, then you aren’t hireable for this position. Not everyone is the right fit. I interview candidates all the time that tell me they left the company because it just wasn’t a good fit. I know recruiters do their best to make sure this is aligned. Nobody benefits if the candidate doesn’t work out because they can’t adjust to the company.
7. Listening and answering the questions. This is part of communication, but needs special attention. Every recruiter is assessing how you listen and answer their questions. Recruiters know this is an indication of how you will perform in front of the client. This is the point at which most candidates eliminate themselves. They don’t answer the question asked, their answers are so vague it is impossible to know what THEY did, or they ramble on in hopes of covering everything. As a result, I would not only be embarrassed to present you to my client, but worse, my client would be upset with me for doing so.

From my position as an executive recruiter, these are just the top seven things a candidate must excel at to be hireable.

Is your resume not getting noticed by recruiters? Try using this sample cover letter. Candidates tell us this cover letter has tripled their response rate from recruiters. CLICK HERE to download this sample cover letter.

For a lot more on this topic, and other job search related topics, join our LinkedIn Job Search Networking Group. It is a great resource for career experts and discussion. It is free. CLICK HERE to join.

Is your job search going as well as  you thought it would? Is it moving slower  than you expected? If it is, then download our FREE 8-Point Job Search Assessment Scorecard. It will help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your job search. CLICK HERE to download.

If you liked this article, please share it with others on your Facebook page, other LinkedIn groups, or with your contacts.

I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Brad

Is Your Job Search Focused On Employment or Employability?

My experience from speaking with tens of thousands of candidates over the last 30 years as an executive recruiter is that most candidates focus like a laser beam on employment. Finding that next job is all they think about.  Not bad, but I have found that those that find a job fastest focus on employability first.

Changing the focus will change your search. When candidates focus on only finding a job, they often lose sight of why they are employable. This focus changes how they interview, where they look, the process for finding a job, and ultimately leads to accepting the wrong job, which results in returning to the job market sooner than expected.

Focusing on employment can also lead to desperation in a job search. Download a FREE copy of the “Circle Of Transition” CLICK HERE. This shows up in the interview as fear, poor body language, lack of energy, incomplete answers or rambling answers. It impacts the job search as candidates try to demonstrate how they can do everything, in every industry, and regardless of whether they are a 10% or 100% fit for the job, they scramble after it. This only dilutes their search, sends them on wild goose chases, increases the many highs and lows of a search, and in the end gets the candidate no closer to getting a job.

Instead, what if you changed the focus to employability? This will alter how you view yourself and what you have to offer. It starts the process of realizing you have value, you are good at what you do, the company will be better off because they hired you, your boss will look better to their boss for hiring you, and you know you can and will do a great job.

Employability is about what you bring to the party. It is about focusing on what makes  you better than others. What is it about  you that this employer can’t live without? Every person they interview will probably have the same skills and experience to do the job, so why should they hire you?  It puts you in a position of strength.

Employability will expand your job search, not reduce it. It may eliminate some of the long shots that frustrate many candidates and at the same time it will increase the exposure to positions that have a higher probability of success.  I firmly believe one of the main reasons candidates we coach find jobs faster than most is because we work to change their focus to employability and away from employment.

Employability will help you create a job where jobs don’t yet exist. My last article was about finding the true hidden job market before others and recruiters. Employability helps you to not only tap into the hidden job market but it gets employers thinking about why they need you and your unique set of skills and experiences. Employers start to think about how much better they will perform with you on board. They begin to realize the solutions to their issues of growth, expansion, cost reduction, process improvement, etc, isn’t inside company. You become the savior to these problems. Employability turns you into a solution rather than just another candidate applying for a job.

Focusing on employability is much like what a CEO of a public company said to me many years ago. He said, “The focus of many public companies is the stock price and hitting the quarterly numbers. That will never be ours. We focus on building great products, innovation, customer service, and high quality. If we do that, the stock price and quarterly earnings will take care of themselves.”

If you focus on employability, employment will take care of itself.

To help you focus on employability be sure to download our free radio show recordings. They are in our candidate audio library. CLICK HERE to enter the library.

To validate whether or not your job search is effective, we have put together a job search self assessment scorecard. You can’t fix what you don’t know isn’t working. This free download will help you identify weaknesses in your job search. CLICK HERE to download your free copy.

Tired of sending resumes and hearing nothing back? Try this cover letter. It has proven over many years to increase responses from recruiters and companies. Download a sample by CLICKING HERE

I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Your Skills and Experience Don’t Matter In An Interview

I know most candidates don’t believe this, but there is a lot of truth to this.  There actually is something much more important in an interview than your skills and experience. The sad part is that most candidates rarely focus on this aspect of the interview.

Do you know the three most important words in any job search?

I have asked this question to probably thousands of candidates. Less than 1% can get even one right.

If you thought: qualifications, experience, skills, or industry knowledge, you are completely wrong. Those may be important, but they are not the most important.

The three words that will more often than not get you the job over someone else are, presentation, presentation, presentation. Yes, getting an offer is mostly about making a good, make that a great, presentation. A good presentation was adequate when unemployment was at 4%, but not now with unemployment at almost 10%. Now it needs to be great.

In our book on how to conduct an effective  job search, “This Is NOT The Position I Accepted” we have a whole section dedicated to this topic alone. That is how important a great  presentation is. Many qualified people don’t get the job. Usually the one that does get the offer is the one that made the best presentation.

Since the recruiter or the hiring manager has already reviewed your resume before asking you in for an interview, and in many cases they have also conducted a phone screening interview, they already know you are qualified. Therefore, when a candidate is invited in for an interview, the recruiter or hiring manager has already determined that the candidate has the qualifications for the position or they wouldn’t invite them in for an interview. This means that just about all of the candidates are equal when the face-to-face interview begins. It is the presentation at this point that carries them the rest of the way.

Think about it on a scale of one to ten. Let’s presume that in order to get invited back for the next round, a candidate has to get to a score of at least 8. Since all of the candidates are starting at zero while standing in the lobby waiting for that first face-to-face interview, the candidate that makes the best first impression can jump up 4 points on the scale and the interview hasn’t even started. Now during the interview they only need 4 more points to get asked back. Contrast that with those that don’t make a strong presentation and they have to do double the work of  the first candidate in order to get asked back. If one makes a negative first impression and drops to -2,  then the mountain they have to climb is just too great and they will never be asked back.

There are a lot of moving parts to making a great presentation. Most are obvious, but some will take time to master and others will require getting expert help. The importance can’t be overstated.  Here is a test to determine whether or not you are making a great presentation, if you are getting interviews and not getting the job, my experience of 30 years tells me  that your presentation is lacking. Since you are getting interviews your qualifications and resume are working. That means that something is going wrong in the interviewing process. 90% of the time it is your presentation.

Here are some suggestions to help out:

1. Be open to the fact that this might be your issue. Don’t just assume that it isn’t. If things aren’t working, then change something. If  you are closed minded on this then you will continue to struggle and be frustrated.
2. Get some very candid help. Identify someone that you trust to be open and honest with you, maybe a recruiter, and ask them about  your presentation. I met a great candidate lately with outstanding experience. He has been getting numerous interviews, but kept coming in second. I can assure you it is his presentation. In our interview he never asked for any feedback. He never asked how the interview went or  if there was anything he can improve.  If asked I’m glad to assist.
3. Invest in an image coach. This is a small investment compared to not getting a job. Take the candidate I referred to above, an investment of probably less than $500 would have meant tens of thousands of dollars to this person by landing a job. An image coach will really polish your presentation. They work on just about every aspect of a great presentation. This sounds so silly, but it even includes how you walk, sit in a chair, shake hands, make eye contact, how to use body language, facial expressions, hand movements, and so much more. All of this sounds so trivial, but collectively it plays a major role.
4. Script out your answers. Script is just a fancy word for write out your answers to the basic questions you know you are going to be asked. This is one of the most important things that I require when I’m doing job search coaching with an executive. Writing these out helps you to prepare so you aren’t winging it in the interview. It also allows you to practice, so now you demonstrate confidence. Finally, it prepares you so that you are succinct and focused when answering questions.
5. Practice in front of a mirror or video yourself. If you have never done this, it is an eye opener. You will see how you sit in the chair, hand motions, how your voice projects, mannerisms you don’t even know you are making, many of which may be down right annoying. This is a powerful exercise that very few candidates ever do.

Presentation, presentation, presentation are the most important words in any job search.

Take full advantage of the many free resources we offer on our website. For example, we have an extensive audio library for you to download free files, our chapter on winning the phone interview has been downloaded by over 3,000 people, and our sample cover letter that makes you stand out has been downloaded by over 2,500 people. These are just a few of the numerous free resources we offer to help you reduce your time in search.

Also don’t forget to join our Job Search Networking group on LinkedIn. This is a very active group with lots of excellent discussions and resources. CLICK HERE to join.

Please take full advantage of all the free resources we have to offer. It is our hope to help you reduce your time searching for a new job.

I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Brad Remillard

Is Your Job Search Stalled?

In a recent survey, over 50% of executive and managerial candidates currently conducting a job search have been out of work for over a year. Why is your job search taking so long? In this radio program, Brad and Barry talk about the most important elements of an effective job search. Are you ready to assess what is working and what is NOT working in your job search? Your success in finding a new job is NOT about 1 or 2 big wins, it’s all the little details of effective execution.

To download this radio show CLICK HERE.

So Many Candidates Are Only 70% Effective In Their Job Search

There aren’t too many things one can do only 70% effectively and be successful. Can you imagine doing your job 70% effectively? Would you hire someone that told you in an interview,” I work great 70% of the time?” Would you keep a person working for you the was only 70% effective?

I certainly hope you answered NO to all these.

So why then do so many candidates think they can find a job or conduct a job search at a 70% effective rate? I think in many cases I’m being generous in the 70%. I have worked with many that struggle to get to 50%. Stunning, but true.

Too many candidates just don’t know how to conduct a truly effective job search. That isn’t to say that they don’t try, as I’m sure they do, but trying in a job search isn’t what you are striving to achieve. You shouldn’t be ashamed of this. It is not your area of expertise. It would be like me doing your job. How effective would I be? Probably less than 50%.

In an economy like this in which companies will receive hundreds of resumes, receive numerous referrals, and will interview until the perfect candidate shows up,  one can’t afford to be ineffective or inefficient. This is the time to be at your best, 110% not 70% or less.

Here are some simple examples that might help you to identify how effective  your job search is (you can download our 8-Point Job Search Self Assessment for free to assess your search CLICK HERE):

1. How good is  your LinkedIn profile? I have reviewed thousands of profiles and most are incomplete, lacking important data, not optimized for a search, and provide limited information. Yet like it or not, LinkedIn is more powerful than most resume databases.
2. Many candidates have no idea how to properly network. Most think it is a numbers game. Meet a lot of people, shake a lot of hands, go to a lot of meetings and so on. WRONG. This is just a bunch of activity. Meaningless activity most of the time. How effective has your networking been for providing the right job leads?
3. Candidates focus on only one type of key word search. The electronic type. They optimize the resume for the automated/electronic resume system that scans the resume to identify certain key words.  There are two types of key word searches that must be optimized. In my opinion the second one is more important. I have written an article explaining this. CLICK HERE if you want more information on the second type. I don’t have the space here to include it.
4. What prompted this article is  that I had lunch today with a VP of HR and we were discussing just how poorly so many candidates are at phone interviewing. She brought it up, not me. She asked me if I had the same bad experiences conducting phone interviews as she. Yes, I replied.  Way too many candidates treat the phone interview the same way they treat the face-to-face interview. They are completely different and you have to adjust. This is so important that we actually offer this chapter from our job search workbook for free. Not because we have to offer it for free, but the phone interview is the most important interview. So many candidates just take it for granted. CLICK HERE if you want to download it.
5. “I already know this stuff” syndrome. I get this all the time. You might even say this after reading the phone interviewing chapter. My answer to the comment, “I already know this stuff'” is “So what.” That isn’t important. We all know a lot of things, but we don’t do them and do them well. I know to keep my head still when I hit a golf ball. So what.  I know it but doing it isn’t the same. I’m only 50% effective at doing it. I firmly believe this is one of the biggest reasons candidates aren’t as effective as they should be. They think they know it, but don’t do it and do it right.
6. Working hard and putting  in long hours isn’t the answer in a job search. A job search is an endurance race. It is very much like running a marathon so candidates must be efficient or like a marathon you will burn out. I find many candidates are just running in place and get burned out quickly.

The sad part is that there are so many tools and resources available to candidates. Never before in my 30 years have I seen so much excellent information readily available. Experts blogging, articles in newspapers, YouTube videos, and social media groups are all out there for candidates to tap into. Yet so few do, and even fewer actually implement the suggestions effectively.

I encourage all the candidates I represent to actively research. There are great tips and ideas out there and 90% are free. Spending an hour each night will dramatically impact your job search.  Reading blogs on resumes, branding, social media, or watching some of the outstanding videos on YouTube can change the direction of your search very quickly.

Our contribution to you are our many free tools and resources. For example our audio library (CLICK HERE) has over 50 great audio recordings from our weekly radio show, the free chapter on phone interviewing (CLICK HERE) and our free LinkedIn Profile assessment (CLICK HERE) are just a few of the tools we offer.

Don’t forget to join our LinkedIn Job Search Networking Group for many more free resources. CLICK HERE to join.

I welcome your comments and thoughts.

Brad Remillard

In This Market You Need An Edge. This Might Be That Edge.

Some candidates will enter the job market with the desire to learn everything they can about the best way to conduct a job search. Many will use outplacement firms, attend a webinar or two, read articles on interviewing or resumes, and begin networking.  All good stuff.

However, I believe they leave out one of the most valuable learning tools for a job search. All of the above is important, but what about the other side of the hiring process which is understanding a job search from the recruiter’s or company’s perspective?

Why not read about the hiring processes companies use? Seems to me this would  add a lot of value to one’s search. I ask candidates to start reading and researching articles and books written for hiring managers. There is an enormous amount of information on the Internet that will help you understand exactly what the company is thinking and how they want to  hire.

Many, if not most companies today use some form of behavioral interviewing. There is a wealth of articles, videos, and blogs dedicated to this topic. Just Google “behavioral interviewing”  and over 309,000 results come up. You can discover nearly the exact questions you will be asked in an interview. It is as close to an open book test as you can get, yet few candidates take the time to do this. It is like trading stocks with insider information.

Our book for hiring managers, “You’re NOT The Person I Hired,” goes into great detail how companies should implement an effective  hiring process. It details what questions to ask, how to probe deeply, what other sources to use to  help with candidate selection, how to write a job description that aligns with the real job, and much more. So far over 10,000 CEOs and key executives have this book on their book shelf.  Just reading this book alone will help prepare you for the best way to prepare for an interview, how to align your resume with what the company needs, how to prepare your references, and much more. All you need to know is what the company is going to do and then plan accordingly.

The best defense is a good offense. Understanding exactly how companies do their hiring is one of the best ways to prepare yourself for a job search.

Reading everything you can about how to conduct a search is important. Focusing on how companies hire and learning their methodology is also important. Take the time to prepare yourself for their hiring methodology. You will see a big difference in your results.

You can obtain a copy of our book, “You’re NOT The Person I Hired” from our website if you’d like. There are many good books, blogs, articles, videos, and resources in the market for you to take advantage of. In this market you need an edge  over your competition. Every little bit helps. I encourage you to consider coming from the recruiter’s or company’s perspective.

For more on conducting an effective job search, take a look at our audio library. All of the recordings are free to either download or stream. CLICK HERE to review the titles.

I welcome your comments and thoughts.

Brad Remillard

Getting Professional Help Can Shorten Your Job Search – Example 2- Interview Mistakes

The first article addressed how to handle the problem of turnover. This example deals with two simple issues that could have resulted in the person not getting the job because of simple mistakes that were easy to fix. The person just didn’t know how. Any professional career coach, outplacement firm, job search coach, or executive recruiter should know exactly how to help you: 1) not make the mistake in the first place and 2) how to overcome it once it has happened.

The candidate called me and said, “I think I may have just blown an interview with the way I answered one question. Is there anything I can do?” “What was the question?” I asked. He replied, “The CEO asked me what I wanted to do with my career, and I told him that I love marketing, and wanted to be a VP of Marketing in a medical device company.” Since he was interviewing for a VP of Marketing position in a medical device company that would seem to align well with the what the CEO was looking for. Also, given the candidate’s background and experience it was a reasonable answer.

Then the CEO came back with, “Well, that could be a problem here, as we like to hire people that want to move  up in the organization and that strive to be better and not just do a job.”  OOPS, there is a big communication gap here. The CEO meant one thing and the candidate interpreted it another way. This is often the kiss of death.

So what would have been different had this candidate been working with a professional?

1. The mistake should never have happened. The candidate wasn’t prepared. From a professional’s point of view this question should never have been answered. It is clearly vague and too open to interpretation. What does career mean, what time frame is the CEO addressing, what is the motivation for asking this question, how soon does the CEO expect a person to move up, etc? These all  need to be clarified prior to either answering the question or integrated into the answer.
2. The candidate would have been prepared not to fall into this trap. It wasn’t a trick question, and certainly not a deliberate attempt to trap the candidate. It was just one of those questions often asked that are so vague that the candidate doesn’t really know how to answer or there are just too many ways to answer it.
3. Once this happened, a professional would know exactly how to minimize the damage. Since the candidate felt this was the turning point in the interview, and this was a critical mistake that would cost him the job, it can’t go unresolved.

Again, like the first example in this series, it was an easy fix. There was no guarantee the fix would work, but it certainly couldn’t make matters worse . At this point, the candidate was convinced he wasn’t getting the job. There was no place to go but up.

Since the candidate now knew what the CEO was looking for in this question, we simply expanded on the candidate’s answer in his thank you letter. The candidate explained that he thought the CEO was looking for a short term answer to what he wanted in his career, so he answered it with the next three to five years in mind. However, longer term he would expect to move  up in an organization within five to eight years. Obviously, a little more detail was added, but you get the picture.

It worked, and he did get the job. We know it worked because the CEO told him that the thank you letter changed his mind.

I believe, and the candidate believes, that the professional help was directly responsible for getting this job. He believes it saved him additional months of searching for a position. As he told me, “Even if I found a job one month later, it would have cost X in lost salary.”

Getting professional help can save you thousands of dollars. Take your monthly salary and multiply it by how many months you have been looking for a job. That is the cost of unemployment. Finding a job one month earlier because you got professional help is cheap compared to the alternative.

The final article in this series will help you identify the right professional. There are many frauds and unqualified people posing as professionals that take your money and don’t deliver results. These must be exposed and avoided. There are also many outstanding people that are true professionals, highly skilled, and with great experience, that are worth far more than they receive from helping candidates find a job.

We offer many free tools to help you. CLICK HERE to download a free sample cover letter that  recruiters like. CLICK HERE to download a sample thank you letter that will make sure you are remembered. CLICK HERE to download a free LinkedIn profile assessment that will help you build a great LinkedIn profile.

Finally, consider joining our LinkedIn Job Search Networking Group. It has a wealth of great articles and discussions to help you in your search. CLICK HERE to join the other 5,300 members of this group.

I welcome your thoughts and comments. If you liked this article, please tweet or re-tweet it so others can benefit.

Brad Remillard

Ask A Recruiter Anything You Want To Know

As a recruiter for the last 30 years this September,  I get asked questions daily. Sometimes about one’s career and other times job search questions. Most job search questions focus on the tools of a job search, the resume, cover letter, interviews, thank you letters, etc.  Sometimes I also get questions about why recruiters do what recruiters do.

I think asking recruiters these questions is a good thing. Recruiters are uniquely qualified to answer these questions, because good recruiters see both sides of the job search. They hear what hiring managers want and don’t want, like and dislike about candidates’ resumes and interviewing styles, why the company decided not to hire one person or why they hired a specific person. It is easy to draw conclusions as to what works and what doesn’t work most of the time after hearing these things so many times.

So here is your chance to ask me any questions you might have for a recruiter. I realize that many recruiters like to be mysterious, but I believe the more candidates understand how we work, the better we can work together. The more you know about what you need to do so that a recruiter will engage you if they have the right job for you, the better.

Please comment on this article by asking me anything you want to know and I will do my best to answer your question.

If you don’t have a question, another option might be to suggest a topic you would like us to write about. If this will help you shorten your job search then that is a good thing.

So please let me know your questions or anything you would like for us to write an article about.

Depending on the volume, I can’t promise to respond to every request. I will do my best, so give me some time. Also, if many questions come in on the same topic, please check other comments for answers.

We offer many free tools to help you. CLICK HERE to download a free sample cover letter that recruiters like. CLICK HERE to download a sample thank you letter that will make sure you are remembered. CLICK HERE to download a free LinkedIn profile assessment that will help you build a great LinkedIn profile.

Finally, consider joining our LinkedIn Job Search Networking Group. It has a wealth of great articles and discussions to help you in your search. CLICK HERE to join the other 5,300 members of this group.

Brad Remillard

Job Seekers and Warren Buffet

I am currently reading the book, “The Snowball: Warren Buffet and the Business of Life” by Alice Schroeder. It is an interesting biography on Warren Buffet’s life starting as a small child.  Some of the more interesting parts highlight what influenced his thought processes about everything from money to how he treats people.

I haven’t finished the book yet, but as I was reading it two sentences stood out. To me, these two sentences explained exactly why so many candidates stay in a job search so much longer than need be. I have known this for a long time. The candidates I work with one-on-one in our job search coaching programs often start out the same way.  I interview and speak with hundreds of candidates a month. It use to surprise me the number of people who acted this way. Not any more, I just accept it. I don’t understand it, but I do accept it.

When Warren was a teenager he read the book, “How to Make Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. Just about everyone has heard of this book.  His biography addresses the impact this book had on him. How it “honed his natural wit, above all it enhanced his persuasiveness, his flair for salesmanship.” Obviously, this one book influenced him so much that decades later he still remembered it and gave it credit.

It was  the two sentences before this which stood out and relates to the vast majority of candidates I encounter. Alice Schroeder writes, “Unlike most people who read Carnegie’s book and thought gee, that makes sense, then set the book aside and forgot about it, Warren worked at this project with unusual concentration; he kept coming back to these ideas and using them. Even when he failed and forgot and went for long stretches without applying himself to the system, he returned and resumed practicing in the end.”

This is what grabbed my attention. As soon as I read it, I thought this is exactly what most candidates do. This is exactly why so many candidates spend so many extra months searching for a new positions. They read a book, attend a webinar,  read a blog article or listen to an audio file and think, “Gee, that makes sense, then set it aside and forget about it.”

Few, my guess less than 10% do as Warren did. Read the sentences again. Does anything stand out to you as it did me? What did Warren Buffet do different than all the others?

I see this constantly.  People will return our job search workbook with a note, “Already know all this stuff.” At first I was stunned. When we wrote the book we spent an extensive amount of time identifying the mistakes candidates continually make. We  then worked extremely hard to provide solutions  to those mistakes. So it struck me as strange, that so many people knew all these mistakes, but just kept making them. How could this be?

I’m sure the many other excellent authors of books on this subject have experienced the same thing.

So I decided to test if it was true these people really did know all this stuff. I started doing some follow-up. I would call the person and ask for feedback. As I got bolder, I became more direct. I started asking very specific questions of those that “already know all this stuff?” For example, I would ask:

• Since you already know the only three things which can be measured during a phone interview, what do you do to properly prepare?
• As you know, there are only three types of questions asked in an interview. How do you identify which type of question is being asked and how do you prepare for each type of question?
• Of the ten most important questions to ask in an interview, which ones in your opinion were most helpful and of those which ones do you use most often?
• How long have you been using the cover letter we recommend and what has been your experience with this style?
• How often have you found yourself in anyone of the 5  positions in the Circle of Transition and how do you handle it? This could be really helpful to other candidates?
• How is your networking business card different from your interviewing business card?

It didn’t take long to discover these people may have read the book, but unlike Warren Buffet, they didn’t embrace the ideas with “unusual concentration.” Instead it was, “Gee I already know this stuff.”  When in fact, from their answers, they had no idea what mistakes they were making and how the book provides solutions.

Warren Buffet read Dale Carnegie’s book over and over again. He referred back to it time and time again. He practiced regularly. When he failed it was back to the book. That is what made him unique. He didn’t just know it all, he implemented the concepts. He didn’t blame the book when things went wrong, he adjusted and tried again.

I know from the one-on-one job search coaching we do, when we get candidates to stop knowing everything and start doing things the right way, they find job leads that eventually lead to offers and employment.

Although it might appear as an attempt to sell our book it really isn’t. There are many great resources available to candidates. Many are 100% free. It is positively an attempt to get candidates to stop saying, “Gee, that makes sense, but I already know it.” It is positively an attempt to get candidates to learn from Warren Buffet. To get candidates to refer back time and time again to excellent resources. To re-read the books, re-listen to the audio recordings and to take this advice to heart with “unusual concentration” as Warren Buffet did.

I have discovered the reason there is so much written for job seekers is because job seekers need so much help. If candidates did everything so perfectly there wouldn’t be a need for all the books, blogs, articles and webinars.

The next time you read anything designed to help you in your job search don’t let your first thought be, “Gee, I already know that.” Rather force yourself instead to ask, “Good advice. How am I implementing that in my job search?” Attack it the same vigor and “unusual concentration” as Warren Buffet.

Try this approach first and you will find yourself gainfully employed a whole lot sooner.

OK, now this is a blatant attempt to sell you a book. You can get our job search workbook to review for free. Just pay the $5 shipping. For details on this offer CLICK HERE.

Test your job search effectiveness by downloading our free Job Search Plan Assessment Scorecard. Find the strengths and weaknesses in your job search. Then attack the weaknesses with “unusual concentration.”  CLICK HERE to download.

For a FREE example of a cover letter that recruiters, HR and hiring authorities  like and will get your resume read, CLICK HERE.

I welcome your comments, thoughts and feedback.

Brad Remillard