Why is Flawless Execution Important to Prove?

One of the 3 core success traits we insist our clients focus on in the interview process to measure top talent is:

Flawless Execution

Flawless Execution is not about doing your job perfectly – it’s about the ability to overcome problems, hurdles, roadblocks, setbacks, and other issues which are standing in your way of delivering results on time, on budget, and on target.

In most companies there is a multitude of “crap” that gets in the way of meeting the expectations of your boss. This is where you go to your boss on Thursday at 4 pm and say “Boss, I know you needed this project completed before the end of the day for your meeting tomorrow – unfortunately Dept. A didn’t give me the report I needed in time, and the vendor that had promised to get us the critical sub-component is running late and will not be able to get it us until next week.

What do we call these things?

I can call it “E&E” – excuses and explanations.

Top talent doesn’t give “E&E”. They know little disasters, set backs, are problems are going to happen. They know Murphy’s Law will rear it’s ugly head at the worst possible moment.

Top Talent makes contingency plans, builds in slack time, goes under the speed bumps, around the roadblocks, and climbs over every wall thrown in their path.

Top Talent is the group of people hiring managers can count on.

On many teams, executives and managers have 1 or 2 people they consider to be their “go-to” people. Every time they have a tough, critical project with lots of obstacles, hurdles, problems, and roadblocks – they keep turning to the same few people.

Would you consider yourself a “go-to” person?

Do you possess this critical trait of top talent?

Hiring executives and managers know these individuals will get it done every time in spite of the obstacles, hurdles, problems, and roadblocks.

As many of you know, I coach high school girls basketball. I tell my team, it’s not enough to run 90 some feet down the court and fling the little orange ball in the air hoping for the best outcome. You’ve got to put the little orange ball in the little orange hoop. One of the primary reasons basketball teams lose games is that they cannot make lay-ups within 2 feet of the basket.

The business environment is exactly the same. You’ve got to be task-oriented. You’ve got to finish. You must put the ball in the basket.

Many candidates cannot consistently demonstrate or prove they have a “go-to” person mentality. They give “E&E”, they blame others for their short-comings or failures. They don’t take personal responsibility or accountability for their actions and assignments. They continually try to transfer the “monkey” onto the backs of their peers or bosses.

Can you prove you possess the trait of flawless execution in an interview? Can you demonstrate how you’ve handled numerous projects and assignments which had lots of obstacles, hurdles, problems, and roadblocks?

Here’s a “homework” assignment to improve interviewing: Write a comment to this blog post on your most significant accomplishment in your current/last job where you demonstrated the success attribute of flawless execution – overcoming whatever it took to complete the project. I’d love to hear your examples. I’ll offer some ideas on how you might want to “format” or describe the accomplishment in an interview.

Now, here’s the hard part: I teach my clients – hiring executives and managers – to never except just one example. It could be a lie, exaggeration, or luck. However, when you get 2-3 examples, now you’re starting to substantiate a pattern of behavior that someone is likely to continue once you’ve hired them.

Could you offer a prospective employer at least 3 great detailed examples of flawless execution?

Barry Deutsch

Answering Those Box Checking Interviewing Questions – Audio Recording

Don’t Be A Box-checking Victim

STOP allowing yourself to be box-checked in the interview by recruiters, HR, and hiring managers. You CANNOT SUCCEED in the interview if you are being box-checked against a traditional job description listing precise years of experience, exact industry experience, product knowledge, specific channels, and detailed skills. No one could pass these interviews with flying colors. Successful interviewing requires you to move the interview from a typical interrogation into a conversation about the needs and obstacles in the job. Brad and Barry provide specific examples, tactics, and recommendations in this radio program on how to move every interview from a box-checking interrogation into a conversation about the work that needs to be done.

To listen or download this recording from our audio library CLICK HERE.

You can also join our LinkedIN Job Search Networking Group. CLICK HERE to join

The Best Recruiters Eliminate YOU With their First Question

How is this possible you might ask?

How could anyone determine whether I am a fit for a job with only one interview question?

Even more shocking is the idea you could be eliminated through the very first interview question?

Shouldn’t there be many factors which determine whether you will give me a change to prove myself in a phone or physical interview?

NO and NO again.

The BEST recruiters approve or eliminate YOU in the first interview question. Your response to my first interview question determines whether I’ll invest more time probing, digging, and validating your claims – OR we’re DONE. The BEST recruiters live and die by this methodology.

Our clients are expecting us to validate, verify, and vet YOU as a candidate who is capable of achieving their expectations of results. We’re not resume factories and we don’t throw paper in the door wishing it sticks. We don’t cross our fingers and hope you’ll be successful. We take a very structured, careful, disciplined approach to interview YOU.

We don’t measure ourselves by the brokerage model the recruiting industry is so well known for – I toss in a resume and if the Hiring Manager falls in love with the candidate – I get a brokerage fee.

The best recruiters do the hard disciplined work for their clients by validating, verifying, and vetting YOU before they’ll considering presenting YOU to their client.

Now that we’ve drawn the distinction between what most recruiters do vs. the BEST recruiters, let’s refocus on how the BEST recruiters eliminate you in their first interview question.

There are a number of factors in measuring a candidate’s ability to succeed in a job. There are also a wide variety of interview techniques to collect this information.

However, one factor stands “head-and-shoulders” above all others – particularly for high level professional positions, management roles, and senior executives. At lower levels in an organization, the primary focus is on executing tasks and activities that can be taught or learned. With a little bit of skill, knowledge, and training, many employees can master the requirements of entry level to lower level roles in an organization.

A common misperception is that high level professional, managerial roles, and executive positions can be defined through the same techniques of entry level/lower level jobs -  writing traditional job descriptions listing minimums of education, skills, knowledge, attributes, tasks and activities.

At higher levels, employees are not measured for doing tasks and activities and applying their skills. They are measured on their accomplishments, achievements, outcomes, deliverables, and results.

Okay – so now we’ve defined the major difference between entry/lower level positions and management/executive positions. At a lower level, you’re measured for your ability to apply your skills and knowledge in performing tasks and activities. At a high level, you’re measured for delivering results and outcomes.

Now that we’ve got that long-winded explanation of what differentiates lower level roles from higher level roles, we can move onto the core point of this blog post:

How The Best Recruiters Can Eliminate You with the First Interview Question

Once I know the most important outcome for the position (this is an entirely different issue for which many employers fail miserably – read more about the first step of our Success Factor Methodology), all I have to do is ask you if you have a comparable – similar – like – accomplishment to this most important – critical – game-breaker outcome that is the NUMBER ONE determining factor of whether you can be a successful hire.

Every high level professional, managerial, and executive role has one or two critical game-breaker outcomes that are required for success.

If your accomplishment IS NOT COMPARABLE – SIMILAR – or LIKE what needs to be done in the job – defined as similar in scope, size, project duration, budget, number of people, outcomes, resources, timeframe, metrics, deliverables – then it’s unfortunate, but

YOU ARE NOT SOMEONE THAT WILL BE CONSIDERED FOR THIS SPECIFIC POSITION.

Our interview is over.

Time for me to move on and pose this question to another candidate.

The process repeats itself hundreds of times on a typical retained executive search.

Does this sound cold and impersonal?

You might be a wonderful human being with tremendous potential to do lots of different things for a company

However, my client has paid an enormous sum of money for me to efficiently and effectively find them the best candidate. There is no better interviewing method than using behavioral interviewing techniques layered against future results needed.

NONE!

In 25 years of executive search, Brad and I have conducted 1000s of searches, interviewed hundreds of thousands of candidates, and implemented more effective hiring best practices in thousands of companies – NO interview question or technique comes remotely close to the methodology of:

What is the number one game-breaker result needed in the job – and then asking the candidate what is their most comparable-similar accomplishment.

Forget about your skills, knowledge, prior experiences, style, behaviors, values, and all the other little things that make you a wonderful candidate. If there is NOT a high probability based on behavioral interviewing techniques focused on the defined results – you’re too high risk. You might be able to achieve the outcomes required, but the risk of failure is too high to justify investing more time in the interview.

DON’T HOLD THIS METHODOLOGY AGAINST ME! I’m not a bad person. You’re not a bad person. You’ll be a great asset to some company – unfortunately NOT my client at this moment in time. I’m performing my role as a recruiter using best practices of interviewing and effective time management to produce results for my clients. It’s a function of the recruiting business model.

Here are some examples to illustrate HOW YOU GET ELIMINATED IN THE VERY FIRST INTERVIEW QUESTION (We define this structured approach in our best practice methodology which we call the Success Factor Methodology):

Result Needed: Reduce the accounting closing process from 21 days to 8 days within 3 months.

Question: Can you give me an example of a significant comparable accounting process that you improved or changed?

Result Needed: Grow profit as a percentage of revenue over a 3-5 year period regardless of revenue and economic cycles.

Question: Please describe a comparable accomplishment where you were the President of a business over a 3-5 year period  and achieved an improved profit percentage each year.

Result Needed: Increase sales by 15% year over year for the next 3-5 years.

Question: Can you describe a comparable accomplishment of growing sales by at least 15% year over year when you’ve led the sales function/team over a 3-5 year period.

If you can’t answer the first question about the game-breaker outcome, nothing else matters. Neither I OR my clients are willing to take the risk that you “might” be able to do it.

You can learn more about best practices that recruiters and employers use to screen and evaluate YOU as a candidate by reading about our Success Factor Methodology. We’ve named our process – but any effective implementation of recruiting/interviewing best practices encompasses these 5 steps. Discover the primary interview questions that quickly eliminate most candidates.

Barry Deutsch

Don’t forget to join our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group where you can talk about the issues, problems, frustrations regarding your job search and get direct answers from two of the top retained recruiters and thousands of other job seekers.

P.S. Download our FREE Cover Letter Sample. The Resume and the Cover Letter are the first two things the BEST recruiters look at before picking up the phone to call you. If you don’t give them a tease/hint that you’ve accomplished something similar to there game-breaker objectives, you will NOT even receive a phone call. Click here to get our FREE Cover Letter Sample Format to address the game-breakers.

An Absolute Must For A Job Interview

One of only three things that can be measured during a phone interview is communication.  The interviewer is determining how well you communicate and how well you will work with the management team. Communication style is critical to cultural fit. If you are thinking verbal communication, in this instance you are half right. Most candidates think we are talking about one’s use of the English language and proper use of verbs, avoiding the word “like,” being succinct, and all the other verbal components of communication. Generally you are correct, but not this time.

This time I’m referring to listening skills. This is also a component of communication. Before you click away, recognize that study after study revealed that most people are not good listeners. In the case of candidates not being good listeners, this happens not necessarily because you are not generally a good listener, but rather because of the interviewing process itself.

Too often candidates don’t hear the complete question because mid-question they start thinking of an answer to the question that hasn’t even been asked yet. The candidate anticipates what they think the interviewer is going to ask and then starts formulating an answer in their mind. Too often to the wrong question.

I have interviewed over 10,000 people in my 30 years as a recruiter, and this is a constant battle. This is even more profound on a phone interview. I believe it’s due to the fact that the candidate can’t see the interviewer, and can’t tell by body language or eye contact when the end of the question is coming is one reason why it is such a problem on a phone interview.

Failure to listen to the complete question and then targeting the answer to actual question is one reason why so many qualified people never get the job. I hear this from hiring managers all the time.

Most candidates will be better off taking a slower approach and listening carefully prior to jumping in with an answer that isn’t relevant to the question.

Work on your listening skills. Don’t just assume you have good listening skills in an interviewing situation. This is a unique environment. You may be a great listener day to day, but when the pressure of an interview and your desire to do a great job collide during the interview, listening is usually the first thing to go.

If this was helpful to you please help others by passing it on. Everyone needs to help everyone until the economy turns. Consider emailing it to your network, posting on a blog, adding to your status on Linkedin or Facebook or Tweet it. Let’s help others. It will come back to you.

Join our Linkedin Job Search Networking Group for a lot more discussions and articles to help you with your job search. CLICK HERE to join in.

Download our FREE 8 Point Job Search Self-Assessment Scorecard. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of your job search so you jump start your search in 2010. CLICK HERE to get your free copy.

You can also download a free sample cover letter that  has proven to align your background with what the company needs. Thousands already have and it really works. CLICK HERE to get yours.

I welcome your comments and thoughts.
Brad Remillard

I’m Getting Interviews But No Offers. WHY?

This was a question a potential job search coaching candidate asked me. Although frustrating, at the same time it is a very good problem to have. At least she was getting interviews.

In today’s world just getting up to bat can be difficult, but striking out is frustrating. So what do you do if this is happening to you? Over 30 years of working with candidates and over 10,000 interviews, it is my experience that when this happens the candidate is generally making some fatal mistakes in the interviewing process. They don’t need a major overhaul. They are either doing something small, that is easy to fix, or in most cases NOT doing something that eliminates them.

After all, the hiring manager has seen their resume, often interviewed them and asked them back, and they may have even come in second place a couple of times.  So rarely, if this happens a lot, is it always experiences, skills or abilities. Those have already been taken into account. Also, as everyone knows that has done extensive  hiring, the most qualified person doesn’t always get the job. Often, and unfortunately, it is the best interviewer that gets the job. A fact candidates have a very hard time accepting.

Many candidates have this  happening to them and never really understand, “why?” The sad part is the candidate ends up spending a lot more time in job search mode than necessary. Often months and that is expensive. To help, our job search workbook, “This is NOT the Position I Accepted” deals extensively with this exact issue.

The first step in dealing with this issue is knowing the answer to this critical (yes critical) question, because if you don’t know the answer chances are very good you will never know what’s wrong, so you can’t fix it. What are the most important three words in a job search and interview? Hint, they are the same words for both a job search and interview.

If you guessed preparation, good guess, but wrong. Preparation is the outcome of these three words.

Presentation is key, and the answer. Candidates are judged so much on the their presentation that it is often a bigger factor in getting a job than qualifications. For example, I heard on a news channel that Whole Foods will not hire anyone that shows up to an interview wearing a suit. I don’t know if this is true or not, (just because it was on the news doesn’t make it true) but that is presentation. Show up in a suit, and before you even leave the lobby, before you introduce yourself, in less than 1 second the hiring manager has already decided you won’t fit in their company’s culture. They assume you didn’t research the company or you would know this.

If this is happening to you, I have found from coaching candidates that it is time to take a hard look at their presentation. This is very hard to do. It means I have to be tough, possibly risk hurting feelings, get critical, tell people they come across too casual and therefore possibly signaling a lack of energy, and for older candidates this is often interpreted as burned out or just waiting to retire.

None of these may be true. It doesn’t matter if it is true or not. It is reality. A dose of reality is often exactly what many candidates encountering this issue need.

Another issue is confidence. Too often when candidates become desperate and really need a job they are too afraid to engage the interviewer. This lack of confidence comes across as weakness. This is the kiss of death especially if you are interviewing for a manager.

You should always interview the same way you would if you had a great job and didn’t need this job. That confidence will come out. Most companies want to hire people that are leaders, and confidence is an essential element of leadership.

Join our Linkedin Job Search Networking Group along with the other 3300+ members. The discussions and articles will do nothing but make your time looking for a job shorter. CLICK HERE to join.

If you are getting interviews but no offers, you should consider reading our job search workbook, This Is NOT The Position I Accepted. It was written to get you through the interview with confidence. We will send it to you to review for just$5. CLICK HERE to get  your copy.

I welcome and encourage your thoughts and comments.

Brad Remillard

Leveraging The Power of the First Impression Helps You Win The Interview

First impressions are so important in the initial meeting that one would not be too far off base if they argued the most important part of the interview. First impressions set the tone for the interview and often determine the types of questions, length of the interview, and ultimately the outcome. Making a strong first impression is often the deciding factor in who makes it to the next round. If the candidate makes a strong first impression they are immediately liked by the interviewer. This candidate just moved up the point scale towards the next round and they haven’t even been asked one question. On the other hand, if the candidate makes a weak first impression, the candidate starts out in the hole. This hole if often so deep  that no matter how well they answer the questions, the interviewer cannot overcome their first impression. In fact, they may have decided right in the lobby that this person isn’t getting the job.

Tips to making a strong first impression:

· Good eye contact.

· Remain a comfortable distance from the person.

· Firm handshake – even if you think you have one ask someone who will be open and honest. Many don’t, so don’t assume you do.

· Strong introduction coupled with a smile, a strong handshake and eye contact. Practice this introduction.

· Have a couple of conversational questions prepared in advance to engage the interviewer.

· The most important of all are the four “A’s.” A VP of HR at Rockwell Corporation gave us these. They are so important more than 25 years later we still remember them.

1. Appearance

   
   

2. Articulate

   
   

3. Affable

   
   

4. Assertive

Bring these four to the first impression and you will move up the scale – not down.

Study after study reveals that likability is the single most important factor used when determining who ultimately gets the job. Underestimating this is a failure of many candidates. Those that make a strong first impression will often do better in an interview than candidates with better experience.

Join our Job Search Networking Linkedin Group. There are over 2700 members and an extensive supply of resources for you to tap into. CLICK HERE to join. Membership is FREE.

We have numerous free downloads on our Web site to help you in your search. Sample cover letters, audio downloads from past radio shows,a transferable skills list, Linkedin Profile Assessment Matrix, and our Job Search Self-Assessment Scorecard. All can be downloaded from our homepage at www.impacthiringsolutions.com.

Every Monday at 11 AM Pacific time listen to our radio show anywhere in the world on www.latalkradio.com channel 2.

I welcome your comments and thoughts

Brad Remillard

Tell Me About Yourself? Why Is This Question Asked In An Interview?

This is so often the first question asked in an interview. It may not be worded exactly like this, but in one form or another, many if not most interviews start this way.

Knowing this question is coming, why do most candidates get so frustrated answering this question?

It is, for the most part, a break the ice question. It gets the candidate talking, gives time for everyone to relax, is wide open, and generally a meaningless question. However, just because it is meaningless, doesn’t mean you can ignore it. In fact, this is an excellent opportunity for you to engage the interviewer.

You have a golden opportunity to hit the salient points in your background, open a discussion around what defines success in this role, and to get the interviewer excited about this interview.

In our opinion this should be a short 2 minute, so well rehearsed answer, that is doesn’t appear to be rehearsed. This is not the time to give your autobiography, go over every position in your background or bore the interviewer with a long winded answer.

In most cases, the interviewer is using this to simply start the conversation. They aren’t looking for a complex or even complete answer. They just want a quick overview. That is it.

We recommend starting with your most relevant position and hit the accomplishments that closely relate to the position. It is even acceptable to outline some of your current responsibilities, organization, relevant company information, products or services, and basic duties. The goal is to give the interviewer the information they need to better understand how your company, industry, experiences and organization aligns with theirs.

This is not the time to give a lot of information that doesn’t align with the company. For example, if the company is a small entrepreneurial company, it would be a fatal mistake to highlight your experience in a large Fortune 500 company, that you managed a staff of 30 people, and your department budget was bigger than the company’s sales last year.

A better answer would be to highlight a past company similar in size that you enjoyed working at, felt more fulfilled by the impact you made, preferred the ability to be hands-on and what you did to contribute to the growth of the company. This better aligns with the interviewer’s needs.

You should have a number of canned, well rehearsed, thoughtful answers to this question. This is your opportunity to start the interview on the best footing for you.

Join our Linkedin Job Search Networking Group. There are over 2500 people in the group, so it is a great resource for you and your search.

Get a free download on our homepage of a sample cover letter, job search self-assessment tool, and Linkedin profile assessment. All are free in our “What’s New” section on our homepage at http://www.impacthiringsolutions.com

Every Monday at 11AM PDT listen to our live talk radio show on www.latalkradio.com.

We encourage your comments and feedback.

Brad Remillard

Tip To Overcome Interviewing Problems.

A preemptive strike works:

I came home from work one day, and had just walked in the house, when my son came up to me to tell me we needed to talk. He is too young for the birds and bees and probably knows that anyway, so I knew something was up. He explained while practicing his pitching for baseball, he threw a wide pitch and broke the window above the garage. I said “no big deal, all boys break a window once in a while.” He said, “Well that is not all. After that I moved to the other side of the garage and threw another wide pitch and broke the other window too.” He was scared I would be really mad. I thought, “How can I be mad. You stole all my thunder by coming to me. I didn’t have time to get mad.” He performed a preemptive strike.

How does this relate to a search? I was doing a search for a CFO, and one candidate’s resume indicated a lot of turnover. As I went through his background, it became clear that there were great reasons for the turnover and in most cases the company turned him over, not the other way around. The problem was, he wasn’t addressing these in the interview right up front. Basically, he wasn’t defusing a negative situation.

We changed that and put together a script that dealt with the turnover right up front. In the interview, he preempted the interviewer by saying “I realize from my resume, that it appears that I have a lot of turnover, and I can understand why one would think that. Let me explain the circumstances surrounding the turnover and I’m sure it will help clarify this issue.” This defused the situation and completely eliminated any confusion and there wasn’t a problem. The candidate demonstrated they had nothing to hide or be ashamed of.

The candidate did get a job and wrote to us saying he felt this technique played a major role in getting past the first interview.

Also, in case you are wondering, my son has broken the same windows again. I now buy replacement windows in bulk.

The worst thing candidates can do is assume that because the interviewer didn’t bring up the issue it means it isn’t an issue. The fact is, the interviewer is thinking it isn’t an issue worth discussing, because they have already come to a conclusion without even discussing it.

By bringing the issue up first it allows you to discuss it openly and clearly demonstrates you have nothing to hide.

Our “Complete Job Search Home Study Course” addresses exactly how to handle this and many other issues candidates encounter and often mishandle during their job search. One misstep like the one above can cost you a job, resulting in thousands of dollars in lost wages. To review the content of the home study course and have it sent to you for only$14.95 (We will even pay the shipping.) CLICK HERE.

For many more tips and help, join our Linkedin Job Search Networking group. It is free, and provides a wealth of great discussion and news. CLICK HERE

Join us on the radio every Monday at 11AM PDT on www.latalkradio.com as Barry and I discuss a variety of topics to shorten your time in search. Our audio library has past shows for you to download for free. CLICK HERE

A Critical Interviewing Mistake!

Candidates more often that not miss one of the best opportunities during the interview to shine, to differentiate themselves, and demonstrate their ability to do the job. What a great opportunity missed!!

In most interviews, the interviewer even sets the candidate up with the opportunity to shine and candidates blow right past it. The interviewer asks the soft ball question, “Do you have any questions for me?” A golden opportunity to shine. The questions you ask can outshine every answer you have given so far in the interview.

However, time and time again, I hear candidates do one of two things:

1. Answer,”No, not really. Most of my questions were answered during the interview.” What a terrible answer. How did the interviewer answer “MOST” of your questions, when they were asking you questions.
2. Reply with one or two (occasionally someone stands out and asks three) standard, unimportant, basic no-brainer, no forethought questions such as, “What is the budget?” or “What is your management style?” Again, these reveal the candidate has not prepared and is very shallow.
3. Actually, there is a third, the candidate sits there like a deer in the headlights trying to think of something to say.

This is your opportunity to ask questions that demonstrate your ability to understand the job and what performance standards will be. Challenge the interviewer, ask “Why” are you doing X, probe deeply into the issues you will face once on board, how they manage, etc. Every candidate knows this question is coming in one form or the other. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Asking questions is a sign of strength, confidence and demonstrates a depth of knowledge. As a recruiter for almost 30 years, when a hiring manager calls back and says, “This person really asked me some great questions. They made me think in the interview.” I know that person is getting the job.

One component of your interviewing preparation should be questions to ask. Not just questions about the company, but specific questions about the job, ask “why”, ask about communications, ask about past issues, ask about future challenges, ask about people, ask about KPI’s, ask about systems, there are so many issues to discuss to make sure you will be successful.

The best advice I have is ask the same questions you will be asking once in the job to be successful. You might as well know them before you accept the position. Otherwise, it might be a position where you can’t succeed.

This is such a critical issue in our job search workbook, “This is NOT The Position I Accepted” (This wouldn’t happen if candidates probed in the interview.) We list over 150 question to ask in an interview in this workbook. We even break these questions into categories to help identify when to ask the question. In addition, we give you the 10 most important questions to ask in an interview. You can receive this book to review for FREE right now. Just pay the $5 shipping. CLICK HERE

Also, join our Linkedin Job Search Networking group. This is a very active group that deals with every aspect of a job search. All Linkedin groups are free to join and provide a wealth of information. CLICK HERE

Don’t miss our talk radio show every Monday at 11 AM PDT on www.latalkradio.com. Barry and I discuss the most important challenges you will face in your search. You can listen to past shows in our audio library. CLICK HERE to enter the library. All files are free to download

Do you have the right tools for your search?

Like most recruiters, I attend too many networking events. Once a person hears that I’m a recruiter, they generally want to engage me in some conversation that usually ends up with giving me a business card or resume. WRONG TOOLS.

Even when I meet candidates, not for an interview, but just to help them in their search they give me a business card and a resume. WRONG TOOLS.

Most candidates don’t have the right tools for the right purpose or they have one set of tools for every aspect of their job search. WRONG AGAIN.

When one is trying to fix anything, they need the right tools to do the job correctly. Would you try to hang a picture on your wall using a 16 pound sledge hammer?

One size tool does not fix all problems – same with a job search.

At a minimum, there are two types of tools you need to use during a job search. One set is for networking, and the other set is for use when applying for a position, interview, responding to ads, or anything directly related to a specific position.

Networking tools are designed to accomplish a couple of specific goals:

1) Assist the person or contact in remembering you and something about you. The contact needs a tool to identify you from all of the other contacts in their stack of business cards. This is so they can refer you. In two weeks, most contacts don’t know which Pat you are in the stack, if Pat is male or female, or what industry Pat has experience in. Not a good way to get a referral.

2) Assist with referrals and introductions. How many times have you had a networking meeting with anyone and walked away with a specific referral to a hiring manager, HR person, lead directly into a company that fits your background, or someone other than a service provider or recruiter. It happens, but this is less often.

These two things happen because most candidates don’t have the correct networking tools. They too often just hand the person their resume and a general business card. THESE ARE NOT NETWORKING TOOLS. Stop using them. They are the wrong tools.

Get the right tools.

1) Use networking business cards. These cards use the back of the card. On the back is a list of industry experiences, titles, target companies or anything that will help the person remember you from all the rest in their stack of cards.

2) Use a bio not a resume. Don’t just use a generic bio. Use a targeted and focused bio on what introductions and referrals you are seeking. The bottom third of the bio should list the specific company names and people you want to meet. This way when the contact is looking at your bio they can easily identify if they know the company or person. Then right there on the spot they will often indicate they can facilitate an introduction.

There are other tools you need, but these are the most important.

Good networking tools help people help you by remembering who you are and what connections you are seeking.

For more on networking tools, examples of business cards, and a networking bio, check out our job search workbook. You can review this book for free. Just pay the $5 shipping. CLICK HERE

Join our Linkedin Job Search and Networking Group. It is one of the most active Linkedin groups dealing with topics and discussions on a job search. Over 2200 have joined. It is free. CLICK HERE

Also free is our talk radio show which is on every Monday at 11 AM PDT on www.latalkradio.com. Barry and I discuss a variety of issues around the job search process from resumes, interviewing, branding, and the most common job search issues. You can listen to all of our past radio shows in our audio library CLICK HERE.