agoffredo

8 Ways Recruiters Use LinkedIn to Headhunt

June 3, 2014 by agoffredo 2 Comments

Have you ever wondered just how recruiters use Linked In to find candidates? If you thought they merely posted roles and then waited for the resumes to flow in (which I call ‘posting and praying’ since you are posting a role and praying for the ideal candidate to see it and apply to it), then you are sadly mistaken. A good recruiter (or ‘headhunter’ or ‘sourcer’) today will be pro-actively searching for the right candidates whether those potential candidates are looking for new opportunities or not! Furthermore, we are always making connections, building out our networks and meeting new people.

Want to be found? Then you need to get inside the head of a recruiter and understand how we operate.

Just as a job search is not a one-trick pony and you need a multi-pronged approach to your job search strategy, so too is recruiting. While LinkedIn is not the ‘be all and end all’ for a recruiter, it is at the core of the recruiting function today. For instance, with my 3,000 first-level connections, I therefore have 17,586,946 professionals in my network. Yes, 17.5 million professionals at my fingertips! Talk about a database! What a great platform from which to start a search for the right candidate!
How do recruiters leverage LinkedIn?

1. Recruiters perform straightforward keyword searches. All we have to do is go to the advanced people search area and type in key search words and perimeters to find people with those key words on their profiles. The more specific we are, the narrower the search. The wider the perimeters, the more people come up.

What should you do? Carefully read several job descriptions of positions similar to what you seek and parse out the skills, actions or descriptors that can be used for keyword searches. Make sure that those words are in your headline, your summary and throughout your responsibilities in the roles you held. Take pains not to just list a block of keywords. Instead, use them in the bullet points that describe who you are, what you’ve done and how you have achieved it. Alternatively, you can list them in a paragraph format (in your summary) separated by semi-colons.

2. “People similar to” people we source. Another good feature of Linked In for recruiters is the “people similar to” feature. Once we find a potential candidate, we can see a list of people who are similar to that person (in terms of roles, titles, competencies, etc.). These are often great leads to follow because they already share similarities with people of interest to us.

What should you do? Again, ensure that your profile reflects the types of roles you are looking for. Ensure it is peppered with key competencies and responsibilities found in those types of roles. Don’t be afraid to look at the profiles of other people currently holding jobs you want and see how they are structured and what they say. You want your profile to come up in searches and in ‘people similar to’ searches.

3. “People also viewed”. This is another function of LinkedIn that recruiters use. When we have sourced someone of interest, we can look at a listing of people who were also viewed by people looking at this particular person. Often these would be similar people and of interest to our search.

What should you do? Again, the more optimized your profile, the more people will look at you and the more times your profile will get in front of the recruiters and hiring managers you want to be seen by.

4. Recruiters join industry and skills-based LinkedIn Groups, and carefully follow their discussions and take an active part in their discussions and postings. This allows us to observe who the SMEs are and who is contributing to conversations in a meaningful way. It also allows us to see who other members of these groups are and they are often people we want to target for searches. Reaching out to them becomes a warm call vs. a cold one.

What should you do? Join LinkedIn groups that are relevant to your skill set and industry to keep up with what is going on and make constructive contributions to the group discussions. The more active you are, the more people will take notice of you and reach out to you. As a recruiter, I have often helped folks in transition who have reached out to me because of a group we share. As I said, warm cold vs. cold call. We already share something in common. Perhaps a member of the group is with a company you are interested in or in a role of interest to you. I’m thinking an informational interview/discussion might be an order no?

5. Recruiters follow thought leaders and key influencers. A significant part of a headhunter’s value is to know “who’s who” in his or her specialty field. Beyond that, headhunters need to know who makes up the first-tier followers. I make it a point to stay up to date with my large base of contacts, to understand and follow the leaders by analyzing who is following whom on LinkedIn. We put a lot of time and effort into LinkedIn and you should too!

What should you do? Make sure to stay extremely current in your field and show it by following the people who will benefit you by your association with them. Also, be sure to comment on current events relevant to your field and to post information/articles that you find. I try to post some interesting article at least once a day (the Globe & Mail and Harvard Business Review are two great sources). Subscribe to interesting and relevant newsletters and then post select articles with a comment or two by you.

6. Recruiters follow their connections’ LinkedIn behavior. Part of the art of recruiting is understanding the timing of what is going on in people’s lives and the signals that they give off which demonstrate that they are “recruitable.” I follow people’s actions and LinkedIn behavior patterns to determine when someone is about to begin an active job search. What tips us off? Updating of your profile, sudden participation on LinkedIn, following new groups or companies or simply viewing my profile. Maybe someone is connecting with recruiters all of a sudden. Tip off for me to check them out!

What should you do? Often people are reticent about letting their current employer or others know that they are in the market for a new job for good reason. Yet you can do some of these subtle things that don’t outwardly say, “I’m looking,” but let the right people surmise that you are ripe for a call. For instance, turn off your notification when you make all but one of your changes and then turn it back one for that one final change. If you are going to join multiple groups at one time, turn off your notifications when sending invitations to them all. The best way to avoid all this ‘cloak and dagger’ is to always be active on LinkedIn so when you are job searching, it is less obvious.

7. Recruiters are open to interviewing unemployed people. There are two schools of thought on indicating you are out of work. Some recruiters need to fill roles quickly, and search specifically for those people who are not currently employed. If they meet all of the qualifications, they are able to start immediately (especially for contract roles). Others look only for those who are gainfully employed.

What should you do? Whatever your situation might be, lead with the positive. Demonstrate your skills, expertise and knowledge. Define yourself as a professional (who might just be unemployed), rather than as an unemployed person seeking a job. Do whatever is most comfortable for you. You can show yourself as still at your last employer (but it is NOT okay to do this on your resume) or you can show an end date. Similarly, your headline can state that you are looking for your next opportunity or can indicate that in your summary.

8. Recruiters don’t want to guess. Don’t make people guess about who you are or what you have to offer. As a recruiter, we can’t tell if you are a potential candidate if you don’t have a fulsome profile. By the same token, don’t make it a duplicate of your resume.

What should you do? Remember that your LinkedIn profile is a ‘teaser’ and should tell me just enough to make me want to learn more. It should whet my appetite to reach out to you. Keep your profile up to date and build long-lasting relationships,.m..,m with a variety of professionals – recruiters, key decision makers, colleagues, etc. And remember that all that you do online is simply the key to building strong, better relationships in the “real” world.

Happy hunting!

Filed Under: Career Transition, Interviewing, Networking, Recruitment, Students and New Grads, Uncategorized Tagged With: career advancement, career management, coaching, consulting, human resources, interviewing, job search, leadership, networking, recruiting, recruitment, transition

What’s a Spider Search and Why Do I Need to Know?

May 23, 2014 by agoffredo 2 Comments

Another good article in today’s Globe & Mail about optimizing your resume to get it past those nasty “gatekeepers” (i.e. computers) that pre-screen and pre-qualify candidates before a real person ever sees it. It’s important to have a clean, clear, crisp resume – for sure, no doubt. But it’s equally important that you take the time to review the job spec and ensure that your resume aligns as much as possible with that job. Remember, these days it’s seldom a person reading your resume first – it’s a computer scanning for the right words and phrases.

What to do?
1. Read the job posting, know what the role is, what the responsibilities are and what qualifications are critical for this role. You might want to take the time to list them. Trust me, recruiters are doing this so that they can pre-program their computers to search for what is most important for this role.

2. Look at your resume. While you may like it and you may think it’s great, does it match the requirements for this particular role? If not, redraft it. Ensure your competencies and your experience and your achievements match what’s needed for this role. If analytics is key for this role and is mentioned a thousand times in the posting (I exaggerate), then make sure it appears more than once on your resume.

3. Another good thing to do….ensure that you use both the acronym and the full words to describe what you. If you’re a customer service rep for instance, you might also want to say “CSR”. If there’s more than one way to describe what you do, list both. I always ensure I use ‘talent acquisition’ and ‘recruitment’ to describe what I do. Are they one and the same? Yes. Would a person know that? Probably. Would a computer be programmed to know that? Maybe not. Why take the chance?

Read the full article here and then do a spot-check of your resume today. If you’re applying for roles and not hearing back, this may be the reason why. Of course, nothing beats reaching out to your network and getting in front of the right people!
https://secure.globeadvisor.com/servlet/ArticleNews/story/gam/20140523/RBCACOMPUTERRESUMEPRINTATL

Filed Under: Career Transition, Interviewing, Networking, Students and New Grads Tagged With: career transition, human resources, interviewing, job search, networking, recruiting, recruitment, resume, resumes, students, transition

Is Confidence a Bad Thing?

May 23, 2014 by agoffredo 1 Comment

I read an interesting article in today’s Globe & Mail talking about how ‘confidence can be a bad thing’ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/leadership-lab/confident-that-can-be-a-bad-thing/article18722504/

In this article, they mentioned that, in a study of 1,000 entrepreneurs, overconfidence led to decreased performance in both revenue growth and employment growth. They said that Americans are some of the most confident people with respect to math ability yet score near the bottom on international standardized tests (who knew?). In conducting his own research, the author found that students who were more confident ended up studying less, resulting in poor performance on exams.

He does go on to say that if you walk into a room exuding confidence and believing people will want to meet you, your prophecy will likely become true. Confidence also has a positive effect with starting a new business.

Personally, as I work with clients in my coaching practice, I try to instill that sense of confidence in them. It’s ok to say “I’m awesome”. It’s OK to be confident. The caveat is that you have to be able to talk the talk and walk the walk. If you come across as hesitant or unsure or uncertain as to who you are and what you can do, people will be less likely to invest you (i.e. buy from you, promote you or hire you in the first place).

As Wayne Gretzky once said ‘you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.’ And that is true. Getting out there, exuding confidence and determination are key. Just don’t become too cocky and think that you can succeed without the effort. Don’t forget Malcolm Gladwell’s theory (introduced in his book ‘Outliers’) that it takes 10,000 hours to perfect something.

Confidence is important. Hard work and determination are key.

Filed Under: Career Transition, Interviewing, Networking, Recruitment, Students and New Grads Tagged With: business references, career management, career transition, coaching, human resources, interviewing, job search, recruiting, recruitment, students, transition, women

How much does your company rely on reference checks?

May 15, 2014 by agoffredo 5 Comments

There are two camps when it comes to professional referencing. One is that they comprise a large part of the overall criteria for hiring an individual. While they are indeed one component, in my opinion and experience, nothing is more important than the interviews themselves, where, if conducted properly, you get a solid understanding of the person’s background, experience and expertise and insight into how he or she has conducted themselves in various relevant situations.

The other camp is that they are irrelevant. Increasingly companies will only confirm dates of employment and position in order to protect themselves. Even then, you can often find someone that you know who has worked with the individual (especially here in the financial services arena in Toronto) and get the ‘scoop’ or the ‘real goods’ on the individual.

I often conduct professional business references for my clients before they hire a candidate and take this role seriously. I ensure that I am crafting questions that are relevant to that particular role and that I have strong probing questions to really get at the heart of what that person did and how well they did it. A good professional reference is probably 30-40 minutes long and results in a detailed referencing report.

Today, for the very first time, I was asked to provide a professional reference by a well-known background referencing company doing this for a well-known job board. I was surprised because I was invited to provide the professional business reference via e-mail and to provide my responses via an on-line program. How effective is that? The questions were very generic (and not very relevant to the role the individual performed for me), didn’t ask about the role and responsibilities while she worked for me, didn’t ask about her strengths or areas of development, etc. They were so generic as to be meaningless and, if I did have something of interest to say, there was no opportunity for them to probe further.

Undoubtedly this type of background referencing is gaining favour because it’s cheap but, in this particular instance, really didn’t provide anything of any benefit. Most people will only provide the names of references who are going to say only good things….this makes it even harder to learn anything of value. At least in a detailed reference call, the interviewer can probe if the referee makes a statement that warrants further discussion.

Food for thought? If you want to ensure you are running a comprehensive recruiting initiative, have a good strategy in place – including a solid professional business referencing piece – and execute on it. It’s much more costly to replace a new employee than to invest upfront to ensure you are getting what you think you are.

Filed Under: Career Transition, Interviewing, Networking, Recruitment, Students and New Grads Tagged With: business references, career transition, interviewing, job search, recruiting, references, referencing

What were you thinking Costco?

May 5, 2014 by agoffredo Leave a Comment

I am always amazed that so many companies don’t bother to reply to candidates who take the time to apply for positions with their companies. Really? Is the market such that you feel you don’t need to respond, thank a candidate for his/her interest and for taking the time to apply? It’s just common courtesy. What has happened to courtesy and respect these days?

With technology and automation what it is, this can be done quite easily. For many companies, as soon as you move a candidate from “applied” to “rejected”, an automatic e-mail can go out thanking the candidate for taking the time to apply, blah blah blah. Heck, I run a small consulting pracdtice and take the time to respond to each and every candidate. If nothing else, it’s a great part-time job for a university student.

But I digress. Even worse than not responding to applicants who apply, is not responding to candidates who have come into your place of business for an interview….or two. Real life example.
My son has just finished his third year in university and is studying kinesiology. Last summer he was fortunate to have worked at a physiotherapy clinic as a kinesiologist with oversight of their gym. This summer he wanted to do something different and thought Costco might be a good summer experience. OK, lots of kids work there. I love the store. Sure, why not?
He picked up an application, brought it home, filled it out and went back (dressed appropriately) with completed application and resume in hand (I taught him well and he listened!). They took the application and interviewed him on the spot (smart aren’t they?) They called him up the next day and invited him back for additional interviews. At the end of those interviews, they told him they would be in touch by the end of the week.

What happened next? Nothing. Not a thing. Nada. Think of the ‘sound of silence.’ Really Costco? Here’s a smart young man (well groomed, presentable) who has come in and met with three different people on two separate occasions, who has worked for most of his young adult life, who gets good grades, etc., etc. and you don’t bother to follow up?

Well, c’est la vie. Life goes on. He landed another summer job which he loves. Then, today, three weeks after his last interview at Costco, he gets a call from Costco telling him to come to orientation on Thursday if he’s accepting the job. Accepting the job? What job? They go ‘radio silent’ and then call with a date for orientation. Really? Do they think young folks today are desperate to work for Costco? Do they think the good ones will not be snapped in by other employers?

Well, whatever they are thinking, they are going about it the wrong way. As a consultant who specializes in talent acquisition I can tell you, this is not the way to treat potential employees. In my book, Costco has just gone from a great organization to a good store with poor hiring practices.
Am I going to tell them? You bet I am. You should too!

Filed Under: Career Transition, Interviewing, Networking, Random, Recruitment, Social Media, Students and New Grads, Uncategorized Tagged With: costco, interviewing, recruiting, recruitment

How Good or Bad is Your Cover Letter?

April 28, 2014 by agoffredo Leave a Comment

I always enjoy sharing learnings from my consulting practice – whether for my clients or others out there who could benefit from the experiences I come across on a daily basis.

I am currently recruiting for a highly specialized business development role for a private equity firm. While some of the skills and expertise are transferable, having actual knowledge in investing, private equity and in developing business for an investment firm like this are not.

One of the hardest things to do by far is craft a good cover letter. I’m not sure if this candidate was serious or not, but here’s what she wrote (the bold text reflects my comments):

As an admirer of the outstanding work your organization has done (like what? Be specific!), I would particular (do you mean ‘particularly’? There goes attention to detail) enjoy having the opportunity for an interview to learn in more detail how you function from the inside. As indicated on your job posting, your company needs an individual with a specific set of skills (such as????). Skills I specifically wrote ‘the book’ on and with an interview will blow you away. (really? You ‘wrote the book’ on the skills which, by the way, are what? And you are going to ‘blow me away’? Really? Is this a business professional or a schoolyard boast?)

I’ve leveraged my skills in long-range strategic planning to create over a billion (over a billion what? Dollars?) in new development from saturated markets. I’ve recreated product transformation while developing new marketing vehicles and sales processes for turnaround profitability in several industries. I’ve written two publications, cut marketing and R&D budgets in both dental software and franchising for department teams.

My background of experience is complemented by a MBA degree with 15 years of board-based clinical knowledge, 10 years of franchise knowledge and 20 years regulatory expertise across multiple regions.

So, here’s the learning:

1. When preparing a cover letter, it should be a ‘stand-alone document’. This means that, if I know nothing about you (if I lose your resume for instance), I should still know enough about you and how you qualify for the role that I want to meet you.

2. Proof, proof, proof and re-proof….then get someone else to proof it. Having typos in your cover letter or your resume shows a lack of detail and care. If this is the best you can do and it’s mediocre, what will your work product be like?

3. Don’t say you admire what a company has done without proving that you actually know what they do or why you are so enamored with them. Be specific. Cite examples. Impress me with what you know about the company.

4. Don’t say that you have all the skills without highlighting the most important skills required and how you have demonstrated those skills. This candidate didn’t even bother reiterating what those skills were.

5. Praises like ‘blow you away’ are best saved for grade school – this is not professional language – especially for a private equity or investment shop.

And, last but not least, have at least some of the qualifications of the role for which you are applying. Don’t just apply to roles you see that look interesting. Read the posting. Review your background and experience and ensure you really are qualified for the role. You don’t need to have 100% of the competencies in order to apply but you should have most of them. And if you don’t have them all, tell the recruiter how you are right for the role and why we should see you. Highlighting all of your experience if it’s not relevant to this role is a waste of your time (and ours!) and why so many candidates hear nothing back.

Filed Under: Career Transition, Interviewing, Recruitment, Students and New Grads Tagged With: cover letter, recruiting, recruitment, resume, transition

Take Control of Your Job Search

April 11, 2014 by agoffredo Leave a Comment

This quote was on my ‘quote of the day’ calendar recently. It was attributed there to Pauline R. Kezer, on-line to Maya Angelou and Albert Einstein and here by “anonymous”. I love it!

As a transition coach helping folks who are in the process of finding a new job or a new career or a new purpose/focus in life, I often tell them that their biggest fears can be alleviated when they face them. Whether it’s if they have enough money to take the time to make the right choices, or the skills needed to land the job of their dreams, or even what it is they want to do, taking that first step and helps them to move and empowers them. It gives them control over their destiny.

Often they feel overwhelmed and powerless. They might have just lost their jobs. They think the economy is terrible. They might never find another job or the right job or a job that pays as much, etc. Sitting and worrying only makes it worse. It makes the fear grow and grow. Stopping, thinking, making a plan and working that plan helps them to tackle their fears head on. It gives them a sense of purpose. A goal to strive for.

In the case of their next job, it’s understanding their strengths and weaknesses. What they like to do and what they do not want to do. What kind of working environment they want to be in. Talking to people in various industries and roles helps them define what they want to do. As they get out there and work their networking plan and begin building on their job search strategy, they gain a sense of purpose, a sense of accomplishment and a sense of clarity. They narrow down the field of roles. If they know what they need to land that job that they want, they can ensure they have what it takes to get that job. If they don’t, they can plan how they are going to close those gaps.

The first step is the hardest….but each one after that is easier and easier and then it’s a sprint to the finish!

Filed Under: Career Transition, Interviewing, Networking, Recruitment, Students and New Grads

Don’t Live in Fear of Losing Your Best Employees

April 9, 2014 by agoffredo 2 Comments

Saw this great quote today posted on Linked In and had to share it.

So many employers live in fear that, if they train their staff too well, they will become attractive to competitors and they will lose them. I counsel them that, if they keep their staff happy, engaged and with opportunities internally, they may have no need or desire to leave.

The same goes for managers who want to keep secret the great talent on their teams so that they are not targeted by other managers within their own organization. Really? You don’t want to share your great talent with the rest of the organization? You don’t want to see your employees learn and grow and advance?

When I managed a team of recruiters at CPPIB, I was pleased that so many of them spread their wings and went on to other great roles within the organization – and today to great roles in other organizations. I enjoyed watching them develop and learn new skills and advance up the corporate ladder. Did I miss them? Sure I did. Did it affect my team when they left? Sure it did. But, with a good succession plan and great talent on board, we moved on.

If you are worried your staff is going to leave, take a step back and think about why you think they would want to leave. If you can name some reasons, address them and take those concerns out of the picture so that they want to stay. Of course, always, always, always have a Plan B. No one stays in a role forever and today, increasingly, people move among companies with more and more frequency. Always have a strong succession plan in place.

Remember, no one is irreplaceable.

Filed Under: Career Transition, Recruitment, Students and New Grads

The Proof is in the Informational Interview!

March 17, 2014 by agoffredo Leave a Comment

I often preach about the importance of informational interviews (or informational meetings). I can’t say enough about how important they are in learning about a career, a particular role, a company or just merely to gain career advice and guidance. They are often a great way for people to learn more about you and to help you find that great first job or your next fabulous job.

Case in point. I was recently approached by a student at George Brown College – not one of mine – for an informational interview. After some back and forth to make it work (due to my work load and her school schedule and work load), we agreed to meet at a coffee shop on the subway line on Family Day.

We had a great meeting. She is a bright young woman with a great future ahead of her. She asked intelligent questions and, rather than a stilted interview, it was more of a conversation. I gave her some names of folks I know well and suggested she reach out to them, use my name, and conduct additional informational interviews and hopefully land that internship.

Imagine how pleased I was yesterday to get an e-mail from her to keep me up to date on her progress and to tell me that one of the folks I referred her to – at a large recruiting and outsourcing HR firm – had brought her on board for an internship.

See, that’s how it’s done. Congratulations Kylie! I know you will do well!

Filed Under: Career Transition, Interviewing, Networking, Students and New Grads

What a difference a smile can make!

March 13, 2014 by agoffredo Leave a Comment

What does customer service mean to you? How important is it?

Well, I would say that customer service should be priority 1 for a company and can make or break your organization. But, going even further and speaking from personal experience, customer service can make or break your day.

‘How so?’ you ask. Here’s my experience from this morning that I’d like to share.

I went to the Second Cup on the Queensway across from Sherway Gardens to meet a potential new client. Had only ever been there once before, was not a regular and did not know the staff there. Well, the woman behind the counter was the most welcoming person I’ve come across in a long time. We had a great conversation and she made me feel most welcome. More importantly, she put a smile on my face – and we here in the north know just how difficult that can be after the long, long, long non-ending winter we’re having.

What did it cost her? Nothing. What did it give me? A smile on my face and a warm and cozy feeling on this oh-so-cold and dreary day. I’m going to pay it forward….feel free to do the same.

Filed Under: Career Transition, Interviewing, Networking, Random, Recruitment, Social Media, Students and New Grads, Uncategorized Tagged With: customer service, human resources, networking, transition