Friday July 31st, 2009
Stunts, Gimmicks, and Buzzing the Blogosphere: 5 months later, he's still unemployed

LATE FEBRUARY, 2009:  Mike Stearns, a 30-ish San Franciscan with a decent resume and MBA from Georgetown, has been unemployed for months.  His wife - sensing his desperation and knowing, probably, that this kind of situation can wreak havoc on a marriage, takes a bold step and launches MyHusbandNeedsAJob.com.

The site is exactly what it sounds like:  A 6-page website which includes Mike's resume, photos of him standing in front of the Golden Gate Bridge (holding a sign saying "I need a job!", no less), a YouTube video, and more personal information about Mike than you ever wanted to know.

MARCH, 2009:  The gimmick is irresistible to the media, who are by this point sick of writing human interest stories about people losing their jobs, and are turning their attention to slightly more hopeful stories. 

The site takes on a life of its own and soon Mike and his wife are on Oprah.  The website traffic spikes so dramatically that they put Google AdWords on it and Mike tries to keep up the momentum by writing regular blogs about his job search.

MAY, 2009:  Only one blog post, but it's all about how Mike's getting lots of interviews, so it's fairly positive.

JUNE, 2009:  Still no job, and with blog entry titles like 'Another week down', it's clear that poor Mike is discouraged, depressed, and having to put up a valiant fight to avoid sounding desperate. 

JULY, 2009: Still unemployed, still in the interview process (and still getting enthused about 'in-person' interviews, which tells me he hasn't had a heck of a lot of applications go beyond the phone-screen stage) - and total silence since July 7.

(I'm pretty sure that this means he's still unemployed, because otherwise he'd announce it on the site, if only to attract media attention, because that would generate increased site traffic and more AdWords revenue for poor Mike and his wife.)

The whole thing is kind of heartbreaking, actually:  You can't help feeling sorry for Mike and his wife.

But here's the thing:   Feeling sorry for someone and wanting to hire them are pretty much mutually exclusive.  A tragic story might get you a pity date or even pity sex - but it's not going to get you a six-figure salary at a Big 5 consulting firm (typically the employers of choice for MBAs from US tier-1 schools).

And while the website was kind of a neat gimmick at first, now it just makes you think:  "This guy got huge media coverage - I mean, he got on Oprah for godssake - and he still hasn't landed a job in the past 5 months?  There must be something wrong with him."

I think I know what it is, too:  I'm 99% convinced that Mike is one of those stereotypical MBA types who're great at putting together 100-page PowerPoint decks complete with interactive diagrams but don't have an entrepreneurial bone on their bodies and think that getting an MBA from a good school was all the initiative they ever needed to take. 

(I'm assuming here that it was in fact Mike's wife who set up the site, and that it wasn't just a ruse.)

Why am I so sure Mike's just a plodder?

Because he's totally wasted this huge (HUGE!) opportunity.

Instead of squandering all the site traffic on faux-interview vaporware statements like "I think the culmination of my education and experience has put me in a great position to succeed immediately..." and poorly-written, virtually contentless blog entries like "Fun 4th Vacation on the cheap!", Mike could have used his 15 minutes of fame to establish a value proposition, a brand positioning - and probably even some consulting work!

As it is, he leaves you with the impression that he's just another clueless MBA who wouldn't know an ROI if it dropped on his head like a Hefty bag full of soup - and that of the two of them, it's his wife who's most likely to deliver value to your organization, because she's the one with ideas, initiative and moxy.

Um...tell us again why you just spent 700 words on this topic, Sarah...

Tragically, I have no idea.  I guess it's because in any given week, I see/hear from so many people who are out of work and doing what they think are all the right things in order to get a job, but just don't seem to be able to get past the preliminary interview stage.  And I know how upsetting, stressful and demoralizing the process can be.

But I also know that 99.99% of the time, gimmicks not only don't work, but also end up backfiring - leaving the job-seeker bewildered and bitter.

So I guess all I really wanted to say is this:  "If you're a job seeker, your #1 priority should be to build and maintain a personal brand.  Potential employers need to know exactly what value you bring to the table - and they don't have time to read 5 pages of copy on a website.  What effect(s) will the 'gimmick' you're considering have on your personal brand in the short- and long-term?  And remember that when it comes to getting a job, not all PR is good PR."

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Wednesday July 29th, 2009
Are You Your Workplace?

Seth Godin caught my attention this morning with a recent post on how one's workplace affects behavior and personality:

Your boss and your job determine not only what you do all day, but what you learn and who you interact with. Where you work is what you market. Work in a high stress place and you're likely to become a highly stressed person, and your interactions will display that. Work for a narcissist and you'll develop into someone who's good at shining a light on someone else, not into someone who can lead. Work for someone who plays the fads and you'll discover that instead of building a steadily improving brand, you're jumping from one thing to another, enduring layoffs in-between gold rushes. Work for a bully and be prepared to be bullied.

Having survived a bad job or two myself, I know just what he means. (There's a reason I know why I need to avoid certain work environments: past positions can be excellent aversion therapy.)

Recruiters and hiring managers often speak of finding a candidate with the right "fit" for the role and company. Yet how many candidates seriously examine whether a given position will be good for them not only in terms of career advancement and personal goals, but their stress levels, personal interactions, and overall happiness? It can be hard think of such long-term things -- especially when in need of a job. But such considerations can make the difference between landing a job you survive and a job you love.

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Monday July 27th, 2009
In poker, it's called a 'tell' (or, Don't Bite Your Nails In Interviews)

Last week I happened to overhear a post-interview conversation among 3 recruiters (one senior, one very senior, and one intermediate).

The position for which they were interviewing was a fairly senior HR role. The client was looking for a fairly rare combination of specific education, skills and experience, so the likely source of a candidate who met all the requirements was an intermediate HR practioner who could 'rise up' to the role.

They'd finally found a candidate who they thought was a good fit: She had the education, the skills and experience; in person, she was smart, engaging, and gave a good interview.

So how come all 3 recruiters came out of their interviews with her feeling reluctant about sending her to the client as a part of the candidate shortlist?

Her fingernails were bitten down to the quick.

Not just short, once-in-a-while bitten nails, but the hacked-up stumps surrounded by picked and scabrous skin of the serious nail biter.

The candidate hadn't actually bitten her nails during the interview, but she hadn't been able to keep herself from absent-mindedly picking the skin around her nails.

Besides being a big heap of yuck for the people trapped in a small room with her for 75 minutes, it raised some serious questions: How would this candidate perform under stress? Was this an indication that she just couldn't handle it? Was it just a habit, indicative of nothing, really?

And the all-important: Would the client be grossed out by her hands?

In the end she was added as a distant #3 on a shortlist, of which the client picked candidate #2, so it never came to the crunch.

We've all got nervous habits - 'tells', as they say in poker. But if yours is fingernail-related, you might want to consider trading it in on something less evident, like, say, touching the burners on the stove 4 times before leaving the house.

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Friday July 24th, 2009
REMINDER: Tell us your true recruiting tales

Don't forget to tell us your story!

We'll be publishing a selection of the best in early August.

(Seriously, where else can you rant about that unbelievably bad candidate/recruiter/interview you'll never forget? Because you've told your friends the story 3 times already - you need a new audience.)

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Thursday July 16th, 2009
Pepsi, Michael Jackson, and shocking footage: The direct result of bad HR

Yesterday, the blogosphere was alive with the 'previously unreleased' footage of Michael Jackson's hair catching on fire during the shooting of that infamous Pepsi commercial in 1984.

Last night, the Twitterverse was alive with comments like "I can't believe CNN showed that publicly - how the heck did Pepsi let that happen?"

By this afternoon, Pepsi was doing some major damage control, releasing a statement saying, "We don't know how the footage became available. Twenty-five years later, we'd question why anyone would want to share such frightening images....We don't know what that footage is. It's 25 years ago. We don't know who owns it, so we have no recourse as far as I know."

Well, I can tell you one thing, Ms Pepsi Spokesperson:  If you and your ad agency had a better employee retention and knowledge transfer strategy, you wouldn't be in this mess.

In 1984, no one was shooting behind-the-scenes videos on their cellphones.  The only person in a position to get this shot (directly behind MJ as he starts his routine at the top of the stage under the marquee) was one of the professional camera people from the production house your ad agency hired to shoot this commercial.

This commercial was a big, big deal for Pepsi:  They struck a record-breaking deal with the Jackson brothers (apparently they couldn't get Michael without buying all the others) whose $5 million pricetag set the stage for all the huge celebrity endorsements to follow.

Of course, Pepsi wasn't producing the commercial themselves; it was their ad agency, BBDO, who was responsible for the idea, producing the spot (using an outsourced production company), and managing the larger campaign.

Having worked in big ad agencies, I can tell you that a project of this magnitude - the whole thing had sparked a huge media frenzy even before MJ's hair caught on fire - would have been wrapped up tighter than a drum.  Access to the shoot and post-production would have been restricted, and all the footage would have been logged and accounted for.  Remember, this was shot on film - not just video - which is expensive to transfer.

For a whole lot of reasons, ad agencies archive all their old footage - not just the finished commercials, but the raw footage too.  Many production houses have whole divisions dedicated to archiving footage, and they charge agencies (and other clients) an annual fee to storing this stuff in secure, climate-controlled environments. 

This means that (a) all the MJ footage is living somewhere right now; and (b) someone at BBDO or Pepsi is getting an annual bill for storing it.

Which means that someone - and probably several someones - knew exactly where that footage has been all this time.

But the turnover at ad agencies is enormous:  The philosophy has long been that there are zillions of people dying to work at places like BBDO, so they work employees to death, pay them peanuts, and don't do much to retain employees.

And it's the junior employees - the ones who keep track of all the boring admin details, like where footage is stored - who are most likely to leave with minimal notice and without ever meeting their replacement, so knowledge transfer is sketchy at best.

Which is how companies like Pepsi can get blindsided by leaked footage, and why they haven't got a clue where it came from or how to plug the leak.

Another great example of how investing in HR is a long-term play.

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Tuesday July 7th, 2009
Summer Fun: True tales from the recruiting front lines

Which is why it's not surprising that we tend to accumulate a rich archive of 'Strange but True' stories from the recruiting front lines. Some stories are horrific, some heartwarming - and many are just downright hilarious.

With the summer vacation season upon us, July's a great time to kick back, relax, and talk about recruiting. From the fellow who put his name and phone number on a billboard to the one who used racial slurs in his cover letter, to some of the most brilliant and creative resumes we've seen, we'll be sharing some of our favourite recruiting stories.

And we'd like to hear yours, too!

Got a great recruiting story? Post it as a comment below or send it to us at sarah@head2head.ca (let us know if you'd like to stay anonymous!).

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Monday July 6th, 2009
Visual CV

Designer and illustrator Michael Anderson has posted a resume that provides key information about his job experience, education, primary skill sets, and areas of productivity -- all in graphic form.

Yes, we've seen a few of these before, but this one actually stood out as being a great example of his design skills. And the best part? While it certainly can't (or at least doesn't) replace or recreate the detail level of a properly written resume, this "infographic" CV is not only visually appealing but also clearly conveys the intended information. (I laughed when I saw the 2 AM drop in productivity coupled with the sharp spike in humor. It sounded all too familiar!)

Sure, it's hard to upload into an ATS and can't replace a properly written resume, but a "visual CV" is still a fun attention-grabber. It's good to see he's followed it up with a Word resume and a portfolio blog on his website.

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Friday July 3rd, 2009
Recessionary Fallout

There was an interesting article recently in the Globe and Mail looking at some of the possible long-term effects of the current recession on employment, company cultures, job development and other areas. I found the changes for young workers (the oft-discussed Gen Y) particularly of note.

[M]any young people I talk to have significantly, and resentfully, lowered their expectations. They didn't imagine themselves in this situation in their wildest dreams.

Nor did many others. Generation Y will be most affected by the cutbacks, downsizings and marked change in organizational cultures over the past few months, but the recession will take its toll on every generation's attitudes and expectations. The question is how long-lasting the reverberations will be in reshaping the way people think, feel and act toward work and their careers.

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Wednesday July 1st, 2009
Now Not to Recruit

There was a great post on blog The Anti-Pimp recently, 7 Things Recruiters Do That Irritate Me. I had to laugh -- so many of the things listed are complaints that I've heard from quite a few candidates myself.

So I started speaking to contractors that I know to see what other things irritate and annoy them -- sometimes to the point of refusing to work with a particular recruiter or company. In this far-from-scientific survey, I've spoken to a few IT consultants (business analyst, systems analyst, technical writer, and a programmer), as well as a contract HR specialist, a recruiter, a travel nurse, and a proposal writer.

Perhaps the most common complaint (and I've experienced this one a time or two myself!) is recruiters not listening to what the candidate is telling them -- whether it's about what sort of position would be a good fit, salary and compensation, or just that they're unavailable to talk at the moment.

A technical writer complained: "I was recently in the check-out line at the grocery store when a recruiter I'd been speaking to called back with some feedback from a recent interview. ... Despite the fact that I told him that no, this wasn't a good time, and could we please speak a little later (like when I'm not bagging groceries!), this guy just kept right on talking."

In addition to the rudeness of such situations, many also commented to the effect that if they can't trust a recruiter to respect that they are unavailable at the moment -- whether it's due to an important meeting or a family dinner -- how can they be sure that they'll listen to anything else?

But the complaint that surprised me was the idea of recruiters attempting to build rapport by talking about how hard it is to be a recruiter right now. I spoke to a nurse who frequently works with agencies for travel nursing positions. One of her worst experiences, she said, was with a recruiter whose skills were apparently not quite up to the recent challenges posed by the economic slowdown:

"Literally, about the first five or ten minutes we were talking, it was all about how hard her life was these days. How she used to have dozens of open jobs on the go at any one time, and now she only had one or two at a time -- if she was lucky. Better yet," the candidate added, "this recruiter actually told me that these days the candidates she sent rarely got interviews."

Not exactly a confidence-booster. (Not to mention unprofessional.) It can be great to build a personal rapport with candidates -- but that doesn't mean that recruiters should vent to their candidates, whether about job orders or a client, no matter how frustrating things can get.

Another concurred. "I don't see why recruiters are asking me to sympathize with them. You don't have lots of orders? Honey, I'm the one looking for a job."

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About the Authors

Paul Dodd
Co-founder and President
Head2Head Canada

Paul has one simple goal: To help companies hire great people - and get the most out of every recruiting dollar they spend. That's why he's recognized as one of the best recruitment-industry thinkers in Canada.

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