A job seeker asked The Boston Globe's Job Doc for help dealing with 'we only hire Ivy Leaguers no matter what' HR recruiters.

I have blogged before about Nick Corcodilos and his book Ask the Headhunter – I can’t recommend this book enough to job hunters and am most thankful to my friend David White who first directed me to it. Nick’s new book will help you work effectively with headhunters, too.

Nick doesn’t mince words when it comes to HR recruiters: you should avoid them, to the extent possible. Instead, connect directly with the hiring manager and “do the job in the interview.” Ask the Headhunter tells you how. Do that and you’re home free…right?

I hope Nick doesn’t stroke out from this recent question posed on the Job Doc section of the Boston Globe website (also appeared in the August 9 Boston Sunday Globe). In a nutshell, the fellow of a think tank organization has an opening for an assistant. He knows who he wants to hire. He has worked with the candidate before. The candidate has a strong work and academic record. Not so fast…

None of this, however, negates their HR department’s top-ranked snobbishness. They would rather hire an Ivy Leaguer with a degree in something completely different. They do not even entertain applications from lower-ranked schools. This fellow has gone through four assistants in three years because his HR people keep giving him Ivy League grads who are experts in other fields. The position involves actual skills (lots of math) that a philosophy major from Harvard can’t learn on his/her own.

I am not the entitled type, but this is bordering on ridiculous…We both anticipate this being a problem but don’t know how to approach it.

Actually this situation has crossed well beyond the border of ‘ridiculous’ into the hinterlands of ‘absurdity.’

Boston Globe Job Doc Pattie Hunt Sinacole did not comment on the on-its-face absurdity of a recruiting department declaring veto power over  a hiring manager. She did recommend a written plan spelling out in polished, meticulous detail, everything from the candidate’s competence and work samples to a plan of the first 90 days on the job. I think Pattie’s recommendation is a very good one, with just one extra step: the hiring manager must be willing and able to take that written plan and, if need be, walk it over to the VP of Human Resources or, better yet, the CFO, and get that employment offer letter signed. It’s up to this think tank fellow, the hiring manager, to go to the mat to get a competent assistant, not a fifth unqualified Ivy Leaguer.

While this example likely runs contrary to the conduct and ethics of most HR professionals, it raises the question as to the role recruiters should play in the hiring process. I have been fortunate to work with several highly qualified and professional HR leaders over the years and they too cringe when their field of expertise is tarnished with such incompetent, elitist behavior. 

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Source: evo_terra (Flickr)

I recently came across CornOnTheJob.com, a blog by Philadelphia-based headhunter Rich DeMatteo. Helping job seekers with good advice is important to Rich, as it is to me, and I enjoyed visiting Rich’s blog. Rich just posted on a topic that was on my on-deck circle: job candidates “thinking outside the box” to gain attention. There are definitely many job seekers acting “outside the box”…but I’m not so sure these folks were “thinking.”

The Boston Globe did a very good piece on “outside the box” (more like ”beyond the pale,” unfortunately) job seekers making spectacles of themselves, including, among others, Pasha Stocking of Connecticut who blew $2,500 for her “HIRE ME!” billboard that earned the “odd news” type of national media attention…but no job opportunities.

Since that Globe article, others have joined this group of job hunters gaining attention, but not the “good” kind of attention that will land them a job. Chances are you have heard of one Trina Thompson, who has sued the college she graduated from seven short months ago because she remains unemployed. Now we can all agree this is the worst public spectacle attention a job candidate can get. Rich gives Thompson a well deserved dressing-down along with some good common-sense advice that Trina Thompson should have done already (join LinkedIn, look into a resume writing professional, etc.). The Onion sums up Thompson’s hapless lawsuit with suitable irreverence. Litigious mediocrity is not a good personal brand to embrace, Trina…

But Rich DeMatteo and I have agreed to disagree on the virtue of an ”outside the box” tactic by Sean Christman, a recent La Salle graduate.

Rich wrote: ”On Wednesday, July 22, Sean found himself wearing his finest suit, standing on the median of a busy Philadelphia street (presumingly during rush hour), holding copies of his resume for passing cars.” Rich gave Sean a “brilliant” thumbs up for his gambit and vowed to connect with Sean Christman for an interview. I can certainly understand Rich going to bat for a fellow Philly kid trying to hustle up something - anything – even if it’s randomly passing out his resume to passing motorists.

I suggest Sean’s tactic actually falls more into the category of “inside the box” job searching than it does an “outside the box” negative attention-grab (but I think it was that too).  Sean’s tactic is basically just a more public, visible version of a conventional wisdom, “inside the box” job search: Send your resume to every company and online job board possible. There are, unfortunately, scores of frustrating job seeker stories that begin with “Joe/JoAnne sent hundreds of resumes to employers and job boards, without one response…” As posted elsewhere here, wide distribution of resumes is not a job search strategy – it’s tanamount to buying lottery tickets; and the days of sending out 100 resumes to get seven of them turning into interviews and one job offer simply doesn’t work anymore.

If passing out resumes, be it via email to company websites and job boards en masse, or given to strangers driving by on a busy street, is an “inside the box” job search, and resorting to spectacle “outside the box” tactics will give you attention, but not the kind that will help get a job, what’s left?  I suggest the answer lies in building a better box.

As an example, I would like to point to fellow Bentley University alum Jayna Dinsmore, whose job search after a major company layoff 10 months ago has taken her on a round trip that has happily culminated in a new job.

Jayna tried to “build a better box” through asserting herself as an expert in the effective use of social media for business. Jayna launched a blog on the subject, Little Miss Social Media, in tandem with active networking efforts, including co-founding the Bentley Success Network (which is how I met Jayna).

Jayna also offered her marketing services to the New England Job Show, a new experiment in which job seekers shoot an ePitch, or a 30 second video of their elevator pitch, at a Chelmsford, Mass. local cable TV access studio.  The ePitches were then featured with the other segments in the show and distributed throughout several towns and cities in MA & NH, Comcast OnDemand and online on YouTube and their blog. Now Jayna, as Social Media Integrator, and the founders of New England Job Show did get substantial media coverage, including interviews by Associated Press, the Boston Globe and others, and even a live Fox & Friends interview. However, none of that media attention was of the variety that might translate into any job opportunity.

What didhelp Jayna finally hit paydirt was leading a free seminar to Bentley Alumni: a hands-on intro to using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. A fellow Bentley alum and former colleague of Jayna’s saw that she was teaching an intro to social media class and got in touch with her to discuss launching his social media offering…resulting in a job offer. Best of all, Jayna tells me the job she accepted is her ideal job; “the one that I envisioned as being an ideal fit for me long before I knew this opportunity ever existed.” Well done, Jayna!

Bottom line, there is good, bad and ugly attention job seekers can draw to themselves. The “bad” or even “ugly” attention might get you your 15 minutes of fame (infamy?) on TV but that’s about it. “People say, ‘Hey, you’re famous [for your 'HIRE ME!' billboard],’ Pasha Stocking told the Globe. “Yeah, I’m famous. I’m famously unemployed.”

The “good” kind of attention is the kind that earns you recognition as an authority, an expert, a go-to person in your field. Networking, blogging, presenting, personal branding, “doing the job in your interview“…will earn you that “good” attention.

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Which of the following interview questions did I just make up: “How would you move Mount Fuji?” “Which do you know more about: Treasure Island, Gilligan’s Island, or Fantasy Island ?” “A plane crashes on the US-Canada border. Where do they bury the bodies?” “If you were a can of soup cheesecake, what kind would you be?”

Answer: The ‘island’ question. I adapted it on an online list of questions from The Newlywed Game (the soup cheesecake question could just as easily have come from that classic game show too. If you are ever asked this question, it had better be for a contest – as seen in the PR blog The Decoder).

Now, not all HR recruiters ask such off-the-wall interview questions, deploy tactics like the “stress interview,” act argumentatively, or even treat job candidates downright rudely. Alas, many do. In that case, I’d certainly understand if a candidate was to respond a la Stephen Wright.

Better yet, show the hiring manager directly the compelling work value you will provide. So says Nick Corcodilos, former headhunter and author of the book Ask the Headhunter: Reinventing the Interview to Win the Job.  I owe some serious thanks to my friend David White, a business intelligence researcher for Aberdeen Group, for referring me to this book very early in my layoff-induced job search. If you feel like you’re banging your head against the wall getting nowhere in your job search, read this book.

In a nutshell, Nick Corcodilos says to stop responding to online ads and posting your resume online (Hear! Hear!), don’t focus on landing as many interviews as possible, and instead focus on winning the right job by demonstrating your ability to do the job profitably in the interview. Notice how the HR recruiting department is conspicuously absent from this process. But that’s not all: you must replace the “I’m looking for a job” mindset in an interview with “I’m here to get the work you need done profitably.” You’re not there to “get a job,” but to “do the job in the interview.” Of course, Nick Corcodilos goes into all the details to make this new, winning job search approach a reality.

The April 13, 2009 Fortune magazine cover story, “How to Get a Job” (Rich media or HTMLversion – Enjoy! Well worth reading in full!) by Jia Lynn Yang, featured a success story that reads like an Ask the Headhunter case study:

Halfway through the [final] meeting, [recently laid-off 55 year old salesman Rob] Sparno and the manager started discussing how to target a client Sparno had worked with before. The manager went up to the whiteboard to throw out some ideas, and Sparno leaped up to join him, until the two were standing shoulder to shoulder, markers in hand, batting strategies back and forth (p.51).

Mr. Rob Sparno, having prepared relentlessly before the interview, successfully “did the job in his interview,” and yes, he landed his lucrative sales job.

The same Fortune article also underscores the sad reality of many job hunters spinning their wheels, struggling through sweaty, mass-of-humanity “job fairs,” sending out hundreds of resumes. “That’s not looking for a job; that’s buying a lottery ticket.” (p. 52)

Instead of buying job search lottery tickets, so to speak, get a job search business plan, namely Nick Corcodilos’ Ask the Headhunter book. His Ask the Headhunter website is a treasure trove of valuable information and forum for fellow job hunters fed up with old school HR recruiting interviews. Check out Nick Corcodilos’ blog, too, particularly if you are considering joining TheLadders.com!

By the way, if you have read this far, I’ll wager you would strongly approve of this response to that mother of all off-the-wall interview questions, “How would you move Mount Fuji?”

UPDATE: I just traded emails with author Nick Corcodilos, a very nice guy. The 2007 post featuring a hilarious response to the Mount Fuji HR question (linked above, written by “Mr. Angry” of Melbourne, Australia) scored very high for Nick — see Nick’s post. ”Good on you, Mr. Angry!”

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I would urge everyone to network their way to their next job. I think applying to online job postings and posting your resume online is, with rare exception, a waste of time. If you happen to see a job featured online that looks interesting, try to leverage your network to connect directly with the hiring manager. LinkedIn Advanced People Search is a great resource to identify those hiring managers.

Be active, energetic and enthusiastic in networking groups. Seek out professional associations in your field of work; they are out there. Offer to help others however you can and follow through on it. Avoid any networking groups where it seems like unemployed people commiserate more than anything else.

Print out good quality business cards, ideally with something unique to them: perhaps your photo, an interesting “tagline” describing who you are – don’t just use a plain cookie-cutter template. Exchange cards whenever possible and write relevant notes and follow-up reminders on them.

I also found blogging to be an excellent way to stand out and convey your genuine interest and enthusiasm for your work and career and stand out in the job market and stay in contact touch with your network. I found the book by Bentley alum Dan Schawbel, Me 2.0, and his blog (www.danschawbel.com) as well as the blog of marketing author David Meerman Scott (www.webinknow.com) all to be very helpful to get started.

I will elaborate on these ideas in future entries. If you have wrapped up a successful job search, what worked for you? Does any of my advice not ring true to you, based on your experience? Please leave a comment and have your say!

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Just to be clear, this is NOT effective networking! (Source: University of Melbourne, Australia)

Without networking, I never would have found this job, or another offer for an appealing extended consulting opportunity which I respectfully turned down. I was not one of hundreds of resumes in someone’s inbox. Neither opportunity was advertised anywhere. In fact, the opportunities were not even fully defined yet when I first explored them. 

If I did not have my network which I initiated before I was laid off, if I had not cultivated my network with new contacts after I was laid off, I would still be unemployed.  It’s that critical.

Holland-Mark CEO Chris Colbert led a thought-provoking presentation at last week’s Bentley University Success Network meeting which I believe inspired attendees to build and nurture their networks.  Effective networking is made possible by your personal brand (Brand U); who you are and what makes you unique (what Chris refers to as your One Simple Thing).  Chris’ presentation was recorded and should be available on the Bentley University website soon (stay tuned). 

I spoke yesterday with Chris about his presentation and dug a little deeper on how job searchers predisposed to introverted behavior might be at a disadvantage, as they might be more reticient or even shy about approaching others and developing a network to succeed in their job search.  The bottom line is clear: Not networking is not an option.  But introverts out there who bristle at the thought of getting out there and networking should take heart: Networking is not about winning a popularity contest or using phony flattery to manipulate others to help you.  At its core, networking is all about being authentic. 

Read on for my chat with Chris Colbert.  I hope you find it helpful.

Mike Urbonas:  You led a very outgoing and engaging talk at the Bentley University Success Network, and yet, you said something like, “This is all an act; I’m actually an introvert by nature.”  I think a lot of people can relate to that and unwittingly hold themselves back due to introverted tendencies.  How did you break through it and get past it? 

Chris Colbert:  I think there were two factors.  First, I always had the benefit of being responsible for other people who worked for me.  With the exception of three years, throughout my career I have always been head of my own company and knew that development of new business was the company’s life blood.  I had to reach out to as many new businesses as possible, develop new business, and in so doing, make payroll.  A lot of people working for me counted on me to do this.  Really, it’s a case of sink or swim; if you have to swim to save your life, you’re going to learn how to swim. 

I also came to realize that introversion is a fear-based emotion; a fear of rejection or failure.  People must resolve to do whatever they personally have to in order to overcome it.  They simply must reach out to as many people as they possibly can.

MU:  Networking has always been vitally important for the job search, but it seems to me that’s never been truer than it is right now.

CC:  I’ve never seen a market like this before.  The old models and methods, not only for job searching, but also for business itself, aren’t working anymore.  The “one size fits all” model for job searching is over.  Sending out 100 resumes with the plan of seven of them turning them into interviews and one job offer doesn’t work anymore.  I wonder how many people at the Bentley Success Network event still hold onto that old model of job seeking.  It’s stunning to me how many people don’t have a network.  Even I struggle to network sufficiently, at the high level I think is essential in this market.

MU: I suppose some people look at others’ LinkedIn profiles and see people with “500+” connections, but it’s often obvious many of these are trying to just bulk up their connection count, without really knowing who those people are.

CC: Right.  It’s definitely not just the size of the network, but how you engage with your network: with authenticity, not just as an overt asking for help; that is, networking with authenticity and just not out of desperation.

MU: What role does blogging and other online communication tools play in interacting with your network with authenticity?

CC: I think blogging is an excellent networking resource; an excellent way to offer value to others.  When I am writing my blog, I always do so with the hope my posts will help someone out there.  (NOTE: Link to Chris Colbert’s blog here.) In fact, I have two blog entries in progress but I haven’t published them yet, because my thoughts aren’t quite together on the topics sufficiently, in my opinion, to be of real value to the reader.  So, I took a break to organize my ideas better, to ensure they are of real value to others before I publish them.  It’s that important.

In a related question from the Bentley event, a person asked me, “How frequently should I follow up with someone?”  I think you should follow up as often as you have content that may be of interest and benefit to them.  Really, it is essential to be of value and help to others.  Doing so requires a high level of intellectual and creative engagement.

I also think it is well worth becoming an expert with LinkedIn.  It seems like an incredible tool to affect new relationships.  The common perception is that introverts are more methodical and analytical.  I don’t know how true that may be, but if it is, introverts might possibly be more adept at understanding the nuances and special features of LinkedIn to help cultivate communicating with other people.

MU:  Okay.  Suppose someone out there is reading this and agrees with everything you have said so far, both from your talk and from our conversation here.  They want to turn over a new leaf, overcome any introverted tendencies, and develop an authentic network.  How should they start?

CC:  There is no one silver bullet to it.  But I would definitely like people to recognize that today is the first day of the rest of your networking life.  Therefore, your task is to create value for everybody you meet and you will eventually, just naturally, get value back.

I’d like to give one little example.  I genuinely appreciate the hard work of the guys who work at the parking garage where I work. I have always made it a point to let them know that when I talk with them.  Recently they went way above and beyond to help me with parking a friend’s car in a safe place while he was away.  To say they helped me out is an understatement.

Now, I am appreciative of those guys not because I ever expected anything from them; that’s not authentic.  Instead, it’s about committing to live in such a way that you just want to give help and value to everyone else, whether that be genuine respect and appreciation or help with some specific situation or offering information of value to others.

People should be fully aware that literally every single engagement with everybody everywhere is a potential opportunity, whether personal or professional.  The guy at the gas station, the lady the next pew over in church — there is no real difference today between your personal and professional life in your network.  If you engage with everyone authentically it will repay you.  That may be the best news for introverted people: networking is not about disingenuous glad-handing.  It’s really about authenticity in every single interaction with people.  And you have to begin with that core mindset in order for your networking efforts to take hold and prosper.

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I was honored yesterday (Tuesday, June 2) to serve as facilitator/host of a panel discussion during the Bentley University Success Network featuring four search firm professionals discuss how to find a “good” professional recruiter and work effectively with him or her, as well as how to stand out in today’s difficult job market.

I would like to express my great appreciation to the panelists:

• Judy Dumont, Sally Silver Companies
• Jon Mahoney, Hollister
• Steve Mazur, Accountants International
• Peter Wollford, Kforce

Here are a few highlights of the panel discussion…

• A good professional recruiter will take the time to meet with you face to face and work with you to understand what you want in your next job.
• Referrals are an excellent means through which you can find a good recruiter. Ask co-workers and colleagues who they have worked with in the past.  Ask colleagues working  in the kind of jobs you are looking for who placed them in their job.
• Good recruiters will also give you direct and honest feedback on your resume, your self-presentation, personal appearance, etc. If a recruiter offers such advice, don’t take the (constructive) criticism personally! Take it to heart and act upon it.
• Conversely, a good job candidate will proactively ask a recruiter for this kind of feedback, eager to act on it.  They will also be up front with a recruiter, being honest as to their interest level in a presented opportunity.
• Leverage the recruiter’s working relationship with employers.  The “good” recruiters will have cultivated strong relationships with many employers over many years and as a result of many past successful hires. Don’t be afraid to ask the recruiter if they have heard of a certain job from XYZ Company that you are aware of .  Once job candidates send in a resume on their own, however, there is little a recruiter can do, as the candidate is now a direct contact, and in this economy is now one of hundreds of other resumes for that job.
• Throughout the discussion, I noted all four recruiters emphasized the importance of cultivating long term relationships with job candidates, continuing even after that candidate lands a job. Look for that commitment from recruiters you meet with.

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Of course, being an optimist also tends to come in rather handy for product marketers and managers, not to mention fellow job searchers amid this economy!

I have just built out a new Publications and Presentations page, including my writing samples, presentations, byline articles, and articles written for Productivity, the Boston Product Management Association (BPMA) e-newsletter. I have also added some articles, written by others, which I solicited for publication in Productivity. This includes a very practical article on Optimism: The Hidden Asset by author Bruna Martinuzzi, and more.

As for the glass debate: While an optimist will say the glass is half full, the pessimist will say the glass is half empty, I have concluded that the product manager and product marketer will conclude revealing research and effectively message that the glass is 50% 2x too large, resulting in the smaller glass that customers really want, cutting production costs and improving margins! You GO, product marketers and managers!

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Recently David Meerman Scott featured 20-something author – and fellow Bentley University alum – Dan Schawbel on his blog. Although just starting out in his post-Bentley career, Dan Schawbel has already racked up some impressive accolades old 40-something guys like me would be very proud of. He has positioned himself as a personal branding expert, with a self-branding blog and magazine, and now a brand new book hot on the shelves: Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success.

I can vouch for the value of Dan’s advice in his book, not to mention his wise advice in his free e-book Blogging Your Brand (PDF), which I have found indispensible as I get this blog, and in so doing, my own personal brand, off the ground.

David Meerman Scott’s discussion with Dan Schawbel is well worth reading in its entirety. A few specific comments from Dan Schawbel I found of particular personal interest follow:

Most people my age are afraid to take risks, we’re given the same traditional advice in college that is not as applicable anymore and don’t embrace their age in the first place [now that surprised me, I thought kids these days were fearless!-MU]…The sooner young professionals start holding themselves accountable for their career, the better off they will be. In my new book, Me 2.0, the major theme is this idea of “commanding your career,” where you take charge, instead of relying on your company, parents or teachers to guide you (although mentorship is important)…

Personal branding is how we market ourselves to others. Each and every one of us has a brand because we are constantly being judged based on first impressions…

Personal brands own their reputation, and that reputation is transferable between companies [my emphasis added - I think this is a critical point worthy of further exploration].

I will have much more to write about personal branding, and look forward to connecting with Dan Schawbel directly soon. The portability of one’s personal brand when someone leaves a company is especially interesting to me, as someone who is actively seeking a new career opportunity amid a tough economy!

What do you think about the whole concept of personal branding? Has personal branding helped your career? What individuals and their accompanying personal brands do you find especially interesting, helpful, inspiring?

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