Magic Pot of Jobs

So was that title confusing enough? Jason Alba makes some very thoughtful points about follow-up from recruiters and what expectations everyone should have of each other during the process. The commenters make some excellent counter-points as well.

The thing that struck me as I was reading through the whole thing is this idea that returning a phone call or email is a “basic courtesy” and that when it doesn’t happen, someone isn’t getting something they’re entitled to. While I agree that returning phone calls and emails is a nice, even courteous thing to do, I find myself disagreeing very strongly that a response to an unsolicited phone call or email is actually all that basic a courtesy to which everyone is entitled.

I mean, think about it. Do you return the call of every telemarketer or sales person who leaves a message in your voicemail? I know you don’t respond to every unsolicited email you get. We all- jobseeker, recruiter, and everyone else- return calls when we think that doing so is a good use of our time. That’s not rude; it’s just practical.

That’s not to say that we’ll only return calls in order to directly and immediately benefit ourselves (although that’s certainly how some people return messages), it’s just that we all make choices about how to respond to phone calls and emails in the way that makes the most sense for our personal priorities, whatever those may be.

So how can you give yourself the best chance of being a caller/emailer that’s on the priority list if you’ve never worked with me before? Here are a few tips that will help you get on my personal priority list. I suspect these tips will help you with other recruiters, too:

- Give me complete information. I get random messages all the time from people whose voicemail just says, “My name is John Smith. I’m looking for a job. My telephone number is 555-1212.” I have a very specialized recruiting practice, so the simple fact that you’re looking for a job doesn’t actually help me all that much. All that message does is tell me that you’re a poor communicator. It’s not the way to get a call back from me. “My name is John Smith, and I’m a [web designer/plumber/forklift driver/salesperson] looking for a new job. My number is…” will increase your chances of getting a call back from me, even if what you do isn’t what I do. Maybe I happen to know someone who needs forklift drivers.

- Make sure that I can actually get your contact information from the message. That means you should repeat the number, slowly and clearly, at least twice, and spread it out in a couple of places in the message. If I have to sit there and puzzle out whether you said “five” or “nine,” you’re probably not getting a call back. This goes double if you’re calling from a cell phone, which have a tendency to cut out right at a critical moment, like while you’re leaving me your number.

- Tell me who/what referred you. People referred to me by a colleague or friend will always get their calls returned faster. Even if you’re calling because you heard my company’s ad on the radio, I’m still more likely to call you back than if you hadn’t told me that. After all, I’ve heard those ads too, and I know what kind of response they’re supposed to elicit. If you call me based on those ads, I’ve got at least an educated guess about how I can help you.

- Be articulate and use proper English. The person who sends me an unsolicited resume with “hi i was told send my resume to you” isn’t getting a response. Sorry. I don’t have to have perfect comma usage from everyone, and I can certainly be understanding about English not being your first language, but if English is your native language, there’s no excuse for not using complete sentences.

One other thing, while we’re on the topic of priorities. While I do need to talk to job seekers in order to fill my open jobs and in that way our priorities are aligned, your job search is never going to be as high priority to ME as it is to YOU. After all, it’s your paycheck at stake, not mine. I have to develop a candidate pool in order to be successful in the long term, but as others have correctly stated, my immediate priority is the jobs on my desk, while your immediate priority is getting a job for YOU. So if you aren’t hearing back from me right away, by all means call again. If your call doesn’t mesh with my priorities one day, it might a week later, but by then I might be working on so much other stuff that I don’t remember your call. So try a couple of times before giving up on a recruiter- we generally try at least a couple of times before giving up on a candidate, after all.

Please tell me that I’m not the only person who understands that the “video resume” isn’t going to take off anytime soon. There are several important reasons for this:

1. Most people read faster than people can talk. So while it might take me a minute to give your two page resume a good once-over, it will take me at least 5-10 to listen to you drone on about your qualifications. (This is also why I don’t listen to podcasts or watch video blogs.)

2. You know how most people aren’t that great at public speaking? Being good in front of the camera is even harder. The idea of having to sit through even 10 video resumes to fill a job fills me with enough dread to give up the idea of being a recruiter if they ever become that commonplace.

3. Um, hi, discrimination laws? Companies aren’t allowed to ask for photographs of applicants (except in the performing arts), and conscientious HR departments are really careful about avoiding anything that could be perceived as discriminatory. I think a lot of those HR departments don’t want to see what you look like until you’ve walked in the door for your interview. Video resumes represent a lot of hassle that HR people don’t want to deal with.

For all its shortcomings and faults, there’s a reason we’ve had the paper resume for as long as we have. It’s fast, it’s generally not filled with a bunch of dorky “ums” and “ahs”, and it’s hard to discriminate against text on a page.

I have a former coworker who remains my Language buddy- that is, she’s the person I check with when I’m stuck on a word, or the appropriate phrase, or other such English language quandary. Hence, we had the following email exchange:

From: Tiffany Bridge
To: Language Buddy
Subject: I’m blanking.

What’s the noun form of “conform?” I’m sure it’s not “conformance,” like on this resume I just got, but it has snuck into my brain and is blocking the correct word.

From: Language Buddy
To: Tiffany Bridge

Conformity?

Conformance is just odd adherence would probably be better anyway.

Apparently conformance is a word though:

A relation between two types that serves as the basis of subtyping. Conformance relies on messages understood (ie, the object’s interface), not the internal representation or inheritance hierarchy.
www.stanford.edu/class/cs242/readings/vocabulary.html

To: Language Buddy
From: Tiffany Bridge

Hah. I’m pretty sure that’s not what this dude meant by “conformance to brand identity.”I think I will amuse myself this afternoon by coming up with as many incorrect nouns for “conform” as I can. Conformalization, conformervescence, conforma-lama-ding-dong…

From: Language Buddy
To: Tiffany Bridge

I think he tried to combine adherence to brand identity and conformed to brand identity standards, but I like conforma-lama-ding-dong. I’d read a resume that had that on it.

When a candidate sends you his resume at 9:28 AM on the first day back from a long holiday weekend, and then sends a follow up message the very same day at 4:30 PM to ask if you got it and ask for a response, is it totally out of line to reply with:

“Yes, thank you, I did receive it but haven’t had a chance to look at it yet. I do try to give helpful advice to as many people as I can, however. So you might like to know that generally 24 hours is the minimum amount of time one should let pass before following up on a resume submission. Anything less is more like stalking than follow-up.”

I’m putting it here so I don’t write it in the email. You see, Internet? You are better than therapy.

Several years ago a read an article which said that people who write down their personal and professional goals and refer to the list on a regular basis are more likely to achieve their goals than people who don’t do so. After reading that article, I tried it. I made a list of 5 personal and professional goals one January and I taped the list to my bathroom mirror. I saw that list every morning. I achieved 4 of the 5 goals by the end of the year. And I made progress toward the fifth goal. I started doing that annually and every year I achieved the goals I set for myself. In 2006 I didn’t make a list of goals and I have to say that must have made a mistake in not listing my goals because I don’t feel like I accomplished enough last year.

So, now I am in the process of putting together a list of goals that I plan to achieve this year. I think of goals as New Years resolutions in the form of measurable steps that I can work toward. Resolutions shouldn’t be a “wish list” of things we want to do but may or may not achieve because not achieving our goals and can be discouraging and depressing. Create your New Years resolutions as a list of goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, and trackable.

For example, one year I set a goal to save $10,000 in a year. That was easy to track and measure during the course of the year. I divided 10,000 by 12 months and realized that I would need to save $834 per month. I bought Quicken and tracked my spending, created a budget, cut spending, and achieved my savings goal.

I know a lot of people who make New Years Resolutions to “lose weight”, “spend more time with my spouse” ,”get a promotion at work”, or “get a new job”. I think if you are serious about achieving goals its a good idea to track your progress toward the goal. To do that it is helpful if you can make your goals specific. So, instead of resolving to “lose weight in 2007″ you might, instead, set a goal of losing 20 pounds in 2007. You can divide the 20 pounds by 52 weeks and adjust your calorie intake or workouts accordingly. I think its much easier to keep yourself on track that way. And, you can reward yourself for your small wins along the way to achieving the larger goal.

If your goal is to “get a promotion” you might break the larger goal into smaller tasks based upon the steps you need to take to achieve the larger goal. For example, you may need to pass a certification test or take on more responsibility at work in order to be considered for the promotion you desire. If that is the case, set several goals that will lead you to the desired end result of the promotion.

I find it helpful to set goals that encompass both my personal life and my professional life because neither is independent of the other. If, for example, one of your goals is to “spend more time with my spouse”, you might consider setting a specific amount of additional time you want to spend with your spouse. Or you might think about what activities you envision your spouse and yourself participating in together and set those as goals. For example, you could set a goal to “go to dinner and a movie with my spouse once each weekend.” That is easy to conceptualize, to track, and to achieve.

For those of you who plan to find a new job in 2007 you should break down the job search process into steps and set a date by which you plan to complete each step. In an earlier post I created a list of 10 New Years resolutions for serious job seekers. Those could be helpful as you think about what you will need to do to find a new job in 2007.

Make sure that you stay focused and don’t get discouraged if you don’t meet all of your goals on time. The process of creating a your list of goals, setting milestones, and referring to it frequently will help you to accomplish more than if you hadn’t take the time to articulate your goals at all. Try it. It really works.

Happy New Year!

Liz Handlin, Ultimate Resumes LLC, © copyright 2007

http://ultimate-resumes.blogspot.com/

This CollegeRecruiter.com Blogswap article is courtesy of Recruiting.com at http://www.Recruiting.com and CollegeRecruiter.com at http://www.CollegeRecruiter.com , a leading site for college students and recent graduates who are searching for internships and entry level jobs.

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