It always surprises my team when they come across a prospective candidate who is put-off or rude when a recruiter is calling to present an opportunity to them.  We sit back and wonder, if they realize that we are the gatekeepers of a potentially superior opportunity that could take their career to the next level.  What these candidates don’t realize is that although they can’t see the benefit in discussing new opportunities their compatriots and competitors do.  You can see in the poll below that nearly half of the executives surveyed are talking to recruiters, even when they are not actively looking.  Another thing to remember is that the recruiter calling you has likely spoken to many others in your exact position and may have valuable insights on happenings in the marketplace, engaging in a short conversation can be mutually valuable.  So next time you have the chance to speak with a headhunter make the most of it, if you don’t someone else will.

Poll Results

Ever had an awful boss? I’ll bet he or she had some or maybe most of these bad traits:

Control Junkie: Has a tough time truly delegating or letting go. Has an opinion about everything.

Being Right: Even if your boss is usually right, it feels bad to think that you are generally wrong.

Rude: Bosses too often fail to say please and thank you, and they don’t take the time for basic politeness.

Gives Blame / Takes Credit: Bad bosses take the credit for what goes right, and blame others for what goes wrong.

Bad Listener: Already formulating a response before you are done talking, because what you have to say doesn’t matter. Even worse, doesn’t even make a pretense of listening.

Withholding: Boss expects you to know and share everything he/she needs to know, but doesn’t tell you enough and keeps secrets.

Anger: Why are bad bosses so mad? Perhaps they don’t like themselves too much and see their own bad traits in others. In any case, bad bosses feel free to fling anger at you whenever they need to vent.

Kills Messengers: Tells you he wants to know things, but if it is bad news, or even not what he wanted to hear, jumps down your throat.

Win/Lose: Never read The 7 Habits (Covey) and doesn’t understand Win/Win and the art of compromise.

Negativity: Glass is half empty, and always has a reason that your ideas won’t work.

So to end on a positive note, I hope you have a boss who: Delegates well, appreciates input, is gracious, recognizes contributions, listens and hears you, communicates clearly and transparently, is even tempered, accepts bad news well, wants you to win too, and can always see the bright side.

Tags: anger, appreciate, bad boss, blame, communication, control, delegate, good boss, gracious, listening, negativity, optimism, recognition, win/lose, win/win

Does your job have you by the throat?  In the last decade, everyone in America has become more cautious, and people are sticking with jobs they don’t like, just out of a need for safety and security.  Productivity in the US is at an extremely high level, which means not only have people weathered the recession in less-happy companies, they are overworked too!

When we phone employed candidates and ask if they are open to exploring a change, we often get the knee-jerk response, “Oh, I’m very happy at my current company.”  When we probe for what is keeping them so happy, and once we establish a bit more rapport, the truth comes out – they aren’t really so happy.  BUT, they fear making a change, or life circumstances (kids in high school, elderly parents nearby) seem to prevent them from considering a change.

So, people continue to do things that don’t make them happy.  My philosophy as a recruiter is that part of my responsibility to open people up to alternatives – the idea that there could be something bigger, better, more challenging and more rewarding out there, if they allow themselves to see it.  My last blog (Violinist in the Subway) was about people not seeing talent easily enough.  The flip side is also true – people accept limitations too easily – within themselves, and coming from their life circumstances.

So the point of today’s post is to open up.  Loosen the “tie” that could be strangling you, and consider other possibilities.  Life is short.  Most people who do what makes them happy ending up thriving and succeeding at it.  Take chances.  Even if you think you are happy with the status quo, what if there is something out there that you don’t realize yet could make you even happier?

In considering different employment, until you ultimately say “yes,” you always have the power to say “no.”  So keep saying “maybe”  - until you have enough information to be sure the new isn’t better than the old.

Tags: new job, productivity, unhappy employees

Perhaps you have heard the story:  Internationally acclaimed concert violinist Joshua Bell once agreed to don street clothes and play his $3.5 million dollar Stradivarius violin in a Washington DC subway station, as a social experiment, sponsored by the Washington Post. (Watch the video on YouTube)

Lots of “what-iffing” and supposing was done in advance.  What if he is recognized and a huge crowd gathers?  What if he went unrecognized; wouldn’t people still recognize his extraordinary talent and the difficult pieces he was playing, and stop in their tracks to listen?

So what happened?  Bell played 6 difficult pieces, for a total of 43 minutes.  No one applauded after the pieces ended.  A crowd never gathered.  A very small number of people recognized Bell, and commented to him, but didn’t really linger.  He collected $32.17 in his open violin case, but included in that was a $20 that one admirer gave him.  By the way, Bell took a cab back and forth to his hotel, not because he’s lazy, but to protect the valuable violin.

Sadly, talent often goes unrecognized.  There are too many good singers, dancers and actors to fill the available roles on Broadway and in film.  Too many good writers to fill the pages that fit on the dwindling bookshelves of the world.  And, in business, too many people who can do a great job that will never be discovered by the companies at which they apply.

Many if not most hiring managers do not work to discover whether someone can do the job.  They trust their gut, operate off of superficial first impressions, or even worse, use keywords to sort through resumes, and never even talk to people.  This is why hiring has never become more accurate.  Today, you have about a 57% chance that a new hire will succeed, little better than flipping a coin.  There are ways to discover the talent in a candidate, but they take a little work.  You have to ask relevant questions, then be attentive if “the music” (the person’s true capabilities) starts to play.

Hiring managers are out of their element in interviewing – it is not what they do best.  The few companies that do give their executives training in this discipline benefit greatly with better hires.  So, stop an listen to the music that just might be playing in your reception area, and find the virtuosos.

Tags: hiring, joshua bell, talent, violinist in subway, washington post

One of the most critical factors in evaluating a candidate’s work history is how/why they left previous jobs.  As a recruiter, how you ask the question, and how you receive the answer, will impact the accuracy and completeness of the information you receive.  Questions about departures must be asked without bias – don’t word the question to presume either a voluntary or forced departure.

Never say “Why did you leave Company A?”  By using the word “leave”, you imply that the candidate made the choice to depart.  This presumption gives the candidate an opening to provide all sorts of truthful info about things that were lacking at Company A, but may completely conceal the real truth –  that the candidate was actually let go.

It is better to ask “What were the circumstances of your departure from Company A?”  A quick and straightforward answer to this is a somewhat reliable indicator of truth:  “I was in the third round of a series of layoffs;”  “A new President came in and changed out the management team;”  “I saw the writing on the wall that the company was declining in sales and might close my facility, so I started looking and found Company B before the layoffs happened.”  These are “clean” responses.  Even such straightforward answers still invite a bit more scrutiny, though.  So if a candidate says that new management brought in a new team, I ask how many executives were change; for what reasons; and were they all let go at once.  Upon probing this response, you may often find that this particular person was the only one let go within a particular year!

Beware of responses like “It was a mutual decision.”  It never is.  Mutual means the boss wanted this person out.  Also beware of “I resigned.”  Why? What was happening to cause you to resign?  Were you asked to resign?  Did you get a severance package?  Many resignations are mere formalities or simple word-smithing to cover up a firing.

The way in which you probe for more answers is important.  If you ask in a confrontational or adversarial  manner, the candidate may clam up and be evasive.  If you ask in a collaborative way, assuring the candidate that you are seeking to help them, they may be more open.  I use phrases like, “Help me to understand better how….”, and “The employer will really want to understand this.  Let’s discuss how best to explain your circumstances.”

When candidates get defensive, I see it as a red flag that the actual situation was probably even worse than what they are describing to me.  When there are inconsistencies, and I find myself saying, “A minute ago I thought I heard you say….”, the candidate usually can’t recover.

If you are seasoned in recruiting, your gut will tell you when you have a good story and when you don’t.  Whether in-house or third party, every recruiter owes it to the hiring manager to get an accurate picture of the candidate’s history, and present that with complete transparency, so the hiring manager can make a sound decision.

Tags: fired, layoff, leaving jobs, previous job, quit, resigned, work history