Business

I’ve recently interviewed our featured recruiter Michelle Owens (a recruiting expert in the local Puget Sound area) with Xtreme Consulting. The focus of our interview is “What’s changed in the job market recently and why is it so hard to get a job today?” This information and more is shared in our Career Search 2.0 Seminar twice a month.

Q. Tell me a little about yourself. How long have you been recruiting?

5 years. I started in this industry as a vendor at Microsoft where I was a Recruiting Coordinator. My next role was at Starbucks Corporation, where I met great candidates and worked with an amazing team. I actually left Starbucks because I received a call from a colleague who had left Microsoft to move over to Xtreme and wanted me to join the team. I had never worked for a smaller company before but I loved what I heard about Xtreme, what they were doing, and the way they treated their employees, so I decided to make the move as well. It is by far the best decision I have ever made – the owners of the company place so much value on every employee, have an open door policy at all times, and really allow people to grow in their careers – they are extremely supportive. The thing I probably love most about recruiting is that I have the chance to meet fascinating people every day and learn so much by doing so. I love finding candidates the perfect position and seeing the excitement on their faces as they are getting ready to start on a new project – it’s a very rewarding position that I am in.

Q. What changes have you seen in the market recently?

Fierce competition:

Over-qualified candidates are willing to take anything; even less pay (i.e. Finance directors are taking financial analyst positions.) Candidates that used to meet the job description requirements are no longer being considered because there are so many over qualified candidates the hiring managers can choose from instead. These changes have been happening since last October. Prior to October, if you were unemployed for several months, we may have questioned why someone with your background had such a difficult time finding a new role, but these days it’s not uncommon to see a strong candidate unemployed for 6 – 8 months.

Q. What changes have you seen in the candidates recently?

• Poor attitude
• They keep saying “I can’t get a job. What’s wrong with me?”
• Financial Trouble: Losing their house, having a baby, depressed, parents flying in to come help them
• Poor body language (even during informational meetings)
• Upset about the economy

Q. What would discourage you from submitting a candidate to a hiring manager?

• Arrogance
• Someone with poor listening skills. Quickly glances over job description and says “Yep, I’ve done all that” without carefully making sure they’re a good fit.
• Shows lack of interest. During informational meetings if I feel like I have to pull teeth to get them to the meeting or get them interested in a position. I feel like they’re saying “why am I here meeting with you; you’re not the hiring manager”. Tell me when you have a position; I’m not interested in informational interviews.
• Not engaged enough in our conversation. When I ask walk me through your experience, they say “I did xyz at this company” and end right there. Even though it’s a casual environment, they fail to converse about their experience. What goes through my mind is if they don’t share their experience here, what’s going to happen during their “actual” interview?
• Lying on their resumes. I talk to candidates with steady employment “on paper” but when I ask detailed questions about their background I realize that this is not the case. Their fear of looking bad on paper causes them to lie which is not acceptable.

Q. What should candidates be aware of in this market?

• Treat recruiters with utmost respect; befriend them. Recruiting especially in Seattle is a small world. Word about a candidate will get around quickly. There is a so-called recruiters blacklist; “don’t interview this candidate, rude, etc”
• Check into non-competes, contract language, contract length etc. Many larger firms won’t tell you what you’re getting into and many candidates wanting a job will take something that locks them into non-appropriate situations regarding their career. An example is taking a “a-“ position at Microsoft (even for 1 day) will force you to take 100-day mandatory break when your assignment is complete and/or if you want to switch to a “v-“ positions. Some companies will make you sign a 1 year or 18-months non-compete form. If they’re unable to find you a job when your contract is over; other recruiting companies might be unable to help you.
• Find recruiters, go through their LinkedIn, find hiring managers you want to connect to and do informational interviews. Many times hiring managers have positions that are not listed and if you connect with them soon enough, you might be that lucky candidate. You can then go through Xtreme Consulting for the vendor process (which will charge a smaller rate compared to if they found you the position, etc).
• Connect with previous hiring managers, old colleagues on LinkedIn and leverage them to meet new people.
• Use the Status Update on LinkedIn to let recruiters know exactly what you’re looking for. Many times when we contact candidates we get a non-pleasant response that they’re not looking. It will make our lives much easier if you publicly tell us you are the one we should contact! Also let them know if you’re looking to network openly or meet certain people.
• Make sure you get recommendations and endorsements on LinkedIn. They’re very powerful in building trust and reputation.
• Go to the Seattle Job Social and similar events. People these days are helping other people; make sure you utilize the power of other people to find your next position.
• Don’t LinkedIn with a recruiter (or any other person for that matter) with a template email. Don’t spam people. Make sure your message is personalized. The standard “since you’re a person I trust…” is not the best way to meet a stranger or connect with us. Be really polite, tell them why you’re reaching out and potentially what you might be able to offer them. Always give someone a reason to connect with you.

Q. What about job boards? Craigslist, Monster, Career Builder, Dice, Indeed, etc? Do these really work? Do you look at them?

Job boards are perfect for generic jobs or for those “hard to fill” positions you’re not going to find in your everyday candidate. Good candidates are not on Monster; good candidates are either employed or actively networking and reaching out. I get so many referrals on a daily basis that I don’t need to search on job boards.

Q. What else are strong candidates doing that you would recommend others should follow?

• Good candidates are researching the recruiting companies, finding their contact information and actively reaching out. If someone connects to us through our site, we’ll meet them. Larger firms might take more work but you should target who you want to meet and then take action to go meet them. Target your search instead of randomly applying to hundreds of different positions.
• Good candidates ask the recruiters how best to follow up with them. Some recruiters don’t want regular follow up while others like me love regular status updates. If you are the one in 20 Project Managers that keep in touch regularly, when I have a PM position open up; I’m sure to call you.
• Good candidates take the meetings with recruiters seriously. Even if we don’t have a position today, that doesn’t mean we won’t get a req tomorrow. If you leave a good impression, we’ll remember you for that next position.

Q. Michelle, what should someone do if they need a job “yesterday”?

Submit your resume to the larger vendors and keep your options open. You probably won’t get the position you want, but it’s a good way to get out of the mud. I asked our Staffing Director his thoughts on this particular question too. He also mentioned that a few of his friends have taken unpaid “intern like” positions with startups that don’t have enough funding for a full time position yet. People are doing this to stay fresh on their skills, keep their brain active, and if the startup takes off and they do have funding for a full time position, you will be the first person they hire.

You can contact Michelle by visiting Xtreme Consulting or emailing her at michelle@xtremeconsulting.com.

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Learn more about the author Paul Anderson.

Typical sales trainers say the following:

• Features don’t sell
• Benefits do

As I’m trained in Business Psychology and how the mind works, I’m here to take that statement to the next level:

• Benefits don’t sell
• Benefits the customer cares about sell!

Think about it for a second. Do you typically buy something because it provides you with a benefit or because it provides you with a benefit you actually care about?

I’m sure we’ve all bought something that we didn’t need because we thought it was cool or fell for the marketing hype; however that’s not how we always make our buying decision. At least I hope not!

We typically buy something because it provides benefits we care about, benefits that solve our actual needs, wants, desires, or pains.

Most salespeople talk about features and benefits they think the customer might care about; it’s mostly features and benefits important to the salesperson not necessarily the customer’s needs and wants. They then spend time explaining those features and benefits leading to customer confusion and talking themselves out of a sale. They actually overload the customer with TOO MUCH INFORMATION; therefore resulting in not selling the product/service.

Instead they must focus on the features and benefits the customer cares about and spend less time (if any at all) on the features and benefits that are NOT of interest to the customer.

I’ve recently become an iPhone user. I bought the iPhone for three reasons:

• To check email on the go and in real-time
  • It has to have HTML capability
  • It has to be able to download and view various attachments

• To have an up-to-date calendar
  • Sync up over-the-air with my Work Calendar (non-Exchange)
  • Sync up with Gmail Calendar

• To be able to browse the internet with a real browser
  • I don’t like the limited browsers Microsoft or Blackberry phones provide

These reasons were so vital to me that I prematurely canceled my T-Mobile contract paying a $150+ cancellation charge, changing over to a new network AT&T, and having to get use to a new phone platform. I went through that much trouble because iPhone provided benefits that were really important to my business – staying in touch with my customers in real-time.

Now the iPhone does provide other goodies as well. It has iTunes, iPod, Photos, Games, etc; however I purchased it because it has the “benefits I care about”. If I had been in the Apple store and they talked about the cool touch pad, iPod/iTunes features, and the ability to take notes, I might have found all those features and associated benefits interesting but not really compelled to switch over my contract and go with a new phone. I did however choose the iPhone because the sales person took the time to understand my needs (email, calendar, internet), and spent time talking about those benefits. Everything else was gravy.

Take Away: Before any sale, make sure you understand the customer’s needs, wants, and desires. Make sure you also understand their pain as well. Then focus your conversation on those benefits alone; the benefits the customer cares about.

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To read more articles on the 2009 job searching strategies, career development, psychology of interviewing, and resume techniques, subscribe to our RSS feed or get updates by email.

Learn more about the author Paul Anderson.