In marketplaces everywhere bargaining, in one way or another, is an essential element in consummating the “deal.” In the job market this refers to the negotiations that formalize the terms of the conditions of employment with a primary emphasis on job offer negotiations. Here my thoughts will be primarily directed towards the Software Engineering and IT positions below the executive level ,employment areas where I have been a personnel consultant for 25 years. However, I think these ideas and strategies pertain to most salaried positions regardless of industry or level
In this, and my 3 following presentations, I will be concerned with four distinct, but overlapping, bargaining, or negotiating, approaches to finding a new job: (1) bargaining from a positioning of strength. (2) equal bargaining,(3) bargaining from a position weakness, and (4) non-bargaining bargaining. Of course, these strategies are always somewhat impacted by the macro economic conditions effecting the job market, and here I will look at bargaining in a gradually improving post recessionary market. Finally in the four posts I will present key elements of each of these four bargaining types, starting with bargaining from a position of strength
In Bargaining from a position of strength, you have “all the right stuff” that the hiring company is looking for in terms of skills and personal characteristics. To make as near to perfect match as possible, the employer is very motivated to secure your services, often offering almost anything it takes to have you join there company. Also, you are highly valued by your current employer. Consequently, you have (almost) everything to gain and hardly anything to lose in your job search efforts. This is not to say anyone should haphazardly embark on something so life critical as a job search without conducting in depth research in your specific employments niche hiring conditions and deeply reflect on the notion that this is the right time to change jobs for you
In this scenario it’s ok to be quite confident, maybe even a little cocky, but you need to not come across as an ego maniac or arrogant no matter how good a fit you think you are. But, if the match is very good, you may perceived as “the answer” to some significant problem areas within the company, and, recognizing this, justifies you having a somewhat inflated, self promotional attitude in your approach to the hiring process. However a particular danger in this strategy, perhaps more than the others, is to not promise more than you can deliver in the particular role that you will assume in the new company. To this end, you must attain clarity in what you envision to be the scope of the position, how realistic are the companies’ expectations of you are, and, regardless of the high expectation, if deep down you feel you can at least meet, and hopefully exceed, the performance expectations of the new employer.
You can often hold out for a substantial bump up in salary because the hiring company’s perception is that they need you more than you need them. Often if you seem unenthused by the original figure, and the company appears to be determined to secure your services, they will come back with a higher starting salary amount and/or other concessions. Bottom-line, they want you bad! Also, you may able negotiate a sign on bonus, more stock options…and other incentives like an early salary review, some telecommuting…. At this point the situation may appear quite appealing if the company offers all, or almost all,that you want. However, before accepting, make sure to give close scrutiny to the entire offer “package” I have seen too many people fixate on the dollar number only, and then discover that some benefit (e. g., vacation, health benefits) or policy (e. g. flexible hours, non compete agreements) is not what they had thought, or imagined it, to be.
Once you have accepted the offer, a potential complication often arises if your present company gives you a counter offer that meets or exceeds what you have received elsewhere. The questions to ask yourself then are why they didn’t offer this to you in this first place, and if Ian m essential to the old company primarily in the short run or both in the short run and the long run. If you have any question that their intentions are not in your long term best interests, then politely tell your old company thanks but no thanks. Generally counter offers are good to avoid because they can sometimes limit, or even endanger, your future with your current company. Nevertheless, I have seen the minority of people who accept counter offers experience their career’s flourish going forward, particularly if the offering company is a direct competitor.
Finally, if you decide to proceed , I would get as much of generous promises of potential employer clearly delineated in your offer letter- and possible let a lawyer confidentially examine it as well. You may never have as much bargaining power as you do at this initial stage, so use this leverage in every way possible. Also, if you hadn’t already done so, research extensively the company’s reputation as being creditable in treating, and honoring, their employees well. Nevertheless, chances are that if your new employer views you as a very good to exceptional prospect, they will generally follow through on their initial conditions of employment; as long as you meet or exceed the performance levels you led them to expect.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Passive Recession: Bringing the Jobs Back Home
Passive aggression often stems from a situation where a person, often a woman or minority, fears a loss of security if they assertively convey what they are thinking or feeling about what they see as an unjust and inescapable situation. Rather they are left with the only alternative of indirectly expressing their contempt. Domestic examples may be as simple overcooking food, having a perpetual headache at bedtime, working in a slow uninspired way or even small instances of tax evasion these and a thousand other strategies are meant to annoy, and passively retaliate against, a controlling force, and they often become fixed patterns of muted defiance. Now in our current economic sphere we are sadly seeing a similar strategy played out. The unemployed give up their search for work, while still receiving governmental assistance, and engage in job search where they consciously sabotage any chance for re-employment by blowing an interview. “The job isn’t my ideal.” “Why work when the government is paying me not to work." And,"they want me to do a job that used to be done by 2 or 3 people." Of course, this is a small minority of job seekers, but as the seemingly endless recession marches on this, and similar, strategies are gaining momentum. On a governmental level we are experiencing a similar situation where authorities feel hopeless about the future, and thus “throw in the towel.” For any concerted effort to make the situation better a significant positive attitude change and effective government and corporate interventions needs to occur as soon as possible.
This lack of any attempt to find a real and/or lasting solution to chronic unemployment and underemployment is a major element of what I will call a passive recession. This is a new occurrence, although employment patterns have been tending this way ever since manufacturing jobs began to be either, mostly, lost or sent offshore in the 70’s and the 80’s. For a while high tech innovation appeared to replace some of these jobs, but unlike the manufacturing jobs, these required more than just a high school diploma (or less) and on the job training. Now the high tech and IT jobs have followed the same path. But this time there has been an element of betrayal, ageism, and economic exclusion. I don’t deny that businesses have to be profitable, but some myopic C level executives fail to recognize that the long term, self destructive, effect of their policies on their company and their country. This is often obscured by the short term concerns of building shareholders equity. The frightened lay-off victim is often muzzled from any legal recourse, particularly those over 40, by a severance package either based on either being paid to train offshore replacements or signing a non-retaliation statement. In other words, they are being pacified by fears of financial insolvency.
At present at least, there is little resolve to devise concrete solutions to extricate the US from this depressing situation. There is a lot of talk, but little agreement, or hope, on how to extricate ourselves from this increasingly precarious situation. There is no consensus or political will to make things improve. The media just reinforces the doom and gloom situation with their barrage of gloomy stories and scenarios that will further weaken the will of the populace. The administration, and its opponents to a certain extent, point to the recently strong increases in the GDP as indicative of a major upturn. But as any intelligent impartial observer may tell you, these are predicated on massive government financial interventions to prop up a precarious financial services sector and the buildup of inventory that may only have a few more quarters duration. This is not to say that the President’s recent assertion that these massive interventions staved off an extended depression, perhaps largely as an option to a much longer recession, offers little consolation to those who are losing their jobs, their houses, and often their self respect. Even the “recovery friendly” Federal Reserve, acknowledges that this “so called” jobless recovery will last to 2011 at the earliest. A very intelligent and insightful observer of the economic landscape recently told me that things won’t stay as they are now for very long. Rather the next two elections will most likely lead to either to improvement or a deterioration of the employment, and general economic situation.
In conclusion how can we restore confidence, the political will, and creative solutions to pull our nation, and job situation out of the hopelessness, and passive, reaction that seems never ending. Keynesian economists, like Paul Krugman, argue the economic redevolvement act (AKA the stimulus) was too small to generate any significant growth in employment, and we need to go back to the proverbial well for another round of stimulus. But unless the situation worsens dramatically, the extreme divisiveness that characterizes the current political and national mindset will make it nearly impossible to break this logjam. Poet WB Yeats’ prophetic line from his poem “The Second Coming: “The best lack any conviction and the worst are filled with Passionate Intensity,” sadly characterizes our dismal, passive recessionary mindset. This negative passionate intensity has perhaps been most articulated by right wing ideologue, and de-facto spokesman for the radical conservative wing of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh, who made the incendiary statement that he “wants this president to fail.” Statements like this, and the activities of the populist, party supported, “tea bagger movement” are indicative that there is little concern for the dire situation of the demoralized, increasingly, pacified unemployed. Nevertheless I feel that the situation may not be quite as dismal as projected in the media, and the related national sense of helplessness could be improved. If the Fed could somehow cajole the banks to resume lending to small business, the acknowledged creator of most new jobs, then there could be an uptick in an employment and innovation; and innovation, in turn, could foster even more employment. Furthermore, if the administration can offer further incentives to mid large size corporations to slow down the steady stream of outsourced jobs, then the cynicism directed toward these companies could begin to abate. However, these solutions, if they occur at all, could take a significant amount of time to implement. Unfortunately, in the mean time, more suffering seems almost inevitable. But if the unemployed could organize, like the revisionist tea bagger movement, then they potentially could motivate Washington to attack the causes of this passive recession; and maybe a sustained recovery that addresses the dismal employment situation could begin..
This lack of any attempt to find a real and/or lasting solution to chronic unemployment and underemployment is a major element of what I will call a passive recession. This is a new occurrence, although employment patterns have been tending this way ever since manufacturing jobs began to be either, mostly, lost or sent offshore in the 70’s and the 80’s. For a while high tech innovation appeared to replace some of these jobs, but unlike the manufacturing jobs, these required more than just a high school diploma (or less) and on the job training. Now the high tech and IT jobs have followed the same path. But this time there has been an element of betrayal, ageism, and economic exclusion. I don’t deny that businesses have to be profitable, but some myopic C level executives fail to recognize that the long term, self destructive, effect of their policies on their company and their country. This is often obscured by the short term concerns of building shareholders equity. The frightened lay-off victim is often muzzled from any legal recourse, particularly those over 40, by a severance package either based on either being paid to train offshore replacements or signing a non-retaliation statement. In other words, they are being pacified by fears of financial insolvency.
At present at least, there is little resolve to devise concrete solutions to extricate the US from this depressing situation. There is a lot of talk, but little agreement, or hope, on how to extricate ourselves from this increasingly precarious situation. There is no consensus or political will to make things improve. The media just reinforces the doom and gloom situation with their barrage of gloomy stories and scenarios that will further weaken the will of the populace. The administration, and its opponents to a certain extent, point to the recently strong increases in the GDP as indicative of a major upturn. But as any intelligent impartial observer may tell you, these are predicated on massive government financial interventions to prop up a precarious financial services sector and the buildup of inventory that may only have a few more quarters duration. This is not to say that the President’s recent assertion that these massive interventions staved off an extended depression, perhaps largely as an option to a much longer recession, offers little consolation to those who are losing their jobs, their houses, and often their self respect. Even the “recovery friendly” Federal Reserve, acknowledges that this “so called” jobless recovery will last to 2011 at the earliest. A very intelligent and insightful observer of the economic landscape recently told me that things won’t stay as they are now for very long. Rather the next two elections will most likely lead to either to improvement or a deterioration of the employment, and general economic situation.
In conclusion how can we restore confidence, the political will, and creative solutions to pull our nation, and job situation out of the hopelessness, and passive, reaction that seems never ending. Keynesian economists, like Paul Krugman, argue the economic redevolvement act (AKA the stimulus) was too small to generate any significant growth in employment, and we need to go back to the proverbial well for another round of stimulus. But unless the situation worsens dramatically, the extreme divisiveness that characterizes the current political and national mindset will make it nearly impossible to break this logjam. Poet WB Yeats’ prophetic line from his poem “The Second Coming: “The best lack any conviction and the worst are filled with Passionate Intensity,” sadly characterizes our dismal, passive recessionary mindset. This negative passionate intensity has perhaps been most articulated by right wing ideologue, and de-facto spokesman for the radical conservative wing of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh, who made the incendiary statement that he “wants this president to fail.” Statements like this, and the activities of the populist, party supported, “tea bagger movement” are indicative that there is little concern for the dire situation of the demoralized, increasingly, pacified unemployed. Nevertheless I feel that the situation may not be quite as dismal as projected in the media, and the related national sense of helplessness could be improved. If the Fed could somehow cajole the banks to resume lending to small business, the acknowledged creator of most new jobs, then there could be an uptick in an employment and innovation; and innovation, in turn, could foster even more employment. Furthermore, if the administration can offer further incentives to mid large size corporations to slow down the steady stream of outsourced jobs, then the cynicism directed toward these companies could begin to abate. However, these solutions, if they occur at all, could take a significant amount of time to implement. Unfortunately, in the mean time, more suffering seems almost inevitable. But if the unemployed could organize, like the revisionist tea bagger movement, then they potentially could motivate Washington to attack the causes of this passive recession; and maybe a sustained recovery that addresses the dismal employment situation could begin..
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Bye Bye Zeroes: The Decade of Greed and Gloom
It’s been a while since I’ve been here. Felt a twinge of guilt because I haven’t followed the marketing mantra of consistent posts. Well I’m not a low winter light person in spite of the many, somewhat successful efforts of dealing with the winter blues. The best involved entrainment through a sound /light machine (www.mindalive.com).
In the months ahead I’m planning to continue my focus on the job world, addressing the plight of the employed and unemployed, offering success strategies, and questioning socio-political strategies that cater to the few and leave the many out in the cold. Also, since I have the beginning of a life, career, and business coaching endeavor in place I will be addressing that space as well. I haven’t forgot IT and will soon offer some perspective of year 2 (really 3) of the recession and so called “jobless recovery.”
Here, to say goodbye to the last decade, I will offer a short poem that epitomizes the final, and maybe worst, year in one the worst decades in American History; perhaps only eclipsed by the 1930’s and the decade of the US civil war, the 1860’s.
Moreover, in IT, and elsewhere, we saw many US employers sell out their employees, and many themselves, in an unparalleled wave of job expatriation that is politely called outsourcing, a profoundly unpatriotic practice that would have led to “tarring and feathering” of these mercenaries when there was still that somewhat hokey, but very humane, American mindset of “One for All and All for One”.
Also it was a decade where greed ran rampant, terror was sometimes used as a tool by government suppress the free expression and thought of the populace (sound familiar?), and torture was justified by some of the last regime as standard operating procedure. The damage caused by these factors will take many years, and even decades, to ameliorate at home. The only silver lining lately is that our standing in the world has improved somewhat by the reaching out of the new Administration.
Here is the poem called “Meltdown Moon.” I am also planning a little ditty in honor of a decade of profound discontent called “Bye Bye Zeroes,” but that, as they occasionally say in the web world, is “under construction.”
Meltdown Moon
In our hour of gleaming gloom
Of sickly shadows strangling
A meltdown moon.
Lost light of dimming dreams
Shattered and scattered in a
Fading beam
Floating pyres flicker then flee to
Find roses rotted, reflected in a
Plastic sea
Wall Street wolves slyly smile
Luring lambs and lizards to leech
Their Pile
Right brain boosters chant free at last
As malled in masses mourn their
Imagined past
An eerie echo of phantoms squeal
Escaping eras of wealth, power
And sex appeal
Michael Jay Sullivan
In the months ahead I’m planning to continue my focus on the job world, addressing the plight of the employed and unemployed, offering success strategies, and questioning socio-political strategies that cater to the few and leave the many out in the cold. Also, since I have the beginning of a life, career, and business coaching endeavor in place I will be addressing that space as well. I haven’t forgot IT and will soon offer some perspective of year 2 (really 3) of the recession and so called “jobless recovery.”
Here, to say goodbye to the last decade, I will offer a short poem that epitomizes the final, and maybe worst, year in one the worst decades in American History; perhaps only eclipsed by the 1930’s and the decade of the US civil war, the 1860’s.
Moreover, in IT, and elsewhere, we saw many US employers sell out their employees, and many themselves, in an unparalleled wave of job expatriation that is politely called outsourcing, a profoundly unpatriotic practice that would have led to “tarring and feathering” of these mercenaries when there was still that somewhat hokey, but very humane, American mindset of “One for All and All for One”.
Also it was a decade where greed ran rampant, terror was sometimes used as a tool by government suppress the free expression and thought of the populace (sound familiar?), and torture was justified by some of the last regime as standard operating procedure. The damage caused by these factors will take many years, and even decades, to ameliorate at home. The only silver lining lately is that our standing in the world has improved somewhat by the reaching out of the new Administration.
Here is the poem called “Meltdown Moon.” I am also planning a little ditty in honor of a decade of profound discontent called “Bye Bye Zeroes,” but that, as they occasionally say in the web world, is “under construction.”
Meltdown Moon
In our hour of gleaming gloom
Of sickly shadows strangling
A meltdown moon.
Lost light of dimming dreams
Shattered and scattered in a
Fading beam
Floating pyres flicker then flee to
Find roses rotted, reflected in a
Plastic sea
Wall Street wolves slyly smile
Luring lambs and lizards to leech
Their Pile
Right brain boosters chant free at last
As malled in masses mourn their
Imagined past
An eerie echo of phantoms squeal
Escaping eras of wealth, power
And sex appeal
Michael Jay Sullivan
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Planning for, and Recovering from, Unemployment
In this presentation my intent is to give a brief description of an individual who has handled a lay off in a very proactive and productive fashion. I realize there are several fortunate and uncommon factors in this situation. Moreover I realize being laid off in these troubled times is often a very frightening, demeaning and sometimes immobilizing experience. In the current HR and corporate view of employee’s as human capital, or even wall street’s view of layoffs as being lagging indicators or cost controls that positively impact stock performance, there is a very dehumanizing, unsympathetic view, of the layoff victim. This is particularly devastating experience for IT individuals over 40 or 50 where there chance of finding a position comparable to the one they lost is dubious at best.
However, there are several qualities that can lessen the impact of a job loss in these troubled times. They include: devising a pragmatic lay off contingency plan; having, or developing, a proactive and positive approach; trying not to take the layoff as a personal statement of your incompetency or inadequacy; and finally trying to be patient and not panic no matter what other people or the media may say about your job possibilities. Also too much pride and inflexibility can also impair chances of being re-employed. In this presentation I will give an example of a situation that epitomizes many of these qualities and discusses how they worked to assist a friend in his successful effort to be re-employed.
“I went to see my old friend Raymond last weekend. Raymond was an exceptionally accomplished data base architect with over 25 years in the IT field, all at a large financial service company. As is often the case in the dismal days of the job market he was, Raymond was caught in a layoff. This was probably due to his relatively high salary, his age and comprehensive benefits, including fully paid medical benefits, a vested pension (a real rarity these days for an IT person), and a generous 401k match. However, Raymond has absolutely no debt, his wife has a very good job, and he has never lived beyond his means. More impressively, Raymond had mentally and financially prepared for his job loss. He did not display any anger, shame, remorse, denial or depression related to his former employer that could have impacted his re-employment efforts.
Raymond had been checking out other career possibilities for a person in his 50’s that could utilize his strong IT background. Within 2 weeks of being let go by his former employers he began a certificate program in medical computer coding. He did not sign up for unemployment because he is a full time student and because of his savings, his wife’s employment and his frugal life style he didn’t need it. Now, after three months of training he has several good job prospects as a medical coder. He may only make slightly more than half that he did at his former employer; but because of his somewhat frugal spending habits, his pension and his family’s ability to live on one income at least temporarily, his life style will only be effected by his life style.”
By closely scrutinizing Raymond’s situation, it is obvious that he made a realistic assessment of the possibility of being laid off, and developed a solid contingency plan. A key element of his plan included exploring optional career avenues where he may transfer the analytic, procedural, mathematical and other IT related skills that served him well in his previous career. His research, led to two new career possibilities: accounting and medical coding. On further research when he felt his lay off was imminent, he made a pragmatic decision to go towards the medical coding because the training was much quicker and opportunities were more plentiful. Also, due to his sense of self reliance and fortuitous financial situation, he did not, like most people who got laid off in this period, have to quickly apply for unemployment due to lack of savings and other pressing financial factors. Consequently, he was not subject to the scrutiny of the government and his receiving benefits might perhaps have been unethical or disruptive given his schooling. In other words, he did not allow his job loss effect his sense of self worth, which unemployment sometimes subtly does, or compromise his ethics or career change plans.
So why was Raymond able to be so strategic and cool under the pressure and stress of losing his long held position? Unlike many people who were intoxicated by the leveraged wealth and supposed unlimited growth of the previous ten tears, Raymond didn’t live on credit and saved a reasonable portion of his salary. So when the Wall Street and Bush, and to a lesser extent Clinton, Administration induced real estate and equity bubble’s burst, Raymond had already converted his 401k investments out of the stock market and into cash. Moreover, he and his wife, who had a great rental living arrangement, never jumped in to the then seemingly endless skyrocketing real estate market. Simply said, Raymond lived well within his means and thus was not seriously affected financially by the mortgage and financial service meltdown. Consequently, when he lost his job, which was a result of this meltdown, he was prepared psychologically and financially. Moreover, he never felt shocked and victimized like so many Americans who faced the prospect of a very uncertain diminished future. Furthermore, with strategic and realistic financial and career planning many people may still live comfortably, and perhaps more meaningful lives. However unlike the proactive and patient Raymond, and many prudent people like him, it may be a long and rocky ride to renewed financial and career stability for many American who have faced job loss in these turbulent times
In conclusion, and for future consideration, Raymond’s case of successively handling his lay off displays how to not experience many qualities and actions that can diminish the adverse effect of this often traumatizing situation. It was definitely not my intention to criticize or add “insult to injury” for the high percentage of laid off people who had not evolved a comprehensive plan to deal with sometimes inevitable negative consequences of being laid off. As I initially stated, planning, proactivity, a positive attitude, patience, and not living beyond his means all contributed to Raymond’s ability to successfully cushion and steer clear of most of the very painful effects of job loss. This doesn’t mean that Raymond didn’t experience some of the anxiety and uncertainty of being laid off, particularly that of people over 40 in the progressively outsourced field of information technology. However, understandable blame or a sense of victimization does not help these people in their efforts to withstand unemployment or the challenging effort to become re-employed. Nevertheless, our culture, and particularly the cultures of much of corporate America and Wall Street, often have a very short term perspective in their strategic planning and utilization of “human capital.” This is often dictated by the quarter to quarter demands of their investors and their sometimes greedy expectations of quick and large return on their investments. Finally, if this quick return and “trickle down” mindset is not changed to resemble the more long term perspective of most of the mature and emerging economies, particularly that of China, then the repeat of this nearly cataclysmic financial meltdown, and related job loss, is almost predestined to reoccur.
However, there are several qualities that can lessen the impact of a job loss in these troubled times. They include: devising a pragmatic lay off contingency plan; having, or developing, a proactive and positive approach; trying not to take the layoff as a personal statement of your incompetency or inadequacy; and finally trying to be patient and not panic no matter what other people or the media may say about your job possibilities. Also too much pride and inflexibility can also impair chances of being re-employed. In this presentation I will give an example of a situation that epitomizes many of these qualities and discusses how they worked to assist a friend in his successful effort to be re-employed.
“I went to see my old friend Raymond last weekend. Raymond was an exceptionally accomplished data base architect with over 25 years in the IT field, all at a large financial service company. As is often the case in the dismal days of the job market he was, Raymond was caught in a layoff. This was probably due to his relatively high salary, his age and comprehensive benefits, including fully paid medical benefits, a vested pension (a real rarity these days for an IT person), and a generous 401k match. However, Raymond has absolutely no debt, his wife has a very good job, and he has never lived beyond his means. More impressively, Raymond had mentally and financially prepared for his job loss. He did not display any anger, shame, remorse, denial or depression related to his former employer that could have impacted his re-employment efforts.
Raymond had been checking out other career possibilities for a person in his 50’s that could utilize his strong IT background. Within 2 weeks of being let go by his former employers he began a certificate program in medical computer coding. He did not sign up for unemployment because he is a full time student and because of his savings, his wife’s employment and his frugal life style he didn’t need it. Now, after three months of training he has several good job prospects as a medical coder. He may only make slightly more than half that he did at his former employer; but because of his somewhat frugal spending habits, his pension and his family’s ability to live on one income at least temporarily, his life style will only be effected by his life style.”
By closely scrutinizing Raymond’s situation, it is obvious that he made a realistic assessment of the possibility of being laid off, and developed a solid contingency plan. A key element of his plan included exploring optional career avenues where he may transfer the analytic, procedural, mathematical and other IT related skills that served him well in his previous career. His research, led to two new career possibilities: accounting and medical coding. On further research when he felt his lay off was imminent, he made a pragmatic decision to go towards the medical coding because the training was much quicker and opportunities were more plentiful. Also, due to his sense of self reliance and fortuitous financial situation, he did not, like most people who got laid off in this period, have to quickly apply for unemployment due to lack of savings and other pressing financial factors. Consequently, he was not subject to the scrutiny of the government and his receiving benefits might perhaps have been unethical or disruptive given his schooling. In other words, he did not allow his job loss effect his sense of self worth, which unemployment sometimes subtly does, or compromise his ethics or career change plans.
So why was Raymond able to be so strategic and cool under the pressure and stress of losing his long held position? Unlike many people who were intoxicated by the leveraged wealth and supposed unlimited growth of the previous ten tears, Raymond didn’t live on credit and saved a reasonable portion of his salary. So when the Wall Street and Bush, and to a lesser extent Clinton, Administration induced real estate and equity bubble’s burst, Raymond had already converted his 401k investments out of the stock market and into cash. Moreover, he and his wife, who had a great rental living arrangement, never jumped in to the then seemingly endless skyrocketing real estate market. Simply said, Raymond lived well within his means and thus was not seriously affected financially by the mortgage and financial service meltdown. Consequently, when he lost his job, which was a result of this meltdown, he was prepared psychologically and financially. Moreover, he never felt shocked and victimized like so many Americans who faced the prospect of a very uncertain diminished future. Furthermore, with strategic and realistic financial and career planning many people may still live comfortably, and perhaps more meaningful lives. However unlike the proactive and patient Raymond, and many prudent people like him, it may be a long and rocky ride to renewed financial and career stability for many American who have faced job loss in these turbulent times
In conclusion, and for future consideration, Raymond’s case of successively handling his lay off displays how to not experience many qualities and actions that can diminish the adverse effect of this often traumatizing situation. It was definitely not my intention to criticize or add “insult to injury” for the high percentage of laid off people who had not evolved a comprehensive plan to deal with sometimes inevitable negative consequences of being laid off. As I initially stated, planning, proactivity, a positive attitude, patience, and not living beyond his means all contributed to Raymond’s ability to successfully cushion and steer clear of most of the very painful effects of job loss. This doesn’t mean that Raymond didn’t experience some of the anxiety and uncertainty of being laid off, particularly that of people over 40 in the progressively outsourced field of information technology. However, understandable blame or a sense of victimization does not help these people in their efforts to withstand unemployment or the challenging effort to become re-employed. Nevertheless, our culture, and particularly the cultures of much of corporate America and Wall Street, often have a very short term perspective in their strategic planning and utilization of “human capital.” This is often dictated by the quarter to quarter demands of their investors and their sometimes greedy expectations of quick and large return on their investments. Finally, if this quick return and “trickle down” mindset is not changed to resemble the more long term perspective of most of the mature and emerging economies, particularly that of China, then the repeat of this nearly cataclysmic financial meltdown, and related job loss, is almost predestined to reoccur.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Games of Greed and Loss of Jobs
It’s still real tough out there in the job market for many IT, and other processionals. My forecast of minor pickup in jobs in early 2010 and a return to normalcy by the fall of 2010 still stands,albeit on a much shakier ground. But there are looming dangers that portend that this debacle will last a few quarters, or even years longer. Issues that concern me here are the continued growth in outsourcing and that employers are making do with a smaller workforce. The productivity of the remaining employees has been pushed up to all time record 6% increase. It’s not that people are willingly working 50 plus hour weeks on a regular basis. Rather they are often in a state of fear and panic that they will be the next one to go if they don’t work these incredibly long hours. In this short exposition I will discuss a few of the economic underpinnings that may extend the still increasing level of unemployment. Also, unlike my previous postings on IT, here the primary focus will be on the abuses of the financial service industry, and the dire affect they have had on hiring and the economy as a whole.
Based on a lot of first hand observation I am very suspicious of the rapid 50 plus per cent increase in the S& P 500 , the most significant broad index of stock market health, in the last 5 months. On the surface this could be interpreted as a positive sign, indicating we are moving in the direction of economic health and new job creation. Typically a sharply rising market looks 6 to 9 months ahead to predict a return to economic stability. “If” this is this case, like in the past, employers may soon start experiencing real growth in the fourth, or maybe even third quarter of 2009, but they will be initially fearful to start hiring for many months because they are rightfully concerned we will slip back into another recession. But not to digress too much, let’s look at this stock market recovery. Moreover, many well informed people, including the noted economists like ex Clinton Secretary of labor Robert Reich and the market analyst Mario Roubini (aka Dr. Doom, because he was one of few analysts to precisely predict our most current crash)feels that the rise in the market is like pumping air into a tire with a small, imperceptible, leak that ultimately leads to larger holes and quicker deflation. Translated into an economic realm, this may lead to the dreaded W shaped recovery where the market is currently at least halfway up the first V of the recovery. To return to our tire analogy, as it initially appears that the tire is reflated, and after a couple of quarters of an anemic “jobless recovery,” this small hole will start forcing air out of the tire after it appears to be functional once again leading to a second decline, which may comprise the second, and possible more severe, V of the recovery
I, and people considerably more knowledgeable than myself in these issues, are quite fearful that the current upturn is built on a faulty foundation. Why is this foundation faulty like the pumped up tire with a small deflating hole in it? Well this apparent market recovery, and resulting economic rebound, may be based on three potentially ineffective hypothesis and actions: (1), the less bad, or green shoots, economic growth hypothesis, and (2) the temporary injection of unprecedented level of government money into the economy, and, (3), the ill timed and distracting essential social initiatives, like health care reform, by a well meaning, but mostly unseasoned, new presidential administration.
The less bad, green shoots, phenomena, referring to the initial budding of plants and other greenery in early Spring, seems to be both real and unreal at the same time. On a year over year basis real earnings for companies are down about 20%, but these same earnings are exceeding their quarter to quarter estimates at more than 75% of companies based on lowered earnings expectations. Thus confidence is boosted and stock prices start going up. However, for the most part, the only people benefitting from this are the same people who’s greed and other shenanigans got us in this muck in the first place, Financial Service traders and executives from Wall Street and elsewhere. These people have been largely insulated from the pain and suffering of the rest of population, particularly those ills of the middle class and the unemployed. These “masters in the art of deception,”to borrow a line from a Bob Dylan song, are adept at market manipulation, and benefit immensely from the panic on Main Street. These people are incredibly resilient and never back down from their “survival of the fittest” and trickle down, “let them eat cake,” mindset.
Recently, Main Street has started to tiptoe back into the market through Mutual Funds and some individual equity investing. This makes me quite suspicious because most of the gains up to now have been made by Wall Street insiders. In similar cases in the past, as the Smart Money of Wall Street begin to exit the market, due to unrealistically high market valuations and a desire to realize huge profits as the upper V of the first part of the market’s W starts to top out. This, in turn, often leads to what is called the “greater fool theory,” where the not so Smart Money pushes the market a little, to a lot, higher only to have it come tumbling down due to the lack of support of the Smart Money and even their hedging and short selling strategies: making huge bets that the market will start to tumble in the second downward slope of the W. Soon after, panic selling starts to ensue at lower price levels, as occurred in the market crashes of 1987 and 2000. One generally reliable indicator that this is starting to happen is that the mass media start touting the markets miraculous recovery which starts to bring even more not so Smart Money into the market. This process can often take several months or even years, like in the 1920’s, to fully unfold The worse part of this whole fiasco is that we may be in the process of creating the next economic bubble that could horrifically explode in a few years, creating even more pain and job loss. If anyone wants to see an in depth explication of this process I recommend Naomi Klein’s excellent book, “Shock Doctrine.”
This whole bailout and stimulus effort has mostly benefited the rich and their allies on Wall Street by allowing them to rebuild their net worth with a few, increasingly frayed, strings attached. Moreover, by this massive mortgaging of the future, which these efforts epitomize, the chances of any return to wide scale prosperity experienced by the middle class is a very dubious indeed. I don’t want to belabor the whole bailout stimulus initiative; it has been incessantly discussed in the media and has been a prime mover in stock market gains. Yet it is curious that the conventional wisdom that the bailout helped us supposedly avert a second great depression was most vociferously sponsored by Bush’s secretary of the treasury, Henry,"Hank”Paulsen.Paulsen had formerly been the chairman of Goldman Sachs, which now is the preeminent investment bank on Wall Street.Go figure?
Finally, the well meaning but somewhat naïve Obama administration, has allowed the Goldman Sach’s and the Citibank’s to become the tail that wags the dog, not that they weren’t that in the first place. Sure congress and the administration may try to put restrictions on Wall Street’s hedge, “hog,” funds and other species of unregulated greed. Yet at the colloquially fashionable “end of the day,” the Wall Street masters of the universe will use their skills in deception and fear mongering to return to business as usual. For their part, Obama’s people have become virtually powerless due to their own idealism and their “gang that couldn’t shoot straight” congress. Just watch the spooked and enraged masses, who have largely dropped their ire towards Wall Street; see them engage in ridiculous, often right wing inspired, town hall, “food fight-like,” protests to maintain their second rate health insurance and further enrich the uncaring health care and health insurance industries. However if you listen closely to the gripes of the non-coerced citizenry of these civic brouhahas, you can hear shouts or fear and anguish that often refers to insolvency and unemployment precipitated by the miscalculations of the money managers . These meetings provide a double win for Wall Street. They are escaping the rage of the voting citizens, having it redirected toward people that sincerely want to help them, and they may able to pull off several billion dollars of windfall trading profits in health care related securities without the pale of “socialized medicine” hanging over them.
In my statements here, I have not directly addressed employment issues, but rather have looked at the macro factors that will, or will not, lead to hiring in the future. I conclude that whatever new hiring that does occur will most likely consist of less secure and/or lower paying jobs (except, perhaps, in financial service). Moreover, I find it tragic and reprehensible that only 20% of the debt-ridden college graduate class of 2009 have job offers 3 months after graduation. The disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street is not new. But the level of manipulation, disinformation, and lack of any regard for the greater good is a newer, more self serving, phase in the extreme predatory fringe of our financial service oligarchs. Nevertheless there are still many fine and ethical financial service firms like the people at Edward Jones or TD Ameritrade, although most of them operate out of the heartlands and not on Wall Street . Yet for the most part this maniacal, mindless pursuit of self enrichment has reached a level not seen since the monopolies and robber baron’s of the late 1800’s, but at least these earlier moguls had a philanthropic streak that created such institutions as the Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Chicago, and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Hopefully I am wrong about the Obama administration's inability to enact their vast legislative agenda that will address the needs of the many rather than fail by the machinations of the elite few. Only the future will tell. But it is vital that people stop seeing themselves as victims and start to once again believe that they have the power to shape their own destinies, which often takes a herculean effort but is definitely worth the effort
Based on a lot of first hand observation I am very suspicious of the rapid 50 plus per cent increase in the S& P 500 , the most significant broad index of stock market health, in the last 5 months. On the surface this could be interpreted as a positive sign, indicating we are moving in the direction of economic health and new job creation. Typically a sharply rising market looks 6 to 9 months ahead to predict a return to economic stability. “If” this is this case, like in the past, employers may soon start experiencing real growth in the fourth, or maybe even third quarter of 2009, but they will be initially fearful to start hiring for many months because they are rightfully concerned we will slip back into another recession. But not to digress too much, let’s look at this stock market recovery. Moreover, many well informed people, including the noted economists like ex Clinton Secretary of labor Robert Reich and the market analyst Mario Roubini (aka Dr. Doom, because he was one of few analysts to precisely predict our most current crash)feels that the rise in the market is like pumping air into a tire with a small, imperceptible, leak that ultimately leads to larger holes and quicker deflation. Translated into an economic realm, this may lead to the dreaded W shaped recovery where the market is currently at least halfway up the first V of the recovery. To return to our tire analogy, as it initially appears that the tire is reflated, and after a couple of quarters of an anemic “jobless recovery,” this small hole will start forcing air out of the tire after it appears to be functional once again leading to a second decline, which may comprise the second, and possible more severe, V of the recovery
I, and people considerably more knowledgeable than myself in these issues, are quite fearful that the current upturn is built on a faulty foundation. Why is this foundation faulty like the pumped up tire with a small deflating hole in it? Well this apparent market recovery, and resulting economic rebound, may be based on three potentially ineffective hypothesis and actions: (1), the less bad, or green shoots, economic growth hypothesis, and (2) the temporary injection of unprecedented level of government money into the economy, and, (3), the ill timed and distracting essential social initiatives, like health care reform, by a well meaning, but mostly unseasoned, new presidential administration.
The less bad, green shoots, phenomena, referring to the initial budding of plants and other greenery in early Spring, seems to be both real and unreal at the same time. On a year over year basis real earnings for companies are down about 20%, but these same earnings are exceeding their quarter to quarter estimates at more than 75% of companies based on lowered earnings expectations. Thus confidence is boosted and stock prices start going up. However, for the most part, the only people benefitting from this are the same people who’s greed and other shenanigans got us in this muck in the first place, Financial Service traders and executives from Wall Street and elsewhere. These people have been largely insulated from the pain and suffering of the rest of population, particularly those ills of the middle class and the unemployed. These “masters in the art of deception,”to borrow a line from a Bob Dylan song, are adept at market manipulation, and benefit immensely from the panic on Main Street. These people are incredibly resilient and never back down from their “survival of the fittest” and trickle down, “let them eat cake,” mindset.
Recently, Main Street has started to tiptoe back into the market through Mutual Funds and some individual equity investing. This makes me quite suspicious because most of the gains up to now have been made by Wall Street insiders. In similar cases in the past, as the Smart Money of Wall Street begin to exit the market, due to unrealistically high market valuations and a desire to realize huge profits as the upper V of the first part of the market’s W starts to top out. This, in turn, often leads to what is called the “greater fool theory,” where the not so Smart Money pushes the market a little, to a lot, higher only to have it come tumbling down due to the lack of support of the Smart Money and even their hedging and short selling strategies: making huge bets that the market will start to tumble in the second downward slope of the W. Soon after, panic selling starts to ensue at lower price levels, as occurred in the market crashes of 1987 and 2000. One generally reliable indicator that this is starting to happen is that the mass media start touting the markets miraculous recovery which starts to bring even more not so Smart Money into the market. This process can often take several months or even years, like in the 1920’s, to fully unfold The worse part of this whole fiasco is that we may be in the process of creating the next economic bubble that could horrifically explode in a few years, creating even more pain and job loss. If anyone wants to see an in depth explication of this process I recommend Naomi Klein’s excellent book, “Shock Doctrine.”
This whole bailout and stimulus effort has mostly benefited the rich and their allies on Wall Street by allowing them to rebuild their net worth with a few, increasingly frayed, strings attached. Moreover, by this massive mortgaging of the future, which these efforts epitomize, the chances of any return to wide scale prosperity experienced by the middle class is a very dubious indeed. I don’t want to belabor the whole bailout stimulus initiative; it has been incessantly discussed in the media and has been a prime mover in stock market gains. Yet it is curious that the conventional wisdom that the bailout helped us supposedly avert a second great depression was most vociferously sponsored by Bush’s secretary of the treasury, Henry,"Hank”Paulsen.Paulsen had formerly been the chairman of Goldman Sachs, which now is the preeminent investment bank on Wall Street.Go figure?
Finally, the well meaning but somewhat naïve Obama administration, has allowed the Goldman Sach’s and the Citibank’s to become the tail that wags the dog, not that they weren’t that in the first place. Sure congress and the administration may try to put restrictions on Wall Street’s hedge, “hog,” funds and other species of unregulated greed. Yet at the colloquially fashionable “end of the day,” the Wall Street masters of the universe will use their skills in deception and fear mongering to return to business as usual. For their part, Obama’s people have become virtually powerless due to their own idealism and their “gang that couldn’t shoot straight” congress. Just watch the spooked and enraged masses, who have largely dropped their ire towards Wall Street; see them engage in ridiculous, often right wing inspired, town hall, “food fight-like,” protests to maintain their second rate health insurance and further enrich the uncaring health care and health insurance industries. However if you listen closely to the gripes of the non-coerced citizenry of these civic brouhahas, you can hear shouts or fear and anguish that often refers to insolvency and unemployment precipitated by the miscalculations of the money managers . These meetings provide a double win for Wall Street. They are escaping the rage of the voting citizens, having it redirected toward people that sincerely want to help them, and they may able to pull off several billion dollars of windfall trading profits in health care related securities without the pale of “socialized medicine” hanging over them.
In my statements here, I have not directly addressed employment issues, but rather have looked at the macro factors that will, or will not, lead to hiring in the future. I conclude that whatever new hiring that does occur will most likely consist of less secure and/or lower paying jobs (except, perhaps, in financial service). Moreover, I find it tragic and reprehensible that only 20% of the debt-ridden college graduate class of 2009 have job offers 3 months after graduation. The disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street is not new. But the level of manipulation, disinformation, and lack of any regard for the greater good is a newer, more self serving, phase in the extreme predatory fringe of our financial service oligarchs. Nevertheless there are still many fine and ethical financial service firms like the people at Edward Jones or TD Ameritrade, although most of them operate out of the heartlands and not on Wall Street . Yet for the most part this maniacal, mindless pursuit of self enrichment has reached a level not seen since the monopolies and robber baron’s of the late 1800’s, but at least these earlier moguls had a philanthropic streak that created such institutions as the Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Chicago, and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Hopefully I am wrong about the Obama administration's inability to enact their vast legislative agenda that will address the needs of the many rather than fail by the machinations of the elite few. Only the future will tell. But it is vital that people stop seeing themselves as victims and start to once again believe that they have the power to shape their own destinies, which often takes a herculean effort but is definitely worth the effort
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Job Search Strategies in Difficult Times
(Sorry about the gap in my postings. I've been writing copy for my website Advancement Alternatives)
For those of you who are conducting frustrating and fruitless job searches, you must use every method possible to get re-employed. In IT and Software, as well as in most fields, “there are jobs out there.” OK. We might be in a deep recession with no chance of it ending in the near future. But that notion is a self fulfilling prophecy. Proactive people are getting new jobs everyday. Again, you need to do whatever it takes to get your career back on track today!
You must make yourself as an attractive candidate as possible to get that new job. If you lack strong interviewing skills, then get them now. If your resume doesn’t convey a compelling case why you should be hired, then find someone to assist you. If you don’t project a positive and proactive image and attitude, then change it. We have all the tools available that we need. You just have to use them.
I see too many people whose job search is seriously impaired. They don’t know what they want; or they do know what they want, but they aren’t qualified, unless they get more training and are willing to possibly consider a position at a lower level. Remember the longer you are out of work, the more difficult it will be to find a position comparable to your last one. Still, for some of you, a career change may be your only hope for employment. If so, get good unbiased advice, get training, and then start looking.
Sure you can contact all the headhunters you want, or you can post your resume on every job board that interests you. But if you have been walking these passive paths towards a new job for three to six months with no success, then it’s time to start running! It’s time to envision yourself working and regaining your self- respect and self worth. If your vision is strong enough, it will become a reality.
Learn and utilize social media and other forms of networking. Contact companies directly -- even if it means knocking on companies’ doors and asking to speak with the appropriate hiring person. I know this may sound extreme, but these are extreme times that call for bold and innovative action. Contact alumni from your alma mater; contact everyone you have worked with in the past that has a remote chance of helping you. And most importantly, do it now!
If you aren’t being ultra-assertive, then get a career coach to help you discover, and develop that vital competency. Bottom line: you have to take yourself off auto pilot and break through the barriers that are between you and the job you want. You might be angry, depressed, scared, panicky, or feeling sorry for yourself, but honestly, companies could care less. They need people with the right mindset to give them 150% effort from the get-go, and those are the people who are “acing” the interviews and landing the jobs.
Why are ninety per cent of the calls I get for job openings coming from foreign born immigrants? Why don’t native born Americans call? What happened to our optimism, ingenuity, and work ethic? Why do we passively allow emerging powerhouses, like China or India to thrive on what were “our” industries and innovations? It’s simple. They often work twice as hard, with smarts and as long as necessary to get what they want. Do we want to be a fallen superpower like England, Russia, or even ancient Rome? Frankly, it’s happening right now.
I hope my call to arms motivates you to develop a winning strategy and a winning attitude, and gives the employer no other choice but to offer “you” the job. Stop listening to the naysayers, the cynics, and the losers who sap your energy and poison your pride. Forget about the media and its endless barrage of negativity. I know you can do it, and, deep down, you know you can do it too. So, just get out there and do it. Soon you, and our nation, will be moving up in success rather than sinking down in failure.
For those of you who are conducting frustrating and fruitless job searches, you must use every method possible to get re-employed. In IT and Software, as well as in most fields, “there are jobs out there.” OK. We might be in a deep recession with no chance of it ending in the near future. But that notion is a self fulfilling prophecy. Proactive people are getting new jobs everyday. Again, you need to do whatever it takes to get your career back on track today!
You must make yourself as an attractive candidate as possible to get that new job. If you lack strong interviewing skills, then get them now. If your resume doesn’t convey a compelling case why you should be hired, then find someone to assist you. If you don’t project a positive and proactive image and attitude, then change it. We have all the tools available that we need. You just have to use them.
I see too many people whose job search is seriously impaired. They don’t know what they want; or they do know what they want, but they aren’t qualified, unless they get more training and are willing to possibly consider a position at a lower level. Remember the longer you are out of work, the more difficult it will be to find a position comparable to your last one. Still, for some of you, a career change may be your only hope for employment. If so, get good unbiased advice, get training, and then start looking.
Sure you can contact all the headhunters you want, or you can post your resume on every job board that interests you. But if you have been walking these passive paths towards a new job for three to six months with no success, then it’s time to start running! It’s time to envision yourself working and regaining your self- respect and self worth. If your vision is strong enough, it will become a reality.
Learn and utilize social media and other forms of networking. Contact companies directly -- even if it means knocking on companies’ doors and asking to speak with the appropriate hiring person. I know this may sound extreme, but these are extreme times that call for bold and innovative action. Contact alumni from your alma mater; contact everyone you have worked with in the past that has a remote chance of helping you. And most importantly, do it now!
If you aren’t being ultra-assertive, then get a career coach to help you discover, and develop that vital competency. Bottom line: you have to take yourself off auto pilot and break through the barriers that are between you and the job you want. You might be angry, depressed, scared, panicky, or feeling sorry for yourself, but honestly, companies could care less. They need people with the right mindset to give them 150% effort from the get-go, and those are the people who are “acing” the interviews and landing the jobs.
Why are ninety per cent of the calls I get for job openings coming from foreign born immigrants? Why don’t native born Americans call? What happened to our optimism, ingenuity, and work ethic? Why do we passively allow emerging powerhouses, like China or India to thrive on what were “our” industries and innovations? It’s simple. They often work twice as hard, with smarts and as long as necessary to get what they want. Do we want to be a fallen superpower like England, Russia, or even ancient Rome? Frankly, it’s happening right now.
I hope my call to arms motivates you to develop a winning strategy and a winning attitude, and gives the employer no other choice but to offer “you” the job. Stop listening to the naysayers, the cynics, and the losers who sap your energy and poison your pride. Forget about the media and its endless barrage of negativity. I know you can do it, and, deep down, you know you can do it too. So, just get out there and do it. Soon you, and our nation, will be moving up in success rather than sinking down in failure.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Finding The Right Recruiter For Your Job Search
Choosing a recruiter can have a major impact on your career: the right recruiter can play a major role in achieving job success and security; the wrong recruiter get you stuck in a bad or even career damaging situation. In over twenty five years in the recruiting field, I have observed recruiters on both these poles, and mostly somewhere in between; observing both the career benefits and unhappiness a recruiter can cause in your life. Of course, you need not make an uniformed, or ill informed choice, on who you pick as your recruiter. In this post I will offer some key points for finding the right recruiter for your job search.
1. Trust: As in most areas of human interaction, trust, or a lack thereof, can be a determining factor in successful personal and professional relationships. Without, at least, some initial intuition of trustworthiness, based upon your first impression of a recruiter, I would suggest you find someone else ASAP. When I started recruiting in its earlier, what I like to call pre-professional "wild west days," trust was almost always a concern, using a recruiter could often devolve into a "buyer beware" scenario. Today I think reputation, knowledge, recruiter consistency, ethics and career recommendations, are among key indicators in trusting, and working, with a recruiter. If you have a major negative assessment on any of these issues, then don't select, or fire, a recruiter immediately. To borrow a phrase from one of our favorite cultural icons, some recruiters are "masters in the art of deception." These recruiters should be avoided no matter what "rosy scenario" they paint of the job positions they offer to you. Finally, always be aware that a recruiter, no matter how effective, is paid by the hiring company, which can seriously impact the recruiter's objectivity and, occasionally, honesty.
2. Knowledge: If a recruiter doesn't understand what you do and what, and why, you want to do next, then forget about working with him because he is not qualified to assist you. Beyond this basic qualifier, it is important that the recruiter you choose has knowledge, and contacts, in your area of specialization: either on their own or through a reputable firm who trains junior and intermediate recruiters. Length of experience shouldn't necessarily be the determining factor in your recruiter selection, although businesses, and business people, have a tendency to use length of experience as a main selling point in working with them. For the most part this may be true because unethical business people, and often their firms, quickly develop a bad reputation and do not stay in business very long. Moreover, an energetic and ethical junior recruiter may work very, very hard on your behalf to establish themselves and a good reputation, while a few highly experienced recruiters can sometimes become jaded and/or burned out (recruiting can be an extremely high stress occupation) and only give minimal effort to your job search
3. Track Record: How successful is your potential recruiter in placing people in situations close to what you are looking for? There are many successful recruiters out there. In itself, that is an important bit of information, but these placements may not be in your area of expertise. However, these recruiters may often have friends, who are very familiar with what you do, and for a finder's fee from the other recruiters, or purely professional courtesy. When I first stated recruiting these recommendations or referrals were relatively rare except if the recruiters operated in different geographic regions. However, today many recruiters make a good part of their income through referrals, usually referred to as splits, to and from other recruiters with another placement firm. This is often beneficial, but make sure that your recruiter gets your prior authorization before forwarding your resume to a "split partner." The increasing specialization and globalization of career opportunities, particularly is the service economy like IT, has contributed to this trend. Finally, finding a recruiter who has exclusive access to a hiring manager or company can be major plus in finding a career enhancing position.
4. Chemistry: As in most areas of human interactions, the chemistry between a recruiter and his client is essential for a satisfying relationship. If you are a "laid back" or deliberative type of person, then a high powered, very aggressive recruiter may not be for you or visa-versa. You might be on such different "wavelengths" that you may come to dread interacting with this person. Remember. there are a lot of recruiters who want your business. Take the time to find someone you feel comfortable working with. If you make a wise decision, your recruiter may evolve into an invaluable long term career asset, finding you future jobs, and even filling your job requisitions if you move into management
5. Source: Today, where an increasing large percentage of personal and social introductions occur over the web 2.0, a major source for finding a recruiter can be found there as well, particularly on Linkedin. Also, job boards like Monster and, my favorite, Dice are a good source for recruiters. However, job boards are quickly losing their drawing power as the job boards lost their drawing power to print advertising before them. However. on a more personal level, for many years it was thought that getting a referral from a friend or trusted associate was the best way to find a recruiter. This may still be the preferred method in some cases. However, unless you have a background similar to the person who referred the recruiter to you, the value of the referral may be negligible. Furthermore, negative chemistry towards the recruiter, and an unrealistic sense of loyalty or obligation to the referring source, may, occasionally, lead to a very negative outcome.
6. Shop Around: Your career is a very critical aspect of your life. If you allow someone to represent you, you should be fairly certain that this person values you as something more than a quick placement commission. To avoid being treated like a commodity, I would recommend that you speak with at least 3 recruiters to feel comfortable that you have found someone to represent your best interests. Next, after careful consideration, I would choose no more than 2 recruiters. If a recruiter senses you will work with anyone, then that could prove to be a disincentive for the recruiter to exert maximum effort on your part. However, if your recruiter(s) don't either get you some interviews or stay in close contact with you within a few weeks, then It may be time to consider other, or additional recruiters.
As stated earlier, finding the recruiter who can most adequately satisfy your short and long term career needs is essential. This recruiter "must have your best interests" as a top priority. Although there has been a major improvement in the quality and legitimacy of recruiting professionals in the last 20 years, there are still shysters out there that should be detected and avoided to avert a potentially disastrous career move. Luckily, the increasingly competitive job market and very cautious employers have made unscrupulous headhunters an endangered species.
So now your concern in working with a recruiter should generally focus slightly less on the recruiter's ethical legitimacy and more on issues related to competency, chemistry, and clientele. Interviews and job offers can often be confusing and inconclusive experiences. A good recruiter, should have the expertise to clarify ad coordinate this crucial situation, leading to a win, win, win, outcome for you, your future employer and you.
1. Trust: As in most areas of human interaction, trust, or a lack thereof, can be a determining factor in successful personal and professional relationships. Without, at least, some initial intuition of trustworthiness, based upon your first impression of a recruiter, I would suggest you find someone else ASAP. When I started recruiting in its earlier, what I like to call pre-professional "wild west days," trust was almost always a concern, using a recruiter could often devolve into a "buyer beware" scenario. Today I think reputation, knowledge, recruiter consistency, ethics and career recommendations, are among key indicators in trusting, and working, with a recruiter. If you have a major negative assessment on any of these issues, then don't select, or fire, a recruiter immediately. To borrow a phrase from one of our favorite cultural icons, some recruiters are "masters in the art of deception." These recruiters should be avoided no matter what "rosy scenario" they paint of the job positions they offer to you. Finally, always be aware that a recruiter, no matter how effective, is paid by the hiring company, which can seriously impact the recruiter's objectivity and, occasionally, honesty.
2. Knowledge: If a recruiter doesn't understand what you do and what, and why, you want to do next, then forget about working with him because he is not qualified to assist you. Beyond this basic qualifier, it is important that the recruiter you choose has knowledge, and contacts, in your area of specialization: either on their own or through a reputable firm who trains junior and intermediate recruiters. Length of experience shouldn't necessarily be the determining factor in your recruiter selection, although businesses, and business people, have a tendency to use length of experience as a main selling point in working with them. For the most part this may be true because unethical business people, and often their firms, quickly develop a bad reputation and do not stay in business very long. Moreover, an energetic and ethical junior recruiter may work very, very hard on your behalf to establish themselves and a good reputation, while a few highly experienced recruiters can sometimes become jaded and/or burned out (recruiting can be an extremely high stress occupation) and only give minimal effort to your job search
3. Track Record: How successful is your potential recruiter in placing people in situations close to what you are looking for? There are many successful recruiters out there. In itself, that is an important bit of information, but these placements may not be in your area of expertise. However, these recruiters may often have friends, who are very familiar with what you do, and for a finder's fee from the other recruiters, or purely professional courtesy. When I first stated recruiting these recommendations or referrals were relatively rare except if the recruiters operated in different geographic regions. However, today many recruiters make a good part of their income through referrals, usually referred to as splits, to and from other recruiters with another placement firm. This is often beneficial, but make sure that your recruiter gets your prior authorization before forwarding your resume to a "split partner." The increasing specialization and globalization of career opportunities, particularly is the service economy like IT, has contributed to this trend. Finally, finding a recruiter who has exclusive access to a hiring manager or company can be major plus in finding a career enhancing position.
4. Chemistry: As in most areas of human interactions, the chemistry between a recruiter and his client is essential for a satisfying relationship. If you are a "laid back" or deliberative type of person, then a high powered, very aggressive recruiter may not be for you or visa-versa. You might be on such different "wavelengths" that you may come to dread interacting with this person. Remember. there are a lot of recruiters who want your business. Take the time to find someone you feel comfortable working with. If you make a wise decision, your recruiter may evolve into an invaluable long term career asset, finding you future jobs, and even filling your job requisitions if you move into management
5. Source: Today, where an increasing large percentage of personal and social introductions occur over the web 2.0, a major source for finding a recruiter can be found there as well, particularly on Linkedin. Also, job boards like Monster and, my favorite, Dice are a good source for recruiters. However, job boards are quickly losing their drawing power as the job boards lost their drawing power to print advertising before them. However. on a more personal level, for many years it was thought that getting a referral from a friend or trusted associate was the best way to find a recruiter. This may still be the preferred method in some cases. However, unless you have a background similar to the person who referred the recruiter to you, the value of the referral may be negligible. Furthermore, negative chemistry towards the recruiter, and an unrealistic sense of loyalty or obligation to the referring source, may, occasionally, lead to a very negative outcome.
6. Shop Around: Your career is a very critical aspect of your life. If you allow someone to represent you, you should be fairly certain that this person values you as something more than a quick placement commission. To avoid being treated like a commodity, I would recommend that you speak with at least 3 recruiters to feel comfortable that you have found someone to represent your best interests. Next, after careful consideration, I would choose no more than 2 recruiters. If a recruiter senses you will work with anyone, then that could prove to be a disincentive for the recruiter to exert maximum effort on your part. However, if your recruiter(s) don't either get you some interviews or stay in close contact with you within a few weeks, then It may be time to consider other, or additional recruiters.
As stated earlier, finding the recruiter who can most adequately satisfy your short and long term career needs is essential. This recruiter "must have your best interests" as a top priority. Although there has been a major improvement in the quality and legitimacy of recruiting professionals in the last 20 years, there are still shysters out there that should be detected and avoided to avert a potentially disastrous career move. Luckily, the increasingly competitive job market and very cautious employers have made unscrupulous headhunters an endangered species.
So now your concern in working with a recruiter should generally focus slightly less on the recruiter's ethical legitimacy and more on issues related to competency, chemistry, and clientele. Interviews and job offers can often be confusing and inconclusive experiences. A good recruiter, should have the expertise to clarify ad coordinate this crucial situation, leading to a win, win, win, outcome for you, your future employer and you.
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