David E. Perry's Blog, page 17

Call Human Resources: #10 of 50 Ways to Find a job Today

I know this sounds like heresy but there's method in my madness. Call the personnel department of the companies on your target list. Ask their manager or recruiter what outside agency or third party recruiting firm they use. Why? For two strategic reasons, First, any personnel person will immediately ask why you want to know. To which you answer, "I've been to your web site and I understand that you're not looking for someone with my skill set right now but the agency you use may be dealing with other firms who could use my skill set --- so I guess I'm looking for a recommendation from you." After they get over the compliment they will likely ask you about your skill set etc., in which case you should tell them that, "I didn't call you looking for a back door into your company but if you want to have a cup of coffee sometime I'd be happy to share my accomplishments with you." If they push you be prepared to sell yourself shamelessly. Second, if they don't press you for an interview, insist on knowing whom they use and why.

Personnel Managers love saving money on fees, so they may try to hire you directly.
Personnel Managers tend to group together by industry and make referrals to each other.
Getting a referral from one of their customers will insure the agency treats you with kid gloves.
Always ask for the name of a specific person and their direct dial number.
Get permission to use the Personnel Manager's name as a reference.
Ask if they personally know of any other companies that could make appropriate use of your skills.
Send them a thank you note with a copy of your resume to keep on file for their future requirements.

Compliments of David E Perry and Kevin Donlin.
For more creative job search tactics, go to the Guerrilla Marketing for job hunters blog and download the free audio CD.

10 Career Enhancing Social Networking Sites | DSL Service Providers

Social networking sites were originally created to connect people, but today's sites do so much more. Everyone knows that successful careers are built on who you know. So, whether you're looking for a new job or just wanting to move up in your field, these ten sites can help you move forward.

via www.dslserviceproviders.org

Great summary.

Use personal letterhead and envelopes : #11 of 50 Ways to Find a Job Today

If you want to increase the pull of your direct mail campaigns then consider putting together matching letterhead and envelopes that have your picture on them. I use the head and shoulders shot below with quotes from clients to increase my mass mailings. You can do the same thing. I recommend you do this with your second and third tier prospects because the direct one-on-one approach will work better. This is a great idea for marketing and sales people who want to change industry and need to generate a large quantity of leads quickly.

Use a good quality head shot.
To save money ask a friend to use their digital camera. Make sure it's set on the highest quality. You'll need a 400 dpi resolution jpeg to ensure a crisp picture.
  Wear a good suit and tie.
Take off your glasses so the flash doesn't reflect off them.
Use a light background behind you and wear dark clothes.
Make certain you wear a contrasting color shirt. For example white with a blue suit, so you can be seen clearly when the picture is shrunken to one square inch and printed in black & white or gray tones.
It's a statistical fact that if you hand-address the envelopes more people will open them.

Compliments of David E Perry and Kevin Donlin. For more creative job search tactics, go to the Guerrilla Marketing for job hunters blog and download the free audio CD.

HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT—HOW TO NETWORK Part #1

HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT—HOW TO NETWORK LIKE
A HEADHUNTER
Headhunters network every day out of pure necessity. More often
than not, they will have an assignment for "X," whatever "X" may be today, even when they've never recruited an "X" before. That doesn't stop them from completing the mission. Instead, there are tried-and true methods for locating, identifying, and recruiting candidates.

The following four steps show you how to do that for yourself.

Step 1: Locate Your Target Companies
Determine which companies you want to work for, how you can add
value, and why they should hire you.

Step 2: Identify Who Runs the Department
Find out who is in charge of the area you want to work in. This generally means identifying a vice president or general manager. For companies with less than 50 people, it may mean the owner or president. You can get this information by calling the company and asking, "Who's responsible for X" or by looking on the firm's web site to find the person in that position. Several methods for doing this are outlined in Chapter 5.

Steps 3 & 4 to follow

Compliments of David E Perry and Kevin Donlin. For more creative job search tactics, go to the Guerrilla Marketing for job hunters blog and download the free audio CD.

Retail Success

I worked with one client who specialized in retail merchandizing (POP, planagrams, etc). After developing her resume, we discussed putting together a targeted job search campaign to go after some of the bigger players in retail. While working out her "unique selling proposition" she made the claim that she could walk into any retail environment and recommend how they could make more money through better merchandising. I asked, "Can you really back that up?" and suddenly her plan was born.

My client targeted 5 major retail outlets, went to a number of their locations, and made detailed notes on what she saw and how she would improve it. The first company she contacted was a major outlet with offices located in the building over the store. She walked into the offices, asked to speak to the person in charge of marketing, was told he was in a meeting until 11:00am, so she scribbled a quick note on a piece of paper that read "I've just spent 30 minutes in your store. I found 3 merchandising inconsistencies and identified 7 ways that should increase your sales by about 12-15%. My name is ____________ and I will be waiting in the coffee shop downstairs."

"Please hand this to him at the end of his meeting. It's very important" and she walked out.

Shortly after 11:00, the VP of Marketing came downstairs, met her in the coffee shop, and spent the next hour walking through every corner of the store discussing her findings. Although no such position existed, the VP hired her as their new Director of Merchandising.

Compliments of Ross Macpherson, President Career Quest, www.yourcareerquest.com

Compliments of David E Perry and Kevin Donlin.For more creative job search tactics, go to the Guerrilla Marketing for job hunters blog and download the free audio CD.

#12 0f 50 Ways to Find a Job: Articulating your value is your key to successful job-hunting

Instead of resources or land, "capital" today means human capital. It doesn't take a shoe factory to go into the shoe business these days. Nor do you need raw materials or fleets of trucks. Nike became a shoe industry leader by concentrating on the value-producing capacity of it's employees, for design, marketing and distribution know-how. The real capital is intangible: the person's knowledge level, combined with an aptitude for application.

 
The current "jobless" recovery is a result of our economy evolving from a resources and manufacturing based economy, to a knowledge based one.

 
For most of the 20th Century, a recession was a cyclical temporary decline in demand where people were temporarily laid off, while inventory backlogs were reduced. As demand increased, workers returned to pre-existing positions or found comparable jobs with another and the economy could snap back quickly

Technology has allowed companies to establish tightly integrated demand and supply chains while outsourcing jobs to save money. Many of the jobs which have entirely disappeared from

North America have reappeared in India, China and Mexico. 

We are now witnessing the first recovery in what has become a full information  economy. Investment in new capital equipment is no longer a pendulum swinging form recession to recovery and back again firm - the result of inventory that needed to be sold off. 

Because job growth now depends on the creation of net new positions in different firms and industries, you can expect a long lag before employment rebounds. Employers incur risks in creating new jobs, and require additional time to establish and fill positions.

America's challenge is to leverage its % of the global population into a much larger percentage of intellectual capital competitiveness.  Knowledge Workers are the backbone in all sectors of the economy: most obviously in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sectors but they also embrace the other industrial sectors including healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, and the Public Service.

Labour Market Studies indicate that there is already a looming Knowledge Worker skills shortage – a shortage that impacts competitiveness and economic and social development. These shortages will not diminish soon because skilled "Baby Boomers" are retiring in unprecedented numbers while the newly created knowledge economy jobs require more education and higher skill levels.

'The War for Talent' today is a qualitative conflict that is best characterized as the 'War for the Best Talent' - a global conflict being fought amongst the G7 countries with the winner taking all.  Knowledge economy jobs are borderless - a vacancy in San Francisco may be filled by someone in China, India or elsewhere.

 

As a job-hunter, you need to comprehend that the production of value is the most important criterion for an employer when hiring. Articulating your value is your key to successful job-hunting; it sepa­rates you from all the other job-hunters. Understand, value is not salary; worth does not flow from a job title. Knowing what's impor­tant to a company means looking beyond job descriptions and compensation tables, especially today when sudden changes and uncertainty are the norm. 

The New Value Table in  Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters  is the ideal jump-off point for  articulating yours.

Compliments of David E Perry and Kevin Donlin. For more creative job search tactics, go to the Guerrilla Marketing for job hunters blog and download the free audio CD.

Competitive Analysis : #2 0f 50 Ways to find a Job Today

Do a competitive analysis on one of your targeted employer's products and send it to them. People assume that all companies keep up to date on their competitors, but this is rarely the case. Most companies don't have the budget or the ability internally to keep on top of innovations and best practices so your piece will likely be most welcome.

 Focus on companies that are direct competitors with those you want to work for, not your own company.
 Potential employers need to get something out of reading the piece.
Use graphs and charts wherever possible because people like visuals.
Make it only as long as it needs to be.
 Ask for an opportunity to discuss your findings with the hiring manager if they're interested.
Offer to share your primary research if they're interested

Compliments of David E Perry and Kevin Donlin. For more creative job search tactics, go to the Guerrilla Marketing for job hunters blog and download the free audio CD.

Attitude is everything-Job Hunters

Jason Goldberg (aka JGo), CEO of Jobster an online referral firm, has discovered a site that allows you to rate your recruiter. Uh-oh! Here it is: The Recruiter-Rater Canadian Headhunter

It's rarely the best qualified that win the most coveted positions.  It's often the person who displays the best attitude. Employers want to hire positive people as much as they need to hire people who are competent.  If you have both, the employer's decision becomes all too obvious.  Most employers I know, including yours truly, would rather have an employee with a great attitude and some related work experience, than a more experienced one with a poor attitude.

BUT it's hard work staying focused on your job search AND keeping a POSITIVE mental attitude… even for the best sales guys out there, looking for a job can be downright discouraging.

Fortunately there are a few absolutely brilliant resources on the web to keep you pumped up and focused AND possibly the best is a newsletter from a master sales trainer out of Atlanta --- Jeffrey Gitomer who is Author of The Sales Bible, and Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless. Jeffrey gets it like no other and he'll deliver a silver bullet of motivation straight to your email inbox for FREE every week by just signing up What are you waiting for go sign up!

Here's this week's Gitomer GIT BIT:

To have your BEST year ever, you gotta believe.

Two truths: You are looking to have your BEST year ever, and you have already broken all your New Year's resolutions.

Last week I gave you the first two elements of how to have your BEST year ever:

1. Define yourself.

2. Develop a sales mission statement.

Here are the next three elements to master:

Compliments of David E Perry and Kevin Donlin. For more creative job search tactics, go to the Guerrilla Marketing for job hunters blog and download the free audio CD.

Send a letter stating you are over qualified : #6 of 50 ways to find a job

Send a letter stating you are over qualified.

Send your resume and a cover letter which states "It'll appear obvious from my resume that I'm over-qualified for the job you advertised, so let me tell you why you should interview me and consider "super-sizing" your opportunity".

Write a bulleted list of 3-5 benefits you think they might be interested in.

Close the letter saying something to the effect that "I am old enough to have already learned from my mistakes – so my experience is more cost effective than a more junior person. In a few months, or years, you'll need to send them on training to upgrade their knowledge, whereas I come fully equipped to do the next job too."

Point out any certificates or advanced training which you already have that someone in that job might be expected to acquire.
Show you are already qualified to do the next position too.
Point out any retraining allowances or incentives employers might be eligible for if they hire a more seasoned person.

Compliments of David E Perry and Kevin Donlin. For more creative job search tactics, go to the Guerrilla Marketing for job hunters blog and download the free audio CD.

Is HR killing American business: Proof HR doesn't get it!

I have to rant ... just a little tonight... I swear some days it just feel slike HR is waht's standing in  the way of the American recovery.  Let me tell you why HR just doessne't get it. 

I received this email yesterday addressed to, "Dear Recruiter".

Let me ask you something... when was the last time an HR manager said to you at an interview: "Thanks for sending me your generic resume.  And your generic email instructing me to read it.  Aren't they the ones usually insisting you research the company and spell their name correctly?

Boy I sure felt special – honored even to have received it- Because you're the hottest candidate I've ever seen.

NOT!!!!!

Isn't it HR who always complains about people who send resumes with generic cover letters that say; dear sir Madame... or something to that effect?  It's un professional.  Don't they also say they prefer candidates who understand  their business and can speak to their needs? It's a rhetorical question. Of course they do! AND all the books on writing résumés and cover letters including my own, Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters, say the same thing. Customize your letter and resume to suit the opportunity. Research the company before you send the letter. Do your home work and show initiative by addressing your letter – email – fax to the person who's responsible for hiring people into the role you're looking to fill.

Well in my SPAM basket tonight is yet another RESPAM-ume [that's a resume sent to me with a generic "hey buddy look at me message".

But this one is different. It's from an HR Director.  And not a junior at that. No less than an "Accomplished Senior Human Resources Professional with over 12 years of experience".

Ok I admit her subject line got me to open it because it was so provocative: "Results Driven HR Professional" This, I thought - I have to read.  So I clicked on it with great hope only to be disappointed again with her note to me, "I have attached my resume for your review. You are receiving this resume because your firm specializes in the industries and functions I selected while using resume distribution service. Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to hearing from you if an appropriate opportunity presents itself." BLAH BLAH BLAH [emphasis mine] 

So I think --- ok how bad can this be?

Their must be some merit to it, I was wrong, sooooo wrong. But all is not lost.  I wasted 15 minutes of my time so you can benefit from their mistakes.

Let me tell you the top 3 things this candidate did wrong so you don't do it too.

Their resume was titled, "current resume.doc". This is absolutely wrong. At a minimum your resume should have your name on it like John Smith when you save the document. Or better yet John Smith results driven HR Manager. It's recipient needs to be able find it later, it doesn't take a genius to realize that you should make it easy for a harried recruiter or hiring manager. Do you know how long it would take to open and sift through ALL the other word documents titled "current resume doc?". Do you think anyone is seriously going to bother!

 

Ok sowhat else? Well there wasn't one shred of proof in the resume, anywhere, that this person was indeed "results driven" as her subject line had promised. Not one      accomplishment in 3 pages, no savings of money or decreasing costs. No streamlining of processes. No revamping of procedures.  Exactly the things this HR manager would likely be looking for in the resume of a new hire.  The closest I came was this line:, "Displayed great enthusiasm, creativity, and initiative". To which I must ask – so what? Ok, so now I'm really confused. I'm just a simple headhunter but I have to wonder if this "Results Driven HR Professional" would even bother to read their own resume if it came across their desk? I think not and

 

I conclude that because I opened up the properties box in the word document [it's under the "file" prompt] to find out when the document was written. 11 months ago. So they've been looking for 11 months. Must be spamming now because they're desperate. But it would be a whole lot easier less costly and better for the environment [less dead trees] if this HR Professional where to articulate their value proposition, research the market demand for their skills and target employers instead.

DON"T let this happen to you.

I concluded this candidate obviously isn't "results driven" nor are they a hot property I would want to promote to any of my clients.

But the part that just kills me?This that this is the norm with HR people.

America is facing a crisis of confidence with its workforce.

The social bonds between  employer and employee where severed in the last recession and are irreparable on a national scale. HR isn't an island of trust anymore and it needs to be because culture is the last bastion of competitive advantage in America, just HR is responsible for guarding and extending culture.

Tonight, this candidate scars me to death. Because I know they'll get a job. They'll land somewhere --- eventually AND then they'll be put in charge of hiring the company's best and brightest – and yet another company will go belly up with everyone wondering why, is it any wonder applicants try to circumvent the "system" when clueless people are in charge?  It just stuns me. Perhaps I should be thankful. No I – I hope HR wakes up and become a FULL PARTNER in building America's businesses, because right now they're still getting in the way --- and don't even realize it.

Here's Why you should use LinkedIn to Research your Interviewer

Know who you're negotiating with. Ever drive a great deal on a car only to find the salesman couldn't approve the deal?  Did the 'Sales Manager" suddenly appear only to cause you to start the negotiations over? Frustrating isn't it! Suddenly you're sitting in the drivers seat and one wrong move and you crash. Knowing where a company is in the hiring process gives you power to negotiate.

You can leverage the situation you figure out:What's their time frame for a hiring decision? How long has the position been open? What kind of deal you get with their competitor is if they have made any offers that were refused.

Lastly, do your homework to understand what's in the deal for the interviewer. Can they afford to walk away?

Like Donald Trump said:

"The Worst thing you can possibly do in a deal is seem desperate to make it.  That makes the other guy smell blood, and then you're  dead.The best thing you can do is deal from strength, and leverage is the biggest strength you can have. Leverage is having something the other guy wants. Or better yet, needs. Or best of all, simply can't do without."
—DONALD J. TRUMP, TRUMP: THE ART OF THE DEAL