It’s time again to delve deeper into the Job Candidate Bill of Rights created by Acollo’s John Younger. We’ve come a long way, but there are still a few more rights worth exploring. Today, we’re focusing on “respect.” Now, most of the other rights on the list could fall into the category of respect, as the idea of having rights in the first place is based on the idea of wanting to be respected. However, we’re going to look at a very specific form of respect when it comes to the job search:

“Respect
Scheduling of interviews will occur in a manner that connotes respect for the candidate, their time and their efforts.”

This seems pretty straight forward, and it seems that most companies would understand that job candidate’s often have other opportunities they’re exploring or even current jobs at which they’re working. However, anyone who has been called in for the “next day” interview or heard the dreaded “do you have time for a short phone interview right now?” knows that not all businesses and recruiters respect a job candidate’s time or situation.
The problem is wide spread enough to have made it onto the list of other job candidate’s bills of rights. Here is what Job Syntax had to say on the matter:

“The right to have adequate time to prepare for any phone or in-person interviews–Many people are under the mistaken impression that qualified candidates are only on the job market for a day. While this is true to a degree, if you are an excellent candidate, you are also going to be taking time to determine which companies are the best match for you. You won’t just jump into an interview experience, but weigh all your options. Don’t feel pressured by recruiters that want you to interview the next day. Set up mutually convenient times and stick to your guns.”

The issue of respect will continue to come up in the job search, and it’s important for hiring authorities and recruiters not to take advantage of a candidate simply because that candidate needs a job. However, it’s important for candidates to respect the time of those conducting the interviews, as well:

“Yes, employers absolutely must treat their people well these days, but there are two sides to every story.
Job seekers should know that although the ball is in your court, your actions should always be based on common sense and good manners…It’s actually very simple. If you need to cancel an interview, call the interviewer to do so. Over the past 11 years of running this employment agency, “no shows” (people who didn’t show up for an interview and didn’t call) were extremely rare. In recent weeks, it has happened a few times and I hear complaints from other companies of the same behaviour.” (From Question)

There are other issues recruiters have like lack of preparation and so on, but we’ll save those for our Recruiter Bill of Rights. In the mean time, let’s all try to set up interviews that work for everyone involved.

Join us next week for Number 9…Number 9…Number 9, “Communication.”

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News You Can Use: A Daily Round Up of Links for Recruiters, Job Seekers and Quiet Working Professionals

[Daily Post from itzbig] The itzbig Blog: Show the Recruiters Some Love

“We know there’s not always a lot of love being throw recruiters’ way, but we believe if more recruiters had the right tools to work with; tools that allowed for better communication between all parties involved, and tools that allowed recruiters to better assess what a company was really looking for and what a candidate really had to offer, more candidates and companies would be expressing their gratitude on a regular basis.”

Brazen Careerist: 10 Job-hunt tactics you might not know
Tip #10

“Be nice. ‘People who are perceived as nice get hired more frequently’, says Robin Koval, co-author of The Power of Nice: How to Conquer the Business World with Kindness. But you probably already think you’re nice. Most people do. If you get jobs easily, then chances are you probably are nice. Or so talented you can get away with being only moderately nice. But if your job hunting is strained, check out this test to see how nice you really are.”

Express Computer Online: The business impact of HR

“Instead of being a support function, HR professionals need to speak a language that the rest of the organisation can relate to—in terms of business development. It has become the powerful player in the organisation that can bring figures to the table and state its point with quantifiable data.”

Profiled IT People: Entry 3: Your Lack of Scarcity Power

“No CV Required…Stop sending me your CV. It is a useless document that is doing nothing for your talents, skills and experience. It simply won’t get you hired! You should have discovered this by now. Most CV’s are not worth the paper (file) they are written on! If your CV gets more than five seconds of attention from a prospective employer or recruiter, you are one of the fortunate few.”

MSNBC: How to survive your first week at work

“The first week on a new job is tough. You want to prove you’re capable and hit the ground running, but the smallest things can trip you up. After all, they don’t teach college courses on who to call when your computer breaks or the fastest way to learn co-workers’ names.”

QuintCareers: Avoid These 10 Interview Bloopers

“Talking negatively about current or past employers/managers: The fastest way to talk yourself out of a new job is to say negative things. Even if your last boss was Attila the Hun, never, never state your ill feelings about him/her. No matter how reasonable your complaints, you will come out the loser if you show that you disrespect your boss because the interviewer will assume that you would similarly trash him or her.”

A Recruiter Diary: Most IT pros are looking for a new job

“I stumbled upon this interesting piece of statistics from a survey and thought to share with everyone. Most IT pros are looking for a new job, Says survey 60% of IT pros are looking for new jobs, Of the 60% who want a new job”

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With the onset of so many job boards and an ever-growing online job search industry, it’s become easy for people to write off recruiters. Many see them as a thing of the past; a middle man that actually gets in the way of the hiring process. Others aren’t even that nice about it. In fact, some candidates are quick to hurl insults at a recruiter every time something doesn’t go their way. Now, we don’t want to sound sappy, but recruiters are people, too. Perhaps more importantly, good recruiters are still a necessity to both job candidates and companies.

So, why the bad blood? Well, any decent recruiter will tell you that there are a lot of bad recruiters out there. In fact, many would suggest that a lot of folks calling themselves recruiters aren’t actually recruiters at all, because they don’t do the work required to match candidates to companies. But, if we can heed some old advice, let’s not let a few bad apples ruin the whole barrel or whatever. You know how it goes. The point is that there are still great recruiters out there that can make the job search a far easier and far more successful process. And despite what many candidates think, there are a lot of recruiters still committed to helping them:

“At the core, I am a recruiter. I don’t have any way to cue the sappy music while you are reading this but if I could, I would. What I care most about is what we in the staffing industry refers to as the “candidate experience”. That term refers to the interaction, both subtle and obvious, a candidate (or future candidate) has with a company as it relates to potential employment. I guess what I am saying is that it’s not just the experience a candidate has interviewing with Microsoft but well before that. It involves the employment brand. I remember what it was like to be a candidate. I’m not going to say I was traumatized, but I have been on the receiving end of some not great recruiting processes. I hated the uncertainty, I was flown in for a job that didn’t exist, I saw some aspects of corporate culture that did not appeal to me, I dealt with a headhunter with questionable tactics, I waited and waited and waited.” (From One Louder)

The feelings expressed above are not as rare as people like to think. However, recruiters also have a responsibility to the companies looking to hire, and the best recruiters take that relationship as seriously as the Microsoft recruiter takes her relationship with candidates:

“As great recruiters, we take the time to discover what makes your opportunity different from the others. People take new opportunities for many reasons, but the one universal cause is the search for greater job growth and stretch. Therefore, as great recruiters, we try and discover the subtle differences that would attract someone towards your opportunity.” (From Skilled Trades)

The key word there is “subtle.” The best recruiters find the subtleties, the nuances that make it possible to match candidates with the right positions, and vice versa.

We know there’s not always a lot of love being throw recruiters’ way, but we believe if more recruiters had the right tools to work with; tools that allowed for better communication between all parties involved, and tools that allowed recruiters to better assess what a company was really looking for and what a candidate really had to offer, more candidates and companies would be expressing their gratitude on a regular basis.

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News You Can Use: A Daily Round Up of Links for Recruiters, Job Seekers and Quiet Working Professionals

[Daily Post from itzbig] The itzbig Blog: Three Tales of Terror

“We’ve talked about it before, but the problem seems to be getting even worse. We know that people who need a job do everything they can to make sure their online applications and resumes include all of the information the ‘company’ is looking for, and sometimes they just give too much info. However, without any real confidentiality or protection on today’s job boards and with the boards selling resumes without the knowledge of candidates, thieves can quite easily get a hold of info that candidates thought wasn’t being shared with anyone.”

Quad-City Times: To land job, first master interview

“It takes a great interview to land that great job. This is what Lisa Ferns, a career adviser at the University of Rhode Island Office of Career Services, tells the students she advises and why she tells them to make sure they are prepared for their interviews. Failure to understand the right way to approach a formal interview with a large corporate employer, she explained, can often keep an otherwise qualified candidate from getting the job he or she deserves. ‘An interview is the chance to show you are the right personality fit for a job,’ Ferns said. ‘It gives you a chance to tell them how your skills and abilities match a job description.’”

Job Search Secrets: Be nice to the receptionist

“Everyone is judging you when you go on a job interview. Or, so you should assume, career counselors suggest. That includes the receptionist, who is not merely there to alert your interviewer to your presence. It’s becoming increasingly common for human resources execs to ask receptionists about job candidates’ conduct…”

ERE: Nine Best Practices for Gen Y

“Self assured, tech-savvy, and idealistic, they arrive at work with an evolved set of expectations around employment and their opportunity to have an impact from day one. The achievement orientation and natural impatience of this plugged-in, multi-tasking generation inevitably creates conflict for many employers and coincides with a time where the pool of skilled talent is shrinking.”

SeoPedia: Be careful what you write online
What you write online can cost you your job but it can also help you get hired:

“Hiring managers said the following information discovered on the Web helped to confirm their decision to hire a candidate:
64% - candidate’s background information supported their professional qualifications for the job
40% - candidate was well-rounded, showed a wide range of interests
34% - candidate had great communication skills…”

About: Job Interview Tips: How to Interview Potential Employees

“From the employer’s perspective, interviewing employees can be a lot like playing a slot machine. You know what you’re investing in the employee search but you never know the outcome for sure.”

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Last Friday, in honor of the upcoming Halloween and all its frightfulness, we related some horror stories from the interview process. Well, Halloween is even closer now, and as people prepare for weekend costume parties or prepare bags of popcorn to sustain them through “Monster Fest” or “Monster Madness” or the Halloween movie marathon of their choice, we thought it only appropriate to bring forth even scarier material. These aren’t interview stories, though, there just some of the most frightening things facing the industry today:

Selling Resumes and Identity Theft
We’ve talked about it before, but the problem seems to be getting even worse. We know that people who need a job do everything they can to make sure their online applications and resumes include all of the information the “company” is looking for, and sometimes they just give too much info. However, without any real confidentiality or protection on today’s job boards and with the boards selling resumes without the knowledge of candidates, thieves can quite easily get a hold of info that candidates thought wasn’t being shared with anyone:

“Alex Murphy, a director with HotResumes, concedes that people who post their resumes on the site may not be aware those resumes can be sold. But he says the company’s privacy policy, which all posters agree to when posting their resumes, permits the sales.
Some experts counter that such resume sales take away job seekers’ control over their personal data, putting them at risk of identity theft and Internet scams, as well as annoying e-mail spamming. “The abuses have grown exponentially, and daily we learn of new ways that our personal information can be aggregated, used and sold,” says Gerry Crispin, co-author of “CareerXroads,” a guide to online job boards.” (From SCJob.com)

Fruitless Job Searches

“First, scary story in the NY Times yesterday (subscription possibly required - and worth it!) about men in the prime of their lives not working, and not looking for work.
“‘About 13 percent of American men between the age of 30 to 55 are not working, up from 5 percent in the late 1960’s. The difference represents 4 million men who would be working today if the employment rate had remained where it was in the 1950’s and 60’s.’
“I really feel for these guys. As you read the article you can see how life has dealt them a harsh blow and then they have lost some confidence and spiraled downwards. Finally at some point they get so low they give up trying.” (From The Asia Pacific Headhunter)

Read our latest Plan B post for more on the subject of fruitless job searches and the effects they can have on job seekers.

Monster Advice
It wouldn’t be Halloween without a monster. Or at least a Monster.com. It’s no secret that we feel the big job boards are lacking in a number of areas, but here is something we’ve not touched on yet:

“…the Monster.com resume guru suggests you write a cover letter that begins like this:

“‘Your advertisement on Monster for a (insert job title) fits my experience and qualifications perfectly, and I am writing to express my interest in and enthusiasm for the position…’ “Anyway, my point (and I do have one) is that you need to develop a voice and you need to be engaging, interesting, and THEM-focused. I guarantee you–use Monster’s suggestions and you’ll die repeated, horrible deaths in the reject pile.” (From Job Secrets Revealed)

Hmmm. Dying repeated, horrible deaths. It doesn’t get much more Halloween than that. Enjoy the weekend and sleep with the lights on.

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News You Can Use: A Daily Round Up of Links for Recruiters, Job Seekers and Quiet Working Professionals

[Daily Post from itzbig] The itzbig Blog: You Might not be Perfect, but neither are the Job Boards

“Now, when keeping a positive attitude it’s easy for people to start thinking they’re perfect for every job. After all, it’s human nature to think of oneself as being the best at something. How else can you explain all of those folks auditioning for American Idol every year? However, as we’ve learned from so many off-key performances, people aren’t always as right for an occupation as they might think.”

Kansas City Star: HR gatekeepers keeping the skilled locked out

“‘If you’re out of work, there’s a prejudice against you,’ one said. ‘Recruiters say the employers are more interested in candidates who are employed.’…Good candidates aren’t getting through corporate front-line resume screening systems. Or, if their resumes are reaching the eyes of actual hiring managers, they’re getting no feedback as to why they’re not getting interviews. ‘We can’t get past the HR gatekeeper,’ one said. ‘If we’re blown off, we don’t know why.’”

CyberSleuthing: Talk with candidates about what’s going on in their city

“So you want to break the ice and make a connection when you are talking with candidates and prospects? ‘Yes’ you say? Well then you could talk with them about what’s going on in their communities - that’s an easy ice breaker.”

CIO Insight: IT’s Talent Shortage

“All the recruitment and retention issues that affect corporations as a whole—the brain drain, employee restlessness, finding and keeping your best people—also affect corporate IT departments. But IT has some special challenges that set it apart from other business units. First is the problem of recruitment, which has suddenly gotten much more difficult. Says Kate Kaiser, an associate professor of IT at Marquette University’s College of Business, ‘Between 2001 and 2005, the number of students graduating in IT-related disciplines has dropped significantly’”

Marketing Headhunter: How long? How many? And Why?

“I inquired ‘How long has the position been open?’ ‘Six months’ came the answer. ‘Why so long?’ I asked. To which the CMO responded, ‘We have run the posting everywhere and just haven’t received that many qualified applications.’ I asked him to send me the job description and let me assess whether or not I had the bandwidth to handle the search. As the day wore on, I made calls to a dozen potential ‘A-player’ candidates to see if they had heard anything about the company or the job. They all had — and six had applied for the job and never been contacted by HR.”

Jim Stroud 2.0: The Recruiting Life

Even the “Wizard of Reqs” has his limitations: Click here for the comic

Job Search Secrets: 5 Interviewing Tips To Get That Job!

“Tip# 4 - Be Prepared ‘Know what to say.’ Most interviewers ask the same standard questions about your strengths, weaknesses, former employers, work history. If you are being interviewed by several people, this might be a good cop, bad cop situation. Pay attention to who is playing bad cop, they are looking for signs of weakness and dishonesty. To be well prepared, before the interview, write out all your accomplishments, both personal and professional. List your strengths and weaknesses. Be honest, it’s easier to remember the truth than it is a lie.”

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Just yesterday, we were talking about maintaining confidence during a job search. Now, when keeping a positive attitude it’s easy for people to start thinking they’re perfect for every job. After all, it’s human nature to think of oneself as being the best at something. How else can you explain all of those folks auditioning for American Idol every year? However, as we’ve learned from so many off-key performances, people aren’t always as right for an occupation as they might think. This misconceived perfection of job candidates has sparked the ire (or at least the annoyance) of some in the industry:

“To be honest, most people enjoy obsessing over their resume. Because if they were perfect for a certain job, if only in their head, but didn’t get an interview, it must be the resume’s fault.
“After all, anything else would mean that they actually weren’t the best candidate and might have some personal flaws. Things that might need to be changed in order to get a better job.” (From FRACAT)

OK, that might sound a little harsh, but some job candidates do tend to blame the resume when the resume has done nothing wrong. Others aren’t as disturbed by candidates’ resume obsession as they are with people applying for jobs they’re not qualified for. In Springboard’s 10 Reasons Why You’re Not Getting Interviews, this is number 10:

“You’re not as qualified as you think.
The bottom line may be that you’re simply not as perfect for the job as you think. Before submitting your résumé, take a close look at the job description and compare your skills and experience with those required for the position.”

Again, that’s fair. Candidates do overshoot sometimes, and sometimes it should be clear from the description that they might need to look elsewhere. However, what both of these complaints fail to address is the fact that often candidates have no idea if they’re not “perfect” for the position. Job postings are often vague at best when it comes to the amount of or type of experience the company is looking for. If candidates meet those basic requirements they’re most likely going to apply. Once they do, there is no way for them to judge themselves against others who have applied to see where they might be lacking. There’s generally no feedback either, so they have no real idea as to why they didn’t get called for an interview. Often recruiters are left as much in the dark as the candidates, so it’s not surprising that qualified people turn to their resumes to look for shortcomings.

Hey, we know that not every candidate is perfect, just like we know that not every job is perfect. However, until we can develop a system where candidates and recruiters know exactly what companies are looking for, and until we can provide job candidates with the means to evaluate their skills and experience in comparison to others on the market, people will continue to apply for jobs they shouldn’t waste their time on, and they’ll continue to shred their resumes in fits of rage.

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[Daily Post from itzbig] The itzbig Blog: Lost Your Job: Go to Plan B

“Now, we fully believe that it’s crucial to stay positive while looking for a new job. However, we also know that it easier to stay positive when your have other opportunities at your finger tips. Opportunities where you know exactly how they match your needs and opportunities where you know how competitive you are for the open positions. This information can be constantly available while you are fully involved with your A Job.”

CIO Insight: How to Get—and Keep—Top IT Talent

“As baby boomers prepare to retire, companies are scrambling to fill the gaping hole they will leave in the workplace. The issue is particularly important in IT, which is already battling a skills shortage. In the coming years, talent recruitment and retention will be a top priority. So what are you doing about it today?”

Observer: Understanding the risks of posting online resume

“Limit information: No legitimate employer needs your social security number, bank account numbers, mother’s maiden name or any other identifying information.
Post smart: Don’t post your resume on every site. Instead, seek out sites that are relevant to your career path and are well known. Quality sites, rather than quantity, is the key.
Leave it out: Omit references from your online resume. If strangers start calling your old boss or best friend, you may find yourself without references before too long.”

The Wall Street Journal: Who’s Reading Online Résumés? Identity Crooks

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation said in July that it is investigating a variety of cases involving online job scams. In one scenario the FBI cites, people are finding résumés posted online with Social Security numbers and other personal details, and using the information to apply for fake credit cards and loans in the job hunters’ names.”

Guerrilla Job Hunting: Ask for what you want

“…I suggested he write down the 5 companies he wanted to work and why they should hire him. This is perhaps the most difficult part of looking for a job – especially a first job out of school. But he did it. Then I suggested he write the president of each of the firms in his order of preference and explain why they should hire him. Essentially the letter was used to detail why he wanted to work for them - not the company but the actual owner or President explaining specifically what he could offer.”

Globe and Mail: Job scouter learns to ‘be prepared’

“It was Lord Robert Baden-Powell, the father of scouting, who coined the famous phrase: ‘Be prepared.’ It’s advice I have always tried to live by — but it came in particularly handy this week, when I interviewed for a job that didn’t exist, a job that suddenly appeared and then, just as suddenly, disappeared, and a job that I didn’t know was available.”

Huntsville Times: Don’t talk yourself out of the job

“I’ve compiled this 101 list from previous columns and added information. Important things to remember include: Prepare yourself. Before the big day, do your homework. Research the company to learn as much as you can. You can also research the industry and the specific position. This can be done by using the Internet and by talking with people in the organization. Use the information to demonstrate your knowledge and interest during the interview. Don’t ever go into an interview and ask the employer, ‘What does your company do?’”

AskStudent: The top 25 Insider Tips to Interviewing : Expert career advice

“Know everything about your potential employer before the interview. Customize your answers as much as possible in terms of the needs of the employer. This requires that you complete research before the interview about the company, its customers, and the work you anticipate doing. Speak the employer’s language and address his or her needs.”

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So far in our Plan B series we’ve focused on job candidates who have time to look for the position they want (people who hate their jobs and people looking for their dream job) and those who at least know that their current situation is coming to an end (college seniors and people leaving the military). We thought it was important, though, to highlight the issues that people face when they’re laid off or get fired; those situations when time and foresight aren’t luxuries that you have. Anyone who has been in the situation is familiar with the pressure and frustration that usually accompanies it. You can start your job search hoping to find a position similar to the one you just lost, but you can end up settling for something that’s just going to allow you to pay the bills.

Most of the advice given to job candidates that have unexpectedly found themselves out of work focuses on the mental and emotional aspects of the job search:

“In order to perform at your best in interviews you need to put yourself in a positive frame of mind. Worrying about why you were fired won’t help you to land a new job. Attitude is everything during a job search! If you have been fired or laid off the best gifts you can give yourself are a professional resume, a great attitude, and an enthusiastic outlook about the new opportunities that will present themselves to you!” (From Staying Positive Even Though You’ve Been Fired)

Now, we fully believe that it’s crucial to stay positive while looking for a new job. However, we also know that it easier to stay positive when your have other opportunities at your finger tips. Opportunities where you know exactly how they match your needs and opportunities where you know how competitive you are for the open positions. This information can be constantly available while you are fully involved with your A Job. Your online system should be exploring and reporting these Plan B opportunities while keeping your “quiet” search completely secure and confidential. In effect your system should keep your back pocket full of alternative job ops at all times.This type of online service doesn’t exist today. You might recall that a while back the good people at Cheezhead pointed out that Monster was probably more concerned about getting unemployed candidates to buy booze than actually helping them find a job. The big boards aren’t set up for any type of candidate, but they can be especially toxic to those who need to find work in as little time as possible. You can end up spending your days searching high and low on those sites, submitting resume after resume, only to end up waiting for responses that never come. If we haven’t mentioned it before—-today’s job boards are BROKEN!!!!

Check our our website and register to come look at our Beta Test offering at itzbig.com

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News You Can Use: A Daily Round Up of Links for Recruiters, Job Seekers and Quiet Working Professionals

[Daily Post from itzbig] The itzbig Blog: Exploring the Job Candidate Bill of Rights (Part 7)

“It’s become to easy for businesses and hiring managers to limit the access that job candidates have to information on specific positions and the company as a whole. Whether this occurs due to poor interviews, vague job postings, or a total lack of feedback, it’s got to stop. As we say most weeks when looking at the Job Candidate Bill of Rights, when the candidates are treated right, everyone benefits.”

Recruiting: Job-Hop to the Top

“The book is called Corporate Rise: The X Principles of Extreme Personal Leadership. by Curtis J. Crawford and Crawford has some good advice for people seeking to leverage their career. In fact this is the type of stuff that you can cut paste into an email to send to reluctant candidates: Develop a relationship with your supervisor and his or her boss. ‘You’re living in the dark if you believe you can advance without your boss,’ says Crawford. ‘People who have high aspirations should not be ashamed to let it be known. Talk to your boss about taking on broader responsibilities, ask how she got where she is and discuss how you can earn the right to move ahead.’”

Secrets of the Job Hunt: How to negotiate salary
Audio interview:

“Salary negotiation tips from Jack Chapman of SalaryNegotiations.com. (audio, 6 min)”

ERE: Traits That Turn a Good Recruiter Into a Great Recruiter

“If I could somehow blend the better traits of all of them into one mythical person (RecruiterX), he or she would show the following skills: Understands how to source. These days, many recruiters think their job is to be great at using fancy Boolean searches to find candidates on the Internet or shuffle resumes from other sources. RecruiterX is proficient with the Internet to avoid ignoring a possible source, but he or she also uses every other avenue possible to find good candidates.”

Brazen Careerist: Finding courage to steer your career

“After I’ve given out the same piece of advice twenty times (for example, get a mentor), there comes a point when I can’t face myself if I don’t follow it. Sometimes I try to scare myself. I tell myself that my career will go nowhere and I am wasting my time and I will never get what I want without self-discipline. What I really want from that lecture-to-self, though, is courage to do what is difficult. Part of having career success is finding the courage to implement what you know you should do.”

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