Job Searching using Job Boards or HR leads is a Consumer Sale, not a Business Sale

If you read Job Searching is a Business to Business Sale, NOT a Consumer Sale parts one through three, you will understand why what I am about to say. If you have not read them, please read them before reading further.

Job Boards and HR are efficient ways for companies to filter the mass amounts of potential candidates for specific job openings in a company.

HR is a matchmaker of qualified leads from a mass group of job seekers. HR does not make the hiring decision; the hiring manager makes the decision. HR uses the job description that the hiring manager approves. The financial approval to make the hire is often at a higher level than the hiring manager.

HR uses job boards, company website submissions, college campus recruiting, job fairs, and other activities to help them generate leads that tie to qualified candidates.  Then the screening occurs.

Electronic screening through electronic resume submissions are often key word focused. If you don’t have the right key word, you may stay lost in internet space or Never Never land.

Paper resumes or electronic resumes who pass the screening process are then reviewed by an HR recruiter. A typical review lasts 5 to 10 seconds.

To be fair to HR, how else could they get from thousands of submissions to a target number of 10-20 that can be called for a telephone screening?

The telephone screening then leads to 4-6 candidates that may be interviewed by phone, video conference, or in person. HR usually coordinates all interviewing and maintains documentation for legal hiring compliance.

HOWEVER, it is the hiring manager or her boss who usually makes the hiring decision; not HR. So the goal of getting a job is either to run through the rat maze of job boards, HR, and interviewing (consumer sale approach) or to do what insiders do to get the best jobs (business sale approach). Jobpreneurshipä does not demean those wanting to go through the rats maze but it does focus on the business sale approach.

In every case, HR will be involved at some point. If no one is going through the business sale approach, the HR conduit is the only source for candidates. Also, HR must eventually be involved to ensure company policies are followed, government regulations are followed, and to give their review and advice to the hiring manager.

The insider knows how to make the business sale and then is directed to HR AFTER the emotional decision to hire by the hiring manager has already been made.

Job Searching is a Business to Business Sale, NOT a Consumer Sale; Part Three

How can a hiring mistake harm a company?

How about an EEOC error causing a law suit? Some companies have paid out millions.

How about a disgruntled or negative attitude hire that sours morale, spreads rumors, creates strife, or does not follow rules impacting productivity?

How about a good intentioned employee, who makes poor decisions without involving management, that costs millions in excess inventory, uncollected customer payments, wasted advertising dollars, low productivity sales teams,…etc.

How about a less than honest employee who steals from the company? I have seen cost millions of dollars.

How about a naïve or foolish employee who says the wrong thing to a customer or to the media? Customer good will is lost. Lawsuits can easily occur. Bad media and publicity exposure could unwind hundreds of millions of dollars in marketing advertising and media relations.

Just take the recent BP oil spill. Was an employee somewhere at the heart of the problem? The cost is $20 billion and counting.

Are these hiring mistakes or managing mistakes? Both. Managing starts with hiring. Ultimately, the manager is responsible for the hiring decision and writing the specification that is given to HR. If the manager makes a mistake or does not hire or manage well, her neck could be on the chopping block.

Wise managers eliminate problems (retrain or fire) and learn from them (tighten hiring requirements).  The decision is theirs. The risk is theirs. Burned once, most managers don’t want to be burned a second time. Executives, by the time they are at this level, have been burned numerous times in different ways.

You may have personally been burnt by someone spreading a false rumor, stealing from you, or worse. In business, the manager’s career and reputation is on the line. His bonus and promotional opportunities are also on the line.

That means, your fit to the job description requirements is really only 50% of the story. Your fit is merely the first step to join the pool of other technically qualified people.

The hiring decision is based upon unspoken questions, such as “can I trust you?”, “will you help me get promoted or be self-promoting?”, “will you do what I say (to manage the risk) or be a cowgirl?”, “do I like you?”.

These factors are not decided by HR or other gatekeepers. HR is there to help the hiring process just like procurement helps the buying process. But in both cases, the decision maker is the manager who is responsible – or her boss.

That means the approach to selling to a business is FAR more complicated than selling to a consumer.

The good news is that you can learn the process while your competition keeps assuming the hiring manager is just like a consumer.

Job Searching is a Business to Business Sale, NOT a Consumer Sale; Part Two

Now let’s talk more about the buyer decision for a larger company, such as a Fortune 1000. If you want to work at a company under $50 million in revenue, the characteristics may resemble more of a consumer sale.

A consumer personally decides what they want to buy. If they make a mistake, the impact is usually limited and not a significant impact to them. Buying a house or a car are large purchases but can usually be resold with limited loss and personal impact.

Note well: A consumer decision rarely impacts others outside of their family.

A business buyer usually has specific needs or consolidates consumer spending into leveraged buys.

Business commodity spending, such as toilet paper or printer ribbons, are usually purchased in large quantities in a bid process. The vendor who has the needed product at the best price with the best servicing relationship usually wins.

However, most business purchases are for specific technologies, raw materials, consulting, and items that could significantly impact their business. To be competitive, they have rules designed to control what is purchased to attempt to only buy what is needed to drive their business forward – at the lowest cost. But that cost is rarely the price paid for the product. The impact of a business purchase is immense with hidden costs and risks.

Let’s take a simple example. Say the company is buying HP laptops. What is the risk of going out and buying a Dell laptop for yourself? First, the price is probably more than buying off a corporate contract. Second, the company has to pay someone to service the laptops. By now having two vendors, the costs for parts and service knowledge, has increased. Third, the IT software strategy may require interfaces and memory/disk requirements that your new Dell laptop does not have. Bad decision? You bet. You will probably get your hand slapped.

This example gets a lot worse depending upon what is purchased for the company. If the buyer makes a major mistake, the impact can be the entire company. I have see some companies go out of business for making naïve or poor decisions. Everyone can be impacted. Management take mistakes very seriously. A wrong decision or not following the rules could easily cost your job.

The business buyer decision impacts the business. Bad decisions result in slaps on the wrist to being fired.

This has a dramatic impact on how companies buy – and hire.

Job Searching is a Business to Business Sale, NOT a Consumer Sale; Part One

One of the biggest mistakes that job seekers make is to assume that looking for a job is no different than how they shop for items that they want. That sounds reasonable. It is what most of us know. It is all that most of us ever see! However, for job seekers, it is tragically wrong.

Now, I can just tell you it is wrong or I can explain why it is wrong and set the stage for what you should consider doing.

Let’s start by comparing consumer spending to business spending.

Consumer spending is mass marketing. The idea is that if you spread the message to enough people, buyers will show up and buy your product or service. Think about TV or magazine advertisements. They play to broad audiences – whoever is watching the program or reading the magazine. Such a market could be hundred of millions of potential viewers. Further, the product may get lost among hundreds of alternative products for hundreds of millions of people to consider.

That is why billions of dollars are spent on advertising and branding to become the most predominate product in the public’s eyes, hopefully resulting in large numbers of people buying their product.

There is some market segmentation, but it is usually to broad categories like 15-20 year olds. That only contains tens of millions of possible product buyers.

The pricing of these products is usually relatively low. The products are usually commodities, like shampoo, where large numbers of competitive alternatives keep pricing competitively low. Ongoing profit depends upon large numbers of people buying their product over and over again. That is, the buying public “consume” the product and have to buy more at some time in the future. That is why the buying public are often called “consumers.”

The key term here is “commodities.” Unless you demonstrate unique value, you are viewed as one of many to choose from, i.e. a commodity. It is hard to stand out from the crowd if you are viewed as just another one in the crowd.

On the other hand, Business spending is usually divided into two categories. The first is what is commonly purchased on a routine basis. These are called consumable items or commodities. The second spending type is specified product (i.e., for raw materials or parts used in manufacturing, consulting services, computer solutions, and a host of uniquely needed and higher valued products and services). This is true regardless of the “business” you are in, including public and private sectors.

The business buying process, whether through HR or procurement, usually begins with a job description or a specification for a specific need that is already approved by management. The range of buying includes low value and low priced (low cost labor) to high value and high priced (higher skilled and valued labor).

Here is your question: Are you a low value consumer product (commodity) that people will buy (hire), use up, and buy more elsewhere? Or, are you a unique person who can bring value to a company?

Should You Utilize Recruiting Firms When Job Seeking.

Only 5-10% of jobs are from recruiters. We recommend pursuing them but spending only 5-10% of your time pursuing or working with them.

However, the greatest mistake people make is thinking that their technical skills are all that matter. Over 50% of a hiring decision is based upon relationships, cultural fit, and the emotional decision to buy.  Since most people focus on their resume and their technical fit, they are often surprised when a recruiter or hiring manager dismiss them.

The best way to approach a recruiter is by learning how to develop yourself, market yourself, sell yourself, and develop trusted relationships. These are all teachable skills that make the candidate the preferred choice, easy to place, and sought after by both recruiters and companies.

Therefore, we recommend spending 80% of your time developing these areas and honing them through networking events. Done well, you will find others referring you into recruiters and hiring managers which will increase your chances of landing by well over 4,200%.*

So, how do you learn how to develop yourself, market yourself, sell yourself, and develop trusted relationships? These topics are covered in my books, Whacked Again! and Trusted Relationships and in my seminars.  Much more information is available at www.JobDoctorsInternational.com.

Tips On What Employers Look For In A College Graduate

The key question for any job hire is “can I trust them, based upon their resume and performance history, to perform well?” For a college graduate hire, this question becomes more difficult since the knowledge, experience, and expertise of a college graduate is largely untested. That means more hiring risk.

So, what HR and hiring managers generally look for are clues to find the best fit candidate with the best performance history (grades, extra-curricular activities, awards, and references).  What top career coaches recommend is, in addition to the above, helping candidates learn how to market and sell themselves and how to use relationships to change the fear of making a wrong hire into the excitement of finding someone who “gets” how the real process works. Those who understand and use the “real process” are more likely to have a higher potential for their personal future success and to become a credit to the person who hired them. Instead of the hiring manager fearing making a wrong hire, they see you as a guaranteed performer.

What is the “real process?” It includes combining personal development, marketing, sales, relationship development, and performance strategies. These are what top achievers are using for both job seeking and career development.

There is No Time to Waste in Getting a Job

If you are a recent college graduate, you may not be too worried about the current economic market. After all, your living expenses are relatively low and, for some, Mom and Dad might be willing to continue supporting you. Most of us even recall the trend of even thirty year olds returning home. Life can be difficult but there is an urgency that you may not have considered.

If you do not get a professional job related to your degree, next year there will be a new class ready to take what jobs may exist. Your skills and resume will not appear current to most HR recruiters. Your chances of getting a good job will decrease with each passing day.

If you go through traditional gatekeeper paths (job boards, recruiters, HR…) and are fortunate enough to get a job, in today’s market your starting salary will probably be much lower than last year’s graduates. That means your future salary increases may be the same percentage as others but based upon a lower starting salary. In other words, most will never catch up for the rest of their career. Assuming a typical 40 year career, the impact could easily exceed hundreds of thousands of dollars.

There is no time to waste in Getting a Job.

If you are older, you have an even more urgent situation.

Older people are usually paid more due to prior year salary increases and potential prior bonuses. Younger people will cost less.

Every day that you are out of work, you are losing your skills and currency – at least in the perception of HR. The longer you are out of work, the higher the perception will be that you would be a risky hire. For some, this could even mean that you may become unemployable within your prior career path.

Perceived higher risk with lower cost competition means that there is no time to waste in Getting a Job.

So what should both groups do? Quit trying to take the easy road of going through job boards and company gatekeepers. According to Crossroads Career Ministry, a report shows that networking yourself into the hiring manager improves your chances of getting a job by 4,200%.

If you do not know how to develop yourself as a product, market yourself, sell yourself, and go around gatekeepers, then the time, effort, and cost of doing so will be peanuts compared to the time you may be wasting trying to get a job the old fashioned way.

There is no time to waste in Getting a Job.

Top Ten Job Seeker Mistakes – #6

The sixth mistake is to get help primarily from traditional sources.

Who are traditional sources? Primarily campus placement services, recruiters, HR, and job board discussion groups.  Since 20% of jobs are through recruiters, HR, and job boards, guess what help they can give you? They can tell you how to chase after 20% of the jobs.

Ask yourself the question, “What experience do they have other than participating in the traditional 20% of job finding methods?” There will be exceptions but:

• Have they been the decision maker in hiring others?
• Do they understand the language of senior management?
• Have they sold products and services into decision makers?
• Do they understand marketing and sales?
• Do they understand relationship and complex solution sales?
• Have they been peers with other decision makers?

The point is that 80% of jobs is through networking into influencers, advisors, and decision makers who refer top candidates to decision makers. Unless those advising you have a strong background in being a decision maker / hiring manager, it is highly likely that their advice will not include what you need to know and do to find 80% of the jobs.

Again, I am not diminishing the help of others in providing great insights and services for 20% of the jobs. You should use them and learn from them. Those skills will be useful. I am suggesting that your PRIMARY help should be from those who have been in the jobs at levels where they understand what really goes on in networking, company politics, and the minds of people like them.

Where do you find these resources? First, from developing relationships with these profile executives who can help mentor you. Second, from career coaches
who have been there and know what you are facing.

Questionable Resume Tips, Part 3

Continued comments from yesterday.

The author of the email then tries to sell me on why I should become a client of his.

Here is the bottom line. There are many people out there who cannot find a job, so they are trying to make money telling others what to do. Some of these people are recruiters whose clients are reducing the number of searches, resulting in them extending their brand to coach job seekers. Some are HR professionals who have insights about the internal recruiting process, how to write resumes, and how to interview. Some are actual career coaches who are “certified” in older traditional methods or who don’t really have experience to understand real insider thinking. Some, started out by wanting to help others. Some, are very good.

The question is not their motive or their previous titles or their previous experience or their certifications but whether what they say is right!  You have to be the judge. If you are wrong, you will get hurt and waste money and time. If you are right, you can be tremendously helped and maximize you time and money.

That is why I write a blog and newsletter. You can see my thought process. I am blunt in my opinions. I am willing to share because what I know is only lightly touched in blogs and newsletters – plus I keep learning from others every day. That is why we offer multiple levels, including books and audios that are inexpensive but helpful. That is why I post testimonials from C-level executives and global groups (like Vistage, the FENG, and Golden Key) who support what I am saying. However, at the end of the day, it is you who gets to decide if our message is on target and worth sharing with others.

That is also why, for those wanting to help others, we also offer our course on Jobpreneurship™ which will help train the trainers. We will explain this area more in the future.

My point is that, whether you use Job Doctors International, LLC or someone else is your decision. There are many out there with fantastic ideas and others with questionable tips. Just, please be careful who you are listening to for your career and family guidance. Too much is at stake.

Questionable Resume Tips, Part 2

Continuing on with yesterday’s blog, “him” refers to an email sent to me with tips and “me” refers to, well, me.

1. Career / job objective
   1. Him: Omit it
   2. Me: Include in Value Proposition, which should be the first line after your contact information.
2. Cut and Paste Job Descriptions
   1. Him: Make you seem lazy and possibly incompetent
   2. Me: It is insane to cut and paste. Your focus should be crafting their key words into your story and value.
3. Including Accomplishments
   1. Him: Think twice before including
   2. Me: Always include them as part of your story explaining how you have actually “done something” versus others. If seeking a smaller company, with few resources or scope, I would focus on % or other facts that they can translate into their size without disqualifying you as depending upon staff that smaller companies do not have.
4. If you include Accomplishments
   1. Him: Omit HOW you achieved them
   2. Me: I agree! Save the “how” for the interview. Even then, don’t ever tell them everything to the point they can do it themselves and think they don’t need you.
5. Harmful Data
   1. Him: Don’t include, such as size of prior companies, prior budgets, etc.
   2. Me: See comments on #6. You need to target your resume to your targeted company decided in your vision with the story that you are telling to that market.
6. Less is More
   1. Him: In a resume, less is more. In a career marketing letter, more is best.
   2. Me: First, a career marketing letter is the opposite approach to networking. I do not recommend them. Second, a C-level candidate could easily write 10 pages. Less is more – if it is the right “less” that tells your story for that marketplace.
7. Number of resume pages
   1. Him: Is irrelevant. It does not matter how long it is.
   2. Me: 2 pages, max. The key is to be truthful but to select what they are looking for. That leaves plenty to talk about, or leave out. The key is to never lie, but how many of us can talk forever about things others don’t care about or is a waste of time?

More tomorrow!

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