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#BestofFSCBlog : Reality Check- Recruiters are Not your Friends. There’s No Such Thing as a Professional Job-Finder. MUst REad!

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This fact may burst a bubble for most job seekers. The hard reality is job seekers have the wrong idea about what recruiters and headhunters do for a living. When one starts a search for a new job, the first professional they may try to connect with is a recruiter. A recruiter would know where to find a job…right? They can take the resume and push it to everyone they know…right? Dead wrong.  

Here is the hard-core truth. Recruiters are too busy to call anyone their company isn’t ‘interested in’ for a specific job. Recruiters will not return phone calls, voice mail, email, or text messages to strangers or applicants who don’t meet the minimum job requirements. They are already overwhelmed with communications trying to find the ‘perfect candidate.’ If you are not ‘the match,’ – you can talk ’til you’re blue in the face,’ but it won’t change circumstances. You will only waste your and the recruiter’s time.

There’s no such thing as a professional job-finder. Resume writers, career advisors, career counselors, life coaches, or outplacement service professionals may operate with parallel tasking – but they’re not job-finders. Recruiters are candidate finders. It’s not their responsibility to find a job for job seekers. Don’t blindly contact recruiters and ask them to help you find a job. 

 

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What Skill Sets Do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Did you know?  First Sun Consulting, LLc (FSC) is celebrating over 30 years in the delivery of corporate & individual outplacement services & programs to over 1200 of our corporate clients in the U.S., Canada, UK, & Mexico!  

We here at FSC want to thank each of corporate partners in the opportunity in serving & moving each of their transitioning employee(s) rapidly toward employment !

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It’s also a numbers game – job seekers submit resumes, aim for multiple interviews, and hope for an offer letter. Recruiters review hundreds of resumes from websites, headhunters, or employee referrals for each position, query the resumes for matching keywords, and send the top 5-10 results to a hiring manager. The hiring manager picks the top three to interview and make a decision based on salary (budget), availability, knowledge, skills, experience, abilities, and personality in the interview.  

It sounds harsh, but it is reality. Finding a job is not a matter of justice, fairness, or luck. No one owes anyone a job. Recruiters are your ‘friend’ only if you meet the immediate requirements of an open job requisition. Recruiters don’t have time to invest in job seekers, their inconveniences, and their car or family problems.  Recruiters do care about recruiting, filling jobs, keeping hiring managers happy, and staying within a staffing budget. They will be polite to qualified candidates and perform the steps necessary to get that candidate hired.  Likewise, hiring managers do not care about applicants’ inconveniences and problems.  Hiring managers care whether the qualified candidate has great skills, stays within a labor budget, and can get the job done.  

Recruiters and headhunters are ‘people finders,’ not ‘job finders.’ They have a set number of specific openings at any given time and usually only hire one person per seat. One. Recruiter’s jobs are to conduct a ‘high throughput’ process. It is a matter of getting the right resume with the needed skill set to the recruiter to solve a company’s problem.  

Job seekers must ask when the decision will be made during the interview. If the company is interested in hiring, they’ll call. If you know when the position closes, call the day after if you haven’t gotten a ‘sorry, we found another more qualified candidate’ message. One call…no more. Drop that job lead into the dead file if you get a voicemail and no callback. Most recruiters have an email management system within their ATS, and there is a chance they’ll notify the ‘rejects.’ But most likely, they don’t have time for follow-up. 

To summarize, there is little point in calling a recruiter to ask them to help you, the job seeker, to find a job. Job seekers should recognize the recruiters’ viewpoint for what they do for a living. It is up to the job seeker to find that job and apply. It’s not a recruiter’s responsibility to help the job seeker find or get that next career position.

 

FSC Career Blog Author:

Dawn Boyer, Ph.D., is an associate of First Sun Consulting, and the owner of D. Boyer Consulting – providing resume writing, editing, and publishing consulting services. Reach her at: Dawn.Boyer@DBoyerConsulting.com or http://dboyerconsulting.com.

Bio: Dawn D. Boyer, Ph.D., manages and operates a consulting firm in Norfolk, Richmond, Colonial Beach (Dahlgren), and Gloucester, VA. Her background is 24+ years in the Human Resources field, of which 12+ years are within the Federal & Defense Contracting industry. She is the author of 940+ books on business, human resources research, career search practice, women’s studies, genealogy lineages, and adult coloring books. Her books are listed on Amazon.com under her author’s page for Dawn D. Boyer, Ph.D.

 

FSC Career Blog | October 13, 2022 | Dawn Boyer, Ph. D. 

 

 

 

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#Leadership : How To Get Your Point Across To These Five Personality Types… Not Everyone Thinks the Same Way. Here’s How to Repurpose a Three-Decade-Old #Management Theory to Tailor your Message to Just about Anybody.

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The VP of finance for a major multinational company recently came to me with a problem. “I’ve been trying to start a conversation with the VP of marketing, and he won’t talk to me,” he said. “Whenever I try to ask him what he thinks about my ideas, he doesn’t respond.”

I asked him to describe the marketing VP to me. As he talked about his personality, I thought of a potential solution: “Don’t ask him what he thinks about your ideas,” I said. “Ask him what’s wrong with them.”

A few weeks later, I heard back from my client. “Your advice was amazing!” he said. “We spent two hours discussing issues, and he wants to meet with me every week now!”

Why did I give him that advice? Because as he described the marketing VP to me, I realized what type of speaking approach would most likely resonate: one that appealed to his colleague’s problem-solving personality.

While psychological research has progressed quite a bit since Edward de Bono released his influential  book Six Thinking Hatsin 1985, I find framework still offers a handy set of metaphors for adjusting your speaking style to fit listeners’ thinking styles and personalities (though I typically prefer sticking to just five). Here are five ways to frame your message, riffing on de Bono’s 33-year-old idea, according to the people or person you’re communicating with.

Related:Six Communication Styles That Every Single Person Uses

1. PROBLEM SOLVERS

A “black hat” approach to speaking is all about solving problems. When you’re addressing someone who thrives on figuring out puzzles (like that VP of marketing), you need to focus on what’s wrong with something–usually in solutions-oriented, technical terms.

Let’s say you’re tasked with giving a presentation about productivity. With a black hat approach, your key message might be, “By reducing the gaps in our sourcing systems, we can increase productivity.” Then you’d go on to point out what those gaps actually are, and guide your audience toward brainstorming ways of closing them.

Related:How To Get Straight To The Point No Matter What You’re Trying To Say

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What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

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2. DATA GEEKS

Analytical thinkers typically require a slightly different approach. The “white hat” approach to speaking is objective and straightforward. Rather than emphasize the problem areas, you lay out all the relevant information you’ve got–focusing on data and analysis. You’ll also want to rely more on charts and statistics to get your message across than you otherwise might.

So if you’re taking a “white hat” approach to your productivity presentation, you’d analyze your team’s output in terms of amount of hours saved, money saved, and forecasted benefits–all backed up by hard facts and concrete numbers. Your key message might be, “By improving our system, we can increase productivity by x and contribute y to the bottom line.”

3. TEAM PLAYERS

Sometimes you’re speaking to people who aren’t exactly number crunchers but think in terms of shared purpose and teamwork. In that case, your goal is to connect with the hearts of your listeners with an emotional appeal that inspires belief, propels action, and instills a feeling of togetherness.

A “red hat” approach to the productivity issue would be more of a pep talk; you’d discuss how increasing morale and building team spirit can increase productivity. Your key message might be, “By working together, we can conquer new frontiers and build an organization that keeps getting better and better.”

4. CREATIVE TYPES

The “green hat” approach to speaking focused on creativity. If your listeners are “outside the box” thinkers, you’ll need to use visual imagery to get your audiences to imagine possibilities they may not have even considered.

In your productivity presentation, you’d want to discuss potential innovations that could help increase productivity. Rather than analyze the past, you’d brainstorm programs and initiatives you could try in order to boost productivity in the future, encouraging your team to think inventively. Your key message might be, “By innovating, we can propel the organization to better results and discover new opportunities we haven’t even imagined yet.”

Related:Working With Creatives (A Guide For Everyone Else)

5. OPTIMISTS

Finally, if you’re speaking to glass-half-full thinkers who are good at looking at the bright side, you should do the same. Stress the positive and focus on what’s ahead–like a bright beacon guiding everyone to safety and security.

Taking this “yellow hat” approach for your productivity presentation would mean focusing on what’s going right already, and where it’s bound to take you if you stay the course. Your key message might be, “By capitalizing on our strengths, we can catapult our company to new heights with our customers.”

As de Bono himself realized, these strategies are all about being flexible. Our personalities are highly contextual–more tendencies than fixed properties–and people change “hats” all the time. Your room full of yellow hat optimists might turn into black hat problem solvers when the going gets tough. So always think about what your message is, and to whom you’re delivering it. You’ll find a little color can go a long way.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anett Grant is the CEO of Executive Speaking, Inc. and the author of the new e-book,CEO Speaking: The 6-Minute Guide. Since 1979, Executive Speaking has pioneered breakthrough approaches to helping leaders from all over the world–including leaders from 61 of the Fortune 100 companies–develop leadership presence, communicate complexity, and speak with precision and power.

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FastCompany.com | January 31, 2018 | Anett Grant

#Leadership : The Better Way To Break Bad News…The Bad News is That you’re Probably Breaking Bad News the Wrong Way. The Good News: These Four Steps can Fix That.

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 Here’s some bad news: You’re probably delivering bad news the wrong way. Every company, team, and manager hits setbacks, and it’s always somebody’s job to break the unpleasant news to others. But the way to talk about even the toughest turns for the worse isn’t simply to put a falsely positive spin on what went wrong and what it means.
free- man teaching class
Keep the negatives to a quarter or, at most, a third of the conversation.

Sharing upbeat stories is easy, after all. We like giving and receiving praise. So it makes sense why some leaders tend to downplay the consequences of bad news or withhold it altogether until it’s too late. Instead, there are ways to have difficult conversations with your team that leave them with an accurate grip on the facts while still motivating everyone to take the initiative and bounce back. Here are a few tips.

1. LIMIT YOUR NEGATIVE LANGUAGE

When you’re discussing setbacks with your team, be careful not to use negative expressions—like “can’t” or “won’t”—that sound too categorical. For instance, instead of announcing, “I can’t get the budget for this project,” try, “Our current funding levels mean that we’ll all have to be more resourceful, starting with the project we’re working on right now.” Both convey the predicament accurately, but one frames it like a dead end, while the other points the way forward.

This goes for news concerning individuals, too. Rather than saying, “I won’t be promoting you into this new position,” you can simply say, “I’ve thought about it, and keeping you in your present role makes more sense to me right now.” Between the lines, it’s the difference between, “Sorry, deal with it!” and “This is where things stand for the moment, but they can change.”

Another word to watch for is “no”—as in “no way,” “no problem,” “no good,” “that’s a ‘no’,” or “I have no idea.” Instead, use “yes” and other positives like, “yes, there’s a way to do it” and “I do have an idea about how to work through this.” Instead of talking about “problems,” talk about “challenges”; instead of “obstacles,” “opportunities.”

Again, this doesn’t mean cloaking bad news in euphemisms—it means focusing on their consequences and your collective response to them.

 

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2. MAKE SURE IT ISN’T PERSONAL

Always avoid personal barbs. Most managers know it’s totally unprofessional to tell a direct report, “That was stupid of you,” but many express their displeasure with phrases like, “you disappointed me” or “you let me down.” Fair enough—you’re only being honest.

But don’t forget that these expressions can still hurt people and make it harder for them to do better. They subtly brand people as untrustworthy and tear down the very self-confidence they’ll need in order to do better next time. Personal insults, however watered down, are counterproductive. You’ll more often than not end up with angry team members who function well below their potential.

Don’t throw darts at other people who aren’t in the room, either. It may be tempting to find a target to criticize when things go wrong (and sometimes it really is your client’s fault), but if you offload the blame to others, you immediately undercut your own team’s ability to take ownership and fix the problem. Saying that a customer who didn’t accept your team’s proposal is a “jerk” or “power hungry” sets a bad example in organizations where cooperation is paramount.

3. SPEND MORE TIME ON THE HIGH GROUND

Think of every conversation as covering a certain amount of “terrain.” It’s okay to spend some time wandering around on the low ground, but you’ll want to scramble up to the heights eventually—and loiter there longer. During tough times, the negative tends to dominate, getting bigger and bigger as it all rolls downhill.

That’s all the more reason why leaders need to keep the negatives to a minimum and keep the conversation firmly rooted to the higher ground. Naturally, you want to be open and transparent if there’s been a problem. State the situation as clearly as you can (without being accusatory), but once you’ve identified the issue, focus on the solutions, teamwork, collaboration, and what the future can look like if you pull together.

Here’s a good rule of thumb: Keep the negatives to a quarter or, at most, a third of the conversation. And don’t let others draw you back into the weeds. Your team members may need to express their frustration and pessimism at first, but it’s your job as their boss to help everyone pull themselves up by their bootstraps. By the end of the conversation, all parties should be looking ahead.

4. END ON AN UPSIDE

When crafting your message, start with the negative and end with the positive. You might say, “Last year was tough —with our sales numbers were below what we’d expected—but I’m confident we can make up that loss and reach our goals for this year.” Similarly, if you’re heading into a client pitch, you’d be foolish to say to your boss, “That’s one tough customer. He’s never open to any of our new products.” It’s better to say, “This will be pretty challenging, but I’ll give it my all.”

Never forget to make this transition. If you’re announcing layoffs, don’t hit your listeners with, “This is a really hard day for all of us—for you, for me, and for our company.” Indeed it is! But statements like that may only make a bad situation worse; after all, is it really equally bad for the people who are keeping their jobs as it is for those who are losing them?

Instead, realistically present the situation, and then move toward a solution, ending on a positive. For example, “I have some sobering news to share that will affect all of you. But I want to share it with you myself so we can work through it together as a team.” The difference here isn’t dramatic—bad news is bad news—but it helps to lay the groundwork of encouragement and openness to talk honestly about what’s happening and why.

That’s something the best leaders always do—in good times and bad.

 

FastCompany.com | JUDITH HUMPHREY  | 12.14.16 5:00 AM

 

#Strategy : 37 Words and Phrases That Immediately Increase Your Credibility…Want your Writing or Speech to be More Persuasive? These Words will Help.

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If you think choosing precisely the right words doesn’t matter much, you’re wrong. A single word can have amazing power to change human behavior

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#Leadership : 9 Things #Employees Hate Most about their #Bosses …. According to a Recent Poll, 91% say Communication Issues Can Hurt their Relationship With their #Boss.

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If you’re getting the sense thatyour employees secretly hate youand you’re wondering why, it could be your communication style.  If you’re getting the sense thatyour employees secretly hate youand you’re wondering why, it could be your communication style.

 

According to a recent poll of about 1,000 US workers by Harris and Interact, a communications consultancy, 91% say communication issues can hurt their relationship with their boss.

The employees surveyed voted on the top nine communication issues that bug them about their managers. We spoke with Lou Solomon, CEO of Interact, about why these behaviors are so irksome and how managers can tweak their leadership style to be more effective.

Here’s the list of troublesome leadership behaviors, in reverse order.

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9. Not asking about employees’ lives outside of work

Twenty-three percent of employees surveyed said this was a problem for them.

To illustrate how problematic this issue can be, Solomon referred to one of her clients, whose boss suggested he attend a certain professional conference. What the boss didn’t realize was that his employee was in fact one of the conference organizers. That experience is an example of leaders who only make half-hearted attempts to connect with their employees, Solomon said.

Of course, managers don’t have to know absolutely everything about their employees’ lives outside of work — but key points like the birth of children, the loss of loved ones, and certainly professional roles like being a conference organizer are important to note.

Solomon said employees might think about the situation this way: “The fact that you [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][the boss] only care about my contribution at work and are oblivious to the other parts of my life — that stands out to me as a workplace that I don’t want to be a part of.”

Francois Mori/AP

8. Refusing to talk to people on the phone or in person.

Thirty-four percent of employees surveyed said this was a problem for them.

With the advent of digital technologies from email to Slack, it’s becoming increasingly possible to avoid in-person interaction entirely.

Yet Solomon strongly advised against this practice. “Face-to-face communication is still the most persuasive, influential medium that there is,” she said.

Leaders can make themselves visible by periodically showing up at meetings or on phone calls — or even by making the rounds at company-wide social functions. That way, they’ll appear more approachable and trustworthy.

“You can communicate electronically to exchange information and sustain a dialogue,” Solomon said, “but you cannot build trust electronically.”

of about 1,000 US workers by Harris and Interact, a communications consultancy, 91% say communication issues can hurt their relationship with their boss.

The employees surveyed voted on the top nine communication issues that bug them about their managers. We spoke with Lou Solomon, CEO of Interact, about why these behaviors are so irksome and how managers can tweak their leadership style to be more effective.

Here’s the list of troublesome leadership behaviors, in reverse order.

Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design/flickr

7. Not knowing employees’ names

Thirty-six percent of employees surveyed said this was a problem for them.

Employees today “want a meaningful exchange with the people who are leading the company,” Solomon said. “And when they are not greeted as an individual, then it stands out as missing.”

Solomon cited instances she’s heard about, in which a CEO rides the elevator with an employee and greets him by name. “The impact of that is extraordinary,” she said.

The bottom line is that leaders need to stop pleading, “I’m not good with names,” and make it a priority to know them. “As a leader,” Solomon said, “the standard is higher.”

University of Michigan School of Natural Resources & Environment/flickr

6. Not offering constructive criticism

Thirty-nine percent of employees surveyed said this was a problem for them.

“Great leaders let people know how they’re doing,” Solomon said, “and give them ways to constantly do better and to get themselves in position to reach their goals.”

Yet Solomon said constructive feedback is often the “missing piece” in today’s leadership, for two key reasons. One, many leaders feel they’re too busy to slow down and invest their time and energy in giving an impromptu performance review.

And two, some leaders fear offending employees or hurting their feelings if they give feedback after a negative incident.

The key to delivering helpful criticism, Solomon said, is to assess the employee’s performancewithout emotions like anger or frustration.

Francisco Osorio/Flickr

5. Taking credit for others’ ideas

Forty-seven percent of employees surveyed said this was a problem for them.

Few leaders actually assert that they came up with an idea when in fact one of their employees submitted it.

Instead, Solomon said, what often happens is that, in the rush to get things done, managers neglect to give credit where it’s due.

But to employees, it can feel as though someone has just stolen credit for their contributions — and that experience can be extremely demotivating.

VFS Digital Design/Flickr

4. Refusing to talk to subordinates

Fifty-one percent of employees surveyed said this was a problem for them.

Managers who won’t associate with their reports are communicating a lack of concern for them — even if, again, it’s just a result of being distracted.

Flickr / Alan Levine

3. Not having time to meet with employees

Fifty-two percent of employees surveyed said this was a problem for them.

The reason managers might not have time to meet with their employees isn’t necessarily that they don’t care about their subordinates. Instead, it’s usually a function of distraction and having multiple responsibilities to juggle.

Still, “if you don’t have time to be easygoing and open and accessible to employees, you could be a liability” in your organization, Solomon said.

That’s because people trust and engage with leaders they genuinely like — and it’s hard to like a manager who clearly doesn’t make her relationship with you a priority.

Vancouver Film School/Flickr

2. Not giving clear directions

Fifty-seven percent of employees said this was a problem for them.

“This is such a rift that comes up more than we’d like to imagine between leaders and folks who report to them,” Solomon said. The leaders “weren’t specific on exactly what constituted a success or what the deliverable looks like in their mind.”

What typically ends up happening is that the leader gets frustrated with the employee for not producing the desired result, when in fact, “it was really the leader’s responsibility to make crystal clear exactly what they’re looking for.”

Solomon said managers should keep in mind that, while it might be easier to provide a few key points about a project and leave employees alone, it will ultimately be much more effective to outline the specific directions and exactly what they’re looking for. That way, employees won’t have to redo their work and there will be less aggravation all around.

velkr0/Flickr

1. Not recognizing employee achievements

Sixty-three percent of employees surveyed said this was a problem for them.

According to Solomon, “the human side of business is what drives the bottom line as much as the numbers.” In other words, if employees feel unappreciated, they won’t be motivated to produce their best work and the organization will suffer as a result.

The key to giving motivational feedback, Solomon said, is to make it specific andinstantaneous.

“If you tell me that you especially liked the way I was able to get collaboration from another department on a particular project I was in charge of, then I sense that you really understand my giftedness and what I bring to the table.

“However, if you just tell me that, ‘Hey, you did a good job on that project,’ then it’s less satisfying to me. Even though you said something, it was general. Anybody could say that.”

Businessinsider.com | October 27, 2015 | 

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