Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter's Staffing Advice for Employers

Know When to Fold Them or Maybe There's Another Way.

2008-03-23T10:55:00.005-04:00

I often hear this story from managers and business owners (for many reasons, HR professionals don't do it).

"Jerry is a terrific person. Smart, affable, a really 'good guy.' He loves what he does and is passionate about it. It isn't enough. No answer to a question is right the first time. Work goes on for too long. I feel compelled to monitor whatever he does more than anyone else. He isn't incompetent; he's semi-competent."

Every company wants to hire knowledgeable people who require no oversight. At the same time, there are some employees who are almost competent. They torture you with their potential only to consistently disappoint.

Replace them.

To avoid such problems in the future, hire people on a temp-to-perm basis--that is they initial work for you as a temp with the plan to convert them to employee status in 90 days. Establish criteria in advance that will allow you to determine whether to convert them to employee status.

If they fail to meet that criteria within 60 days, spend the next 30 finding a replacement.

As an article I wrote some years ago observed, pebbles in your shoe never go away, despite how much we wish they would. They often cause hip and back pain that can be debilitating. Better to eliminate a problem than torture yourself and your organization indefinitely.

He is the author of “Get Yourself Hired NOW! The Big Game Hunter’s Guide to Head Hunting Your Next Job and Every Job After That” (in ebook and audio formats) and “Get Your Job Search Organized NOW!” (ebook) Both are available at www.getyourselfhiredNOW.com Register at the site and you will receive free copies of The International Job Board List and a Guide to Resume Writing.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals
HeadHuntYourNextJob.com: 3 Search Products in one place
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India

Are Your Politics Keeping You From Considering Some Very Talented People?

2008-03-22T10:22:00.004-04:00

It is popular to be opposed to the war in Iraq, just as it was to be opposed to the one in Viet Nam before that.

No one likes to think of themselves as biased and there are certainly "valid and objective reasons" for not considering these men and women as candidates for positions.

At the same time, these are individuals who have leadership experiences far beyond their civilian counterparts at the same age.

Who have had the experience of working as part of a team or leading teams of men and women toward a common goal.

Who have worked under extraordinary circumstances with a desire to serve.

Who are motivated by furthering the mission and are extremely disciplined.

If they have attended graduate school, they may have applied under the most incredible of conditions--taking calls from admissions officers in the field with shells flying over them.

There may be cultural differences between what they are used to and what they might have in civilian life. They may have physical challenges as well.

At the same time, dismissing people for no more reason than they are ex-military or based upon your assumptions of what they will be like does not serve your organization well.

HireVeterans is a site you can use that caters to ex-military men and women; another is HirePatriots.

I hope you open your eyes (or continue to reach out) to these men and women.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals
HeadHuntYourNextJob.com: 4 Search Products in one place
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India

Out-of-the-Box On-Line Recruiting

2008-03-08T06:28:00.003-05:00

When most people think of recruiting on the web, they are talking about running ads on job boards. You know those dry job specification advertisements that demand 325 different skills and experiences and do nothing to describe the ojb or how wonderful the employer is to work for.

Yet the public statistics on the source of new hires is says that recruiting on job boards fills an extraordinarily small number of positions (I think the figures in these surveys are extremely low; after all, employment agencies are listed as a separate category and many of them find their candidates from job boards. Why shouldn't many of the jobs credited to agencies be attributed to job boards?)

Part of successful marketing in the employment field is creating an online persona for your firm--an online brand--that is attractive and makes the right people favorably disposed to joining your company before they walk in the door.

After all, when I say "Google," you have an impression and, statistically, speaking the impression is extremely favorable. When I say, "Ox and Ox" (a name I've made up; if there is a business by this name, I did not find it in the first few pages of Google searches), you have no impression or are somewhat quizzical.

For many of you, your recruiting brand is slightly above Ox and Ox.

Here are a few ideas to improve it dramatically--not instantly but over time.

Write your job ads with the employee in mind, too. Why should they join your company? What's in it for them? And don't write dry copy. Make it friendly and warm.

Develop short videos for YouTube and your company's website. There was quite a bit of buzz about some online ads that Sony Ericcson developed last year that highlighted their work space, information about their US headquarters environment and much more.

Develop an interesting looking career site presence for your website. Most are extremely boring. Take a look at some of the jobs developed on the site www.standoutjobs.com. The page is interesting and leaps out at you. I'm not endorsing the servie; just the look and organization of the pages. Which brings me to

Blogging about your company. Why aren't the top people in your firm taking two minutes with twitter and blogging bout your company. Why don;t you have the CFO, COO, CTO and Director of HR, Head of Engineering, blogging about working at your company? Which brings us to

Develop an online presence. Why aren't all them on Facebook, myspace, LinkedIn, Xing and others developing an online persona for your firm to attract talent.

Google for candidate leads. I developed Search4Candidates.com to simplify recruiting for passive job applicants. You enter a typical Google search into the search field and then narrow the search by clicking on LinkedIn or Xing or other services to turn up leads of passive candidates to recruit. The service is completely free.

Make finding the Career Page on your website easier. Too often, finding the career pages requires going down two or three levels on a drop down menu. It's stupid! Just put a button on your home page and every other page of your site that says, "We're hiring!" When they click it, the person is brought to the search page.

Use pop-unders like Internet marketers do. When people are about to leave your site, have a pop-under that says something like "Wait! before You Go! We're hiring! Want to search some our job listings?

There are a lot of things that you can do to incorporate online recruiting into your repertoire. Take the time and make the effort.

He is the author of “Get Yourself Hired NOW! The Big Game Hunter’s Guide to Head Hunting Your Next Job and Every Job After That” (in ebook and audio formats) and “Get Your Job Search Organized NOW!” (ebook) Both are available at www.getyourselfhiredNOW.com Register at the site and you will receive free copies of The International Job Board List and a Guide to Resume Writing.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals
HeadHuntYourNextJob.com: 4 Search Products in one place
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India

Out-of-the-Box Conventional Recruiting

2008-03-06T17:23:00.004-05:00

How do you find people to fill your requirements?

If you're like most firms, you list jobs in newspapers or on job boards, work with a few recruiters, have an employee referral program and maybe, just maybe, you have an in-house recruiting team who is aggressively trying to find people for you who are not looking for work.

Pretty standard stuff and has been used by firms since before I started in recruiting and that was 1972.

How many of you :

Create an alumni program to stay in contact with former employees and encourage them to return or offer referrals to you?

Use your data base of interviewed applicants for periodic direct emails to stay in contact and foster hiring (NOTE: Do not cheat recruiting firms that help fill that data base)?

Run contests that pose difficult questions and interview people who are successful answering it like Google does.

Establish recruiting programs for men and women who are leaving the armed forces?

Work to recruit spouses of military personnel?

Advertise at movie theaters during those times when we are waiting for the movie to start and have a captive audience?

Advertise or have a booth at trade shows or sports events encouraging people to apply to join your firm?

Advertise on mass transit (like the back or front of a bus that people who see for long periods)?

Have your company's business cards printed with a recruiting message on the back?

Recruit workers offshore (like in Canada or Mexico [taking advantage of NAFTA] or Puerto Rico) for US-based jobs?

Advertise on Spanish language tv, radio and print media

Use offshore recruiting resources to support your US recruiting efforts?

Provide small "giveaways" or premiums to people who interview with your firm?

Contact firms that are laying off people and setting up interview days?

Advertise your firm is hiring by printing bookmarks and donating them to libraries and universities?

Being creative involves thinking outside the box and frankly will become far more critical at the end of this recession when firms will want to attract superior talent and find it in far more limited supply than even now (More on that another time).

Start to put together a plan to leverage your company's brand in its industry with an eye toward recruiting.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search job openings, use his free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe. to subscribe Jeff’s free job search ezines, Head Hunt Your Next Job and/or Natural Selection (his free recruiting ezine), or to find out about his VIP Personal Search Agent service, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff or locating consultants, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

How Long Are Your Jobs Remaining Open?

2008-02-23T16:52:00.000-05:00

Are you tracking how long your jobs are remaining open?

If managers are complaining that jobs are staying open too long, are you sitting down with all concerned parties to see whether they are screening for the same thing?

Do you have data on how long similar jobs remained open in the past?

Are managers coached about how to interview? This includes developing questions that are designed to elicit answers that discern a person's qualifications?

Do you review offer turndowns as case studies?

Are people at a manager level and above evaluated for staff retention and turnover?

Looking at the individual steps that go into the hiring process and monitoring them from beginning to end to insure that everyone is working together with the same goal in mind, that people are monitored for outcomes and the turndowns are turned into learning opportunities where all parties involved can learn (could you have known earlier that she wanted more money than you were prepared to pay; could you have sensed something earlier and investigated it that would have allowed you to determine that there was another company intgerested in him and, thus, acted more aggressively, to name two).

He is the author of “Get Yourself Hired NOW! The Big Game Hunter’s Guide to Head Hunting Your Next Job and Every Job After That” (in ebook and audio formats) and “Get Your Job Search Organized NOW!” (ebook) Both are available at www.getyourselfhiredNOW.com

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals
HeadHuntYourNextJob.com: 3 Search Products in one place
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India

Does Your Interview Process Work or Interfere?

2008-02-23T14:34:00.002-05:00

The headlines are all telling us that we are either in recession or on the brink of recession. Yet anyone connected with hiring is complaining about labor shortages.

Obviously, these shortages don't exist if you are in the mortgage business or recruiting for some areas of retail operations. Everywhere else, I am hearing complaints that is extremely difficult to find skilled AND unskilled labor (unskilled labor is a misnomer because most of it requires greater skills than it did 10 years ago).

So what can you do to streamline recruiting to insure that talent you want to hire does not disappear before you have a chance to extend an offer? Two of my clients have a lot of the process down well.

First of all, they are large firms that hire many people in a year. One has two core people doing recruiting; the other has many and follows the same procedure.

Both spend time interviewing and evaluating their recruiting sources. Once a recruiter becomes a vendor, they receive a lot of information about each job with which to do an assessment. Specs are not simply, "We need someone with 2-4 years of experience with x" or "We want someone with 15 years experience with a with emphasis on b". Specs provide useful information about the skill in the context of the job to be performed so that I can adequately describe the role and the function the person will be performing.

Once a resume has been submitted, HR and I discuss the person so I can learn how they evaluate and assess people for the job, saving time when I evaluate others.

HR does no interviewing with the first firm; they prefer to have candidates interview with 2-3 people from the department. If that goes well, a Managing Director may choose to schedule an appointment and interview the person; they may not. An offer is extended.

The second has HR do an in-depth initial interview and then will fly a group of people in for an interview day on a Friday. The flights will occur Thursday afternoon and evening prior to the interview so that if there are flight delays it generally will not impact the interview schedule. The candidate is met at the airport by a car and driver and they are put up overnight at a hotel near the interview site.

Candidates are interviewed by no fewer than three people and as many as five before a car returns them to the airport for the flight home.

The interviewers commit to communicate their decisions in writing no later than the following Wednesday (usually, they are received on Monday). If they want to hire the person, the candidate then completes an application and provides wage verification and an offer is extended.

Visa transfers are OK.

Notice how quickly this occurs?

Does your interview process come to a conclusion within 10 calendar days?

(By the way, if your process occurs too quickly you may scare some potential hires and cause them to turn down your offers).

There is competition for talent, that there is no doubt about. I hope you want to compete for the best and not chase the leftovers.

Jeff Altman

He is the author of “Get Yourself Hired NOW! The Big Game Hunter’s Guide to Head Hunting Your Next Job and Every Job After That” (in ebook and audio formats) and “Get Your Job Search Organized NOW!” (ebook) Both are available at www.getyourselfhiredNOW.com

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals
HeadHuntYourNextJob.com: 3 Search Products in one place
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India

I-9 Verification

2008-02-09T21:49:00.000-05:00

Most of the stories about illegal immigrants working have been written about people working illegally for subcontractors to Wal-mart or for Swift foods.

The stories as reported have been with maintenance workers and blue collar workers.

What's to stop white collar workers from entering legally on tourist visas and obtaining the same false IDs and working illegally?

I assure you, the day is approaching where we will be reading this news item, too.

Jeff Altman

He is the author of “Get Yourself Hired NOW! The Big Game Hunter’s Guide to Head Hunting Your Next Job and Every Job After That” (in ebook and audio formats) and “Get Your Job Search Organized NOW!” (ebook) Both are available at www.getyourselfhirednow.com

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals
HeadHuntYourNextJob.com: 3 Search Products in one place
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India

Cutting Fees

2008-02-09T21:25:00.000-05:00

A colleague of mine received a call from an old client asking her to cut fees.

"Are you dissatisfied with my performance?

"No."

"Aren't the last ten people you've hired from me still working for you?"

"Yes."

"Isn't my interview to hire ratio with you 1 hire for every three interviews?"

"Yes."

"And didn't the last three people you hired from me develop systems that created several million in new revenue and the previous 4 save approximately 1.7 million?"

"Yes."

"So why are you trying to cut my fee?"

"With economy slowing down and more people looking for work, we thought you should charge less."

"Have others agreed to this change?"

"Yes."

"Well I won't. You see, I'm going to charge you the same price I charge my other clients because I don't want to give you the best of what is left over after giving the first choice of talent to the firms that respect my work sufficiently to continue to pay me fairly for my time and effort."

"So let me tell you a quick story. If you go to the store and bring a $25 package of steak to the register and offer to pay $15 for it what does the cashier tell me to do?"

"Put it back."

"That's right. I'm going to continue to charge you the same fair price I charged when times were booming, when I didn't attempt to raise them and it's up to you to recognize one thing--no professional will give you their best quality at a discount without giving it to your competitors first. If you want the "leftovers," that's what you have committed to getting from those firms with their agreement to this cut."

"If you want first cut at the best people, we'll continue to work at my existing fee. I respect you too much to threaten you with recruiting from your firm; I won't do it for some time; but people will call me and ask why I'm not working on their jobs and I'll tell them that you wanted them to interview less than the best."

"OK, let's continue as we have."

Jeff Altman

He is the author of “Get Yourself Hired NOW! The Big Game Hunter’s Guide to Head Hunting Your Next Job and Every Job After That” (in ebook and audio formats) and “Get Your Job Search Organized NOW!” (ebook) Both are available at www.getyourselfhirednow.com

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals
HeadHuntYourNextJob.com: 3 Search Products in one place
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India

Management & Staffing:Lessons from The Super Bowl

2008-02-07T06:52:00.000-05:00

I have been Giants football fan since I was a boy and have vivid memories of listening to the radio as the Packers ran all over the Giants. I remember crying months after the Giants won their first one, being elated after their second one and disgusted after they lost to Baltimore.

Nothing prepared me for the feelings I felt after they won on Sunday.

For several years, on one of my other blogs, I have written articles called "Job Search Lessons from The Super Bowl" to call attention to things people can do to apply winning formulas to their job search. This arrticle is designed to call attention to a number of lessons that can be derived from both the Giants and the Patriots and how they go about their business.

Both Coach Belichick and Coach Coughlin are former assistants of former Giants, Patriots and Cowboys head coach, Bill Parcells. Coach Parcells ran a tight ship with a simple philosophy--you are what your record says you are. If you were 8-8 and had injuries to key players, you are an 8-8 team.

He hated "talkers"--players who talked to the press and criticized him behind the scenes. Victory came on the field, not in the newspapers.

He admired "warriors"--players like Lawrence Taylor on the Giants and Brian Cox with the Jets and Tedy Bruschi on the Pats.

With the exception of the head coach, general manager and owner, the management of this team bears little resemblance to the one that won the first Super Bowl for the franchise seven years ago. Assistant coaches have come and gone (Romeo Crennel taking over in Cleveland; Charlie Weis at Notre Dame). Young protegies like Eric Mangini have taken over the head coaching job with The Jets.

Yet quality people have remained in place to maintain the winning systems that have helped Coach Belichick succeed year after year. Player leaders, coaches who rose through the ranks to assume responsibility for the offense (Josh McDaniels) and defense (Dean Pees). Promotion from within comes from stability and a commitment to success.

That success, also allows the team to attract great talent, maintain a wage structure and systems that have helped to perpetuate the success of the team.

In contrast, Coach Coughlin took over a team in disarray. A year after a Super Bowl loss, the team collapsed in total failure. He implemented a team structure, including a requirement for players to arrive early for meetings. Arriving on time was considered late. You had to be there at the early time. He defined roles rigidly, probably little different than Coach Belichick but received tons of opposition from the players and criticism in the media.

The rebellion against the Coach reached a crescendo after last season when his team jumped out to a 6-2 start only to finish 8-8. His star running back, Tiki Barber, announced his retirement midseason and made it clear that he didn't want to play for Coach Coughlin.

With the press cry rising for him to be fired, Coach Coughlin met with the owners after the season and was asked what he will do differently. He committed to being a better communicator with his team, forming a leadership group of players to help him get his ideas out to the team better. He also agreed to hire a new defensive coordinator to implement a new philosophy on defense.

“I made up my mind to do a better job communicating with the players,” Coughlin said. “We formulated a leadership council and that council represented the team in various aspects. And they did a very good job communicating to the rest of the players what we discussed in these meetings."

When his defensive star, Michael Strahan, held out of training camp, hoping to negotiate a new contract and deciding whether to retire, the Coach chose not to criticize him.

When the previous General Manager retired at the end of last season, an internal candidate who understood the exsting systems and philosophies was promoted to the job.

And the etam continued to struggle until Coach Coughlin made a key decision--despite having clinched another appearance in the playoffs the week before and with nothing to play for that week, with the media all suggesting that he hold out his key players and concede defeat to New England, an undefeated opponent trying to become the second team in league history to finish undefeated, Coach Coughlin decided his team would play to win.

After a predictable opening running play, his maligned quarterback, Eli Manning, faked another handoff and passed 30 yards down field to his receiver Plaxico Burress for a big gain. The team scored, played aggressively and were it not for a few plays in the third quarter, might have won, only losing 38-35.

Other teams were favored in each of their playoff games but the Giants played hard in Tampa in hot weather, against Dallas, a team that had pounded them in two regular season games, in Green Bay in conditions that had wind chill down to 24 below zero, before fighting back from a four point deficit to score a touchdown with 35 second remaining to win the Super Bowl.

So let's disect a few of these stories.

Each coach arrived as a disciple of a previous winning coach.
Each coach implemented systems that had worked before and attempted to identify players who could succeed within that system.
Despite turnover in his staff, Coach Belichick promoted people who supported his philosophy; Coach Coughlin, facing mutiny, made changes to his management style to involve more people.
The team philosophy was maintained by promoting a GM who understood the team's systems.

Finally, the Coach made a difficult decision, subject to second guessing that, in the last week of the season, with nothing concrete to gain by winning but pride, to try to defeat the team that was judged to be unbeatable and, by coming close, brought his team together as a team.

Your corporate needs may be different than those of these two organizations, but I believe that these factors can play well into helping organizations succeed. They speak to immediate success and long term success (having promotable people and staff leadership in place) that few organizations commit to these days.

I hope you take some time to reflect upon the management style of these two organizations and adopt some of their best practices.

Jeff Altman

The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2008 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a practicing psychotherapist and is a retired certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues.

Great Resources--Diversity Sites

2008-01-27T06:38:00.000-05:00

Barry Geiman (barrygeiman@comcast.net) is a researcher who is extremely generous with his time and resources.

Here are some sites he has identified that can support your diversity recruiting goals:

DIVERSITY SITES

African Americans in Science
http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/faces.html

A directory with biographies and Ph.D. statistics
American Association of University Women
http://www.aauw.org

American Chemical Society-Women Chemists Committee
http://membership.acs.org/W/WCC/

American Indian Science and Engineering Society
http://www.aises.org/W/WCC/

American Physical Society Committee on the Status of Women in
Physics
http://www.aps.org/educ/cswp/

Association for Women in Computing
http://www.awc-hq.org

Association for Women in Mathematics
http://www.awm-math.org

Association for Women in Science
http://www.awis.org

Canadian Coalition of Women in Science, Engineering and Technology
http://www.ccwest.org/english/ccwest.html

Council for African and Americans in the Mathematical Sciences
(CAAMS)
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/CAARMS/CAARMS-index.html

Diversity in Science and Engineering Resources
http://www.mills.edu/ACAD_INFO/MCS/SPERTUS/Gender/wom_and_min.html

DiversityWeb Bulletin Board
http://www.diversityweb.org/

Search or post the latest news and materials on jobs, conferences,
resources, etc.

Loka Foundation
http://www.loka.org/

IEEE Women in Engineering
http://www.ieee.org/women/

National Association of Black Geologists and Geophysicists (NABGG)
http://www.www.nabgg.org/

National Association of Mathematicians
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/NAM/NAM-index.html

National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in
Engineering and Science, Inc.
http://www.nd.edu/~gem/

National Society of Hispanic Physicists
http://utopia.utb.edu/nshp

National Technical Association
http://www.ntaonline.org/

Northern California Council of Black Professional Engineers
http://www.ncalifblackengineers.org/

Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science
http://www.sacnas.org/

Society of Women Engineers
http://www.swe.org/

The Just Garcia Hill Science Web Site: Virtual Community for
Minorities in Science
http://hyper1.hunter.cuny.edu/JGH/default.htm

the Woman Astronomer
http://www.erols.com/njastro/twa

A quarterly publication about promoting astronomy; the women role-
models in astronomy, past and present and the quickly changing
science, and hobby, of astronomy.

Women in Astronomy Database
http://www.stsci.edu/stsci/service/cswa/women

Women in Endocrinology
http://www.women-in-endo.org/Pages/index.shtml

Women in Engineering Organization
http://www.WIEO.org/

Women in Neuroscience
http://www.beemnet.com/win/

Women in Technology International
http://www.witi.com/

HISPANIC SITES

American Association of Hispanic CPA's
www.aahcpa.org

ASPIRA Association
www.aspira.org

Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies
www.ahaa.org

California Chicano News Media Association
www.ccnma.org

DC Latino
www.dclatino.com

Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility
www.hacr.org

Hispanic Association of Colleges & Universities
HACU

Hispanic National Bar Association
www.hnba.org

Hispanic Organization of Professionals & Executives

Hispanic Public Relations Association
213-239-6555

Hispanic Students Business Association
csulb.edu/org/hsba/

Latin American Professional Network (LATPRO)
www.latpro.com

Latin American Management Association
202-546-3803

Latin Business Association
www.lbausa.com

Latino Issues Forum
http://www.lif.org/

League of United Latin American Citizens
www.lulac.org

Mexican American Unity Council
210-978-0500

National Association of Hispanic Federal Executives (Govt)

National Association of Hispanic Journalists
www.nahj.org

National Association of Hispanic Publications
www.nahp.org

National Coalition of Hispanic Health and Human Services
Organization 202-797-4321

National Council La Raza
www.nclr.org

National Hispanic Business Association
http://www.nhba.org/

National Hispanic Corporate Council
www.nhcc-hq.org

National Hispanic Employee Association
www.nhea.org

National Hispanic Media Coalition
323-722-4191

National Hispanic Medical Association
202-265-4297

National Hispanic Medical Organization
202-265-4297

National Society of the Hispanic MBA's
www.nshmba.org

Professional Hispanics in Energy
714-777-7729

Society for Advancement of Chicanos & Native Americans in Science
www.sacnas.org

Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers
www.shpe.org

Society of Mexican American Engineers & Scientists
www.maes.com

US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
www.ushcc.com

Your Online Application Process

2008-01-25T04:19:00.000-05:00

There are three things that strike me as peculiar about how many firms have created their online application process.

The first, and most obvious, is the requirement that many sites have of uploading a text resume, instead of a Word or Adobe resume.

Yes, I understand your system requires it but do you have a system that requires it?

Many non-computer people do not know how to convert a document to text. Does that make them less of a potential employee for you? Do you want them to think of your firm as one that "makes it hard" on people?

The other thing that troubles me is how often firms have a junior person review resumes once jobs are applied for. You know, someone not particularly knowledgeable about the job is reviewing resumes to discern fit? That seems like a waste.

The third thing that seems off is that, once in your system, resumes are never searched except to preclude agency referral. You have a data base of viable people but don't use it except to disqualify someone who recognizes someone's fit from actually affecting the hire that you were unwilling or incapable of making.

Fixing these three things would be smart for many employers to do.

Jeff Altman

The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2008 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a retired certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals
HeadHuntYourNextJob.com: 3 Search Products in one place

The Need For Speed

2008-01-24T07:19:00.000-05:00

Despite the commencement of the US recession, the skilled labor shortages that have pervaded the job market for the past two years continue, particularly in staff level roles (or "doer roles" People who "do things as opposed to mange people who do things).

This can be explained simply by three facts:

1. The number of y0unger people entering the work force with such skills has declined from previous years.

2. The number of organizations wulling to train people to improve their skills has declined

3. Immigration of skilled labor (or H-1b's) was cut from 225000 to 65000 six years ago. As a result, there are 960,000 fewer technology professionals in the US than had the program been left untouched.

I am not debating the merits of expanding the H-1b program today; I am of the opinion that fewer jobs would be off shored today, more tax payers in the US and more jobs in the US had we permitted their entry.

Today, that is not the point.

The point is that when you see someone that your firm wants to hire, your process must be streamlined to make the hire easier because talent is going to continue to be fought over.

Assuming your intention is not to outbid your competition by fast sums of money, your hiring process, including our onboarding process must be streamlined to insure that new hires continue to have "warm feelings" about joining you and are not afforded the time to lose them.

One firm I know has a hiring process that is fast (a week to 10 days for the interviewing to be concluded and for the person to be selected; however, once selected, there HR process including referencing & background checks often take 30 days.

And they wonder why they lose people to other firms.

Reference checking and background checks do not need to be a slow process and hiring gto get the talent that will allow your firm to compete in this market should not interfere with actually hiring.

Is there any part of your process that can be down more quickly?

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2008 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a practicing psychotherapist and is a retired certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues.

Are People Raiding Your Firm to Take Staff?

2008-01-12T06:38:00.000-05:00

As job markets become tighter recruiters, both third party and corporate are resorting to raiding their competition to hire staff.

A former Director may contact 10 key people and try to bring them along with her.

A recruiter leans that four of the last 7 hires have come from your firm and is bouncing around your voice response system trying to find potential recruits to fill the job or jobs.

What defenses do you have?

1. Figure out who you don't want to lose and take time with them. Many people like to be stroked by their bosses and taking a few minutes every week or two to praise their performance and speak about opportunities.

2. Figure out who you can afford to lose. there are nice people who are adequate performers. Can they be replaced? Absolutely . . . and probably for around the same money they earn (plus interview costs and fees). Why buy them out of another offer if they are dispensable and can hire someone with better upside. This leads us to

3. Compute your break point. At what point should you walk away from losing a person to a competitor? Also, find information about what staff say about your competitors on social network sites and anti-company sites to develop responses to potential resignations.

4. This is not a job for the HR Department but for every manager and business leader. No disrespect to HR but if your culture doesn't have culture taht values HR, then having them lead this will doom it to failure.

5. Scan job boards for your own employees. There are two reasons to do this-- the least important one is being prepared for a resignation. The primary reason for doing so is to be able to sit down with the disgruntled employee and see if what is bothering them is something that can be resolved before getting to the point where they are sitting in your office ready to quit.
I addition, it affords you the opportunity to contact former employees or "boomerangs" who might return to your firm.

There are a lot more things you can do, but these are the five easiest to implement. In doing so, you will slow down losses and put yourself and your firm in a stronger position.

Jeff Altman

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better
The Shopping Universe: More than a thousand stores in this mall AND help a child at the same time.

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals

Are Third Party Recruiters Doing An End Run Around Recruiting?

2008-01-12T06:28:00.000-05:00

In a recent discussion on ERE, a corporate recruiter posted an interesting scenario:

"At our company, we have a contract with 3rd part recruiters that states they will not contact the hiring manager to present candidates. If they do so, they are breaching their contract. Once corporate HR finds out that a 3rd party recruiter is doing what you are describing, that recruiter/vendor could lose orders or referrals in the future, period. They see this as being sneaky and corrupting the partnership that the corporate recruiter and hiring manager have created. Corporate recruiters need to follow compliance guidelines with OFCCP, therefore, they are going to follow a process when submitting candidates to the hiring manager. "Please don't here what I write as disagreement. It is the paradox.
==============================================================

In Jack & Suzy Welsh's column in the current issue of Businessweek, they answer the question, "How do you take on the bureaucracy that damages so many organizations?" by starting off:

"Damages? How about deadens? That's a better word to describe what what bureaucracy does; it sucks the life out of a business. it turns normal people, granted a smidgen of authority, into rule-bound technocrats and twists candid conversation about real issues into jargon-laden gobbledygook. In short, bureaucracy gums up the works. It's a competitiveness killer."

I'll pick up from here.

OFCCP compliance is necessary. No argument.

What else is?

Why is talking directly to a manager to decipher a bureaucratic job description without nuance so horrible? The answer offered is that it stands between the user and HR's relationship.

Again, respectfully, what stands in the way of it is poor information communicated in job descriptions.

Most TPR recruiters are trying to do what our institutional customers are asking us to do--help them fill requirements. They receive job specs that are flipped to them like the kitchen crew does with burgers at White Castle. The specs say little (we want 3-6 years experience with X,Y,Z) and fail to mention that X is required Y & Z are preferences and that knowledge of A,B, and C are really critical. Or that the manager hired his last 6 people from these two companies.

Where process interferes with substance and the institution is too process bound to appreciate how what it is doing is standing in the way of getting what it says it wants (a person to fill a particular job), most TPRs, those people who you offer the privilege (and it is a privilege) of recruiting for you try to solve the problem by getting the information they need.

If their line of questioning is incompetent or stupid, maybe you're working with the wrong recruiter or recruiting firm. If the manager is fielding too many of these calls, the agencies are telling you they aren't getting the info they need to do anything more than shotgun resumes and you're saying "Tough."

Doesn't make sense, especially if you are asking those people to work for free until they deliver someone.

One more thing, and again, said with respect.

Tell me one retained search firm that works under those conditions and gets targeted success.

None will accept the assignment under those conditions because they are there to deliver outcomes.

Third party recruiters are there to do the same thing. Instead of tying their arms behind their backs and expecting them to make phone calls that yield quick efficient success, see if you can set up a 15 minute call with the hiring manager where several of them can ask questions.

If there are subsequent questions, then get the answers for them.

Open up the doors and get better results, yet still deliver OFCCP compliance.

--

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2008 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a retired certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better
The Shopping Universe: More than a thousand stores in this mall AND help a child at the same time.

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals

The Wise Use of a Nominal Retainer

2007-12-16T07:43:00.000-05:00

I was reading a rant on the Hiring Revolution blog called "You and Your Damn Internal Shifting". It was written by a recruiter who was steamed and who had applicants who were burned after a lot of effort, resources are time were expended sourcing people only to find "the last minute internal candidate" winning the day.

As he says, "I feel personally and professionally screwed EVERY TIME when: after weeks of intense direct sourcing and work, resulting in 3-5 candidates who have every element on their resume you asked for, the needles in the haystacks from the four corners of the agency world, we get the e-mail (NOT EVEN A CALL) from you: “Great news – we were able to fill the position internally by shifting someone from another account that lost some of its budget. Thanks soooo much for all your efforts, the candidates you showed us were great!”

With wisdom, he writes," Here’s who it’s unfortunate for: the 3 candidates who all thought they had a shot at this cool position, who updated resumes, cleared schedules, and jumped on planes with a day’s notice, only to realize no one was hired.

The article continues with the promise to never let this happen again and the usual threat of re-paying this behavior by recruiting from this firm.

Now, my point in this is not to advocate for this person. Frankly, I haven't been caught in a situation like this in years. It's part of working with clients closely for years that I am offered the courtesy of being told when internal candidates are still being evaluated.

At the same time, like my other article, "Influence, Hiring and Retention," it speaks to a relationship that is damaged and what its potential impact can be.

So what does this have to do with the idea of the nominal retainer?

A few dollars invested by this firm would have quelled the anger that has breached the relationship and insured the continuation of a valued resource. And, if you say, "So what! That comes with the territory," I can only reply that you probably waste too many people's resources and that disrespect will hurt you and your firm in the end.

When no one of any value will respond to your call of, "round up a posse and go out and find . . . " it hurts. When you need to continually explain your corporate culture to strangers because they will work for free, you are wasting your own time unnecessarily. After you book needless appointments too often because you've burned valuable allies who can help "close" your offers because they understand the nuances of your firm only to use people who don't know your company well enough to help you when the chips are in the center of the table . . .well you get my point.

But this is probably the least important reason you should provide a nominal retainer.

I don't lie to people--you or job candidates. It's what you expect of me when I refer someone to you; it's what job applicants hope for when they work with a recruiter (I say hope for because of how few recruiters are known for honesty).

So when your senior professional asks me with the position is on contingency or retainer, you know darned well that they have a different of your seriousness and my capabilities to serve if I answer one way vs. another.

It is for senior professionals who understand the difference, that being able to say, "This is a retained search," that the modest retainer has great value.

So, as always, evaluate your resources regularly. Replace the ones that fail to perform or who use up too many of your resources for too few hires (always remembering that you may have a part in their failure by providing inadequate information). Look at the nominal retainer at times when you have a critical hire and want to use the contingency recruiters in your search.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better
The Shopping Universe: More than a thousand stores in this mall AND help a child at the same time.

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals

Uh, Oh!

2007-11-30T06:47:00.000-05:00

I have been writing for years about how our current H-1b immigration policy is choking the ability of businesses to hire sufficient skilled labor.

CIO Magazine says that 51% of CIO's worry about their ability to hire adequate talent for their needs. Any firm looking to hire accounting, engineering or other skilled staff is struggling to find people with adequate skills for their needs.

Here are two things, courtesy of the December 10, 2007 issue of Fortune that:

1. According to HCL Technologies, their best young workers now want domestic assignments, instead of overseas (read that as US) work. This is the opposite of what was demanded two to three years ago.

2. The European Union has drafted new rules to remove restrictions that kept skilled foreign workers out of the EU, offering them two year renewable permits to live there.

3. King Abdullah of Saudia Arabia is building a new graduate research center for $12 billionand will endow it with $10 billion. That endowment is as large as MIT has built in 142 years of operation and they will have it on their first day.

I remember a time when every foreign worker wanted to come to the US because we had great work and financial opportunity. Years of treating H-1b workers worse than the dirt in your toe nails, paying them less and restricting their ability to change jobs until recently, years of not so subtle racism in the labor force against foreign workers (Indian, Chinese, Russian, Pakistani and others) in hiring practices and wage scales using the excuse of the cost of the visa transfer (ridiculously cheap), coupled with our currency devaluation this year and the persistent threat of terrorism, has made working in the US far less desirable, even if they can get in.

The talent you want to hire does not need to work for you any more. They have other choices in the US and certainly abroad. A few months ago, I wrote about the number of workers on H-1b visas starting to return home, frustrated by slow INS processing and other reasons.

What can you do to make your firm an employer of choice in a competitive playing field?

Jeff Altman

The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a retired certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better
The Shopping Universe: More than a thousand stores in this mall AND help a child at the same time.

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001

A Simple Inexpensive Way to Retain Your Staff

2007-11-29T06:27:00.001-05:00

You may not be able to give someone a huge bonus or give them a spot bonus.

You may not be able to financially reward a group of people who stepped up and did something important.

You can look them in the eye and say, "Thank you," slowly and sincerely.

You can put a note in their personnel file about their heroism.

You can even do this and buy them a pizza or two (depending upon thje size of the group) to thank them for doing something terrific.

Let's see. In New York City, a pizza with a bunch of stuff on it easily costs under $20. That's a lot less than a bonus.

And even less expensive is a simple sincere thank you.

Do them both; encourage management to do them both, too.

(If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

The Major Complaints from Job Hunters

2007-11-18T06:23:00.000-05:00

Having been in the search business for more than 35 years (gasp), I have heard a lot of extremely funny things from job hunters. Like the one from the person who wanted to change jobs so that he could get home earlier to take his dogs for a run (take resume; place in garbage). Or the one who wanted to change firms to end an affair.

Yet, in the midst of the applicant stupidity I often hear, there are a few useful things that as an employer you can offer.

1. A sense of your timetable for making a decision. It is useful to a job hunter that you are interested in to know that first round interviews will take three weeks; you might discover at that point that the person is midway through second rounds at a competitor with a comparable role and adjust your plans or manage your departments expectations (I am not suggesting that you must change your plans; I believe that all information is useful and this helps you get useful information).

2. Let them know if your timetable changes. Make a quick call of email to a candidate you are interested in to let them know if there is a change in the timetable.

"I just wanted you to know that we will be back to you in one more week with our plans for moving forward. The delay was caused by a (vacation, a desire to meet with an internal candidate, an introduction that was made that your manager wanted to assess)."

3. Give Constructive Feedback for Why You've Chosen Someone Else. The feedback "too light" has no meaning. Deficiency in a particular skill required, concern about "fit," except in cases where you are rejecting an individual from a diverse population, divergent leadership style are valid reasons.

Observing these three courtesies (and many others) will help your organization foster an environment of being a fair and courteous employer and desirable in the marketplace.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better
The Shopping Universe: More than a thousand stores in this mall AND help a child at the same time.

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001

4 Steps to Improved Hiring

2007-11-17T16:11:00.000-05:00

Some HR professionals are refreshingly candid when they tell me that their hiring managers are not skilled interviewers. Oh, there may be a job specification developed in order to approve the job and target the hire, however many times I have heard that the person hired just doesn't seem to fit the target nor are the questions asked in the interview designed to ascertain whether the person fits the job requirements.

So what can you as an HR professional or you as a hiring manager or business owner do to keep your interview in line with your pre-determined needs?

1. Ask open ended questions designed to encourage the job applicant to talk. It doesn't take a genius to determine the right answer to a closed ended questions. Asking open ended questions allows you to find out about the job applicant's oral communications, logic skills and experience that is relevant to you.

2. Double team the applicant. Let one person ask questions and the other observe your questioning to see what you've missed. Or have one person ask tons of questions and the other person fill in some of the gaps. Or do the "strong arm tag team" approach--alternate questions that are extremely difficult and that determine required skills.

3. Jot down your questions in advance and don't "wing it." Too many people are completely unprepared to administer an interview. By writing down your questions in advance and then by writing down the applicant's answers, you prevent making mistakes by operating from memory or whim.

4. Remember to evaluate the person for personality match. When you hire a sales person, do you look for a "nice person" who agrees and goes along with everyone or do you want to hire a "killer."

Interviewing applicants is the most common way companies decide whom to hire yet research shows that interviewers do a poor job at predicting if an applicant will succeed - or flop - if hired.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better
The Shopping Universe: More than a thousand stores in this mall AND help a child at the same time.

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001

Do What Third Party Recruiters Do Well . . .

2007-11-03T14:29:00.000-04:00

In the early 1980's, I used to network with recruiters at other search firms in order to find talent for my clients. I had just purchased a PC and printer, a huge step at that time when I visited with one of the firms I would network with.

“Why did you buy a computer? It’s ridiculous,” he screamed (Kenny was like The Mad Dog of WFAN sports radio).

I walked over to his file cabinet and pulled out two folders at random and asked him to tell me one fact about either applicant. Of course, he couldn’t.

Before I make my point, I want to be clear, do not use information from third party recruiters in the recommendation I offer. It is stealing and your firm and, probably you personally, will be sued if you do.

With that said . . .

You are sitting with a ton of useful information that probably is going unused from the people you interview. Do you remember that woman you interviewed for the project manager job a year ago? Have you thought of dropping a casual (email) note to her to see what she is doing these days and asking for a referral or input on a search you are doing?

How about that internet ad sales guy you spoke to 8 months ago. Is his firm blowing up?

Have you created a nice generic marketing piece for your firm to re-contact desirable, but rejected candidates (or people who rejected you)?

You just need to help craft the emails and have a computer system that allows direct email campaigns.

It’s easy to do and yields great returns.

But make sure you exclude third party recruiter referrals OR be prepared to pay a fee years to them years later and create great will with them!

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better
The Shopping Universe: More than a thousand stores in this mall AND help a child at the same time.

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001

Define Yourself or Have Others Define You

2007-11-03T14:02:00.000-04:00

By the time a US President takes office, he or she will have spent more than two years campaigning, speaking to voters, answering questions (or avoiding answering questions), debated, advertised themselves in commercials and done a lot to create an image of who they are.

What is your firm and, by extension, you doing to create an image of your firm as an employer?

Is all your company doing running ads on job boards and telling people that yours is a growing company with a growth position that is visible and offering an incredibly dynamic and progressive work environment? That yours is one of the fastest growing companies in the world and has a high profile opportunity for career advancement requiring a candidate who is a high energy team player?

Have you discovered that the word progressive appears I more than 5000 job listings on Monster? Dynamic is also in more than 5000; Career advancement is, too, as is high energy. High profile is in more than 3000; visible in 3400+.

In contrast, the word "renegade" appears once. Maverick appears 95 times. Invisible appears 105 times including The Invisible Fence Company. Laid back appears 286 times.

Do you get my point?

Terms like this are ordinary and making you invisible and telling employees nothing.

It’s time to re-think your ad campaigns and really speak to people instead of copy and pasting job descriptions from requisitions and then adding these phrases to the ad and calling it marketing. Do you know how your firm is seen in the job market, both from a positive AND a negative standpoint? What is your employer brand and how can you improve it, especially as we enter what, I believe will be an extremely complicated part of the employment cycle.

It is tough enough that unemployment is so low, but the Baby Boomers will start retiring, the population cohort entering the job market is far smaller and will be less skilled (on average) and you will be asked to fill jobs only using trite words like these.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better
The Shopping Universe: More than a thousand stores in this mall AND help a child at the same time.

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001

An Overlooked Source of Talent

2007-10-18T07:26:00.000-04:00

A commuter I travel with regularly was recently faced with a crisis. An experienced compliance officer, her firm was being acquired and she received a message from her boss that she would probably not survive the cuts.

She came to me for advice and we discussed many alternatives . . . and then she remembered one.

At her exit interview from a previous job, the Chairman of the bank she worked for wrote next to the eligible for rehire check box on the form he used the words, "ABSOLUTELY!" twice, something HR said they had never seen before.

He also planted a seed with her at that time that should she ever be in a situation where she was looking for work, to consider coming back--and that is what she is doing.

Using exit interviews to plant the seed of opportunity to return with desirable former employees can supplement your recruiting efforts and allow you to hire people who understand your firm's culture and be able to get up and running faster than the average hire might.

The accounting firms have known this for a long time.

Now you do too.

Jeff Altman

(If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Foreign Nationals Starting to Head Home--The Other Side of the Immigration Discussion

2007-10-16T15:38:00.000-04:00

I have been in the recruiting business for more than 30 years and for as long as I can recall, the US has been an extremely desirable place to live for foreign workers. The US was a leader in research and, despite the challenges posed by how the H-1b system was implemented (years of indentured servitude to one employer, low wages, less interesting work, an INS that is exceedingly slow to process green cards), this was the country to move to for opportunity.

Recently, I have had several instances that have opened my eyes to the possibility that our skilled immigration problem may become even harder to solve than I thought and that stems from some quick conversations I have had with several people working in the US on H-1b visas.

Each complained about being captive to the US and unable to visit family. They were frustrated with INS delays that caused what is supposed to take a very little amount of time to process dragging on into years.

But there was something new. Several started to talk about how good work was now going overseas and that currency depreciation was starting to make the US far less desirable than a few years ago.

You may have seen the recent articles about how Canadian currency was now at parity with the US dollar for the first time in 25 years. On my recent trip to Singapore, where you received $1.46 for each US dollar, I was surprised to read that it was expected to reach $1.20 by end of year.

That's almost an 18% currency depreciation projected over the next few months!

Couple this with the shortage of university students expected during the next few years (New York schools are being encouraged to recruit foreign students in the face of a 14% shortage of students projected to begin during the next few years) and it begs the question--Where will you be getting your new skilled talent from?

So, as we start to see rising prices for foreign made goods and services, we may see an exodus of H-1b, green card and foreign born US citizen-workers and few people to replace them just as The Baby Boomers start to retire. It suggests looking at F-1 visa employees as replacements for junior staff and examining longer term alternatives.

And the only answer I can see is to increase the number of H-1b employees into the US, sooner, rather than later.

Jeff Altman

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better
The Shopping Universe: More than a thousand stores in this mall AND help a child at the same time.

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001

Accounting, CPA's and Auditing Websites from Barry Geiman

2007-09-28T08:18:00.000-04:00

Accounting, CPA's and Auditing Websites
http://www.accountantspages.com/

find Accountants US and different countries
>Accounting.

com
http://www.accounting.com
Resources
State CPA Societies

Alabama Society of CPA's
Alaska Society of CPA's
Arizona Society of CPA's
Arkansas Society of CPA's
California Society of CPA's
Colorado Society of CPA's
Connecticut Society of CPA's
Delaware Society of CPA's
D.C. Institute of CPA's
Florida Institute of CPA's
Georgia Society of CPA's
Guam Society of CPA's
Hawaii Society of CPA's
Idaho Society of CPA's
Illinois CPA Foundation
Indiana CPA Society
Iowa Society of CPA's
Kansas Society of CPA's
Kentucky Society of CPA's
Society of Louisiana CPA's
Maine Society of CPA's
Maryland Association of CPA's
Massachusetts Society of CPA's
Michigan Association of CPA's
Minnesota Society of CPA's
Mississippi Society of CPA's
Missouri Society of CPA's
Montana Society of CPA's
Nebraska Society of CPA's
Nevada Society of CPA's
New Hampshire Society of CPA's
New Jersey Society of CPA's
New Mexico CPA Foundation
New York Society of CPA's
North Carolina Association of CPA's
North Dakota Society of CPA's
Ohio Society of CPA's
Oklahoma Society of CPA's
Oregon Society of CPA's
Pennsylvania Institute of CPA's
Puerto Rico CPA Society
Rhode Island Society of CPA's
South Carolina Association of CPA's
South Dakota Society of CPA's
Tennessee Society of CPA's
Texas Society of CPA's
Utah Association of CPA's
Vermont Society of CPA's
Virginia Society of CPA's
Virgin Islands Society of CPA's
Washington Society of CPA's
West Virginia Society of CPA's
Wisconsin Institute of CPA's
Wyoming Society of CPA's

http://www.awesomeaccountants.com

CareerBank.com www.careerbank.com
is the the place to look for the best candidates in accounting,
finance and banking.

http://www.Big4.com
Searching for candidates from big4 accounting and consulting firms?
Take a look at our partner site, Big4.com, a leading resource
dedicated to this community. Alumni of these firms now have access
to news, events, an alumni database, jobs, proposals, financial
services and other information.
The site has just been revamped and includes a careers area powered
by jobsinthemoney. Post jobs to Big4.com to gain unparalleled
exposure to this audience.

Accounting Professionals Resource Center
http://www.kentis.com

AccountingNet
http://www.accountingnet.com

Accountants
http://www.aahcpa.org/links.htm

Accountants World Careers
http://www.salesguycareers.com

American Association of Hispanic Certified Public Accountants
http://www.aahcpa.org

CPA Jobs
http://www.cpajobs.com

CPANet
www.cpanet.com

Accounting Professional
http://www.accountingprofessional.com/

http://www.localaccountingjobs.com

American Association of Finance & Accounting
http://www.aafa.com/

http://www.actuary.com

http://www.aicpa.org/
This is a professional organization and they have online career
postings & forums which are a bargain as postings go.

CareerBank.com is an independent accounting and finance career site
that reports a direct network of more than 81,000 CPAs, and powers
the career centers for associations, such as the New Jersey Society
of CPAs, the Texas Society of CPAs, and the New York State Society
of CPAs.

The Association for Financial Professionals has an online job board
where
you can post jobs and search the members resume database.
http://www.AFPonline.org

http://www.ascpa.com
Arizona also has a group- ASCPA

http://www.aabpa.org/employ.html

http://www.controllerjobs.com/

http://www.financewise.com/public/unreg.htm

http://www.fwi.org/Careers/careers.htm

http://www.bigfivetalent.com/

http://www.jobsinthemoney.com/

TEI.org - Tax Executive Institute
http://www.ACCAglobal.com
- Association of Chartered Certified Accountants

- http://www.AICPA.org
- - American Institute of CPA's
http://www.TaxTalent.com
-
- http://www.TheIIA.org
- - Institute of Internal Auditors

TAX
http://www.tax-jobs.com/

http://www.houtscpa.org

http://www.taxtalent.com
TaxTalent.com -TaxTalent.com, a South Carolina-based creator of a
resume database of tax professionals, is partnering with
TopUSAJobs.com. The Tax Career Portal will appear on the TopUSAJobs
board, which features an array of niche sites. The Tax Career Portal
has over 12,000 people registered on the site, and is the largest
portal of its kind.

PAYROLL
http://www.americanpayroll.org

Comprehensive eFinancial Jobs
http://www.efinancialjobs.com/ Pay

Comprehensive Financial, Acct & Ins Job Page
http://www.nationjob.com/ Pay

Comprehensive Jobs in Accounting
http://ww2.itoday.com/jobs-careers/banking/ Pay

Comprehensive MBA Careers
http://www.mbacareers.com/ Pay

Comprehensive MBA Employment Connection
http://www.MBAnetwork.com/meca/ Pay

Comprehensive MBA Jobs
http://www.mbajob.com/ Pay

Comprehensive National Black MBA Association
http://www.nyblackmba.org Pay

Comprehensive National Business Employment Weekly
http://www.nbew.com/ Pay

Comprehensive National Society of Accountants
http://www.nsacct.org/ Pay

Comprehensive Pro2Net Accounting
http://www.pro2net.com/ Pay

Actuarial Actuary
http://www.actuary.com Free

Actuarial Jobs
http://www.sitepowerup.com/mb/view.asp?BoardID=106435 Free

Actuarial Financial Job Network
http://www.financialjobnet.com Pay

Auditor Financial Job Network
http://www.financialjobnet.com Pay

Commerce Global Career in Commerce
http://www.globalcareers.com/commerce/ Pay

CPA American Assoc of Fin & Acctg
http://www.aafa.com/ Free
CPA American Institute of CPAs http://www.aicpa.org/ Pay
CPA MBA Careers http://www.mbacareers.com/ Pay
CPA MBA Employment Connection http://www.MBAnetwork.com/meca/ Pay
CPA MBA Jobs http://www.mbajob.com/ Pay
CPA National Black MBA Association http://www.nyblackmba.org Pay
CPA American Association of Hispanic CPAs http://www.aahcpa.org/ Pay
CPA Financial Job Network http://www.financialjobnet.com Pay

http://www.accountantjobs.com/
http://www.accountingjobs.com/index.html
http://www.rutgers.edu/Accounting/raw/aaa/placement.htm
http://www.jobcontrolcenter.com/ccn/nabainc/
http://www.accounting.com/employment/

http://www.aafa.com/
http://aba.careersite.com/
http://www.bankjobs.com/
http://www.jobsinthemoney.com/
http://www.bankconnect.com/
http://www.jobmag.com/
http://www.jobfront.com/
http://www.accountingjobs.com/
http://www.accountantjobs.com/
http://www.accounting.com/
http://www.fjn.com/
http://www.jacobson-associates.com/
http://www.moneycareers.com/
http://www.nationjob.com/financial
http://www.tax-jobs.com/

WEBSITES FOR CPA
http://www.cpajobs.com
http://www.financialjobs.com
http://accounting.pro2net.com/
http://www.cpa2biz.com/career
http://www.cpadirectory.com
http://www.cpapfs.org

GENERALIST SITES
Accountant Jobs (doorway to ejobstore)
http://www.accountantjobs.com/
Financial, Acct & Ins Job http://www.nationjob.com/financial
Job Front http://www.jobfront.com/
Job Mag http://www.jobmag.com/
MBA Careers (doorway to CareerExchange) http://www.mbacareers.com/
National Business Employment http://www.nbew.com/

NO JOBS OR CANT POST JOBS
Accounting Professionals Resource Center http://www.kentis.com
American Association of Finance & Accounting http://www.aafa.com
CPANet http://www.cpanet.com
Global Career in Commerce http://www.globalcareers.com/commerce/
Jaconson-Associates http://www.jacobson-associates.com/
National Black MBA http://www.nyblackmba.org
Pro2Net Accounting http://www.pro2net.com/

WEBSITES FOR AUDITING & FRAUD (ACCOUNTING & IT)

FROM : http://www.taxsites.com/auditing.html

Auditing & Fraud Examination
Auditing Resources
Fraud Resources

Associations
Regulatory Bodies

Certification

Auditing Resources
• @Auditing & Fraud Associations
• ABREMA: Activity Based Risk Evaluation Model of Auditing
• AccountingMalpractice
• AICPA Audit and Attest Standards Team
• Articles on Internal Auditing and Fraud Examination
• Assurance Services
• Audit Committee Institute
• AuditNet
• Auditors Sharing Audit Programs
• Audit Serve, Inc.
• AuditZine
• Bank Internal Auditing
• Business Publications: Auditing Articles
• Columbia University Internal Audit
• CPA Exam Information
• European Auditing Research Network
• Excellence in Audit Education
• Federal Program Compliance and Audits
• Inspectors General Auditor Training Institute
• Intergovernmental Audit Forums
• Internal Auditing World Wide Web
• International Symposium on Audit Research
• ITAudit.org
• Panel on Audit Effectiveness
• Sampling in Financial and Internal Audits
• Single Audit Library
• Standards & Guidelines for IS Auditing
• U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO)
• WebTrust
Fraud Resources
• @Auditing & Fraud Associations
• Articles on Internal Auditing and Fraud Examination
• Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
• Fraud Defense Network
• Fraud Detectives
• FraudNet
• Fraud Prevention (UK)
• Internet Fraud Complaint Center
• National Fraud Information Center
• White Collar Crime: Loss Prevention Through Internal Control

Associations
• @Accounting Associations
• American Accounting Association - Auditing Section
• American College of Forensic Examiners
• Association of Certified Fraud Examiners
• Association of College and University Auditors
• Association of Credit Union Internal Auditors
• Board of Environmental Auditor Certifications
• Information Systems Audit and Control Association
• Institute of Internal Auditors
• International Federation of Accountants
• International Auditing Practices Committee
• International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions
• National Association of Local Government Auditors
• National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and
Treasurers
• Northeast Insurance Anti-Fraud Group
• Society of Financial Examiners

Regulatory Bodies
• American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
• Financial Accounting Standards Board
• Governmental Accounting Standards Board
• Public Oversight Board

Certification
• Accredited Financial Examiner (AFE)
• Automated Examination Specialist (AES)
• Certified Financial Examiner (CFE)
• Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE)
• Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)
• Certified Internal Auditor (CIA)
• Certified Professional Environmental Auditor (CPEA)
• Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
• Certified Quality Auditor (CQA)

Sources for Recruiting Women

2007-09-28T08:14:00.000-04:00

From Barry Geiman barrygeiman@comcast.net

Recruiting Women
http://www.recruiting-online.com/course55a.html

Useful Lists

About.com (see women's)
Google's US list of women's business organizations and its other
list by industry
the top 100 companies for working mothers

DiversePRO has a list of 100+ women's organizations broken down by
category.

Finally, see our diversity resources list, which includes some
women-
focused groups.
Business (General)
Advancing Women
African American Women Online
The Albuquerque-

Santa Fe Women in Business Directory - longest
continually published women's directory in the US. AWBD is part of
a nationwide network of women's directories with women-owned businesses, women's services, and resources
American Association of University Women
American Business Women's Association
Asian Women in Business
Association of Women Professionals
Black Career Women
Business and Professional Women Association - has many local
chapters
Business Women's Network - see its list of women and minority
business resources
Career Woman 2000 - part of the Hire-Power network of sites
Career Women - sister site of DiversitySearch.com and
MBACareers.com
Catalyst
Center for Women & Enterprise
Classifieds for Women - powered by CareerEngine.com
Feminist Career Center
Forum for Women Entrepreneurs
General Federation of Woman's Clubs
Hispanic Women's Corporation
Home-Based Working Moms advocates home employment and home
businesses
to allow parents to spend more time with their children
The International Virtual Women's Chamber of Commerce - offers
micro-
businesswomen worldwide an online venue to form profitable
relationships and attend meetings and networking events virtually
iVillage - Online community for women (jobs in CareerBuilder
network)
Jewish Women International
Jobs4Women
lifeprint - formerly AlumnaeResources.com, it's a non-profit
primarily but not exclusively women-focused
National Association for Female Executives
National Association of Career Women
Organization of Women in International Trade
U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce - plethora of resources; a network
of affiliates that unite the women's marketplace whose mission is
to
develop leaders, accelerate economic growth and provide a community
voice for women.
Women-related Business, Work and Finance email lists - useful
listservs
Women Employed
Women Inc.
Women Leaders Online
Women and Minority Business Enterprise
Women's Professional Network
Womans-Work - Founded in 2000, allows searching by alternative work
arrangements
Women.com Careers
Women's Executive Network
Women's Net (another URL)
Women's JobSite
Women's Wire - search powered by Monster.com
WWWomen Search Directory - Very comprehensive list of trade
associations/career resources for women.
Communications
Association of Women in Communication (AWC Online) - job listing
page
is here
Association for Women in Sports Media
New York Women in Communications
Unique Women Marketing Association
Women in Agriculture
Women in Cable & Telecommunications Information - Founded in 1979,
WICT develops women leaders in cable and telecommunications
Engineering/Science/Construction
Association of Women Industrial Engineers
Association of Women in Metal Industries
Association of Women in Science
Committee on Women in Science and Engineering
National Association of Women in Construction
Professional Women in Construction
Society of Women Engineers
Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering - many
organizations
listed, but list has not been updated so many links are bad.
However,
type the organization name in your favorite search engine to find
the
current URL.
Women-related Science/Technology email lists - very targeted
listservs for women techies
Women Construction Owners and Execs
Women in Engineering Programs & Advocates Network
Women in IT & Engineering
Women's Engineering Society - UK-focused
Finance & Insurance
American Society of Women Accountants - job page here; has local
chapters
Association of Professional Insurance Women
Financial Women International
National Association of Insurance Women
Women in Asset Management
Womens Funding Network
IT/Computing (also see Communications)
Association for Women in Computing (or here) - links to many local
chapters
Cybergrrl - Online community for women; see its Yahoo-like
directory
of sites for, by and about women called Femina
DigitalEve - Professional society for women involved in Internet
industries (Boston chapter is particularly active), founded in
September 2000 by women formerly affiliated with the New York-based
Webgrrls (see below).
GirlGeeks - online community for women and girls interested in IT
created by the Bay Area Video Coalition, a non-profit focused on
new
media education and training for underserved groups.
The Institute for Women and Technology - Founded in 1997 to
increase
the impact of women on all aspects of technology
LinuxChix - a community for women who like Linux and to support
women
in computing. Over 10 listservs plus chat channels and 36 actual
chapters in 10 countries. The membership ranges from novice to
expert
programmers, system administrators and technical writers.
Systers - an informal organization for technical women in
computing.
Started in 1987, there are now over 2500 members in 38 countries;
affiliated with The Institute for Women and Technology
The Ada Project - TAP is a central clearinghouse for information
and
resources relating to women in computing
Webgrrls International - For women involved in Internet industries
(Microsoft ran diversity ad banners on its homepage in 2003)
Wise-Women - a world-wide, online community of web designers,
developers and programmers (formerly Women's New Media Association)
Women-related Science/Technology email lists - very targeted
listservs for women techies
Women in IT & Engineering - started Oct. 2001, but never took off
Women in Technology - has many local chapters and a job board
WorldWit - The umbrella group for 29 local listservs in the U.S.
and
abroad geared to women in technology (e.g., masswit-
subscribe@... is the subscription email address for the
Massachusetts list) as well as a separate jobs listserv for some
metro areas.
Legal
American Bar Assn. commission on women in the legal profession
League of Women Voters
Minority Corporate Counsel Assocation
National Organization for Women
Medical
American Association of Women Dentists
American Medical Women's Association
Association of Women Surgeons
Real Estate
Association of Real Estate Women - AREW is New York City-focused
CREW Network - A national association of women in the commercial
real
estate industry with chapters in many metropolitan areas (also
known
as National Network of Commercial Real Estate Women)
Women in Real Estate (W.I.R.E.)
Other
Association for Women in Architecture
Association of Women in Mathematics
Association of Women in Packaging
Women in Higher Education - tied to a national print publication

If you know of others, please email us and we will add appropriate
ones here.

This is an abbreviated version of the corresponding content from
our
popular Advanced Online Recruiting Techniques course, explaining
methods and resources applicable to recruiting in any industry,
function, geography or level. Learn more about or register for our
live seminar or online course! Or return to free sample content.

Diversity Websites

2007-09-28T08:11:00.000-04:00

Again provided by Barry Geiman barrygeiman@comcast.net

DIVERSITY SITES

African Americans in Science
http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/faces.html

A directory with biographies and Ph.D. statistics
American Association of University Women
http://www.aauw.org

American Chemical Society-Women Chemists Committee
http://membership.acs.org/W/WCC/

American Indian Science and Engineering Society
http://www.aises.org/W/WCC/

American Physical Society Committee on the Status of Women in
Physics
http://www.aps.org/educ/cswp/

Association for Women in Computing
http://www.awc-hq.org

Association for Women in Mathematics
http://www.awm-math.org

Association for Women in Science
http://www.awis.org

Canadian Coalition of Women in Science, Engineering and Technology
http://www.ccwest.org/english/ccwest.html

Council for African and Americans in the Mathematical Sciences
(CAAMS)
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/CAARMS/CAARMS-index.html

Diversity in Science and Engineering Resources
http://www.mills.edu/ACAD_INFO/MCS/SPERTUS/Gender/
wom_and_min.

html

DiversityWeb Bulletin Board
http://www.diversityweb.org/

Search or post the latest news and materials on jobs, conferences,
resources, etc.
Loka Foundation
http://www.loka.org/

IEEE Women in Engineering
http://www.ieee.org/women/

National Association of Black Geologists and Geophysicists (NABGG)
http://www.www.nabgg.org/

National Association of Mathematicians
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/NAM/NAM-index.html

National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in
Engineering and Science, Inc.
http://www.nd.edu/~gem/

National Society of Hispanic Physicists
http://utopia.utb.edu/nshp

National Technical Association
http://www.ntaonline.org/

Northern California Council of Black Professional Engineers
http://www.ncalifblackengineers.org/

Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science
http://www.sacnas.org/

Society of Women Engineers
http://www.swe.org/

The Just Garcia Hill Science Web Site: Virtual Community for
Minorities in Science
http://hyper1.hunter.cuny.edu/JGH/default.htm

the Woman Astronomer
http://www.erols.com/njastro/twa

A quarterly publication about promoting astronomy; the women role-
models in astronomy, past and present and the quickly changing
science, and hobby, of astronomy.
Women in Astronomy Database
http://www.stsci.edu/stsci/service/cswa/women

Women in Endocrinology
http://www.women-in-endo.org/Pages/index.shtml

Women in Engineering Organization
http://www.WIEO.org/

Women in Neuroscience
http://www.beemnet.com/win/

Women in Technology International
http://www.witi.com/

Re-Examine The Requirements

2007-09-22T08:10:00.000-04:00

There are a number of clients I have had for many years. They expect me to know what they are looking for.

And I do . . .up to a point.

After all, when a position opens they send the same job requirements they did several years ago for the job.

But I have learned through conversations with mangers and leaders in the firm how the position has really changed and how the job description is a convenient political tool to satisfy HR.

Ridiculous, even though I am advantaged in this over other recruiters who don't have the access I do.

It should also go without saying that very person who interviews someone as part of the evaluation process brings their own unique viewpoint to both the evaluation and the decision making. This is a good thing when diverse views are brought to bear. It can be a problem when good decisions previously made a re not de-constructed and repeated. Failure to do this leaves decisions weak, emotional and ad hoc, rather than reasoned.

So, I implore you to re-examine job requirements from time to time and communicate the changes throughout your "supply chain". Make your recruiting vendors aware of new thinking, going so far as to re-write position descriptions.

Re-prioritize the "must-have" criteria for the position as well as the preferences.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001

Leadership Building As a Sales Tool

2007-09-22T07:48:00.000-04:00

When we were all young, we were asked the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Whatever we answered, it helped to set goals in our mind that helped us move through our lives and careers. We may have adapted our thinking at different times, but we still set in our mind that there can be something better for us in the future.

For many, things change when they enter the workforce. Oh, I'm not speaking of the person from the top business school or the son or daughter of the tycoon. I'm speaking of the person who does a solid job.

Organizations seem to have the nasty habit of pigeonholing these people who do good work and having them continue to do the same job or a slightly different one until it is time to fire them in a cost cutting move or until they leave for the next company who gives them a modest flirtation.

You look at them like an old reliable partner or spouse. They will always be there for you until you don't want them any more.

And they need and want some romance, too.

Leadership training and development can take many forms.

It can take the form of the regular round table where everyone has the freedom to gripe and offer solutions. It can take the form of education, mobility programs and training.

It can take the form of using reviews to tell people the truth about how their performance has been instead of sanitizing it to justify a 3% raise.

Teaching people how to lead may involve creativity. After all, being accountable for one's actions is often used to be punitive rather than constructive in many corporations.

However, I was reminded of something by a friend I had lunch with this week of his experiences on the New Warrior Training Adventures I led for so many years. These weekend retreats are not promoted as business leadership courses; they are designed to help men look at the things in their life that work and don't work without their blackberries, cell phones and laptops.

Leadership involves integrity and being accountable for one's decisions. Becoming aware of the consequences of your decisions and actions and how they impact others. Showing care and compassion and treating them as core values i your organizations and helping people see the forest beyond simply trees.

Once many people are on board, they are asked to be nothing more than what they are on the day they hire you. Maybe you will expect them to make no mistakes ever. Maybe you will ask them to deliver more widgets to you.

But they will always be the third drone on the left in the 14th quad from the back for as long as they work for you.

They need and crave romance (hope) that there is more to working for you than that. I assure you that if you speak to people when you hire them about how you will help them learn and grow in ways that fulfill their dreams and desires, you will attract and retain the leaders you complain you aren't finding.

And this will become absolutely critical during the period when a generation of people referred to as the Baby Boomers start to retire and die.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better

Plus

Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001

RESOURCES for Accounting/Financial Recruiters

2007-09-09T06:31:00.000-04:00

देवेलोपेद by: "Barry Geiman" barrygeiman@comcast।net greendenny2001

Accounting, CPA's and Auditing Websites
http://www.accountantspages.com/

find Accountants US and different countries
Accounting.com
http://www.accounting.com
Resources

State CPA Societies

Alabama Society of CPA's
Alaska Society of CPA's
Arizona Society of CPA's
Arkansas Society of CPA's
California Society of CPA's
Colorado Society of CPA's
Connecticut Society of CPA's
Delaware Society of CPA's
D.C. Institute of CPA's
Florida Institute of CPA's
Georgia Society of CPA's
Guam Society of CPA's
Hawaii Society of CPA's
Idaho Society of CPA's
Illinois CPA Foundation
Indiana CPA Society
Iowa Society of CPA's
Kansas Society of CPA's
Kentucky Society of CPA's
Society of Louisiana CPA's
Maine Society of CPA's
Maryland Association of CPA's
Massachusetts Society of CPA's
Michigan Association of CPA's
Minnesota Society of CPA's
Mississippi Society of CPA's
Missouri Society of CPA's
Montana Society of CPA's
Nebraska Society of CPA's
Nevada Society of CPA's
New Hampshire Society of CPA's
New Jersey Society of CPA's
New Mexico CPA Foundation
New York Society of CPA's
North Carolina Association of CPA's
North Dakota Society of CPA's
Ohio Society of CPA's
Oklahoma Society of CPA's
Oregon Society of CPA's
Pennsylvania Institute of CPA's
Puerto Rico CPA Society
Rhode Island Society of CPA's
South Carolina Association of CPA's
South Dakota Society of CPA's
Tennessee Society of CPA's
Texas Society of CPA's
Utah Association of CPA's
Vermont Society of CPA's
Virginia Society of CPA's
Virgin Islands Society of CPA's
Washington Society of CPA's
West Virginia Society of CPA's
Wisconsin Institute of CPA's
Wyoming Society of CPA's

http://www.awesomeaccountants.com

CareerBank.com www.careerbank.com
is the the place to look for the best candidates in accounting,
finance and banking.

http://www.Big4.com
Searching for candidates from big4 accounting and consulting firms?
Take a look at our partner site, Big4.com, a leading resource
dedicated to this community. Alumni of these firms now have access
to news, events, an alumni database, jobs, proposals, financial
services and other information.
The site has just been revamped and includes a careers area powered
by jobsinthemoney. Post jobs to Big4.com to gain unparalleled
exposure to this audience.

Accounting Professionals Resource Center
http://www.kentis.com

AccountingNet
http://www.accountingnet.com

Accountants
http://www.aahcpa.org/links.htm

Accountants World Careers
http://www.salesguycareers.com

American Association of Hispanic Certified Public Accountants
http://www.aahcpa.org

CPA Jobs
http://www.cpajobs.com

CPANet
www.cpanet.com

Accounting Professional
http://www.accountingprofessional.com/

http://www.localaccountingjobs.com

American Association of Finance & Accounting
http://www.aafa.com/

http://www.actuary.com

http://www.aicpa.org/
This is a professional organization and they have online career
postings & forums which are a bargain as postings go.

CareerBank.com is an independent accounting and finance career site
that reports a direct network of more than 81,000 CPAs, and powers
the career centers for associations, such as the New Jersey Society
of CPAs, the Texas Society of CPAs, and the New York State Society
of CPAs.

The Association for Financial Professionals has an online job board where you can post jobs and search the members resume database.
http://www.AFPonline.org

http://www.ascpa.com
Arizona also has a group- ASCPA

http://www.aabpa.org/employ.html

http://www.controllerjobs.com/

http://www.financewise.com/public/unreg.htm

http://www.fwi.org/Careers/careers.htm

http://www.bigfivetalent.com/

http://www.jobsinthemoney.com/

TEI.org - Tax Executive Institute
http://www।ACCAglobal.com
- Association of Chartered Certified Accountants

- http://www.AICPA.org
- - American Institute of CPA's
http://www.TaxTalent.com
-
- http://www.TheIIA.org
- - Institute of Internal Auditors

TAX
http://www.tax-jobs.com/

http://www.houtscpa.org

http://www.taxtalent.com
TaxTalent.com -TaxTalent.com, a South Carolina-based creator of a resume database of tax professionals, is partnering with TopUSAJobs.com. The Tax Career Portal will appear on the TopUSAJobs board, which features an array of niche sites. The Tax Career Portal
has over 12,000 people registered on the site, and is the largest portal of its kind.

PAYROLL
http://www.americanpayroll.org

Comprehensive eFinancial Jobs
http://www.efinancialjobs.कॉम/ Pay

Comprehensive Financial, Acct & Ins Job Page
http://www.nationjob.com/ Pay

Comprehensive Jobs in Accounting
http://ww2.itoday.com/jobs-careers/banking/ Pay

Comprehensive MBA Careers
http://www.mbacareers.com/ Pay

Comprehensive MBA Employment Connection
http://www.MBAnetwork.com/meca/ Pay

Comprehensive MBA Jobs
http://www.mbajob.com/ Pay

Comprehensive National Black MBA Association
http://www.nyblackmba.org Pay

Comprehensive National Business Employment Weekly
http://www.nbew.com/ Pay

Comprehensive National Society of Accountants
http://www.nsacct.org/ Pay

Comprehensive Pro2Net Accounting
http://www.pro2net.com/ Pay

Actuarial Actuary
http://www.actuary.com Free

Actuarial Jobs
http://www.sitepowerup.com/mb/view.asp?BoardID=106435 Free

Actuarial Financial Job Network
http://www.financialjobnet.com Pay

Auditor Financial Job Network
http://www.financialjobnet.com Pay

Commerce Global Career in Commerce
http://www.globalcareers.com/commerce/ Pay

CPA American Assoc of Fin & Acctg
http://www.aafa.com/ Free
CPA American Institute of CPAs http://www.aicpa.org/ Pay
CPA MBA Careers http://www.mbacareers.com/ Pay
CPA MBA Employment Connection http://www.MBAnetwork.com/meca/ Pay
CPA MBA Jobs http://www.mbajob.com/ Pay
CPA National Black MBA Association http://www.nyblackmba.org Pay
CPA American Association of Hispanic CPAs http://www.aahcpa.org/ Pay
CPA Financial Job Network http://www.financialjobnet.com Pay

http://www.accountantjobs.com/
http://www.accountingjobs.com/index.html
http://www.rutgers.edu/Accounting/raw/aaa/placement.htm
http://www.jobcontrolcenter.com/ccn/nabainc/
http://www.accounting.com/employment/

http://www.aafa.com/
http://aba.careersite.com/
http://www.bankjobs.com/
http://www.jobsinthemoney.com/
http://www.bankconnect.com/
http://www.jobmag.com/
http://www.jobfront.com/
http://www.accountingjobs.com/
http://www.accountantjobs.com/
http://www.accounting.com/
http://www.fjn.com/
http://www.jacobson-associates.com/
http://www.moneycareers.com/
http://www.nationjob.com/financial
http://www.tax-jobs.com/

WEBSITES FOR CPA
http://www.cpajobs.com
http://www.financialjobs.com
http://accounting.pro2net.com/
http://www.cpa2biz.com/career
http://www.cpadirectory.com
http://www.cpapfs.org

GENERALIST SITES
Accountant Jobs (doorway to ejobstore)
http://www.accountantjobs.com/
Financial, Acct & Ins Job http://www.nationjob.com/financial
Job Front http://www.jobfront.com/
Job Mag http://www.jobmag.com/
MBA Careers (doorway to CareerExchange) http://www.mbacareers.com/
National Business Employment http://www.nbew.com/

NO JOBS OR CANT POST JOBS
Accounting Professionals Resource Center http://www.kentis.com
American Association of Finance & Accounting http://www.aafa.com
CPANet http://www.cpanet.com
Global Career in Commerce http://www.globalcareers.com/commerce/
Jaconson-Associates http://www.jacobson-associates.com/
National Black MBA http://www.nyblackmba.org
Pro2Net Accounting http://www.pro2net.com/

WEBSITES FOR AUDITING & FRAUD (ACCOUNTING & IT)

FROM : http://www.taxsites.com/auditing.html

Auditing & Fraud Examination
Auditing Resources
Fraud Resources

Associations
Regulatory Bodies

Certification

Auditing Resources
• @Auditing & Fraud Associations
• ABREMA: Activity Based Risk Evaluation Model of Auditing
• AccountingMalpractice
• AICPA Audit and Attest Standards Team
• Articles on Internal Auditing and Fraud Examination
• Assurance Services
• Audit Committee Institute
• AuditNet
• Auditors Sharing Audit Programs
• Audit Serve, Inc.
• AuditZine
• Bank Internal Auditing
• Business Publications: Auditing Articles
• Columbia University Internal Audit
• CPA Exam Information
• European Auditing Research Network
• Excellence in Audit Education
• Federal Program Compliance and Audits
• Inspectors General Auditor Training Institute
• Intergovernmental Audit Forums
• Internal Auditing World Wide Web
• International Symposium on Audit Research
• ITAudit.org
• Panel on Audit Effectiveness
• Sampling in Financial and Internal Audits
• Single Audit Library
• Standards & Guidelines for IS Auditing
• U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO)
• WebTrust
Fraud Resources
• @Auditing & Fraud Associations
• Articles on Internal Auditing and Fraud Examination
• Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
• Fraud Defense Network
• Fraud Detectives
• FraudNet
• Fraud Prevention (UK)
• Internet Fraud Complaint Center
• National Fraud Information Center
• White Collar Crime: Loss Prevention Through Internal Control

Associations
• @Accounting Associations
• American Accounting Association - Auditing Section
• American College of Forensic Examiners
• Association of Certified Fraud Examiners
• Association of College and University Auditors
• Association of Credit Union Internal Auditors
• Board of Environmental Auditor Certifications
• Information Systems Audit and Control Association
• Institute of Internal Auditors
• International Federation of Accountants
• International Auditing Practices Committee
• International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions
• National Association of Local Government Auditors
• National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and
Treasurers
• Northeast Insurance Anti-Fraud Group
• Society of Financial Examiners

Regulatory Bodies
• American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
• Financial Accounting Standards Board
• Governmental Accounting Standards Board
• Public Oversight Board

Certification
• Accredited Financial Examiner (AFE)
• Automated Examination Specialist (AES)
• Certified Financial Examiner (CFE)
• Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE)
• Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)
• Certified Internal Auditor (CIA)
• Certified Professional Environmental Auditor (CPEA)
• Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
• Certified Quality Auditor (CQA)

Where do the best come from?

2007-08-29T06:57:00.000-04:00

Microsoft Battles for Talent

2007-08-28T06:32:00.000-04:00

In case you don't read eWeek magazine (www.eweek.com), I thought I would share a few interesting quotes:
===============================================================
The biggest challenge facing Microsoft today is making sure that it has enough qualified, capable, talented people who can continue to scale with the company.

But the Redmond, Wash., software maker is facing competition for those resources from an unexpected source: the hedge fund industry.

"You have about a third of the number of people entering the IT field than you did during the dot-com era," Microsoft's Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner told eWEEK. "Also, one of the stiffest competitors we face today are the hedge funds, for staff to support all the major systems and analysis and decision support-type activity they do and which is pretty intensive.
==================================================================
Microsoft is pulling out all the stops to try to correct the growing shortage of IT graduates and the shrinking number of people entering the technology field by doing things like lobbying in Washington for relief.

"It's unfortunate that we can educate people here, but they then have to go home. Also, [Microsoft Chairman] Bill [Gates], [CEO] Steve [Ballmer], myself and others are all speaking at universities to get students excited about getting into the technology field," he said.

The shortage of qualified candidates in the IT space is a concern to the entire industry and the one thing that Turner said he thinks about every day, from the time he gets up in the morning until he goes to bed at night.
==================================================================
Jim Foley, a professor in the College of Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology and former chairman of the Computing Research Association, agrees with Turner that the numbers for college students heading into IT are not looking that good.

CRA research found that entering freshmen who indicated they would major in computer science fell by half from the high of 16,000 in 2000, which was just before the dot-com crash, to some 8,000 by fall 2006. "But the good news is that the decline seems to be leveling off; at Georgia Tech we have a slight uptick," Foley told eWEEK in an interview.

The number of U.S. students graduating with Bachelor of Science degrees peaked at 14,000 in the 2003-2004 academic year, dropping to 10,000 for 2005-2006, he said, noting that interest in computer science and computer engineering as a major has also dropped from about 3.7 percent of entering students in 1999 and 2000 to about 1.1 percent in 2006.

"Again, this does not include all of IT, but in large part these are the students whom Microsoft would like to hire, and there are not enough of them. There will be another lag until entering students realize that computing and IT are good fields with good jobs. That's what Microsoft and lots of other companies are experiencing right now and are worried about," said Foley, in Atlanta.
===================================================================
While the results of that survey, released in May, found that the number of Ph.D. degrees awarded continues to set records, the number of master's and bachelor's degrees awarded has dropped significantly.
===================================================================
While the results of that survey, released in May, found that the number of Ph.D. degrees awarded continues to set records, the number of master's and bachelor's degrees awarded has dropped significantly.
===================================================================
The number of master's degrees awarded, however, was down 13 percent, to 8,074, in the year ending June 2006. The June 2005 number was 9,286, which was "reasonably consistent with the 17 percent drop in new master's students reported two years ago," Zweben said.

Enrollment in master's programs by new students was about the same as last year, while total enrollment was down by more than 10 percent—all attributable to declines in computer science master's programs, he said.

More than half of new master's students came from outside North America, rising to 56.7 percent from 46.5 percent last year.

On the bachelor's degree front, issuance was down more than 15 percent, following the 13 percent decrease reported last year. "From this year's estimates, it would appear that another 16 percent decline is looming. If this holds true, it would represent a drop of more than 40 percent over a three-year period," Zweben said.

But there is some positive news. "When looking at new bachelor's degree students, for the first time in four years the number of new undergraduate majors is slightly higher than the corresponding number last year. This holds true when looking at only the more robust computer science numbers," he said.
================================================================

What is one way that Microsoft is coping with the talent shortage? They opened a center in Vancouver 159 miles from Redmund.

In the seven weeks since Microsoft announced that it intended to open a software development center in Vancouver, British Columbia, which it hoped would "be home to software developers from around the world," it may have gotten more than it bargained for.

In short, wrote Jenna Adorno, technical recruiter for MSN, on Microsoft's JobsBlog on Aug. 22, "Vancouver has worn me out."

Since Adorno first announced the facility July 9, she wrote, she has been "swallowed up by the endless offers and questions around employment at the Microsoft Vancouver Development Centre," which was built to address international workers affected by an inability to obtain a U.S. H-1B visa that would have enabled them to work out of the company's Redmond, Wash., headquarters.

Vancouver was chosen not only for its proximity to Redmond (less than 150 miles) and Canada's significantly fewer hurdles than the United States when it comes to hiring skilled foreign workers.

On July 12, Adorno implored international workers who had accepted a Microsoft offer but had not received an H-1B visa to contact her directly about a potential relocation to Vancouver, should the involved managers be okay with such an arrangement. The Vancouver location was expected to be made up of different employees on different teams that all had counterparts in Redmond. Microsoft assured rejected H-1Bs that there would be space for all of them in Canada, rolling out "new," comparable offers in late July and early August with start dates between September and November.

However, Microsoft hit a classic "remote work" wrinkle--that some roles function more favorably remotely than others. Software designers and developers would be more than welcome in Vancouver while project managers, media specialists and other roles would not.
==================================================================

Labor shortages won't be eliminated in the forseeable future, particularly if there is a recession. What creative ways can you create to prepare for even harder times finding talent?

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a retired certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to me at: thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

So, How Do You Choose Your Human Capital Vendors?

2007-08-19T08:50:00.000-04:00

An old client of mine and I spoke this week for the first time in about a year. After chatting about life, the universe and everything, he lamented (at least I think it was a lament) about how his HR organization selects vendors to work with. It seems that every year he is asked for recommendations that they don't act on.

Firms who are contacted are required to complete an extensive form that does little to evaluate or assess the worthiness of the firm to provide service delivery. Although he didn't voice this, I don't work for the firm so I am not encumbered by chain of command or the need to be conciliatory so I will ask the question: Whose human resources are they managing--his or theirs?

This scenario is not unique to this firm.

A state government contacted me two months ago about entering their vendor program. I completed thirty some odd online forms, submitted notarized documentation and then asked, "OK, where is the work for me?" Their answer, "Oh! We're just the vendor management program. We have nothing to do with that!" Huh?

If they are trying to help him, they should at least report back on their contact with his recommendations . . . and they don't. When he has asked the recruiter whether they have been contacted, the typical answer is, "No." So, let's assume you do want to evaluate and assess potential recruiters, what can you ask them? Don't just Google for a business name like "Sales Bananas" that suggests an expertise.

Here are some things to do:

1. I am of the opinion that you can't ask them directly how much experience they have because it is too easy for a beginner to lie and say they have more experience than they have. Instead, ask them, "Where did you go to school? When did you graduate? With what degree? What did you do upon graduation?" Continue through until you have the chronology of their experience. Some may still get through lying, but you will catch others. By all means, if you are in human resources, ask your managers with whom they have had a good experience and what made it good. Then contact them!

2. Do you belong to a trade group? An industry association? A medium where you speak with others doing your job at another firm? Ask them for their contacts. The specific person, not the firm. If you contact the firm in general, you may wind up with the rookie of the day to work with. Why should you break them in?

3. Do you need a specialist or a generalist? There are virtues to working with both. A specialist ostensibly knows the specific type of work you to have done. A generalist can cover a broad arena removing the necessity of you working with many different firms and breaking them all in.

My own history involves extensive recruiting in technology since 1972 but, in 2002, clients asked me to work in different sectors which led me to many new fields. In 2006, I even filled a position for a wood procurement specialist for a liquor company (to purchase hard woods for the casks their liquor was aged in); it was a search like none I had done before but intrigued me (frankly, I thought it was a fun job and took some time and filled it).

Like the mutual fund advertising ads said, "Past performance doesn't guaranty future returns." Ask questions like:

1. Tell me about some of the searches you've done in the last year? (Ask this question BEFORE you tell them about the positions you have open in order to preclude them from repeating back your job as one they just completed).

2. Is your firm a multi-office operation? Does it do local, regional or national searches? At what scale does it operate? Scale may be important if you are trying to find a resource for 2000 positions as part of a ramp up. Multi-office operation may mean that your contact person may get help supporting your work in Timkuktoo or not; many recruiters only work on their own assignments, preferring to keep 100% of commissions instead of half. As a result, your contact person with the 50 offices may not get as much support as it sounds.

3. What can I expect of you? What steps will you take to locate, assess and refer someone?

4. What is your firm's practice about recruiting from a client? What is a client company to you? Who are your current clients (and this, who is off limits)

Since entering this field what seems like a hundred years ago, I have seen how firms do nothing to evaluate and assess the firms that will supply their talent and then wonder why they don't like the results they get. It's like hiring someone who you never interview. Does that make sense to you? Of course not. Yet isn't how you have accepted working with many vendors?

Is Your System Set Up to Select Mediocre People?

2007-08-03T16:49:00.000-04:00

How does your firm choose who to hire?

Often the promise is somewhat ad hoc--a position description is crafted and approved with minimal questioning except to insure that it conforms to process. From there, someone, sometimes from HR, sometimes from the department, does an initial screen by telephone. The person is evaluated based upon their ability to string a few sentences together that relate to the job description.

From there, an in-person interview is constructed where the person is quizzed on one or two things that relate to the job, and quite a few that are extraneous. From there, the person is pused up the chain of command until, ultimately, they are rejected or hired.

Why were they rejected? They were "too light." In other words, they were judged by a person earning less than they earn, who was "winging it" through the interview, rather than asking questions that mattered to the manager and follow ups that were irrelevant to job performance.

Have you ever heard the old saying, "A camel is a horse designed by a committee?

What can you do?

Before you ask a question, before you ask a subordinate to ask questions, make it clear to them what you want them to cover in the interview. BE SPECIFIC!

Unless you make it clear what you are looking for, you will wind up like one of my clients who rejected a job applicant based upon criteria that in no way shape or form related to the position description (and, no, the issue was not about "fit").

Look at your hiring process in advance of interviewing and be clear with everyone what you are looking for and how you want them to screen and what you want them to screen for.

Otherwise, you will wind up with the best person who can get through the committee, rather than the person who is best qualified to do the job.

Email resume in Word to thebigamehunter@cisny.com. Please include the job code for the position with your resume.

NO RELOCATION. NO VISA TRANSFERS. NO OVERSEAS RESUMES. NO 3^RD PARTIES.

To search available positions, sign up to receive a daily digest of positions anywhere in the USA, use a job lead search engine, subscribe to Head Hunt Your Next Job, Jeff Altman’s free job search ezine, or his staffing ezine, Natural Selection, or learn about his VIP service, go to www.jeffaltman.com.

I have that person in my data base (a brief rant)

2007-08-03T09:58:00.000-04:00

I can accept the notion that a person has been spoken with or contacted.

I cannot accept the answer that they are in your data base.

Respectfully, so what if it is in your data base?

I am not investing resources to be a firm's tickler system, prompting them to contact potential employees.

Place yourself in another's shoes.

You are spending time (money) to find, evaluate, assess and refer someone. That person has not been contacted by the client (you) yet and then you are told, "They are in my data base."

Is that the way you want your firm to do business?

Is that fair? Do you believe you are being honest when you have failed to take action on someone and use someone to remind you to call them?

I understand that mistakes happen. I make them and you make them. Everyone does. Don't punish someone who works for free to help you unless they are successful by setaling their efforts.

What are Your Values? How would You Decide?

2007-08-03T09:21:00.000-04:00

In some situations, there is no right or wrong. Sometimes, a person just need to be conscious of their values when they make a decision (and their biases but that is another article).

A client had two finalists for a position, both with comparable professional skills.

As they went into the final round they were left with an interesting decision.

What criteria should we use to choose between the two.

One is a relatively experienced person. The other has several years less experience.
Advantage to the experienced person

The less experienced person has been a consultant for several years (advantage to the experienced person) but with one client for several years (advantage shifts to the less experienced one.

The experienced person has been working in industry where he is knowledgeable and has done an extremely good job; the else experienced one is extremely service oriented. As a consultant, he understands that everything he does should be done with service at heart and wears that as a badge of honor and responsibility. Not every consultant does, but he does..

What would you do to decide?

2007-07-21T08:55:00.000-04:00

A friend emailed an article from www.law.com to me that I thought was interesting.

In In re Rodriguez, No. 06-1988, --F.3d--, 2007 WL 1827284 (6th Cir. June 27, 2007), the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a summary judgment award in favor of employer, FedEx Freight East, Inc., which allegedly denied an employee a promotion due to the employee's accent and speech characteristics. The appellate court concluded that the employee had provided direct evidence in support of his national origin discrimination claim.

The employee was not selected for a supervisory position he sought. A manager allegedly told Rodriguez that he would have hired Rodriguez but for the supervisor’s stated concern that Rodriguez's accent and speech pattern would adversely impact Rodriguez's ability to rise through the customer ranks.

Another FedEx manager allegedly told Rodriguez that his supervisor said he did not promote Rodriguez because of Rodriguez's accent and "how he speaks."

lower court granted summary judgment to FedEx on Rodriguez's race discrimination claim (which the 6th Circuit later reclassified as a national origin discrimination claim) over the promotion denial.

As the lower court viewed the statements about Rodriquez's accent and speech, the court decided that the employee must establish that he was a member of a protected class, that he was qualified for the position applied for, that he was denied the position and that similarly situated employees who were not members of the protected class were treated more favorably to state a prima facie case of discrimination. The burden then shifts to the employer to articulate a legitimate nondiscriminatory reason for its actions. The burden then shifts back to the employee to demonstrate that the employer's proffered reason was a pretext for discrimination. Applying that standard, the district court found that Rodriguez had failed to establish a prima facie case because Rodriguez did not establish that he was qualified for the promotion or that he was treated differently than a similarly situated non-Hispanic employee.

On appeal, the 6th Circuit reversed the lower court’s decision in favor of grant of FedEx on Rodriquez's promotion claim. The 6th Circuit concluded that the district court erroneously treated the negative statements about Rodriquez's accent and speech pattern as circumstantial evidence of discrimination and improperly analyzed the evidence under the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework.

Rather, the appeals court concluded that such statements were direct evidence of discrimination. Direct evidence of discrimination is "evidence, which, if believed, requires the conclusion that unlawful discrimination was at least a motivating factor in the employer's actions." Jacklyn v. Schering-Plough Healthcare Products Sales Corp., 176 F.3d 921, 926 (6th Cir. 1999). Once a plaintiff provides direct evidence of discrimination, the employer has the burden of showing that "it would have terminated the plaintiff's employment had it not been motivated by discrimination."

The appeals court concluded that the comments showed that a FedEx decision maker denied Rodriquez the position because of his accent and English language skills. The court noted that "accent and national origin are inextricably intertwined." The court also noted that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regulations recognize "linguistic discrimination as national origin discrimination."

It is not a huge leap to see how this case could be applied to hiring and show how a person rejected because of an accent has been discriminated against.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to me at:
thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

Doctor, Please. Far Less of This

2007-07-21T08:41:00.000-04:00

I don’t know about you, but when I arrive at my doctor’s office on time for an appointment, I am greeted (if you want to call it that) by a receptionist who would rather be a nurse who asks me to fill out an intake form that could have been emailed to me in advance of the appointment, The form requires certain basic and obvious information which, upon completion, I am asked to return to her (and it is generally a “her”).

From there I wait.

I am not asked to wait or asked if I CAN wait. I am left alone to wait and read magazines that are often 6 months old. The wait can take a minute or an hour.

How different is that from the experience that is offered to job hunters who come to human resources at your organization?

How does a receptionist “receive someone” That is what they are there for, right? To be the receptor for an organization receiving someone, right?

Do you email applications to applicants or make them complete the form in person?

Subconsciously, do you judge their handwriting?

How old are your magazines?

Is someone invited to have a beverage?

How long are they kept to wait by you? Is you receptionist overwhelmed and thus delays occur between the applicant being ready to meet you and when they actually are caused by their being expected to answer phones which delays notification of someone’s arrival.

Once a week, I receive a call from a client who is asking where my candidate is only to later discover that the delay was caused by the receptionist or security not letting them know someone is waiting for them.

And what is the message that you are sending with this “process”? I’ll tell you. Once you join, you will become the third drone on the left in a cubicle and become Dilbert.

How different would it for someone to receive the application by email so that they can complete it online, print it out and sign it and bring it with them to the interview.

How does someone feel if they are greeted by someone with a huge smile or who apologizes to them for not taking time to chat with them but that they have a project to do for someone? How about this week’s magazines and today’s newspapers or a short video about the firm and opportunities within it featuring the CIO, CEO, CFO or other leaders who make it inviting to join.

How do you think someone feels when they are greeted on time?

The process most organizations have for receiving someone is cold and impersonal. You can change it and make your one that helps to make your process a hiring magnet.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to me at:

thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

What's That a Job For?

2007-07-13T15:43:00.000-04:00

I receive lots of corporate job descriptions from companies around the US.

As much as firms say they want to hire people, there remains a certain production line quality about the job descriptions.

How many of you post job descriptions or send them to recruiters with titles like

Accountant Level 3
Desktop Support Grade 44
Sr. Civ Eng Grade 6
Security Consultant (for a staff position)

The job specifications describe a person and the job in ways like this:

Serve as project manager for xxxxxxx engagements at banking and other financial institutions firms. Lead all aspects of the project, including the development of a project plan, staffing, assigning project responsibilities and managing the performance of all team members to meet project requirements. Manage client expectations and interactions to maintain effective communications, client involvement and to ensure client satisfaction.

Here are the 93 things we require of you in order to be considered for this job.

In addition to these 93, we prefer people who
1. Are able to leap tall buildings in no more than 2 bounds
2. Possess excellent oral communications
3. Live within two blocks of our location

Please write job descriptions like people are human and not robots.

If you show you care about people in their work in the description and as you interview you, they will believe you when you tell them that people are an important asset at your company.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to me at:
thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

Hiring Great People During a Candidate Advantaged Job Market: 4 Things to Do NOW!

2007-06-27T06:35:00.000-04:00

We have entered a period when we have been experiencing explosive business growth following a period of severe contraction following the 9/11 attacks. More and more businesses are are discovering that their time-to-fill metrics (the amount of time it takes to fill a job) are getting longer as they discover fewer qualified people available to hire.

Now for worse news (I hope I scare you with this statistic):

During the next seven years, approximately 73 million people are scheduled to retire.

Put differently, almost 24% of the current US population is scheduled to retire in the next 7 years.

And you thought it was tough to fill jobs now! Just wait!

NOW is the time to make changes that position your firm as a leader in people's minds and advantage you when hiring NOW and in the future.

1. Don't just fill jobs. Find great people and make room for them.

This is a philosophical shift for many firms who, unintentionally, look at human capital like machine parts. We need a programmer with certain skills. We need a receptionist on 14. This works fine up to a point. We all know that great people will make a difference in an organization. Why not make room for people who can make a difference at a high level.

Tell your current leadership that they are important to your firm's success not just for what they do but for the ideas that they contribute that can make a difference. That you want people who can do
great things AND offer ideas that cn move the firm forward in the next ten years and position it as the leader in its industry.

Somewhere in the last 20 years that notion has been lost.

2. Impress all talent. It should go without saying, but whenever someone interviews with you, they should walk out impressed and wanting to work for your company.

Everyone from the security guard in the lobby, to the receptionist in HR, to the HR person who interviews them, on and on, should be talking about what a great firm you are to work for.

I'm not saying to hire everyone. Standards need to be observed. But in this interconnected social networking world we live in, a bad impression will be magnified tremendously and broadcast throughout the world.

3. Network. Network. Network.

Everyone knows about LinkedIn (if you want to connect with my 1000 person plus my public page on LinkedIn is at http://www.linkedin.com/in/thebiggamehunter,

Do you use Jigsaw to recruit? Jigsaw will help you find people cheaply. People with certain titles and job functions. In Europe, Xing is particularly strong.

How about your own alumni (see my other article in this issue).

4. Treat your recruiting sources as allies instead of annoyances. This means you need to evaluate your recruiting sources, too, and not just ask them to work on your jobs just because they happened to call.

This next one may be a little controversial--work witth firms who are not on your vendor list if they have a person who fits a need. Why not accept a great referral from someone who isn;t on your "list?" How did lists become so important anyway?

The organization that becomes a leader isn;t always the smartest or work the hardest, although those are two great qualities. Organizations become leaders by being alert to opportunities.

The same needs to be part of your talent scouting process, too. As an organization that wants to be great, or thrive or prosper or fulfill its mission statement (you know the corporate mission statement don't you?), you will need to acquire great talent and give it room to operate.

These four steps will help you do that simply and powerfully.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search job openings, use his free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe. to subscribe Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, or to learn more and sign up for his VIP Personal Search Agent service, go to, http://www.jeffaltman.com. To subscribe to Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, Natural Selection Ezine, subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Boing. Boing. Is That The Sound of Your Next Hire?

2007-06-27T06:30:00.000-04:00

"Meet the new boss

The same as the old boss”

--“Won’t Get Fooled Again,” The Who

Although that lyric from The Who, a 60’s band consisting of Pete Townsend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwhistle and Keith Moon, were singing of revolution and rejecting the status quo, there is something suggested in their lyrics that you can use to hire more staff more easily.

It is something that The Big 8 firms (the eight largest accounting firms) did for years during their peak of power and prestige. It is something that you can do NOW to plant the seeds for future hires—something that will become critical as the boomers start to retire and leave the workforce.

Form an alumni group and have someone on point for it so that you have a chance to hire your former workers in the future.

Minimally, collect information that allows you to re-contact former employees by email and do so every 9 months.

Help them get interviews for their next job with other former employees. Help them make good decisions about their choices.

Re-hire people whose skills and temperament fit your needs. Let them "boomerang" back to you.

Why shouldn’t you re-hire the programmer who worked for you three years ago if their knowledge and experience can help you solve a problem?

Maybe they were mismanaged by their boss or released during a down turn in the economy.

Why not bring them back?

The fact is that in the next few years, the number of skilled people will be leaving the workforce because of retirement will be in the millions. Unless we miraculously replace them with immigrants who know your business instantly, you should as few boundaries to hiring down as possible.

By creating a climate where talented boomerangs will want to return to your company and (making it comfortable for them to do so by giving them previous benefits toward vacations, for example) your business will be helped in many ways.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search job openings, use his free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe. to subscribe Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, or to learn more and sign up for his VIP Personal Search Agent service, go to, http://www.jeffaltman.com. To subscribe to Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, Natural Selection Ezine, subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Behavioral Interview Questions: Decision Making

2007-06-16T05:42:00.000-04:00

Discuss an important decision you have made regarding a task or project at work. What factors influenced your decision?

Everyone has made some poor decisions or has done something that just did not turn out right. Has this happened to you? What happened?

Give an example of a time in which you had to be relatively quick in coming to a decision.

Give an example of a time in which you had to keep from speaking or not finish a task because you did not have enough information to come to a good decision.

Give an example of a time when there was a decision to be made and procedures were not in place?

Give an example of a time when you had to be relatively quick in coming to a decision.

Give me an example of a time when you had to keep from speaking or making a decision because you did not have enough information.

How did you go about deciding what strategy to employ when dealing with a difficult customer?

How do you go about developing information to make a decision? Give an example.

How do you involve your manager and/or others when you make a decision?

How have you gone about making important decisions?

How quickly do you make decisions? Give an example.

In a current job task, what steps do you go through to ensure your decisions are correct and effective?

Talk about a time when you had to defend a decision you made even though other important people were opposed to your decision.

What kind of decisions do you make rapidly? What kind takes more time? Give examples.

What kinds of problems have you had coordinating technical projects? How did you solve them?

What was your most difficult decision in the last 6 months? What made it difficult?

When you have to make a highly technical decision, how do you go about doing it?

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to him at: thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

6 Reminders When Hiring

2007-06-15T07:27:00.001-04:00

Having worked closely with managers and business owners for many years, I have seen their hiring process fall on its face because they have forgotten several important rules. Forgetting any of these principles may bog you down, slow down your hiring process and ultimately foster the new hire failing even if you stumble into the “right” person.

Don't expect to hire a replica of yourself! You are not the “be all and end all’ of great talent and, as such, don’t expect to hire a clone. First of all, one factor to consider when hiring may be to hire someone who complements your skills and talents rather than replicates them.

If you are looking at junior staff, you may accidentally place an angelic halo around someone because their experience or behaviors may remind you of yourself and, by doing so, may fail to adequately investigate their experience.

Lastly, by doing so, you may foster an environment where you fail to adequately interview and hire people from racial, ethnic, religious and other backgrounds and experiences far different than your own that may foster “lock step thinking” and behavior and, obviously, bias.

2. Know exactly what you expect from your new hire. It may seem obvious in an era where job specs are approved at many levels before a person is actually hired but, again from experience, I know how often people ignore what is on the job description to hire someone who doesn’t fit in some key way or another (for years, the Wall Street Journal would publish a statistic that approximately 20% of all people hired did not fit the job description. That was 20% who admitted it!).

3. Know exactly what you expect from your new hire. What will someone need to do in order to be successful in your job? Do you know? How will you know that this person can actually perform as you hope they will? What will you ask to find out? No matter how junior or senior the person is you need to be able to know your expectations of them and how you will measure their potential for success before you actually hire them.

4. Set aside time. T may seem obvious but you can’t hire someone without making the time to interview them and making sure that your team has time, too. Try to anticipate when there is a lull in the action and avoid interviewing people when you and your team have far too much to get done. Don’t expect that job hunters will be willing to keep visiting your offices or plant time and again because you are too busy. They get the message that they will be overworked and that manners are not important. After all, they took time off from work or to make arrangements to meet you at a time that you said would work. How rude is it on your to push them away and make them return.

5. Create a training program. It may be a simple as “When you have questions, ask Jeff over there” how to handle it. Far better that that is a few days of immersing the new person in your company or group’s practices and processes so that they know what is going on, they know how to handle the basics, and that they learn the informal rules of the road.

6. If you aren’t sure, ask for advice or help. It never hurts to get a second opinion from someone if you are wavering. And after you get the second opinion, if you still aren’t sure, reject the person and keep looking!

Taking the time to do these things will go a long way toward helping you as a manager, a business owner or as an HR professional focus in on the success points to hire someone who will succeed for years to come.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To subscribe to Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, or receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Behavioral Interview Questions: Communications

2007-06-01T15:39:00.000-04:00

Describe a situation in which you were able to effectively “read” another person and guide your actions by your understanding of their individual needs or values.

Describe a situation when you were able to strengthen a relationship by communicating effectively. What made your communication effective?

Describe a situation where you felt you had not communicated well. How did you correct the situation?

Describe a time when you were able to effectively communicate a difficult or unpleasant idea to a superior.

Describe the most significant written document, report or presentation which you had to complete.

Give me an example of a time when you were able to successfully communicate with another person, even when that individual may not have personally liked you , or vice versa.

Have you ever had to “sell” an idea to your co-workers or group? How did you do it? Did they “buy” it?

How do you keep subordinates informed about information that affects their jobs?

How do you keep your manager informed about what is being done in your work area?

How do you go about explaining a complex technical problem to a person who does not understand technical jargon?

What approach do you take in communicating with people? What kinds of communication situations cause you difficulty? Give an example.

Tell us about a recent successful experience in making a speech or presentation. How did you prepare? What obstacles did you face? How did you handle them?

Tell us about a time when you and your current/previous supervisor disagreed but you still found a way to get your point across. Tell us about a time when you had to present complex information. How did you ensure that the other person understood?

Tell us about a time when you had to use your verbal communication skills in order to get a point across that was important to you.

Tell us about a time when you were particularly effective in a talk you gave or seminar you taught.

Tell us about an experience in which you had to speak up in order to be sure that other people knew what you thought or felt.

Tell us me about a situation when you had to speak up (be assertive) in order to get a point across that was important to you. Tell us me about a time in which you had to use your written communication skills in order to get an important point across."

Describe the most significant written document, report or presentation which you had to complete.

Give me an example of a time when you were able to successfully communicate with another person, even when that individual may not have personally liked you , or vice versa.

Give me an example of a time when you were able to successfully communicate with another person, even when that individual may not have personally liked you.

Have you ever had to “sell” an idea to your co-workers or group? How did you do it? Did they “buy” it?

How do you keep subordinates informed about information that affects their jobs?

How do you keep your manager informed about what is being done in your work area?

How do you go about explaining a complex technical problem to a person who does not understand technical jargon?

What approach do you take in communicating with people?

What kinds of communication situations cause you difficulty? Give an example.

Tell us about a recent successful experience in making a speech or presentation. How did you prepare? What obstacles did you face? How did you handle them?

Tell us about a time when you and your current/previous supervisor disagreed but you still found a way to get your point across.

Tell us about a time when you had to present complex information. How did you ensure that the other person understood?

Tell us about a time when you had to use your verbal communication skills in order to get a point across that was important to you.

Tell us about a time when you were particularly effective in a talk you gave or a seminar you taught.

Tell us about an experience in which you had to speak up in order to be sure that other people knew what you thought or felt.

Tell us me about a situation when you had to speak up (be assertive) in order to get a point across that was important to you.

Tell us me about a time in which you had to use your written communication skills in order to get an important point across.

What challenges have occurred while you were coordinating work with other units, departments, and/or divisions?

What have you done to improve your verbal communication skills? How have you persuaded people through a document you prepared?

What are the most challenging documents you have done?

What kinds of proposals have your written?

What kinds of writing have you done?

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to him at:
thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

The Single Most Important Thing You Must Do During Every Interview

2007-05-18T06:31:00.001-04:00

While evaluating a candidate for a client, I learned that the job applicant was also interviewing with two investment banks and was about to begin second rounds with those firms for positions that seemed very good but not as well-suited as my client's job was.

My person did well on his first round and was invited back for a second interview for a position and firm that he seems to like more than the others. That's good news for my client and good news for me.

Yet one thing about this is troubling me--my client has been focused exclusively on evaluating and assessing the candidate and taking almost zero time to do something that is absolutely critical to win the person if they want to hire them.

Want to know what it is?

Sell their company and the position to the job applicant.

Why should someone come to work with your firm?
How will this job fit their needs not just now but for years to come?
What do you like about working there?
What will they learn that can benefit them?
What career path exists? Does the firm even look at upward mobility?
What are bonuses like?
What are benefits like?
Why do you enjoy working there?

I'm not speaking about with the candidates you are interested in. I'm speaking about every single person.

You're saying, "I don't have time to do that."

Let me offer another way of looking at this.

Imagine that every person you interview is favorably disposed to working for your company so that when you make a job offer they are all leaning toward saying yes. Google has this advantage and so does Goldman Sachs. How can you create this for your firm?

The simple answer is to send people into the world with stars in their eyes excited about the possibility of working for your firm. Obviously, not everyone will be hired, nor is everyone qualified. But if you can get them to think, "WOW! I'd really like to work for them some day," they will chat up your firm now and for years to come.

When someone is interviewing at your firm years from now, they will speak favorably about it.

So take the time to speak about your firm and the opportunity and what's in it for the candidate to join . . . especially now while there are labor shortages that will make the market for talent competitive for years to come.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to him at:
thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

The Background Check: How Much Do You Really Want to Know?

2007-04-27T19:09:00.000-04:00

A few years ago, a client manager asked me to screen for a position on his staff. He wanted to hire a Unix systems administrator with experience in financial markets. After submitting a resume of a very qualified person, I received a call from him rejecting the candidate. I was confised because he certainly had the qualifications for the job. I asked why.

"Go to www.google.com and search for by his name; you'll find what I did. A message he posted on a discussion service where he talked about sizable trading losses. We can't let him anywhere near our systems or anywhere near our trading models."

And from there I learned a valuable lesson.

As a junior recruiter, back in The Stone Ages, I lost two hires for matters that might seem personal--one was an officer with a bank who, shortly after she joined, had penned several pornographic books; the other was a computer consultant who, apparently not long before accepting a position with the consulting firm I introduced her to, had posed for two magazines that were released two weeks after she joined her no employer (how they discovered the photo shoot and magazines was never asked, of course).

With the recent NFL draft highlighting a drive toward great athleticism and character resulting from recent bad episodes involving players, it begs the question of whether your firm is doing anything of even a marginal basis to check a person's background prior to their joining your firm.

Does your firm engage in a background check?

Do you use Google to search for old resumes that are inconsistent with the one you received?

Have you been surprised by anything that appears on their web page or social network site page?

If you have, have you asked the person about anything that you've found?

To be clear, I am not suggesting that your firm turn into the second coming of the KGB. I am suggesting that character is impoprtant in your new hires is important and that question marks need to be investigated before something occurs later that will be an incredible headache for everyone.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to him at:
thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

Creative Hiring in Active Job Markets

2007-04-20T16:06:00.000-04:00

By now, I'm sure you've noticed that the job market is extremely active and that it is hard to find qualified people, let alone qualified people without breaking the bank.

I want to share an anecdote from a recent hire that a client of mine did that showed intelligent creativity.

The position involved was for a technology professional with a J2EE background plus solid architectural experience. I could go into a lot of detail about the job requirement but I believe it is unnecessary to making the point.

The first thing my client did was to be flexible to job hunters who might not be working near their offices by doing an initial phone interview with job candidates. Instead of having human resources make the initial call, HR scheduled an interview with two of their managers and the candidate. This allowed them to do a solid evaluation of the person and their competencies prior to meeting with them.

The second thing they did was open their search to qualified individuals who were working in the US under an H-1b visa. doing this allowed them to access to less expensive potential employees.

They met the person in their offices (the job applicant worked outside the region during the week but was home on Fridays and available to meet them), and spent time both evaluating and assessing the individual and their qualifications but also talking about the firm and the good things about working there.

A second meeting was scheduled with a Director and at that time, HR spent a significant amount of time talking with the potential hire about benefits and quality of life issues. They also made clear the fees that they would pay for both the visa transfer and the green card--all except for job applicant legal fees.

An initial low offer was made but they indicated that there might be some small flexibility. They then improved it slight, increasing the base salary plus providing a sign on bonus that would pay for the legal fees for the transfer.

Asa a result, they hired someone who was qualified to do their job for $14000 less than what they had originally budgeted for the position while maintaining salary parity within the firm.

Are there any ideas you can take from this?

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to him at:
thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

Rusing

2007-03-30T21:55:00.000-04:00

If you don't periodically explore the website ere.net, you are missing a treat.

ERE is a site that focuses on recruiting in many different ways--there are daily articles from industry leaders, blogs, product information and discussion groups. Personally, I am fascinated by some of the discussions that occur.

A recent one involved the employment agency technique of doing rusing to find job applicants.If you are not familiar with the term, let me provide you with some examples of rusing.

Calling the switchboard of a target company, saying that you are a college student trying to interview someone for a paper who is the head of ________. What is there name and number??

Using the voice response system of target firm to collect names to call.

Meeting with a junior person in the department for an interview taht has little reason to occur accept for those few minutes where you ask them for an org chart of their department and where they fit into it for the sole purpose of getting the names of the others to call.

Sending a resume of someone witha terrific background to a non-client.

"They look good; let's meet them."

Oh, they just took another job, but I have a few others I'll send over to you. Tell me what you're looking for exactly."

The subject of the discussion is "All Great Recruiters Ruse."

So, let me ask you, if someone told you that they fond a job applicant in this manner, would you be happy? Would you been disgusted? Someplace in the middle?

Email me at thebiggamehunter@gmail.com and tell me what you would think if someone admitted to you that they did this to find your most recent hire.

Oh, by the way, after 35 years of doing search, my network and technology tools make this completely unnecessary.

Again, email me at thebiggamehunter@gmail.com and tell me what your thoughts would be if a recruiter admitted to you that they did this to find your most reent hire.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter Concepts in Staffing thebiggamehunter@cisny.com © 2007 all rights reserved. Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist. To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free meta job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to learn about his VIP program, or to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, designed to help human resources professionals, managers and business owners make even better hiring decisions, ,subscribe at www.thebiggamehunter.net. If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to him at:
thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

Get The Applicant Off Balance

2007-03-30T21:31:00.000-04:00

Most interviews are extremely predictable. They have three basic parts--an introduction to the interview that often begins with a question like, "Tell me about yourself and what you've been doing professionally." The second phase where skills competence is evaluated; the third phase is where you ask if they have any questions.

Some people like to conduct interviews with very easy tones to them; others prefer "stress interviews."

Like you, I see my job as finding out the truth--I want to geta sense of a person and their competence and experience, chemistry with my clients and their attitides, character, self-confidence and, maybe charisma. What Ir efer to as personal leadership.

I want to know what someone knows, what they want and how flexible they are in pursuing it (the money, the location, the nature of the job).

Because most interviews have become extremely predictable, i've been looking for something that would be helpful in obtaining a real insight into the person I'm sitting with--something that is not part of their prepared script of answers.

I wasn't satisfied until recently when I read an anecdote from someone who spoke of their worries about being promoted into a job over their head and then it hit me.

"Tell me about a professional situation where you were in over your head and how you handled it."

I ask this question early in the interview.

I'm looking for an insight into the person, not just from what they say but from their body language. I can accept taht they may not have been put into sucha situation but I want to see how they respond to the question and how they respond to my next question.

Did I throw them off? That will be how they handle it in real life.

Will they say that it has not happened to them professionally but in their academic life or personal life, hee is what happened.

I want to get them off the "script" of answers and learn something about the person in front of me.

Email me at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com and tell me what happens when you try using this question, particularly, early in the interview.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter Concepts in Staffing thebiggamehunter@cisny.com © 2007 all rights reserved. Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist. To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free meta job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to learn about his VIP program, or to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, designed to help human resources professionals, managers and business owners make even better hiring decisions, ,subscribe at www.thebiggamehunter.net. If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to him at: thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

How Much Should We Be Paying for a ______?

2007-03-16T05:13:00.000-04:00

It is a pretty common occurrence for me to receive a call fro a client asking me about how much someone who is doing a particular function should be paid. With time, I learned that the answer that was least satisfying was "Whatever the market deems them to be worth." Although true, most of you want concrete numbers.

So how do you best get those numbers?

The Internet is a great tool. I'm not speaking of sites like www.salary.com or www.payscale.com.
Personally, I find these sites too generic for my taste.

The sites I use are:

www.jobsearchuniverse.com
www.indeed.com
www.simplyhired.com

In the name of full disclosure, Job Search Universe if a search engine I build using Google search engine technology; it searches more than 2200 websites and employer career pages for information. Indeed and Simply Hired are similar meta search tools.

Each provides enormous job market penetration that allows me to collect information.

For example, if I want to know about j2EE Swaps developer salaries in New York, I enter the search into one of these search engines and examine the results anc determine what salaries are for the skill.

I know its easier to just call me and ask but, heah, this will probably be far more accurate!

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free meta job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to learn about his VIP program, or to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, designed to help human resources professionals, managers and business owners make even better hiring decisions, ,subscribe at www.thebiggamehunter.net.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to him at:
thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

Campus Recruiting: The Lost Focus of Staffing

2007-03-16T04:21:00.000-04:00

Back in ancient times, when I was beginning my career, the Bell Labs was considered a terrific place for people like me. They recruited "the best of the best, " regardless of race, creed, religion, national origin, etc.. Once on board, you worked on exceptional projects and were set for life.

If I were to ask you today, who fits that kind of description, the closest firm that comes to mind is Google (in mine, any way) and what you hear out of them is about what a great place they are to work for an experienced person. . . but nothing that says, "We can take your career from cradle to grave.

Since the post 9/11 recession began, campus recruiting has fallen off of many firm's radar screens (is there a phrase as anachronistic as "radar screens") . Companies are trying to hire finished products and few are taking the time to plant seeds in the ground, feed and water the seeds and help them grow into beautiful flowers. Yet, now, more than ever, firms need to make strong efforts to train and hire rookies and juniors.

What is working now when you go on campus to attract beginners?

In public accounting, the hiring process on campus is tied up by Thanksgiving because the firms are able to anticipate and plan their needs that early.

The recruiting process begins with a company presentation in the fall that offers students the opportunity to learn about the various positions available within a company and the locations that are being recruited for. Firms should start to connect with some of the students and collect information about them, their interest and begin a process of communication with them.

Make sure you obtain their email address, IM and cell number!

In the months that follow, you should contact them with follow up information, an occasional contact and be able to answer their questions honestly. One reminder: during these presentations, be sure to have your story straight. Anything you say to the student during the presentations will be remembered forever.

If you are asked questions, make notes of your answers and share them with others on the team so that of they are asked similar questions, everyone can be on the same page.

DO NOT SPEAK CRITICALLY OF YOUR COMPETITION FOR TALENT.

Calling a competitor, "The biggest mistake you could ever make," does not endear you to the student, even if it's true. Better to calmly speak about the difference between your culture and theirs if you actually know it or to speak purely in positive terms about your own.

Usually, the recruiting team consists of relatively junior people in the organization who, it is believed, will be able to connect with the student better than an older person might. Then there is the "senior manager type." Make sure your senior manager has that sort of "good father" or "good mother" demeanor and/or manner about them. You don't want the company grouch interacting with the kids, sent only because they are available that day and no one else is.

Make the student feel important. an attitude that says, "You need us; we don't need you," will sink your efforts.

Once you've identified some of the people you are interested in, bringing them into your office for an event where they meet some of the staff who are focused on attracting them to the firm gives them a chance to interact with the staff away from the hustle of the meat market (or meet market) of the campus recruiting effort. Such "high touch efforts" give everyone a feel for one another and suggest care for the new hire.

As much as you want them to express interest in working for you, they like to feel like hiring them matters to you.

Oh, yes, look at the composition of the teams involved with hiring. What is the message you send when the team consists of young blind women in HR and old Caucasian men representing the management. Let me give you a hint: It does not suggest diversity in your firm's culture which, given that more and more students are neither of purely Caucasian households, nor male (as a matter of fact, interracial marriage, interfaith marriage, gay parenting and interracial adoption are far more the norm in the US than 20 years ago).

I hope I've re-opened some of your eyes to campus recruiting and its importance in your staff planning and offered a few reminders and tips that will help you obtain a great return on your investment.

Jeff Altman

The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free meta job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to learn about his VIP program, or to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.