Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter's No B. S. Hiring Advice: Natural Selection Ezine

Showing posts with label Natural Selection Ezine. Show all posts

Friday, April 27, 2007

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

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

Friday, April 20, 2007

Creative Hiring in Active Job Markets

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?

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

Friday, March 30, 2007

Rusing

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

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

Friday, March 16, 2007

How Much Should We Be Paying for a ______?

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

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.