Hitchhiker in the Corner Office

This is my first post on Amplify! #myfirstpost http://amplify.com/u/etgf

Yesterday, a candidate called my right after his phone screen interview. Most candidates think that they nail the interview and that they are going to get the job. But this candidate was much different. He came away thinking that he did not do well and questioned why the hiring manager wanted to even talk to him. His take away was that he felt that the hiring manager was looking for a more experienced engineer. I let him know what the hiring manager told me which was a five year candidate that wouldn’t mind some of the grunt work involved. 

After circling back with the hiring manager, I later found out that the candidate was not listening to many of the cues that the hiring manager was revealing. Primarily, he did not ‘hear’ that the hiring manager was actually more open to having someone who may be a bit junior like my candidate. Instead the candidate only heard that the hiring manager originally thought that he wanted a 15 year engineer but was willing to look at some engineers with a more junior of a skill set. In fact, the hiring manager qualified his statements by saying that he would reconsider retooling his original plan to fit a more junior employee if they were a right match. 

In the end, the candidate will be moving on to the next round of face-to-face interviews, but I think that he could have made an even better case for himself if he would have listened more to the interviewer. Often times in the middle of an interview, the candidates only hear what they want to hear or worse off, they let the bad stuff bring them down. In this case, the candidate was able to pull off getting to the next interview because he is a good candidate. But a B Level candidate may not have done so well. 

As much as I prep candidates for the interview, I can never stress how important it is for them to be in the moment and listen. Often times candidates don’t listen and that can be a problem because the interviewer will often give away key clues. 

Here are some things to keep in mind during the interview: 

1. Take and active role in the interview. Be proactive, rather than reactive (simply waiting for the next interview question), in providing and obtaining up-front information.
2. What can you do for us? Remember that no matter what they ask you, what they are really asking you is, “What have you done in the past and (most importantly) how does it apply to what we are doing here?”
3. Always give examples of what you have done. For example, “When I was at ABC Company, I was the team lead in charge of implementing our new accounting software and training our division on how to use it. There were four people on my team and we integrated and tested the application in a four month period. The application was implemented and in full use by our staff within 1 year’s time, which was sooner than management had anticipated.” Careful thought should be given to all questions and corresponding answers. Interviewers want to know what you have to offer them, so be prepared to tell them!
4. Choose your words wisely. Remember, they only hear what you say, not what you think! Be careful and certain that you are verbalizing your thoughts clearly and concisely.
5. Turn negatives into positives. If they ask you about something that you don’t have experience with, don’t try to cover it up. Also, never just say “No, I do not have experience with that.” Let them know you don’t have experience in that area but give them an example of a time when you had to pick up a new skill and how you applied it in a given period of time. For example, “When I started at my last company, I didn’t know X software at all. Within two months, I was able not only to master it, but I knew it well enough to assist in the training of new associates.”
6. Take time after the interview to assess. Do NOT decide if you want the job during the interview process.

I spoke with a hiring manager yesterday who was concerned about trying to make end-of-year hires because some of the best candidates may be holding out to get their bonuses or may have retention in place.

Although this may be a factor, it should not disuade a hiring authority to give up. If a company is willing to wait until the beginning of the new year or if tue candidates is open to a creative sign on, it can be win-win.

I urge candidates to start talking now with potential employers even if they are not looking to move until sometime next year because the hiring process from now until the end of the year may be longer than in the middle of the year because of holidays and budgeting.

Now is the time to start looking around – for both candidates and employers. There will be starts and stops. But even if you don’t make a move in 2010, it may put you in a better spot for 2011 when you are ready.

What does China seek in the Chesapeake Shale Deal just announced the other day? The total deal is over $2 billion and gives China a minority stake and have a 1/3 ownership of Chesapeake’s South Texas Shale assets.

This deal is big, not because of the dollars spent or the natural gas resources itself. The money is a drop in the bucket for the Chinese and there is very little chance that the energy can be or will be shipped to China. That much we know cannot happen. But the bigger issue at hand is how this will implicate the transfer of intellectual property and how the US will deal with the juggernaut of the Chinese economy.

The US already owes a ton of money to China and foreign nations. It is a positive to see that China is “reinvesting” its stockpile of Dollars back to the US. But with little or few options for China to invest its billions of dollars other than US Treasury Notes, I can see why they would want to put their dollars into an asset that will eventually bring long term results back to their homeland.

The real endgame here for China is to gain a technological edge back home so that they can begin to tap into the shale for future energy resources. Coal has been long the cheap energy solution in China. But with resistance from the outside and pollution rampant in many of the metropolitan Chinese cities, natural gas may be the solution to the pollution issues in China.

What are your thoughts? Are US energy companies giving away too much in technology and intellectual property? Or is this a positive that China is diversifying assets back into the US?

In a recent New York Times article, companies borrow at low rates, but don’t spend. Companies like IBM, Microsoft and Pepsi-Co are benefiting from very cheap credit. But unfortunately what was suppose to spur growth and development and eventually jobs, has turned into a way for corporations to shore up savings on the cheap. Instead of spending money on job creation or factories, many companies are holding on to the cash and buying back shares. This may be great for the balance sheet, but it is not getting unemployment down.

I think many knew that this economic recovery was going to be jobless one but at some point there needs to be a pathway to getting the unemployment rate down. The Oil and Gas Industry is moving in the right direction, but many of our clients are very cautious. With many organizations looking to hire in the Petroleum Industry today, these same jobs could vanish very quickly as well.

Do you think that the US economy will ever get back?

Future Hall of Famer Wide Reciever Randy Moss was traded earlier this week from the Patriots back to his old team, the Minnesota Vikings. He came to New England with a lot of high expectations. Although he was productive in the first couple of years with the Pats, he showed a decline in his numbers last year and was a no-show in their Monday night win against the Dolphins.

Many on the Patriots have passed in their best to Moss and complimented on him being a good teammate that will be missed. But the real issues that stem from his trade is more deep rooted and one that lends itself to a dicotomy to how businesses approach their organizations as a whole.

The Patriots under Belichick have been known to be teams that greater than the sum of it’s parts. Many current and former Patriots players call it ‘the Patriot Way’. When you look at the run that the Pats have had since 2000, there realty hasn’t been any one player that has stood out above the rest of the Patriot brand until Moss got there a couple of years ago. The the great player that Moss is, he went a completely different direction than Tom Brady who quitely went about his business to get a new contract in place.

Contrast this to how the late George Steinbernner  played the game to get the best talent for the New York Yankees. They have always been loaded with stars. The defending Champs acquired CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett last year in the off season and picked up Lance Burkman this summer before the trading deadline. The list of other sought-after free agents with a money is no problem attitude runs throughout the years with the Yankees.

But paying out for the top dollar definitely comes at a price but it shouldn’t always be about the money. Imagine the cost of a bad hire especially that Rock Star that fails miserably. The cost of a bad hire is at a minimum 2 times of that employees salary when you factor not only the base compensation but also training, relocation expenses and other onboarding costs.

Clearly, these are two different ways to approach bring in talent; acquire those specialty pieces that will fit the system regardless of them being the best or bring in the best available talent at any cost.

We see this same senario played out with our clients every day. We have a couple of clients that will pay the absolute top solar to bring in the best and the brightest and there ate few other companies that will be able to compete on compensation. Then I work with a few that work methodically to find the right ‘fit’ for their team and will not bring in an ‘A’ Level candidate for the sake of it. But rather bring in a candidate that will be the best fit for the team as a whole based on hard and soft skills.

There is no right way. But finding the right one that matches your company culture and vision is important. How does your organization approach acquiring new talent? Are you more like the Patriots way or Buy the Best Available? Or somewhere in between?

After 2 turbulent years, officials assess TARP is an interesting article from the Washington Post last week. Did we really get anywhere? 700 Billion dollars were spent to bail out companies because they were too large to fail. AIG, GM and Citigroup were all given assistance.

Although TARP did help to keep the US economy out of a complete financial abyss, many Americans are still mad about the tens of billions still tied up with companies that had TARP assistance. But what I think most people seem to forget is that the mortgage meltdown and housing crash had a lot to do with the 2008 crash.

Looking ahead are Americans ready for the next crash? It seems that there is another storm brewing for next year and a lot more failed mortgage lender will be in the wake.

How do you think the economy is doing? From our vantage point in the Oil and Gas Industry as headhunters, everyone seems to be cautiously optimistic. But another blow to the economy could send the industry as well as others into a tailspin.

The last thing we all want is to see the government meddle with the economy again.

I ran across an article from Jeremey Sisemore of SearchPath International, an SAP Talent Acquisition firm in Houston, on the top 10 reasons why recruiters are such scumbags. Unfortunately, we get a bad rap for being a lot like used car salesmen.

My friend, Bonnie Cotier, puts it best in her poem to a recruiter that never called back.

We as recruiters have a lot to bring in terms of credibility to our industry. I am constantly surprised at how many recruiters submit candidates to companies without the candidate’s approval or post bogus job orders so that they can harvest resumes. None of these practices do anyone any good.

So here is some advice I offer to both candidates and clients alike.

References. Get references for any recruiter before you work with them. If a recruiter is worth what they say they are, they will provide references without any hesitation. If you can get a referral from someone that you trust that has worked with a particular recruiter, even better.

Specialization. Work with a recruiter who specializes in a particular industry or vertical. Understand what their expertise is and more importantly, know what they cannot do. If a recruiter is upfront with their shortcomings, they will be more than likely to be honest with you.

Trust. There is an intangible that you sometimes cannot put your finger on and that is a level of trust you develop with a recruiter. I tell everyone to trust your instincts. If at first you don’t get that feeling that the recruiter is being totally honest with you, then trust your gut. And this goes both ways. We as recruiters are only as good as the candidates that we present. So it is in the best interest of the recruiter, candidate and client to all be up front from the beginning.

There are a lot of recruiters out there looking to make a quick buck. But the ones that stay for the long run and the best ones, know how to act in a consultative manner to both candidates and clients.

I am finding a lot of client companies losing out on their first or even second choice of candidates by not moving quickly once they find a potential employee that they like. It was not too long ago that there was a large stable of motivated and available candidates willing to take just about anything to get back to work. But we are starting to see that many mid-level candidates ($100 – $250 K positions) are receiving multiple offers with signing bonuses and other bells and whistles. One particular A-level candidate that we were working with had as many 5 offers within 3 weeks.

What I think that many organizations, especially the ones who are gearing up to fill their mid-level voids, need to know that they need to move quickly. One particular client company we work with had initial feedback to us within minutes upon submission of a candidate that they knew they wanted. They had the candidate flown in for interviews and an offer in hand within a week of initial submission.

I know thy very few companies probably can move with kind of speed, but the most interesting thing to more during the whole process was evidenced in an email thread of all the VPs who interviewed the candidate. Over the course of just a few hours, all those that interviewed the candidate had immediate feedback and HR already had ‘packages’ of potential offers in which to present. So there was very little maneuvering needed by HR and the hiring manager.

The saying “Time kills all deals” is true with recruiting as well as deal making. In today’s competitive environment, everyone is looking to shore up that mid-level talent. And to the swiftest go the spoils.