Archive for the Q&A Category

Question – Part 1

Nick, can you direct your followers to good advice on networking, or consider writing about it? I find that many people in my network don’t seem to understand the basics and what’s required.

Examples: I’ve reached out to two moderately good links in my network. One I’ve worked for in the past who likes my work, and the other, a weaker connection, is someone in my city who works in the same industry, whom I’ve met a few times and connected with on LinkedIn.

I asked my first connection for the name and contact info of someone in her organization who was hiring for a job I was interested in and, if she felt comfortable, an e-mail introduction. Instead, she contacted the person, gave them my name, and then told me the person would flag my application for consideration. What I wanted was to be able to send a strong cover letter and resume to the hiring manager directly. Of course, I was automatically rejected by the ATS.

In the second case, I e-mailed my contact, mentioned that I’d seen several recent openings at his company, and suggested we chat about how I might be able to help. He replied that he didn’t run the day-to-day anymore, and left it at that. He’s not interested but also oblivious to the fact that I can connect him with others in our industry and, if I’m not a good candidate, refer others to apply.

Bottom line: What’s so damn hard about providing a name and contact info to someone you know? Is the hiring landscape so bad now that everyone assumes job hunters are just pesky supplicants begging for a favor, and that they should be grateful for whatever help they get? Or am I expecting too much?

Nick’s Reply

You’re surprised your contacts don’t want to get involved when you ask for a professional introduction. You’d think you were asking them for an introduction to their daughter for a date! I have no data to back it up, but I believe people are loathe to help if they think it might backfire on them in any way. I see this again and again. That’s why I think it’s critical to avoid networking for introductions and instead shift to talking shop.

What networking is and isn’t

What you’re doing doesn’t work because (1) “links” are not a network and, (2) when you ask someone to give you an internal lead on a job they subconsciously – but correctly – view it as what I refer to as “putting the monkey on their back.”

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How Can I Change Careers? includes a pivotal chapter titled “A Good Network is a Circle of Friends.” One section, “Seek advice, not help,” emphasizes the importance of having a specific objective you need advice about — whether you’re changing careers, or just jobs:

“No one wants the ‘Can you help me find a job?’ monkey on their back because the monkey requires feeding and lots of attention. That’s why most people you ask for help will quickly refer you to the personnel office. On the other hand, if you approach me for advice rather than help, that’s something I can provide…”

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Networking explained

The advice you’re looking for is already on this website:

1. The real value of a link is a function of the shared experiences you have with that person: Shared Experiences: The key to good networking.
2. They know that if they agree to “pass your info along” you will be calling, texting and e-mailing them to find out “Did the person get it? Are they gonna call me?” See Say NO to job leads.

It’s just human nature. Networking is not about contacting people on your list and asking for help. Please see DOGE’d Out of a Federal Job: How to transition to the private sector. (Read the comment from JustMe. That’s networking.)

Don’t be frustrated. Everybody’s brainwashed to make networking a rote task that puts the burden on somebody else’s back. Try this test: When you think you’re networking, ask yourself, “Am I hanging out with people who do the work I want to do and talking shop with them?”

If you’re doing something else, it’s not networking. (And I hope you wouldn’t expect your LinkedIn contacts to set you up on a date!)

Next week in Part 2…

…This reader reports back and delivers a surprise: Networking wasn’t the problem or the solution!

“Thanks for the great advice. It’s the most movement I’ve had in my job hunt in years!”

We’ll discuss what he did and how he got the meeting he wanted. [Go to Part 2.]

Is there a “hook” you can use that will almost guarantee a hiring manager’s attention? What magic do you use to get that interview? Join us next week to compare your methods to those of this reader!

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Question

The VP made me a same-day offer contingent on a background check, a physical and a drug test. He gave me a tour of the business, showed me where I’d be sitting, and then took me into his office to discuss pay. I signed permission for the background check and I did the drug test and physical within an hour of the offer. HR assigned me a hire date that was five days later.

On my first day, HR began my orientation online and pressed me to complete it within two days. I got it done in one and called HR to inform her. She told me there was a discrepancy with the pay that I was offered. The VP offered me an hourly wage plus overtime as needed. HR said the position was salary, no overtime included, and I would often be required to work 10 to 12 hour shifts.

When I asked what the salary was in comparison to the hourly offer, she said that she’d have to get back to me. Then she said that my request to compare the hourly rate to the salary raised a concern with her: if a better offer was made to me by another employer, would I take it?

I replied that I didn’t think it was a fair question because pay isn’t the only factor when considering an offer. I asked her, if she were offered an increase of $20,000 a year from an alternate employer, would she consider it? Her response was that she understood where I was coming from and thanked me for my transparency. The next day I received an e-mail stating that they decided to give the job to an alternate candidate.

I can’t help but feel violated by what transpired. Do you have any advice?

Nick’s Reply

HR people play some dangerous games that hurt job applicants (and new hires). I’m sorry you’re a victim, while the VP and HR person walked away unscathed.

When I followed up with you, you explained that this employer did not give you the job offer in writing signed by a manager, and that this happened in California, where employment is “at will.”

The “job offer” HR people play like a carrot on a stick

We’ve discussed this before: Never accept a job offer or quit your old job without a written job offer from the new employer. Without it, you have little to go on legally, while you reach for an offer that’s only a carrot on a stick. A verbal offer can be legally binding, but that’s up to a lawyer to argue – and I’m not a lawyer. (For more about how to avoid trouble when changing jobs, please see Parting Company: How to leave your job.)

The point about “employment at will” (which is the law in CA) is that if you don’t have an employment contract in place to protect you, they can fire you any time for any reason or no reason, including day #1. So you see where this is going. It truly is stacked against the new hire because you never know whether you’ve really got that carrot.

Explore the law

However, it’s not so cut and dry, even in “at will” states and even without a promise in writing. Please check employment attorney Larry Barty’s advice in Job offer rescinded after I quit my old job. It’s worth exploring the law. Here’s part of what Larry said:

“A person who reasonably acts in reliance upon a promise and then suffers detrimentally because the promise is broken has a cause of action called Promissory Estoppel. The Promiser is ‘estopped’ from rescinding the promise if the Promiser knew or had reason to know that the Promisee would rely upon the promise to the Promisee’s detriment… The Promisee in such a case, once the proof has been accepted, is entitled to be made whole. For example, if A quits his job and then is left without work for a period until he finds comparable employment, A is entitled to Reliance Damages in an amount equal to the lost wages and benefits.”

This article by another attorney is wishful thinking because employers won’t do contracts for anything but exec jobs, but it reveals the underlying problem: the law favors employers. (Nothing here is intended as legal advice nor should you rely on it for your specific situation. Consult a qualified employment lawyer.)

It’s not just about HR people

I’m really sorry to hear about your problem – the employer was wrong on many levels, including ethics. The VP made the offer and HR changed it unilaterally. When you asked reasonable questions apparently after you started the job, HR played a nasty game and essentially fired you because you dared to discuss pay.

It’s not just the HR people. I’d say this company stinks from top to bottom.

You could report them to your state’s labor and employment office. You’d be surprised how complaints add up, and sometimes they trigger investigations or new legislation. You might even contact your state legislator’s office: “Employers complain about the talent shortage – yet look what this one just did.”

They keep getting away with it

I’m not encouraging you to go legal, but it may be worth investing a few bucks in an initial consultation with a good employment lawyer so you can find out whether you have a case. Sometimes all it takes to get a settlement is a nasty-gram from the lawyer.

It drives me nuts when employers walk away unscathed after their HR people and other managers do things like this. It’s become disturbingly common — and dangerous. A woman wrote me that her husband accepted a job across the country. He moved out there to attend orientation — much the same way you started your new employment. She cancelled their lease, loaded the car, put her two young kids in it, and started the drive cross-country. Half-way, she gets a call – the offer was rescinded. She said said the stress was so great she had to see a doctor.

When will seemingly “administrative” or “legal” but clearly unethical actions by HR people that prove dangerous to employees be recognized for what they are: cavalier abuses of job applicants?

What’s the worst abuse HR people (and their bosses) have leveled at you and what was the outcome? What could this job seeker (or, actually, new employee) have done? Are there enough legal protections for job seekers? What would you propose?

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Question

A news article reports that in just one year the number of job applicants that say employers ghosted them jumped from 30% to 40%. The tariffs and economic uncertainty suggest that employers are very nervous about hiring, but then why do they post jobs and then ghost us when we apply? If one in every two or three jobs I apply for are going to ghost me, what’s the best way to avoid this? It wastes a lot of time! I’ve gone on two or three interviews for jobs that are a perfect fit. The interviews go very well and they tell me I’ll hear back in a week or two. But I hear nothing back ever. I wind up waiting sometimes weeks for a resolution so I can move on with my job search. What should I do?

Nick’s Reply

I really get fed up with “career experts,” personnel jockeys and news pundits that try to pin the failures of employers on job seekers — or that suggest job seekers need to improve their behavior. Ghosting is on employers.

We’ve discussed ghosting before more than once (Ghosting: Hard lessons about recruiters & employers). When the economy shows weakness, it seems to lead to more ghosting. In this column, I’d like to discuss why job seekers seem to make ghosting their problem and why news pundits suggest job seekers need to change their behavior to deal with ghosting.

This may sound harsh, but the best thing you can do when an employer that interviewed you ghosts you is to disappear! Move on immediately and don’t look back!

Let’s start at the baseline

The fact is — and has always been — that most interviews go south, no matter how well anyone thinks they went. That’s the baseline — what we expect from any randomly selected interview. (I think you know that, but wishful thinking tends to cloud a job seeker’s judgment. How often does a job seeker get a job after an interview?) When that happens it’s incumbent on the employer to notify the applicant what the outcome is. Ghosting, or ignoring the applicant and not following up, is unforgivable. It’s rude and irresponsible.

Ghosted and wasting time

Being ghosted means you’ve wasted your time interviewing and preparing for that interview. If you’re an Ask The Headhunter regular, you know how much preparation I recommend, and this means you have wasted a lot of time.

But here’s my bigger concern, which you already alluded to: “I wind up waiting sometimes weeks for a resolution so I can move on with my job search.”

I find that most ghosted job seekers are incorrigible optimists whether they admit it or not. They make excuses for the errant employer: “The interviews really went well and I think I’m getting an offer!” and “The employer’s delay is understandable! I just have to wait it out!”

BUT… “Waiting…for a resolution” keeps you from the crucial step of immediately moving on to the next opportunity and working immediately on that instead!

Ghosted? Don’t wait to be un-ghosted

When I confront employers about ghosting, their explanation is that the selection process takes longer than expected so they have nothing to tell the applicant “yet.” This unforgivable excuse infects the entire employment system with false hope and anticipation. Job applicants understandably hope for the best and expect an answer — so they wait.

Don’t wait to be un-ghosted.

If you believe you’re being ghosted, the most prudent next step is to… disappear. Get it out of your head that a “decision” is forthcoming from the employer. You saw what I said about most interviews: they go south. The baseline odds of getting an offer are already low! If we add the low probability that you’ll ever get an offer to the fact that they have chosen to ignore you, it’s easy to understand my advice: disappear. Don’t waste your valuable time.

Ghosted: What’s the protocol?

I read the article you referred to by Michelle Singletary in the Washington Post. She offers five tips if you’ve been ghosted:

1. Don’t stop communicating
2. Keep it professional
3. Ask for a timeline
4. Don’t take it personally
5. Move on

I think she’s got it backwards.

• Move on immediately! As soon as the employer breaks its promise to get back to you “in a week” (or whatever), move on immediately. Don’t “wait weeks for a resolution.”
• Don’t make a bad bet worse. When the employer started ghosting you, any further bet you made on their professionalism was a bad bet.
• If they failed to communicate when they said they would, stop signaling back, or you’re wasting time, energy, and emotion — which means you’re taking your eyes off the ball. The ball is your job search, not the employer that’s dissing you.
• All business is personal. If the specific people that interviewed you expressed an interest and gave you a timeline, but then ghosted you, take it personally. All business is personal. That’s why we follow certain rules of conduct when we do business. It’s why we show customers “a personal touch.” It’s why employers test you for “cultural fit.” It’s why they administer personality tests.

To quote my mentor, Gene Webb, this means “Never work with jerks.” Any employer that fails to take a personal interest in you and to treat you professionally is a jerk. Don’t rationalize jerks because, if you take a job with one, you’ll be looking for another job soon.

Move on quickly

I do agree with Singletary’s advice to move on. I just think you need to move as soon as the employer fails at (1.) and (2.). If they ghost you, disappear. And don’t worry — if they realize they blew it, they will come chasing you with apologies. That gives you an unexpected negotiating edge!

Worse case, you’ll be weeks ahead on an opportunity with another employer.

Are job seekers being ghosted more today? Why? How do you avoid getting ghosted? What should you do if you are ghosted? What advice do you want to give to employers?

[NOTE: The original version of this column misspelled Michelle Singletary’s name.]

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Question

Every day I read about frustrations of people looking for work. It’s usually some version of this: “I sent out X number of resumes (usually in the low 100s) and got nothing (or two interviews but no offers.)” That kind of effort might be worth it if it yielded even a 5% return — say, 20 interviews on 400 applications. Such results might make it worthwhile but nobody gets 5% on hundreds of resumes! Your short article “They’re not headhunters” got me to thinking. If it were possible — I know you think it’s not, but what if it were — to pay somebody to get you, for example, a $120,000 job, how much would that be worth?

Nick’s Reply

Ok, I’ll take the bait. I’m glad you agree that a huge blast of resumes is not likely to return anything but intense frustration! So let’s do that exercise. What should someone pay to get a $120,000 job?

People want “the secret” to job hunting. The secret is that you must work as hard as the good headhunter I refer to in that article you cited – and that’s a lot of hard work.

What’s a job worth?

The online jobs sites have convinced people to “sit back and let our intelligent agents” do the work!” But as you note, only a tiny fraction of job hunters actually find jobs through these databases. If they worked as well as claimed, why would companies spend huge fees on headhunters, but only $100 (a generous estimate!) for an online job posting?

The kind of placement you’re talking about (for a $120,000 job) will earn a headhunter around a $30,000 fee, and the headhunter will work for every nickel of it. So here’s the reality check I’ll suggest: Have you put $30,000 worth of effort into your job search? If you take the easy path and read job postings, mail out resumes, and wait for an employer to respond, you’re being lazy. At best, you will wind up with the wrong job working for the wrong people. More likely you’ll wind up with nothing but frustration.

How much work to get work?

$30,000 worth of work to land a job? Most people will see that as an incredibly daunting challenge, if not a silly idea. But, consider this. A company that can’t find good hires on its own will gladly spend that thirty grand on a headhunter. (That’s your competition!) You, on the other hand, will not find anyone to do that for you – headhunters don’t work for job hunters.

There’s only one thing left to do: $30,000 worth of work to land a good job yourself.

It doesn’t cost $30,000 to send out 400 resumes or applications, nor does waiting  for the rejections. But do you get the idea? Productive job hunting requires a lot of smart work not a lot of resumes and applications!

Do the job to win the job

Ask The Headhunter is here to teach you how to “do it like a headhunter.” The suggestions readers will find in this website require a lot of work. Still think it’s crazy to do even half the things we discuss here? Still think it’s an unnecessary and inordinate amount of work to do to land your next job?

Then, I’ll leave you with a final thought. To an employer, the right job candidate is worth about $30,000, or around a 25% free based on the new hire’s salary. Of course, if you’re the candidate, that new job is worth $120,000 – your salary. So, maybe that means you ought to be willing to work four times as hard as the headhunter. Right?

To understand what “do the job to win the job” means, please read Kevin Kane’s synopsis of how this can work for you. But please don’t walk away thinking you’re going to pay someone to get you a job, or even to help you get a job. The market is full of career scammers.

I’ll ask you again: Is that job you want worth thirty grand worth of effort? Or, how much are you willing to invest to get the right job?

Am I nuts? Do headhunters really do $30,000 worth of work to fill a job? Should you? What’s really my point here?

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Question

I read your books after I saw you do a presentation at Cornell University’s Executive MBA program. Some of your methods for career success have worked really well for me. (I’m thinking about “do the job in the interview to stand out.”) Now I’ve been in the corporate world a while. In my company every manager has to mentor a young employee, and I really enjoy this! My current “mentee” is very worried about the current economy and job market. She asked me a good question: If I could give her just one “big idea” that would get her through today’s rocky world and optimize her career prospects the rest of her life, what would it be? I told her I’d have to think about it. How would you answer that?

Nick’s Reply

I think I’d start by suggesting she learn how headhunters operate, simply because if our methods don’t work, we don’t eat. Most headhunters work on contingency: we get paid a fee only when we actually fill a job, and we get repeat assignments only if we make good placements – new hires that succeed.

My bailiwick is teaching people how to use a headhunter’s approach to find themselves a job. It’s incorrect to assume that the headhunter’s approach is complicated or mysterious. Good headhunters are actually very simple business people, and our practices are even simpler. But, learning to “do it like a headhunter” can be a significant challenge because it requires some fundamental changes in the way most people conduct business (that is, in how they search for a job or recruit top talent).

Career Success: What’s the big idea?

The easiest way to explain it is to tell you how I learned the “big idea.” I learned it from my mentor, Harry Hamlin, who first brought me into the business in Silicon Valley’s early days. Our specialty was electronics. We recruited design and development engineers up to the VP level. Since I was green, fresh out of graduate school, and hopeful that there was a trick to this business, I asked him what “the secret” was. In his inimitable style, Harry perched both hands on the arms of his swivel chair, pressed down hard, and leaned forward right into my face.

“Go be nice to people. Do favors for everyone you meet. For free.”

Savvy recent student of cognitive psychology that I was, I asked him to be more specific. “Give me an example.”

Career Success: Be the hub

“Spend every nickel you earn this month taking engineers to lunch. Then, without divulging anything you learn that’s personal or confidential, find ways to introduce these people to one another. That’s the best way you can help them out. After a while, you’ll find yourself at the hub of the movers and shakers in the Valley.”

No one had ever given me permission to spend all my money. I had nice lunches almost every day; dinners, too. Within four months I learned more about the electronics industry than I believed possible. Engineers were calling me and introducing themselves; referring other good engineers to me; bringing me in to meet their managers, who became my clients; and inviting me to company parties where I met venture capitalists, bankers, real estate moguls, lawyers, accountants – all the people who made Silicon Valley work. Oh, and my billings soon resulted in more commissions than I could possibly spend. (Well, I was pretty naïve about what I wanted to buy – but the money was great!)

Most jobs come from this

The headhunter’s approach to matching people with jobs is very straightforward because it’s about helping ensure career success. It requires knowing lots of the right people in your professional community, and being privy to opportunities in good companies. This headhunter’s “big idea” is a life-long plan and it can readily be applied by earnest job seekers to optimize their career prospects. The more high quality relationships you have in and around your professional community, the better your career will be.

Here’s proof that it works: Most jobs are found and filled through personal contacts. That was true in pre-Internet days and it’s still true today.

And here’s why it works: Meeting new people leads to meeting more new people as all involved are drawn into a growing circle of friends.

Anyone can do it, but you must start by spending time with lots of people in your industry. You don’t need to always take them out for lunch or dinner, but it helps! Just don’t be transactional about it. Enjoy yourself! Then learn to introduce these folks to one another. You will become a respected hub of professional people in the real world.

That’s where jobs come from. And that’s where my best job candidates have usually come from.

Career Success: Go be nice to people

To say this is difficult to do because you have a full-time job is no excuse. If you don’t make time to do this, you will not have time to do it when you need to change jobs.

I was 24 and clueless about business. Wisely, Harry didn’t try to teach me anything about business too soon. He taught me about human nature. So, when perplexed job hunters and hiring managers ask me to reduce “the headhunter’s approach” to a simple statement, that’s what I say: “Go be nice to people. Do favors. For free.” It’s simple, and it works — if you do it instead of applying for jobs via automated systems that send you rejection mails five minutes after you apply.

Oh. There’s one other important thing Harry told me that you need to know. “Don’t expect anything in return.” (That will take care of itself, because after a while, the good you do for others comes around to you.)

I didn’t place more than about 10% of the engineers I met this way. In fact, sometimes they got jobs via my introductions without me always earning a fee. What I did always earn was their respect and trust — and loads of excellent referrals to engineers and hiring managers. Go be nice to people is the best strategy for career success I know. (For more about this, see How Can I Change Careers?)

What’s the best advice you ever got about career success?

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Question

I just finished my second year working for an information technology (IT) company. It’s my first job. I have seen my interests change from the tech side of the house to the business side, and have begun pursuing an MBA. I have been looking for another job in order to go ahead and change careers and I am expecting a written offer this week from a major telecommunications corporation. The position looks to have very good potential. The only drawback is that I’ll probably have to take a salary cut.

I don’t feel I have much to bargain with, since I don’t have a related degree yet, and I have no experience in the field. It’s not a big cut, but I’m pretty bummed to be taking one at all. You just don’t expect to take a cut when switching jobs. I’m trying to get my head around this, so I’ve got a couple of questions. First, does it even make sense to take a cut?

Second, I was wondering what kind of advice you could give me on how to try negotiating a bigger package when I have no experience? Any help is much appreciated.

Nick’s Reply

Judging from recent news about tech jobs withering under the bright light of AI, you may be ahead of the curve by shifting out of tech now! I say that partly with tongue-in-cheek because it’ll be a while before we know whether this is an anomaly or a real trend.

“It’s not a big cut, but I’m pretty bummed to be taking one at all. You just don’t expect to take a cut when switching jobs.”

But, you’re not just changing jobs. You’re changing careers. While many career changers report increases in salary, that depends enormously on how big a disparity there is in required skills between these careers. You should of course negotiate the best salary you can, but you’re wise to consider your lack of a relevant degree and experience. Depending on the exact nature of your career shift, you may need to prepare yourself to pay a price at least in the short term.

So let’s tackle your first question: don’t view this as a cost, but as an investment.

Salary Cut: Up and down a tree

There’s an analogy I like. You’re climbing a tree, following a particular branch upward. Then you realize you’re going up the wrong branch. The only way to change direction is to move down so you can start back up the correct branch. That’s the cut in pay, and it will indeed slow your income down. For a while. As you start back up the right branch (the business career) and gain momentum, you should be fine.

Here’s the kicker in this analogy: the farther up the wrong branch you go (and the higher you and your salary rise), the farther back down you’ll have to go (in height and salary) before you can start back up.

A salary cut can be a wise investment

If you believe your value in the new career will require time to catch up as you acquire new skills and come up to speed, you’re smart to make the change now. It’s conceivable that once you reach a certain point in your IT career, your salary may be so high that it’s going to cost you a lot to make the shift.

You’re not losing salary. You’re investing in change. When you invest in a stock, you’re out short-term cash. But if you invest wisely, the returns should more than pay you back. I wouldn’t worry too much about the dip you’re about to take in salary; focus instead on doing so well at your new job that your value becomes quickly reflected in your first and second raises. It’s important to discuss with the new employer how long this might take.

I don’t like to see anyone take a salary cut unless they’re getting something for it. You will have to assess the value of this job to your career and perhaps amortize the cost over time. Be brutally honest with yourself: can this career change pay off in the long run?

Your second question is how to negotiate a deal without a salary cut despite your lack of experience and credentials. I think you’ll find some helpful ideas about that in Can I change careers without a salary cut? For a more extensive discussion on this topic please see How Can I Change Careers? Congratulations on getting to the offer stage!

Have you ever taken a salary cut to get ahead in your career? How did it turn out? How would you advise this reader? What are the risks in taking a cut, and how can you mitigate them?

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Question

I interviewed for a position at a manufacturing plant and had an excellent rapport with the CEO who interviewed me. The location of the company is not exactly what I’m looking for. The area is quite depressed but the job is just what I’m looking for. In terms of sales and size of staff, it would be a next step in my career. But I need help with a low salary offer.

The salary is 20% less than my last position. I have been unemployed for two weeks, am in my early 50’s, and did not complete my degree. This has not been a problem for me in previous positions.

The CEO asked me to think about it over the weekend and call him next week if I have any ideas that could bring us closer to an agreement as salary is the only barrier to a job offer. He asked that I don’t accept the position unless I could be happy for the long haul.

I really would appreciate your advice. Forget to mention that I work in finance and the position is for a plant controller.

Nick’s Reply

You’re dealing with a smart CEO. He sounds open to discussing what kind of terms (other than salary) you’re going to be happy with.

First you have to decide whether the location is a deal-breaker for you. Don’t let that come back to plague you as you negotiate other aspects of this deal.

Talk about a low salary offer in person

Regarding the money, I’d open a discussion with him. Don’t play a negotiating game, sea-sawing between his number and yours. Be honest and direct. But here’s what I think is crucial: do it in person, not on the phone. This is important, and you’ll have more bargaining power if you’re sitting with him. Your physical presence will remind him of the commitment he’s already made to you and it will reveal how serious you are about wanting the job if the terms can be worked out.

Let him know the comp is 20% lower than you’ve been making. Also let him know that you respect limits he’s got in his budget, and that otherwise this is a dream job for you.

Can you compensate for low salary?

This is where you need to start a dialogue about the terms. Find out how he might make up part of the 20% salary difference with a starting bonus, performance bonus, profit-sharing, stock, extra PTO and vacation time, flex hours or remote work, commuter benefits, gym memberships, and other perks.

Also discuss how long down the road you might be able to get back up to par, assuming you weren’t “overpaid” at your last job.

Justify higher pay

If you want to try to boost the salary, don’t just ask for more! Justify what you’re asking for.

Base your discussion of compensation over the long term on how you think you can contribute to the company’s profitability. (He’ll love your concern for his success.) Show the CEO how you’re going to pay for your own raise though your productivity. Talk dollars — and talk about the measurable differences you can make to the business.

This will take some figuring on your part, but I’ll bet if you can help analyze the bottom-line improvement you’ll be able to make over, say, a year or two, he might be willing to build some performance incentives or guaranteed salary increases into your comp package.

Don’t take a stand; discuss options

Don’t “make a counter-offer.” Have a back-and-forth. For example, “What are some performance milestones for the job? How do you view bonuses based on meeting targets?” and “Would you consider an accelerated performance review schedule?” Make it clear you’re hoping to fashion a custom deal that will pay off for both you and the company.

One caution: there’s a difference between getting a higher salary and getting incentives. One affects your base and one doesn’t. Salary affects other things, like life insurance benefits, pension contributions, etc. If you work out a “future increase” deal, make sure the criteria are simple, clear, easy to measure objectively, and in writing.

Get past a low salary offer and get to a win-win

I think you have someone here who’s willing to play ball, if you do the work to come up with some options that are honestly good for both of you. You may even get him to a higher salary! But realize that he really may face limits on what he can spend and that you probably won’t be able to get much more salary. But his indication that your long-term happiness is important suggests he sees you there for the long term. So think and plan for the long term, and help him do so, too.

Negotiating a low salary offer doesn’t have to be done across an adversarial table. You can sit down and hash through a deal like partners, with the objective a win for both of you. “We’re going to be married, essentially, if I take this job. So let’s sit down like a married couple and work out a budget — my salary and your profitability — that we’re both going to be happy with years down the road.” That might sound overly candid, but I don’t think there’s enough friendly candor in the world of business. If you can turn the “negotiation” into a discussion, you’ll change the interview into a working meeting.

Use your best judgment, but work with the CEO on this. Learn what he needs and help him to work with you by justifying the compensation package you’re discussing. I wish you the best!

See also Can’t negotiate a higher salary? Ask for more money.

Can this job opportunity be salvaged? How have you dealt with a low job offer? Is there a difference between “negotiating” salary and candidly discussing options? What would you do in this situation?

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Question

I am 20 years old and going into my senior year of college shortly. I’ll be facing a tough job market. I am looking to work in the finance and investments industry next year and am trying to get as prepared as I can for one of the biggest decisions in my life.

All of the major financial services companies that I am looking at possibly working for have these large recruitment fairs, and almost none of them are coming to my school. (I go to a small private liberal arts college.) What am I to do?

It seems like all of the new hires out of college go through the same process of getting hired through Human Resources. (I am almost finished reading your book and I understand why you suggest avoiding HR and going instead to hiring managers.) It almost seems like I can’t escape the traditional hiring process as a new kid on the block. Any advice? Thanks.

P.S. I have had a couple of internships with local financial planners who have contacts deep within the big investment firms, and they have written me recommendations, but where do I go with this?

Nick’s Reply

It’s good to have letters of recommendation from the financial planners (FPs) you interned for, but what you really need are introductions. Ask those FPs to make a few calls to get you in the door. Alternately, ask them to get you some so-called “informational interviews” where you can ask some questions and meet the people you might be working for next. (For more about this, see How to Say It: Informational (gag!) Interviews.) Personal referrals like this are the coin of the realm.

In a tough job market, get in the right door

Another way to do this is to check your college’s alumni rolls for help getting in the door without first passing through HR. Find out which alumni work in finance and investments, call them up, and ask for advice and insight about the company they work for. Do not ask for job leads; that may turn them off. People love to give advice, especially to students at their alma maters, but they hate being burdened with requests to “submit my resume for me.”

So, talk shop with them. Explain that you have not started your job search yet and that you want to educate yourself about companies before you make job applications. Ask what they like and don’t like about their work, and how they advise you to prepare yourself in a tough job market. Most important, ask them if they’d be so kind as to refer you to a manager or two at their company, so you can “continue learning about the business.”

Get mentored past the HR department

I find that alumni tend to have a soft spot for students at their former schools. These are the people who can get you in the door ahead of the job fair recruits — and past the HR department. Just as important, when you finally get interviews, these same mentors can coach you on how to handle those meetings.

That’s how to bypass HR and get an insider’s edge on a job.

(Don’t make the mistake of relying on LinkedIn profiles to search for people that went to your school and work in a relevant company. As a rule attempts to use LinkedIn to get help are ignored by LinkedIn members.)

The problem with colleges and careers

Unfortunately, most colleges do a very poor job at helping students and grads with their careers. “Career offices” offer a rote system that’s not much better than handing you job listings and telling you to apply. The “resume help” and “interview advice” they provide is available at virtually any library.

College career offices should be creating a career component to every single course you take during your four years. While I have no beef with the idea that the purpose of college is to educate you broadly — not to deliver vocational training — I think it’s disingenuous of colleges to suggest that they bear little or no responsibility for getting you started on a good career. For the $50,000-$175,000-plus that you and your parents are investing in a degree, your school should be working much harder to ensure you graduate with a job. (See Colleges fail ‘How’.)

The alumni key to getting new grads in the door

The unemployment rate for recent college grads is between 5.8%-6.6%, the worst in a decade. Every school should ensure that every graduate leaves with a job by actively engaging alumni help to get those grads in the door. If the grads can’t get a job, the school and its alumni network have failed.

Alumni are key to the success of the newest alumni. The best donation alumni can make to their alma mater is career mentoring for the newest grads who will in turn become the newest donors! (I’m a big fan of “education for its own sake,” but I’m a bigger fan of return on education investment.)  We’d see a quick shift in the relationship between colleges and the business world — but that’s another discussion.

Invest your time in developing personal contacts, and leverage your college to do it through alumni who can help you. I wish you the best.

How could you help a new college grad get their first job in a tough job market? Are there ways around the cattle-call “job fairs” and “recruiting days” where employers do little more than tell students to “apply online”? What more could colleges do to launch their graduates?

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Question

I recently hired the best employee I’ve ever had. Was catching up with an old friend and he told me about someone he ran into at a conference, said she should be on my team. I contacted her but she wasn’t looking and declined a job interview. But I kept at it as politely as I could. Finally she agreed to meet with me and one of my key staffers who is an expert in the field. Frankly, I don’t think she would have done the meeting without him. I learned something: there really are unicorns out there! But they’re not looking for us. The so-called passive job hunter will never see your job posting. So I’ve been reading about how to find these unicorns. It’s all silly tricks. Here are a few from SHRM: do a blog about professional topics, ask around (!), or start an employee referral program. And this genius advice: Make your job application form easy to fill out! (How’d you even get them to look at it?) Who writes this stuff? Is there a method or did I just get lucky?

Nick’s Reply

The holy grail of the employment industry is the passive job hunter. That’s the rare candidate everyone wants to hire.

Attracting the passive job hunter

You know: the top-of-the-class expert who is so successful she doesn’t need to look for a job. She’s happy doing the one she’s got and stays happily hidden.

The challenge, the employment industry tells us, is to attract that person to your website and get her to fill out a form so she can be notified when a great job comes along. Yah, right. Why would she fill out a form if she doesn’t need or want your help finding a job?

The answer to your question is in what you already said. See if you can figure out what I’m referring to.

Passive job hunter or passive employer?

I’ve got an epiphany for you about “passive”. Who’s passive is the employer, not the job hunter. Most employers are lousy recruiters because they’re entirely passive about the way they try to hire good people – whether the people they want are actively job hunting or “hiding.”

Employers sit on their duffs, waiting for “the websites” to deliver. They’re as passive as lottery players, waiting for their numbers to come up. And SHRM? The association of HR managers? They fully support the ATS lottery system: buy more numbers and one might be a winner!

Now I’ve got some news for you: passive job hunters don’t need you. They can get an interview or a job almost anywhere they want, any time they want. If anyone needs to get active, it’s you — the manager. Congrats on hiring your best worker, but if you want to do it again, get out there and meet the best people in your business. Go to them. Do it in person. Talk to them. Get to know them.

Activities of passive job hunters

You’ll find them at professional conferences. No, not filling out applications at the career booths. The best people are up at the podium, either delivering presentations and showing off their talents or talking shop with the speakers.

You’ll find them in training classes beefing up their highly desirable skills. You’ll find them online leading active discussions on Reddit or Stack Overflow, talking shop with one another. And guess what? They don’t want to talk about hot job postings. They want to talk about their work.

So, get off your duff and get out of your office. The answer isn’t passive job hunters; it’s active managers. The answer is what your buddy does: goes out and “runs into” the best in the field!

(Oops. Forgot. Managers are too busy running important businesses to go find and interact with the best workers out there. Never mind…)

If you’re a hiring manager or an HR manager, how do you find your best candidates? Do you wait for them to come along in the ATS or do you hit the road and search in-person? If you’re a passive job hunter, how do you pick your jobs? How do you avoid being bothered by solicitations you don’t want or need?

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