A Top 10 Stupid Interview Question: What’s your biggest weakness?

On May 18, 2020
A Top 10 Stupid Interview Question: What’s your biggest weakness?

In the May 19, 2020 Ask The Headhunter Newsletter a reader grapples with the biggest weakness and with trick questions.

Question

weaknessIt just happened again. An interviewer asked me one of those trick questions. “What is your biggest weakness?” I actually researched this one. There are all kinds of recommended answers you can memorize. It’s also true that it might be an honest question to get you to talk about yourself, or it might be a trick and they’re looking for some particular kind of answer. I stopped trying to psych this out. But I would like to know what you think.

Nick’s Reply

I don’t believe in rehearsed or “canned” answers to interview questions. Every candidate, manager, job, company and situation is different. Each requires an honest answer to sincere, relevant questions.

That’s assuming the company and the manager are honest, sincere people who ask questions that actually assess your fitness for the job. But we all know that many employers rely on a list of prepared interview questions that they ask so routinely, you wonder why. Such interviews feel stiff and there’s no real conversation going on about the job or how you would do it. Many of these questions fall into a category I call The Top 10 Stupid Interview Questions. (Disclosure: There are more than 10!)

Your biggest weakness

I don’t believe in canned questions in job interviews. But, there’s one Top 10 interview question that really irritates me because it’s so loaded, so stupid and so common that it’s worth discussing. And that’s the question you’re raising here:

What is your biggest weakness?

The clever rationalizations behind this question are myriad. I’ve heard every explanation there is for asking it. My favorite: “It’s a good open-ended question that will tell you lots about a job applicant.”

Give me a break. It yields no more than asking what animal the applicant would like to be. If the question was ever legitimate and sincere, it’s been worn out from overuse. When some wag came up with the best answer I’ve ever heard – “Chocolate!” – it was time to stop asking it.

I don’t want to suggest an answer to this question, because there is no single answer. But, I’d like to discuss why I think the idea of “weakness” is worthless to an employer, and perhaps that will change your perspective about interviews in general.

What weakness?

This question doesn’t show up just in job interviews. A prospective client once asked me what my biggest weakness is. This is how I answered it – as honestly as I could.

There are a million things I can’t do, but they don’t reveal any weakness. Weakness is the unwillingness or inability to tackle a challenge. I suggest you first judge my willingness to help you, then my ability.

I can and will tackle anything that’s worth doing, and any task that’s part of the job if you hire me. But weakness is not part of my work equation.

What matters is my motivation to quickly develop the strength I need to perform a task or handle a problem. I’m good at figuring things out and learning whatever is necessary so I can perform the work I’ve committed to do. That’s what has made me successful.

Success requires intelligence, motivation and persistence. Those are my strengths, and they enable me to get a job done. I can hop up on a fast learning curve and ride it without falling off.

There is no weakness; only things I haven’t done yet. If you want to know what I can do, show me what you need done – and I’ll show you how I will use my skills and abilities to do it.

There’s a very powerful interview tactic hiding in plain sight in this approach. Can you find it?

Reveal your strengths

It’s something few job applicants ever ask an employer: “Show me what you need done.”

This is powerful because you cannot effectively show that you can do a job — and get hired — unless you know exactly what the work is. You must ask  because most employers will not tell you of their own accord. Only then can you explain and show how exactly you will do the work — even if there are aspects of the work you’ve never done before. Talking it through with the manager reveals your strengths — your ability to understand, plan, learn, and execute.

If you have the intelligence, motivation and persistence to do what needs to be done, and if you are good at learning, then you have no weakness.

Instead of trying to answer that question with a clever rejoinder, try having a conversation like this instead. Asking what exactly the manager needs gives you a chance to show you have no meaningful “weakness.” Then you can show your strength is figuring things out.

What other Top 10 Stupid Interview Questions have you been asked? How do you answer the “biggest weakness” question? What’s the most important question to address in a job interview?

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Guest Voices: The bogus-ness of employment at-will

On May 11, 2020
Guest Voices: The bogus-ness of employment at-will

SPECIAL EDITION

In the May 12, 2020 Ask The Headhunter Newsletter we launch the new Guest Voices section and get a lawyer’s view of employment at-will.

Top executives don’t often accept jobs without employment contracts in the United States. These contracts define the terms of employment including job title, compensation, what happens upon termination, and much more. It’s why you read about executives departing companies with tasty severance deals and money in their pockets without complaint. They work out these deals when they get hired and lock them in place legally.

guest voicesWorking without a net

Everyone else gets a job offer letter. This means you. Why are executives protected, while you accept a job offer to work without a safety net?

In some cases, you might not even get a written job offer. It’s purely verbal. Many job offer letters even negate their own terms with a big gotcha: They state that the terms may be changed at any time by the employer, and that the employee policy manual supersedes any other representations. (Ever accept a job to do one thing, only to find yourself assigned to a different job you never agreed to? That’s what I’m talking about.)

This is why employment in the U.S. — for most workers in most states — is referred to as “employment at-will.” That means you can quit a job at any time, and it also means your employer can terminate you at any time, for any reason or no reason, and you have no recourse.

Only in America

According to HR Daily Advisor:

The world’s employment law regimes really divide into two parts: there’s employment at-will — which is only the U.S. — and then there’s everybody else.

In Europe, for example, employment contracts (or agreements) are routine and run several pages long. Employers cannot terminate employees at will or without reason and severance pay is defined.

The reason employment contracts are used is simple: Good contracts make for good business relationships and ensure everyone plays by a negotiated set of rules from the outset.

The bogus-ness of employment at-will

I’ve seen it again and again. A company hires someone and rescinds the offer before they start the job, but after the new hire has cancelled their apartment lease and incurred the costs to move to a new city.

Or a long-time employee is terminated without explanation and immediately ushered out the door, right after the mystified employee received top scores in their performance review.

Or a worker is suddenly reassigned to a different job with lower pay and told it’s that way or the highway, and their only other choice is to quit — also known as bait and switch.

I’m sure you have your own examples.

Working without a written contract is bogus. And it’s entirely legal because the corporate lobby is more powerful than any bunch of employees. So at-will employment is the law. And that needs to change if the U.S. is to be a competitive power-house nation once again and have full employment. I’m going to let a leading employment lawyer explain it to you in just a moment.

Guest Voices: New feature!

This edition of Ask The Headhunter marks the launch of a new feature: Guest Voices. The purpose of Guest Voices is to share with you the thoughts, experiences and advice of smart people who will make you slap your head and exclaim, “Wish I’d known that!”

In the inaugural edition of Guest Voices, I’m thrilled to introduce you to Mark Carey, a partner at Carey & Associates, P.C., a Connecticut-based law firm specializing in employment law. Mark has strong opinions about the importance of employment contracts — and strong objections to employment at-will.

I’ll let him explain it in his new article, Employment At-Will vs. The LeBron James Rule. You can’t afford to miss what this leading employment lawyer has to say about your next job offer!

Add your voice!

Our job is to pile on in the comments section of Mark’s article and to share stories and opinions — pro or con — on employment at-will and on employment contracts. This is a controversial topic that deserves the scrutiny our community is known for.

I hope you’ll join us! We’ll be hearing from not just from experts, but also from regular people whose stories and insights will make you slap your head — in the new Guest Voices section of Ask The Headhunter! I welcome your comments and your suggestions for new topics.

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Over 60? Welcome to gig work and corporate greed

On May 7, 2020
Over 60? Welcome to gig work and corporate greed

Sinking feeling

I clung to the middle class as I aged. The pandemic pulled me under

Source: The Washington Post
By Ray Suarez

corporate greedAn eye blink ago, I was anchoring a nightly program for the cable news network Al Jazeera America. Before that, I had long tenures with “PBS NewsHour” and NPR. When I read warnings that workers could face sudden and catastrophic losses of income in their final years of employment, I was empathetic but concluded it could never happen to me. Then the wheels came off.

After Al Jazeera pulled the plug on its young network, I shoved down the rising panic, kept one eye on my bank balance as I started freelancing, and kept the other eye out for the next big thing. Like hundreds of thousands of men in their early 60s across the country, I had to get used to the idea that the marketplace might have already decided I was “done.”

“What’s this about? Corporate greed. Greed has a lot to do with it,” says Nick Corcodilos, the author of the Ask the Headhunter blog and an employment consultant.

Nick’s take

Six years ago respected news correspondent Ray Suarez interviewed me on the fledgling Al Jazeera America network about why good people can’t find jobs. Ray’s stellar career included years at PBS NewsHour and NPR. He’s a 60+ old white guy with a lot of talent. Is corporate greed killing off the well-paid professionals that help make corporate America rich? That’s what I think.

Are companies wise to eliminate their most experienced and costly older workers? It certainly saves them money. Does it actually pay off? Share your own stories — but what I’d really like is your analysis about whether this is good for business and the economy. (In this highly charged time of partisan politics, I ask that we avoid partisan politics in our discussion — there’s plenty to say and debate about how this affects business, the economy, and workers. Let’s try to stick to that. Thanks for your cooperation.)

 

 

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Break the wrong-job cycle

On May 4, 2020
Break the wrong-job cycle

In the May 5, 2020 Ask The Headhunter Newsletter a reader falls into a wrong-job problem and can’t keep a job.

Question

I’m a dedicated, loyal employee, and I would do anything for my employer. Why, then, do I lose my job every few years and have a hard time landing a new one?

Nick’s Reply

wrong-jobThe easy answer would be that you’ve just been unlucky and that you got caught in a series of unfortunate downsizings through no fault of your own. But that would make for a very short column.

Your question, which is not detailed enough for me to really answer, nonetheless raises a bigger question that’s relevant to everyone: Why do people take a job, only to find themselves job hunting again so soon? Let’s tackle that, and I hope you’ll find something useful for your situation.

A good job is the right job

The economy obviously affects jobs, but you can’t control the economy. So let’s consider something you do have some control over: the choices you make. I believe that most people go job hunting because they took the wrong job to begin with. This is a subtle phenomenon worth thinking about.

Some people take a job because it’s offered, not because it’s right. Some take jobs because employers flatter them, not because they’re particularly interested in the company or the job. Lost in the joy of being judged worthy, they forget to judge the job and the company, and to think about whether the job being offered is really the kind of long-term investment they want to make. (See Forget Glassdoor: Use these killer tips to judge employers.)

A wrong job is not going to be a good job. It will quickly turn into a recent job.

The wrong-job cycle

Relieved to be “off the street” (or overly impressed at being recruited), wrong-job takers will accept work that does not satisfy them. They will rationalize a poor choice and try to live with it. Gradually, their morale drops and their performance suffers. The effect is cumulative, and eventually the mismatch becomes glaring. They get fired, laid off, or they quit.

Because the parting was bitter and probably sudden, the next job search is likely to be desperate. This job seeker is likely to make a similar mistake. The wrong-job cycle starts again.

(Looking at this from the employer’s perspective, when faced with doing lay-offs, employers favor keeping productive workers with good attitudes. How has your choice of a job affected your attitude? Are you the obvious sourpuss to eliminate when cuts are made?)

Now, I don’t blame anyone for taking a job — any job — to pay the rent. But if you reveal a poor attitude at work because you accepted a job you don’t really want (or because the economy depresses you), then I have little sympathy. When you accept that job and that paycheck, do the job with pride no matter what it is, and learn to smile until you move on.

You can keep the right job

When you find your next job, will you choose it, or will it choose you? That is, are you pursuing what’s good for you, or settling for what comes along? You’re more likely to keep the right job than any job, so choose carefully.

Success depends on making good choices to begin with. When you choose a job that stimulates and keeps you engaged, it shows in your performance and demeanor. Being on the right job drives creativity, which in turn can help your company out of a jam — and keep you employed. Will you choose a job that inspires you to be a profitable worker, or one that’s likely to make you start job hunting again?

I’ve met far more people who took the wrong job than the right one. Before you take a job, ask yourself whether you’re doing it for the right reasons.

  1. Is it a job you sought out, or did it just fall into your lap?
  2. Do you really know what you’re getting into, or are you just in a hurry?
  3. Are you truly motivated by the work, or are you merely looking for a pay check?
  4. Can you really contribute to the success of the employer, or will you just show up and mark time?

Again, if you need money, I’ve got no quarrel with you. But please realize that later on you may wonder once again why you are unhappy or why you got laid off. Break your wrong-job cycle.

Try to look ahead. Find the right job, and you might not have to search again so soon.

Why do people take the wrong jobs to begin with? What factors tell you that a job is right or wrong?

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Employment At-Will vs. The LeBron James Rule

On May 1, 2020
Employment At-Will vs. The LeBron James Rule

By Mark Carey, Esq.

What do you mean I can be fired for any reason or no reason at all? Who made up this rule? Why do I have to follow the employment at-will doctrine? Well, you don’t, and there are several reasons companies and employees should shift to a modified approach that satisfies the expectations of both the employer and the employee.

Confusion about employment at-will

at will employmentOver the past 23 years I have handled employment law cases for both executives and employees. My clients are really confused and bewildered by the employment at-will rule, and about the significant financial impact it creates when employers decide to let them go.

Many clients say they understand the basic rule that they can be fired at any time (“at will”), and that they can leave a job at any time. But beyond that, they know absolutely nothing about why the rule came into being or, more importantly, how they can negotiate around it. When a termination occurs, the adverse impact of the rule becomes clear. They suffer from the break in their career trajectory and from the resulting financial uncertainty.

At the executive level, I routinely negotiate employment contracts that provide for termination “for cause” and “termination for good reason.” This is standard in the industry at the executive level. However, I also confront cases where the employer “shoves in” a provision identified as “termination for any reason.” If that sounds like the employment at-will rule, it is.

LeBron James has leverage

Enter the LeBron James Rule. (I made up this rule). Basketball superstar LeBron James can write his own ticket to work wherever he finds the highest bidder. He can demand that the “termination for cause” in his contract be accompanied by the “good reason provision” — and the latter must be accompanied by a severance payout. This makes the employer think twice about terminating an employee.

“Termination for cause” means you violated the law and company policies, so your employer can fire you without any severance. “Termination for good reason” means you can quit because the employer materially changed your title, for example, or your salary, reporting structure, or the location of your office —  and the employer must pay you a guaranteed severance.

You might say not everyone is as fortunate as LeBron. I disagree, and this is what has bugged me for many years. Too often, our knee-jerk reaction is to accept this stupid and ill-conceived at-will rule. Some say, just be grateful you have your job. Give me a break! There is a new way to handle this.

The new LeBron James rule

I propose getting rid of the employment at-will rule and replacing it with the modified LeBron James form we see in executive employment contracts.

When negotiating a job offer, employees (not just executives and LeBron James) need to negotiate employment contracts into the deal. Employees need to identify their leverage factor and use it. That is, what makes you the most desirable hire for the job? This is what makes the employer throw higher pay, equity, or severance at the job candidate in order to induce you to accept a job offer. (See the Comments section in How to Say It: How ’bout some severance pay?)

Under the LeBron James rule, employees could be fired only for “cause,” and the employee could terminate employment for “good reason.” Further, if the good reason event occurs, then the employer must pay a severance amount to take care of some of the financial issues related to your transition to new employment. If you land a new job, your severance stops, as this is fair.

Find your leverage and do not be shy about asserting it.

Everybody wins

Here are several positive effects of eliminating the employment at-will rule based on my research into this issue.

  1. End the divide between Management vs. Everybody: Eliminating the employment at-will rule will get rid of the great divide between management and employees. Literally, this is the trust divide. If management scares employees into believing they can be fired any time, management is not creating a loyal and trusting environment. Trust spurs the kind of innovation and creativity that will push the company forward in profound economic ways. Employers want employees to be focused on their work, but the at-will rule distracts them and kills their motivation. The rule erodes any semblance of entrepreneurial creativity among the team. Employers need to seriously rethink this one.
  2. End the divide between HR vs. Everybody: Honestly, did you really believe the Human Resources (HR) department was there to help you? I make it my mission to point this out to every client I have. HR has a duty of loyalty to the employer. It has absolutely no interest in doing what’s right for you. By eliminating the employment at-will rule, HR will be aligned closer with employees and HR will do a better job of “caring” for the very employees that make up the company. Without employees, you have no company. Where did all those employers go astray?
  3. Eliminate the politics of fiefdoms: Does your boss play favorites? Do they hire from their own last place of employment? Are there any “brown-nosers” on the team who believe the only way to the top is to “work it” — what ever that means? Such are the politics of building fiefdoms. This behavior is childish and it’s irritating to say the least. You know what I am referring to. Why do some employees play along, and why do supervisors encourage it? Eliminating the employment at-will rule will breed meritocracy. Employees will begin to feel compassion for their co-workers and work more closely as a team or family, instead of putting a knife in one another’s back at work. All employees will work with management for the good of the company, and all will prosper together — not just executives with good contracts.
  4. Reduce Discrimination: If you create trust, honesty, transparency and vulnerability, then you create lasting relationships where employees want to stay and work. Employment discrimination bias arises from many reasons. My theory is that if you get rid of the employment at-will rule, you will gut the walls that employees build in their work environments with the sole goal of getting ahead. Think about it. When you direct negative words or behavior against another employee to make yourself look better in the eyes of your employer, you will do it to get ahead. That negative comment or behavior could be motivated by differences in gender, age, race, or religion, or it might involve manipulation like seeking sexual favors in exchange for career advancement. We need a sea change to correct our current direction. The status quo just doesn’t work anymore, except perhaps for employment attorneys like myself as we are very busy policing this garbage. If we eliminate the employment at-will rule and we give you employment protections, when you see something, you will feel empowered to say something. You will be protected if you have the courage to speak out.

A Special Case: Older workers

Finally, here is my shout-out to older employees. Employers like to say, “We honor your wisdom and experience, you are worth every penny we pay you.” Many employees who are in their fifties and even sixties are well paid because they have many years of experience to offer, more than someone twenty years their junior. Some get fired (or not hired) simply because of their age.

I say we should apply our new rule to keep older employees on board. (See Age 70, working and job hunting again.)

We should focus on the positive economic impact these older, wiser employees can create for the company. Management must stop using the at-will employment excuse to terminate baby boomers because this abhorrent practice is not financially sound and never was to begin with. It’s like a bad drug addiction. Remember, wisdom still is a virtue for a reason.

Job security pays

When will we see elimination of the employment at-will rule? When management realizes they can make greater revenue multiples by providing better job security. They will have to stop listening to management-side defense lawyers  who lobby incessantly to maintain the employment at-will rule for every client. The world isn’t flat, but we believed it was until someone showed us it wasn’t. The same goes here.

Management should adopt this new LeBron James rule and maybe — just maybe — they will finally see that #employees_matter.

Mark Carey is an employment attorney at Carey & Associates, P.C. in Connecticut. He can be reached at mcarey@capclaw.com and at (203) 984-5536.

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The New Job Market: COVID-19 complications

On April 27, 2020
The New Job Market: COVID-19 complications

SPECIAL EDITION

In the April 28, 2020 Ask The Headhunter Newsletter we take a look at some unusual insights about the job market in the time of coronavirus.

The new job market will be complicated

job marketLast week I published “COVID-19: Does it kill jobs?” in the News I want you to use feature. My short column pointed to an article by Lani Rosales in The American Genius, an entrepreneur’s publication.

Rosales offers great advice I think you can use in the new, post-coronavirus-crisis job market, from a perspective we’re not accustomed to. She also offers surprisingly hum-drum guidance that I believe is counterproductive in the new job market. There are so many good suggestions in her column that deserve explication — and so do the not-so-good ones. I think taking a critical look at both reveals a complicated job market in the COVID-19 economy.

I’d love to know what the rest of our community thinks.

Excellent takeaways

These are the excellent takeaways that I find in Rosales’s article.

In this time where an entire workforce has been sent home to work, some folks are going to shine as they are reliable, communicative, and think creatively. Unfortunately, others are going to struggle and sink.

If you’re still employed, you need to assess your value to the business honestly. I’ve talked with people in the past month who were convinced they were going to get laid off due to the COVID-19 crisis (panic is natural), only to find they were among the few most valued workers their employers wanted to keep.

I think Rosales’s point is, if cuts haven’t happened at your company yet, don’t start believing you’re dispensable. Now is the time to show you’re necessary, and to explain to your managers why. In addition to presenting evidence of  your value, the attitude you project counts for a lot, too. Merely showing that you want to discuss your role in the company reveals the right attitude. It could save your job.

Sinkers open up critical spots on the team that need to be filled to keep operations moving. That could be a spot free[d] up for you! Further, employers are reconsidering their roster right now. They may be trimming some figurative fat.

Rosales is making a somewhat disconcerting suggestion: Look for opportunities that result when other workers get trimmed. They’re definitely out there.

It’s hard for some to believe: Just because a business is laying people off doesn’t mean it’s not also hiring. It may seem heartless to try and get a job someone else just got fired from. But business goes on. Don’t assume that when someone gets fired the job is eliminated. Look closer. Reach out to insiders. That job may get re-filled, and it may be yours next.

Additionally, companies are looking at their future hiring needs for “when this all ends,” and we’re being told that many companies are currently hiring for the summer, which sounds far away, but is about as long as the hiring process often takes anyhow.

Anyone who gets too maudlin about the downturn forgets there will be an upturn. Rosales correctly cautions that you just cannot afford to do that. When the upturn comes, you must have been preparing for it starting now. You’re not going to get a job in three or six months if you wait for the upturn to start looking. The time to identify fundamentally sound companies is now. The time to reach out to your contacts for introductions to these companies is now.

Complicated reality

So should you even bother applying for jobs right now? The answer is: Yes, absolutely, but you’re going to have to change your approach.

I agree with Rosales that people are so attached to the way they normally search for a job, they’re likely to miss the boat. But I disagree with the next part of her advice. The new reality will be more complicated.

Getting a job will not be about buying a new resume, or about hiring a coach to kick you in the butt everyday for thousands of dollars in fees each month, or about keywords, or online applications, or knowing how to get past the applicant tracking systems (ATSes).

Getting a job is about what it’s always been about — except I think even more so now. It is estimated that 40-70% of jobs are found and filled through personal contacts. I think that’s going to change — it’s going to be a lot higher.

As we shift from the new reality of 20% (possibly higher) unemployment to an upturn in hiring, the online fire hose of job applicants will flood HR departments with the pressure of millions more applicants. I believe that the best managers will accelerate hiring by doing their own recruiting.

Recruiting will be more personal

For all her excellent advice, I think Rosales is wrong when she falls back on discredited methods. I think managers are likely to reject HR’s shot gunning the online resume databases. Besides, do you really want to compete with an extra 26 million unemployed people looking for work on Indeed and LinkedIn? Nobody in any HR department — and no algorithm — can filter that fire hose for the best hires.

Recruiting and hiring will get more personal, mainly because the best, most valuable job candidates will not tolerate the rude, dismissive, “scrub ’em up and get ’em ready” style of HR that’s dominated the employment system.

Managers will turn even more to their trusted personal contacts for candidate referrals. They will know that every hire will count because budgets will be tight and hiring mistakes will be costly. I think managers will work harder to attract and hire the best candidates. As a job seeker, knowing how to tap those insider circles will be absolutely critical.

Trying to game the databases and algorithms using Rosales’s suggestions will sink you, mainly because fewer jobs will likely be re-filled than existed two months ago.

While I’m not a big fan of video interviews, I think Rosales is correct that you need to learn how to present yourself in a video interview. Companies are not going to pay to bring candidates in from out of town, and managers will seek to use technology to speed up the process even while they try not to let technology dumb it down. Check her suggestions about this.

The best resources are human, but not HR

Rosales says:

Every application you submit should be refined for that specific employer. Before applying, read the job posting three times in a row. Then, read the company’s Career page, their About page, and see what they tweet. This will all tell you what’s important to them (plus, the keywords you’ll need to use to get past the applicant tracking system robots and into the hands of a humans are IN THE JOB LISTING, so use them).

Rosales is absolutely right about refining your approach to every employer. But studying a company’s Career and About pages, and its tweets, and researching its business in the trade and financial press is just the ante to get into the game.

The serious players will invest their efforts in figuring out the problems and challenges of the companies and departments  they want to work in. They will identify and familiarize themselves with the manager they want to work for. It’s not about reading; it’s about contacting insiders and people who do business with your target company and asking them for insight and advice. It’s about creating shared experiences that build trust. This leads to personal connections that lead to referrals to hiring managers.

With due respect to Rosales, any effort you make that involves direct contact with humans will pay off much better than diddling your keyboard.

Forget about applying for 100 jobs

I think this is Rosales’s best insight and instruction:

Take the time to get to know each company before introducing yourself, it’ll make an immediate difference. This is why you can’t really apply to 100 places in one day, it’s unrealistic and puts you at a disadvantage.

You can’t apply for hundreds of jobs because you can’t do the prep work required to show a manager how you’ll be the profitable hire at all those companies!

Being the profitable hire means preparing a mini business plan for how you’ll do each job in a way that will add to the company’s bottom line. Yup — that’s a boat-load of work! Who does that, wins the job. That’s your competition, not some keyboard pounder worried about keywords and algorithms.

Do it right: take the shortest path

In these desperate times, your only choice is to take a deep breath and approach job hunting the right way, knowing that companies are shuffling the deck right now. It won’t be in fast motion, but there’s a chair for you about to open up, and you should be pushing your hardest to be the one to fill it.

Again, this is why I shared Lani Rosales’s article with you. I agree with her that the stakes today require that you search out and win a job the right way. But the only way to be the one to fill the job is to not be like everybody else swarming the HR department through the ATS — the old way.

Don’t follow the herd into ATS oblivion. In the COVID-19 job market, get off the road. Take the shortest path to the hiring manager — through trusted contacts the manager will turn to for referrals of good people the manager can hire quickly and depend upon to do the job profitably.

How will the job market be different in the wake of COVID-19? Which of Lani Rosales’s suggestions do you think are best? Are you job hunting now? Why or why not?

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COVID-19: Does it kill jobs?

On April 23, 2020
COVID-19: Does it kill jobs?

COVID-19: Should I even bother applying for jobs right now?

COVID-19 has sent shockwaves through the business world, and many are asking if they should even TRY to get a job right now. It’s… it’s complicated.

COVID-19Source: The American Genius
By Lani Rosales, COO + News Director

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, most people are either working from home, or nervously in an office setting right now, or are already unemployed. Many are wondering if they’ll have a job tomorrow, and worse, folks already unemployed are wondering if there is any hope in sight. I won’t sugar coat this – it sucks.

This whole thing sucks. For some sectors, despite the government working toward relief efforts, this is devastating. Truly. For other sectors particularly those in tech or corporate life (which is where our focus is for this story), there is a recovery in the future.

It’s universally awful, but it’s not an impossible situation. In fact, this could turn out to be a major advantage for you if approached properly.

Nick’s take

What sucks is all the lame advice about jobs during the COVID-19 crisis. But Lani Rosales offers uncommon insights about your job prospects — and about employers. I like her candor and no-nonsense directive to “deal with it but be smart.” There’s a bit of throwaway advice (pay for a professionally written resume), but this quick read delivers some very tasty tips and useful perspective. And it’ll make you feel better.

What’s your take?

What did you find in Rosales’ tips that changes your view of getting or keeping a job during the crisis? Let’s compare notes — and talk about how to implement some of these ideas. Please post your thoughts in the Comments below!

 

 

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Success Story: I did the job to win the job

On April 20, 2020
Success Story: I did the job to win the job

In the April 21, 2020 Ask The Headhunter Newsletter a reader shares a success story. How did he win the job?

Question (actually a success story)

I’ve been following you and your advice since about 1999, and it has helped me numerous times to land jobs. I’d like to share an Ask The Headhunter success story.

success storyI’d been pursuing a technology sales position for a year in 2018-2019 with a former co-worker of mine who is now a manager. We worked together at another company a decade ago, covering different lines of business, so we knew each other well. Finally, last summer he had an opening, said to apply, then we’d talk. He suggested we speak by phone since we knew each other well; no need for me to drive 45 minutes across town.

I suggested we meet in person instead. I reserved a conference room at a co-working space with a huge whiteboard. I re-read your book, Ask The Headhunter: Reinventing The Interview to Win the Job [out of print] and a couple of your Answer Kits once again (Fearless Job Hunting and How Can I Change Careers?), and I mapped out how I was going to succeed at this job —  by “doing the job” in the interview.

I presented my approach to how I would do the job “by the book” and when I got done, the manager was taking pictures of the whiteboard to capture my plan. He offered me the position right there, provided a second interview with his manager went well. It did, and I’ve been with them for 6 months now. It is going well.

This story is a long way of saying thank you again for making my career searches so successful. You’ve been a fantastic “internet mentor” to me and many other people, and you have have done a great service to help people understand how the whole job search process works.

The employment process would be so much more efficient if candidates and hiring managers used your approach. It does take effort and time to do it your way, but it is much more rewarding and predictable than applying for a thousand jobs online.

Please feel free to publish my success story and share it with the ATH community. I’d be honored. If it gives just one person hope and motivation in these challenging times, I’m glad to help.

When family and friends are out of work or looking to switch, I tell them to go to you to learn the facts of job hunting. There’s no better way.

Keep well and keep doing what you are doing.

John Mauro

Nick’s Reply

John, your success story made my day! I think you absolutely did the right thing by insisting on an in-person interview so you could fully show how you’d do the job — something that required a good deal of preparation. Most job applicants try to make their interviews easier, not harder. They’re making a huge mistake.You literally put yourself to work in your interview. Because few managers know how to ask, it’s up to savvy job hunters to prove they can do the work.

What’s behind the success story

The outcome of your meeting says it all: An on-the-spot offer is evidence that your extra effort was worth it, even with the contingency of a follow-up interview with the next-level manager.

John won his new job by raising the standard of interviewing. What did John do?

  • Selected a company he really wanted to work for and studied it.
  • Selected a manager who knows his skills. (John could have spent the year educating and cultivating a manager he didn’t already know.)
  • Did not rely on job-board postings.
  • Did his homework and figured out what problems he could solve for the manager.
  • Avoided a phone interview of low information value.
  • Insisted on a meeting where he could prove his value.
  • Prepared a mini-business plan for the job.
  • Presented his plan on the whiteboard to be judged.
  • “Did the job” in the interview to win the job.

How many of these steps have you tried? Please share in the Comments below!

I think the real story goes much deeper. The manager, like most managers, clearly didn’t expect a complete whiteboard presentation. Like most managers, all he wanted was a phone call and some standard Q&A. But that’s not enough to assess whether a candidate can do a job. And that’s why most job interviews don’t result in job offers. (See How To Hire: 8 stunning tips.)

A great resume is not enough. Nor are excellent credentials, personal referrals, or great answers to the top 10 behavioral interview questions.

The real story is that you commandeered the interview for the manager’s benefit (and for your own benefit, of course). You made your interview harder, which clearly shocked him. You made sure to answer the question he wasn’t going to ask: Can you do the job?

The approach you took reveals the profound weakness in the typical interview process managers rely on. (See Peter Cappelli’s Your Approach to Hiring Is All Wrong.) Interviewers should always ask a job candidate to explain and show how they’ll do the job — right there in the interview!

Choose jobs worth the work

You did the job to win the job. Imagine if every job applicant did that.

First of all, there would be fewer job interviews because no one is going to prepare like you did for every job they find on the job boards. It’s impossible. There’s not enough time in the day, much less motivation!

This one simple fact eludes job seekers and employers alike: To make your interview presentation worthy of being photographed (like yours was), you must choose your target companies and jobs very carefully. Only a select few jobs are worth the hard work it takes to do that kind of presentation — or why apply for them at all?

Your experience also demonstrates that the right job can take upwards of a year to find and land. You cultivated the manager and the opportunity for at least that long. Some might suggest that you landed this job easily because the hiring manager is an old friend. But that would be nonsense, because if that were the critical factor, you’d have had a job at that company two years ago. Nothing about what you did was easy, including exercising patience.

More is not better

If job seekers took your approach as their standard, they would select employers and jobs much more carefully and thoughtfully. Only a few jobs are worth that kind of effort and preparation – and those are the only jobs people should pursue to begin with! The whole employment process would change because applying to more jobs is not better. Likewise, employers should not recruit and interview using the popular fire-hose approach to getting candidates — because collecting more candidates is not better.

The message your story delivers is powerful: Pursue the right job and be ready to deliver your plan to do it. (This approach to interviewing is outlined in The New Interview. For a detailed discussion, please see Fearless Job Hunting, Book 6: The Interview: Be the Profitable Hire, pp. 12-13, “A killer interview strategy.”)

My highest compliments, John. If anything you learned from Ask The Headhunter helped, I’m glad! Thank you for your very kind words and for your permission to share your success story.

Have you ever “done the job” in the interview to win the job? How did you go about it? Did it work? Did you ever take control of a job interview from the manager? If you’re a manager, how do you determine whether an applicant can really do the job?

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10 Tips for Picking The Best Staffing Firms

On April 13, 2020
10 Tips for Picking The Best Staffing Firms

In the April 14, 2020 Ask The Headhunter Newsletter a reader questions the wisdom of working for staffing firms.

Question

staffing firmsI had a contract job with a staffing firm that officially ended a couple of months back. The firm said that they were still looking for other clients to send me to, but just now told me that I’m released.

Do you think it’s even (or ever) worthwhile to get involved with staffing firms like this to look for jobs? I’m also asking because, since a lot of them have “presented” me to their potential clients, my reputation may have been “poisoned” from that. They may have been (probably actually were) “dialing for dollars,” and I never hear anything back from them.

I respect your take on things and I’d like to hear what you think, and what other folks on the discussions think, too.

Nick’s Reply

Staffing firms can be a dicey proposition. You’ve no doubt noticed a trend in the past decade. Companies seem eager to off-load (“outsource”) hiring to “staffing firms” that recruit and hire workers, then rent them to real employers. I have strong opinions about the effects of the staffing industry — also known loosely as the consulting industry — on the overall economy, and I make no bones about it: Consulting: Welcome to the cluster-f*ck economy. But my opinions should not stop you from exploring ways to profit from getting a gig through a good staffing firm — so let’s discuss this.

Why staffing firms?

It seems the key motivation for companies to use rented, or “contract,” or temporary workers is to eliminate certain overhead costs of actually hiring employees directly. The staffing firm handles recruiting, payroll, benefits and HR functions, among other things. When the worker is technically on the payroll of a staffing firm, the employer also avoids certain risks and costs of firing people, because the employer isn’t “firing” anyone. It is merely “sending them back” to the staffing firm.

In my opinion, the biggest risk to companies that use staffing firms is that they relinquish their most important competitive edge — expertise in finding and hiring the very best workers.

The problem with staffing firms

There are so many shady, boiler-room “staffing” operations that the few good ones suffer from the overall poor reputation of the business. The odds are high that any staffing firm that solicits you is indeed dialing for dollars, or to use a more technical term, “throwing spaghetti against the wall.” They are simply not good at matching workers to jobs and companies.

The worst operate massive overseas call centers and are clueless about the work you do. Along with scads of random resumes, they’ll throw the kitchen sink at a client and let it pick the candidates. If someone the client chooses isn’t working out, the worker is quickly replaced. This “churn” practice is supposed to substitute for careful, appropriate placements.

And you’re right, an unscrupulous staffing firm that scraped your resume from the Internet probably distributed it without your knowledge — possibly indiscriminately. That makes you look bad.

Can staffing firms hurt you?

As you suspect, an HR department that receives your resume for the wrong job could tag your record in its database with a big fat X. That could make it harder for you to get in the door later. That’s one reason to work only with reputable staffing firms you trust — not just those that solicit you.

Should you worry about this? You really can’t do much about it. When you post your resume online, it’s fair game. Anyone can forward it to any data dumpster anywhere. But don’t fret. Even if your reputation is thereby “poisoned” at some companies, all it really takes is one very good reference or personal referral to fix that. (This is precisely why personal contacts are so important. Please see Skip The Resume: Triangulate to get in the door.)

I think the worst thing a staffing firm could do to you is put you into a series of wrong short-term assignments over a lengthy period of time. This makes a mess of your work history. Good luck explaining your resume to a real employer.

How should I vet staffing firms?

There are good staffing firms out there. They might be very big and they might be very small and specialized. If this is how you prefer to work — as a consultant — it’s up to you to perform due diligence to identify them. A friend of mine in the staffing business shared some excellent advice many years ago. These 4 tips are still valid today.

  1. Always check references. When you’re deciding on a staffing firm, try to work with people you know and trust who are reputable. They can help you through this whole process. If you have to go to someone you don’t know, check their references. And don’t just use references they’ve given you; use your own contacts.
  2. Talk to your peers. As a potential employee, it may seem weird to ask a company for references, but it’s very important. If I were considering a job with a consulting firm, I’d like to talk to other employees, especially employees who are in a similar role to what I’d have.
  3. Understand the contract. Make sure you read your agreement with the staffing firm (and any subsequent agreement you must sign with the company you get assigned to) carefully and make sure everything you agreed to verbally is documented and signed. It doesn’t matter what the consulting firm is telling you if the contract says something else. Contracts vary all over the board. Make sure you know what you’re signing up for. (Please don’t miss: Bait & Switch: Games staffing firms play.)
  4. Expect the unexpected. Even the best consultants (that’s usually how the staffing firm will refer to you) will encounter problems. Take for example the consultant who didn’t get paid for two months by the staffing firm they’d been with for 20 years. The firm suddenly changed management, and lost its ethics. That kind of horror story can happen to the most experienced consultants. That’s why it’s so important not to become complacent.

How can I find the best staffing firms?

If you want to work through staffing firms, invest a little time to find the best ones. Here are 6 steps to follow.

  1. Select employers. Make a list of the 5 best companies in your line of work, in the geographical areas where you want to live — the actual employers where you would be working every day.
  2. Make a call yourself. Call the HR VP or, better, the head of the department you want to work in.
  3. Introduce yourself. Explain very briefly what kind of work you do; maybe just mention your job title. (Do not turn this into a pitch for a job.)
  4. Get a referral. Then ask, “May I ask you what is the best staffing firm in [IT, for example] that you use for your company’s contract hiring?”
  5. Select, don’t settle. Don’t settle for staffing firms that solicit you out of the blue. Pursue the ones whose clients love them. If the person you speak with names their preferred firm, ask for the name of the representative that handles their account. Thank them and end the call. Now you have (a) identified a reputable staffing firm, (b) you know they work with a company you might like to work for, (c) you have a name to drop (the manager you just spoke with), and (d) you know whom to call next.
  6. Take the initiative. Call the rep at the staffing firm. Introduce yourself very briefly, say that “Your client, So-And-So, recommended that I call you. They said your firm is one of the best in the [IT] field. I’m looking for a new position. Would you like to talk?” When the rep hears that their client sent you, the rep hears dollar signs.

Not everyone you call will tell you which staffing firm they use, but this approach is probably usual and disarming enough that some will. Likewise, not every staffing firm you then contact will help you. But this approach beats fielding calls from fast-talking recruiters at questionable staffing firms you know nothing about. So keep at it.

While I’d advise you to pursue full-time, direct jobs first, I would not tell you to rule out staffing firms. Many employers rely on them heavily. Just know what you’re getting into. In any case, when you make those calls to HR or to department heads, you might end by asking, “By the way, do you also hire direct?”

Get ready

This is hardly an exhaustive discussion about staffing firms and how to deal with them effectively. I expect other readers will share very useful information and raise issues I haven’t even touched upon. But get ready. This is an important topic because the employment world is about to change again dramatically.

The coronavirus crisis has eliminated a lot of jobs — that’s plenty of drama. But as the downturn subsides, the healthiest companies will be desperate to re-fill many of those jobs. It will be a time of opportunity — but also opportunism. Many unscrupulous staffing firms will suddenly appear, trying to capitalize on the new drama. You’ll get a lot of calls. I expect a lot of “churn” as people who are understandably desperate for jobs take positions they should not accept.

Before the lousy staffing firms contact you, find the best ones and contact them.

What’s your experience with staffing firms? What advice would you give this reader?

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Alt. College Degree for New Collar Jobs?

On April 9, 2020
Alt. College Degree for New Collar Jobs?

The New Collar Workforce

In today’s manufacturing environment, it’s skills and ability—not academic pedigree—that matter most. It’s time to update the blue-collar/white-collar approach to the workforce.

new collar jobsSource: Industry Week
By Adrienne Selko

Former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty: “IBM has championed a new educational model for the United States — six-year public high schools that combine traditional education with the best of community colleges, mentoring, and real-world job experience.”

The concept is to look at ability, not academic grooming.

“Getting a job at today’s IBM does not always require a college degree. What matters most is relevant skills, sometimes obtained through vocational training. We are creating and hiring to fill ‘new collar’ jobs — entirely new roles in areas such as cybersecurity, data science, artificial intelligence and cognitive business.”

Another welcome trend is the emergence of regional partnerships for apprentices and other training. The best route for these partnerships is to work closely with companies to determine specific job needs. Community education should be aligned with the skills of open jobs.

News I want you to use item submitted by long-time reader Rick Manning.

Nick’s take

Sounds great. I’m a big believer in a 4-year college education, but I also believe in apprenticeship. (See The Training Gap: How employers lose their competitive edge.) Rometty suggests taxpayers should pay for an Alt. college degree to custom-train workers for New Collar jobs at IBM. Who pays for what, and who’s really getting the benefits?

What’s your take?

Should public education policy be driven by the needs of industry? Should taxpayers foot the bill to custom-train workers for IBM?

 

 

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