….”you talk too much”…joe jones, 1960
You talk about people
That you don’t know
You talk about people
Wherever you go
You just talk
Talk too much
Joe Jones sang the song in 1960… unfortunately it still happens today. Here is a conversation I had with the hiring authority this week:
Tony: John, how did it go with my candidate?
John: Well, Tony, the interview lasted 45 minutes… and she talked for 44… her divorce, her ex-husband, her kids… I can see from her résumé and track record at one time she was really good, but the only way she could have said less would be to have talked longer… you really need to coach her to shut up!
What’s so sad about this is the candidate is still really good. Unfortunately she hadn’t practiced interviewing like I thought. She had been tremendously successful in the past for quite a number of years. Unfortunately, she assumed, that just because she’s been out of market for the past five or six years her ability to sell herself well would simply “kick in.”
Here’s the lesson. Interviewing takes practice. Nervously running off at the mouth is not going to get your hired. Ironically, she was one of the best candidates who could’ve been interviewed. She just talked too much… and what she had to say wasn’t relevant to the job. So, practice interviewing.
Joe Jones ends his song appropriately: “You can make me scream”
Don’t talk too much!
….your resume..
The purpose of your résumé is to get you an interview. You want people to look at your résumé and think, “I really got interviewed by this person!” Remember that your résumé does not get read, it gets scanned. People think, “Oh, my résumé gets read!” No, it doesn’t. It gets scanned and the people who scanned them are looking for a few key things: how long you have worked at the companies you’ve worked for, i.e., exact dates, what you did for them, in very clear terms, and how well you performed. It’s that simple.
You have to remember that these people are reviewing 180 to 200 résumés a day. They don’t read any of them. They scan them to look for some of the things they are looking for. So, this means that you have to, when you write the name of your company on the résumé, explain what that company does. There are 7.1 million businesses in the United States and I guarantee you the people looking at your résumé don’t know what 98% of them do. I get résumés every day from candidates who write down “ACME INC. 2015 – present” and never explain what Acme Inc. does. So, make it real clear, if it’s not obvious, in parentheses next to the name of the company what the company does.
Then make the title of what you did very clear in terms that anybody can understand. A title of Analyst I can mean hundreds of different things. Change the title on your résumé if you have to make it clear what you’ve done. Sometimes candidates say to me, “Well, that’s what my title was.” Okay, fine, put it down if you want to, but if people don’t understand what the hell an Analyst I is, you’re screwed. I’ve had numerous candidates over the years who had titles like customer advocate, customer liaison, client specialist and a few other esoteric inventive titles that really meant “customer service.” So, in writing a résumé, simply write the title “customer service.”
Last, and probably most important, right down how you performed in as many concrete terms as possible. Remember, stories sell and numbers tell. If there’s any way, put in your résumé statistics or some kind of figures – that you bold – so they jump out at people. Increased profits 23%. Decreased department costs 10%. Was 120% of Sales quota. Decreased turnover 12%…The more you can express your performance in measurable terms, the better off you are.
The statement you are making with your résumé is this:
- Here is who I’ve worked for…What they do in very clear terms that anyone can understand.
- Here is how long I worked for them.
- Here is exactly what I’ve done. And here has been my performance.
- I am an excellent employee and what I’ve done for them is what I can do for you!
And, by the way, your résumé needs to be in chronological order. Ninety-five percent of functional résumés (the kind that have paragraphs about all of the things you’ve done and then the list of who you worked for at the very bottom) get pitched before they get scanned.
I forgot to mention, 60% of the people that are going to initially scan your resume don’t really know what they are looking for, professionally. They are usually some underlying, albeit they are nice, sincere and well-meaning, they really don’t know anything about the profession that you are in. They were instructed by one of their superiors to, “look through those resumes and find me a few that I ought to interview.” They may be qualified to know what they’re looking for, but most of the time they’re not.
So, look at your resume and ask yourself, “is someone who really doesn’t know what they’re looking for looks at my resume are they going to see the quality of person that I am?”
If a résumé “scanner” likes what they see, they simply pick up the phone and call you about an appointment. That is exactly what you want
….blooper of the week
Hardly a week goes by where we don’t have experienced candidates say something just downright stupid that cost him or her the job. This week a guy I’ve known for almost 20 years who is really a very good salesperson got into an interview with a hiring authority and in the process of talking about himself said, “Well, I do know that I have a few good years left in me.”
When I followed up with the hiring manager he said, “Tony, is this guy ready to retire? We aren’t looking for someone who has just a ‘few good years’ left in them. We are looking for a long-term commitment.” It didn’t even have to be sad that this candidate already had his age going against him. He’s in his 50s. But lots of guys and gals in their mid-50s and beyond get hired. But drawing attention to it as though you were on your last leg or just “a few more good years,” does not help your case of being hired.
Unfortunately, most folks don’t seem to think about, “How does this sound to a prospective employer?” They don’t seem to think about the fact that hiring authorities are looking for just as many reasons not to hire a candidate as they are reasons to hire a candidate. When a candidate gives even a minor reason not to be hired, it can be totally blown out of proportion. So, a smart candidate thinks about absolutely everything he or she says in light of how it appears to the potential employer.
Over the years, I’ve had some real doozies articulated by really good candidates:
One said, “I have just overcome a great battle with cancer, but I’ve sure learned a lot.” When asked what the biggest obstacle he has overcome, one of my candidates said that he had recently recovered from a nervous breakdown. I have had candidates, both male and female, explain that they were in the middle of an awful divorce, an awful child custody suit, and awful business or personal lawsuit and other kinds of terribly traumatic or distracting events. Some of these people even justified what they did by claiming, “They just want to be honest.” Well, you can be honest by saying, “Your baby’s ugly,” or you can be tactful and claim, “What a cute looking baby…looks just like you!”
The moral to all of this is really simple. Think about what you are saying and how it is going to come across to a prospective employer and if there is the slightest chance that it might hurt you or put you in a negative light, shut up!
….Being a consultant “between” jobs
Not a day goes by that I don’t get a resume from a candidate who has somewhere on his or her resume, in between jobs, a job function called “consultant.”
But most hiring authorities see the word “consultant” and make the assumption that the candidate has just plain been out of work and is trying to cover up by appearing to be a “consultant.”
So here is the message. If you have been a consultant, you’d better well have actually been a consultant and be able to document the kinds of people and organizations you have actually consulted to or for. List every company that you consulted with, exactly what kind of project you consulted for and exactly the amount of time you spent on each one. Offer even a specific name of someone who can attest to your consulting ability. In other words, a good reference. Even if they were brief consulting gigs, put them down.
This is short simple advice. But if you simply put the word “consultant”, it is going to be automatically assumed that you have been out of work.
……one of the best moves I’ve seen a manager make
Michael was a really good manager for our client. He had one of the best regions in the country and all of his people loved working for him. He was smart, aggressive and relaxed in his own skin. Just a really good guy.
After two interviews with our candidate Michael invited the candidate to lunch with two of his salespeople. Candidate thought things must be really going well and was kind of expecting this to be the final interview before he got an offer. He was elated.
They talked about the company, the job, sports and a number of other things. They had a really great time. At the very end of the lunch, Michael said to the candidate, “I’m really glad you could come today. We really appreciate your time. We think you could do well in our company but fortunately for us, we have another candidate that has some experience that is a little better than yours. We are blessed to have two excellent candidates. We feel like the other fellow has a number of relationships that we really need to cultivate and we’re going to try to hire him. But you need to know that you are an excellent candidate. Should something go wrong with offering him the job, you will be the first we will call. Also should we have another opening in even the near or distant future, I would love to call you. You are a great fit for our company.”
Well, of course, our candidate was very disappointed. He said that it was very hard to be bad because they were such nice people. He said that he had never been turned down so gracefully and so nicely by such a nice group of guys. He seemed to understand that they were going to do what was best for them and he would sure love to work there.
I’m sure it’s happened before, but I don’t remember when in the 45 years that I’ve been doing this that the hiring authority went out of his way in such a nice manner to tell a candidate that he wasn’t going to get hired. Obviously it was hard for the candidate to be mad. But what Michael did was so smart. He kept his company in the good graces of the candidate and, should he need the candidate either now or in the near future, the guy would love to go to work there.
Ninety nine percent of the managers that I work with don’t have the courtesy to even talk to any candidate that they aren’t going to hire, even after they’ve interviewed them. It’s probably the crudest thing that hiring authorities do in the process of hiring. For some reason, they think that they’re never going to run into that person again and act like being rude is inconsequential.
I can’t tell you the number of times over the years that I’ve presented the candidate to an employer only to have the hiring authority tell me that they wouldn’t hire the candidate on a bet because a number of years ago that person was terribly rude to them. What goes around comes around.
I complimented Michael for the wisdom he had in treating my candidate to lunch, just to tell him that he wasn’t going to get hired at least this time. What a smart move. Michael could have openings throughout the next two or three years and my candidate is indeed a very good fit. But even if they never cross paths again, my candidate will always think highly of Michael. And I have to say that it motivates me to help Michael whenever I can.
.Good move, Michael!
….why George (And hundreds of other like him) are shocked that they can’t find a job
There are hundreds of people out there like George. He came to us last week and can’t understand why he can’t find a job. Some of it is plain circumstance, but some of it is self-inflicted.
George is 52 years old and been with the same company for the past 20 years. He had a great ride with them and got promoted a number of times. He was always told that he was doing a great job and getting reasonable raises along the way. In the last three years of his employment at the company, it was bought by a private equity firm and George started to receive all of his stock that he had earned while he was at the company. PE firms are notorious about making things a lot less “family oriented,” and a lot more “what you do for me today, dammit!”
In spite of the antiseptic approach that the PE firm took, George still had a job and was making close to $300,000 a year. He could’ve stayed on, but the culture of the organization had totally changed to be much more mercenary and, since he had been told he had been doing so well he thought, “Y ou know, I’ve got such a great track record and I know so many people in the industry, I’ll find another job.” (Now this is the story that George tells. I’m never sure when I hear the stories, and it took me a few years to catch on to this, if George was the one that decided to leave on his own accord, or the PE firm pushed George out.)
Since the buyout, George didn’t have an enforceable non-compete and he had many contacts in the industry and after all, his track record was excellent. He thought he would have absolutely no problem getting a job. He made a lot of money on the stock and doesn’t need to work, but wants to. He thought that since he had a lot of money and didn’t have to work, companies would love to have him because he wouldn’t be “in it for the money.” He even took six months off to get his IRA accounts and lots of other things “in order.”
George figured that since he had such a wonderful track record, was so well known in his industry, had money and didn’t have to work for money, he’d get scooped up any time he wanted. After six months of doing whatever he wanted to do, he decided it was time to find a job. It is now three months later and he is so surprised, and eventually shocked, that this was going to be a whole lot harder than he thought.
He has only had two interviews and those were more courtesy than anything else. He quickly found out that very few people hire VPs off the street and so a month or two ago he “announced” that he would accept a sales job. George has learned that his ideas are real hard to sell to anybody.
The first thing that comes to a hiring authorities mind is, “Well, if George has so much money and he doesn’t have to work, the first time he doesn’t like the way we do things here he can just walk out.” To the vast majority of hiring authorities, “not needing to work” means that the person they hire might not do just that. Most of them can’t afford to run the risk of, if it doesn’t work out, their boss saying to them, “Why in the hell did you hire somebody that really didn’t need to work.” So, George is going to have to change that approach big time.
George, thinking theoretically, that someone might appreciate someone who just works for the love of working is totally miscalculating 99% of the people that are hiring. George has to forget this comment totally.
What George has to say is something along this line, “I was 20 years at an organization and consistently moved up. I loved the job, the company and everyone there. I did a great job and I was appreciated as much as I appreciated the opportunity. When a PE firm bought us, the complexion of the whole organization changed and it was to their benefit to ease out all of the people who had been there for a very long time. Admittedly, it was a different place than it was when I joined 20 years ago or even three years ago when we sold.”
“I know they’re not very many VP opportunities that I would slip right into, but the one I had, I had to work for from the beginning position. I realize that it is likely that I may have to start out at a sales position and work my way up, if indeed that kind of thing presents itself. But I’m just as comfortable at taking a sales position where I can earn depending on my own production. I realize that I may not earn that $300,000 that I was making the first year or maybe even two, but the opportunity to be paid based on my own performance is all I need.”
“I am 52, but as you can see I’m in great shape and I have a tremendous amount of energy. I was a top salesperson before I moved into management and still love selling. Even while I was in management I spent a lot of my time in front of customers and selling. I don’t expect you or anyone else to pay me for the experience I’ve had in the past. All I’m looking for is an opportunity to prove myself, again. Let’s face it, you’re going to get a very mature, experienced salesperson with a lot of energy and a proven track record and everything else will take care of itself.”
“I know you may be concerned that if you hired me for a lesser position than what I was in, someone might give me a call with the VP type of job and your fear is that I would leave for the higher position. Let me share with you that the position isn’t as important as the company, the people and the success I’m having. I know from hiring people over many years that if an employee is happy with what they’re doing and really enjoys the company, the product and the people they work with, they don’t just leave when someone calls them about another opportunity. Look at my track record… I was 20 years with the last company!”
“If we have a good match with what I’m doing and the people in his company, I’m committed for the long haul. I always have been. Once I get into a situation and am experiencing success, I’m not likely to go anywhere. I haven’t before and it is not likely I would ever do it.”
“Now, let’s talk about the opportunity you have here and the way I might be able to benefit you….”
This is the only way George is going to get hired. It’s still going to be very challenging for him to get an interview and get hired, but it is the way he has to approach it. The way he’s approaching it now is going to get him another nine months or more of unemployment.
All those who think that, “You know I’m so good and I’m so wonderful these people can take this
job and stuff it. I can go to work just about anywhere,” need to take a lesson from George.
