The Truth Behind Passive Candidates

The Truth Behind Passive Candidates In recruiting the Holy Grail, the golden egg, the [insert whatever metaphor you choose for greatness here] is the passive candidate. Speak to a majority of recruiters, head hunters or HR folks and they will all tell you how great the passive candidate is, and I can’t really blame them. When you find someone who doesn’t have their resume on the job boards that means they are usually doing well in their current job. And ultimately who doesn’t want someone at the top of their game? That isn’t to suggest that all resumes on Monster or CareerBuilder are hacks. I know things happen that are out of our control, from layoffs to ownership changes to being caught in the wrong situation. However the typical thought process is that resumes on job boards just aren’t as attractive as traditionally “hunting” someone. Why third party recruiters thrive: One of the major reasons 3rd  party recruiting thrives, is that Hiring Managers and HR Individuals are looking for candidates they can’t locate on the job boards. As a 3rd  party recruiter, I’ve had countless conversations that either started or ended with: Why would I pay you when I can go on CareerBuilder myself? This is a valid point, however please do not trivialize my career like that assuming that is all I do. Sorry, that was a bit of a tangent I was about to go on. Let’s stay on topic. Passive candidates are best: That all being said it brings me back to my main point: the passive candidate is the crème de la crème. However, hiring is a two way street. Too many times people assume the interviewee should be lucky to just get an offer from the employer. And while in some cases that may be true, that is a very selfish way to look at hiring. Your position should be just as attractive to the candidate as the candidate’s background is to you the employer. What I would like to discuss is the way a passive candidate should be handled, because regardless of the thought process they aren’t for everyone. Mental aspect: First off, we need to understand that there is very much a mental aspect to hiring. Candidates need to be mentally prepared to leave their current job. Put yourself in a candidates shoes and think about it. You’ve spent the past year, 2 or more cultivating and developing a way of life. From your morning routine, to the friendships you’ve built to the weekly schedule you’ve gotten comfortable with both personally and professionally. By leaving this job you are about to shake all of that up and start all over. When you are actively looking for a new job you have mentally separated yourself from all of that. You realize the people you see on a regular basis are about to change and your normal routine is about to become a lot different. So if you receive a reasonable offer you have accepted change and are ready to move forward. As a passive candidate this situation is a lot different. You’re happy with your routine, you think those work relationships you’ve built are going to last forever, and as far as you are concerned there is no reason to disturb all that. So it doesn’t just come down to dollars and cents, for you it is about a lot more. So if you are sitting there with an open position and thinking you are going to be gunning for a passive candidate, your position better be worth it. If it isn’t at market value or you are working with outdated technology you aren’t even in the conversation with passive candidates. I pride myself in working with passive candidates. I’m not the foremost expert on it. But based on my own numbers from last year 85% of the candidates I worked with were not actively looking for a position when I approached them. So I can tell you from experience how difficult it can be to hire one. I have been told it all. For example one of my candidates was offered an 11K increase in salary and (in their own words) “upward career mobility” but still declined the offer because, as they as said to me, they “felt safe in their current job”. What motivates passive candidates? That’s what it comes down to: the candidate has to be mentally ready to make a move. And even if they are, your offer better be able to match their needs. Matching salary and a 401k just doesn’t do it for passive candidates. You need to really understand what motivates them. That’s why any time I speak with someone, passive or not, I don’t ever reveal company information at first. When you do that you are setting the tone for them to only focus on this position and not what works best for them. So it is my thought that you talk about the candidate first and then determine if any of your current openings make sense for them. Here are a few simple questions that I always ask: What would motivate you to leave your current role? Why is that you are willing to even discuss a new position? What is your total yearly earning and what would you need in a new role? Is commute a major deciding factor? If so what is ideal? What would you need to see in an offer for you to fully consider a new position? Have you been interviewing recently? The last question may not seem it, but it is probably the most important to ask. The reason is because it goes back to being mentally prepared to leave your current role. Unless the offer blows the candidate out of the water, they will usually not take the first offer, because that is the first time they are giving real thought to leaving. And they just aren’t ready yet. So if someone says they haven’t interviewed anywhere, red flags should go up. They need to have already started thinking about making a career change in order to accept an offer. Conclusions: Ultimately you should be learning all about what will motivate someone to make a move before even going over a job description. Anytime I have a passive candidate that has agreed to a phone call I will always ask them: there is a reason you took my call, what is it? When you get to the core of it, you will know what motivates that person to make a move. That is why your position better be qualified to fit those needs. Your position needs to be an advancement for that candidate in some way. Whether it’s money, responsibilities or your company is that much more innovative than its competitors it has to be something. If not, you don’t even belong on the phone with passive candidates.

Top 5 Job Search Aggregators for a Smarter Job Hunt

Top 5 Job Search Aggregators for a Smarter Job Hunt Some swear by them, some say they are a waste of time. Love them or loathe them, job boards is the natural first port of call for most job seekers. They are great for putting your finger on the job market pulse and to get an idea of what is out there. Too many job boards: The trouble with job boards is that you never know which one to use as new ones keep popping up on a daily basis. The barriers to entry in this industry are very low, as anyone with some technical knowledge can set up a free open-source powered job board and start posting positions tomorrow. This is part of the problem for the job seeker, as you will have to trawl through numerous sites every day and sometimes you have to sign up and upload a resume to apply as well. Remember when the Internet was new and you were on AltaVista, WebCrawler, Yahoo and whatever new search engine that came out. Then one day you discovered Google and you never looked back Enter the job search engines: The good news is that there are meta search job boards that aggregate job postings from other sites. Just like your typical search engines, these sites will compile jobs matching the skill and location that you enter. The results that come up will be pulled from all directions and will be with you in an instant. Traditional job boards such as Monster will charge their customers to post ads, the aggregators can’t do this as they are only linking to the original ad. Instead, they rely on advertising so you will have to put up with some Google Adsense next to your search results. Benefits of job board aggregators: The main reason for you to use an aggregator is that you will search through all jobs in one go. You will not find as many results from your search anywhere else. The comprehensive search will pull up results from job boards, newspaper’s job sections, company career pages, recruiter sites and more. The other reason to use a job search engine is that you save lots of time. Instead of hopping through 10 job boards per day, just use your favourite aggregator and rest assured that you have all bases covered. The time you save can be put to good use for the other aspects of your job search. Warning: lots of results and duplicates: For obvious reasons, the aggregated sites will render long lists of results from your search terms. You will want to be as specific as possible when searching to narrow down the findings. Enter not only your skill but sub-skill, not only your town but actual zip code to begin with to keep results more specific. The job search engines will also deliver a great deal of duplicate job postings. If a role is posted on three different sites (company, job board and recruiter), you are likely to get all three results from your search. Be aware of this and do not apply for the same job three times as it will not do you any favors. Here are the best aggregated job boards in order of size: Indeed:  Started out back in 2004 and was the trailblazer for all job search engines and is still the largest. Indeed keeps expanding globally and is now available in 19 different country-specific versions. SimplyHired:  Close runner-up to Indeed and definitely the great contender. It looks and feels just like Indeed but SimplyHired has more add-on applications that connects you to social media for easy sharing and research on the jobs you find. Available in 17 countries worldwide. CareerJet:  Again a very similar application to Indeed, CareerJet claims to scan over 58,000 websites daily, and it’s available in over 50 countries and in 20 languages. LinkedIn Jobs:  You may have heard about this professaional network, but did you realise it hosts a huge job board that scrapes career sites and job postings on the internet? Worth a click for sure. JobRobot:  The biggest German-language aggregator which is very useful for central European job opportunities. Final note Try these job search engines and work out which one works best for you. Hopefully, you will save both time and effort by using these aggregator services. As always, remember to work all other fronts as well: networking, social media and recruiters in order to get your next job. What is your favourite job board and why? Related: What Job Boards are Most Useful for Applicants?

Top Jobs That Are at The Most Risk to be Replaced by Robots CareerMetis.com

Top Jobs That Are at The Most Risk to be Replaced by Robots â€" CareerMetis.com Robots are coming for our jobs. Possibly all of them, eventually. Still, some jobs are going to go first and if you’re in one of those you’re going to need to start retooling your skillset.Because if you don’t, then you’ll end up with a lot of angry low-skilled people who realized too late that there are no more jobs for them in the modern world.evalTo that end, here are some of the jobs that we’ll see disappearing first.1) Truck DriversThe weakest link in almost all of our vehicles is the people behind the wheel. They make a bad decision, they get tired and then there are all those hormones rushing their veins. For that reason, the first job we’ll see go is long-distance driving â€" particularly trucks.These will be able to drive without needing to take rest breaks, won’t try to pass just because some other truck is driving two miles too slow Here you can think of sports results and basic write-ups of content. These are a great deal easier than actual high-quality stor ies. In fact, they’re rather formulaic with key phrases and numbers inserted into what in many other ways is simply the same text over and over again.And whenever that is the case, you can be absolutely sure that computers aren’t very far away at all to taking over. They’ll be able to do different reports, dissertation writings or researches faster than people usually do it.Of course, you’ll still need help from professional service afterward â€" at least initially. But that too will change soon enough. In other words, if you’re an editor, the tools to ease your life are getting better by the day.4) DoctorsMost people would prefer to interact with human doctors to robot ones. Most people are idiots. Sorry, but it’s true. Sure, a human doctor might be able to show you more empathy, but that’s about the end of it.evalAnd you know what computers and robots will be able to do way better? Diagnose whatever illness they have. This is because computers are far better at track ing a huge number of variables to work out what illness you’ve got that people are.What’s more, while doctors won’t know every illness that is out there Soon you’ll see robots in all kinds of places. For example, we’ll see robot chefs who always prepare it exactly the same way so that quality does not vary.We’ll see robots in supermarkets, where they’ll be able to stock shelves without complaint 24 hours a day.Robots are going to destroy a lot of jobs. Fortunately, it’s not all bad news. After all, technology has been destroying jobs since the industrial revolution. But it’s also created thousands more.All you need to do is make sure you have the skills to corner them and instead of seeing yourself unemployed you’ll be able to embrace entirely new opportunities. All you’ve got to do is keep your ear to the ground.

Giving Thanks - Taking Stock - Kathy Caprino

Giving Thanks - Taking Stock This Sunday, we buried my father-in-law. He died suddenly, out of the blue, in a matter of minutes. His body just shut down, and he left the planet. He had been in a nursing home for only 6 weeks.   As with any major event in one’s life, a death in the family creates a gap in space and time, in which you’re pushed to take stock, and look long and hard at your own life to see where it’s heading and the impact it’s having.   Watching the end point of life unfold, some things went through my mind about life, and what it is to live a “successful” one.   Here’s what came to me:   1) Our lives are a vast accumulation of all that we’ve said, done, made others feel, encouraged others to do, and of what we’ve left behind â€" fragments of energy and light that have made a mark.   2) Success in life can be determined by answering these questions â€" “Did you, by and large, experience joy, love and support, give it in return? Did you learn (and overcome) what you came here to learn? And did your life have a positive impact?   3) When you leave the planet, will you be missed? If so, it’s probably because of cherished qualities you helped others see in themselves (their beauty, value, brilliance, capability, goodness) that they couldn’t see on their own.   4) Finally, what’s the meaning of life? I certainly don’t have the answers, but I do know this…we have this precious chance, these 80 or so years, to live life full out, without regrets, without shame, without reservation to experience all of the life, love, joy, passion, and courage we can, and to be all that we came here to be.   I’m determined not to waste this chance.   Wishing you and yours a joyous Thanksgiving.

Are you saying one of my trigger words - When I Grow Up

Are you saying one of my trigger words - When I Grow Up As a certified life coach whos been at this for 7 years and change  (how did THAT happen?!), I have red flags in my head that shoot straight up when I hear my client say the words listed below. Now, these words arent  bad, per se, but they usually  do express  an internal battle that my client is going through. When I hear these 3 words, I know that my client is trying to mold themselves into something theyre not. Theyre holding themselves up to an ideal that, frankly, just isnt their truth and is not the way theyll ever thrive. Here are the words that send up those red flags: FOCUS.  When it comes to being a multi-passionate, creative woman, focus is our F-word. I know what my client means when she says she wants to focus (not feel disjointed, have an action plan, feel confident in following through, etc.), but usually focusing means I must pick one thing to do at a time until its done and I cant do anything else until then! and thats the worst damn thing we can do to ourselves. Thats like locking yourself in jail and throwing away the key. Its a surefire way to bring on Shiny Object Syndrome, and procrastinate, and feel stifled and uninspired. Ya know how many damn projects Im actively working on right now? Lets seemy podcast, my client work, Its Business Time,  my blog stuff, the upcoming Multi-Passionate Must-Haves sale and a new CreativeLive class. Six things! And while I know thats a little heavy for me right now and that some things are way more active than others, always  Im not only getting it all done, but Im happy jumping from one to the othe r each day. Its built-in variety, which allows me to thrive. I dont believe Id get anything done faster or better than if I said, Nope! Just gonna work with my clients and I cant do anything else until I stop working with clients! As a creative Renaissance Soul, that sounds sad and boring to me. Just know that you can get what you crave by wanting to focus without forcing yourself to Pick One Thing. My project management system helps a lot so that I know the next step(s) of each project and what I need to do each day. Ive also been successful in compartmentalizing my work, knowing Mondays and Tuesdays are for client sessions, Wednesday if for writing, Thursday is for project work and Friday is for admin stuff. It doesnt always work out that cleanly, but it allows me to not feel overwhelmed or close to a head explosion. SHOULD.  The S Word! Shoulds come from outside influences family, friends, Internet gurus, Societythey do  not come from our hearts. They do  not come from our guts. They do  not come from our personal wants, priorities, and goals. Stop the Shoulds and replace it with need or want instead. For example, turn I should make an online program into I need to make an online program. Is that true? I want to make an online program. Is that true?  If those statements  dont feel right, then strike that thing from your To Dos and know that its not the right thing for you to work on now. Feel free to put it in your Idea Book and know that you can always revisit it later. ENOUGH.  I inwardly have all the groans with this one. Usually, my clients arent talking about tangible things (i.e. I dont have enough blog readers). Instead, its about their feelings of inadequacy (i.e. Im not doing enough). I always follow up that statement with this question: Do you know what Enough would be? Theyre always stumped. Always. Theres nothing measurable in their heads that would actually show them what Enough is. Instead, its this very general and super fuzzy ideal that, frankly, theyll never reach because its undefined. Its when they give it some though, though, that we can clarify what Enough would look like to them how much theyre writing each week, or how much progress theyre making on their painting, or how many clients they want to work with each month.  Thats the measurable, tangible goals were looking to make, because we can easily see the progress as well as the finish line when itll be time to make new goals and find a new Enough. Do what you can to be aware of when these words come out of your mouth or show up on the page, and take a moment to shift your perspective, ask yourself some soul-searching questions, and re-direct your attention to needs, wants, tangible goals, and the And in your career. CreativeLive is rebroadcasting my  Create Your Dream Career class this weekend, which means you can watch for free starting at noon Eastern on Saturday! Click here at that date/time and youll be taken to  the right place.

How to Choose the Best Honolulu Resume Writing Service

How to Choose the Best Honolulu Resume Writing ServiceHow to choose the best Honolulu resume writing service? If you're a highly qualified and experienced executive or manager you may very well have some or all of the following skills: are a professional writer, full of great ideas, knows how to offer effective training, has a great personality, and is a good communicator. In fact, it is important that you display a certain amount of this plus expertise in communication in your resume. But what kind of attributes and skills will you need?The first and most obvious part of determining the type of writing service you'll be working with is to read your resume thoroughly. The best companies have qualified staff members who work with you to ensure that you meet their standards for professionalism. Any company or individual that doesn't demand that they have a copy of your resume (and may not deliver to your residence) is not worth considering as a writer. As for the various types of resum es that you can write: they can be a lengthy one (double-spaced), very short (single-spaced), or a mix of both. Any company that demands to see your cover letter first is not going to be interested in your resume and should be eliminated from consideration right away.The next thing to consider is your current job duties and the nature of your current job duties. If you are already engaged in a management position, but the company has the desire to interview you for any of their other roles such as an assistant manager, then they may want you to be prepared with a little extra. In this case, you should also consider the employer's expectations. These will affect the amount of your documentation needed, so you should carefully consider your situation before signing up with the company.You might think that the most suitable resume is the one that best shows your experience and qualifications. However, in reality there are several options that will appeal to employers - and each one wil l have different requirements and payment structures.Thonolulu resume writing service A common trait among many successful resumes is their emphasis on time management and thorough documentation. This tends to apply to top positions such as CEO and general manager as well.If you're looking to prove that you're the best, try reading the resume of another job applicant. It is a proven fact that hiring managers are extremely adept at determining if an applicant is a good fit based on the resume. It's worth it to look over the resume of someone else who has already been hired before you start working with an official Honolulu resume writing service.In addition to completing the resume properly, provide additional information such as social security number and address for verification. The better you do at this, the higher you're likely to be moved.

Career Lessons from Gen Y

Career Lessons from Gen Y Want a survival manual for the new economy? Pay attention to the kids. Specifically, watch the millennials, a.k.a. Gen Y, who were born after 1981. Recently I moderated a panel discussion on millennials in the workplace. My preparation and the follow-up I’ve since done with experts and some of my own younger colleagues have convinced me that the rap on this generation â€" that they feel entitled and lack commitment â€" misses the point, which is this: In an era of “permalancing,” disruptive technology, and nonstop globalization, those of us with a little gray (or little hair) can learn some lessons from the younger set. Take these: Expect to switch careers. The embrace of a multicareer work life is perhaps the most striking difference between Gen Y and older folks. Author Neil Howe, who coined the term “millennials,” says that this is a function of neither their age nor their appetite for risk, which Howe believes is less than you might think. Rather, he says, it’s because the seismic economic shifts that were occurring just as this group entered the workforce changed the rules. As Dev Aujla, who wrote “Making Good: Finding Meaning, Money, and Community in a Changing World” and is a millennial himself, puts it, “The steady straight line that meant stability for previous generations isn’t guaranteed.” You’ll need more training. This is the most educated bunch in history, and they expect they’ll require more in the future. Howe says millennials understand the economy handed them lemons, so they’re developing skills to make career lemonade. “Credentialed training is very important,” Howe says, “partly because it is portable but also because it gives legitimacy within their organization.” Focus on the experience, not the job itself. Many of your newest colleagues don’t expect to stick around long enough to climb the “ladder” we so cherish. A millennial co-worker told me she thought “it might be interesting to work in TV for a couple of years.” Not that I ever felt that way, but if I had, I wouldn’t have said so for fear of limiting my chances to advance. Don’t be an Eeyore. Millennials are optimistic and prefer to work for companies that articulate a mission to serve society. Those who graduated from college are keenly aware they paid a lot for an education that doesn’t guarantee them a lucrative job. Ultimately, though, says Howe, they believe they will find what they’re looking for. Consult your elders. Millennials like, lean on, and trust their parents. A lot. Brig. Gen. Lori Reynolds, who handles Marine recruiting, showed me a new poster that targets parents, not their children. Embrace change, keep learning, be willing to start over, and find what you really want to do. Not bad career advice, especially from those who are so young. And don’t forget, spend time with your parents. They still have lessons for you too.