Carl Bradford

When you become a job seeker, the situations you face on a day-to-day basis can take a tremendous toll on your emotional and mental well-being. You deal with rejections, frustration, disappointment, limited or no feedback to your employment inquires and possibly disrespect on a daily basis.

You probably experience more emotional ups and downs than most any other time in your professional career. And, no matter how successful you are, your progress is less predictable than you would probably like.  As a job seeker, your level of mental and emotional toughness affects you every day, in everything you do.

It’s More About What You Do

Being mentally and emotionally tough is less about what you say and do than it is about how you feel about what you say and do. For example, if your feelings about asking a another colleague or a professional that you don’t know, to provide you with referrals keeps you from asking, then you start a downward spiral to nowhere. First, you’re uncomfortable asking, so you don’t ask and end up wasting time chasing over marketeted job prospects. You get angry with yourself and/ or potential employers for wasting your time.

All these negative feelings and actions only serve to tear down your emotional and mental well-being.

Here’s a Carl Bradford Rule

“Never become emotionally involved in a networking call, especially a cold call.”

Being emotionally tough doesn’t mean that you have no emotions or that you are a cold person. It means that you have learned how to control your emotions so they don’t keep you from doing what you have to do.

How often do you have to be tough during a job search?

Only for five minutes at a time. There is no need to put undue pressure on yourself to be tough all the time. What’s really important is to be tough during those times when you need to be. It only takes five minutes to be tough enough and bolster your courage to do the things and ask the questions that we find personally difficult.

Most job seekers have reluctance to pick up that 900 pound phone and make that first cold call. It only takes five minutes.

Job seekers are also uncomfortable asking for an interview. There are comfortable ways to do this. Learn them and then get tough with yourself for five minutes to ask the question that will get you the answer.

Another issue is asking for the job offer. We all have trouble with this, but boosting your toughness for five minutes will improve your chances of obtaining a new career opportunity.

Can you spare five minutes?  Be tough and do the tough things in five minute segments.

A whitepaper’s – The ninth Source of Hire report from CareerXroads – key findings report that, on average, 41 of the country’s larger businesses filled just over 50% of their job vacancies in 2009 by internal transfers and promotions.

That’s the greatest percentage since CareerXroads first reported the information in 2002.

Predictions for 2010

Regarding 2010, however, 48% of the participating businesses believe they will hire and hire aggressively. The prediction is for a 29% growth in hiring. Only 10.8% of the interviewed employers anticipate hiring a lesser number of employees in 2010. Compare those percentages to the Source of Hire Report issued a year ago and you will discover that 100% of the businesses forecasted they would employ fewer employees.

The reports authors, Gerry Crispin and Mark Mehler attitributed this to an increase in internal movement resulting from the US economic downturn, thus effectively obscuring many other sources of hire.  They expect internal movement (promotions and transfers) to return to more typical levels in 2010.

HR’s Disconnect with Contingent Workforce

Another key finding – and something recruiting managers and Human Resource professionals need to quickly get a handle on – is that 30% of the respondents were unaware for the size of their contingent labor force.

Amazingly, the survey preference selected from the 30% was that we “do not really know and can’t even guess” the size of the contingent employed pool. Of those who did report a size, the average was 13.6% of the labor force was considered contingent.

Another very interesting thing discovered is that forecasts call for these businesses to increase their contingent staff size to as much as 25%-35% in the coming years.  If that is correct, this only serves to point out that the HR and recruiting staff professionals have a very big ‘disconnect’ that has to be resolved.”

It should be pointed out however that the majority of the reports results deals with the source of employment of full-time staff.

Sources of External Hires

As Crispin and Mehler have reported for the last eight years, referrals are the largest supply of external hires. Not only were 26.7% of the external hires produced from recommendations from their workforce (who are the reason for the largest share), vendors, alumni, customers, and the like, but referrals are a powerful applicant resource.

A side note: If you’re reading this summary report, and are an active job seeker, this is a big, big clue on how to bypass the traditional recruiting application process and get recommended by an insider.  What, you don’t know anyone? There is a strategy for getting past that hurdle, but that’s part of what I coach my candidates on how to do.  You’ll need to contact me for that level of advice.

Just how effective is the referral system” “The yield for referrals is one hire for each 15 referrals, making this category essentially the most effective source by far and away,” say Crispin and Mehler.

Close to referrals, company job sites, at 22.3% of the total external hires, produce the most hires.

This is likely due to the fact that job seekers find the organization website from elsewhere; probably from the search engines or perhaps a employment post website link or an email from a friend.

Add these two top percentages together and you discover that 49% of all external hires come via referrals and the company website.

You’re probably wondering where job boards weigh in on source of hire.  The report indicated that job boards averaged 12.3% of all external hires.

Now the total for all three sources are 61.3%.

That leaves almost 39% of hires from other sources. Part of the difficulty in reporting on the 39% of external hires can be attributed to HR’s poor tracking systems, a portion of it is traceable, but attributed to a host of smaller sources.  One of the emerging sources is social media, but the ability to track that is still being developed.

An additional observation

LinkedIn accounts for 60 percent of all hires attributed to social media. Now, again if you’re a job seeker this is a big clue you must utilize in your job search.  The problem is, very few job seekers really know how to maximize LinkedIn’s effectiveness beyond the obvious.  For those that do, it is a treasure-trove of job opportunities, often yielding job opportunities with little or no competition.

What to know who the best companies to work for today, in 2010, and why they’ve garnered this top billing?  They top the list in each of their respective catagories and many of the share similar working environments along with extraordinary benefits – despite being involved in different businesses.

Here are a few interesting facts about some of these companies.

• Even in a tough job market, some employers dole out perks like on-site saunas, discounted massages and classes on Wii bowling.
• There are 22 Best Companies to work for who at the time of this post have at least 500 openings. What kind of candidates are they looking for?
• There’s at least one of these employers who have never, ever had a lay off.
• Some things about one company included: stock options on hire, baseball games, surfing lessons, kayaking tours, white-water rafting, bonfires, bowling, and volunteering opportunities.

Fortune has been producing this list for 13 years and their annual list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” was announced last week and is published in the Feb. 8th issue of the magazine.

These companies overall seem to be thriving despite the economic conditions we’ve been living through recently.

If you’re a smart networker and know how to find insider’s who will help get your resume reviewed, these employers make ideal targets for top job seekers.  These are great companies for you to review and building networking contacts with.

The short answer is they don’t.  They scan your resume with a very specific set of data in their mind and if they determine your resume matches this data only then will they decide to actually read your resume.

I’ve personally reviewed probably at least a million resumes in my 40+ years in this business.  When you review 50 to 200 resumes per day, they add up and at this volume, it would be impossible to “read” each of them and it isn’t necessary for me to do so.

If you’re a candidate, you may still get angry about that, but at least I’m going to explain the reality of what happens with your resume in this article to help understand why it’s done this way.

I know that candidates often get angry about the way their resume is quickly dismissed, but they are often to blame for not preparing their resume to be the best it can be.

Check your resume against my top 9 “knock out” criteria below to see how your resume stacks up.

The Recruiter Scan Process Revealed

Here’s how I process the resumes I review every day and the criteria I use to move some to the “no interest” group and the others into “follow up.”

I set up a hierarchy of certain “must haves” or you’re out, so at first I’m really just box checking. These must haves are what the job spec calls for. If you’re reading a job posting and your resume doesn’t match the stated criteria – and it isn’t easily and quickly apparent – then goodbye.

Generally, 80% of the time these must haves are my knock out blows. There are exceptions to each of these, but I’m dealing with the 80/20 rule. This is box checking, if I see any one of these as I scan your resume you will be excluded.

The 9 Critical Resume Knockout Blows

Location. If you’re not local to the job, I immediately know the process takes on an added cost to my client and becomes much more complex. This includes the physical move, housing, temporary lodging, possible spousal employment, and schools to name a few. All things being equal, clients will opt for local candidates. I don’t make this a knock out factor right away, but neither does it fall into the plus column. This takes about 1 second.

Functional resume. The most common reason for a functional resume is to hide something and I know that all too well. It raises a red flag and I rarely pay much attention at all to a functional resume at first and just quickly skip to the lower third of the resume to glance at your work history.  Unless I see something compelling, you’re gone. Another big, big disadvantage is what I call “trend over time”, i.e. trying to get a sense of your job progression.  Are you moving steadily upward, or have you hit a plateau or have you actually gone backwards.  This is impossible to tell from a functional resume because titles can’t adequately tell your story. About 5 seconds.

Top one-third. I review the information just after your contact data. Don’t bother with putting an objective on your resume.  I’m not looking to see what you want to do, I’m looking to see if you fit my open jobs.

Don’t fill this valuable real estate with soft skills either. Give me your best elevator pitch in a Summary section and make sure it maps/ties to the job. This more than anything else will slow me down and start changing me from scanning to reading.  If you don’t have a concise summary then I usually just skip anything else written in any other format, at least on the first pass (and likely my first and only pass through your resume). About 10-15 seconds to give me a reason to slow down and read.

Job stability. You hear a lot about “no more gold watches” and no more loyalty and therefore job stability doesn’t matter.  Wrong!  It doesn’t matter as much as it use to, but it still matters.  If you’ve changed jobs every 2-3 years, why would my client think you’re going to stay with them any longer?  And at a hiring cost that can be one-and-a-half times your base salary (150%), they do care and so do I.  About 10 seconds tops.

Level. If you’ve been at a VP and above level and now applying to a Manager or Director level, I get very cautious very quickly. I next try to determine the size of your employer and the scope of your role.  If you’ve been a VP at a larger Fortune employer, and now want to be a Manager at that same size or smaller company (and if you’re now unemployed especially) I will move on. Takes about 5-10 seconds.

Missing data. If you’ve left off your earlier job history, that can be a big red flag.  When I get to the end of your job history and see a job title that is inconsistent with the level of job where you would have started your career, I know right away you’re hiding something.  While you may not provide as much detail about your earliest employment, I really have to be convinced by everything else before I’ll bother to take time to talk with you. About 5 seconds.

Role. If you’ve been doing a job that has little or no relevancy to the job you applied for, you’re gone in less than a few heart beats. If I’m looking for sales, you’d better have had sales experience. Recruiters like me are paid to find specific experience and I know better than to try to provide my clients with anything less than what they’ve asked for. About 5 seconds to make this determination.

Industry. This isn’t always critical, but often it is. If your experience has all been in banking and the opportunity I’m recruiting for happens to be in aerospace AND requires specific knowledge that would only come from being employed in the aerospace industry, don’t send your resume.  I’ll spot it in about 5 – 10 seconds and your resume moves to the “not a match” category.

Education. Like it or not, most employers have defined their optimum and minimum educational standards. While I often disagree with them, I know they’re firmly set on this criteria and it’s my job to give it to them.  This can sometimes include certain certifications as well. I can determine that in about 5 seconds and if you don’t have them, you go into the “not a match” group.

After all this, 80 – 100% of the resumes have been eliminated. If there are any left, then I will take the time to actually read them in detail.

What You Can Do About It

I’ve written extensively on the subject of resumes and have 15 free videos on a companion site, Essential Resume Strategies.  I encourage you to go there and spend the time to review this information.

The score is 21 -20 and your team’s score is 20.   The referee has just called time out at the final 2 minute mark.

Your team has possion of the ball when time resumes and you’re on your own 20 yard line. It’s a one possion ball game. It’s time for your 2 minute game plan.

Like top football teams, every top recruiting team needs a 2 minute game plan.

When You Need a 2 Minute Strategy the Most

You must have a 2 minute game plan when you have to move a candidate through your recruiting process in a very short period of time.

This happens most often when too much time elapses in closing top candidates already in your hiring process and you discover your top candidates now have competing offers.  You do communicate often enough with them to make that discovery don’t you?

This can also occur when you source a top candidate that is already well into their job search and have or about to have competing job offers.

What’s your strategy? How can you benefit from a 2 minute drill and what would that look like?

A Culture of Playing To Win

It starts with developing a winning culture. In today’s fast-paced competitive world, there’s little time for error or waste in hiring top talent.  Just like a well-disciplined football team, recruiters can adapt the techniques of winning football teams to ensure their hiring teams move the ball, score and win.

All too often employers are defeated while the clock is still ticking and they miss out on top talent!  HR/Recruiting Departments and their hiring management are frequently bogged down by sluggish recruiting practices that stifle change. They are unable to pick up the pace when necessary to score and win.

Winning means preparation before the game even begins. Once into the final 2 minutes, it means being able to communicate quickly and effectively, seizing control of the situation, adjusting quickly and – above all – executing!

A Frequent Symptom of Playing To Lose

One telling sign of a culture playing to lose can be seen where employers have adopted an attitude of “if we don’t get this person, there will be others that we can hire” and they just don’t seem to care about winning and getting a top employee.  This would be akin to a football team say, “we’ve already lost this one, but there’ll be other games.”

Any football coach that took that attitude and didn’t play with determination to win until the clock runs out would be fired quickly!

Develop Your 2 Minute Drill with 11 strategies

Improving your recruiting process, especially when competing for top candidates, can be achieved through applying the same principles that football teams do when executing their two-minute drills.

Top professional football teams must combine speed and execution. Winning teams often use both offensive and defensive talent during this time. They aren’t afraid to use talent in different roles during critical times when winning is on the line.

They practice working as a team and execute well-designed “play packages” – especially when there are just seconds left in the game and they need to score to win.

Here are 11 key elements of a winning 2 minute recruiting and hiring drill.

Select a leader. During the final 2 minutes leadership ultimately goes to the quarterback. It’s up to him to execute the 2 minute pre-game plan, but it goes beyond that.  Even after the coaching staff has called the play, he must analyze the defense in a matter of seconds and possibly call an audible play depending on his “read” of the defense.  Who on your recruiting team is accountable for orchestrating the overall 2 minute drill among your players?

Know the score. The quarterback must know the number of points required to win the game. Will that be a field goal or does it have to be a touchdown. Your hiring team must know what it will take to get the candidate to say yes. This goes beyond just compensation and likely includes other factors that are important to the candidate. Have you clearly established what is important to the candidate and whether you can provide that and if not, can you offer other things that might get the yes answer?  Knowing what will close the candidate means you know the score.

Operate with a sense of urgency. Seconds are critical to a football team during the final 2 minutes. Every play counts and every decision is magnified. Every team member on the field must execute their assignment with precision in a time compressed environment. Does everyone on your hiring team do that?

Keep track of the clock. The amount of time taken between plays, stopping the clock, and knowing just when to use remaining time-outs all become critical as the quarterback “manages the clock.”  Do you know how much time you really have before your candidate accepts another offer?  Have you built in some time for quick negotiations before time runs out?

Use the appropriate package of plays. The number of plays available during the 2 minute drill does not include all plays in the playbook. Plays in the 2 minute plan are typically designed to quickly move the chains (see below). This means abandoning certain ‘bread and butter” plays that are part of the overall game plan.

The 2 minute plays are often  much higher risk plays such as long pass plays.  We’ve all seen the “hail Mary” plays before.  When everything is on the line, do you have a plan that might even include higher risk solutions to win the candidate?

Play the right players. Having the right players on the field is critical. Use the talents of individual players for the good of the team. This often means using defensive and special team players in roles that are different from their normal position. Understanding the strengths of players during this time-compressed period becomes critical. Have you identified certain players on your recruiting team – or players who could become part of your 2 minute team – that bring a special background to help close certain top candidates?

Move the chains. This strategy is winning yards in at least 10 yard amounts thereby getting the opportunity to continue get ever closer to scoring the winning points. This means that often the best strategy isn’t the “hail Mary” pass, but getting concessions a little bit at a time in order to improve the odds of scoring. A top 2 minute recruiting drill might include getting a series of smaller yes responses from the candidate in order to overcome all concerns and getting the final yes to accept your offer.

Generate momentum. Positive momentum is contagious and energizing. The 2 minute time frame is as much mental as it is anything else. When your recruiting team consistently wins, every player gains confidence and improves their game. Are you winning most of your games, even the close ones?

Play Hard to the end. Top football teams know that it’s not over till it’s over! They strive to play at the top of their game through the final second. They realize that execution is the key to winning the game. Knowing the plays designed for your 2 minute drill and fielding the best players in each situation can mean the difference between winning and losing. The best hiring teams don’t take no for an answer and never give up till the game is truly over. Close the candidate, then celebrate.

Recognize your opponents 2 minute defense. The team on offense isn’t the only one to have a 2 minute drill. Top football teams know that when they begin their 2 minute drill, their opponents have a 2 minute defensive strategy. The tempo of the game changes. Mistakes are magnified. Split second adjustments are required. Gaining an understanding of your candidates motivators is critical and when they get down to making a final decision on your job offer, you must know how to close them. Time is short. Effective communication is critical. How are you doing when recruiting completion is really keen?

Perform a post Game Analysis. Top football teams video every game from several angles. Every game is put through a post game analysis that includes a careful scrutiny of their two minute drill. This approach allows you to able to better understand your overall strategy and find elements where you are strongest as well as weakest.  From that analysis, you can tweak and refine your 2 minute drill as well as other parts of your recruiting process. When was the last time you conducted a post game analysis of your recruiting process and then purposely improved your recruiting process?  If you haven’t, when will you start?

Conclusion

• Developing a winning 2 min strategy will make the rest of your game plan much better.
• Develop your own 2 minute drill and make it part of your playbook and be sure everyone on your teams knows “the drill.”

Bottom line if you don’t have a 2 minute drill, you aren’t playing to win!