Minto Roy - Career - Recruitment Blog

You’re talented. You work hard. That should be enough to ensure a satisfying career, right? No. Not even, “Sadly, no” or “Unfortunately, no.” Just plain NO.

Employers take a major risk when they hire. It’s a huge investment of time and money to recruit, screen, interview, hire, and train a new person. It costs them as much as 30% of your annual salary just to find you, then quite possibly another 50% to train you – and they’re paying you during that training, and paying compulsory remittances for you as well. And you haven’t made them any money yet.

If you earn $50,000 per year, an employer invests $130,000 in your first year just to get you to a place where they could begin to see a return on their investment. Ask yourself: how good, how secure, would a long term investment need to seem to you before you would be willing to shell out that kind of money? And how much better would it have to seem if you had lost money on similar investments in the past? That’s how attractive you need to be to a prospective employer.

Seeing the hiring process from their side is the first step. Understanding what they are looking for is the next. So what do employers want to see from you in that all-important job interview?

1. FIT. Each workplace has its own culture. Some are budget-conscious while others are profit-driven. Some are pro-active and others reactive. Some strive for stability, others for creativity. You can’t be a productive member of the team if you don’t fit. It’s not about your qualifications at this point – it’s about whether you will want to work the way they like to work, and whether they get the sense they will like working with you.

2. SPECIALISTS BACKED UP BY SOLID GENERALIST CAPACITY. Employers want to know you are really good at the thing they need you for. They want you to have the education, skills and experience to meet at least 80% of the job demands right out of the gate. If you are telling yourself, “I could (learn to) do that,” you are looking at a career longshot unless you already have a relationship with the employer where your aptitude, quick learning ability and fit have already been demonstrated. (This, by the way, is why every career expert you have ever seen, heard, or read advocates networking—because it builds the relationships that make transitioning fields or jumping a few rungs of the corporate ladder less of a risk from the employer’s point of view.) So the specialist part is being able to handle the lion’s share of the job without requiring hand-holding or expensive training. For the generalist part, you need to also show that you have other, value-added abilities which are relevant to the job—key word relevant. Maybe you could offer relief backup in another department. Or you have training, presentation, writing, or second language skills which could be used on a particular project. And the number one generalist skill which is relevant virtually everywhere in the private sector is networking/business development. Notice I didn’t say sales. A company doesn’t need everyone making pitches and trying to close—they have specialists for that. But someone who is at least alert to opportunity and able to bring in leads to new business is always higher value than someone who isn’t.

3. COMMITMENT. Remember that $130,000 investment in a $50,000/yr employee? When an employee quits during their first two years for a company, it’s as if a public company in which you invested your retirement savings going bankrupt and the stock becoming worthless. It’s Enron. You’d be very outraged and incredibly cautious going forward if that happened to you.

Naturally, then, employers want to know when they hire you that you plan to be around for awhile so they can enjoy a reasonable return on their investment in you. When they ask about your lifestyle, your focus, your goals, and where you see yourself in the next 3-5 years, that’s what they are trying to assess.

Posted by minto at 02:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some of the toughest days jobseekers have are, contrary to what you might expect, not those days when there are no postings to apply for but rather those first few days after you have applied and you have not heard back. No email, no phone call. Just deafening silence from the outside world and overwhelming uncertainty – even panic – inside your head.

You want to know that they got the resume. You want to be sure that it reached the right person. You want some sense of when they’ll make a decision. You want them to shortlist you for interview, pick you for the job, make you an offer you can’t refuse and live happily ever after without ever having to look for work again for the rest of your life!

Okay, so you’re laughing. That’s good. It means you’ve relaxed a little. Now look back over that post-resume submission meltdown with a little distance. You’ll see it’s all about you and your wants. Your meltdown completely violates the number one rule of job searching: It’s all about the employer.

Once you have submitted an application, you need to know it got there, yes. Send hard copies by courier or registered mail with signature required; fax using a machine which prints a proof of transmission; and check your email for bounce-backs. Once you’ve done that, your need to know is over and your concern is really only a reflection of want. It’s perfectly natural to be anxious or curious, and to want to have those feelings resolved – it’s just not okay to ACT ON that want.

You must resist the impulse to phone even once, let alone repeatedly, saying, “Did you get my application? Have you made a decision yet?” But that doesn’t mean you can’t follow up. Roughly two business days after the closing date or five business days after your resume submission where no closing date is listed, you can call or email to “renew your interest” in the position and offer to provide references.

You can perhaps also, as an alternative or as a second follow-up a few days later, send a note pertaining to your availability for interview, along the lines of, “I appreciate that hiring is a challenging and time-consuming task and, mindful of your demanding schedule, I just wanted to take a moment to let you know I will be away from my phone and email at a workshop (or family function or retreat or out-of-town interview) on the 17th and 18th but will be checking my messages each evening. I will be available for interview after the 19th, including times outside business hours if that would be more convenient for you. The more I learn about XYZ company – particularly recent coverage in the Globe of your service innovations on the 123 account – the more interested I am in joining your team. I see a solid fit between your expansion into SME markets and my experience as quality assurance coordinator for mid-size accounts. I look forward to meeting you in the near future.” The tone is confident, diligent and keeps the employer’s interests in focus amid its self promotion. There is not a frightened, needy or desperate-for-work note to be found.

Yes, after you have applied you want to know when they will call. But what you need is to be sufficiently impressive, composed and attractive and they actually will make that call.

Hang in there – at the end of this long and bumpy road, your new career awaits.

Posted by minto at 02:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)