Ask Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

Ask The Big Game Hunter: What Should I Say If I Am Asked . . .

2007-11-09T09:35:00.000-08:00

Q. I did a little bit of a career shift in the spring, moving into pharmaceutical advertising from a more generalist background. It took a long time and a lot of selling on my part, but I finally landed at a "name" agency. At the end of August, I was put out the door. I'm still not sure why, but that was the sum of my entire experience there. Expectations were never spelled out and I was supposed to know just from osmosis how everything worked, including the FDA/DDMAC regulations. I spent a great deal of time asking for help and feedback right upfront.

However, I got little in the way of feedback or direction and soon realized my questions were not welcomed.

I want to remain, at least for now, in the pharma realm.

Now I have had a headhunter very on top of his game get things underway for me at about 5 different places this week already. I need to address my time at the ad agency so that I don't spend the entire interview focused on that and so that I can spin it in as positive a
manner as possible. I have been saying that the fit wasn't good and I needed to look for a better situation for me. Have any suggestions?
L.B. via email

A.

Plan A: My first reaction is to ask the headhunter what he or she told the client so that you are in synch.

Plan B: If they submitted a resume and got a bite but didn't have a conversation, I would still ask their advice . . . they "know" the client and their taste.

Plan C: If what they say sounds useless or immature, then try this.

"I joined earlier this year because I very much wanted to get into this field. Frankly, it seems like their needs changed and the need no longer existed.

I want to build my career in this sector . . . etc.; I'm sure you know the rest.

In other words, honesty, but simplified.

Why don't recruiters call me back?

2007-04-08T10:43:00.000-07:00

Q. When an executive sends his or her information to a recruiter who has posted a position and they do not even receive an automated response (they like to know their information at least arrived) THEY REMEMBER.

These are the people who recruiters will be calling on in the future for leads to fill. They remember who was a true professional in how they responded to applicants and who wasn't. They share their "horror stories" and pass on the names of those that they will not deal with in the future. Recruiters have gained the same reputation among job seekers that Used Car Salesmen have enjoyed over the years. Is it true of all - No. One or two bad apples will create quite a bad smell that hovers over the whole barrel. Are all job seekers professional in how they react – No. As usual, all stories have two sides.

A. If I understand your point, why don't recruiters respond to all resumes they receive?

Almost every resume I receive does nothing to demonstrate that the person is qualified for the job to.

I want to repeat that.

Almost every resume I receive does NOTHING to demonstrate that the person is qualified for the job that they are responding to.

The biggest disservice that most services do is coddle the job applicant by pointing to the rudeness of the recruiter in these cases. In fact, if the shoe were on the other foot and we did that to someone who is a hiring managers, they would scratch their collective heads and tell us to buzz off.

Yet, when the same people are job applicants it is our fault.

As I tell every individual or service that makes this statement, the most help you can provide a job seeker (and search professional) is to tell them to stop flipping resumes to job ads like they are flipping burgers in the kitchen of a fast food restaurant and to continually tweak their resume for every position they submit it to.

Yes, it is more work. So what.

The broken watch is right twice per day. With effort, a person can get far more response than what they receive.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to him at:
thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

Answering an Ad, They Ask Include How Much You Are Looking for

2007-01-21T04:37:00.000-08:00

Dear Jeff,

I saw an ad recently for a position I could fit very well. They ask me to include a cover letter that includes how much I'm looking for for the position. I would probably have to move to be near this job because iit is in a higher salary area, too far to commute to. In my work, I travel from place to place and, although they say they have good benefits, I don't know if i would get a company car or mileage reimbursement. I don't want to price myself out of the job but I need a good increase to do it.

What should I say in my cover letter?

Answer: Thanks for asking for advice.

I hate cover letters.

I prefer cover emails that do the same thing as a cover letter but don't require the reader to open another file. Most of us who receiove resumes, open the resume first without regard to the cover letter and then read a cover letter to disqualify someone for "obvious stupidity" (bad grammar, not using a spellchecker, asking for something that the position will not afford them).

They are asking to get a sense of salary expectations to insure that someone that they interview is within their targeted compensation. After all, you don't want to interview someone earning or who was most recent earning $130000 for a $85000 job.

The simplest way to respond is to tell them how much you are currently earning and that it is in a lower cost area. That you use a company car (if that is the case) or mileage reimbursement to travel from site to site.

Tell them that the position seems like a good opportunity for you but that you would be moving closer to the office, rather than commuting 90 miles each way and that if they decide you are the right person for you, to make their strongest offer.

By doing this, they get an idea of your value and you aren't negotiating against yourself by stating a price too early without knowing more about the job.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing

jeffaltman@cisny.com
© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

If you have a question that you would like me to answer, email it to me at: thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free meta job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to learn about his VIP program, or to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsesarchuniverse@gmail.com.

For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, to help human resources professionals, managers and business owners make even better hiring decisions, ,subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com .

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Being Savvy as an Older Worker?

2006-12-29T13:21:00.000-08:00

I'm a aeroscience engineer with 25+ years experience with security clearance. I was on contract for many years at a Corporation until the contracts ran dry and I was forced into early retirement. How can I at the age of 69 make myself job savvy and downplay my age?

---V

Let me get right to answering your question and that focuses on one word you used in your question--savvy

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - /ˈsæv i/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[sav-ee] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation verb, -vied, -vy·ing, noun, adjective, -vi·er, -vi·est. Informal. –verb (used with object), verb (used without object)

1.	to know; understand.

–noun

2.	Also, sav·vi·ness. practical understanding; shrewdness or intelligence; common sense: a candidate who seemed to have no political savvy.

–adjective

3.	*shrewdly informed; experienced and well-informed; canny*.

I bolded some of the words in the definition because, in my opinion, they reflect the most common uses of the word. Can you, at 69, be savvy? You bet. How do you do that? Use knowledge and information.

First of all, you may recall that I developed a Google-powered job lead tool, Job Search Universe (www.jobsearchuniverse.com) that is concurrently searching a ton of job sites worldwide in many industries. Use the site, not just for job leads but for competitive intelligence. What is the market looking for? What is it paying for that? How does your experience match up. Where can you strengthen or refresh your skills for the demands of the market?

Next, instead of sending out the same generic resume over and over again, send tailored resumes to every job listing you choose. After all, are all the jobs you forward your resume to identical? Of course, they aren't. So why send the same resume to every job? Tailor them to each job and track which version you send to each ad.

When you receive a call from someone representing a firm, check your list of responses for what the changes were in your resume and what they were looking for so that you can target your answers to what they care about.

Next, if there is one more way to appear savvy and that is by using The Single Best Question You Can Ask on Any Interview. People report to me all the time that they get a great response when they do. To review that Question, go to

http://jobhuntingtips.blogspot.com/2006/08/single-best-question-you-can-ask-on.html

Finally, review some of my earlier articles in Head Hunt Your Next Job for places where you need work.

Delete the items in your cv that are more than 15 years back. Take the dates off for your degrees. It is unlikely that anyone will hire you based upon experience you had when Nixon was President so get it off your resume. Emphasize the work you've done since 1997--since we all learned of Monica Lewinsky so make that post-Lewinsky era the beefy part of your resume and anything before that a line or two.

Good luck; I hope this helps. If you want more specifics, please let me know.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

If you have a question that you would like me to answer, email it to me at: thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free meta job lead tool, Job Search Universe, or to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsesarchuniverse@gmail.com.

For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, to help human resources professionals, managers and business owners make even better hiring decisions, ,subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com . For information about personal job search services, go to www.VIPPersonalSearch.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Posting Your Resume on the Job Boards While Still Working

2006-12-26T16:48:00.000-08:00

Dear Jeff,

I have decided to change jobs while still working for my current employer. I am afraid they will find out I am looking for a job and fire me. What can I do?

TM

For years, I have been struck by what I perceive is recklessness of most job hunters that post their resume on job baords without concern for whether their current employer might be searching the boards for resumes. Certainly, if you work for a large company that is advertising on Monster, Careerbuilder, Net-Temps, Dice or HotJobs, you need to understand that they are not just getting resumes in response to their ad(s), but have probably set up a search agent to identify resumes that have posted to the site that fit their job opening. So if you are a J2EE developer working for a company trying to hire one and you have a resume on that job board, Human Resources and, perhaps, your manager know you are looking for work.

There are two simple strategies to prevent them from finding out you're looking for a job.

1. Do not post your resume to the board. Instead, respond to specific advertisements and do not answer ads unless the company's name is in the ad. It's OK to answer agency ads that don't mention the name of the client, but don't answer what is nicknamed a "blind ad." The downside to this is that not every company runs an ad. Some would rather search the data base. This leads to the second strategy.

2. Post your resume on the website but make it a "blind resume" Most job boards will give you the option of making your resume a blind resume. Even if you have to pay for it, do it. Would you rather paya few dollars or risk being fired?

Interviewing for Non-Existent Jobs

2006-10-26T04:49:00.000-07:00

I've been with my present employer for about 3 years. To date, they have not come through with financial and professional promises made at the time I was hired. I've attempted to talk to them, but it seems to have fallen on deaf ears and I'm getting the brush off. I decided to start looking for a new position. I recently had interviews with 4 different companies. All interviewed me for non-existent jobs, even though they told me they had openings when they called me for the interviews. I had to take time away from my present job without raising red flags. What is the deal?
================================================================================================

There are a number of different ways to interpret these interviews.

#1.You're wrong.There are jobs there.
#2. There are jobs there but they don't see the fit in you for gthe
jobs so it seems like a graceful ways to back out.
#3 There is no job but they are exploring the possiility of creating
one with you in it.
#4 There is no job currently but they are considering firing someone.
#5 They want to pick your brain and get free consulting.

Those are the choices I see and I will never know which one it is.

Keep kissing frogs until the Prince shows up.
====================================================================================
So how do you keep from getting down when you have mentally resigned from your job already and feel trapped? And how do you mask your unhappiness?
================================================================================================
Ah, grasshopper! Such is a great question.

You are not trapped because the decision to leave is the first step to freedom. Yes, you may be going to the same crummy job with a manager who is an idiot AND you will be leaving . . . .only not as soon as you want (at least not NOW. This second. Immediately.)

You see unless you manage your emotions you risk replacing the current situation with an equally bad one. So it's important that get focused on defining, refining and meeting your goals and holding on to your frustration, rather than just fleeing.

Does that make sense or do you need more?

====================================================================================
Defining and refining goals at my current job, or in finding a new job?

====================================================================================
Defining and refining goal for your next job and putting them in priority order/

Otherwise, how do you know with certainty what you're aiming for? You'll know what you are running away from, but not what you are aspiring to.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter

For answers to other questions, email Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter at thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

© 2006 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

If you have a question that you would like me to answer, email it to me at:

thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s new meta job lead tool, or to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, to help human resources professionals, managers and business owners make even better hiring decisions, ,subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com . For information about personal job search services, go to www.VIPPersonalSearch.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Fear sets in when the walls start closing in

2006-10-14T03:22:00.000-07:00

Hi,
I am reading your blog and was hoping that you might be able to offer some input on how to have my resume stand out to companies that I email to.

Here's my challenge- I have worked in a couple of unrelated fields (education, sales and horticultural management), so I worry that future employers don't see my potential.

Also, although I have gone back to school and am finishing my business degree and have ambitions of starting an on line business within the next couple of months and getting my real estate license, I am challenged to get even an administrative position with a company.

I am under the gun because the agency I work for will be restructuring and it is not know if jobs will be cut.

I am trying to network and have gone for a couple of informational interviews, but am feeling frustrated.

Thank you for advice/recommendations that you can offer.

--MFD

Dear MFD,

Thanks for reaching out to me. I hope you're finding the blog useful, confirming some of your own thoughts and expanding others.

The biggest problem I see is financial staying power--your ability to sustain a lengthy job search while looking for something "ideal" (I got that from you saying you were under the gun).

Without staying power, I would encourage you to simplify your resume and get "a job" so that you can earn money while looking for something ideal. You could have many different resumes focused on different elements of your experience (make sure you track what version you sent to home and for what job) but without the ability to sustain a longer search, you will damage your financials while gambling on a great outcome.

Generally, gamblers don't get dealt an inside straight (I hope you know that metaphor; if not, few people win MegaMillions).

Now, another way to think of this is to explore consulting or temporary work in one of these disciplines while looking at better options. Consulting keeps you working, frequent assignments no longer are seen as damaging to a person's long term prospects and, in some cases are seen as superior.

I hope I've offered some ideas you can implement. If I misunderstood your circumstances, please write back.

Jeff Altman

The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing

© 2006 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

If you have a question that you would like me to answer, email it to me at:

thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

I may not be able to personally respond to all of them. Your question may be included in an issue of Head Hunt Your Next Job to help others.