Tony Beshara

Twice this last month, TWO of my candidates were eliminated because their Linkedin profile did not agree with their resume…there were jobs on their profile that weren’t on their resume…  

I really don’t know what to say!…. how you say…s-t-u-p-i-d?

I might as well mention here, that a week ago, I had another candidate who was discounted for an opportunity because his Linkedin profile was not very robust… he had no picture of himself… few contacts…and  no recommendations… very little of anything. The CEO of the company I presented him to said, “well, after 20 years of experience, I can’t believe he wouldn’t  have a more robust Linkedin profile. I’ll pass on him.”

You don’t have to agree with any of these issues. The first one is inarguable. The second one is quite unfair, but that’s what happened. I don’t subscribe to the idea that Linkedin is the be-all and end-all  in a job search, but, likewise, it can be too understated.

In 1999, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois, Dan Simons, and a colleague, Chris Chabris published the result of a study on selective attention. They coined the phrase “inattentional blindness.” They asked subjects to watch a video of six people passing two basketballs. One team was dressed in white shirts and the other team was dressed in black shirts. The subjects were instructed to count how many times the three players wearing white shirts passed the basketball while ignoring players wearing black as they passed their own ball. In the middle of the video, a person wearing a gorilla suit walked into the picture, beat its chest and walked off. They found that 50% of the subjects failed to notice the person in the gorilla suit.

This phenomenon has often been cited by attorneys questioning witnesses to a crime. It is been proven over and over that at least 50% of the time, the viewers of  an activity, especially a fast moving activity, like a crime, don’t remember seeing what was right in front of them.

So how does this affect your interviewing? Well, it’s really quite simple. You need to be aware that any interviewing or hiring authority has a number of key issues they are “watching”  for. These issues can range anywhere from looking for a particular type of experience all the way to trying to avoid someone who has had too many jobs, lives far away from the place of employment, or doesn’t have a degree.

Candidates can do the same thing. They will often tell us they want to “avoid” one or two particular issues they think had something to do with the “bad experience” they just had at the company they are leaving or have left. For instance, candidates who had to leave a small company for any reason tell us they want to go to work for a big company with stability. They think there is more stability in larger companies than there is in smaller ones. Candidates simply want to avoid what they think just burned them.

What happens to both parties in situations like this is that they will focus their attention so much on what they want to try to avoid that they miss the “gorrilla.”

I can’t tell you the number of interviewing and hiring authorities who have missed understanding a very important part of a candidates experience or background… the part that could really help them… because they got hung up on focusing on one or two aspects of the candidate  they were concerned about. We have candidates who will get so focused on one or two issues of a company, a job or a hiring authority that they miss important qualities of the company.

As a candidate, you need to realize if you have any risk factors like being out of work for an extended period of time, having had three jobs in three years, being fired, etc., a hiring authority is going to automatically focus on that issue and there’s a good chance they will not see the qualities or experience that make you a good candidate. By knowing this, you will be able to emphasize those strengths and qualities so that the hiring authority will see them.

Know what your risk factors are  in the eyes of the hiring authority. Realize they may get so focused on those, they don’t see the reasons you are a quality candidate. Don’t be a victim of inattentional blindness.

This past week, I just finished listening to Great by Choice by Jim Collins… probably one of the best business books I’ve read in a long time… and I read just about everything anyone suggests.

It reminds me that if you are any kind of professional you know you need to be reading books that relate to your profession all the time… leaders are readers… I’m often blown away by people who are supposed to be professionals who spend their time reading fiction or not reading at all… we all have to be “students” of our game

It also reminded me to emphasize the fact that if you are a candidate looking for a job, you’d best be reading one or two business books that relate to what you do… somewhere along the line, one of the interviewing authorities you speak with is going to ask you what business book you’ve recently read and, “how has it had an impact on you and your profession?” If you don’t have a really good answer… I mean a really good answer to this question, you’re going to be caught flat-footed… and worse, if you act like you have recently read a book just to look good and then get asked to describe it in detail…if you can’t, you will certainly be eliminated as a candidate…

What are you reading?…how has it had an impact on your professional life?

Just read advice by a well known author and career adviser…he advises people who are looking for work to “target the top 10 firms you’d like to work for” and agressively pursue them for a job. He communicates the idea that just because you want to work at any organization…they also want you.

Unfortunately, this kind of advice gives people all kinds of false hopes about the reality of this job market. Unfortunately, reality… especially in this market… is not like in the movie Field of Dreams, “if you build it… they will come.” Just because it might be nice to work at a particular place has got nothing to do with the reality of finding a job there. Just because you might think it would be peachy to work at a particular place has nothing to do with the reality of them hiring… let alone hiring you.

If people are naïve enough to believe something like this, they quickly find out the real world doesn’t work this way. Unfortunately, they spend a lot of time and effort before they are deflated and disappointed by reality.

My suggestion would be to target 200 companies… 300… anybody who might  listen. Please don’t put your faith in the “Top 10.” If you are an absolute rockstar in your profession, you… or your agent… might have luck doing this kind of thing. If you are like most of us mortals, you’re going to need to go after more organizations than that.

I’m often amazed when I ask candidates who have been looking for a job, especially for some time, “what are your ratios?” They look at me with a stare and then mumble something like, “What do you mean?”

I say, “I mean, how many calls do you have to make to reach a hiring authority? How many hiring authorities do you have to speak with in order to find ones that are interested in interviewing you? How many of those interviews do you have to go to and get invited back for second and subsequent interviews? And how many second and subsequent interviews do you have to get to get a job offer?”

Continuing with their deer in the  headlight stare, they ask something like, “why would I want to know that stuff?” “Because,” I answer “if you want to work a ‘system’ of finding a job,  you need to keep track of all your numbers. You need to know exactly how many cold/warm calls to hiring authorities you need to make in order to get an interview. You need to know how many interviews you need to get in order to get second and subsequent interviews…And you need to know how many of those second and subsequent interviews you need to get in order to get a job offer. Ultimately, you need to know how many phone calls you need to make in order to get a job offer.

If you approach finding a job in this way, it truly becomes a “numbers” game. All you have to do is focus on the numbers. It’s certainly easier to control making a number of phone calls than it  is to ‘get a job.’  The thought of ‘getting a job’ is overwhelming. The thought of making 150 phone calls is a lot easier to deal with and a lot easier to control.

This is what I mean when I state, “if you manage the process, the result would take care of itself.”  If you make the right number of calls and say the right thing, you reach a certain number of employers…if you speak with that certain number of employers in the right way, they will grant you an interview…if you interview well and establish your value to enough  employers, you will get job offers.

The quality of your interviewing is irrelevant unless you get enough of them.

Do you know your ratios?

…some gal  on the Internet tells people a job interview is like going on a first date… this is ridiculous… the gal might be a good writer, or a good researcher, or whatever… but don’t buy this garbage!

An interview is not a DATE… an interview is not SOCIAL… an interview is a SALES situation… they’re 43 other people competing for this job… you have to be forceful and aggressive… an interview is NOT a “two-way street” of give-and-take… Until you get to the final interviewing stages it is a “one-way street”  and  you  are doing all of the selling… you gotta be downright pushy… but nice…

P-L-E-A-S-E don’t buy this silly stuff… interviewing is a business deal…PERIOD… certainly you want to get people to like you but you have to show them how you are going to benefit their organization… make ’em money or save ’em money…Don’t try to complicated anymore than that.

 http://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryhannon/2011/08/24/want-an-unbeatable-resume-read-these-tips-from-a-top-recruiter

Airports, train stations and bus depots
Taxicabs
limousines
Sporting events
Hospitals… unless you are applying for a job there
social events… Christmas parties… New Year’s Eve parties… picnics …etc.
Automobiles… either yours or the hiring authority’s… especially while driving
Personal residences… either yours or the hiring authority’s
Anything outdoors.. Parks, etc.
Over the phone
Starbucks
hotel lobbies
The manufacturing plant floor
Restaurants

Anyplace other than a business office is not optimal!

The Big O…1980…I’m reminded of this song every time I hear a candidate tell me he or she wants to go back to work for people they’ve worked for before. It happens at least two or three times a month that a candidate registered with our organization contemplates this and asks us about it.

I understand people wanting to do this. They need a job! Most often, they’ve been looking for a job for a period of time and the fear of not finding one weighs heavily on their mind. They get an offer to go back to work for someone they either left or got laid off from and it looks very tempting.

The vast majority of the time when people do this, the “second go round” lasts a shorter period of time and winds up being very strenuous. It’s very much like accepting a counteroffer… the relationship is never quite the same as it was the first time.

Most often, when people go back to work for organizations they have worked for before, it doesn’t work out very well. The same reasons as to why people left the first time are normally still there. If the separation was an involuntary separation, an employee that was expendable before is certainly expendable again and everyone knows it, including the employee. So, there is an air of distrust and uncertainty in the relationship.

Candidates will often succumb to this enticement simply because they are familiar with the organization and, in a state of emotional strain, the devil they know is better than the devil they don’t know. They end up taking a job because they are at least comforted with the idea of having one.

If you’ve been out of work for an extended period of time and simply need to go to work and this is the only offer you have received, it’s better than no job. No matter what anybody says or who would rationalize this, it normally doesn’t work. Usually, as with a counteroffer, within six months both the candidate and the employer are disappointed and a candidate is usually back on the market. He or she may keep the job just long enough to find another one, but now they have to explain to prospective employers why they went back to the people they’ve worked for once before.

One of the risk factors they have now created for themselves is that any future prospective employer who interviews them is going to wonder if and when things get difficult the new employee will “go back” again.

Do what you think best, but realize “that lovin’ you feeling again” is not normally what was the first time.

I have been rewriting our first book and reviewing some of the critiques of the first edition. There are some critics and reviewers of the first edition of The Job Search Solution who claim what I advised was just too aggressive for them… I was just a salesman advising sales techniques and scripts. They are absolutely right! Getting a job in today’s market… or in any market.. requires selling yourself better than any other candidate. What I teach is aggressive. It is sales. It is only pushy, however, if you don’t use the scripts in the right way. If you don’t practice what I teach and communicate humility and sincerity in your presentations and during the process, it will come across as pushy and it won’t get you to first base. It takes practice. If you sell yourself with the attitude you are more interested in what you get than what you can do for someone else, it will come across as pushy. If you use what I teach in an obnoxious, egotistical manner, none of it will work. If you present yourself in an “I’m interested in helping you get what you want and in the process, get what I want,” you’ll be in great shape. It’s all a matter of attitude.

We shouldn’t confuse pride with arrogance. Presenting yourself with confidence is different than being obnoxious. Some critics claim the techniques I teach are too aggressive for them, that they know a better way. That is wonderful! If what I teach is too aggressive for you… don’t use it, or modify it to your personal style. If you’ve been successful in finding a job different way, God bless you. The system I teach is not the only way to find a job. I’m simply presenting a system and process that has helped thousands of people find a job. The techniques are proven and, if done the right way, really work. They get positive results.

No one is going to hang up on you or be insulted by your using these techniques, as some critics claim, if you communicate sincerity, humility, honesty and a genuine interest in helping them get what they want. If you can, as the critic who wrote that he didn’t like what I suggested, “write a brief and informational letter to potential employers, followed up with ONE polite phone call, and landed 2 jobs with in 6 weeks,” then you don’t need this book. Give it to someone who may not be as fortunate. I am ecstatic for you.

One critic wrote, “…his tactics are sometimes pretty hard sell. I can’t bring myself to do things like this. But then again, I’ve been out of work for more than a year so you should probably ignore everything I’ve said and follow his instructions.” “Hard sell” is not what you say or do as much as it is how you say or do it. If these tactics were done in a hard-sell way, I would’ve been run out of my profession years ago.

You don’t have to agree with my approach. It won’t work well for you if you don’t believe in it. It has worked for thousands of people. Some have actually had to overcome being reluctant to be as forceful as they needed to be to find a job in this market. It comes down to how badly they needed a job. The question is, “are you more uncomfortable with being out of work or needing to change jobs or more uncomfortable with doing the things I recommend?” I’m reminded of what Frederick Nietzsche wrote, “he who has a reason why, can bear with almost any how.” If that isn’t motivating enough, the how won’t matter.

Guarantee: If you buy this book and it doesn’t help you, send it to me, with your name and address and I’ll either send you your money back or give the price of the book to charity in your name. Just choose one of the options.