Job Search Blog

At least three or four times a week our candidates inform us that their non-compete agreement “doesn’t mean anything in Texas” or “It’s not enforceable in Texas”, etc. I have no idea where people come up with these ideas, but they are absolutely wrong. Non-compete agreements are enforceable in Texas (and in most states) and don’t let anybody ever kid you and please don’t believe them. I’m going to address some of the things that we mostly run into regarding non-compete agreements. Realize, though that the best legal advice about non-compete agreements should come from quality attorneys. Two of the most prominent labor attorneys in the city happen to be guys that have contributed to our radio program, The Job Search Solution ,every Monday through Friday from 8 PM to 8:30 PM on 620 AM, KXEB Dallas. Stephen Key can be reached through his firm, Key Harrington and Barnes at 214-615-7925. Russ Brown of the law firm Brown Fox Law, can be reached at 214-613-3350. Every Friday evening we interview Stephen Key about all kinds of legal issues in employment and we probably get more questions about non-compete agreements than anything else. I am personally NOT giving legal advice here. You’ll have to get that from these guys. But I am going to address some of the common issues we run into as recruiters.
The first one I’ve mentioned above and it’s that the candidate doesn’t think his or her non-compete agreement will be enforceable. It may or may not be enforceable, but the idea that they don’t mean anything in the state of Texas is totally nuts. If you are an employee and you have a non-compete agreement you’d best get the advice of an attorney (the guys above) before you whimsically think that it won’t matter. We have placed candidates who were never asked about their non-compete agreement by the hiring authority, never mentioned in the interview about their non-compete and then after they show up for work, both they and their new employer get a threatening letter from their previous companies attorneys. Often, their attitude has been, “It doesn’t mean anything,” but their new employer has enough problems and doesn’t want to deal with any more hassles. More often than not, the new employee will get terminated right then.
Thirty five or forty percent of the time when I ask a candidate about their non-compete agreement, I’m told, “I don’t know if I have one or not.” At this comment I seriously wonder if I ought to be working with this candidate at all. If he or she isn’t bright enough to know whether or not they have a non-compete, it’s questionable as to whether they are going to be a good performer or not. Having said that, though, I’m amazed at the number of quality candidates who truly don’t know if they have a non-compete agreement and, what’s even more hideous, or stupid, is that they don’t know where their copy of it is. In fact, what brought this whole idea up for this topic was a candidate telling me this week that he knew he had a non-compete that he was absolutely certain that his company did not give it to him. I assured him that if they had gone to trouble to require a non-compete agreement upon hiring him, they were smart enough to be sure that they gave him a copy of it.

The guy went home to look through his employment papers that he thought he could find somewhere. He called me and said that he had looked around and couldn’t find any non-compete agreement and, he literally asked me how he would get one. (I can’t make this stuff up.) After a few minutes of discussion he came to the conclusion that the only way he was going to find a copy of the agreement he signed was to ask the human resources department for a copy of it. It didn’t take more than a moment for him to come to the conclusion that if he asked the HR department for a copy of his non-compete agreement it would certainly raise a big red flag. I suggested that he find a recently departed associate, and ask one of them for a copy of theirs, because usually the agreements are the same for most firms. He suggested that he could ask one of his close friends at the company and I reminded him that that is still a risky thing to do. We left it that he is going to think about how to find a copy of what he signed.
Simply put, a non-compete agreement typically restrains employees from engaging in a competing business with his or her former employer, in a certain geographical area and for a limited period of time following the termination of the employment relationship. Where the issues of non-competes become contentious is the interpretation of who a competitor really is, the reasonableness of a geographical area and the reasonableness of the period of time. I have personally read some non-compete agreements that communicate competitors to be just about anybody in any kind of business, geographical restrictions to be the whole world and time restrictions as being infinity, or close to it. When legal battles occur, they usually occur over these issues.

Knowing your company’s history of enforcing or trying to enforce non-compete agreements is important. I’ve had candidates tell me things like, “Well they haven’t ever gone after anybody over non-compete, so they won’t come after me.” According to Russ Brown, that is a fallacy. There might be a big difference in the impact of a CFO going to work for a competitor and that of a low level inside customer service rep. Just because your present company doesn’t pursue non-compete agreements with some parting employees doesn’t mean that they would not pursue one with you.

Some companies we do business with are extremely aggressive about enforcing their non-compete agreements. These organizations aggressively threat, and if need be, sue every ex-employee that goes to one of their competitors with the full intent of going to court, keeping the candidate from working and even seeking economic damages. The cost of money and time does not matter to them. They pursue everybody, regardless of the job level. These firms usually make it very clear to everyone who works in the company that they have no qualms about protecting themselves.

Some companies would rather negotiate with the exiting employee about limitations and come to an agreement about what everybody will or won’t do. The majority of organizations in the United States don’t want legal hassles, much less the expense and distraction they cause. So, often, these organizations will come to a “non-solicitation” agreement with the candidate who is leaving to go to work for a perceived competitor. Basically, these agreements state that the exiting employee will not communicate, sell to, or solicit the specific customers/clients they had worked with while being employed with the company they are leaving. An employee leaving the company should have a really good idea before they go to work for a competitor how their organization deals with this. Just remember that every case might be different and just because they might’ve come to this kind of an agreement with a previous employee who left doesn’t mean that they would agree to it with you.

In situations where companies are laying people off, they may request a non-compete agreement in order to receive a severance package. Most candidates that make this kind of an agreement understand exactly what they agreed to.

Interestingly enough, since 1973, I have seen very few who received a violation of a non-compete agreement go all the way to court. The major reason is – it’s expensive. Most companies are a lot more willing to go to this expense than the departing employee. Some companies, in trying to enforce their non-compete, will threaten to sue not only the candidate, but the company the candidate has gone to work for. Ninety-nine percent of the time the employee’s new company doesn’t want to have anything to do with a lawsuit, especially over an issue like this. (I have, however, known firms who will agree before they hire a new employee to take on the responsibility to defend that employee as well as themselves if a lawsuit comes about. It’s very rare and he did his only for a very high level position.)

Even if the initial stages of a threatening lawsuit begin…i.e. a “cease and desist” letter is sent and/or attorneys on both sides have to begin negotiating, it’s going to cost the new employee money. I read recently that the average cost for a candidate to negotiate a non-compete arrangement, to everyone’s satisfaction, after they had gone to work for the competitor, was $12,000. Some opportunities may well be worth that kind of investment. But when you consider the emotional and psychological strain of this kind of hassle along with the money, most people aren’t willing to do it.

On top of all of this, a new employer, unless they make some kind of agreement to avoid violating a previous non-compete agreement, is going to question your ethics, thinking that, “If you’d steal for them…you’d steal from me.” On the rare occasions that I have seen a lawsuit come about, don’t be surprised if your new employer begins to distance themselves from you just a bit. This is especially true if they are also being sued. Even though they might have agreed to experience this hassle with you, in their hearts, they never really expected a full-blown lawsuit. So, unless you’ve produced five or $10 million in revenue pretty damn quickly don’t expect them to back you up like they said they would.

There are all kinds of facets of a non-compete agreement other than the ones we’ve mentioned here. Most of the issues are not very pleasant. So, if you begin to think that your non-compete agreement doesn’t matter…think again.

You began your career as a relative snot-nosed kid and even though you performed well, you drank a little too much at parties, missed work or was late once in a while because of those late-night parties. Remember the time that you embarrassed your boss just a little bit at a business function with a little bit of a smartass remark or you thought it was a real good idea to “tell the truth” about what was going on in the department at a department meeting and irritated everybody.

Remember, in spite of all of this, you got promoted and your newfound “authority” went to your head and you were the ‘cock of the walk’ for some time. Until, of course, your department didn’t do so well and your boss’s boss implied it was your fault. And then there was a time when you and your department were the number one department for the year… and you reminded everybody about it for a very, very long time. Remember the time that you played favorites with one of your direct employees and everybody could see it. Remember when you told one of your employers where they could take their job and stuff it, just before he resigned and went to another company. Remember when you let your personal life get in the way of your performance and, even worse, when everybody in your organization knew about it because you talked about it incessantly.

Remember when you got “encouraged” to leave a company with the understanding that as long as you left quietly, no one needed to know the real reason. Remember the year you were promoted again, knowing that it was as much politics as it was performance and half of the folks didn’t think you deserved it. Remember when you rub it in with the people that didn’t think you deserved it and, even though you performed extremely well, you reminded them from time to time how they didn’t support you.

And, as your career grew, even though you performed well, you made a couple of enemies and instead of making peace, you fanned the fire and made it clear that it was you versus them. In fact, you got a little bit of a competitive charge out of it, thinking that kind of scenario just comes with business. All along you kind of just figured that you’re always going to have some kind of enemies and it wasn’t any big deal.

Well, a month or so ago a real good opportunity to change jobs came along and you went for it. It was a VP job and a real step up from what you been doing. After the third interview, the company you were interviewing with checked a “backdoor” reference with some people you had worked with before. And in the process, one, some, or all of the things you “remember” got uncovered. It just cost you the job.

Might be too late for you, but you might want to remind the kids that work for you even one or two levels below you that whatever you do as you climb the ladder will be remembered and you will be cursed or blessed by what others remember also.

Our candidate gave the same references to every firm he was interviewing with…which, fortunately was quite a few. He had three clients of ours checking his references at the same time.He came in second on every job opportunity..which isn’t bad becasue every company’s #2 is someone else’s #1.A

But by the time he got on “third base” with another company, they needed to check his references.

Well, one of the guys he had given simply got tired of giving a reference and wouldn’t return the calls of the potential employer.He just ignored the request. In fact, he wouldn’t return the candidate’s call to find out why he all of a sudden wouldn’t give a reference. Not only was it embarrassing for the candidate, but it really made him look less than what he said he was. He scrambled to get two others.

This is not the first time this kind of thing is happened. Every professional would like to help another professional and certainly don’t mind doing it when it comes to references. It’s one of those “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch your back” kinds of things. But, when people feel taken advantage of, they’ll get irritated and just plain ignore the situation.

lesson: use a number of different references…keep them informed about who you are going to recommend them to… try to vary them…if you wear them out, they won’t help you.

Okay, so this is going sound very mundane to some of you and it’s probably rather so that I even have to bring it up. But the unfortunate thing is that many people’s titles don’t reflect what their company does or what they do on their resume. Just because you know what your company does doesn’t mean that other people do. I can’t tell you the number of resumes I get with the names of the companies that the person has worked for with absolutely no explanation at all of what the company’s business is. And regarding position titles, one company’s VP of sales is another company’s sales person. Another company’s director is another company’s board member.

Why are these important? Well, I keep having to remind people that your resume is not really “read.” Your resume is scanned… this is especially true if it’s read on the screen. Psychologists tell us that when people “read” things on a computer screen, their eyes go to the middle of the page moved to the left margin and then go up then they scan down the page. They pick out words… names of companies, titles, etc. If They don’t recognize them and they are not explained, is just as easy for the reader of the resume to move on to the other 179 resumes(The average number of resumes that are received for each job posted is 180).

On top of this, 60% of the people that have initially look at your resume don’t have any real idea of what the job is you are applying for. Much of the time “screeners” in the HR department or even some administrative person in another department will be told to, “review those resumes and bring to me the ones that ‘look’ to have the kind of experience we are looking for.” Some of these resume screeners know what they’re looking for and some don’t. In most companies, they don’t. They are told to look for certain keywords or attributes or experience that they have no real understanding of. The interviewing or hiring authorities who instructed them to perform this function have no idea what kind of resumes these screeners will pass up. (The way that I know this is, I can’t tell you the number of people we have actually placed with companies whose resume was sent to the company by the candidate or by another recruiter and passed over until we got them the interview.)

So, make sure that right next to the name of the company you’re working for you give a short simple explanation of exactly what they do. Don’t assume that other people know what your company does. Explain it to them. If you work for a big company that has hordes of departments and hordes of people, right after the name of the company identify the division or the department that you work for and what that division or Department sspecifically does. And, be sure to do that in terms most anyone can understand.

Regarding your title, even if your company gives you some kind of cockamamie title like “#1 Customer Experience Advocate” and your job is customer service, change your title to “Customer Service.” If your title is “Vice President of the Western World” but the function of your job is sales, change your title to “Sales.” I know this sounds a bit facetious, but people who read resumes, or should I say, scan resumes will look at a title and make a judgment about what you do and if it isn’t really clear what your function is by your title, they may pass you over without even thinking about it or reading what you do.

I happen to place sales in all level of sales managers in high tech. I’ve interviewed numbers of sales people whose title was “account manager.” An account manager to most people means that the person is simply “managing” an account. It communicates that the person is a “Farmer” rather than a “Hunter.” So, even if the candidate was the most aggressive, straight commission salesperson that ever existed, it is likely that his or her resume wouldn’t get read.

So, make it really clear on your resume what your company does and what you do or have done in the company. Make sure that someone totally unfamiliar with any of these things could read your resume and understand everything they need to know about you.

I’m only addressing this generation because there are more of you in the workplace than any other generation, and, at this writing, the 75 million of you (surpassing the baby boomers numbers of 74 million) are beginning to begin settling into your careers. As with previous generations, you’re going to change jobs more often early in your career (According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics) and you need to be aware of some of the issues you are facing relative to getting a job. Please PAY ATTENTION!!!

So, I’m going to discuss some of the perceived traits that you, as a millennial, have and how they impact, for better or worse, your job search.

• Your expertise and reliance on technology
Most of us would agree that 99% of the advancements of technology are good for business. However, in the real world of getting a job, being “connected” is only of value if you can get you an interview. Somewhere along the line you’re going to have to have real-world conversations with people, i.e. interviews in order to get a job. Many of you rely on “just text me” to communicate. You cannot get a job by just texting. Speaking with people face -to -face, learning to look them in the eye and expressing yourself verbally in more than 140 characters is going to be necessary. This takes practice if you are not used to it.

• Confidence
It is said that you have been raised to believe that everyone gets a trophy for participating and that has given you confidence. Well, in business most people DO NOT get trophies. Now it’s true that the first step in being successful is actually showing up, but you don’t get confidence by simply being there. I have no problem with confidence but it needs to be tempered with humility. As Dizzy Dean (Google him if you don’t know who is) was quoted as saying, “It ain’t bragging if you can do it.” So, let your successes and accomplishments give you confidence. But, realize that your confidence will be interpreted as arrogance without performance.

• Multitasking
It is said that you all think you can do this well. If you research the studies on the subject of multitasking, you will soon discover that success at it is not only a myth, but it is actually a deterrent to quality work. So, don’t go into an interview touting the fact that you’re good at multitasking. Any interviewer with any brains will discount you if you tell them this is one of your workplace attributes.

• Friends come first
Try convincing a prospective employer that your friends are more important than the job you are applying for and you will continue to be unemployed. A few years of working in the real world, a spouse, a mortgage, a car payment, a couple of kids and the realization that it is likely that their college tuition per year is going to be more than you make in one, your friends will be far down the priority list. So, don’t embarrass yourself by even mentioning how important your friends are in the same breath as your needing a job.

• Play then work
Common sense should tell you that communicating anything like this in interviewing situation is disaster. But I have recently had candidates of the millennial generation say things like, “Well, my personal time is very important to me,” and by never bothering to explain what that means, be quickly eliminated from consideration. In fact, since your generation has a reputation for this trait, you better be damn sure you communicate in the interviewing process that work has an extremely high priority in your life.

• Focus on involvement and participation in teams
Okay, being a team player is important. Everyone in business has to be able to get along with everyone else. However, you better be able to perform on your own, by yourself, individually, regardless of what the team does or doesn’t do. It’s true that interviewing authorities are going to be interested in your ability to work in a group setting. No company wants a maverick that’s going to piss everybody off. However, if your focus on involvement is more important than your individual performance, this isn’t what business is about. You’re going to be accountable for your own performance. The team will take care of itself if each individual performs their duties well.

• Don’t worry about failure
You guys got this notion when everybody got a trophy whether they won or lost. But, in the real world you damn well better worry about failing. This doesn’t mean that you’re not going to fail. In fact, you’re going to fail a lot. But not to worry about it, as though it was no big deal, will keep you living at home and certainly without a job. Be aware that you have to put failure in the right perspective. (Read the quote by Michael Jordan about failure.) Learning from your failures is what’s important, but to blow it off as though you shouldn’t worry about it will not get you a job.

• “Respect my skills.”
Wake up! No one is going to automatically respect anything about you, especially your skills, unless you can demonstrate successful performance applying those skills.

• Connection to parents
This trait can be a good thing but also not so good. It’s not so good when your parents continue to let you live at home rather than forcing you to get out on your own nomatter how difficult or painful it may be. It’s not good when your parents keep giving you advice about the job market and what kind of a job might be available to you when they have no idea what the job market is really like. I’m sure they love you, but encouraging you to take nothing less than a VP job won’t help you. (Obviously, I’m being facetious when I say this. But I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had well-meaning parents give advice about the kind of job their prince or princess ought to get, regardless of their knowledge of the job market.)
It is good when mom and dad insist that you get off the dole by taking the best job you can find and go to work. They need to realize that the door to opportunity is open from the inside. No employer is going to automatically love their children the way they do. But that has nothing to do with the job or the opportunity that might be available to you.

• They want to ‘develop’ themselves
There’s a part of this trait that might be viable. If you begin to look at job opportunities from the “outside,” judging them by how you can personally “develop,” you are going to have a rough time. There might be a slim possibility that you can judge a job during the interviewing process regarding how it might provide personal growth. But most of the time, most companies aren’t really that interested in your personal growth and will neglect to talk about it during the interviewing process.
It is more likely that after you get a job, you will figure out for yourself how you can personally grow. It is not likely that the incentive for this is going to come from your job or your employer. It’s going to come from you, intrinsically. Finding ways to grow personally in your job should be a lifelong endeavor. The sooner you develop it the better.

• Constant feedback
You don’t have to worry about this trait too much. You’re going to get plenty of it, especially if you don’t perform very well. The needing of constant feedback however, can be a deterrent to your success. Constantly asking your superiors, “how am I doing,” is simply annoying. In the job search process you’ll get pretty damn quick feedback. Either you get a second interview after your first interview or you don’t. Either you get a job or you don’t. Pretty simple! After a while… a very short while… either in looking for a job or performing on one once you have it, you’ll get plenty of feedback. You won’t have to seek it. After all, feedback is the breakfast of champions.

• Personal relationships… with boss… with coworkers
This is a nice, idealistic thought and they can be great if you can find them. But, one, there is no way of knowing in an interviewing situation whether you’d be able to build a personal relationship with the person you’d be working for, and, two, be aware of this, that person you are interviewing with, who would be your direct boss, who might be close and caring could leave their job and the company in a heartbeat. Don’t go overboard with personal relationships at work. If you get good, valuable ones, that’s great, but remember, this is business not marriage.

• I’ll Google it myself
We all know you’re independent and feel like you can find things out on your own, either on the Internet or by asking friends. However, the organization you are interviewing with or working for will have made a tremendous number of mistakes which result in policies, procedures and “this is the way we do things” practices. Please refrain from thinking you need to reinvent the wheel or enlighten the whole company with your discoveries. Don’t be so stubborn as to not stop, listen, and learn what goes on in the company before you start “changing” it.

• Feeling entitled
Your helicopter parents might have raised you this way and the college or university you attended may have gone out of their way to make you feel special (You Really were special to them. You paid them more than $33,000 a year in private school tuition, almost $10,000 a year in tuition for an in-state public college or university and almost $25,000 for out-of-state tuition at a public college. And these figures do not include room, board and other kinds of fees. Pay me that kind of money over six years, which is how long the average college graduate goes to school and I’ll be more than happy to tell you that you are special.)

To most companies that are going to interview you and hire you, you aren’t special until you perform. You aren’t entitled to a job, a paycheck or continued employment. You aren’t entitled to a pay raise or promotion until you earn it. Working is a privilege, not a right. The mantra of these organizations is that, “if you do your job, you get to keep it!”
View work as something to be done between weekends. Approach interviewing and a new job like this and you’ll get to have one permanent, long weekend.

“I’ll market myself to the highest bidder”. And, parenthetically, “I can leave in a heartbeat, you know!” This is the height of solipsism and egocentricity and unless you are the center of the universe, which you are not or a draft pick in the NFL or NBA, in this job market you probably don’t have another “bidder.” So, stop this silly business, take any reasonable job you can and work your ass off.

Some of you are just beginning your career. Some of you are in your late 30s and have learned all of these lessons which the marketplace has taught you. The longer you’re in the workforce, the more you realize that all of these “generational characteristics” melt away and we all advance and decline in our job search and our professional life based on the same rules.

One last thought which only applies to the male millennial’s… You’d make a lot better impression when you interview if you shave. Just a thought!

Michael, one of the vice presidents that we actually placed a number of years ago, takes all of his candidates that he is serious about hiring to lunch. Last week he took one to lunch and he not only did well at the lunch but was very successful in his interview with the CEO and is getting an offer. As we were talking about it, he mentioned about how often candidates really screw up a lunch interview. So I asked him what he looked for in a candidate at a lunch interview. Here are the things he mentioned that you should look for:

• When the candidate suggests a restaurant that is fairly pricey. Michael thinks that the candidate ought to let him pick the restaurant, since he is the host. Common sense and common manners would probably dictate that.

• When the candidate arrives late or after Michael does. Never be late!

• When the candidate’s eyes look around the restaurant at the people instead of looking at Michael when he speaks. Michael says that so often, even when the conversation is low, it is really easy for the candidate to lose focus and start looking around at all of the people in the restaurant. This is especially true in noisy restaurants, which, Michael adds, should be avoided.

• The candidate is either rude to or totally ignores the wait staff. Anybody with any brains on them should know that they should be nice to everybody, especially when they are in an interview.

• It’s awful when the candidate comes to the “interview” to actually “eat” rather than to interview. Michael claims that the candidate needs to forget that it’s a meal, but that rather it is an interview. Michael says that the candidate needs to remember that he’s there to get a job, not relieve his hunger. I’ve always recommended that candidates eat something before the “meal interview.” Never go to a meal interview hungry. Michael even says that in his taking clients to a meal in a sales situation, he hardly touches his food. He will let the other person eat all they want but he doesn’t eat much.

• When the candidate eats all his food. To Michael, that says that the candidate is more interested in the meal in the interview.

• Ordering a meal before Michael does. The candidate doesn’t pay any attention to the host doing the ordering; he or she simply starts ordering. The host should always order first even if the host asks the guest what he or she would like. The guest should defer to the host.

• Ordering the wrong kind of food. Anything that can’t be cut into small pieces and eaten easily should be avoided. Never order spaghetti, chili, soup… anything that can spill over dribble. And then, of course, there’s eating the wrong kind of food in the wrong manner. A person doesn’t need to use their imagination much to realize or imagine how badly this can go.

• Cutting up all of their meat before they eat it. I have to admit that this might be a bit picky on Michael’s part, but nonetheless, he thinks it’s really bad manners. The truth is, it is very bad manners.

• Starting to eat before the host is served. Once in a while, a candidate’s food will arrive at the table before Michael’s does. He thinks it’s very rude…and it is, to begin before everyone is served.

• Having more than one alcoholic beverage. I don’t recommend ever drinking an alcoholic beverage in an interviewing situation…lunch, dinner… any of them. Michael thinks that it’s okay to have a beer or glass of wine at a lunch interview…but only have one and nurse it through the whole meal. In the same way that the candidate should not be there to eat, the candidate should not be there to drink. I’m a firm believer that “alcohol and interviews don’t mix.”

• Picking up the whole roll, buttering it and eating it without pulling a piece off of it first. Okay, this is a bit picky (no pun intended) but, nonetheless, it is poor manners.

I’m sure that there are all kinds of other issues that people have about candidates eating a meal during an interview. But most managers, like Michael, would consider these very poor.

I think people should totally avoid any kind of lunch, dinner or social interview. Just too many things can go wrong that have nothing to do with the candidate and the candidate’s ability to do a job. But if you must, mind your manners.

to some of you who read this blog often, you’re going to get through the first three or four sentences and probably move on. Can’t say as I blame you. If you have learned this lesson and you practice the right “‘s scripts” you will realize when you are doing this and, above all, you will do it correctly.

We send all of our candidates through the job search solution and coach them especially on how to in the interview. And yet, I’ll be willing to bet you at less than 50% of the candidates ever practice the solutions. This is such an obvious technique, it is so simple and yet people are just plain afraid to do it

It happened today. Great candidate… A little young only 10 years of experience, but his bid a successful salesperson supposedly his whole career. He tells me the interview lasts about an hour, which is about right. He says it went well. I asked him, “how do you know?” And he says, “well, I just know!” So I ask, “did you ask how you stacked up with the other candidates? How do you compare to them?”There’s a real long pause…

He says, “while I asked him what the next step was?” I say, “is that what I instructed you to do?” There’s a long pause. He says, “well… I…” I ask, I taught you to ask, “is my experience clear? Are there any questions about my background you might have? How to why stack up with the other candidates you have interviewed? And, what do I need to do to get the job?”

Long pause again! “Ted, I really like you and you are a good candidate, but why do you not have the courage to ask for the job? It’s so simple to do.” “Well,” he says, “I guess I just didn’t think of it.”

Cut it out! He knew to ask for the job. He just didn’t have the courage to do it. I don’t know what people are afraid of. Well, maybe I do. They are afraid of being rejected! They’re afraid of being told “you suck…. We are just aren’t going to hire you!”

Well, if they’re not going to hire you, isn’t it better to know right now?

By coach every candidate that I work with to ask these questions. I guess is that only one out of 8 do it. And people want to know why they don’t get hired.

A lifelong rugby buddy of mine, Bob Ahola is a writer and a producer who lives in California. For the past two years he has sent this note about the Fourth of July. It is phenomenally interesting so, I wanted to pass it along. It really helps us appreciate all of the difficulties the signers of the declaration had. We should never take our freedom for granted. We are blessed!

Independence Day!
The Fourth of July! The birth of the United States! It’s the third most popular holiday in America. And yet so few of us know what it really cost us to achieve it … So take a minute or two look at the price that was paid to get us where we are.

July 4th is the day the Declaration of Independence passed. (It wasn’t officially signed until August 2: Signing day).

But what about the signers? Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who created this new nation in the face of accusations of treason? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated—and with much to lose. And yet they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty for their actions would be death or imprisonment were they ever to be captured.
Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Elbridge Gerry each became Vice President, and John Adams and Thomas Jefferson became President. The sons of signers John Adams and Benjamin Harrison also became Presidents. (George Washington was not a signatory.)

After the Revolution, 13 of the signers went on to become governors, 5 served in the House of Representatives and 6 became United States Senators. James Wilson and Samuel Chase became Justices of the United States Supreme Court. And Benjamin Franklin became our first Postmaster General.
Five of the signatories were captured by the British and held in prison. Richard Stockton was tortured by his captors and ultimately died of the wounds they inflicted.
Eleven signers had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 died before the war ended in 1783—two in combat—and never saw the fruit of their efforts realized.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and never fully recovered.
Thomas McKean was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family constantly to evade capture. He served in Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and he spent his final years impoverished and bankrupt.
Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Ellery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Rutledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson residence for his headquarters. He secretly urged General
George Washington to open fire on his own home rather than give the British that pleasure. Legend has it that Washington (superb grenadier that he was) lobbed a cannon round through the dining room window that killed a British commissary general and his staff. Nelson’s home was virtually destroyed but restored after his death as a national monument.
Francis Lewis of New York had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months. (Later his son Morgan would serve as Governor of New York.)
John Hart, Speaker of the New Jersey Assembly had his house looted by redcoats. His fields and his gristmill were laid waste. And he was driven into hiding for nearly a year, as were his 13 children, some of whom he never saw again before dying two years later.

So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots. It’s not much to ask for the price they paid. And to always remember: Freedom is a conscious state of being.

most recruiters don’t write too much about some of the things that go on “behind the scenes” of their business. Primarily, because most people don’t really care. But the lesson here with Michael and Tom should be one that every professional, especially a hiring manager, should remember. This kind of situation happens at least six or seven times a year and it can make a really big difference in people’s career.

Michael and Tom have been candidates of mine as well as, from time to time, hiring authorities. Early in their careers, I tried to help them both out by finding them jobs in technology sales. Over the years, both of them have been in positions to do some hiring. I would hear through the grapevine that Michael would be doing some hiring from time to time and I would call him to see if he would give me a chance at sending him candidates. I knew that he was working with other recruiters because some of my candidates would tell me that they were interviewing with him through those other recruiters (most all of whom are all gone by now). But he would not give me a chance. Interestingly enough though, every three or four years Michael, himself, would need a job and would call me asking if I would represent him, and even though I didn’t feel reciprocity I would do so. And once over that period of 20 years, I did find him a job. But even after that, when he would need to hire people, for some reason, he wouldn’t give me a chance to help him. I even remember a number of years ago, leaving him a voicemail explaining that I knew he was looking to hire people here in town and that I had good candidates for him and couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t give me a chance. Nonetheless, it was his business prerogative to find candidates anyway he wished.

Tom, on the other hand, as with Michael, whenever he needed a job would call me, but he always gave me a shot at filling his positions when they became available. Interestingly enough, over approximately 20 years I only placed one person with him, but the point is he gave me a shot at doing it the three or four times he needed to hire someone. Fair enough! All I ever ask for is a shot at the plate and if I don’t hit the ball it’s nobody’s fault but mine.

Recently both Michael and Tom, both now in their late 50s are finding it very difficult to change jobs have found themselves needing to do just that. Both are regional VP types, well into six-figure earnings and, with the glut of candidates like that on the market, they are having a pretty rough time finding a job. Fortunately, a client needing to find a regional vice president in Texas was referred to me by a friend of mine in New York. Over the last two months the firm has been interviewing eight of my candidates. Not only were both Michael and Tom in the mix, but it came down to the two of them as the finalists. The client, realizing that I’ve been in this market for 44 years asked me my opinion of each candidate, as to who I thought would do the best job. The Executive Vice President and the CEO of my client compa is any both thought either one of them could do a great job, but they asked my opinion based on the experience that I’ve had with both of them.

In most instances like this, our clients come to their own conclusions. Our job is to present qualified candidates by which to choose from, but it’s not our job to choose. But when we are asked, which happens quite often…it is another story. It isn’t hard to figure out why Tom got hired. I’m confident that Michael is a nice guy, but he was rude.