April 2018 was my second year attending the RSA conference in San Francisco. The conference is an annual gathering of leading information security companies and professionals from around the world. Since I specialize in recruiting top talent for cybersecurity technology leaders, RSA is a MUST on my calendar each spring.
As a seasoned executive recruiter, I cannot stress enough how difficult it has been lately to get the dots connected between my clients and candidates. By dots I mean it being a "candidate-driven" climate, with unemployment at an all-time low of 4%.
The candidates of “today”, including recent college grads, have many, many employment options. Most industries, including manufacturing, are booming and companies need to hire many more talented folks. Great problem to have, right? One would think so. Yet, I have recently experienced most clients not moving fast enough with their offer letters and losing great candidates to their competitors.
So WHY are employers wasting time over extending job offers? If I can make one important suggestion it is this: PULL THE F@#$ING TRIGGER IF THE CANDIDATE ROCKS YOUR WORLD, because I assure you that he/she will be gone tomorrow!!
June 26 was my 1 year anniversary as an Insurance Recruiter with Hobson Associates, and what a year it has been! Deals came together, deals fell apart, I traveled to Texas for my first conference, learned an ENTIRE industry from the ground up, got over my fear of cold-calling, and was promoted to Associate! How did I achieve all of this in 365 days? I came in early, worked through lunch many times, and some days I made close to 100 recruiting calls! I won’t lie, putting in the hours is not exactly easy, but compared to the mental stamina required to thrive in any career, it’s a walk in the park. That’s why the #1 best piece of advice that I received from my mentor, Robin, this past year-even above all the terminology and protocols for doing my job-was this:
I have been signing a lot of petitions lately. Perhaps it’s naïve of me to think it will make a difference, but I exclaim a loud “YES!” to myself each time I digitally sign to save endangered animals, build a new community playground, or keep a beloved TV show on the air. Most times I am not even sure who the petitions go to for consideration. Probably a database that now knows to target me for merchandise with elephants on it because I really do think hunting them for their ivory is gross … Maybe Oprah. I hope so.
What a world it would be if people wanting something positive to happen could do so just by figuratively putting their hand in the air. With that thought in mind, I decided to start my own set of "petitions". Based on my many years of experience in the recruiting industry, I just think that the world would (or at least in my world!) be a better place if the following were to happen:
I remember taking my last collegiate final at the University of Hartford. I literally walked out of my Entrepreneurial Studies classroom with a smile that was far from scholarly, giving an overtly jubilant high-five to the nearest bystander.
Yet as I would soon discover, there was a lot more than that kid I didn’t know (and still don’t!)
“Go to college,” your high school teachers would say,“get a degree,” they continued, “get a job,” they promised…
More than 65% of high-schoolers who graduated will go to college that following fall semester. One thing I still don't understand is the societal norms that emphasize and push high school students into college. Realistically speaking, a piece of paper isn’t going to pick-a-lock that’s going to open the door that is opportunity. So, what separates you from everyone else in America who is graduating in 2018 and about to enter the workforce?
Here are some simple facts that can impact your company’s productivity and profits:
-The unemployment rate is at the lowest it has been in the last 17 years + There are 6.6 million job postings in USA = An unprecedented candidate-driven job market.
-Said candidates have multiple offers for employment, as well as a high rate of counteroffers from their current employers.
What does that mean to a hiring authority?...
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst are filled with passionate intensity”-W.B. Yeats, The Second Coming
What W.B. Yeats intuited in 1919 is a phenomenon that psychologists would later name, ‘The Dunning-Kruger Effect’. The ‘Dunning-Kruger Effect’ is a “cognitive bias wherein people of low ability have illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their cognitive ability as greater than it is”. Conversely, people who are highly competent mistakenly assume that the tasks that are easy for them to perform are just as easy for others to perform, and typically do not self-assess themselves as highly competent. They recognize their weaknesses and focus on correcting them rather than blustering on about how good they are at this or that.
“I'm probably starting to sound like a crazy ex or something…”
I am sure this is not news to anyone with their head up in the current job market, but there is a common perception out there that recruiters are too pushy, too salesy, and just downright annoying. Yes, sometimes we are ALL of those things… but despite any negative preconceived stereotypes, the recruiters who continue making tough calls and pushing through the negativity are the ones who find success for their clients and candidates.
“Glamorous” by Fergie and Ludacris was dominating the airwaves as the #1 Billboard song; Will Ferrell and Jon Heder were reveling with their #1 hit “Blades of Glory”: and Carl Pavano of Southington, CT was the Yankees Opening Day pitcher ... this was all happening when I started my recruiting career at Hobson Associates, 11 years ago in March 2007.
I’m a baby boomer who recruits for a living. I speak to people from all walks of life on a daily basis, many of them being millennials. One of the hottest topics out there right now is the subject of generational differences in the workplace. As discussed in a previous Hobson blog, chances are, you currently work with or have managed employees from each generation. In order to have a successful organization and increase your profits, you must deal differently with each demographic.
According to an article by Medium.com “with Millennials being the largest generation in America with over 75.4 million according to Pew Research Center and surpassing Baby Boomers with roughly 74.9 million, we need to find effective ways to bypass these differences in the workplace.”
One of the most common and challenging examples of this is when these different generations cross paths in the job interviewing process. Here are some tips for millennials, when being interviewed by a baby boomer: