Who wouldn’t read this monster.com article – 5 Habits of Millionaires? I suppose millionaires. Yesterday, I posted on the cars CEOs drive. I suspected that they drive “common” cars but may live in nicer homes. From today’s article: Many wealthy people live quite simply, he points out, choosing less pretentious homes than they could theoretically afford and opting for financial independence over material showmanship. There you go – their Utilitarianism is stronger than even I expected. I was pleased to see that I shared this aspect with millionaires: One interesting study found a majority of male millionaire entrepreneurs had been in trouble with school authorities or the police during their… Read More
Continue ReadingInterview Etiquette
Interview Etiquette Begins The Minute You Walk in the Door from CareerJournal is a must-read piece for Gen Y workers. I’ve seen some of these traits first hand in initial interviews or even email communications. I had a candidate this past week email me his resume and cover letter. Strangely, he wasn’t even close to fitting the clearly specified requirements of the position. He then followed up with the same email to me for the next 2 days. Except these times he had 5MB of attachments to his email. Finally, on the 3rd time, he sent the 5MB email to me 3 times in the middle of the night and… Read More
Continue ReadingCEOs are Utilitarians
CareerBuilder along with Cars.com performed a survey to find out what cars CEO’s drive. I don’t know if this data has any real application, but I found it interesting: The truth is more CEOs surveyed drive ordinary passenger cars and SUVs than luxury cars; in fact, those who drive Chevys outnumber those in Mercedes. And while most respondents think CEOs spend more than $70,000 on their cars, the average price CEOs in this study payed for their primary vehicle is under $25,000. One-in-four (26%) CEOs surveyed reported they spent less than $20,000 on their primary vehicle. Are you surprised? I’m not for 1 reason – the majority of CEO’s we… Read More
Continue ReadingCover Emails with Attitude
It’s Monday and I’m calling this an anecdote. More fun from the general resume email. This gentleman’s cover email (seems archaic to say cover “letter”) ends with this paragraph: I am a proven closer of large ticket, high margin services. I am a rare-rare breed. If you have a real opportunity, lets talk. If your a recruiter, I will not talk to you unless you can be specific about a REAL opportunity. I laugh every time I read it. The guy is also asking for a minimum base salary of $120K with a commission plan that will match the salary. Is there any greater turn off than unbridled arrogance?
Continue ReadingAnecdote – Well, Lee
Friday, so let’s go to the anecdotes. I had a unique candidate call while conducting phone screens this past week. I talked to a candidate who said my name a thousand times if he said it once. I know, sounds silly, but after a couple questions into the interview, I was worn out from hearing my name so frequently. Let me give you an example from our discussion: “Well, Lee that’s a great question and I wished I could say that I have a quick response for you, Lee, but I need to think about that question for a moment.” With hardly a pause he continued, “Lee, I would say… Read More
Continue ReadingProperly Using Pre-Employment Tests
CareerJournal posted this article – Six Things You Should Know About Pre-Employment Tests – earlier this week. The article is an excellent story for executive-level candidates to read closely. First, an interesting stat: Pre-employment testing is on the rise. In the past five years, 60% of companies have increased their use of workplace-behavior assessments, according to a survey of more than 500 human-resources professionals at U.S. companies… Second, a good point: “If you answer honestly and don’t get the job, it means the position wasn’t a good match for you in the first place,” he says. Third, something we can confirm in our activities: Senior executives are not exempt. In… Read More
Continue ReadingDeath Networking?
The founder of monster.com has started a new social networking site for 50+ year olds. Eons.com is described this way: Instead of career and school sections, Eons.com has interactive games to build brain strength, news on entertainment and hobbies for older people, a personalized longevity calculator and tips to live longer.It also has a nationwide database of obituaries dating back to the 1930s to which people can add photos and comments. In addition to adding photos and videos to obituaries, members of Eons.com can sign up to receive an alert when someone from a particular area dies or in response to pre-defined keywords such as a company or school name.… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Industry-Experience Trap
An interesting article from ere.net titled The Role of the Hiring Manager in Recruiting. The author cuts to the quick in one of his bullet points: The industry-experience trap. Industry experience is not only highly overrated, but it’s also the quickest way to sub-optimize the talent you recruit. If you think of the pool of top-quality, top-quartile talent, the minute you say they must come out of the food industry or the high-tech industry, you’ve reduced that pool of available talent by about 98%! The fact is that for the majority of our jobs, top talent with high learning agility can learn the nuances of our industry, but industry-experienced candidates… Read More
Continue ReadingA Pleading Cover Letter
This is a new approach for a cover letter: …please someone help me before im living under a bridge. I personally think it is wiser to explain how you, as an employee, will help the company. But that’s just me.
Continue ReadingWhen Sales Ads Don’t Work
I’m reading posts in recruiter message boards that are discussing low salesperson response rates to employment ads placed on monster, local newspapers and publications. From the amount of responses to this subject, it appears many other recruiters are having similar difficulties. I then read the opening paragraph from this article that states: Seventy-six percent of employees are looking for new employment opportunities, according to the 2005 U.S. Job Recovery and Retention Survey released today by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and CareerJournal.com. Sixty-five percent of HR professionals indicated they were concerned about the voluntary resignations at their organizations. To prevent a mass exodus, almost half of the organizations… Read More
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