BusinessWeek.com’s Think Before You Speak or Write provides a couple excellent stories regarding candidates who did a great job of putting their foot in their mouth. How would you like to receive this email? “I’m disappointed that the job you’re advertising pays much less than I’m used to making. It would be almost impossible for me to survive on the salary listed in the ad. Can you please tell me how much travel is required?” Not the way to initiate a dialogue. I’ve encountered this short approach when sourcing also. I actually received an email from one candidate that pointedly asked: Do I not qualify for the position that you… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Cocky Resume
I just found this cover letter and red flags went off everywhere: College student nearing completion of a Computer Sciences degree looking for a full or part-time entry level position in a technical environment such as software testing, hardware installation, database development, or data entry. Get me secured in your company while I’m still sans degree, because there will come a day when my time will be very valuable. I would run the other way from this candidate. Again, confidence is good, cockiness is bad. Take a look at the close: Tuition reimbursement a plus, but not required. Please e-mail with any openings available for a resumé. Remember, this is… Read More
Continue ReadingOverzealous Email Filters
I’m sourcing for a non-sales position and am trying to email a candidate the job ad. He has a common provider with a strong spam blocking program. This program asks you to go to a website and enter the letters displayed in the box. After that, your email address is approved and your email will go through. The website cannot display the letter image – it simply shows the red x meaning it can’t get the image from it’s own website. I have no way to get the email through to the candidate. Now I have a voicemail in to him and have to wait until it is resolved. Utterly… Read More
Continue ReadingMonster And The NYT
NY Times to Sell Ads With Monster from abcnews.com is worth noting if you source and hire in the northeast. The deal will put the Monster brand on 19 of the publisher’s newspaper Web sites, including The New York Times and The Boston Globe. The co-branded sites will appear in March. The declining circulation of the “paper of record” makes this announcement seem like a yawner. But hey, if it improves responses in those areas, I’m all for it.
Continue ReadingTime To Source Salespeople
There are certain windows for sourcing salespeople that are better than other times of the year. Right now we are in the best window for sourcing salespeople for the entire year. The reason is that many salespeople are on commission plans that pay out the highest total after the year is completed. In many instances, that commission payout occurs towards the end of January. I spent many years selling on these types of plans and can tell you that I would not leave in January since I was waiting for my largest commission check of the year. The different variations of commission plans I sold under usually had some accelerated… Read More
Continue ReadingYou Can Ask Me Anything – Just Email Me.
I am currently sourcing candidates for a customer with these requirements: technically savvy, results oriented, efficient sales skills with good phone & writing skills. My interaction with this candidate started via email, which is great because I could get an idea of his written communication skills. His first emails were to find out a little more about the company and a lot about the position responsibilities. We emailed back and forth several times in which he asked some great questions. After I had answered his questions, he sent an email stating that he was interested in the position and would like to take it to the next step. I emailed… Read More
Continue ReadingQuestions Often Reveal The Skills
We’re working through some sales candidate sourcing activities this week for some new customers and uncovering some strong salespeople. There are many reasons why we incorporate a screening step in our recruiting process, but one of the most important reasons is the questions posed by the candidates. A crucial component of selling is asking the right questions. I laugh as I write this because a saying my father uses came to my mind – “If you want a better answer, ask a better question.” The question content, the question pattern and the follow-up questions are all highly revealing of the quality of sales candidate. A real-life example from one candidate… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Errors In The Resumes
From a CareerBuilder survey: Sixty-three percent of HR managers report that spelling errors are the most annoying mistakes they see on resumes. Other top mistakes include: Resumes not customized to the position (30 percent) Lies (23 percent) Including too many insignificant details on job responsibilities (21 percent) Resumes that are more than two pages long (21 percent) Lies would seem to be a “most annoying mistake” on a resume if I took the survey and spelling errors would be second. From earlier in the article: If you’re looking for a new job this year, be prepared for some competition. Twenty-seven percent of human resource (HR) managers say they receive more… Read More
Continue ReadingPlanning For Turnover
Salespeople will leave your company – it is an undeniable truth. Selling Power offers this short article – Recruitment Planning 101 – that covers the basic points that all sales managers should be aware of. A couple of strong points: Keep your pipeline full of qualified candidates. Determine the skill sets for each sales position and keep your search open for candidates with these special qualifications. However, remember that top candidates aren’t usually available for long and you need to be upfront with them about what you’re doing. “Let them know that you are building a candidate pipeline composed of individuals that your company may have an interest in hiring… Read More
Continue ReadingTop 30 Job Boards
Weddles.com has published their annual user choice awards. Here are their top 30 online job boards. Unfortunately their newsletter does not have a link but does have some interesting points worth noting: Nine of the sites are making their first appearance. Two-thirds are niche or specialty sites providing recruiting support in a specific career, field, industry, location or group. One-third are general purpose sites.
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