I got a kick out of this – I’m looking through resumes online and I came across one that was listed as confidential. Candidates put a title to their resume that often says “Experienced Sales Professional” or something of that sort. The candidate can then hide their personal contact information (name, address, phone, etc.) and their current employer. This person did that. Except the title for their resume was their actual name as in “John Doe’s resume.” Oops.
Continue ReadingAmerica’s Smartest Cities
Seriously, Forbes ranked the top 25…is there anything Forbes won’t rank? Yet, I am a sucker and watched the slide show. I’ll speed it up for you a bit and provide the top 5: Boulder, CO Bethesda-Gaithersburg-Frederick, MD Ithaca, NY ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN Corvallis, OR I won’t mention which one of those towns is my hometown…well, I spent the first 5 years of my life there. Lee says that doesn’t count. Unfortunately for him, the Twin Cities did not make the list. In all seriousness, I’m not sure if there is much value to this type of list. Clearly the top towns are host to a major university which stands… Read More
Continue Reading100 Job Boards
I received an email from Amy Quinn pointing me to this article – Where the Talent Is: 100 Sites to Find the Elite in Any-Given-Field. This is a comprehensive list of job boards and sites for employers looking to hire in specific fields (sales included). Here are the sales boards listed in the article: Sales Jobs: Sign up with this site and get access to hundreds of thousands of resumes from qualified and experienced sales professionals to help you find a match for your company. Sales Trax: This professional sales community is a great place to meet and talk with potential sales employees. Find salespeople interested in everything from pharmaceuticals… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Negative Effect
We’ve been working through a fair amount of initial sourcing activities the past week or so and I’ve come across something that catches my attention. I’m seeing more and more posted resume/cover letters that state what a candidate is not looking for in their next position. No telemarketing positions. No work-at-home schemes. Not interested in travel. Must have benefit plan or not interested. I understand the desire to be focused in a job search, but I notice a negative effect when I read through these types of statements. Immediately, I start thinking about what other restrictions may be part of this candidate’s baggage. I suspect there are many companies out… Read More
Continue ReadingPaid Interviews?
Lee sent this short article to me – Paying Recruits to Interview? I’m woefully out of touch on this one: Notching Interviews: Why would corporate recruiters pay candidates to interview for jobs? To Los Gatos Hills, California-based Notchup.com, the answer is simple: Companies ideally will find top candidates, so the money will be well spent. The startup job board adds a twist to the traditional online job search by enabling job-seeking professionals to name their price at which they will agree to interview with prospective employers. Notchup.com says employers benefit by being able to target passive candidates. The company says its tools include optional background checks on candidates and a… Read More
Continue ReadingSome People Play Checkers, Others Play Chess
BusinessWeek.com offers up the Best Corporate Practices 2008 which is a fascinating slide show if you have time to view it. This is from the opening of the article: In fact, much of the gap between the best and worst management practices can be described by that word: trust. At one point as a corporate human resources leader during the dot-com boom, our company switchboard was bombarded with calls from recruiters, seeking to pull away our sharpest technical talent. Our hardworking phone operators did their best to deter search consultants looking to make contact with talent by any means possible, but it wasn’t always easy. … We said to our… Read More
Continue ReadingThe New Year’s Itch
I’m willing to guess that a majority of New Year Resolutions involve weight loss and career/job changes. If so, then January is the apex of retention within a company. In sales recruiting, we typically see January as one of the premium months for finding sales talent. Salespeople have completed the previous year’s commission plan and are staring at an empty commission plan. In other words, this is an excellent time to upgrade your sales team. The time to hire is still extended right now in spite of the dire economic predictions of the media. This week’s Herman Trend Alert email speaks to this point: The activity of job boards is… Read More
Continue ReadingSports And Selling
Older article here from our local StarTribune paper – Sales Skills Hiring Managers Seek. There are some interesting points from the quotes in the article, but one thing that stands out to me are these quotes from different recruiters: …and have achieved in athletics. and A sports background also helps. This background is couched around the competitive nature of sports transferring to successful selling. I’m not sure I buy into that correlation, but it does intrigue me. I played sports throughout high school and college and can envision many self-centered teammates I would not recommend for any sales position. Still, I am probably over-focused on the exceptions. However, I do… Read More
Continue ReadingATS Sterilization
Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are widely employed on corporate websites and by recruiting agencies. I understand the automated efficiency of a computer program in handling a large number of applicants. Yet, I don’t find them helpful for hiring salespeople. When we place an ad for a sales opportunity, we provide the option to email or call for response. We do not ask respondents to fill out an online form. First off, if they send a resume (the most common response these days), I get the opportunity to see how they present their experience and abilities. Formatting, presentation, flow…these are all pieces of information that can be gleaned from their resume. … Read More
Continue ReadingWearing Out The Delete Key
From a cover email I just received in response to an ad for a regional sales manager: Hi, Lee. I am _____. I live in __, however, I am international, or regional, or national, or whatever the job calls for. It gets worse. The candidate worked in a collection-type role and included 2 pages of collections (amounts, dates, commission, payment type). He included the first and last names of the people from which he collected the late payments. Unbelievable.
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