Great To Finally Meet You

Half an hour late this morning. "Signal Problems." Again.

Urgent message from my client. She just walked in on the Executive Assistant I sent last week doing some photocopying.

 Great to finally meet you. Did you have any trouble finding the place?

You remember, this isn't a job interview, right? Think of it more as an assessment. It's a way for me to get to know what you bring to the table and a way for you to better understand who I am and what I do. 

My main interest throughout this entire time is to see how much preparation you'll need before I send you to meet with a client. If I think I can work with you, great. If you come off as someone I wouldn't be comfortable putting my reputation on the line for, thanks for coming in, but maybe next time.

Remember, a Recruiter's reputation is only as good as his talent. If I'm pushing second rate talent all over the city, soon no one is going to want to work with me. So if I'm lending you my reputation, I'm expecting you to be good with it.

During the meeting there are two kinds of things I look for. The first are formalities.

 
These are all important. The less prep I feel I need to put into you the better. But don't sweat it if they aren't perfect. These things can be easily coached on.

What I'm really looking for is this:

And these:

I want to know that you're smart, ambitious, have great ideas, strive for the best and know a thing or two about what you're talking about.

If you can engage me on a subject that I know nothing about, then I'm impressed. That means that you could probably engage a hiring manager as well. I like that.

If you start talking about yourself and this happens:

 

Chances are you won't fare much better with the client. Better luck next time.

When I ask you questions about your resume, I'm not just looking for you to just tell me what you did. I'm looking for you to tell me a story. I want tales of dragons slain and damsels saved. I want to hear of heroes rising and villains falling. Paint me pictures of working against insurmountable odds and succeeding in the end. I want to know what you've done that would make someone say YES to hiring you.      

I want to know that you've got the stuff.

 

At the end of the day I can get you the interview, I can prep you for the interview, I can tell you everything I know about the client, and I can even provide feedback from people who interviewed before you. But if you don't have the stuff, I can't find it for you. Better luck next time.

Once you're done telling me the Story Of You, we need to discuss your preferences. This part is important. This is the part where you tell me about what you're looking for. It's imperative that you be as honest and specific as possible. 

If you say you'll work anywhere in the GTA but on the day I call with a position in Markham you change your mind; that's probably going to be our last phone call. And if you tell me you don't have any industry preference, but say you'd rather hold out for something in retail when I call with a job at a bank, you're going on the DO NOT USE list. The Recruitment industry is small. We talk to one another. You don't want to end up on the Do Not Use List.

We ask these questions because we want to know how we can best serve you. The more specific and honest you are with us, the better suited we are to find you a job. If you have an idea of where your next position should be, great. I want to hear about it. Then I want to formulate a plan on how we're going to get you there.

When we're done with our meeting one of two things will happen. I will either put your resume here:

Or here:

If I put your resume in the filing cabinet it's because you probably told me that you'd work anywhere, at any company, for any price. Wouldn't we all? You're resume will be stored in a folder of people with similar backgrounds. If I ever get a job in for something like that, I'll look through that folder and maybe you'll get a call. 

If I put the resume on my desk it means you've impressed me and I want to work with you. It also means we've got some work to do.

Meeting a Recruiter

If you're meeting a Recruiter, it's for one of three reasons:

1) You applied for a job they posted. They think you look like a good fit on paper. It's time to see if you deliver the goods.

2) They found you on a job board or LinkedIn. They thought you looked good on paper. It's time to see if you deliver the goods.

 

3) They've interviewed four people that they've put forward for jobs this week. Alas policy requires them to interview five. They don't want to get fired. They suppose you'll do.

 

 



No matter what the reason you're meeting with a recruiter, don't worry about it. All that matters is that someone is giving you the opportunity to tell your story. Even if you're no more than quota to the person you're meeting with, do everything you can to impress them. If they expect nothing of you and you end up making them feel like this:

 

The chances of them going back to their desk and trying to find you a job are pretty good. If not, that's their loss. Onto the next one. 

When you're meeting with a Recruiter, know this: It's not a job interview. Just because we meet with you does not mean we guarantee to find you a job. We make a promise to our clients that we meet with every person we represent before sending them over for review. So that's what we do.

Some Recruiters will only go as far as the phone screen, submit your resume based on that and wait to book a meeting until seeing if the client schedules an interview. The logic behind this is that there's no bother in us meeting if the client has no interest.

This is called Paper Pushing.

This is called Throwing Spaghetti At a Wall and Seeing if it Sticks.

This is called Lazy.

Don't stand for it. Insist on coming in and sitting down with the Recruiter REGARDLESS. You may think that they're saving you time and effort. I know you don't want to ride the TTC Downtown in the middle of the day unless there's going to be something in it for you. I don't blame you.

But guess what? If you don't meet the Recruiter before they submit your resume and the client says Thanks, but not a fit for this one, you'll probably never hear from them again.

Why?

Because in this scenario the Recruiter doesn't owe you anything. They've placed a bet and are hoping for the best. If you end up getting called to an interview, awesome. That makes their numbers look good. Hopefully you're still available and interested. If not, it's no skin off their back. They're already looking for the next batch of people to push onto the next job.

Let's have a quick word on this:

PAPER PUSHERS MAKE THE RECRUITMENT INDUSTRY WORSE FOR EVERYONE.

Clients pay us good money to find quality talent for them. If all the Recruiter is doing is forwarding anyone who halfway looks like they could be a fit and hoping HR will book an interview, they're not doing their job and eventually their luck will run out. Avoid them. And PLEASE, whatever you do, DO NOT LET THEM SPAM YOUR RESUME AROUND THE CITY. Know your Recruiter and know where your information is being sent. If someone is responsible for handling the one document that is a clear and accurate representation of you, don't you think you should at least meet them first?

Besides,  a good Recruiter should want to meet you. It's their job to interview people! If they know their business, their client, their industry, their whatever, then they should have the insight and experience to be able to guide you and get you one step closer to the job. You can submit your resume to any job yourself and hope for the best. I'm paid because I know what it takes to help get your foot in the door. I have to trust that you have what it takes to go all the way and you have to trust in my ability to get your there. For that, we need to meet.   

Tomorrow we'll talk about preparing you for our meeting and what is expected of you during that time.

Resumes Part 1: If You're Awesome And You Know It...

There is no greater indicator of nobody knowing anything than the Resume.

 

Whole books have been written on the subject. Entire classes are dedicated to it. And yet nobody has one golden secret for writing the perfect resume. It just doesn't exist. Everyone has an opinion and none of them are guaranteed to produce right or wrong results. It's a tough racket this resume writing.

 

Just know this:

 

There's one person that you can always guarantee to please with your resume. It's not me. And it's not the hiring manager of the job you're applying to. It's YOU! A resume is a reflection of YOU. It's a declaration of the value of YOU as a professional. If YOU can read what YOU've written and know that it makes YOU sound as awesome as YOU are, good job. YOU've written a resume.

 

 

The biggest problem I see with most resumes is that people don't give themselves enough credit. They're scared to toot their own horn. Modesty is no good in the resume business. Resume writing is like a competitive sport where you never see your competition. All you know is that you have a 1 in 100 shot of getting the job and if you don't sell yourself like you're the best that's ever been, at least one of the other 99 probably will. In the job race there are only two places: first and everything else.     

 

So before writing another word, stop and ask yourself: How Awesome Am I? 

 

Did you jump to your feet and declare, I AM F%#$*&G AWESOME?

 

 

Ya? Good. You're on your way to writing a great resume.

 

The vast majority though probably responded something more like this:

 

 





Because you haven't given it much thought. No wonder you're having trouble writing a resume. You don't even know how awesome you are. Take some time to think about it. I'd even encourage you to write an "Awesome List"; a list of all the things you've done that make you awesome.

 

Did you win a prestigious award? Did you lead a team to the brink of destruction and back? Did you save the office from alien invasion? Did you make a difference? If you've done any of these things, or many, many others, then congratulations. You're awesome.

 

 

Those are the things you want to base your resume around. These are the things that are going to get you through the door. When I read your resume you want me to think: This guy sounds awesome. I'm going to make a point of calling him. Not: This guy sounds exactly the same as the last 28 people who applied.

 

Because guess what? I didn't call them and I'm probably not going to call you either. If I need to get you on the phone for you to explain to me why you're awesome, you're probably not awesome enough. Thanks anyway.

 

 

Once you have your list written we'll pick up tomorrow to discuss how to start putting your awesomeness on paper.