In this uncomfortable and unaccustomed role you will meet people with whom you may never before have had to deal. You will encounter people who appear eager to help you along your path to employment. Many will play legitimate roles while others will be primarily interested in separating you from your money in return for services of questionable value.
As a job hunter, be wary. You will swim in waters infested with sharks ready to take advantage of your vulnerability.
You will have to write letters extolling your virtues and meet with people you would like to impress with your value. You will go on interviews where you find yourself in the unenviable role of examinee under the spotlights of many inquisitors.
Most of you are somewhat familiar with many of the characters in this game in which you are now a participant. For example, you have all dealt with "personnel people" and most of you are familiar with the "human resources" function. You have heard of "headhunters" and may wonder exactly what they do. You have seen ads run by "5ob counseling firms" offering to help you find employment. Also there are countless books and magazines promising to make your job search easier-including this one!
Let's take a closer look at these people and what they offer.
Human Resources Departments--Their Role
As a company grows from its inception, it soon reaches a level of employment requiring uniform rules of conduct and attention to the needs of employees as human beings outside their functional responsibilities. The point in time varies from company to company as to when the Human Resources Department starts to take shape. No company can grow beyond a certain size without a well organized personnel function. Without it there would be chaos and further growth would be impossible. Usually, when the employment level reaches somewhere between thirty and fifty persons, a Human Resources Department is formalized and matters involving the wellbeing of the workers become the consolidated responsibility of one executive.
Years ago, the title given to this executive was "Personnel Manager" and this is still sometimes used today, particularly in smaller companies. During the forties and fifties many companies adopted the title of "Industrial Relations Manager," especially in the heavier manufacturing industries where an important segment of the function involved dealt with organized labor. In recent years a new title has become fashionable: "Human Resources Manager." This title is more descriptive of this very important side of any business.
As a job hunter you will interface with human resources people frequently. Therefore it is essential that you understand what their responsibilities are and what they are not!
- They run the hiring hall. The majority of employees usually fall into "direct labor" categories. Machines have to be kept running, warehouses have to move materials in and finished goods out, assembly lines have to be staffed, letters have to be typed and filed, offices have to be swept and dusted. The turnover is constant.
- they must establish and maintain sound policy for wage and salary administration. The company must remain competitive with the outside marketplace and, of even more importance; relative salaries within the organization must be sensible and equitable.
- They are responsible for internal communications to keep employees informed through company newspaper, bulletin boards, and internal memoranda.
- They protect plant records against theft and competitor's eyes through effective security measures such as guards, employee identification systems and lock and key controls of sensitive areas.
- They establish and manage programs to cover a company Credit Union and other employee benefits and services such as insurance, profit sharing and retirement benefits.
- They are heavily involved in maintaining a healthy relationship between the company and its unions. Grievances need to be handled and periodic negotiations with the bargaining units must allow management and labor to work in harmony.
- Government regulations such as OSHA and Affirmative Action programs require their constant attention and compliance. They handle unemployment claims and worker's compensation.
The responsibilities go on. Establishing Outplacement procedures for terminated employees; dealing with community leaders and politicians; processing promotions, transfers, layoffs; administering the Human Resources function itself through staffing, budgeting, directing and controlling.
The Human Resources (Personnel) function is a vital, essential part of every successful organization. But, something is missing from the above list. The perceptive reader will have noticed that missing is the responsibility for hiring executives, managers, professionals, leaders... YOU.
So, Who Will Hire You?
You are a leader. You are looking for a job as a Manager, a Professional, an Executive, a Supervisor. The decision to hire you will be made by an executive, probably the person to whom you will report. The decision will not be made by someone in Human Resources. It will not be made by a Human Resources Manager, or even by that venerable grey-haired gentleman, the Senior Vice President in charge of Human Resources.
Jack Falvey, a noted columnist as well as professor and business consultant, wrote an article entitled, "Personnel: The Enemy Within" in which he stresses the importance to the job hunter of avoiding Human Resources whenever possible. He says only two things can happen to you in Human Resources--one is bad and the other is neutral.
Falvey stresses that Human Resources seldom hires anyone above the factory and clerical levels. For the higher levels, where you belong, Human Resources merely screens out potential candidates before sending along a select few to meet the line managers who make actual hiring decisions.
The problem is that you often get screened out by Human Resources for reasons which are completely invalid and likely the product of that wonderful vehicle called a resume. That is unfortunate! But even if you pass through their screen, successfully run the gauntlet, the result is neutral, because you still are not hired. You simply get to meet someone else.
Networking most likely to produce a good job for you. Human Resources people complain bitterly about the Networking approach because it side-steps them. Their official position is that Networking wastes the time of managers. That may be true, but their attempts to protect managers from potential problem solving job applicants often just makes the process more difficult for all concerned.
Your objective as a job hunter is to get to see decision makers so you can sell yourself. You must do what is best for you: avoid human resources people who just do not understand the workings and needs of each of the segments of a business. Only the functional operating manager is capable of properly evaluating the skills you offer.
The Two Reasons why you will be hired!
The first reason is the perception on the part of the prospective boss that you can help solve problems.
The second, and the most significant, reason you get the job is the personal and emotional interaction between you and the decision maker. The business of good chemistry between boss and subordinate is NOT something which can be determined by an intervening third party, no matter how skilled that person may be.
If for some reason you are not a harmonious personality match with the human resources person who is inter-viewing that day, you will be eliminated nine times out of ten. That is counterproductive for all concerned because there is no need for a fit between you and the person in Human Resources.
If the manager only gets to speak to those applicants whose personalities meshed with the temperament of the human resources person, that manager will have a dangerously limited view of the quality of the talent available.
Falvey points out that one task common to all managers that should not be delegated to anyone is "people contact". Human Resources' position is that managers should concentrate on running the business and do not have time to interview and select candidates. Human Resources people may think that way, but you, the searcher for a manager's position, should focus all your efforts on getting to meet with the functional manager who will be responsible for making the decision to hire you. Your personal best interest is to stay as far away from Human Resources as you can. If, for some reason, there is no other way but through Human Relations, then your objective must be to get past their screening process in the best shape possible so you can have the opportunity to meet the people who can say "yes."
Articles and books on resume construction and other means of finding jobs are generally written by human resources people who only know the employment game from their own middle management level viewpoint and offer advice mostly suitable to the lower level job hunter. That is why the executive job seeker can find so little reliable guidance available in bookstores.
Most Human Resources Managers find it difficult to accept that their importance lies in every area of personnel management except the one area where they enjoy their public exposure and self-perceived power, the executive hiring function. Unfortunately, that perception is shared by the preponderant number of employees and job hunters. The myth that has developed over the years is that "Human Relations does the hiring." For executive level selection and placement nothing could be further from the truth.
Apart from Human Resources, with which other groups will you be interacting during your campaign?
Friends, Relatives, Employed Acquaintances... Can they help?
These are friendly faces you have known for many years, but you have never dealt with them in your present role as a job seeker. These helpful souls mean well and would love to help, but what do they know? They offer voluminous advice, most of it worthless and some of it potentially harmful. Everyone, it seems, is an expert until that time when he or she becomes unemployed and has to scramble around in a futile search for job hunting wisdom.
What can these well meaning friends really do to help you find your next position? Perhaps the most important contribution they can make is to provide contacts for your Networking efforts. Sometimes they may know one or more high-ranking executives of a target company who could provide a "social" introduction to your prospective boss. They might also provide inside information on companies in need of new managers. Also they can serve as an extra pair of eyes on the lookout for promising ads or other leads to available positions.
Your friends can also serve as a sounding board by reading and commenting on your written presentations (resumes and letters) and listening to you rehearse your spoken presentations.
Resume Writers
There are many "experts" out there who purport to be able to teach you how to write an "effective" resume. They are usually former Human Resources people who will have you write your resume in the way they wanted to receive them when they were on the hiring side. They think in terms of entry level or lower management positions and in most cases they don't understand the needs of senior level job applicants.
Their ads are in all major newspapers offering to prepare your resume for $20 or $25. Sometimes there follows a sales pitch encouraging the customer to spend additional money on a resume longer than necessary, or on other costly features such as special typesetting or expensive colored paper stock. It also cautions that the resume must be used guardedly, judiciously, and limitedly. The resume will often reveal things about you best left unsaid.
Books and Magazine Articles
With several million job hunters looking for employment at any given time, the temptation is great for many human resources managers, psychologists, job counselors, and other executives to write books and articles on how to write resumes, how to interview effectively, how to fill out employment applications, how to negotiate salaries, how to find a better job. Much of the material available is applicable to lower positions but of limited value to the executive job searcher.
It is almost impossible to find a book available that teaches the executive job seeker how to answer a job ad properly. The current best-selling books for job hunters devote little space to the subject and most suggest that answering ads is a waste of time. Obviously, the authors don't understand that thousands upon thousands of executives find good jobs every year by answering job ads directly and correctly.
The same authors offer little of value on the subject of salary negotiations, and few of them explain effective networking techniques. Most books provide very little tactical advice on how to achieve job hunting objectives. In different ways they regurgitate the same information on how to analyze the job hunter's background and career objectives, which is helpful, while at the same time offering much bad advice on writing and distributing resumes.
Executive Recruiters... Good or Bad?
The range of quality among Executive Recruiters is as broad as the horizon. Sometimes referred to by the less dignified names of "head hunters" or "body snatchers," these firms range from ethical consultants performing a valuable service, to "boiler room" operations which try to act as "marriage brokers" bringing employers and employees together.
A small community of firms is outstanding and performs skilled, vital services to corporations searching for executive talent. These firms generally work on a "retainer basis" and their main thrust is to locate presently employed executives who can be proselyted on behalf of the recruiter's client.
It is difficult and dangerous for the employer to approach his competition's managers, or even executives from non-competitive firms in his business community.
This is the kind of work a recruiting firm can do while at the same time maintaining the employer's anonymity. The recruiter also earns his keep by negotiating salaries on behalf of the employer. This helps to deliver you to the employer at lower cost and helps justify the substantial fee paid by the employer.
As a rule, ethical executive recruiters have little interest in the unemployed job hunter. If employers want unemployed executives they run ads and they can expect to be inundated with hundreds of applicants. It is not fair and it is not true, but the employer often equates the employed manager as being the better manager. The employer's narrow view often is: "If you are not working, there is probably something wrong with you."
At the other end of the spectrum there are an enormous number of firms which usually work on a contingency basis-they only get paid when and if they deliver a body. They often succeed at middle management job levels but generally they are a waste of time for the higher level executive, and can do actual damage by shopping around a candidate's credentials to the point of tarnishing the image of a job searcher who otherwise might have been a more desirable job candidate.
When one of these recruiters circulates your resume you become a more expensive commodity as the prospective employer now has to pay someone a fee for the privilege of hiring you!
Executive Recruiters place only a very small percentage of executives, yet they represent one of the many paths to employment.
Employment Agencies
These operations concentrate on placing people at lower salary levels than their fancy brethren, the Executive Recruiters. Today, the ethical recruiters rarely handle a search for a position paying less than $70,000. Agencies, on the other hand, fill jobs from factory help to clerical positions to lower level managers.
If you are at a lower managerial level you might want to list yourself with an agency or two. It is somewhat demeaning to fill out long application forms and be subjected to assembly line type interviewing. Still, if you are unemployed and have time on your hands, you might want to investigate what some of the agencies have to offer. They represent a path to employment.
Job and Career Counselors... What is Their Role?
Career counseling firms come and go and, while in business, generate a plethora of complaints to Better Business Bureaus, District Attorneys' offices, and other regulatory bodies. Unfortunately, this field has a history of attracting the "quick buck artists" who charge high fees and promise much, but often deliver a shoddy service. Sadly, it is a cruel world out there and predators do exist to take advantage of the unwary.
With that warning out of the way, it is only fair to mention that there are some ethical practitioners and sometimes these firms actually have the ability to help the job seeker. What can be expected of the honest and dedicated job counselor?
The effective job counselor has to be teacher, trainer, psychologist, and communicator. Looking for a job is an activity in which the participant has rarely engaged. It is also an activity requiring very special skills not easily acquired without guidance of an experienced, relatively high level, business manager knowledgeable in many facets of business.
This guidance is an intangible product for which guarantees cannot be given. Watch out for people offering guarantees. The counselor can teach necessary job hunting skills, but you, the client, must execute those skills on your own. As in all fields, not everyone is an "A" student! Some are "B", "C", or "D" students, and some fail completely. No amount of guidance and training will transform a "D" student into an "A" job candidate. The lawyer does not give guarantees as there can be too many unpredictable and uncontrollable facets of any case. The doctor does not give guarantees, either. All the doctor and the lawyer can do is giving their best professional efforts. In fairness, this is all you can expect from the best of job counselors.
Finding an effective job counselor is like looking for that proverbial needle in a haystack. On your initial visit to a job counseling firm you will first meet a dignified, comforting, understanding executive who will explore your situation with you in a low pressure sales atmosphere.
This person's job is to make the sale, and it is a difficult job. It is a high-ticket sale, usually thousands of dollars, and the product is an intangible one, so this requires a smooth, convincing presentation appealing to the emotions and dreams of YOU, the potential client. If you buy the dream, you do so with no guarantees.
How much will it cost? The salesman works on a commission (between 20% and 25%) so the more he can charge you; the more goes into his pocket. Generally the fee falls between $3,000 and $4,000, but some firms charge a percentage of expected salary. The fee is determined by factors such as "what the market will bear" and the gullibility of the desperate job seeker.
If you sign up for a job counseling program, chances are that you will never again see the smooth talking salesman. When you show up for your first session you will be introduced to a Counselor with whom you will then spend many hours preparing for your job search. The Counselor is also paid by commission (between 17% and 20%). Paradoxically, the higher premium is paid to the salesman even though counseling is by far the more complex and specialized talent.
Now you find out whether you spent your money wisely. The help you receive will only be as good as the talent and wisdom of the Counselor to whom you are assigned. There are some very good Job Counselors around, but they are the exceptions. So, should you be tempted to buy the services of a job counseling firm, be sure to ask to meet with your Counselor BEFORE you have signed any papers irrevocably committing you to a large expenditure of money.
Outplacement Firms
During the late seventies and early eighties a new industry developed when a bright idea came to a job counseling firm. "Outplacement", a catchy, new, descriptive name was coined and, instead of selling to the individual job hunter, they focused on selling their services to the firms terminating the employees. Instead of charging the individual about $3,000, they found they could get a fee from the discharging employer of 15% of the employee's annual salary. On an $80,000 per year manager the fee amounts to $12,000, four times the prior return!
In some ways, making the sale to the employer was easier. The cost is a legitimate tax deductible expense and, in addition, often represents money that would otherwise have been given the employee as part of a termination package. For the Outplacement firm, a sale to an individual job hunter is a "one shot deal" as opposed to a successful consulting relationship with an employer which could develop into huge fees resulting from many terminations.
The individual's dominant concern is to get re-employed as rapidly as possible to reinstate incoming cash flow and maintain an accustomed standard of living. The employer has other principal concerns, such as avoiding lawsuits relating to potential claims of illegal discharge, and maintaining a positive image of benevolent employer in the minds of remaining employees.
Besides much larger fees, another advantage to the job counseling firms is the elimination of customer complaints and the constant threat of action by law enforcement agencies. Now, complaints have to come from the employer who paid for the services and who would have little incentive to initiate legal action.
If you are being terminated and are offered outplacement services, see if you can opt to take the cash instead. If you fit the example of the $80,000 executive, see if your employer will agree to give you the funds to handle your own search. Agree to sign a disclaimer holding the employer free of any liabihty regarding your termination. You can buy the services you need for $3,000 or $4,000 and pocket the balance to help you get through a potentially extended period of unemployment.
What does it all mean?
In summary, there are no easy answers for the job hunter with the dilemma of where to go for help. Wherever there are needs, there are vultures hovering around ready to exploit the needy. There are also Good Samaritans who offer valuable services and advice.
Be cautious and wary. Examine carefully before you invest in programs purporting to help you in your quest. Don't accept everything you read at face value. BE SKEPTICAL and remember these basic points:
- Your primary objective as a job hunter is to talk to decision makers.
- Your getting the job offer will be motivated by the perception of the decision maker that you can solve his or her problems.
- A dominant, deciding factor in the process will be the personal chemistry between you and the decision maker.
- Instead of expecting others to do the work for you, concentrate on building your own campaign -one which utilizes all the special skills you possess - one which puts you in command and which will lead to winning the battle!
