So why are we doing Jobspeaker anyways?

Posted by jarlath in Business,Job Market on June 20, 2010

why change job search

Why would we try to launch another service in the crowded job market? Good question – well the answer lies in what we see happening in the job market today. We believe that the job market has changed significantly and irreversibly in the last couple of years. All parties in the recruitment process are seeing changes: employers; job seekers, recruiters and job posting services.

Employers are looking to do more with less; examining the cost-benefit of recruiters and the large job boards; exploring the benefits and pitfalls of social media from a recruiting perspective and looking for employees that fit better within the company. Job seekers are also changing the way they look at their job search and their careers: with the massive layoffs across the economy (I was one of them but more about that later) job seekers now tend to be less committed to a company and more committed to managing their own career; they are becoming less tolerant of the command and control structure of more traditional companies (read: Gary Hamel’s WSJ Blog); they expect more from their employers and are looking for roles they can really sink their teeth into and they conduct their job search very differently than before.

Recruiters too are seeing the difference: executive recruiters maybe not as much as others although there has arguably been less work in this area recently (I’ll get into this more in a later blog post). Recruiters in general though are seeing less work or are being paid less for their services, some have quit the profession and some are moving to be in-house recruiters. Offline posting services have seen huge declines in job posting revenue in recent years and this has contributed to their on-going decline (read: USA Today). Online services too have seen significant changes as employers have pulled back their advertising and hiring or have started looking at other channels. Monster alone experienced a 33% drop in revenue in 2009 versus 2008 (Read: Commentary). Hotjobs sold to Monster earlier this year which in part was due to the changes in the online job market.

So, what does this all mean? It means that we are experiencing a seed change in how recruitment happens and it will effect all of us. Those of us in full-time long-term employment to those in temporary/part-time positions. A job for life is a very rare thing these days and we used to think that a stable career means changing jobs no more than every 5-10 years, is that still the case? More and more employees seem to be changing positions every 2-3 years. And for those new additions to the job market, their expectations are very different than previous generations (Read: Commentary).

So back to the original question: so why are we doing jobspeaker anyways? Now that you know the back story it’s a relatively simple answer – we exist to build tools for job seekers looking for work and managing their career in this new environment.

How do you think we can help you?

Rework – job search lessons from entrepreneurs

Posted by jobspeaker in Business,Job Market,Technology on April 1, 2010

Rework Book Cover

Recently the founders of 37signals released their second book – Rework. It explores some of the common misconceptions of starting a business and serves to deflate the bubble somewhat of what starting a real business is all about. As a founder of Jobspeaker, I read it with interest hoping to pick up some gems of wisdom from two guys who have built a very successful business. I found it to be both inspiring and challenging to some of the assumptions embedded in our own business. So, if you haven’t been following their blog and during a time of unemployment you have flirted or even started a business and are thinking about doing it again then I would recommend it!

However, most of you are here to read about how to improve your job search and there are a few nuggets of wisdom here to help you as well. The advice in the book is generally pitched at founders or business owners and it speaks to these individuals about how to approach hiring. But if you flip this advice around and think about what it means for you, the job seeker, then there is also some common job search myths displaced. Here is a quick synopsis of what those ideas are:

  1. Resumes are ridiculous

    2. – the authors argue that resumes are full of half-truths, exaggerations and are for lazy job seekers that “spam” employers. So in order to stand out from the pack they recommend writing a focused cover letter that shows how you are interested in THAT company

  2. Years of irrelevance

    3. - Years of experience in a industry or a particular function is not a good predictor of future performance so employers need to look for how good candidates are at the job. Therefore you as a candidate with or without years of experience need to focus on how well you can do the job and perhaps be prepared to demonstrate it

  3. Formal Eduction?

    4. - If you don’t have a formal education from a well known school don’t worry, some employers are looking for those who do not necessarily excel in the classroom. Speaking from personal experience here: some of the most talented people I have ever met never finished any college education. These employers will look for your ability to deliver and your enthusiasm for the company and role.

  4. Managers but not delegators

    5. - the authors urge employers to look for people who are used to managing themselves, define tasks and accomplish those tasks themselves without oversight thus freeing the employer up to do other work. They challenge employers not to hire delegators who like meetings, who clog up the system with busy work and who don’t know how or want to roll up their sleeves and get the work done. Executing an effective job search is arguably a great test for this ability!

  5. Be a great writer/communicator

    6. – No matter what the job function – clear, concise and effective writing is a core skill that will benefit the employer as writing (via email, sms, etc) is the main form of communication today. So as a candidate use whatever chances you have prior, during or after the job search process to show your own style, personality and communication skills through your writing.

Taking this approach requires you to know what type of company you are applying to, how they hire and whether this approach will work. It won’t work for all situations but there are certainly some that it will help you significantly (particularly smaller companies). But this is the approach that we are recommending anyways as job seekers who are looking to take control of your job search.

Tell us what you think, is this good advice?

First Contact – Don’t be a Captain Kirk …

Posted by jobspeaker in Job Market on March 3, 2010

This post is Part 5 in our 7 part series on how to manage your job search.

Congratulations you’ve probably done a lot of work to get this far and now you have contact with the hiring manager within the company. In Star Trek, Captain Kirk often wandered onto a new planet without finding out much about the aliens that lived there. Kinda saying, “Hi, I’m from Earth, you’ll LOVE me!”. Well, that might have worked for him but it probably won’t work for you. Assuming you are going to talk to this company about a role then you’d better do your homework on the company and the people you are going to meet. Arguably this stage and the next (the interview) are where you need to put in the most effort.

Now that you’ve got the introduction to the hiring manager you need to put your best foot forward and to do so you need to present yourself as the perfect candidate (without making things up). You need to work the network that got you into the role in the first place in a very short period of time so that you can alter your resume and cover letter to fit the role and company. Speak with those that introduced you to the company, speak with others that you know at the company or people who used to work there to get a better understanding of the company, the individuals and more specifics on the role. Most job descriptions are not written very well and there is always more information about the role that is pertinent to your application than can be explained in the job description. This is what you are searching for – the information that once highlighted in your resume or cover letter makes the hiring manager sit up and take notice. For some great advice on resumes and more generally on job searching, check out these bloggers: Susan Ireland and Alison Doyle.

It is our opinion that you need to customize your resume and cover letter for every role. You should maintain a standard resume for the major job roles that you are applying for i.e. a version for all of the project manager roles and a version for all of the copywriter roles. Then when applying for a role you customize your application (cover letter and resume) with details that highlight your skills/experience for the role even if that means changing just a few words or a sentence or two. In other words, you need to make the resume fit the job description and bring out information that address the must haves in the job description or that you have found in your research. Now that you have a better understanding of the company and the role than anyone else in the application process (based on the homework you’ve done) – you now must use that advantage to move your application to the top. This background knowledge also serves as a great basis for the research you need to do when you move through to the next stage, the interview.

Let’s not forget that warm introduction we talked about in the last segment (Approach) – now you hand your resume and cover letter to your contact at the company and ask them to give it to the hiring manager. Of course, if you can also ask your contact to recommend you that’s even better. But either way, it is your responsibility to convince the hiring manager that you are the person for the job once they see your application.

So unlike Captain Kirk, who had more than his share of unpleasant experiences with alien species – you can increase you chances of a positive response to your application by doing a small amount of additional work.

Next:
Step 6: Interview – be prepared!

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Jobspeaker is a service to help job seekers manage their job search – sign up at www.jobspeaker.com.

Not your Parents’ Job Search

Posted by jobspeaker in Job Market on November 23, 2009

Before we start explaining each of the steps in the “7 Steps to Managing your Job Search in today’s Job Market” we would like to explain why a job search today is different than a job search 10, 5 or even 1 year(s) ago.

The recruiting environment is changing – online recruitment was a big thing in the late 90s and has grown ever since. Do you remember this 1999 SuperBowl Ad?

Great ad but that was 10 years ago! Online recruitment hasn’t evolved much since then and it certainly hasn’t lived up to the hype of ads like this. We at Jobspeaker, and lots of others, believe that the dominance of the large job boards is all about to change – online recruitment is undergoing dramatic changes now and over the next several years. It may take a while before a new model emerges and seriously challenges the old one, but there is such a huge amount of innovation in this space at the moment that in our view it will be a matter of when, not if the model will change.

Some leading indicators of this change:

  • Some companies are discontinuing their contract with the major job boards in preference for managing the job candidate search themselves
  • Recruiters are using Twitter and other social media tools to market and find talent
  • Monster.com revenues dropped significantly (34%) in the first quarter of 2009. Although Monster.com’s revenues in the more current quarters have rebounded, it’s unlikely that its revenues will reach the prime level again in its current business model
  • Only 1 out of every 6 unemployed people is actually looking for a full-time job – instead they are looking for short term work or contract work, starting their own businesses or finding other forms of non-fulltime work – all of which are not characterized as employment
  • Companies’ in-house recruiters are getting engaged in online communities to attract talent
  • For candidates there are now new ways of getting yourself noticed: Video resumes; social networking profiles, social networking advertising, personal brand management, etc.
  • New models abound: pay-to-apply websites; be-paid-to-interview websites; membership based models; candidate filtering models; job aggregation tools, etc.

To be fair, some of these trends have been accelerated by the economic problems we are currently experiencing. But that accelerated change may lead to long-term change as people on all sides of this market examine the value they are getting for the time, money and effort spent using the current model(s). When hiring was going well, nobody really paid attention to metrics. In this economy, however, companies, recruiters and job seekers are examining their hit/success rates.

Back in my parents time, circling the employment ads in the local newspaper was the primary way of searching for a job – that model has almost disappeared. Today, we think you’ll agree that there’s no shortage of online resources for the job seeker. However, with the proliferation of job sites, tools, advice and approaches out there, it’s now firmly the job seekers’ responsibility to decide which tools make sense for their situation. How the job seeker manages all of this efficiently is the key to an effective job search.

Next:
Step 1: How to Define the Goal of Your Job Search

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Jobspeaker is a service to help job seekers manage their job search – sign up at www.jobspeaker.com.

7 Steps to Managing your Job Search in today’s Job Market

Posted by jobspeaker in Job Market on November 12, 2009

The first in our 10-part series of posts focused on how to efficiently and effectively manage your job search in today’s job market. We have explored this topic before but realize that we need to go into much more depth, so we’ll start with a refresher and then take it from there.

You may think you already know how to conduct a job search, or perhaps you are now one of those people who either hasn’t gone through a job search before or who hasn’t had to do it in a long time. In any case, we think the suggestions we have included here (and throughout the remainder of our series) will help you navigate the job market today. We are here to help. Compiled from a variety of sources this is our advice for the steps that you need to consider and manage to find your next role.

1. Define your Goal

Without a goal you are like a rudderless ship moving in the ocean (the job market) without a particular port (role) in mind. Ideally your next role should fit into your 5-10 year plan that you have mapped out for your career. Even in these tough economic times, it’s good to keep your eyes on the prize while also keeping yourself open to new and interesting opportunities.

2. What is your Job Search Strategy?

Perhaps you know the one person that can get you the perfect job – then your strategy is clear. However, for most people, the strategy(s) are not that clear so you need to pick the most effective strategies that align with your abilities, your environment/locale and your goals. In today’s market, we advise leaning more towards establishing more personal relationships; and so exploring local offline networking events centered around your industry or competency would be worth considering. Similarly, deploying a strategy to find a contact at a prospective company before sending in a resume so that you can get a warm introduction to the hiring manager is a necessary tactic today.

3. What companies should you Target?

What are the companies you’d like to work at most? And which have the most chance of needing your skill set? Some people forget the second part – it seems obvious, but with the job market today looking outside your core skills is going to be difficult. Also, make sure you would actually enjoy working there – it would be terrible to get hired and then realize that the company’s work environment/culture does not meet your expectation. So, get to know them better from a distance – research the people, the salaries (Salary.com), what schools they attended, where did they work before, etc., to get a better understanding of who they are and what they might look for in a candidate. Once you’ve made this assessment, you are in a better position to make a decision whether or not you’d like to work there.

4. The Art of the Approach

So you know what you are looking for, you know how you’d like to go about it and you know where you’d like to work. It’s time to increase your odds of actually getting that job by trying to get a warm introduction to that company – this way at least someone will look at your resume.

Today there are so many ways to find out who you know online. LinkedIn seems to be the most useful today but you should not forget friends, or friends of friends, on Facebook, Twitter or other social networks. But please don’t forget offline contacts as well (e.g. your soccer buddies, other parents at the PTA, your school alumni association or your church). Personal introductions through long-standing relationships are better.

5. First Contact

You’ve made contact with the company and are now speaking with a hiring manager. It’s now your job to convince the prospective boss that you are the best person for this job (even if this position is only a backup – there a lots of people in fallback jobs at the moment, just waiting for the market to pick up).

6. Interview

Be prepared! There is no better advice than this one – know the company and preferably the people you are meeting. Know the area that you are interviewing in, use Hoovers, Google News to find out about the company, people, department and position that you are interviewing for. Other resources like Vault can even tell you a little about the interviewing process. When you know more about the interview process, the interviewers and the company, you can speak more to your strengths that are required for the role.

Be professional, polite and always follow-up with a thank you afterwards.

7. Offer(s)

With any luck, you’ve managed the process very well so far and now it’s time to decide. There are lots of different factors to consider, not just salary – make sure to weigh them all properly before you make a decision.

Obviously role, salary and responsibilities are significant factors but don’t forget that you are going to spend a lot of time at this company with these people, so be sure to weigh the positives and negatives of the people you are working with, the direction it puts you in for your next career move and last, but certainly not least, how well it factors into the rest of your life – your hobbies, your family, your commute, etc.

Good Luck managing your job search!

Our next posts will go into each of the areas above in sequence and explore exactly how to manage them appropriately.

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Jobspeaker is a service to help job seekers manage their job search – sign up at www.jobspeaker.com.