Achieving Recommendation Letters That Actually Recommend

I was recently working with someone assigned to our career transitional services practice, helping them to put together a list of references willing to write recommendation letters. This process set me thinking about what makes a really good, really helpful recommendation letter.

1) Written references are not outmoded. For one thing, they are permanent. They are on paper, so to speak. Once you make the final stages of any interview cycle, references will be requested. You have the advantage of being able to provide written references that can be easily followed up with a phone call or email. Getting any leg up you can is helpful.

2) Yes, you can ask for written references. Most companies have rules about current employees providing references for other employees on company letterhead. However, people can write reference letters on their “personal” letterhead, which means they can write:

John/Jane Smith
123 Main Street
Anytown, USA 01010

at the top of any Word document and then go to town describing how wonderful you are.

Now, if you have people who are not comfortable giving you a written reference but are willing to give a verbal one, don’t despair. Keep an up-to-date list of these individuals and every so often, check with them to ensure that they are still willing and able to provide you with good references and recommendations.

3) Get references from the recently departed. If you find your recent colleagues still working for your former employer are squeamish about writing references, ask those you respect who have recently left the firm. They are most likely not under any such strictures and can put pen to paper for your benefit.

4) Strike a balance among those providing you with references. If possible, the majority of your references should be from those you reported to. However, in this age of 90, 180, 270 and 360 review cycles, it helps to have at least one from a peer and, if possible, one from someone who reported to you. Hopefully, this shows you are not in the running for this year’s Captain Bligh Award and are able to manage correctly not just up, but down and sideways. See how flexible you are?

5) Guide the focus of your different letters, if possible. A friend who heads up the entire North American HR function for a major company and who teaches business ethics suggests trying to get your various references to focus on and emphasize one main area of your capabilities. He says that from the HR perspective, not much stock is put into “generic” letters. The point here is to get people to be specific in their comments, not just “he/she’s a great guy, blah, blah.” And giving people an idea of what to focus on is often welcome, as people don’t always know where and how to start singing your praises.

Don’t Join the Zombie Horde

The smell of pasta arriving from the corner forces me to lift my bloodshot eyes from my computer screen. As I poke desultorily at my dish, the meanderings of the linguini begin to remind me that my faithful partner and I have been asked to review a lot of resumes lately. Word is the job market is picking up and people who weren’t worried about their resume suddenly are.

Why linguini? Because we’re seeing a ton of tangled logic being strung together through these CVs, and, I hate to say, we’re both horribly disappointed in the quality of the resumes coming before us.

We’ve both been hiring managers. We know how to tell a person with excellent skills from a person who skates by. You know the type – they change jobs in good times and nobody really cares what they’ve done because there’s a hole in the organization chart that needs to be filled and someone else will make sure the work gets done.

So let me say it again: We are horribly disappointed in the quality of the resumes we’re seeing.

We call some of these people in for interviews because we suspect that, deep down buried beneath the palaver, there’s more to these people than their resumes show. Here’s what’s disappointing: whoever is writing the resumes isn’t bothering to know or worse, learn, their subject – at all. (it’s even worse when the candidate has written the resume.) What job was satisfying, what job was exciting, what job was tedious…

I’d be curious to know whether the person writing the resume had any interest in the person they’re writing about. Because the writer has turned the candidate into a lifeless, uninteresting, bored nonentity… and, consequently, not someone you’d hire.

Why are candidates using these resumes? Don’t they care how they’re portrayed? Don’t they understand the hiring process?

No, your resume doesn’t get you a job offer – but it opens the door to an interview. Would you willingly let a Zombie in the door? Haven’t you ever watched a Zombie movie? What fool would invite a Zombie in? Why waste your time with someone like that?

We’re all used to internal recruiting being the entry level HR job and we’re all used to internal recruiters who just acted as conduits. Well, that used to be true. Like every other specialty, this economy caused push down in the HR ranks. So you have senior generalists doing recruiting these days and these senior generalists are far more astute when sifting through resumes than their earlier entry-level counterparts.

A couple of years ago your resume would be picked up because you passed the key word screen. Not enough these days – you have to show some fire in the belly, some signs of life, of interest.

You, as candidate, are responsible for your resume. If you did work that you enjoyed, that was satisfying, that you want to do again – think in terms of showing some glee when you describe your responsibilities and accomplishments. It’s your obligation to yourself to be passionate about what you do for a living; it’s your obligation to someone who would hire you to be the finest choice.

So, again, your resume opens the door. You close the deal. Bottom line: You can’t close the deal if you can’t open the door. Separate yourself from the horde by make your resume stand out with vitality, interest and accomplishment.

Deny your internal Zombie. And leave the spaghetti for dinner.

How to Stay Relevant in Today’s Transitional Search Market

Candidates are asking themselves a lot of questions these days about what is going on in the hiring market. What are the new trends in corporate hiring? How do you make sure you are ready for the new post-recession workplace while still in transition? What do you need to consider and incorporate into your career planning moving forward to compete?

With the turnaround that is, believe it or not, starting to happen, professionals are asking these questions because they are struggling through what is now shifting from a down hiring market into what we call a “transitional” hiring market.

Just what are the characteristics of a transitional market? Imagine the worst of a down market coupled with the worst of an up market. Everything is gray, muddled and foggy. That’s’ why the transitional market is hard on everyone – hiring managers as well as candidates. It’s actually pretty surprising how little gets done in a transitional market. As a hiring manager, the concern is to not make a mistake — which might cause you to lose your job or not get a promotion. As a candidate – and, don’t kid yourself, you are still indeed a candidate even while being considered for an internal promotion or lateral move – your concern is to get the commitment from on high so that you can prove your value.

One reason for this murky status is that companies are now approving positions on the basis of what they need at this very moment to solve a problem today. They have become accustomed to constantly evaluating each position and deciding when it is no longer necessary. They’ve gotten used to doing this for the last three years and it has become a corporate way of life. So you need to get used to this as well, because it’s a methodology that is not going away anytime soon.

The result is that we are all being forced to deal with the “hired gun” syndrome: companies want a specific individual known to have a specific skillset to handle a specific job, and once that need is fulfilled by that individual, then both the position and the person are pretty much history.

No wonder we’re finding that the average career at a company — career, mind you, not job — will last about three years. Yes, three years!

So how can you as a candidate combat and triumph in this job miasma? Follow these four steps to success:

Step One – Make sure you have a solid infrastructure package in place. How is your resume looking these days? Time to get it into absolutely tip-top shape. And that’s not all. What about your follow-up letter package? You know, networking letters, thank you notes, etc. You need a battery of appropriate correspondence ready to send out as soon as you meet with various decision-makers, decision-influencers and individuals who can simply steer you in the right direction. Never, ever, forget to follow up with anyone who helps you in any way.

Step Two — Define your online presence. You do it so why shouldn’t they? You will be Googled, Facebooked and otherwise violated web-wise by prospective employers and peers. Be prepared! Take down those drunken pictures of you taken at last year’s Black & Blue Ball. Put up something more sedate. And, very important, make sure your information is consistent throughout your online presences, i.e., LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, et al. These days, inconsistencies in these online resources is the same as lying on your resume.

Step Three — Make sure your credentials and references are in order. Pssst … how up-to-date are your references? It’s best to get them in writing so there are no surprises when a prospective employer asks for them toute suite. Also, make sure your credentials are in order and available upon demand. Don’t take chances.

Step Four — Take the opportunity to improve your credentials. Use this chance to start the masters program you’ve been thinking about for some time. Get the certification that will increase your attractiveness for the opportunities you’re interested in.

Step Five — Reconnect with and refresh your network. They’re out there … your friends, colleagues, former bosses. Most of them love you for who you are; some don’t. Nonetheless, start reaching out to these people and get them working for you, discovering opportunities that you might never otherwise find out about. And remember, be nice; thank these kind people. Share with them the really good photos from last year’s Black & Blue Ball.

Honestly, the best way to make sure you follow these steps correctly is to work with a firm that specializes in just this kind of work. Not just some firm that makes outrageous claims for outrageous sums of money. Too many people who are out of work have set themselves up as brand and career consultants; frankly, these people are not qualified to help themselves, let alone other professionals. Find a firm with a track record of results and who can provide you with testimonials of success. Feel free to email me with questions at rwesterhoff@brikwork.com or call me (212) 738-8442.

Holidays are Approaching and Opportunity is Knocking

Ah, yes, Mike Bloomberg is still Lord Mayor and the Yankees are once again World Champs. What could be sweeter?

It seems as if the economy might be cooperating by turning itself around. (After all, Jamie Diamond says things are bigger and better, so who am I to argue with the likes of that?)

Anyway, what this all means is that hiring will start again, hopefully in the first quarter. But right now we’re in the middle of fourth quarter and we all know what that means. Maybe some interviews, but no job offers – or at least none with a start date before January 2nd.

So you made it through Halloween, especially if you stayed away from the Village Halloween Parade. Thanksgiving is a mere couple of weeks away and then the serious louche behavior really starts and lasts until after New Year’s. Most people think they shouldn’t even bother worrying about a job search before then – well, think again.

This is just the time to make sure your paperwork and credentials are ready because it takes time to get everything in order.

As executive search consultants, we see a ton (literally) of resumes from CEOs all the way down to those talented professionals who think they’ll be CEO’s one day. From tip to toe, this is what we look for:

1. We want to know what you’ve really done and who you’ve worked for. Don’t snow us with fancy words that don’t say anything. If we tag you with a preponderant superfluity of verbosity, you’re finished with us. Don’t forget, we’re the gatekeepers. So tell us what your job was, how many people you managed, what your results were, what your accomplishments are, and what opportunities you were given to do something outside your everyday job. If you’re a sales guy, step up to it and be clear about what you sell, what your quota is and what your results are. Tell us who your clients are. Don’t omit jobs and don’t change your dates of employment or job titles. One last, extremely important point: Do NOT, under any circumstances, dumb down your resume.

2. We want to know about your education. Someone is telling candidates to omit graduation dates. Guess what? When you walk in to see us, we’ll know how old you are. So will our clients. So why try to create a false impression? It says you have something to be ashamed of. Your age is a fact and it’s a factor – learn to use it positively, not hide it.

3. Don’t forget that every executive and retained search firm is going to verify your education and work credentials before they send your resume to a client. It’s what we get paid to do. Really top-flight contingency firms will do the same thing. So make sure that you will pass the verification test. It’s a stupid reason to lose an opportunity.

4. Does your on-line presence work for you or against you? Yes, we look you up on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Jigsaw, Spoke, Xing, Scribd and YouTube. If your career and education credentials on the professional sites are different from your resume, we can’t trust your background, so you’re excluded from submission – and we delete you from our database of executive candidates too. If you put up photos of yourself that show that you’re too much of a party animal – knowing that you’re looking for a serious job – than we’re excluding you because your judgement is suspect. If your tweets or any written content you put out there are biased or uninformed, we’re excluding you because we have to be concerned about how you’ll fit into a corporate culture. Remember, silly tweets can make you look like a true twit.

5. Appearance is important. You have to be well-groomed. Make sure your hair style is current but not extreme – no zippy the pinhead looks. And, know what? No one has ever really pulled off the shaven-headed look; may be you shouldn’t try either. Check your makeup – make sure it’s flattering but appropriate to the situation; that goes for you men as well. What you’re wearing should be stylish, freshly cleaned, age-appropriate and culturally suitable. You don’t want to look like a child but you also don’t want to look like someone’s grandparent. Your photo on internet sites should be the an appealing image, the kind that says this is someone we want to have around our firm.

6. What do your references say? Do they genuinely talk about your performance and value added? Did you simply agree to swap recommendations or do you have a genuine recommendation? Do you have a reasonable number of recommendations? Here’s a secret – if you have too many recommendations for your work history, the recommendations work against you because they’re not taken seriously.

So give yourself a nice holiday present and get everything ready now. Don’t wait until you get a call about a job to get started; under the influence of real eggnog, who knows what might happen? You might end up as Alex Rodriguez’s valet.

How to Make a Satisfying Career Move During an Unsatisfying Hiring Period.

It’s sounds corny to talk about this stuff, but, as a former boss of mine once said, it never hurts to review the fundamentals once a year or so. (Glenn, you know who you are.)

As you know, the pundits have decreed the economy hit bottom and everything is starting to turn around. Because there is some truth in this, we have been hearing, of late, from professionals who are struggling through what is now shifting from a down hiring market into a “transitional” hiring market.

Just what are the characteristics of a transitional market? Imagine the worst of a down market coupled with the worst of an up market. Everything is gray, muddled and foggy. That’s’ why the transitional market is hard on everyone – hiring managers as well as candidates. It’s actually pretty surprising how little gets done in a transitional market. As a hiring manager, the concern is to not make a mistake — which might cause you to lose your job or not get a promotion. As a candidate – and, don’t kid yourself, you are indeed still a candidate even while being considered for an internal promotion or lateral move – your concern is to get the commitment from on high so that you can prove your value.

So how can you as a candidate combat and triumph in this job miasma? Follow these four steps to success:

Step One – Make sure you have a solid infrastructure package in place. How is resume looking these days? Time to get it into tip-top shape. And that’s not all. What about your follow-up letter package? You know, networking letters, thank you notes, etc. You need a battery of appropriate correspondence ready to send out as soon as you meet with various decision-makers, decision-influencers and individuals who can simply steer you in the right direction.

Step Two — Define your online presence. You do it so why shouldn’t they? You will be Googled, Facebooked and otherwise violated web-wise by prospective employers and peers. Be prepared! Take down those drunken pictures of you taken at last year’s Black & Blue Ball. Put up something more sedate. And, very important, make sure your information is consistent throughout your online presences, i.e., LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, et al.

Step Three — Make sure your credentials and references are in order. Pssst … how up-to-date are your references? It’s best to get them in writing so there are no surprises when a prospective employer asks for them toute suite. Also, make sure your credentials are in order and available upon demand. Don’t take chances.

Step Four — Reconnect with and refresh your network. They’re out there … your friends, colleagues, former bosses. Most of them love you for who you are; some don’t. Nonetheless, start reaching out to these people and get them working for you, discovering opportunities that you might never otherwise find out about. And remember, be nice; thank these kind people. Share with them the really good photos from last year’s Black & Blue Ball.

The best way to make sure you follow these steps correctly is to work with a firm that specializes in just this kind of work. A firm much like mine, BrikWork Search & Transitions. Feel free to email me with questions at rwesterhoff@brikwork.com or call me (212) 738-8442.

(Hey, it’s my blog, I’m allowed some shameless self-promotion once in a while.)

Flying High With The Ultimate Artisanal Entrepreneur

I was clocking through my email the other morning, getting mildly nervous about why I was getting all the breast enlargement solicitations and my partner (female) was getting all the … well, er … male-oriented ads, when an email from my friend Julian popped into the window.

Julian was sending out his email blast from his work in Alaska where he combines all his vocations and avocations. While up in the wintry North, Julian works as a bush helicopter pilot, delivering and herding cattle (yes, really) and supplies, picking up the injured for delivery to hospitals downstate, and generally serving the Alaskan community in ways we just can’t imagine here in the southern 48.

By the way, that’s Julian checking the wind speed on one of his runs to Umnak Island; apparently, the strength of the winds are not to be under-estimated. They are so bad that the military had to abandon Fort Glenn, the World War II-era airfield on the island because it could only be used sporadically.

Believe it or not, Julian began his career as a classically trained architect. Even though he went to work at large firms and worked on major projects, he longed to do something a little more adventurous than just wearing a hard hat when touring a construction site.

He had always been a great photographer; Julian began showing his work as a student and currently exhibits in major New York galleries.

But this still wasn’t enough.

So, in the spirit of true explorers, Julian went out and got his helicopter pilot’s license. Today he has a thriving specialty business, in which he puts all his skills to use: aerial photography of major architectural projects, landmarks and undertakings.

What I really admire is that Julian has crafted his own career and set his own benchmarks for success. I’ve learned that even “corporate entrepreneurs” can do this for themselves, using the right tools. Of course, it helps to be a great guy like Julian is, the kind of friend who even helps others get their photography careers back on track – for which, I am eternally grateful.

So take a ride with the ultimate artisanal entrepreneur – but be sure to buckle up. It will definitely be a wild, exhilarating ride.

Julian Testing Wind on Umnak Island

Using Social Media Programs Doesn’t Trump Traditional Social Skills

I was sitting at my desk, staring intently at two pens, trying to decide which one to use to give myself a frontal lobotomy, when my partner Chris walked into my office, leaned against the doorframe, and sighed heavily.

Putting aside my surgical tools, I asked what the problem was. She then shared a tale that is cautionary to all.

Chris told me how she had made an appointment to interview a candidate for a new opening come our way. As happens more often that it should, this clown blew her off: no call, no email, just no show. Chris is much more kindly than me; from my perspective, you are now dead to me. While we both recognize that, sometimes, there are circumstances that preclude a call to an executive recruiter, it better be good. For me, somewhere along the lines of a pack of dogs ate your fingers off, preventing you from dialing. Then again, you still have a nose … you get the idea where I stand.

Chris, however, will give you a second chance, no matter what. And guess what? Bozo does it to her AGAIN.

OK, he’s rude. Forget about him and move on, right? But here’s where it gets interesting. She now gets a “friends” request from Clarabell through Facebook. She finds out he’s following her on Twitter. He’s following BrikWork on Twitter. Best of all, Chris starts getting barraged by a running tally of his video game scores.

Where do I begin? On the macro plane, rudeness is something that should just not be tolerated in any form. Without common courtesy, we are no better than barbarians. As such, I refuse to shake my head about someone like this candidate and say, “Well, what are you going to do?”

Plenty. I believe people are never too old to learn. I’ve also seen enough to believe that most people do respond to positive behavioral examples. Which is why when, invariably, this candidate wants to know why he’s never been submitted to clients for consideration, we will politely explain to him why. That tweeting, friending and spacey-facing just doesn’t take the place of a good, old-fashioned phone call or email. Hopefully, we’ll get through; the odds are … well, let’s try and be positive.

However, moving to the micro perspective, even the most polite person in the world can wear thin their welcome if they misuse social media. Remember, you’re using this technology and media to build your own brand; prospective clients, employers, colleagues and such will see what you post. Do you really want all of them to think (or know) that you inhabit a world of dungeons and dragons to the exclusion of all else? That you might appear to be incapable of normal human relations — and, as such, incapable of holding a normal job? Sadly, this is what can happen when social media is misused.

I hope this little rejoinder has provided some food for thought. As for me, I think I’ll choose the pen on the right …