Codestorm.Org Post

I responded to a post on another site the other day. The candidate had some concerns about the behaviour of a recruiter that contacted him. The recruiter provided very little info on the firm, was pressuring him somewhat for information, and the firm name seemed to be associated with 2 or 3 other domain names etc, when he researched them on google, etc. He concluded that they might have been some sort of scam. The incident reveals the risks of not having a two way dialog with candidates, and not sharing information about yourself, your firm and your background, rather than just drilling the candidate for information. Here's my response:

First, you could be correct. I don't know this firm, and there might be something screwy going on. As I note in my blog, candidates OUGHT to ask a lot of questions themselves, not just be on the answering end of things, coughing up all kinds of information.

However, there can be legitimate reasons for some of what you saw. I am familiar with one of the names you ran across, techiegold, which I believe is some kind of co-op job board. In my experience, recruiting firms frequently have different firms for different segments of the business, ie. one firm that does candidate or executive coaching (which you need to be careful of, since this area usually involves costs from the candidate side). Firms often separate their perm recruiting business and temp or contract business, to develop different brand identities, and for legal and HR reasons due to the fact that you may not want to have the same HR policies and benefits for the recruiting staff as the contract staff that works there. (Perm recruiters don't hire candidates, they charge a fee to the client for placing. Temp or contract groups hire the candidate and bill out to the clients for those people's services).

A firm may have acquired another and maintain both the old name and the new name, if they have good, well-established identity and reputation.

All of your comments are fair questions. Really the recruiter blew it by not engaging you in a more 2 way conversation to educate you about him/her and their firm, rather than just rushing you along.

Due Diligence or Buyer's Remorse

I spoke to a high end tech sales pro the other day. In the market again after joining a firm less than a year ago. Nice raise, rapidly growing young firm, great opportunity, etc, except, that it wasn't. Turns out the firm's website, marketing, PR etc were all baloney and they had practically no sales, no staff, and no future. (firm isn't an ROI client).

In a lot of cases today, there seems to be an ever-widening gap between firms' PR and marketing vs. reality. The whole field of advertising claims seems to have evolved mostly into an art in phraseology. While there are many legitimate quality companies around, it can be difficult to distinguish those from the pretenders.

Ford has advertised for years that the F-150 is the number one pickup in America. Turns out that Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra actually has outsold the F-150 the whole time, but since it's under 2 different nameplates, they are considered separate trucks.

Mutual funds are notorius for touting fund value growth percentages based on some specific period of outstanding performance. Closer scrutiny often reveals that many had a short period of stellar growth which they extrapolate, but that they actually performed poorly overall.

Another interesting arena is the explosion in awards competitions. Anyone tried to keep track of the number of movie industry awards competitions these days? If you want a little positive PR, sponsor a new award competition and name yourself the winner. I'm thinking of nominating ROI Recruiting for the best IT recruiting firm in Pawleys Island with a staff of less than 10. Since the population here is only a few hundred people, I hope we win, or at least come in the top 3.

As a recruiter, I look primarily to the employees for the inside scoop on companies. Regardless of the claims of revenue growth, employee quality and experience, you can usually get the best intel by talking to the present and former employees. When the employees start voting with their feet, it's time to take a serious look at what's going on. A serious drain on talent not only impacts a company's revenue and performance directly, but also usually means the PR and Marketing effort and expense needs to accelerate to mitigate the growing negative buzz in the community. Recruiting expenses will often rise dramatically as the company loses great people faster than they can find them. You can fool the people for a while....

As a candidate, make sure you tap into the community at large when scoping out a new opportunity. Don't just read the website; talk to people who have worked for the company, or clients or vendors who have worked with them, to find out the real scoop. And make sure you find your own contacts to speak with, not just those the company refers to you. These are like candidate references; you have got to figure the candidate is going to provide references from those that he/she feels will put them in the most positive light. Companies are no different, so dig a little deeper. The time spent will be well worth it.

So You Want to Work as a Consultant or Contractor?

This will be old hat for those that have experience in this arena. But for those who've historically worked in more traditional roles, here's an overview of the contractor and consulting arena.

I divide things up into 4 general categories; I'll use an HL7 integration analyst as an example.

Scenario #1: Hospital employee, W-2, full-time, salary, benefits, vacation, etc, minimal travel. Makes $80K

Scenario #2: Full-Time Consultant Type, W-2, full-time, salary, benefits, vacation, etc. Probably travels a fair amount, works for consulting firm, or vendor, probably makes more, $90K perhaps, maybe bonus.

Scenario #3: Fixed Duration Consultant, W-2, salary, maybe benefits, probably minimal, since only on payroll for length of a particular assignment, won't be around long enough to warrant wait period on health insurance, or accrue any vacation, etc. Paid hourly, perhaps $50-60/hr.

Scenario #4: Contractor, 1099. Hourly, no benefits, incorporated, pays own taxes. Can be all-inclusive hourly rate (pay own travel expenses) or hourly plus expenses.
Maybe $65-70/hr plus expenses, or $75-80/hr all-inclusive.

The numbers above are examples only and strictly for comparison purposes. It gives you an idea of the relative compensation for a similar skill set employed in different capacities. In a nutshell, you will tend to be paid more for situations which are more short term, which require more travel, for which you receive less benefits and for which you bear more administrative burden (taxes and bookkeeping).

Traditional employees are (or appear at least) more secure, tend to have less travel, more benefits, and the employer takes care of the bookkeeping, so they make the least.

Self-employed contractors tend to travel, are at the most risk for abrupt cancellation or termination of engagements, handle their own taxes and bookkeeping and tend to be compensated the most for taking on those risks and responsibilities.

SPIN Selling

My wife prodded me into reading the SPIN Selling Fieldbook this week. I'm about halfway through so far. Will now have to go back and get the original SPIN Selling to read also.

I've been aware of SPIN Selling for some time. One of the areas I recruit for is technology oriented sales people. SPIN Selling is oriented to larger, complex deals like these types of technolgy sales. Many candidates in this arena list SPIN Selling training on their resumes.

The reason I hadn't read it previously was primarily because the name bothered me. "SPIN Selling" has quite a negative connotation for me because of the tie-in with political "spin doctors", and the association with trying to spin, or muddle issues. Seems like every time someone famous gets into trouble, the first thing they do is hire a PR firm to try and spin the issue.

However, the advice in the book itself is sound and has little to do with the other type of "spin". One of the key points is that successful salespeople seek to understand their clients needs first, and then save pitching their product or service for later. Many candidates could benefit from this advice. Too many of them launch right into explaining why they're great for a job before they really know anything about the position. One of the stereotypes of technology people is that they are too technology focused, rather than business focused. Failing to seek understanding of a project, issue, business challenge, or job opportunity before launching into suggestions sends the message that you do not listen, research or understand before acting. And that is rarely a good approach for any situation.

Candidate Stretch vs. Client Comfort: The Match

Career-minded candidates are generally looking for 'growth' when seeking a new position. Clients are generally looking for someone that can do a particular job. The easiest way for them to find that someone? Find someone who already has. But that means that for the candidate, it's the same 'ol, same 'ol, right?

Not all candidates look for growth. Some like that status quo. But by and large it is in both the candidate's and client's interest for there to be some challenge in the new opportunity. It motivates the candidate and gives them a sincere reason to learn, and grow and develop.

The trick is to find a position that is a balance of growth and familiarity.

I frequently run into candidates who are overreaching, sometimes a lot. Sometimes they are unemployed. Usually, these candidates overreach what I call 'sideways', not too much in terms of money or title, but too much out of their area of expertise. They want to be considered for everything.

Others overreach in terms of title or salary, frequently trying to talk their way into a position before they even know what it's about, simply because the title sounds enticing. Most of us could manage to do a lot of things we've never done before if absolutely necessary, but that doesn't make us the best candidate.

One of the marks of a top notch professional is self-knowledge or awareness. You should know your own strengths and weaknesses and have a good sense of what's appropriate for you at the current stage of your career. Reaching for what is inappropriate makes you appear desperate or unrealistic. Reaching for a comfortable stretch shows confidence, intelligence and thought.

First Contact: Email

Your objectives and a recruiter's objectives when you first make contact are not that different; you are trying to determine if he/she can help you, and they are trying to determine whether you can help them.

When your first communication to a recruiter is via email, the most important thing is to state clearly why you are contacting them and explain your reason for doing so. Most candidates miss the mark by either:

Providing too little, or practically no information - resume only, or just a question or two with no context.

Sending an overly long email or cover letter that just rehashes the attached resume, or is full of flowery words like 'visionary', 'strategic', 'executive' (an analyst is not an executive), and says looking for a new opportunity, but with no detail.

Forgetting key contact info like phone numbers or emails, or having incorrect info.

Copying a cover letter and forgetting to edit so that it refers to the correct position, etc.

An ideal introductory email contains:

A well written resume (including accurate dates; don't list latest position as "-present" if you are no longer there)

Accurate and complete contact info and info on best dates/times/means of contacting you.

Explanation of present status: just considering a move, beginning to look, actively looking, unemployed, contract ending, and how long, or if a change is looming, when this likely will occur.

Objectives: position type, location, travel percentage, salary range, type of company, etc.

Recruiters are used to doing a little counseling with candidates, however, it is not our job to decide for you what you should be pursuing for a career, or how to deal with you and your families disagreement on locations, travel, etc. If you can't define what you want, then a recruiter is either not going to bother trying to help you, or will end up trying to push you into whatever they have available.

Last, but not least: When I receive a well written introduction, I immediately (until proven otherwise) assume that I am dealing with an "A" candidate - sharp, decisive, confident and who knows the value of working with a good recruiter.

Even if they are not a fit, they stand a good chance of getting a response and whatever help I can provide. A candidate that provides me little or nothing, is likely to get the same.