Author Archives: Dorothy Dalton

Career managers understand the art and science of recruitment

Job search, like it’s counterpart, recruitment, is both an art and a science. It needs to be a successful combination of the strategic leveraging of technology (the science,) with advanced influencing skills, via personal branding and networking (the art.) Like the planets, when these elements are in perfect alignment, then hey-ho mission accomplished for both sides.

The universe can’t help you

But neither end of the spectrum can work on a one-off opportunistic basis. If recruiters invest time and energy learning their craft and developing both deep and wide networks, it makes sense that a job seeker would need to do the same. But in so doing, it means that job seekers have to actually stop being one-off job seekers and shift to becoming longer term career managers. Most job seekers seem to trust the universe to kick in. If a job seeker is sending out 100s of CVs with no response, the answer is that they will certainly be doing almost everything wrong.

The universe has spoken.

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Today’s career managers, like recruiters, have to be sophisticated influencers, with more than decent levels of digital and social savvy. This is why many job seekers struggle and some fail. It’s also why career managers rarely need to become job seekers and when they do it’s generally easier for them.

The art

The art of career management is rooted in soft skills, in those intangibles that are the cement to the hard skill bricks. It’s about relationship building and branding both on and off-line.

Career managers are on the ball. He/she will have and understanding of at least their medium term goals and their strengths and personal development needs. Plus, they will have a complete and even strong online presence, an updated CV ready to go on their smart phone and be an active and skilled on-going networker, both on-line and actually. Yes, this will mean going to events and interacting with network connections. They will have their 30 second commercial and 15 word intro practised to perfection, suitable for use in a wide range of different situations.

Career managers will not be panicked into spamming total strangers in desperation telling them they are now on the market. They will already have a good reputation and high visibility in their network and a few well placed calls or mails will suffice.

The science

Recruitment assignments are usually set up and structured on the basis of hard skills and key words. I have personally never worked on a search where the preliminary triage is based on soft skills. They tend to come in later down the line. After a sweep through an immediate and known network, candidates are identified via tech-based online searches, including LinkedIn and other professional and social platforms, using complex Boolean search strings. Key words would include education, professional, and sector skills and terms, plus location. In addition we look for the scope of a job, so metrics are important, budget and team size are helpful, plus the scale of any big wins.

If job seekers fit a very specific profile then the chances of appearing in searches for their industry, sector and location are high. If they have a hybrid background, or are career changers, then it’s going to be more challenging. This is when the science really kicks in and job seekers will need to position themselves for a specific type of opening, using transferable skills.

Career managers will have been situating themselves strategically over time and in advance, with network connections in their targeted field. They may even have worked with a coach.

Wheat and chaff

With millions of job search tips on the internet it is easy for job seekers to get confused. Some of it is misleading and other stuff is truthfully just complete nonsense, written using click bait headlines. If a job seeker has the right skill set, trust me, a career will not tank because of certain vocabulary choices on a CV or LinkedIn profile, provided they are spelt correctly. CVs don’t get people jobs, but they do get interviews.

If job seekers are competing against career managers, candidates who have better resumes or a stronger online presence, then the likelihood of the hiring manager having an unconscious preference (in addition to any pre-existing unconscious biases) are stronger. This means the interview performance has to be spot on, which is a pressure a job seeker could avoid. Career managers understand this, and have it in hand. Why make a difficult life, even more difficult?

To shift from being a job seeker to a career manager, means taking a longer term view and combining the art and science of career management to meet individual goals.

Career managers take control of the things that they can.

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The less that is left to chance the better.

If you need help with your job search – get in touch

The unknown impact of Learned Deafness

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Yesterday I sent out this tweet about learned deafness, although I didn’t know that was what it was called at the time. I just thought it was complete madness.

Lady did not hear people yelling at her to watch out as window cleaner dropped bucket. Why? Headphones. Now injured. #dangerous

Have you heard of learned deafness? I hadn’t.

What I intended to do was write a post about mad women and buckets.

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Sensory disconnect

My Newtonian physics is but a distant memory, so I can’t tell you exactly the potential damage a bucket holding several litres of water would have caused, if it had scored a direct hit on her head. It didn’t. She was lucky. But it wouldn’t have been pretty. The only damage was collateral. She was splashed, which startled her and she tripped and hit her head against a parked car. She was completely oblivious to all auditory stimulation of literally, screamed alerts from passers by. Apparently the number of incidents involving pedestrians wearing headphones has tripled, while the number of accidents where cyclists and even motorists with headphones is also reported to be on the increase.

This trend of headphone or ear bud wearing, is very much associated with millennials, but actually this woman was of a “certain age.” Nor was she trying to block out noise pollution caused by jumbo jets or rush hour traffic. It was a beautiful day, with the only intrusive sounds being the merest quacking of ducks on the nearby pond.

That incident came hot on the heels of Martina Navratilova slamming tennis stars for walking onto centre court sporting headphones. She claimed that this was disconnecting the players from the crowd.

Kurt Fristrup, a senior scientist with the US National Park Service, said our modern-day obsession with wearing earphones to block out life around us, is leading into a sensory disconnect known as “inattentional blindness” or “learned deafness”

“There is a real danger, both of loss of auditory acuity, where we are exposed to noise for so long that we stop listening, but also a loss of listening habits, where we lose the ability to process what is going on around us”

Auditory streaming of an alternative reality, whether music, a book or the voice of another person, disconnects us and stops us being present in what is going on around us. We become wrapped up in “self” which only increases this learned deafness which leads to cognitive disengagement.

Survival and now success

The primal ability to listen both attentively and intently, and then respond in the most appropriate way has been vital to our survival for millenia. In a 21st century professional setting, it is key to success. In any face to face situation, the ability to read our environment is important, whether in an interview (Read: The declining art of conversation and Gen Y recruitment) or establishing our executive presence in any meeting or encounter where we are judged unconsciously by our approachability and our ability to respond and interact.

It’s not just about being alert to physical danger.

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For some, the ability to read a situation is an innate competence. But for most it is a learned skill, built up over time from direct experience, observation or osmosis. With learned deafness we lose, or never acquire, that necessary ability to listen and ask the right questions. Being in tune with the people we are with and situations we are in , allows us to hone those skills that get us the right answers. If we fail to do this consistently, trust is lost and confidence impacted, as our instincts become unreliable and our judgment skewed.

With the generational growth of learned deafness and sensory and cognitive disconnect, the impact on professional interaction will be inevitable.

The question is what can we do about it?

Post onboarding – when the honeymoon is over

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There was a great post in the 3plus eGazine this week “How to disagree with your boss and not get fired” The guest author made a connection, which you don’t see very often in leadership posts. The writer linked the value of the interview and onboarding process to the presenting leadership issue. She (he?) referred to instances where these challenges can possibly be traced to gaps in the onboarding and interview procedure. A more thorough and strategic use of these processes could have avoided some of the outcomes or at least prepared all parties.

The interview and onboarding system can flag up a lot of tells regarding potential communication difficulties and cultural fit or misfit in an organisation. Oftentimes these are at the root of leadership stress and team conflict.

It sounds obvious, but many miss it.

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Hiring by numbers

Increasingly we are seeing hiring by numbers with recruitment processes taking longer than they used to. It is becoming increasingly common to have a committee of decision makers which makes the hiring process protracted. Candidates complain that application, to offer, to start date can take six months. In many cases that would be considered speedy. During this time with everyone sticking to their agreed scripts and candidates overwhelmed by the volume of contact, very often key questions and observations are not made as a group. Communication channels and observations can actually become blurred, not clearer.

Surprisingly, this high volume of contact can contribute to the tells being missed.

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Post hiring, during the first 90 days, every one is on their best behaviour. New hires are trying hard to fit in (usually.) Managers are open and being solicitous. But a bit like a marriage, after six months the honeymoon is over. Everyone relaxes and the reality is visible. Sometimes this comes with some surprises.

People start doing the professional equivalent of squeezing the toothpaste from the middle of the tube, leaving unwashed dishes in the sink and sending texts during meals. This is generally not deal breaking behaviour, but it can consume a disproportionate amount of time and energy working around or dealing with it, when it gets on everyone’s last nerve.

Ask the right questions

At this point, when those involved wonder if serious mistakes and oversights have been made, I ask the following questions of both sides:

How well did you cover or try to gain insight into any of these issues in the interview or onboarding process to manage expectations? In most cases when there is a problem, the answer is “not in-depth” or “not at all.”
Did you pursue references? Reference taking is a real skill, especially in litigious cultures where people are reluctant to say anything other than giving facts. The number of companies which send out pro forma questionnaires, instead of investing in a one hour interview with a professional reference seeker, is really high.
Did you do any research? In an era of social media it is completely possible to have some feel for the boss you could be working for, or the person you are about to hire. This might not give you the total picture, as many people are different from one situation or interaction to another. But it is possible to get some idea.

So going into any hiring situation there is no substitute for asking the right questions, whether as a candidate or hiring manager. This means really understanding your values and what is important to you.

Find the tells

Gillian was shocked to find out that although her company offered flex working, her boss discouraged it, seeing it as a “privilege not a right.” In a three-month hiring process she only posed the question to the H.R. department and not to her hiring manager, or even future colleagues. A very short coffee chit chat could have added some insight into the department culture. “How often do you work from home?”

Bruno is struggling to integrate Marc, in his early 40s, into a department of young engineers. He had asked him how he would feel about joining a young team in the interview. He naturally, and somewhat predictably, had said “Great!” Bruno had not pursued the topic and later found that Marc had a very conservative mind-set, which hadn’t been apparent to him during the interview. When pressed Bruno admitted that he hadn’t gone into any real depth. Even a basic check would have revealed that Marc had no online presence, except for a limited and incomplete LinkedIn profile. That was a major tell.

All of this sounds easy, right? So then why do so many get it so wrong?

What questions would you have asked?

How to leverage a gap year for your resume

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5 tips to leverage a gap year for your resume

As students the world over, but particularly in developed economies, finish the last of their exams, we are seeing the start of the Gap Year season. This is a growing phenomenon where generally relatively well off students head off for far flung destinations to travel, gain life experiences and have fun.

Years ago this was the privilege of the very affluent, but now it is routinely a part of a growing number of young people’s lives, when they leave both school and university. For some they can be formative life experiences. For others they are simply staying in their comfort zones in different places.

Clutching their copies of Lonely Planet, they gravitate towards people like themselves.

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Safe in familiar company, if not territory, they move between international hostels and Starbucks, on the now notorious “gap yah” track.

Some even recall the iconic gap year movie Before Sunrise making the notion even more romantically enticing.

Benefits

There are benefits. Many people who go to university from school regret their choice of course within the first two years. Taking a gap year can help those who are unsure gain self insight and focus, but can also provide a renewed commitment for academic study and a more focused approach to learning.

Having said that, I have seen many instances where a gap year added no value at all, other than a great international holiday.

We have also observed the same time, a veritable explosion of professional gap year organisers, so the notion of a truly intrepid traveller, is becoming a distant twentieth century memory, as the process becomes commercialized, not to mention, costly. It can cost four figure sums to dig wells in Africa. There is almost a ranking of increasingly obscure and expensive gap year activities, as companies compete for this growing market which is creating a certain amount of gap year snobbery.

“You only went to France?”

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One concerned parent asked me how can her daughter leverage a gap year for her resume?

Different levels

I have to be honest and say I have never met a single person who has not enjoyed a gap year. What’s not to like? But as a recruiter and coach I have observed different levels of benefit. For some, the very process of independently managing travel arrangements, meeting new people and seeing new sights and scenes, can be character building. At one time, a gap year was a stand out feature, which recruiters paid attention to in the interview processes. Now, as growing numbers recount generic experiences, it’s getting increasingly hard to feign genuine interest.

Today, when so many entry-level students take gap years, they are becoming less impactful and their contribution to developing a CV has been diluted.

So how can you change that to showcase your experience?

Here are 5 tips to leverage a gap year:

Finance it yourself

It really isn’t that big an achievement if the bank of Mum and Dad buys you a round the world ticket and gives you a monthly allowance to drift from one temple, beach or watering hole to another.

The best way to leverage a gap year experience is to demonstrate how you were self-funding.

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This can be either by working, or other creative means.

Have goals

Reflect about what you want to achieve out of the experience and make sure you do. So many students don’t really think what they want to learn from their time away. They want to drift around and have fun. In some ways that is the lure and beauty of it, especially as going into a structured workplace will come soon enough. But it is still important to set objectives. It might be to learn a language, see specific sights, volunteer or undertake a special challenge.

Research

The press has been filled recently with stories of Eleanor Hawkins, who has just completed a Masters in Aeronautical Engineering and gained international notoriety when she, together with a group of other travellers, posed naked for photographs on the country’s highest peaks in Malaysia, considered by local tribes to be sacred ground. She was imprisoned, fined and unceremoniously deported in front of the worlds’ press. The question has to be asked:

What was she thinking?

An intelligent woman, simply failed to research and be empathetic to the culture of the country she was in. She has to be wondering how this “foolish” behaviour might impact her career. It has certainly tarnished her reputation and brought into question her judgement. Although the public collective memory tends to be short, the incident will show up in any online research on her – forever.

Keep a journal

It’s really important to be mindful of all the experiences. Journaling is an important tool to record all the key and maybe pivotal moments. There are so many ways to do this, blogging or a visual diary is a good way. I have interviewed many entry-level candidates who really have either had no ah-ah moment at all, or if they did were unable to articulate it. And when you do try to come up with something original.

Understand which skills you have acquired

Acquiring new skills or enhancing existing ones is really important so it’s really important to know what they are. They might be: time management, negotiating, budgeting, planning and risk management.

Discovering new cultures and customs; improving language skills and become more globally aware are also helpful.

They should be understood well and conveyed in an impactful way in your CV.

The 5 key skills for the collaborative economy

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How to succeed in the collaborative economy

I find that I am perplexed by an increasing number of things. I don’t know whether it’s just that there are more things to be perplexed about, or I’m just more easily bemused these days.

One of the main things that bothers me is the disconnect between the skills that today’s graduates are taught, and the ones that are needed by businesses and organisations. So as we are about to see another class of graduates flood the market, doesn’t it make sense to ask what skills they should be trying to acquire?

The answer is that no one seems to really know.

So I did pose that exact question to Rachel Botsman, international expert on the collaborative economy in an interview at HRTechEurope in March. I tend to be quite cynical about the whole concept collaborative economy, but there is one demographic I think it serves well.

That is the newly graduated.

Unemployment and underemployment

Entry level unemployment rates are still high, with the 18-24 year old demographic hardest hit at a a 23.2% unemployment rate in Europe. Employers are now expecting entry-level candidates to have acquired key skills before they start any employment and to be “job ready.”

In the US a current population survey last year found that the median income for individuals between 25 and 34 has fallen in every major industry but healthcare since the Great Recession began.

According to Pew Research, income inequality has returned to levels not seen since the 1920s. Today, income distribution mirrors those same patterns. We also witnessing what is becoming an underclass of people, who are simply unable to find work in a modern corporate economy. This is a combination of the lack of ability, the lack of willingness and the lack of opportunity.

But for those who are willing and simply lack the opportunity, the collaborative economy works perfectly.

We are seeing the expansion of the “micro-entrepreneur” role, as increasingly low value work is outsourced. This brings in its wake graduate under employment, as the number of, what used to be called “graduate jobs,” decreases.

For the uninitiated the collaborative economy is defined as:

An economic model based on sharing, swapping, trading, or renting products and services, enabling access over ownership. It is reinventing not just what we consume but how we consume.

This covers three main areas of activity: redistribution markets for underutilized resources, collaborative lifestyles where non-product assets are exchanged and traded in new ways and finally product service systems where people pay to access the benefit of a product versus needing to own it outright.

In the collaborative economy, Rachel cited 5 key skills she believed are key to success, in addition of course to the necessary hard skills. To be an Uber driver, you obviously must have a driving license.

These 5 key skills are:

Business know how
Financial awareness: P & L, tax, insurance
Self-Promotion and marketing
Networking
Professional image

As someone who is familiar with the 18-24 demographic, I would say that their knowledge of these 5 skills is generally on the weak to poor spectrum. Part of the reason for this is that they are not taught these skills. And when they are, they can be resistant to learning them.

So what today’s graduates should be willing to do, if faced with unemployment, is create their own web site and get out there. The old room chez Mum and Dad might seem tempting, but it is a temporary solution only.

Double bind

Today’s graduates are also sadly caught up in a culture where prospective employers don’t necessarily value the entrepreneurial skills of a jobbing contractor. I have spoken to any number of new and unemployed graduates who complain about the “copy paste” recruitment policies of many hiring managers. Many also moaned in frustration about the “lack of experience” trap. All have heard the lines:

“Why haven’t you had a proper job?”

“Why have you moved around so often?”

Something has got to give

Either universities have to adjust their curricula to meet the skill set deficit of the collaborative economy. Or, hiring managers need to give credit to the skills candidates pick up as “micropreneurs”

There is one final quality I would add.

Work ethic.

For anyone in their early career to survive the grind of the life of a “micropreneur”, that in it self says volumes about someone’s character.

What do you think?

People deprivation and the DIY economy

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At one time the term “DIY” conjured up images of hardware stores and tool boxes. Today the DIY economy touches every element of our daily lives, with as yet un-measurable impact. In the past two days alone within the DIY economy I have:

Withdrawn cash and deposited cash using a bank machine
Scanned and paid for my groceries via a machine
Booked a flight, printed my boarding pass, scanned it, plus my passport in the airport
Booked and printed a movie ticket (was even charged for the admin – go figure)
Spoken to a computer about the speed of my mother’s internet connection (the computer did not get it right)
Visited a Microsoft forum to sort out a problem with Skype when the official FAQ page didn’t cover my Q, and a random user did .

Self-service economy

I could go on, but I’m sure this mirrors everyone else’s experiences. According to the Economist, there are seemingly an even greater number of developments in the DIY economy pipeline on the horizon, other than the ones I’ve named. This shift to a self-service economy and workplace is at the very core of many business models today, as we in all our roles are being required to do more and more for ourselves, without specialist personal involvement of any providers.

For some this is a bonus, it releases time spent on low value work which can be spent doing other things. What I’m not sure exactly. For me it’s just a different type of low value work. The impact of this stealth process of DIY on our personal and working lives is significant.

Do we really understand the potential implications of people deprivation? I’m not sure that we do.

Here are some I have come across recently in my encounters with the DIY economy:

Lack of human interaction

Many activities which were previously managed by a service provider we now do ourselves. It has led to a loss of basic daily interaction that makes us stop, think and engage with other human beings. Telephone communication is passé with unscheduled calls now deemed intrusive by 47% in a recent 3Plus International poll.

A Gen Y coaching client commented that the remote working policy of his flat organisation, makes decision-making really slow, as no one is available to discuss anything face to face.

I almost cried when I finally got a person to deal with my Mum’s broadband speed until he asked me to call him back at some unspecified (Asian) location on my mobile. He seemed genuinely confused when I suggested he call me, as I was the customer!

C-U-S-T-O-M-E-R has become a confused concept

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Under-performance

Our personal hard drives are overloaded with processes we didn’t need to know before: shopping, banking, checking-in, ticketing and reservations, and even more. So our “busy-ness” has increased even further. Stress levels are increasing at a commensurate rate.

A condition called Attention Deficit Trait is evolving in our multi-tasking, device dominated world.

“It is brought on by the demands on our time and attention that have exploded over the past two decades. As our minds fill with noise—feckless synaptic events signifying nothing—the brain gradually loses its capacity to attend fully and thoroughly to anything.”

The human attention span is now less than that of a goldfish and our ability to cope and be effective is reduced.

We are making ourselves ill!

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Boss-less workplaces

We can now manage ourselves in the workplace. Holacracy is a new way of running an organization that removes power from a management hierarchy and distributes it across clear roles, which can then be executed autonomously, without a micromanaging boss. The work is supposed more structured than in a conventional company. With Holacracy, there is apparently a clear set of rules and processes for the allocation of responsibilities and tasks.

Now I know many people who would be delighted to lose their bosses.

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Zappos the inventive shoe company is introducing self- management into it’s company culture via a process called is seemingly causing confusion with 200 managers opting for voluntary termination. Now “doing a job is called an “energizing a role,” workplace concerns are “tensions” and updates are made at “tactical meetings.” The ubiquitous 21st century term “circles” rears it’s head again.

Some more traditional companies already provide online portals as centralized online resources for employees to manage their own career development, modify personal data, review benefit packages, and vacation requests. This increases operational efficiency and decreases admin costs.

Manager self-service provides managers with the tools and applications they need to make informed decisions, maximize employee productivity, and also reduce costs. if they are no longer the manager but part of a project circle, they should have even less to do.

Talent Pipeline

Recession hit companies aiming to stay “lean and agile,” have cut many lower level, unskilled or training jobs with process automation. The 18-24 year old demographic is hardest hit with a 23.2% unemployment rate in Europe. These entry-level roles serve as a crucial first job on a career. To be successful in a career, employers are now expecting entry-level candidates to have acquired key skills before they start and to be “job ready.”

They are no longer willing to pay for this learning curve.

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This has resulted in an explosion of unpaid internships where employees are working for nothing in exchange for so called “training.” The implications for the talent pipeline are significant, as whole cohorts of young workers lack the skills required by businesses.

BYOC – DIY hardware

Many companies are also adopting a BYOC policy, as many employees prefer to use their own devices and systems. One intern was even asked to supply his own desktop! If we participate in the collaborative economy we might even be renting out surplus resources ( e.g. our car)

New skills needed

As operational activities are reduced by automation, we are seeing a skill set shift from hard skills to more strategic ones: the ability to analyse data, project outcomes, and work and collaborate within teams to allocate tasks. There is also an increased demand for people skills, but many employers are reporting a decline in this area in the Gen Y selection process, as their use of devices (and our DIY economies?) means that basic communications skills are not honed from what used to be normal daily exchanges.

How do you find the DIY economy – benefit or a pain?

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Do you want to bring back people? Will personal contact continue to be a process of exception?

Get the right talent for your organisation – get in touch now!

The huge power of small talk

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Small talk is polite conversation about insignificant and non controversial matters. When you ask people how they feel about small talk, their reaction is almost universally one of reluctant tolerance. It’s a necessary evil, used in generally large events, either social or professional, where we all experience different levels of discomfort, when we would rather be hanging out with our friends.

It is listed as one of the major reasons people avoid networking events.

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But in fact, small talk has greater significance than we imagine. Whether we are in our element as social glad handers, or it fills us with dread and horror, it provides a powerful and vital function. Small talk is the basis of relationship building, serving to create a secure environment by managing stress and anxiety. In basic anthropological terms it establishes if someone is “friend or foe,” albeit in a cocktail party, with a glass of usually inferior wine, rather than in a cave, wielding a club.

Dr. Justine Copeland in her book “Small Talk” examines the vital role of inconsequential chat in all human communication. The reality is most relationships start with small talk whether interviews, political delegations, networking events or wedding receptions. In G8 summits the first comments amongst world leaders will not be ” what’s your position on the Ukraine/euro/sustainable energy” but the mundane “How is your /hotel/kids/wife/husband?” The first questions a couple might ask each other, will be centred around where they are you from and “what do you do?” rather than “Will you marry me?” although I’m sure that has happened!

The same is true professionally.

So if small talk is your worst nightmare, what can you do to minimise the stress?

1. Prepare
The most gifted small talkers are the ones who seem to effortlessly work the room, with a smile and a word for everyone. They are also the ones who are best prepared. They will know the demographics of the attendees, maybe even the backgrounds of a number. They will have followed the news and be up to date on key events, whether it’s a royal princess or a sporting score. Ladies this is one area we can improve on being better informed about sports and male interests.

Common interests forge bonds.

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Go to each event with a short list of current news headlines being careful to steer clear of potential minefields: religion and politics.

2. Introductions

A good firm handshake and a smile is the best for first introductions. Kiss or no kiss is a question that crops up regularly. That will depend on the person and the culture. Being British, where at one time the only people you kissed on the cheek were your parents, cheek kissing is now very common especially amongst better known business acquaintances. However, it is still considered by Debretts to be inappropriate professionally.

3. Aim for stories, not answers

Always ask leading and open-ended questions. Who, what, why, where and how? All of these produce fuller answers, especially if the speaker gets the opportunity to talk about themselves. And we all love to talk about ourselves. If someone is even more difficult to engage, give them a range of alternatives. “Which route did you take to get here? Highway A or B?”

4. Back up questions

The fail safe back up questions are always related to the context, setting or the event, whether the host, food, content of any presentation, speakers . “How do you know the host…?” “How did you become a member of…? ” “How did you enjoy…..?”

Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine.” ― Fran Lebowitz

Note to self – don’t talk about the wine, although it is a good opening line! If you are focusing on professional topics shift to the personal. A good way to do this is ” How do you find time to do anything outside work ?” followed by “What do you get involved in?”.

Ladies don’t make your kids the focus of that part of the conversation.

5. Beware the repetition trap

Have you ever noticed in small talk how we tend to repeat something that has been said to us? In our effort to be polite and agreeable, we often answer by repeating observations, or just agreeing in a non-committal way. So a comment such as:-

“Great buffet” might get a response such as “Yes, it is.”

You might try to open it up with “I wonder how they made …..?” or “Who are the caterers?”

6. Mix it up

I have one contact, who depending on the person he is talking to likes to ask one slightly unusual, eccentric question.

“What do you think would happen if we lived in a world where networking events were banned?

So what do you think?

What other tips would you add?

Enough! Fake LinkedIn profiles damage the network

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And are a total pain!

I would consider myself to be a strategic online networker. I do connect with people I don’t know if their credentials look sound. Although many LinkedIn members have devised detailed ways to quiz people on their reason for connecting, I don’t have time to decide if the owner has a fake LinkedIn profile. I have preferred to give those connect requests the benefit of the doubt.

Until recently.

Why?

Because the number of fake LinkedIn profiles seems to be on the increase.

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In the last two days alone, I have reported three. I have 82 invitations in my inbox unanswered, because on first viewing they seemed dubious. I haven’t got round to doing a forensic analysis of potential network requests, before clearing them out.

Integrity of the network

LinkedIn is my anchor business and social media network. I have a premium account and it is invaluable for every aspect of my professional work. So I don’t want to be conned by some data mining software, using a stock photo, trawling for email addresses or access to my network. Nor do I want to be contacted by financial services sharks, or loan and pension creeps, or anyone confusing LinkedIn with Match.com.

If I find I have comments added to my LinkedIn Pulse posts from half-naked Indian mystics, giving their phone numbers and another from someone who claimed to be the illegitimate son of a brothel keeper in Thailand (language more graphic, and I don’t want get brothel keeping spam, but you get my drift) then you have to ask how do these profiles even get set up and allowed to continue?

LinkedIn needs to be tougher and more vigilant.

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And before someone gets on my case about sexist comments, I blocked and reported a woman only today, because she wanted to send me private photos and a “special message.” She claimed to be the Marketing Director of a well-known brand of wine!

Data protection

I need LinkedIn to protect all members, but especially paying ones, who are part of their business model for revenue generation. I would like to be sure that when I look at a profile, send an InMail, or advertise to a LinkedIn demographic, that the profiles are all genuine. It’s hard to know how many fake LinkedIn profiles there actually are. Facebook claim to have 83 million fake profiles, so with 330m members, even if it’s less than 1%, that is a high number to have lurking in our LinkedIn networks.

New levels of sophistication

But what I am also observing is superior levels of sophistication in fake LinkedIn profile creation, when it is genuinely hard to tell. I was recently sent a connection request from the CEO of a Dubai based bank, a city I visit, so it didn’t seem out-of-place. I checked the profile and although sparse, with one typo, I decided it was fine. Within moments I had an offer to have access the fortunes of a long-lost, but very dead relative! The only family member I have in Dubai is my daughter, who is clearly alive.

A few Saturdays ago, there was a flurry of activity from known network contacts as a mutual “connection” had gone on the LinkedIn equivalent of a drunk dialling rampage, sending his female contacts inappropriate messages. I wasn’t sure why, but I had suddenly become the “go-to” authority on dodgy profiles in my circle. He has now been blocked and reported. Was he genuine? Maybe he was and got LinkedIn mixed up with a dating site on a lonely Saturday night. The reality is I don’t know. He was connected to a high number of my own contacts, so I assumed when I connected, he was bona fide.

Now, I just don’t want to be bothered with it.

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Can we really spot a fake LinkedIn profile easily?

Some say they can and others do reverse searches of time-consuming, forensic complexity. A very high percentage of LinkedIn profiles are poorly filled out or incomplete anyway. So for me, it’s actually getting harder to tell. After a quick analysis of the 82 requests lingering in my inbox, I could still observe no real consistent patterns. I recently thought I had been spammed by the CFO of a financial services organisation and cautioned the person that her contact was not in line with LinkedIn guidelines. She apologised profusely. She was a new user and hadn’t understood the etiquette.

What I would like to see from LinkedIn, is some help via a benchmark of minimum levels of profile completion before approval is given and a higher level of control. Many other sites don’t allow you to continue without complete data. If Ryan Air can do it anyone can! Semi-naked photos and brothel keepers should never make the initial cut. I recently saw a suggestion that the voluntary provision of ID could secure a verified account. Could that work? I suspect that will just make the level of fakery rise to new heights.

In the meantime I will just have to trust my instincts, which are being challenged. When in doubt I block and report.

Any ideas to solve this annoying problem?

Concerned about a graduating student? Ask this key question

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Around this time of the year I am frequently called by parents expressing concern about their offspring, particularly those about to graduate, or who maybe left university last year and are struggling to find a path. I always enjoy working with this age group, but after extensive experience have added a new question to my intake process.

“When was the last time you took cannabis?” followed by “how often do you take cannabis?”

Notice I don’t ask “do you take cannabis?” I don’t even ask about smoking. There are any number of ways to ingest the substance. Parents almost always respond in horror “no, of course she/he doesn’t “ The young person will generally be more forthcoming and usually admit to trying it “but didn’t like it” or like Bill Clinton “I didn’t inhale”

I have come to understand that these responses may not be factually accurate.

Behaviour patterns

Parental concerns are usually centred around noticed changed behaviour patterns of their kids who they report appear to be: lost, lacking in confidence, not knowing what to do, lacking energy and drive, not following through, disengaged, having financial issues, moody, withdrawn, sleep and appetite issues, attention difficulties and reduced concentration.

There are of course a number of perfectly valid explanations to explain these patterns of behaviour. Some of them are associated with normal young adult life.

They might also cover unidentified learning difficulties, for example recently at least one student had undiagnosed ADD. They can also cover depression. 44% of US college students report symptoms of depression.

In these cases for concern, I am talking about behaviours that are a barrier, which very often the young adult wants to change, but can’t. The one area that I’ve learned in the past 12 months that cannot be ruled out is, marijuana usage and even dependency. Before starting a coaching programme, I separately ask both parents and students for input on substance use.

Widespread

According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists cannabis is the most widely used substance in the UK. Frequent use of cannabis is about twice as likely amongst young people, and nearly 5.3 million 16-24 year-olds have used it in the last year. Although there are strong health warnings, the drug is perceived in many circles to be a relatively harmless substance that might even be good for physical and mental well-being, unlike its counterparts alcohol and cigarettes. Although in many geographies sale and possession is illegal, there are widespread movements to legalise the drug and some areas it has been.

So there are lots of mixed messages out there.

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This post is not to make judgments about cannabis use, but to consider the potential risks to entry level job search. This may seem self evident to many (I hear an echo of why is she writing about this?) but the number of incidents I have encountered in the last 18 months, would suggest that it actually isn’t. The discovery has left many parents shell shocked for not reading more into the patterns they have observed under their noses. Perhaps they are “just being kids” – but for some it means significant long term danger.

If any of the following patterns are evident in the behaviours of a young adult in your life, either as a parent, friend or family member – it maybe time to ask some serious questions:

Here are some red flags

Underperformance

Marijuana usage can be at the root of under performance or lack of productivity. Whether this is failing grades, failure to deliver projects or results, be on time, stay on task, embark on a job search, get a job or stay in one. The right questions need to be asked.

Financial mismanagement

Substances cost money. If your offspring is constantly asking for loans, whether large or small or you are missing re-saleable household items – these are all warning signs. Combine this with an inability to get, or hold down even a basic job then again a conversation needs to happen

Time mismanagement

Cannabis users frequently are unable to manage their time effectively. They may be late for appointments, procrastinate on tasks they need to tackle, or lose focus once they have started. Perhaps they will prioritise activities which are less important.

Erratic sleep patterns

Sleeping patterns are strongly impacted by cannabis usage in both ways – sleeping for long stretches, followed by bouts of insomnia. Very often users claim that marijuana helps them sleep, but it also increases heart rate which prevents it.

Memory impairment and problem solving skills impacted

Substance use or dependency has a profound effect on problem solving skills as well as short-term memory. If you see any signs of forgetfulness, these could be important indicators. You might find your child lying about certain things or making weak excuses for not doing something.

Mental health issues

There is growing research which suggests to connect serious mental illness, including depression and psychosis, with cannabis usage. Anxiety and even paranoia are reported with habitual cannabis use which worsen over time and in extreme cases, even schizophrenia.

Eating patterns disrupted

Clearly if you see your kitchen turning into a brownie production unit that should do it. But generally bursts of appetite, particularly for sweet products and drinks after consuming the drug is commonplace, as is loss of appetite in a withdrawal phase.

Friendship group changed

As with any behaviour pattern it’s no fun spending time with people who are not going to endorse the activity. You may observe your child hanging out with a different group of friends and perhaps being more secretive. If they live away from home this is of course difficult to monitor.

Change in relationships

Managing a young adult whether in your house or as part of your family is challenging anyway, but if there is a shift in your relationship, you see locked doors, lack of engagement with the family, use of room fragrances, eye drops or cologne, temper outbursts and requests for privacy, these can all be indicators that substance abuse is involved.

Drug equipment

If there is evidence of drug paraphernalia – nothing could be clearer.

I’m not suggesting that all young people who struggle to find a path or a job, are necessarily cannabis users – but parents need to ask the right questions if these patterns of behaviour persist.

This is particularly true if they are a barrier to economic and financial independence.

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Career Coaching

Career coaching, or any other coaching, can’t take place if the client is in an altered state. So if there is a strong feeling that cannabis usage is part of your young adults lifestyle, then specialist help should be called in.

Whether this is medical or addiction support will depend on the extent of the habit.

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Many employers also run drug tests and cannabis can stay in the system for as long as 60-90 days for habitual users. There is much online advice on how to get round these medical tests, but if employers use behavioural interviews or psychometric testing, candidates under the influence of any substance, are likely to under perform.

So a good tip for entry level job seekers is to kick the pot habit now.

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One parent discovered his son indeed was an habitual cannabis user, which had negatively impacted his academic results, general behaviour as outlined above and outlook on life. We involved specialist help from the outset. He is now drug free and can start a proper career transition programme.

It’s always easy to avoid looking at the obvious, but sometimes it’s necessary. What have your experiences been? Please share!

Social recruitment makes relationship building vital

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Relationship building has always been a key part of any recruitment process. But today technology has shifted the focus as the process becomes increasingly social. Organisations who don’t keep up with the pace and direction of these social recruitment changes are going to get left behind in their search for top talent.

CV Black hole

Despite high levels of unemployment recruiters and hiring managers bemoan the lack of the right, top quality candidates. Jerome Ternynck CEO of Smartrecruiters suggested that the mis-use of A.T.S. has reduced the possibility for developing relationships, leading to the infamous CV black hole. Control, compliance and storage have become the overriding criteria, rather than relationship management to engage and close the best candidates.

Many companies forget the candidate experience, with an estimated 91.4 % of unqualified candidates reporting zero contact beyond the automated acknowledgement of application receipt. Candidates cite the lack of any contact at all as biggest frustration of all. A huge number of potentially excellent candidates simply disappear into the ether, generating what Bill Boorman referred to as the “Employer Bland”

Social Media

At one time the terms applicants and candidates were used interchangeably, very often with an applicant becoming a developed candidate following a screening process. Social recruitment makes the distinction far more fluid. This has a new significance not just for job seekers, but recruiters and hiring managers. Many employers now look at the public and social media profiles of potential employees as part of the vetoing process, which can highlight much about the personalities and characteristics of any candidate. An employer endorsement in the public domain, adds increased value.

Talent tipping point

Today, successful social recruitment is about marketing, collaboration and relationship building. At #HRTEchEurope, Bill Boorman referred to this shift as the Talent Tipping Point. This is defined as the optimal point at which an organisation reaches the ideal number of connections across various channels to meet future hiring requirements. Formal processes are no longer necessary to reach that level. Social media platforms from Facebook career pages, Twitter followers, web site subscriptions or LinkedIn Groups and company pages all make strong contributions. These searchable data points make it easier for companies to identify potential employees in a more effective and timely way, reducing the number of untargeted applicants and increasing the number of targeted candidates.

From a job seeker’s perspective there are now have many different ways to learn about the culture of a target company. Organizations can also create multiple opportunities to manage candidate expectations in the hiring process.

According to Boorman, the average candidate apparently now follows a company for 7 months, with as many as 40 connections to an organisation. They are increasingly connecting with companies via LinkedIn and other social communication channels, Fan pages, Twitter accounts etc. So for job seekers and companies alike, developing a relationship is becoming increasingly important to make the shift from applicant to candidate.

Previous applicants

With an improved candidate experience, all previous applicants become potential future candidates. The creation of an effective candidate C.R.M. system (treat your candidates as you would a customer) companies amass significant qualified information on individuals who have interacted with the company at one or more levels. If a candidate experience has been good, even if the outcome is not positive, the candidate could well be interested in engaging in another process. 60% of candidates are never asked to provide feedback on their screening or interview experience so most organisations have only a limited idea of how they are perceived.

Add company alumni to this group and the possibility of “returnships” to people who have taken parenting leave and left the organisation, then the reach of any organisation is extended.

Savvy companies make a policy of creating career information for every demographic – past and present employees as well as potential ones.

So how prepared are you for social recruiting? Get in touch now to strengthen your talent pipeline.