it's ALL about the experience

Is the Cover Letter Dead?

At the Electronic Recruiting Exchange (ERE) conference in San Diego, we had the distinct pleasure of meeting and chatting with Joyce Lain Kennedy, the nation's first syndicated careers columnist. Her work, CAREERS NOW, is distributed by Tribune Media Services and appears in more than 100 newspapers and websites.  Now, Joyce is a busy woman, what with answering countless correspondence from her readers and revising the 3rd edition of Cover Letters for Dummies, due out January 2009.  No surprise then, after writing career advice for more than 40 years and seeing the paper method of job search move to an increasing reliance in the technological domain, what's really keeping the woman up at night is, "what do recruiters and hiring professionals really think of the cover letter?  Is it dead?" 

Of course, we thought that was a lovely question to pose to those of you who frequent our blog.  So, what do you think?  Is the cover letter a relic of yesterday's recruiting?  Has it been replaced with on-line profiles?  Or, do you still think it has value?  We'd love to hear your thoughts.

Technorati tags:  cover letter; Joyce Lain Kennedy, recruiting and hiring. 

Banish Lowball Offers

We had the pleasure and privilege of sharing some of our recruiting thoughts with Frank Sennett, Editor of Employee Recruitment & Retention. He asked us to provide a pet peeve in recruiting -- and something many people take to be conventional wisdom but that we find to be a myth.  Here's our example, as permitted for repost/print by Frank.

A pet peeve that certainly ranks high on the list is employers who extend low offers to start the negotiation process in a highly competitive market.  The logic, as it has been described to me, goes something like this:   A manager (often relatively new at hiring) falls in love with a candidate.  Along the way, the recruiter learns the candidate's wage history and expectations, calibrates it with current market conditions, and coaches the manager about an acceptable price point.  Check—the desired amount is in the budget range.  The candidate is primed to receive good news...and then the hiring manager offers well below the price point because he or she wants "room to negotiate."  It's like watching the final tragic seconds of overtime in a basketball game where the deciding point is up in the air: he aims, he shoots...HE MISSES! 

In the spirit of setting up the new hire up for optimal retention, isn't it more efficient to approach the offer as a whole interaction that includes up-front discovery of needs, transparent calibration of company resources, and a resulting agreement on the number?  Great candidates always have other options (especially in a competitive market), and the price of low-balling isn't just the loss of talent; it's also the viral negative effect of word on the street about how your company does business.  Recruiting the next person gets more difficult as a result.

Technorati tags: salary, recruiting, negotiation

 

Just do it

At the ERE Expo last week, I met several people who spoke fondly about running their first marathons.  Runners are, in many respects, like fishermen: a good story goes a long way, and I know this because I am one myself.  As I shared my own first marathon story with the group, I recognized the strong parallels between running races and competing for talent in the market.  And it confirms my belief that this business really IS all about the experience.  See if you can tell what I mean:

In the spring of 1994 I was living in Portland, Oregon.  A “friend” (and I use that term loosely now, given the 26 mile distance between the start and the finish lines!) harangued me into doing my first marathon.  At least he had the decency to spend the summer training with me so I was in shape for the event; my friend was an ultra-marathoner and did this kind of workout easily in his sleep.  Help aside, I registered for the race months in advance to keep myself motivated and committed to the task.

Three months later, the day of the race finally arrived; I was in good shape, and found myself looking forward to it.  My boyfriend dropped me off at the starting point near the Willamette River shortly before 7:30 in the morning, and I proceeded with my warm-ups, stretching and merrily greeting anyone I saw.  One friendly woman responded to my hello with a smile and “So, are you doing the 5K?”  With pride I answered, “Oh, no, I’m running the marathon.”  She looked a little confused when she replied,  "Well, ya know they left a half hour ago?”

Off the ground like a shot, I barked at the poor woman, “which way did they GO???!!”

Now, there was no way that I had trained for an entire *!*#* summer and was NOT going to run this marathon.  So, I ran over to the check-in table and asked frantically again, “WHICH WAY DID THEY GO??”  With stunned looks on their faces, three officials simultaneously pointed down the main open street.  Thirty minutes behind the rest of the runners, I bolted in the direction they indicated and kept running all by myself down 4th Avenue.  As I rounded the first bend, I saw an official who had quite recently pointed the rest of the runners in the right direction.  I approached him, motioned into the distance and asked, “Is this the way I go?”  The stunned look on his face matched the previous group of officials.  He simply nodded, incredulous. 

I rounded the next bend and found myself on Front Avenue, going South.  Whooooossshhhhhh!  The whole rest of the herd was headed in the opposite direction, and fast.  I got some funny looks from the other side of the garden median as I continued south along the race path.  “Be right with ya!” I shouted as I continued my lonely, hot pursuit to catch up. 

Finally, about 10 minutes into the race I caught up with the first runner.  For all of you non-runners in the house, that would actually be the person holding up the rear.  And since that person was walking, I literally sailed past.  This kind of “passing on the left” went on for the next 10 miles of the race when I averaged a sub 7-minute mile.  What a rush!  I kept hearing people say, “Where’d SHE come from?”  And “Who was THAT?”  I felt fantastic! 

I continued my pace and thought to myself, “hey, this marathon stuff—there’s really nothing to it.”  I loved all the people out cheering,  and thoroughly had myself a jolly good time.  Then came Mile 21, when - as they say - the REAL race begins.  Suddenly, my whole body began to contort and my legs felt like they weighed 100 pounds.  Each.  I was certain that my arms were as long as a gorilla's, and fought to keep my knuckles from dragging on the ground.  And worse, the pavement had turned into bubble gum and my feet were slogging in it.  Soon those slow-pokes I had passed so merrily a few miles before began to pass me and then disappear ahead of me: women at least three times my age, young whipper snappers with easy, loping gaits.  Not not only did my body hurt, but my pride did too. 

It was humbling and gut-wrenching - but I kept on: there was NO way that I wasn't going to finish that race.  My goal was to be done in under four hours, and the sooner I drug my buns across that finish line, the sooner all this pain would stop. So I kept my feet moving for every agonizing step of those last five miles. 

And then finally I heard it: crowds cheering at the finish line.  Oh, what a lovely sound!  I kicked it into gear, and as I crossed the line I noted my time.  Four hours and fifteen minutes.  I did the math in my head and congratulated myself...for someone who started the race 30 minutes late, that wasn't bad at all! It didn’t matter to me that the official clock said something else, because I knew I had beaten my goal.  I went home happy, a satisfied first-time marathoner.  All in all, not a bad day.

Soooo….. you ask.  How is this story related to the race for talent or to creating positive candidate experience?  Here's what I think: it’s not important WHEN you start the race for feedback, only THAT you start it.  Because by joining the race, you commit to an outcome that is better than where you began.  And when you find your groove, when the pain stops and your focus becomes the finish line, you might just find the results, well - pleasant.  To quote our friends at Nike: just do it.  Happy recruiting!

Technorati tags: marathon, running, candidate experience, recruiting, Nike, just do it

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