Archive for July, 2011

Mid-Year Job Search Check-Up: Getting Un-Stuck

July 19th, 2011 by Susan P. Joyce

Are there things you know you should be doing for your job search, but you can’t seem to get started? Or finished? Do you feel like you are trying to run through a tar pit wearing water skis to get anything done?  

You are stuck, and July is the perfect time to get un-stuck.  Leap out of that tar pit, and leave those skis behind!

With your rivals for that great job taking it easy this summer, you vault into action and snag that job while they aren’t paying attention.

How to get un-stuck immediately so you can do all this leaping, vaulting, and snagging?  Try applying these 5 rules for making progress in landing your new job.

(more…)

Network Like a Top Headhunter: 2 Lessons

July 10th, 2011 by Susan P. Joyce

In early June, I attended the Fordyce Forum in Las Vegas at the beautiful, relatively smoke-free M Resort - tough duty!

Billed as “a conference for search and placement professionals from the publishers of the Fordyce Letter,” the Fordyce Forum brought together over 120 independent recruiters (a.k.a. “head hunters”) to network and to learn new things.

These independent recruiters are a very interesting universe that most of us glimpse very briefly - if at all - in our careers.  They make their living by finding appropriate job candidates for their clients (employers) who have high level opportunities.  Not an easy way to make a living, but it can pay very well, apparently, if you are successful.

As described previously on Job-Hunt, head hunters, like all recruiters, work for employers, not for job seekers, because the employer pays them.  They are paid a fee either when a job is filled by someone they referred for the job, or, on a continuing basis  (a.k.a., “retained”), they are paid by their client employers to keep a look out for good potential employees.

Head hunters are relentless networkers.

Fordyce offered several unstructured networking opportunities in the 2-day Forum, and they were all very well attended.  These people definitely understand how to leverage networking opportunities, and watching them in action was quite educational.

(more…)

Be on LinkedIn or BeKnown? No Contest!

July 4th, 2011 by Susan P. Joyce

Frankly, I’m amazed at all the good press about BeKnown, the new Facebook app for professional networking and job search by Monster.  The privacy implications for employed job seekers are terrible!

If you currently have a job, DO **NOT** USE  BeKnown!

Be warned!  When I joined BeKnown to look around so I could write this blog post, BeKnown published this announcement on my Facebook Wall:

YIKES!  Good thing I’m not a job seeker with a job to protect and an employer or co-workers checking out my Facebook Wall!  My “secret” would be out!  Yes, you can delete that first post, but what about BeKnown’s next one!  And the one after that…

When an employer finds out about an employee’s job search,
that job seeker is frequently terminated! 

Employers are, often rightly, worried about loss of clients, business secrets, insider information, etc. when an employee leaves  So they pull the plug on that job-seeking employee as soon as they find out about the job search, sending them out the door quickly before much damage can be done.

(more…)