LinkedIn Tips
by Bill Vick

I recently received an email from Bill Vick, industry icon, LinkedIn expert, and all-around nice guy who wanted to share some information with me about LinkedIn, a great service I have written about in this column before.

Bill tells me he has had discussions with recruiters all over the country about their successes and the many ways LinkedIn has benefited the industry. During those discussions many questions were asked, and Bill has put together a few LinkedIn tips that he has agreed to share with The Fordyce Letter subscribers. Follow these tips to enhance your LinkedIn experience.

1. It’s often more important to be found than to find. It’s also very important that, when you are found on LinkedIn, your LinkedIn Profile page is up-to-date. So take the time to make sure your profile is complete, is regularly updated, and reflects who you are and what you are currently doing. And don’t forget to sprinkle your profile with the keywords that somebody looking for you might use when search-ing for you.

2. Remember, you are your brand. Google your own name, strive for consistency in your online image, and try to have the same message whether some-body finds you on LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, or any of the other networking sites. By the way, if you don’t find yourself on Google, or your name is not as prominent (i.e., front page of Google) as you would like, it could be time to think about promoting yourself better online.

3. Gain visibility and branding by participating in the new LinkedIn Answers. You can ask questions of your own network, or the entire LinkedIn network, as well as offering answers where your special knowledge and information will help others – and in the process add to your visibility. It’s not only good karma to help but also gives you the stamp of expertise and special knowledge. It’s essential to be genuine in framing the question. If you try and game the system by framing a blatant self-promotion as if it were a genuine question, you won’t have to wait long for someone in the network to flag your “question” as spam. But genuine, interesting questions are bringing people great positive exposure.

4. Connect with power networkers or “hubs” in your industry, company, or job function. You can be confident that the ones near the top of any search when sorted by connections are in the thousands, and their second degree is hundreds of thousands, which now becomes part of your third-degree network.

5. Install the Outlook toolbar and consider joining Plaxo (www.plaxo.com). The new Plaxo 3.0 not only works with PCs and Macs but also offers automatic synchronization with your address book of choice, various Web mail systems, and now LinkedIn.

Thanks to Bill for sharing. You can find out more about his very popular book, Happy About LinkedIn for Recruiting, at http://www.happyabout.info/LinkedIn4recruiting.php or his newest book about recruiting superstars at http://www.bigbiller.org.

Maureen Sharib
- Telephone Names Sourcer

“What’s a names sourcer?” you may be thinking. You might have seen that title recently, or maybe seen industry recruitment ads calling for the skill. Names sourcing is a little-understood activity. Simply put, it’s the finding of people who hold specific titles (usually) within specific organizations (usually) so that you, as a recruiter, can contact them and offer them your opportunity. Those of us who have “been around the block” might know this technique as “ruse calling,” something we all learned way back when in our first week on the job. Maureen is a names sourcer – more specifically, a telephone names sourcer – and she has taken this (almost) lost art, revamped the process to remove the “ruse” part of the job, and is now helping recruiters all over the country safely fill their open assignments. I wanted to give everyone a heads-up in case the need for this type of service might arise.

Maureen says usually 30 to 50 names should pretty much guarantee one immediate hire in most industries. “It’s a numbers game,” she reminds us. “Though in the month of June one of my customers wrote, ‘Your research into (giant manufacturing organization) produced two good candidates for the upper-level procurement position. All 12 names were usable. The client is impressed, and we are good to go.’ It happens, but it’s not the rule.” As a telephone names sourcer, she might use the Internet to do some initial research into a company to find a few names, but once she has those, she gets on the phone. “This is Maureen Sharib. Can you please tell me if Julia Matthews is still the organizational development director in your HR group? Oh, you don’t know? Can you please transfer me to the administrative assistant for that department?” Once Maureen gets in, she’s IN, and she’s famous for her retellings of the happy (and sometimes not) events.

One of Maureen’s typical jobs (she charges $42 per name, although the industry average seems to be in the $55 per name range) can save her customers, on average, 75% to 80% of typical recruiting costs.

Maureen not only provides the sourcing service described but also offers a course on telephone names sourcing to her recruitment industry students called The Magic in the Method. You can find out more information on Maureen, her services, and her training on her website at www.techtrak.com. You can also contact Maureen via email at maureen@techtrak.com or via telephone at (513) 899-9628.

Telecom Jobs
WirelessMobile-Jobsboard.com

I recently received an email announcing a recruitment hub for those seeking telecoms jobs, radio jobs, mobile computing jobs, Bluetooth jobs, WiMAX jobs, Wi-Fi jobs, and mobile telecoms jobs – WirelessMobile-Jobsboard.com. I know there are many recruiters in this specialty, so I thought I would include this site for those firms.

They advertise telecoms and mobile telecoms jobs for those seeking jobs in management, marketing, business development, sales, project management, business analysts, engineering, soft-ware, software development, software applications, and jobs in wireless technologies, networks, and regulatory and support functions.

I don’t know much about this service other than what is on the website, but anyone with a need in this area can find out more by visiting their website at www. wirelessmobile-jobs board.com.

Tip
Melissa Data

This is a site that offers many free lookups that we can all use in our daily recruiting and/or sourcing duties. They offer lookups for zip codes (by county and city), telephone numbers, addresses, IP location, SIC codes (including counts of businesses based on type or SIC code by state), radius searches (including zip and area codes), and much more. They do have some fee-based services of course, but most of the lookups are free of charge. I often use them to look up zip codes when trying to source candidates in a specific geographic area. Visit the Lookup page of this site by going to http://www.melissadata.com/lookups/index.htm.

Mark E. Berger, CPC, AIRS CIR, has been in recruiting since 1979. He is currently a partner in Ramsey Fox, Inc., an IT services firm, and has been there and at its predecessor, M.E. Berger & Associates, since 1986. He has been heavily involved in Internet recruiting and is an expert on recruiting and sourcing products, services available on the Internet, and how these products add to the bottom line. Mark’s interests include successfully integrating both computer and Internet recruiting technology into a traditional recruiting environment. He has taken AIRS I and II training and has obtained the AIRS CIR designation. Mark is also on
the board of directors for the Missouri Association of Personnel Services. He can be reached at mark@ramseyfox.com. His web-site is www.swatrecruiting. com, and we recommend that you visit it to see archives of his articles and information offerings exclusively for recruiters.

Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People offers a ton of great information for being successful at whatever endeavor you choose to pursue in your life. One of the success steps outlined in the book is putting first things first. Covey creates what is called a Time Management Matrix, shown here:

The goal with analyzing your matrix is to focus attention on the important, urgent tasks and to eliminate the not important, not urgent tasks. Some examples of items that might fit into each category:

IMPORTANT/URGENT:

Career-oriented activities or money-oriented activities, such as performing well at work, starting a business, or promoting your company.

IMPORTANT/NOT URGENT:

Activities related to self-improvement and/or lifestyle; these activities are fulfilling but usually do not have a finite time-frame: getting a higher education, maintaining your health, spending time with your family (spouse, children, relatives).

NOT IMPORTANT/URGENT:

These activities will usually pop up in your life as apparent spur-of-the-moment emergencies or recurring mundane tasks, such as doing the laundry, cleaning your house, mowing the lawn, etc.

NOT IMPORTANT/NOT URGENT:

Time-wasting and/or entertainment activities, such as watching TV, excess sleep (beyond your minimum requirement), video games, surfing the Internet.

As a whole, most people will spend more time on the Not Important items than on the Important ones. Why is this? Perhaps it is because the not-important activities tend to either be more entertaining or produce more immediate gratification. In a world where microwave mentality is the way to go, instant gratification is what most people want. Though they recognize the importance of working persistently toward a goal, the appeal of instant gratification creates that temporary solution. Working on your health – going to the gym and maintaining a balanced diet – takes time and cannot be completed overnight. Cleaning your house or mowing your lawn, however, takes a matter of hours and can result in the satisfaction of a job well done.

This matrix is excellent be-cause it can be applied in so many different situations. For example, the time-management matrix may be used to help prioritize a researcher’s search requests. It can also be used to assist in categorizing the client’s needs for a recruiting practice.

Example: As an Internet researcher, you can use this matrix to place different levels of priority on the search requests received from the recruiters whom you support. The same exact model can be used to assess client needs from a recruiting standpoint. Here is a possible layout:

A researcher’s, as well as a recruiter’s, priority should be placed on the client who puts money down on a search. The least priority should be given to a search assignment where there is no money up front, the fee is low, and/or the search has been farmed out to numerous other recruiting agencies or has been combed through by internal recruiters before being passed along to you. This kind of search could be referred to as “sloppy seconds.” Knowing of course that each recruiting operation is different, these are just some simple examples of ways that both researchers and recruiters can prioritize their search assignments.

Many recruiters – and re-searchers as well – may argue that “each search has a sense of urgency” and that “attention should be given to each search assignment.” If you truly adhered to that kind of thought process, each time you received a new search assignment you would drop whatever you were working on at the moment to start the new search. In reality, you would be very busy but not productive at all, as most of your projects would be begun but never finished. This is a big problem that many researchers and recruiters alike have. We appear very busy all the time, but we are usually not being as productive as we could be. Excellent re-searchers and recruiters learn to place different tasks in priority quadrants like these and to focus on the important, urgent activities first and foremost, while trying to eliminate the not important, not urgent ones as quickly as possible.

What can we learn from Covey’s matrix? Very simply: Proper prioritization propagates productivity.

Being able to place your searches in appropriate prioritization will enable you to be more productive with your work time. Time is a commodity that cannot be bought back; it is best to plan for proper use of it. Doing this will increase the efficiency of your team and your company, which will in turn put more money in your pocket.

Please take a look at Stephen Covey’s collection of books, speaking engagements, and other training tools at www.stephencovey.com.

Amybeth Hale is Manager of Internet Research for SearchPath International’s Centralized Re-search Department. Using her research skills, Amybeth networks throughout various industries to uncover talented individuals and marketing opportunities for franchise offices. Her duties include but are not limited to offering research support, assisting in research support to franchises, assisting in database and sourcing training, and finding and training new research talent to assist with the growth of the company. Amybeth also maintains a research blog, www.amybethhale.com. She has been a guest author for other well-known Internet recruiting re-source blogs.

I coach and train recruiters all around Australia, and one of the most frequently asked questions from desk-level recruiters is “How do I stop my client listing the job with other recruiters?”

Great question! The practice of clients multi-listing a job has always been part of the daily challenge for recruiters. My question in return is “Did you give the client a sound reason why it is not in their best interest to multi-list the job?” Inevitably the answer from the consultant is “Er, no I didn’t.”

If the recruiter doesn’t provide at least one compelling reason for the client not to multi-list the job, then why wouldn’t the client go ahead and list the job elsewhere? The major reason why most recruiters are unsuccessful in their attempt to dissuade the client from multi-listing a job is that the conversation for job exclusivity comes across to the client as being about what’s in the recruiter’s best interest (no competition and an almost guaranteed fee), not about what’s in the client’s best interest (getting the best candidate for the job, as quickly as possible).

In this skills-short job market, the client logic for multi-listing is something like: “Listing the job with more recruiters means greater market coverage, therefore a better chance of filling the job quickly.” On the surface that sounds logical, but let’s look at eight reasons why that logic might be flawed, and why exclusivity may be a smarter choice for the client.

1. It potentially devalues the job in the market and potentially devalues the brand of the employer: The law of scarcity is a very powerful law. Using a metaphor to make the point, you are hungry and are looking for a good restaurant at which to eat. You don’t know the area. You walk past a busy restaurant that has one table free. The almost-empty restaurant next door has plenty of tables free. Which restaurant do you choose? Nine times out of10 you choose the busy one because the fact (and most likely the reality) is that the scarcer the seating, the more likely it is that the food is better value. It’s exactly the same with jobs. If four different recruiters ring up the same candidate across a 48-hour period and all mention the same job, the perception is that the job is of less value than if one recruiter has the job. The candidate is more likely to wonder why the job needs to be given out to four recruiters. If it was a hot job or a job working for a “brand employer,” one recruiter would be able to fill the job easily and quickly. Good jobs (or jobs with good companies) don’t need a multitude of recruiters to fill them.

2. Quantity becomes more important than finding the best candidate: If a recruiter knows they are up against a competitor, they are much more inclined to just “throw mud against a wall” because they don’t want to risk a competitor putting forward a candidate that they also had on their database. As a result, all recruiters in multi-list situations put forward any candidate who remotely fits the job spec. The outcome: four different recruiters finish up sending 20-plus résumés, and the client is lucky to find one candidate worth inter-viewing.

3. The client does more work and still pays the same fee! Taking the 20-résumé example above, the client now has to spend their own valuable time reviewing all 20-plus résumés and then fielding, or making, a multitude of calls to four different recruiters to provide feedback, arrange interviews, etc. (not to mention the four separate conversations to brief each recruiter on the job). If you add up all this additional time (compared to working with one recruiter), the client probably spends another five or six hours in duplicated communication.

4. The client does more work, resents it, and starts to cut corners: Because a client has briefed more than one recruiter, the client quickly starts to resent all the duplicated communication. This then leads to the client lessening the most effective communication channels (face-to-face and phone) and increasing the least effective communication channel (email), so the client can “get back to doing their real job.” These tactics may help the client (in the short term), but they frustrate the recruiter, who needs consistent and up-to-date “real time” client feedback to deliver the best possible candidate as quickly as possible.

5. Exclusivity gives the recruiter time to do a thorough job to find the best candidate: The most valuable gold nuggets are found by drilling down into a gold field; they are not found scattered on the surface, where it is quick and easy to locate them. It’s the same with the best-quality candidates; you need to drill down deep into the market to find them. They are rarely to be found “on the surface.” A recruiter who has an exclusive brief has more time to “drill down,” i.e., properly review their database, network the market, write a quality advertisement (if necessary), screen effectively, interview effectively, brief the candidates fully, compile an effective short list, take references before referring résumés, etc. All of this vastly improves the possibility that an 8/10 or 9/10 candidate will be found to fill the job, not a 5/10 or 6/10 candidate.

6. The reality is that all recruiters give priority to exclusive jobs: Whether any recruiter admits it or not, the reality is that exclusive jobs are given higher priority by the recruiter for two main reasons: (a) the client is relying on that recruiter, and only that recruiter, to fill the job, and (b) the probability of receiving a fee for work done is about four times greater with an exclusive job com-pared to a multi-list job. Like any smart person, a recruiter pursues the option that is most likely to provide the best outcome (fee) for their input (time).

7. The best candidates are put forward to exclusive jobs: In almost all cases, the clients who multi-list a job are slower at responding to quality candidates who are put forward. Recruiters don’t want their hard-earned reputation with candidates damaged by unresponsive clients, so the best candidates are forwarded to quick-response clients (almost always clients listing jobs exclusively). Slow-response clients are more likely to be sent second- or third-tier candidates simply because these candidates are more likely to still be on the market when the slow-response client finally gets around to responding to résumés sent by the recruiter.

8. Other professions don’t do it: What accountant would take on a client’s tax work if they knew that three other accountants also had the job and the first one finished would get the fee? Real estate agents rarely take on a multi-listed property from a vendor. Multi-listing is rare elsewhere because other professions know that it (mostly) leads to a vastly inferior client service. How is recruitment any different?

As a recruiter there will be times when it is not in your client’s best interest to list the job exclusively with you (e.g., it’s not your area of specialization, your “job book” is currently full, you’re about to go on leave, etc.). You should then recommend to the client what approaches you believe are appropriate to best fill the job, with the best candidate, as quickly as possible. I definitely don’t recommend exclusivity for exclusivity’s sake.

The question I would recommend you ask yourself is “What recruitment process best serves my client for this vacancy, in these current circumstances?” If we act with our client’s best interest as our guiding light, then we significantly enhance our chances of the client seeing us as a true recruitment partner, not a fee-hungry body shop. And isn’t that what we all want?

Ross Clennett started his professional recruitment career in London at the beginning of 1989. Since then he has worked in the UK and in three cities across Australia. He has been professionally recognized by the designation MRCSA (Accredited Recruitment Professional), award-ed by the Recruitment & Consulting Services Association (Australia & New Zealand). As a Certified Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), Ross has a real skill and flair for communicating his passion for recruitment to others in a simple and powerful way. He now runs his own business as a recruitment coach and professional speaker. Ingenius Coaching, P.O. Box 425, Bentleigh East, Victoria, Australia 3165; Phone: 03 9563 8200; Mobile: 0423 557701.

Once upon a time there was this little search firm. It received a call one day from a local office of a national financial services company.

The manager from the company said they were “having difficulty” finding a trainee for one of their underwriting openings. All they wanted was someone with a degree in finance, good understanding of financial statements, a high GPA demonstrating ability to work hard and school smarts, and good communication skills to articulate the person’s financial findings to others. It did not even matter what type of industry or company the person had obtained their previous experience from, pro-vided they had the criteria listed.

The recruiter listened attentively, took notes, and asked lots of questions.

The company hiring manager added, “We’ve been using Gigantor Recruiting and they laughed at us when we told them we wanted a finance guy with good communication skills. Do you think you can help?”

The recruiter replied (without laughing), “Yes, we should be able to help. Give us a few weeks and I will get back to you.”

That small search firm filled that position within a few short months. The person they pro-vided did so well that he was rapidly promoted, and the company hiring manager returned to fill the newly vacated slot again.

That office hired some 12 individuals from that search firm during the next five years. News of their success in finally finding a reliable and trustworthy recruiting service spread to other offices.

The Philadelphia office also wanted to know who the “Little Search Firm” was that had filled a competing region’s positions so consistently. Next, the Boston manager wanted to be included in the game. Then Syracuse, New York.

Cincinnati, St. Louis, Atlanta, Dallas – all wanted to work with the Little Search Firm when they found out that positions that had previously taken a year or so to fill were now being filled in four weeks.

Within 10 years The Little Search Firm That Could, which provided recruiting services for ho-hum, run-of-the-mill, mid-five-figure salary searches that Gigantor Search felt was “below their stature,” wound up filling more than 100 such positions at a dozen offices all over the country for Financial Services Corp.

During this period the company had also grown. It had gone from being a small player in the field to a Fortune 1000 company.

Fast-forward another 10 years and today, that company is a Fortune 500, doubled in size within 10 years and quintupled the revenue it generated when it first sought out the services of The Little Search Firm That Could.

The results of this 20-year relationship are summarized as follows:

1. $250 million = Estimated amount of additional annual revenue generated and managed by all the employees placed during 20 years by The Little Search Firm.

2. 145 = Approximate number of total individuals placed throughout the country for “The Company.”

3. 100% Growth = The amount of revenue growth The Company posted during its relationship with The Little Search Firm.

4. Fortune 500 – The ranking this company received in the last few years was due in great part to a long relationship with “Little Search Firms.” It was previously a Fortune 1000 and, before that, an obscure and unrecognizable entity no one had ever heard of.

Along the way The Little Search Firm That Could invented, tweaked, perfected, and refined a process for consistently finding the individuals this company needed within a four-week timespan every single time, regardless of level.

The Little Search Firm had developed the Secret Recipe for consistently finding the people The Company needed.

The company eventually began to use The Little Search Firm for retained executive hires for corporate executive positions.

Great story, right? A happy ending? Not quite!

There was never a banquet in honor of The Little Search Firm.
No plaque recognizing its decades of loyalty.
No trophy. No award. Not even a letter saying thanks. (Granted, they did pay all their bills on time.)

You see, somewhere along the line a human resources executive discovered The Company’s little secret for quickly finding hirable employees.

The new human resources manager was not about to let one Little Search Firm be so instrumental or critical in The Company’s operation.

No sir.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of “The Little Search Firm That Could” and read about how the new human resources director was going to turn it into the “Little Search Firm That Will Die Trying.”

Frank Risalvato is a staffing and recruiting consultant and has been in the search profession since 1987. He provides one-on-one custom coaching. He has appeared on TV and radio, and has been called on by state and federal agencies for expert testimony. His recruiter training services, books, and kits are found on www.searchwizardry.com. For more infor-mation on his custom one-on-one recruiter coaching and training support services, please email: fris@iresinc.com.

As recruiters, we usually split companies into two types. Our clients and everyone else we recruit our potential candidates from. Sometimes those two merge just a tiny bit, but for the most part in our profession those two remain quite separate.

My company, Building Re-sources, recruits specifically for companies in the building and construction industry. This industry can be challenging from a client perspective as many of the firms are enormous, and many of them are intertwined in either a formal or informal business and/or partnership relationship. Plus, many of our clients are not exactly in the most glamorous of businesses. Ever try to recruit for a nuts-and-bolts manufacturer? It can be tough.

We’ve had to become very, very good at defining the companies we want as clients, and those we don’t. For us, that process has to go beyond the normal qualifiers most recruiting companies use when choosing clients. Many recruiting companies pick clients based on how high a fee they’ll pay, or how many job orders they have open. Some pick clients because they can deal directly with managers (rather than procurement), or because the client will pay a nice fat retainer.

Instead, if we want to truly be viewed as professional recruiters, we really should look at potential clients from a holistic perspective. What is the culture like? What value system does the company portray, not just in its mission statement, but in how it does business? Are employees connected to a sense of purpose within the organization? Does the company walk the walk, as well as talk the talk?

These business characteristics have become even more important as we rely more and more on recruiting candidates from Generation X and Generation Y. The younger workforce, Generation Y in particular, doesn’t necessarily make decisions based on benefit packages, salary, and career potential. In the past I’ve wasted a great deal of time trying to persuade candidates to interview at certain clients. Although these companies are generally considered the crème de la crème in terms of the corporate world, over and over I’ve listened to feedback after just one interview that it’s just not a “great place to work.”

As a result, at Building Re-sources we’ve developed a set of parameters we use to determine whether or not a company will make a good client. The definition of a “good client” is not just one that pays their bills on time or has lots of job orders. First and foremost, the company needs to be successful at hiring not just the senior folks, but those tricky Generation X and Generation Y workers as well. As the baby boomers retire, that’s where the bulk of my revenue is coming from. I need to under-stand these candidates, who want something very different from previous generations.

And what exactly is this new workforce looking for? For Generation Y, we’ve found great success in placing workers at building companies with an environmentally friendly mission. More than any other generation, Generation Y has to feel as though they are contributing to the greater good in both their personal and professional life. When I find a company that has a real story to tell in terms of social responsibility, I know I can get my younger candidates into interviews. If the company allows time for charitable work, or even better has a sabbatical program, I know I’ve got a strong contender.

Cultures with a “pay your dues” mentality may not be appealing to younger candidates. Unfortunately, we’ve still got a lot of those in the building industry, and I’m sure there are many in the business world at large. Younger workers were raised to believe they are special. They want to feel as though their comments and opinions are being heard right away. They won’t join a company where they feel their unique and special contributions are not welcomed from the start. Companies with internal mentoring programs, or specialized corporate universities, have much better hiring and retention rates than those that rely on traditional, old-fashioned training programs.

Certain companies in our industry may not be aware of the current shift in the workplace toward a more balanced life, and they are slowly losing the ability to compete for the best and the brightest in the younger work-force. This can be particularly important if the company is trying to hire more women, as many building and construction companies are. We’re dealing with a workforce that often no longer wants to work 10-hour days and is not as interested in climbing the corporate ladder. For Generation Y workers in particular, balance is the most important aspect of their lives. A company that regularly expects 50- or 60-hour workweeks may not be able to compete against a company that has flexible schedules, or that offers a chance to work from home.

Another thing that happens when you consider clients from a holistic perspective is that you may find some you wouldn’t normally have considered. A good example is our client United Subcontractors, Inc. Granted, it’s the construction services industry, which is not exactly viewed as forward thinking or exciting. But within United Subcontractors there is a passion for the industry, a set of values that really contributes to employee development, and a commitment to professionalism that speaks to the younger generations. I know if I can get a candidate to that first interview, they’re hooked. There are many, many great companies out there where candidates leave interviews feeling excited and motivated to learn more about the opportunities.

One other note to leave you with. We all know that as recruiters, we live on referrals. The clients you send your candidates to directly affect your overall credibility in the marketplace, and ultimately your brand as a professional recruit-ing firm. When you choose clients based on intangible assets as well as traditional ones, you build your recruiter equity. Candidates feel that you really understand what they want. Take a step back and really look at your clients from a holistic perspective. What you find may surprise you. Use culture, value, and purpose as qualifiers, and in the long run, your results may surprise you even more.

Rikka Brandon is the president and founder of Building Resources, an international recruiting firm that focuses exclusively on recruiting for the building industry. For more info on Rikka and Building Resources, visit www.buildingresources.biz.

It’s early January, and I’m sitting in my beach chair on the shores of beautiful Lake Cachuma, soaking up the California sunshine. The area’s endless wine vineyards surround the lake on all sides, and the Santa Ynez mountains tower off in the distance. Just up the road lie Solvang, Los Olivos, and other towns made famous by the movie Sideways. My wife, Jeska, and I just got married a week ago on the beach in Santa Barbara – barefoot at sunset, just like we had dreamed. However, we aren’t here in this heavenly place on our honeymoon. For me, this is just another normal day at the office, and one of many stops on our magical mystery tour.

When people ask me what I do for a living that enables me to live this crazy lifestyle, I tell them I have the best job in the world – I’m a headhunter. Really, in what other career can you help people for a living, and give yourself a raise whenever you want, all while essentially taking an endless vacation in a luxury RV to exotic destinations of your dreams? With today’s mobile technology, there is no limit to where you can go and be a successful recruiter. My office? A laptop with a Verizon wireless card, a cell phone with Bluetooth, a printer/fax/scanner /copier combo, and an ASP-model database. Add on a satellite Internet dish and VoiP phone, and I can go anywhere on Earth.

It’s been an interesting road to get to this point. Being a headhunter is really all I’ve ever done. It started out as a summer job after my sophomore year in college with an MRI office in Plantation, Florida. At the age of 20, I had no idea what a head-hunter did, or even that the profession existed. However, after a rookie year that resulted in $600K in billings, I realized I’d found my calling. I became a student of the business, and learned all that I could from the best in the industry: Nathan Hanks, Jeff Kaye, Jon Bartos, Danny Cahill, and many others. Dominate your niche. Become brand-recognized. Know your value proposition. Time kills all deals. I was eating and breathing recruiting.

After six years and $4 million in career cash-in, I was starting to suffer from a bit of burnout. As Danny says – that should be a goal for everyone – it means you were on fire for a while. At that point I was averaging about two months per year of vacation, constantly attending and volunteering at Tony Robbins seminars, riding my bicycle as much as possible, but still didn’t feel truly fulfilled. I had stopped growing. I knew there had to be something more.

One day, my good friend A.J. provided the spark that I needed. He challenged me, and asked why I didn’t own my own business. I’d always dreamed of running my own firm, but was in a serious comfort zone where I was. I told him I needed to save up for my wedding that was coming up in less than a year. He called BS on me, then asked again. I gave another excuse. This continued until he broke me down and got me to admit that the only thing holding me back was my fear of failure. What if I don’t succeed? What if things don’t work out? What if . . .? Then he put it to me straight: “Is there any chance that you are going to fail?” In that instant, my life changed. I knew there was no chance, barring the end of the world, that I wouldn’t be successful as a recruiter. Tony has a saying, “In your moments of decision, your destiny is shaped.”

Once I came to the decision to pursue my dream and open my own search firm, the realization came quickly that I could be based anywhere. I started dreaming bigger – what else was possible? I’d always wanted to get an RV and travel the country. I’m sure that is many people’s retirement dream. Being the impatient recruiter that I am, I didn’t feel like waiting 30 years. I bought my Fleetwood Discovery the following weekend. Within a month, Jeska, our dog, Roxy, and I were on the road living our dream.

We’d also bought a 27-foot enclosed car trailer to haul the motorcycle, Jeep Cherokee, our bicycles, surfboard, and any other toys we could think of bringing. Coupled with the RV, we were about 65 feet long. It was a bit tough to maneuver at first. I learned while trying to back up the second week that it might be a bad idea, having punched the ladder on the back of the RV through the front of the trailer. There were several other interesting experiences. If you’ve seen the movie RV with Robin Williams, you catch my drift.

I took four months completely off from recruiting to refresh my juices for the business. We were having the time of our lives traveling across the U.S., visiting 22 states in that time. We climbed endless mountains, took fantastic bike rides on some of the most amazing roads you could imagine, visited every friend and family member we knew, and just had the most amazing experiences. While out in Palm Springs for a seminar in December, we got the urge to go get married. Vegas was close, but the beach in Santa Barbara seemed like such a nicer way to go! Living in the moment, we got married the next weekend.

Once January came around, it was time to blast off. I decided to buy a recruiting franchise with SearchPath International, based in Cleveland. They helped provide me with operational, administrative, and technical support, as well as anything else I might need. I had my mail forwarded from my house to their HQ office, which they would then FedEx to my current location. Being based remotely and traveling as I was, having SPI supporting me allowed me to focus my efforts on building my business.

I started planning for a few weeks – industry research, target clients, writing scripts, planning marketing calls, structuring my days – eight hours per day I planned. I had to develop a schedule that would allow me to be successful but would still enable us to explore all the amazing places we were going. Since I was on the West Coast, I would get on the phones from 8 to 11, lunch from 11 to 12, then pound the phones again from 12 to 3. I always targeted a minimum of four hours per day on the phones, and as long as I focused and stayed disciplined during phone time, I was able to make it. Once 3 p.m. hit, we’d usually take off for a bike ride through the wine vineyards, go for a hike, take Roxy for a walk, or head down to Santa Barbara. The great thing about working from an RV, or any home office for that matter, is that you can get your planning done at night. I truly believe that planning is one of the most important traits of a successful recruiter, yet one of the least practiced.

We lived on Lake Cachuma for three amazing months as we started up the business and made our first placements. Next we hit Napa for a week, Tahoe for two weeks, Vegas for two weeks, southern Utah for a month, NM, Dallas, and back east to New Orleans for the Fordyce Forum in June. The RV gave us the freedom to be where we wanted when we wanted and to take our business with us. If we liked some place, we’d stay. If there was somewhere else to explore, we’d move on. Another benefit is that the RV serves as office equipment and can be tax deductible, as can gas, campgrounds, insurance, and any other related business expenses.

I design our route based on events we want to attend and places we dream of experiencing. Next up is RAGBRAI, a 400-mile bike ride across Iowa. As you read this, we will probably be watching Pearl Jam at Lollapalooza in Chicago or mountain biking in West Virginia. After that we will head back home to Florida for the fall and winter, but already have a trip in mind for next summer, through the Canadian Rockies and up to Denali National Park in Alaska.

Drawbacks? Yes, I will admit that sometimes the kitchen table of the RV (my main office) gets a bit cramped for space. I’ve already got my eye on getting a bigger one with four slide-outs. Gas is expensive, especially with a 90-gallon tank to fill up. However, it’s only expensive when you drive, not when you are stationary in one location. Living in an RV is fantastic when everything works. Unfortunately, as with a house, things go bad, whether it’s plumbing, electrical, heating, cooling. When things stop working, it can put your life on hold. Also, I am lucky that my wife and I enjoy being around each other 24/7. If that’s not the case, you might want to think twice. There is nowhere to go except out for a walk if an argument breaks out. If you have young children, this probably won’t work. RVs are designed to handle drinks for six, dinner for four, and sleep for two.

So, what are your dreams? Do you want to travel the world with the one you love? Split time between your beach house and ski condo? Live a life of adventure, spontaneity, and passion while running your recruiting practice? Or just to get away for a little while longer than usual, without falling behind on your desk? Whatever they are, get real with yourself on what might be holding you back from living that dream. Then go buy yourself an RV and make it happen!

Jordan Rayboy has been recruiting IT sales and marketing professionals since 2000. He spent six years with Management Recruiters International (MRI), where he was Regional Rookie of the Year, three-time South-Atlantic Regional Account Executive of the Year, National Top 3 in the sales consultants division from 2003 to 2005, and Top 10 Worldwide producer in 2005. He also achieved the designation of CSAM (certified senior account manager) and was asked to speak on a panel of experts at several CSAM and regional conferences. In 2007, he opened his own search firm with SearchPath Inter-national (SPI). He is currently traveling America in a Fleetwood motor home with his wife, Jeska, and dog, Roxy, building his recruiting practice while living his dream. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Jordan Rayboy any time. He can be reached at 512-636-8457 or jrayboy@searchpath.com.

Logic dictates that, as executive search professionals, we should spend most of our time reading, writing, and thinking about being of service to the almighty client. However, we must not forget about educating the other ingredient, and the increasingly valuable half of our placement recipe, the candidate. To this day I have well-intentioned clients providing feedback to me after interviews that, although my heavily credentialed candidate was impressive and generally qualified, they are not going to pursue his candidacy because he was ill prepared.

A candidate’s lack of acute knowledge about your client company’s environment, coupled with poor closing techniques, will kill any potential deal regardless of the candidate-driven environment in which we operate today. Why go through all of the hard work (and unfortunately sometimes the brain damage) that it takes to “set the referral” – confirming a time and place for a prescreened, professionally recruited candidate to be interviewed by a bona fide, fee-paying client – only to hear that all went well, but “Curtis didn’t have any questions about our company when it came time for him to ask about us, so we will pass.”

So, in an effort to remove some of the uncertainty from our complex search and placement process, I have provided some tried and proven information for candidates to use before going on that critical first interview. As executive search consultants, we need to remind ourselves that, regardless of how excited we may be about the résumé and the candidate behind it, unless he or she is willing to take the time and do the work to prepare for the interview, our chances of a successful outcome are definitely reduced.

If a candidate getting ready for an interview looks at the meeting as a sales call in which he will be selling himself to the prospective employer, then the third-party recruiter who sets up the potentially lucrative meeting will benefit tremendously. And as with any other interpersonal event where one individual is attempting to persuade the other to embrace his/her position or product, one fundamental principle rules the interaction. The individual who has done the most work in preparation is most likely to win the desired outcome.

The good news is that today’s employment marketplace is flush with hot opportunities for talented personnel. But the elite companies revving America’s economic engine are much more critical and discerning hirers after the bloat of the 1990s and the tremendous market-cap hits they took post-9/11. So the majority of the high-growth firms adding personnel now have standards for and definitions of excellence that are specific to their needs, market niches, products and services, and even their culture.

Getting into the party for a potentially career-upgrading interview is increasingly realistic for strong performers. However, unless you have all the right moves, once inside, the bright lights will make you melt like butter. To pick up on the action a candidate covets, here’s what he/she needs to do to be put in a position of promoting one’s career.

First, accept the fact that interviewing today is less about performance and more about meaningful dialogue than ever. Therefore, professional job aspirants who prepare by researching the hiring firm via the Internet through websites, blogs, and newspaper articles will have a working knowledge of the company and its executives, enabling them to be more confident and at ease when eyes meet. Preparation will lead to questions. Candidates need to write them down and be ready to ask them at a second’s notice. It is fine to look at the meeting as a mutual learning experience, but if they do not have appropriate questions to ask, the interview will lack direction and positive interactive energy.

Candidates must remember that preparation is a multi-faceted approach. Knowing about your prospective employer without knowing what they are looking for in an employee is fruitless. Interviewees must acknowledge that the individual you are meeting wants to hire their best competitor’s top employee. If you start with that crucial notion in mind, you will begin to understand the psychological needs of the interviewer. If you do not possess the ideal credentials, the next best strategy is to convince the interviewer that you possess personal achievements that are truly relevant to his/her company. Be ready to blow your own horn in detail regarding those successes. Make an attempt to be specific about closely related responsibilities, accomplishments, etc. Remember, it’s your track record. If you are not ready to shout about it with compelling style while in an exciting interview, no one ever will be!

Once you have sold yourself to the prospect, if it is still unclear what the hirer is looking for, here’s the first question to ask. “Ms. Johnson, my recruiter did an excellent job of filling me in on your opportunity and I have uncovered some exciting research about your firm, but I always like to hear it directly from the executive’s perspective. Can you tell me please exactly what it is you are looking for in the ideal candidate today?”

What better way to qualify your interviewer and set the stage for an appropriate discussion germane to your mutual business interests? This question is also an excellent way to disarm the employer and take a little bit of the pressure off you. Inevitably, the tide will be turned and you will be asked some open-ended questions. Do not fall into the trap of trying to answer questions like “Tell me about yourself” without counter-ing the questioner on what it is about yourself that she would like to know. This again will help you to maintain some control, keep the interview focused, and most importantly, help you avoid the biggest mistake a career prospect can make. In my 26-plus years of experience as a headhunter, the objection I hear most often from client executives is that candidates ramble on and on, instead of providing a thoughtful, concise answer and shutting up.

There are several more ideas that a candidate needs to be aware of in order to be prepared enough to ace the interview, but none more important than asking for the order. What a shame and waste it would be to do your homework, review, ask revealing questions, state your relevant personal accomplishments, and have a positive inter-personal experience without attempting to ask for the job. And yet, as any grizzled recruiter can tell you, it happens all the time.

Whether the role to be filled and the candidate involved is an entry-level administrator or a VP of sales, most candidates have a hard time humbling themselves enough to ask another person what they think of them. Instead of figuring out why, just convince your candidates that they may as well forget about showing up for the meeting unless they possess the gumption to articulate an emotional close.

Two statements should suffice. First, candidates must ask the interviewer one final question. “How do I stack up?” is the simplest way to put it. Any question that enables you, as a job seeker, to qualify the hiring authority per the interview that is about to wrap up is fine. If you can pull out any concerns, that is even better. Address them as well as possible before moving to the real close.

Second, let the interviewer know that you are serious about joining his or her company and why. (If this is the case. If not, just thank the interviewer for his or her time and walk away a more enlightened professional.) “I just want you to know that I am excited about what I have heard today! I know that I would be an asset to your company because of my experience and passion for what you and your colleagues are attempting to accomplish in the near future.” Then it is important for truly motivated candidates to be specific about how they will contribute an immediate impact to the prospective employer. Last but not least, just say, “I would really like to consider an offer with your company.” And shut up. Whatever happens next will reveal more than a glimpse into the future.

These tips are beneficial for both the diligent search practitioner and aspiring job seekers. In the business of headhunting today, it is challenging enough to identify and attract a well-qualified candidate while there is a dearth of truly suitable supply. Enhancing that talent to shine in the interview setting is a touch of magic that we can realistically expect through our ability to provide preparation and encouraging interviewees to make the extra effort themselves. By so doing, we raise the stature of that candidate to A player, and all of our expectations for success.

Jordan A. Greenberg is president of The Pinnacle Source, Inc., in Greenwood Village, Colorado, and is a 26-year veteran of the recruiting business.
Jordan@ pinnso.com

LinkedIn.com has hired my good friend Steve Sordello, previously CFO at Tivo and AskJeeves. They also just added VP of Marketing Patrick Crane, from Yahoo. Look for a huge LinkedIn public relations push and an IPO in the very near future.

LinkedIn is a headhunter’s best friend as a business tool for finding people at all levels. How can you capitalize on LinkedIn’s 11 million users and the growth upcoming? First join LinkedIn at LinkedIn.com. Next connect yourself with LinkedIn hubs (users with large numbers of connections). For example, I’m happy to connect with you. To connect with me directly on LinkedIn, send me a LinkedIn invitation. My email is Joe@jpspeaking.com.

As of this writing, I have 5,663 direct connections, those 5,663 connections have 765,000 connections, and those 765,000 connections have 5,171,200 connections, and those people are connected to the 11 million users on LinkedIn. All searchable by title, industry, and location. My headhunter friends, what more do we want?

I know that some people were reluctant to join LinkedIn. I was very reluctant at first. But after getting 10 of those pesky “Join my network on LinkedIn” emails, I finally joined and I’m glad I did. LinkedIn is one of my favorite business tools.

My mentor in the public speaking business, Les Brown, says that public speaking is a little bit like this: “Joe, imagine that you see a friend and he sees you. But he doesn’t see the bus coming behind him and it’s about to hit him! Joe, you have to speak (or write in this case) in a way to reach your friend with your words, or else!!!”

If you are not on LinkedIn yet – HONK, HONK, get out of the road, get on the bus, and send me a LinkedIn invite. I look forward to connecting with you.

Joe Pelayo is a true self-made man. He began in the recruiting business in 1986 at the ripe old age of 17, when he says he “found every way to fail in the recruiting business.” After finally finding success with two recruiting firms, he started his own in 1990. As CEO of Joseph Michaels, Inc., Joe works an active desk recruiting CFOs and related financial and accounting executives. He is a longtime member of the Pinnacle Society, an organization consisting of 75 of the top recruiters in the United States.

Joe is also author of the new book Work Your Network! which has received excellent reviews from Les Brown, Brian Tracy, and industry leaders, speakers, and trainers, including Terry Petra, Bill Radin, Paul Hawkinson, and others. He writes a monthly newsletter, “The Network,” sent to 50,000 executives and is the author of several motivational DVD training programs, including the soon-to-be-released training system 21 Ways to Increase Your Billings!

Joe is past president of the Young Entrepreneurs Organization, a group of million-dollar-business owners under age 40. Joe is available for speaking and training recruiters worldwide. He can be reached through email at Joe@jpspeaking.com. His website is www.jpspeaking.com.