As a recruiter, Amy has frustrations with job seekers…. and I’m sure she’s seen all kinds of bad behavior. Read her letter to you here. Her advice is bulleted below, but you MUST read her post, or you’ll miss the message:

• Know yourself
• Find companies that hire what you are
• Talk to her (the recruiter)
• Apply selectively
• Be patient (with a link to a story of job seeker patience that paid off)

What do you think? Are you different than the typical job seeker? Are you better than the average recruiter candidate?

I thought I was, too.

Turned out I was exactly like the rest of them.

Read Amy’s letter, and differentiate yourself from the rest!

One of the most common issues that comes up is discrimination – specifically, age discrimination.

Chris Russell, at Secrets of the Job Hunt, wrote a post titled How to fight age discrimination.  It is a collection of four posts… here are my two favorite:

How to Fight Age Discrimination, from a legal perspective (on eHow).  There are four steps, including have documentation (see the post for what to document), find the EEOC office nearest you, file the complaint in person, and then file the complaint (aka, charge) by mail.

Fight Age Discrimination in Your Job Hunt – Manage Your Digital Footprint, by Keppie Careers.  With regard to social media, Miriam says: “It can help keep you looking young in a job market with a tendency to discriminate against older workers.”  I agree.  Having some kind of activity, or strategy, can make it look like you are current in today’s world.  Check out this post on LinkedIntelligence, about a guy who met someone in marketing who hadn’t heard about LinkedIn… if you are in marketing, you better know what LinkedIn is, don’t you think??

We all face discrimination of some kind … it might be age, it might be race, religion, accent, size, height, hair color, lack of hair… how can we get around discrimination and really show who we are? (hint: there is a way!)

Because of my raw blog posts over the years, I’ve said I was “unemployable.”  That is, if a potential employer saw stuff I have written, they might think I wasn’t going to be a good team player (or something like that).  I’ve been very outspoken on workplace and hiring issues.

If you came to me and said “I’ve been working for myself for 15 years, but want to settle down into your company,” what am I to think?  I am quick to judge, like pretty much everyone (even you)… I might think:

Wasn’t good enough to make it on your own?

Is your business dying, and how much of the blame falls on you?

Are you looking for less responsibility, and to slow down?  Because we are ramping up!

What are you hiding from me?

As someone who’s gone from corporate to self-employed, I feel that a self-employed person has “tasted of the forbidden fruit,” and going back to a cubicle day job would be almost impossible, if they were successful on their own.  There might be scheduling issues (”but I’m used to being able to go to my daughter’s dance recitals whenever I want!!”) to money issues (”I just made this huge sale and all I get is a $200 bonus?? Before, I would get all of the profit!!”) to working-with-others issues.

Am I right?  Perhaps not!  Those assumptions are judgmental, and might not be accurate at all.

BUT THAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH STEREOTYPES, JUDGEMENTS, ETC.

They happen based on a lack of information.

So, let’s go back to the “can you go from self-employed to hired” idea.

Can you do it?  YES YOU CAN!

But you have to help the interviewer/hiring manager understand you can, and get through their own preconceived ideas (which may or may not look like my issues above).

Want a second opinion, and some meat?  Go check out Ask the Headhunter’s post on this.  Nick Corcodilos puts it very plainly, and the comments below are very, very interesting. His post is titled: You’ll never get hired if you’re self-employed

• Place
• Position
• Price
• Product

Every marketer can define those four Ps, and they play a significant role in their marketing strategy.

Chris Russell, of Secrets of the Job Hunt, wrote a brilliant post about the Four Ps of the Job Search.  Chris says your four Ps are:

• Personal (who you are, your brand, etc.)
• Positioning
• Promotion
• Persistence

I love the play on the Four Ps… read Chris’s post so you can see how he describes each of the Ps.  And there’s a great story about a 58 year old job seeker, Gina, who landed the job she wanted with those four Ps.  I love it!

If they are good, shouldn’t they remember who you are??  Isn’t that THEIR JOB?

It might be a part of their job, but if they aren’t doing that part of their job well, is it their FAULT?

Some recruiters will be really good at remembering you.  Especially if there is a reason to remember you.  Sometimes, though, you will be just another number, just another random resume.

Is this an issue? Isabelle Shelby asks if it is okay to take a picture of candidates to help remember them better (and wonders if there are ethical issues with this).  I’m a visual person, so this would definitely help me, but I would feel awkward asking people if I could take their picture… at that link there is a lively discussion about taking pictures of the job seeker to help the recruiter remember who they are.

What can YOU DO to help them remember who you are?

1. Follow-up. Because practically no one really does this, as you follow-up you’ll be more memorable.  You’ve heard the saying “the squeaky wheel gets the oil….”  Be that squeaky wheel (but not annoying).
2. Have a solid story. In a comment on that post one recruiter says “… isn’t it performance, good or bad, that make an employee memorable…”  Is your story, and your performance, making you memorable?  If you have a LIST of things you’ve done, you are as memorable as the 1,000 others who have a LIST.  Tell stories and stand out.
3. Introduce your recruiter to others. When you open up your network to them, you provide them value. The more you do this, the more valuable you become to them.  You’ll be on their mind more often.
4. Follow-up, some more! The follow-up is NOT a one-time thing.  Think about nurturing a long-term relationship – that takes work, and multiple follow-ups.

I don’t object to the picture thing – John Comyn makes a strong case for that.  But YOU can do things, like the four I mentioned above, to give the recruiter (or hiring manager, or HR, or the venture capitalist, etc.) remember you for many months, or years, to come.

Email is a powerful tool.  Just like a knife, it can be used to do good or bad.  Know the power of the tool, know the rules, and you can get value out of it.  Make mistakes and you can ruin opportunities, or even a career.

Here are the four “unforgivable” email grievances that Brazen mentions (click through to see Jessica’s commentary):

1. Be very, very careful when using the “important” flag. I have hardly ever used it, and usually when someone else uses it on me, it is not important.
2. Don’t use read receipts. They were designed to let you know when people got your email.  That is just creepy, by today’s standards.  And how many times have you seen someone recall a receipt… which just makes you more interested in the email in the first place?
3. Be careful how when you use Reply All. It should be used sometimes, and other times it should NOT be used.  Learn when, and stop doing it all the time!
4. Stop the thread back and forth. How many times can you say Thank You, or something else that doesn’t need to be said more than once?  People are busy – send what’s important, and hold off on the rest.

What do you think bad email etiquette is?  What’s missing from the list above?

If you are a job seeker, you could essentially become blacklisted by the recruiter, his firm, and their contacts.

Recruiters are networkers.

They talk.

If you lie, they can find out.  If they find out, they will question everything else you’ve told them.

Check out this Recruiting Blogs post by Craig Watson, titled If I could turn back time… or recreate history…

Craig tells the story of a candidate he was representing that had LIED.

Craig was disappointed, because he should have gotten a nice commission from placing him.

I’m sure he was embarrassed, as the real story started to unravel.

I’m sure he was angry that the candidate put him through that, and made him look bad (to a degree).

Do you think Craig would want to work with, or recommend that candidate, ever?  If someone asked about that person, will Craig give a hearty reference?

I doubt it.

It’s better to just not lie. Especially to someone who should be in your corner (the recruiter).

This is from the HR Technology Conference, so it’s not totally about job search, but there was a lot of talent management talk, for sure.

Chris talks about video interviewing (with a shout out to my buddies at @HireVue – I hope you get to do an interview through their system, which is very cool stuff).

Check out this quote (from his post):

“Will need to rethink how we think about talent. In next 5 years, will have 5 retirees for every 1 entrant.” – @jasonaverbook

There’s in Chris’s post – if you are interested to see what HR thinks about, at a strategic level, check it out!

His myths are:

• The smartest person always gets the job
• Direct experience is most important
• Dating a co-worker will lead to career doom
• Applying for jobs online is the only way to find a new job
• Writing a cover letter is a waste of time

I’d like to include:

• It is a numbers game

It is kind of a numbers game, and you should keep working on the numbers, but if you are working on the WRONG numbers, then you are just fooling yourself.

It’s not about how many jobs you apply to, or how many resumes you send out.  It’s about much more than that.

Have a smart job search.

Realize that the person interviewing you might not be as sophisticated as his or her title.

Enjoy where you are at, because one day you’ll have that job you are dying for, and wishing you could have more free time to enjoy life a bit more.

There are no hard-and-fast rules in the job search… do what is right, and avoid the wrong things. You really shouldn’t try to avoid networking, since it can work better than many other tactics.

Myths abound.  The people with the most belief in myths are the people who haven’t been in transition for a while.

Once they get in transition, and try techniques that worked 15 years ago, then they realize the world has changed.

Networking is supposedly how you are going to land your next gig.

What if it just doesn’t work for you??

Read her post here.

Her points include:

Walk in (to companies).

Have someone call on your behalf. Much better to get an introduction than try a cold call.

Spread the word. Talk to everyone “who likes you!”

Use the call-email-call-call strategy. I haven’t heard of this before but I like it!  You’ll need a good job search CRM like JibberJobber.com to organize and manage this!

Send more than a thank-you note after an interview.

If someone else got hired, call the hiring manager. I LOVE THIS.

If networking not working from you, my experience tells me you aren’t doing the right things enough.

Read her post here to get her entire viewpoint.