I hope you are not wondering where I have been for the past three weeks. If you are, I presume that you have not attended the Jobs Fairs Workshops and Roadshow across Sydney during September, and either sat in on one of my talks, or had a heart-to-heart with me at my table. For you, I am sorry. It was a great experience and I definitely recommend that you go next year. Met some wonderful people.
Today's entry is inspired by a sales consultant who called me this morning and made a rude hairy mistake. He wanted to know if I'd received the information he sent last week (no) after speaking with his colleague in customer service (who?) and did we want his service or not (no...). When he was sure that I was totally unsure of what he was talking about, he hung up in my ear.
As far as this consultant was concerned, I was the one making life difficult - and he wasn't reluctant in letting me know it. The great advantage of electronic media and the telephone is that they allow the communicator to be rude and vent after the conversation has finished and disconnected, rather than handle the exchange in person.
Be careful who you choose to make your anger known to, especially when it comes to employment and recruitment. As infuriating as some people in the industry can be, you never know who knows who, or when you might incidentally contact that person yourself again the future.
The average employment tenure of a recruitment consultant with any given company is quoted by several sources as being 6-11 months. If this is accurate, you can imagine that the typical six degrees of separation is therefore reduced to about 3 in this industry as consultants move around to different firms. Without a doubt, candidates and clients become known from individual consultants' experience.
So don't always think of your consultant in terms of the one person - think about their network, their closest contacts and clients at their fingertips. Consider the positives that can result from such a web of associations.
And if someone really has treated you appallingly, there are appropriate industry authorities to speak to, plus your family and friends. Be professional even if others can't.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
What we can learn from trash.
Apologies for the lag in updating - the past few weeks have been all-consuming, but this weekend fortunately granted me (Sarah) a much needed breather.
So in the midst of enjoying a slow Sunday, found myself watching a couple of episodes of the Bachelor on Arena (the start of Season 7 as I discovered from looking on the website this morning). This tv show has a track record of consistently flakey outcomes, no doubt perpetuated by the type of women who enlist to compete for a husband in the first place, and the completely cheesy, drama-soaked rituals these individuals are subjected to. Nevertheless - the whole concept of this series has several relevant points to the process of recruitment. It is intended, after all, to be about one person recruiting for a wife.
So, what can we learn from the Bachelor?
1. It's about chemistry. Your brief job interview is more about determining compatibility and testing the vibe rather than assessing your skills and experience. Your resume has already done that. If you click with your interviewer, then you can be confident of a second interview.
2. Don't take it personally. If you have 25 amazing candidates and one vacancy, then it is still likely that 24 amazing candidates will be without a job (or husband) by the end of the process. Don't clock it up as a failure, it's just a decision process that has to be made. If you have ever watched the Bachelor, the poor bloke never seems to enjoy making the decision, and be assured that employers rarely do either.
3. Be yourself. The women in this show who come on way too strong and behave like menacing, catty high class escorts generally go down in flames with few friends to support them on the way out. If you can be confident in who you are regardless of the outcome, you will earn great respect from all observers, and you are more likely to earn long term relationships (which could see you return for the next season...err..round).
4. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. It's bizarre as a onlooker to see how these women think that this one man could be the answer to all their hopes and dreams, but when emotions get in the way, it can feel like a make or break situation. If it's not meant to be, it's not meant to be. Try to have a few options on your plate at any given time so you never feel like it's 100% or nil.
5. Make sure you're there for the right reasons. Do you want to ace this job interview to feel valued and recognised for your personal worth, convince your interviewer that you've still got what it takes, or do you really want the job? It's not unusual to get excited and swept up in the attention and momentum of a selection process, only to have it all turn solid and real if you get the job and start working. Keep your wits about you and keep asking yourself, is this what I really want?
Perhaps you'll be watching the Bachelor in a different way from now on. I know I am.
So in the midst of enjoying a slow Sunday, found myself watching a couple of episodes of the Bachelor on Arena (the start of Season 7 as I discovered from looking on the website this morning). This tv show has a track record of consistently flakey outcomes, no doubt perpetuated by the type of women who enlist to compete for a husband in the first place, and the completely cheesy, drama-soaked rituals these individuals are subjected to. Nevertheless - the whole concept of this series has several relevant points to the process of recruitment. It is intended, after all, to be about one person recruiting for a wife.
So, what can we learn from the Bachelor?
1. It's about chemistry. Your brief job interview is more about determining compatibility and testing the vibe rather than assessing your skills and experience. Your resume has already done that. If you click with your interviewer, then you can be confident of a second interview.
2. Don't take it personally. If you have 25 amazing candidates and one vacancy, then it is still likely that 24 amazing candidates will be without a job (or husband) by the end of the process. Don't clock it up as a failure, it's just a decision process that has to be made. If you have ever watched the Bachelor, the poor bloke never seems to enjoy making the decision, and be assured that employers rarely do either.
3. Be yourself. The women in this show who come on way too strong and behave like menacing, catty high class escorts generally go down in flames with few friends to support them on the way out. If you can be confident in who you are regardless of the outcome, you will earn great respect from all observers, and you are more likely to earn long term relationships (which could see you return for the next season...err..round).
4. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. It's bizarre as a onlooker to see how these women think that this one man could be the answer to all their hopes and dreams, but when emotions get in the way, it can feel like a make or break situation. If it's not meant to be, it's not meant to be. Try to have a few options on your plate at any given time so you never feel like it's 100% or nil.
5. Make sure you're there for the right reasons. Do you want to ace this job interview to feel valued and recognised for your personal worth, convince your interviewer that you've still got what it takes, or do you really want the job? It's not unusual to get excited and swept up in the attention and momentum of a selection process, only to have it all turn solid and real if you get the job and start working. Keep your wits about you and keep asking yourself, is this what I really want?
Perhaps you'll be watching the Bachelor in a different way from now on. I know I am.
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