Time management is the demon that destroys a carefully executed job search. One client of recent memory spent seven hours a day at the computer sending emails, requests for introductions and participating in various LinkedIn groups. After three months he had only made five new connections that referred him to opportunities. And not one of the opportunities was right for him. He was demoralized. The demon was elated.

As his coach, I have to ask, “What’s wrong with this picture?” He is doing all the things recommended in my book, “Job Search Debugged.” Yet he hits the wall every day. After careful analysis and much defensive protestation on his part, here’s what I discovered.

1. He spent too much time in front of his computer.
2. He did not form a habit of telephone or skype outreach.
3. He followed up with his ‘ask’ only once. If the target did not respond, he moved on.
4. He repeated the same messages and research almost daily
5. He did not follow his industry blogs and newsletters for ideas and names.
6. He had not targeted five companies of special interest but rather depended on others to suggest companies.

1. First things first. We analyzed each message, each outreach and each conversation for clues about why he was not connecting with the people he needed to reach. What he was doing seemed spot on but it wasn’t getting him the results he needed. So we changed his message from a generic ‘ask’ to a more specific ask.

Old: Would you introduce me to two people who may know where there are opportunities for a global sales executive whose track record includes growing new business to 450% in four years?

New: Would you introduce me to two people who know companies not yet expanded into Dubai and or BRITs? I pioneer new geographies and bring fast revenue results because my network of distributors is in place.

2. Join new LI groups. This time with a focus on the geographies he wanted to grow instead of executive or sales groups. He can learn about people in companies and situations he’d not be able to know about otherwise. Cast your net to the people rather than the companies and you are more likely to get the information and introductions you need.

3. Follow the newsletters and blogs of industry leaders and pundits. A real time saver so you are not reinventing the wheel is find the people who know what you need to know and connect to their network. Find publications/blogs and notice whom they quote or who participates. The comments section is a gold mine for expanding your search to exactly the right people. Sure, it makes sense for you to comment but following up with others is where you find active participants in your field. Find them on LI and connect to see their connections, then ask for introductions as indicated. Also notice what groups they belong to. Join.

While I can make a long list of other activities to change or incorporate, let’s admit the time management demon thrives on thrashing.

4. Direct steps to tame the demon:

Make a list every day of three major accomplishments you hope to achieve. Then make a sub-list of activities to get there. Check them off as you do them.

Take a break. Counter intuitive, but when you stress out and don’t take time to refresh yourself, you are not productive.

Set time limits. Dedicate blocks of time for specific activities. Once the time allotment is up, change activities. This gives you goals, a fresh attitude and minimizes burn out.

Make it fresh. If one message isn’t working, change the focus.

Make as much face to face (telephone/skype) contact as possible. It revitalizes you and is more effective generating an outcome.

Change it up. Work down the organizations you hope to penetrate instead of up. Everyone wants to help, they just need to know what help looks like.

Define your ask as specifically as possible but don’t make it so difficult there is no answer. For example: Global Sales Exec positions is generic whereas Sales Exec for Brazil or China is not. But not Global Sales Exec for small, privately owned company located in the U.S. You don’t want your connections to work too hard to figure out who you need to know.

Focus. On-line research is distracting, frustrating and rarely direct. Set a limit on how much time you dedicate to your random searches. For example, 15 minutes of research after you have completed a few phone calls. Or 20 minutes after lunch. Don’t let on-line research seduce you into believing you are engaged in productive job search activities. It may lead to it, but it is not in itself productive. Talking to people is productive.

Notice. Take inventory of what brought the results you intended. Do more of that.

5. Set realistic expectations. As with any sales situation (yes, you are selling a product, yourself as an employee), it takes about ten asks to get one yes. And while your sense of urgency is apparent, those whom you ask for support do not share it. Be reasonable about how long it will take for someone to get back to you as promised.

6. Biggest tip. The key to keeping your morale up is not assuming the worst. There is no way to know or intuit why someone did not do what you wanted them to do so stop trying. Notice who does respond and value that. Don’t torture yourself with who didn’t.

If they don’t respond or respond with a non-productive answer, do not despair. Keep them informed of your progress and send them links to things of interest, but don’t keep asking for a response to your original need. You asked for support because they are part of your network and there are too many reasons, most unknown by you, why they did not respond as needed or in a timely manner. Don’t try to guess and don’t punish yourself by assuming rejection. Preserve your network even when they don’t deliver because this is not the last job search you will ever do.

Now, stop reading job search advice and get back on the phone.

I published this blog last year and it resonated with a lot of senior executives who, in their private moments, admit to feelings of being an impostor. Yesterday, I mounted my first photography exhibit and when it was finished, I was overwhelmed with feelings of self doubt. What made me think I had any right to pass myself off as a photographer? In dealing with these feelings, I confronted my own ‘impostor.’

I managed to shut her up by reminding myself that there are always people who are more recognized as experts but that my own efforts generate delight and pleasure irrespective of the efforts of much better photographers. Turning off my own internal critic was hard, but in the end, I did it and am now proud of the exhibit and my photo site.

Every time that critic tried to intervene in my appreciation for my own accomplishments, I shut her up with, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating. You mounted the exhibition at the REQUEST of someone who thought they can make some money selling your work. Now, STFU.” Had to do it about six times before I was honored with silence and pride in my accomplishment. Hope you can benefit from the guidance below and get to the same place of calm.

“The Imposter Syndrome is a psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments.” Wikipedia

Is your success just luck? Do you feel if people really knew, they’d know you are really a fraud and it is just a matter of time before they are found out?

Are you proving to yourself you are worthless and a victim by avoiding the proper steps towards finding a new job?

Or worse, do you overcompensate for your feelings of inferiority and take every opportunity to tell people you are a thought leader of grand stature and remind them of your accomplishments? Are you sabotaging your job search efforts to prove to yourself you are not who you appear to be?

Think hard on these: Do you accept poor treatment from your Board? When your team criticizes you do you immediately accept their attacks as true? Do you detect dismissive attitudes from your direct reports? Are you reluctant to be pro-active? And how comfortable are you negotiating your compensation? Do you give in too soon when you are collaborating to the detriment of your team? Can you ask for a promotion?

Do you have Imposter Syndrome? Take this test.
Dr. Valerie Young, Author of How To Feel As Bright and Capable As Everyone Seems to Think You Are uses a test to help people identify their tendency towards feeling like a fraud:

1. Do you secretly worry that others will find out that you’re not as bright and capable as they think you are?
2. Do you sometimes shy away from challenges because of nagging self-doubt?
3. Do you tend to chalk your accomplishments up to being a “fluke,” “no big deal” or the fact that people just “like” you?
4. Do you hate making a mistake, being less-than-fully prepared or not doing things perfectly?
5. Do you tend to feel crushed by even constructive criticism, seeing it as evidence of your “ineptness?”
6. When you do succeed, do you think, “phew, I fooled ‘em this time but I may not be so lucky next time.”
7. Do you believe that other people (students, colleagues, competitors) are smarter and more capable than you are?
8. Do you live in fear of being found out, discovered, unmasked?

A tendency towards imposter syndrome is exacerbated for some people by looking for a job. The stress of the unknown in a job search and all the rejection are hard for anyone, but for those with self-esteem issues (another characterization of the impostor syndrome), job search provokes damaging behaviors.

Dr. Young points out, “I would say to executives who are women or people of color seeking jobs in organizations where they would either the first or one of the few executives who are not male or pale, that it is especially understandable that they would experience feelings of fraudulence… being in the spotlight and having to often represent one’s entire group adds an additional burden to “prove” one’s competence in ways others do not.”

You have so little control over events and outcomes it adds to the feeling of worthlessness. There is nothing like the terrifying affects of powerlessness to make a person feel like a fraud. Those feelings are often circumstantial and do not have to be career limiting.

Examples:

Some people react to these feelings with a need for perfectionism or self-aggrandizement. No one else can see the solutions they do and they are quick to say, “I wouldn’t have done it that way.”

When asked about interviews or job opportunities they enumerate all the ways the employer approaches their project wrong and make their own views the focus of their job search. Their never-ending stream of judgmental comments makes them unattractive and unemployable.

Nathaniel Branden, author of How to Raise Your Self Esteem writes, “…The true nature of self esteem is that it is not competitive or comparative. Genuine self-esteem is not expressed as self-glorification at the expense of others, or by the quest to make oneself superior to others or to diminish others so as to elevate oneself. Arrogance, boastfulness, and the overestimation of our abilities reflect inadequate self-esteem rather than, as some people imagine, too much self-esteem.”

Those convinced they are impostors are reluctant to change their methods of job search and often feel most jobs are beneath them so they don’t pursue likely prospects and often focus on jobs above their skill or experience level.

The impostor often feels they are so different from others, that the rules and processes others follow to land a job simply don’t apply; that they just need to ‘be themselves’ and they will get job offers. Of course, when the offers fail to materialize, it is because, in their view, the hiring authorities are not smart enough to ‘get it.’ And secretly, they believe it is proof of they are frauds which makes accepting the reality of their own accomplishments even harder.

They trivialize their accomplishments or worse, simply refuse to own them. These people complain, I can’t brag in an interview, that’s unnatural to me. And yet, the description of their accomplishments in terms of the employer’s needs is precisely the data required to land a job. Self defeating–but again, they prove themselves right.

Another aspect of the fraud syndrome is what I refer to as, “Magical Thinking.” Candidates believe their credentials are so strong and compelling, none of the traditional and proven job search techniques apply. They waste time on job boards and send resumes out randomly. They believe their blog and ‘name’ are sufficient to attract the perfect job. They maintain their comprehensive experience is so stunning that their phone will should be ringing with offers. The fact is, they have never hired anyone who used that technique nor have they ever heard of any executive who has. But they remain committed to failure-guaranteed activities. Their belief they are in fact a fraud and a failure is proven again.

Is this you? Technology professionals often manifest the syndrome by conducting interviews that stress what they lack, whether asked or not. Believing they are talking in the spirit of honesty and not wanting to misrepresent themselves, they mention skills they don’t have instead of focusing on what they do have that qualifies them for the job.

The self-fulfilling prophesy: Researchers have found the imposter syndrome often results in desire to avoid situations where people felt vulnerable. They believe the motivation is to avoid doing poorly, looking weak, being compared or judged. It is especially handicapping to feel you won’t live up to others’ expectations. Thus, they don’t engage in activities others have proven to work in a job search, such as networking, attending conferences and other personal branding activities.

They avoid or delay any activity that prompts comparison. Instead, they invent new approaches they are convinced are creative and ‘out of the box’ when in fact, they simply don’t work. They go to a mall to hand out their resume or they use LinkedIn to broadcast their frustration or worse, send out thousands of unsolicited resumes. Often, they are suckered into paying for dubious services, in fact whole industries have arisen to prey on people who feel helpless or fraudulent.

Taylor Lindstrom of MenWithPens, opines, “You may be afraid of success, but it isn’t because you don’t want it for yourself. It’s because you’re afraid other people don’t want it for you. And you know what? Screw ‘em. Your success belongs to you. And it’s nothing to be afraid of.” And I believe she is right. Many of my clients mention their parents never believed in them or encouraged them. They spend their lives hunched under the yoke of proving to themselves and their invisible parents that they are worthy, that they are not worthless. But, unfortunately, no accomplishment silences the voices and sadly, these people remain encumbered by ancient history.

Take Heart: Researchers discovered true imposters are unable to ask for help. By definition, if you are reading this, you are seeking help and therefore, you are not an impostor, or at least hope to recover from the syndrome.

To become more aware of impostor thinking, Dr. Young, suggests, “Look for stereotyping and self-defeating attitudes that can be reflected in speech, such as women prefacing sentences with disclaimers like “This may not be right, but…” and discounting accomplishments with “Anyone could have done it” or “It wasn’t much.” I’d add to that list, “I was just part of the team,” and “I was only a co-inventor.”

Evelyn Kalinosky of Forbes Women mentions these warning signs:

• dismissive attitude when praised
• feeling that peers with the same responsibilities are more mature [successful]
• reluctance to accept new responsibilities or challenges for fear of failure [or making them highly conditional]
• unnatural reaction to constructive criticism [even when asked for]
• worrying that others will begin to realize their shortcomings [which they enumerate often]

Your job search suffers. A classic self-esteem/impostor self-defeating job search trick is the refusal to reach out to people who can help, or worse, to denigrate their wisdom or process. While at turns the individual hides their light under a barrel and then engages in self aggrandizing comments, they spurn the help from the very connections most likely to help saying, that won’t work for me.

Another common career-limiting behavior of those who believe they are impostors is the constant barrage of commentary, mostly unbidden, about how others do things wrong. Each time such a judgement is articulated, it says, “I am smarter, better and more creative than the dufus who did, said or invented that,” and it broadcasts the speaker’s low self esteem which often results in the listener walking away. Proof again; impostor.

Actions to counter feelings of being a fraud or impostor

1. List examples and outcomes of accomplishments from your resume. Focus on the deliverable, the outcome.
2. Don’t compare yourself with those younger and/or more accomplished than yourself.
3. Take a full accounting of the you who has achieved the success you have today and define accomplishments out loud and on paper.
4. Keep a list at hand of 3-5 significant tasks you excelled at and reread it every time you have to pick up the phone or otherwise interact with job leads.
5. Brag to a loved-one about each day’s accomplishments, no matter how tiny.
6. Create a daily to-do list of reasonable and achievable tasks.
7. Remind yourself you are more than your career. Focus on those who love you.
8. Stop complaining. You don’t need to hear all that negative chatter.
9. Engage in your hobby to offset frustration and negative feelings.
10. Forgive yourself for not being perfect.
11. Forgive others as well. Be aware of every judgmental word you use and stop using them.
12. Remove ‘deserve’ and ‘should’ from your vocabulary. Both are damaging and judgmental.

Need to kick start your recovery? Take baby steps. Accept your accomplishment for delivering on time. For finishing that paragraph. Acknowledge even the smallest glory. Take notes about every one of your accomplishments and read them frequently.

In my view, a real boost to ones self esteem is derived from setting realistic expectations. The first step towards that is forgiving yourself for those times when you don’t get it right. Not one baseball Hall-of-famer ever batted 1000. Yet there they are, in the Hall of fame. A few missed balls did not mean they are impostors and neither are you.

After reading the seventh professionally crafted resume that sucked it is time for me to hollar-back. When I see candidates being victimized by job search parasites I am enraged. Stop selling your services as a resume writer if you have never hired anyone. Don’t put up your shingle if you haven’t been in a professional role supporting those who do. Just because you can write or use a layout template doesn’t qualify you for the arcane art of resume writing.

You have no idea how resumes are read. You have no right to handicap candidates with your advice to include the number of years they have been employed in the opening section and even less right to encourage them to fill that same space with their own opinions of their dedication, skill and creativity.

When you sell a resume filled with cliches’ like “hands on” and “proven leader” or “broad range” you guarantee that resume with be filed in the digital circular file.

A resume writer charged $1000 for a technology executive’s resume that began thus,

Exceptionally creative and effective management executive with 11+ years of industry experience. Possesses a distinctive blend of hands-on technical, project management, and communications experience. Offers a broad range of skills that spans many industries and products. Fully fluent and proficient in software development languages, technologies, methodologies and tools. A proven leader with a strength for identifying talent, building and motivating creative teams that work cooperatively to achieve goals. Excellent interpersonal skills and a sincere passion for applying technology to current business problems.

You read the above and you say, “What’s wrong with that? It looks normal.” Well, you are right it does look normal. It looks just like every other resume that goes nowhere.

Here’s what’s wrong:

1. Exceptionally creative and effective management executive – The candidate’s opinion of their work has no place on a resume. Good that they have that confidence but it is not data. Instead of opinions, use examples or outcomes that prove the point. Effective management style is proven with low turnover and ease of hiring/building a team, for example.
2. 11+ Years of industry experience – No one cares how many years a candidate has done something. They do care about the success and outcomes. List those instead of vague opinions. Also, never use + or etc. If it is more, say what it is.
3. Offers a broad range of skills that spans many industries and products - Broad range is cliche, vague and an opinion. Give an example that shows those skills such as “Created the product road map, hired the team and managed the timeline for [name of product] which was released two weeks ahead of schedule.”
4. Fully fluent and proficient in software development languages, technologies, methodologies and tools – Watch your language. “Fully fluent?” You are either fluent or you are not. Unless the candidate has written code for a released or product in use, this information is misleading. Instead include the languages and products.
5. Same thing goes for sincere passion… Bad writing and tells the reader nothing. Show how that passion resulted in a product or accomplishment.
6. Excellent interpersonal skills – Interpersonal skill success is given credibility with data about how cooperation or collaboration solved critical problems.

Candidates, don’t lose hope. There are some excellent professionals who can help you with your resume. And asking for help is a good thing. After all, you have conducted a job search so rarely in your career, you can’t expect to be an expert. Here’s how to find the right person to help you craft an effective resume.

First, ignore all hype, marketing and website testimonials. Some people are very good at marketing. Doesn’t mean they can write the resume you need.

Here’s what to look for:

• If you sign up with a company, find out who the actual writer will be. The person who woos you is often not the person who does the work.
• Ask to see recent examples of resumes written for people with your similar job title or career area. Does it immediately tell the reader why they want to hire them? Do you know what job they are after in the first sentences?
• Discover if the writer has hired or supported those who hire IN YOUR NICHE. A technology professional needs a very different resume from a banker. The terminology, emphasis and key accomplishments are different.
• How long has the writer been crafting resumes? It takes years of experience to learn the gotchas and how to work around certain issues such as a gap in employment, age issues or out of industry work.
• Check references. Ask to talk to the last three people for whom they created resumes. You want recent and not cherry-picked clients.
• Determine if you have editing and redo options. Some resume writers only allow a limited number of edits or redos. Your resume is too important to have this limitation.

One of the best ways to find the right support is ask people you trust who they would recommend and why. Interview those writers. In the end, if they do create a resume and you have paid for it, there is no reason on earth you have to use it if you feel it is inadequate. It is your career and your resume is your formal marketing document. Make it work.

Holiday offer: Purchase one book, get the other one free. Once you purchase the book, contact me with your email address and it will be my pleasure to send you the other book.

Telephone interviews for executive job seekers are daunting, filled with land mines and, the results, difficult to interpret. Make it simple with a clear objective and understanding the interviewer’s objective.

When your objective is clear, it informs you of the content for the phone screen. Since a face to face is an obvious objective, let’s examine your real need. Busy senior executives find their time their most valuable asset. Therefore, determining if the opportunity is a decent fit to merit further exploration, read ‘time,’ requires answers tailored to your go/no-go list for your career move and some indication you can be successful in that role.

Ignore your instincts: Don’t jump right in with your interrogations. If you do, you may rule yourself out for that face to face. When you understand the objectives of the interviewer, your own agenda will be easier to achieve. Assuming you are talking to the hiring authority [rather than an in-house/independent recruiter], their objective is time and cost saving, meaning, they want to assess as soon as possible, “What can you do that we need?” Until you satisfied the interviewer’s objective, yours is moot.

The interviewer will tell you about the job and their idea of the right candidate. Instead of asking questions immediately, acknowledge what they said. First, answer all their questions with examples that include outcomes. Be brief or they won’t remember. Then pepper the conversations with appropriate questions. These are examples, not an exhaustive list.

“If I understand correctly, you are looking for someone to take your products to that next level and expand the customer base.”

• What are you currently doing to achieve that goal?
• How is that working?
• What would you like to see change?
• What outcome would you like to see to know it is successful? (Or, How will you measure success?)
• Do you have a time frame and budget in mind?
• Who are the other stakeholders?
• What obstacles have you encountered achieving that goal?

“Your biggest challenge is finding someone who will fit with your team and work collaboratively.” [Most employers include this in any job description. How they assess this in a phone or even face to face is beyond me, but they always mention it.] This is an example of how to answer questions with an outcome.

• When you say work collaboratively, do you mean across departments or within? At [name of current or last employer here with an outcome resulting from your collaborative efforts] I released 6 new products every quarter, somewhat of a record for the company. I credit that success because I included all the stakeholders from the beginning. Is that the sort of collaboration you mean? Or do you have other examples?

“XXX Prides themselves for xxx.”

• I am especially interested to learn how decisions are made at the executive level.
• Your company has a reputation for xxx. How was that achieved?
• Is there budget for continuing that branding? [Company name]
• Turn over for our industry is very low. Can you share with me how you accomplish that?
• How do you see the [Job title] continuing that record? What are the obstacles?
• Will you share with me what the previous employee accomplished that pleased you?
• Will you share with me what the previous employee could have done better? [This is the money shot. You want to know their real expectations and this is where it is revealed.]

Notice the mix of questions. Some are about the company which gets the employer taking about the positive aspects of the job and company, and others are about what you need to know. The more the employer talks about the positives, the more they see you as a positive person. Plus, you need that information for your close.

Now for the real meat.

• What are you doing, what do you hope to accomplish, that can’t be accomplished with the current setup?
• What keeps you up at night? What is the competition [insert name of competition] doing that alarms you, pleases you?
• Is there something in particular about my background that indicates to you I will be successful with xxxx?

The employer will ask what you are looking for and you will tell him about deliverables ONLY. If you want to include your career goals, make them about the outcomes, not the descriptions. [This is vital for most interviews]

I want a face to face close: I am certainly interested to learn more. I hear a lot that suggests my experience maps to your needs [example here] and I like [include something specific] what you say about how decisions are made. Shall we get together next week?

I don’t want a face to face close: Thank you for your candor about xxx’s needs. I am more than happy to introduce you to folks who might be a good match. My own career goals include (say something not apparent for this role or why it is a no-go, like geography, reporting structure or other innocuous but true reason). I hope to leverage my success [insert pitch best accomplishment here] increasing revenues for a world-wide company by 450% in two years [include the deal killer, for instance, global, or in San Francisco or as an EVP etc.]. Would you introduce me to two people who may know employers in need of my skill set?  The keys to this close are never say no, offer support, ask for leads. This is a terrific network expanding experience. Make it work.

Holiday offer: Purchase one book, get the other one free. Once you purchase the book, contact me with your email address and it will be my pleasure to send you the other book.

It is most often the case that the job for which you are interviewing is not a perfect fit or worse, doesn’t have a clear path to your mid-term goals. It is human nature to want to get on track immediately, but in an interview for executive jobs, that is the most wrong thing you can do.

You want the job, it is a good fit if only you can get them to tweak it just a bit. All you have to do is let the interviewer know what you want so they don’t start talking about a job you don’t want. You feel you need to correct their approach immediately so you can tell them what you want. Don’t Do It.

Interview Speak:

• The executive interviewing you needs to tell you what they want, first. Let them talk, ask few questions and don’t let your body language betray your impatience.
• Say something to acknowledge what he/she wants to do/go before you launch into what you can provide for him. Explain what you can accomplish and give examples of having done so in the past. This is data, not opinions.
• Do NOT talk about what you need or want, but what you can do for the company over the next few months/years.
• Then, include the actions of that new role you want. For example:  ”Are you hoping to take the products international?” If yes, talk about how you can expedite this process and talk about your experience doing so. This approach puts this into a form the interviewer can relate to rather than a demand from a prospective employee. It becomes a discussion of their goals.
• When you state what you can do in terms of accomplishments and not opinions your comments and desires are remembered.
• If the interviewer starts out asking what you are looking for, talk in terms of actions, not job description. I want to take a product line and xxx and xxx. At XYZ I did this and grew biz xxxx. In the mid term, I can build the infrastructure, (now list the additional responsibilities you are after).
• Don’t justify any of this with how long you have worked. Just let the accomplishments speak for themselves and know when to stop talking.
• Ask, “Is this the direction you see this role going,” and shut up. Better, ask “Are these the goals you have for this product?” and “Is this the sort of success you are hoping to see from this role?”

I can’t stress enough how important it is to keep this and any conversation in any interview about the company/department needs, not yours. Be patient, listen well then you will have a chance to make your needs known… in terms of their needs. This approach requires a lot of practice to get it right. Once you do, it becomes a good habit for any negotiation.

Holiday offer: Purchase one book, get the other one free. Once you purchase the book, contact me with your email address and it will be my pleasure to send you the other book.

I don’t agree. In fact, I am adamant that such thinking is the murderer of innovation. I think you work as smart as you can and don’t confine yourself to competing, reacting. Find your own path and don’t be ‘controlled’ by making your moves reactively. Nothing new would ever happen if everyone only worked to overcome the competition. Look what happened to the U.S. auto industry. Not one innovative product. Just what exists, a bit better. And if you have, instead, something new, that edge, that twist, you ARE the competition.

The trick isn’t knowing your competition, it is knowing your CUSTOMER. The MiniVan would never have been created if all Dodge did was react to the competition. They took a huge risk building something completely different. And they created a whole niche.

When job search clients accept my advice to ignore the competition because it doesn’t change their own credentials or best foot forward, they are liberated to do a much better, more pro active, interview or job search in terms of themselves and that particular employer. For example, if the competition has years creating strategic alliances and you don’t, what good does knowing that do? If you have targeted the priorities of the employer with your own best credentials, that is enough. You certainly can’t go back in time and get the specific experience but you can win because your background fits in another area. So, why cause all the self doubt? Why weaken your confidence. Your approach doesn’t change because it doesn’t need to.

Is it to be believed that Steve Jobs thinks about the competition when he invents yet another remarkable product? Innovation comes from some other place than reacting to competition.

One reason I don’t do competition is because I am the final arbiter of my work. When someone says it is good, only I know if it really is. And better, when it is terrific, I don’t need someone to tell me. I know. The trick is to acknowledge it, leverage it and be fearless. That’s where new ideas and a fresh approach originate.

Want to know more about Rita Ashley? Check out my about.me profile.

When I was a recruiter, a service I provided for over 18 years, most of my placements were made with referred candidates, candidates who, in turn, referred others because they were impressed with my service. Rarely did a randomly acquired resume result in a placement. I learned over the years this was standard for most of the busy recruiters who helped the quality companies with staffing. We all relied heavily on our network, referrals and of course, actual recruiting based on those referrals. Few of us ever took resumes that arrived on our desk, unbidden, as high priority prospects.

Why is this? Because our time is short. Most recruiters have more than one opening they are chartered to fill (regardless of the way they are paid, most recruiters juggle about 6-10 openings at a time). We rely on our long established network to provide names and even commentary on prospective candidates. Why? Because that works.

So, how do you get the attention of the good recruiters when they mostly don’t take uninvited guests?  I said three things you can do, but there is really only one. Referrals!

1. Talk to people who do the job you do and ask for an intro to their favorite recruiters.
2. Talk to people who do what you do and request they offer your name when they are courted by a good recruiter for a job in which they have no interest.
3. Ask the HR department of a company who hires folks like you what recruiter they use. Ask permission to use that individual’s name or ask for an introduction.
4. Go to social networking events. Recruiters hang out there. Don’t expect to be approached. You still need to be introduced, but spot the recruiters, see who they are talking with and ask that person for an intro.
5. Volunteer. Recruiters are volunteer-a-holics. That is only one way they expand their network into typically unapproachable territories.

Watch this space for more ways to attract the really good recruiters. They are NOT making on-line cattle calls and they are not found on the job boards. The really good ones focus on referrals from their network because the quality of candidates is simply better. Why? Because they are pre-screened by that recruiter’s network. And because it works.

Next blog will be on how the good recruiters use digital tools to locate prospective candidates. Subscribe to be notified.

When you interview, but they pass yet have good words, ask the most senior person with whom you spoke to introduce you to their favorite recruiter. Introduce, not provided contact info.

TEN STEPS TO EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP

It’s not rocket science. Many people master the art of strong leadership, mostly by trial and error, some through mentors and others by way of a career coach. Here’s a primer of basic leadership techniques. You still may want a coach to help you implement, but this heads-up will alert you to where to put your effort.

1. Understand the difference between strategy and tactics and who is responsible for each. Rule of thumb, strategy is the why and tactics is the how. Strategy is the long-term, high-level thinking necessary to achieve a given objective. Tactics are actionable, granular-level messages; measurable deliverables that support and drive strategy. “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” – Sun Tzu
2. Nothing dooms a project to failure faster than assigning the wrong person the wrong part of the operation. People want to succeed. They want to feel good about a job well done. Therefore, assigning those who are best at what is needed is a win/win. In most organizations, Directors are the tactical front, the administrators of a task. VPs and C level executives are responsible for the strategy, vision and mission statement.
3. Communicate and build projects and presentations based on benefits, not features. A benefit includes a metric about how the user or object of your presentation will be improved. A feature is the path to that benefit. e.g. Benefit: Once we implement an Agile software environment, our organization will release more updates, which in turn will attract more users and advertisers. Feature: During detailed planning, Agile development favors a feature breakdown structure (FBS) approach instead of the work breakdown structure (WBS) used in waterfall development approaches.
4. When each team member knows exactly what is expected, oversight is minimized and regretted turn over is lowered. Every employee knows exactly how their performance is measured thus, they measure themselves. These operating instructions are created with metrics and are accepted by the employee. Managers check with employees frequently to anticipate where support is required. This method minimizes debilitating surprises.
5. The vision and mission statements of the company are understood and supported by all team members. Each person understands how their responsibilities support the mission and vision. When this is reiterated frequently, the team is united. It is the job of every senior manager to promote the vision and verify all team members are on board. Don’t assume everyone understands the mission, check periodically and pay special attention that everyone uses the same language.
6. Encourage a solutions-oriented culture by insisting all commentary on challenges, problems or warnings are accompanied by suggested solutions. Anyone can tell you the house is on fire, you need someone to tell you how to put it out and the location of the fire hose.
7. Transparency prevents gossip, second guessing and bad decisions. Institutionalize company and project overview sessions with the whole team [company]. Give a state of the union message outlining successes, challenges and ongoing solutions.
8. Praise and acknowledgement are your most precious rewards: Better than money and gifts. Create a culture where everyone in the company has access to compliments, recognition and visibility with the Board where appropriate.
9. Career enhancement is the golden egg for your employees. When they see their career goals are an active part of your management plan, employees tend to be loyal and more productive. Monitor their needs and discuss what they see you and the company might do to get them to their goal.
10. Listen. Most executives are quick to provide a solution when in fact, most employees, especially when they or the project are in trouble, need to be heard. Take a position of inquisitor rather than dictator. Ask, don’t tell and you will get much more effective and creative solutions to any challenge.

Ok, so you agree with all of the above and believe you perform exactly right. Sometimes it takes another point of view to assess how well you actually execute. Or perhaps you have been passed over for promotions and don’t know what to do to enhance your promotability. That’s where a career coach comes in handy. If you are strong enough to face your personal reality and accept course corrections to advance your career, contact me to discuss your goals and a custom coaching program.

One estimate of  job openings filled by recruiters is over 35%.  The percentage is higher for executive-level positions in the $100,000+ salary range.  Clearly, cultivating a professional relationship with a recruiter or two is an excellent career development strategy.  But how do you avoid exposure to the wrong ones?  I believe knowledge is power.  The more you know about how and why recruiters set traps for you, the easier you can avoid getting caught.

A crafty recruiter or a representative from a ‘resume mill’ can entice you to send your resume because they are trained to handle any objection you can produce.  Unless you verify an actual search for a real company, don’t send your resume.

Vet the recruiter immediately. Ask for the recruiter’s company name and contact information.  If the recruiter is vague or unresponsive to your direct questions, they are bogus and up to no good.  Request the hiring company name and the job description.  If they can’t supply all this information, there is no reason to go forward.  If they can, offer to get back to them after you have a chance to think about the opportunity.  Use that time to ascertain the validity of the recruiting company, the company with the open req and the job.  If you still have doubts, call the company in question and ask if they work with that recruiter.  If the recruiter cannot supply the information or objects to giving you time, run away.

Protect your contact information. Resume mills are or sell your resume to resume aggregators.  These resumes are then used to cull contact information which is subsequently sold to the highest bidders.  Don’t include your home address and use a public email such as gmail.  If you submit a resume, it is lost in space and you will never hear from the recruiter again no matter how terrific the match to that imaginary job.

Job boards are not your friend. The recruiter submits your resume to job boards. Resumes are stripped of your name and contact information and the recruiter’s contact information is substituted.  If someone is interested in your credentials, they have to go through the recruiter and split fees.

Cover the earth. Resumes are sent to prospective employers at random and nationwide with the recruiter’s contact information, not yours.  Most companies do not follow-up on unsolicited resumes submitted by unknown recruiters.  They flag the resume and file it.  When a genuine presentation of your credentials occurs by you or your recruiter of choice, your resume is cast aside because of the previous connection.

The Trojan horse. Recruiters contact a company with an open req and pretend to represent you.  If the employer takes the bait, the recruiter can say they have the search.  While this sounds like an opportunity to get exposure with someone else doing the heavy lifting, it is just the opposite.  Candidates from recruiters known to the company get higher consideration.  The recruiter doesn’t know you so he can’t represent you (or the company) with any usable knowledge.  And worse, if the company rejects the recruiter, they flag your resume so neither you nor another reputable recruiter can breach that company’s defenses for consideration.

Is your resume part of their quota? Some recruiting companies have a resume quota for their recruiters.  This encourages new recruiters to get resumes with any story possible.  This is where the complaint “The recruiter didn’t even understand what I do,” comes from.  Your resume is submitted to their data base with no real understanding of the job you want or the special circumstances.  You can contact these recruiters till the cows come home and never get a response or follow up.  In fact, the likelihood that recruiter is still employed by the recruiting company after a year is very low. These recruiting companies can advertise and boast of a database with over xxx# current resumes.

The oldest trick. A recruiter trick as old as the hills is to court an unsuspecting candidate with the ‘perfect’ job then ask the names and contact information of their boss or direct reports; the real target of their search.  While this is clearly a short-term solution, many recruiters cannot see past the next placement.  You will never hear back but your connections will.

New recruiter scams and bad-actors arise weekly. It is up to you to protect yourself from bad recruiters.  The best way to avoid the disappointment and harm done by these disreputable folks is to vet them before you ever send a resume or give any information…regardless of their pitch.  No opportunity is so critical that receiving your resume can’t wait a day or two while you research the recruiter.

If a recruiter asks for a fee, they are not a recruiter. By definition, no recruiter should ever charge the candidate; if they have a search, the company pays.  If they charge, that makes them an employment agency, not a recruiter. Again, run away.

Don’t let your desire to find a plethora of resources cloud your vision about recruiters. If you chose the wrong one(s) they can do serious damage to your self confidence and your search.  There are many excellent recruiters hired by companies to source qualified candidates. Learn to tell the difference and you will avoid all the angst and anger the recruiting’s bad apples spread.

This just in:  GadBall reports on scams where job seekers lose money and their identity. If you are contacted by a recruiter from a company you have never heard of, check it out to verify it is not a mult-level marketing scam or other bogus employer. Rule of thumb, if a recruiter or company asks you for money during your job search, run away.

Protect Yourself: Research companies [even recruiters] through the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org), the Federal Trade Commission (http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/consumer.shtm). You can find more detailed information on crimes committed via the internet and how to avoid them, from the US Government’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (http://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx).

While the job-search world is filled with competent and effective recruiters, my email from angry candidates who have dealt with the worst of the lot and responses to my LinkedIn threads shout there are a lot of bad recruiters and harmful recruiting practices candidates find demoralizing and frustrating.

Offenses are not just borderline-ethical with traps set for unsuspecting candidates; the field is populated with incompetent recruiters who believe recruiting is an easy way to make a fast buck.

How can this be? Barriers to entry for recruiters are invisible.  Anyone with a telephone and a voice can call themselves a recruiter.  They may not last long in the profession, but their truncated longevity doesn’t mean you won’t encounter them.

Bad apples taint the waters. Good recruiters, those who provide such an important service that easily, over 35% of executive-level jobs are filled by them, have to wrestle with the general perception recruiters are just like used-car sales people.  Not much anyone can do about that other than keep their own practices above reproach.

Candidates are at risk. While I have cautioned how to avoid a bad recruiter to protect candidates, sometimes you just can’t tell the recruiter is incompetent until after you submit your resume.

After the fact. Once you have given the recruiter your resume and she seems unable to give you the information you need or has difficulty representing you with her client, it is time to take charge.  You don’t want to offend the recruiter because he is the gatekeeper and can harm your efforts to get face time with his client.

Example: One example from my coaching practice, names changed to protect, demonstrates how to work with a recruiter who is incompetent or inexperienced and still get what you need.

Wendy found Bill’s contact information on LinkedIn and wasted no time phoning him about a job opening she heard about.  The job had been open for three months and she felt the company would welcome an unsolicited resume from her.  She didn’t have the search but was certain with Bill’s resume, she could get the assignment.  (This is called the Trojan horse method and is encouraged in many recruiter training sessions.)

Wendy contacted Bill with a vague job description and a few made-up statistics about the job and the salary range.  Bill sent Wendy his resume and the only precaution he took was to tell her not to send the resume anywhere but the hiring company without asking.  She readily agreed and as soon as she had the resume, Wendy called the company in question.

She had not interviewed Bill nor did she have a grasp on how his strengths with the Agile software environment were important skills the employer would find compelling.  Somehow, she landed the search based on this one (and only this one) resume.  Later, when Bill asked Wendy questions about the job and why it had gone unfilled for so long, she revealed her ignorance.

What to do. Time for Bill to take matters in his own hands.  He consulted LinkedIn.com to see who he knew who would shed light on the company and the opportunity. He contacted his favorite recruiter and asked him what he knew about the company and job. There are few secrets among headhunters in the local search community. Bill discovered the hiring company’s various interviewers had conflicting priorities which was why they had little success filling the spot in a town filled with probable candidates.

Bill located former employees willing to support his interest in the company.  He was thus able to get a bead on the issues and formulate an interview plan in spite of Wendy’s ignorance.  He still needed her support and proceeded with caution.

Advice. Talk to Wendy face to face if possible. Tell her you want to make her look good so the more information you have when you meet her client, the better. Is there anything about the corporate culture or team she can share?

Don’t ask: Do you know their biggest priority?
 Ask: What did they say to you to communicate their biggest priority?

Don’t ask: Why haven’t they filled the job?
 Ask: What do they have to see to fill this position based on their past attempts? What did they say was missing?

Ask: When you spoke with the person to whom I would report, what impression do you have about his/her style? Their energy level? This question gives her the opportunity to reveal the level of her contact which you need to know.

If Wendy does not have direct contact with the actual hiring authority, she may invent answers or repeat the canned comments from HR. Keep in mind, if HR had the right fix on the priorities, the job would be filled by now. That’s why your own research is imperative. You can’t rely on Wendy’s answers for what you need to know to conduct a great interview.  Try to get as much as you can.

Ask: Is there something HR said more than once when they talked about their difficulty finding someone on their own?

Ask: What did you see in my background that told you I was a good fit?

Ask: I want to make sure we are talking from the same play book. What do you have in mind as the most important part of my background to get them interested in me as a candidate? Was there a comment made by the company about my resume and experience?

Ask: What if anything did they say to you that would suggest my experience managing teams in a variety of countries is of value? Use this approach for any characteristic you feel she needs to accentuate when she makes your appointment.  It is a subtle but accurate method to groom her comments about you.

Ask: I always send email thank-you notes to people with whom I interview. Is there any reason you’d be uncomfortable with my contacting them directly? Once Wendy says, “No, go right ahead,” you can follow-up as need be in the future with emails and phone calls. Don’t go around her, always copy her on emails and always let her know if you have contacted or otherwise spoken to the company on your own.

There is hope. “Every group of inexperienced recruiters has one or two really great future recruiters and one or two that will end up in an internal HR department somewhere. Candidates would do well to remember that and not burn bridges before they’re even built.” Emily B., Senior Recruiter

Wendy may be naïve’ or inexperienced and even unprofessional, but she is still a gatekeeper and she is representing you. One negative word from her and you may be removed from consideration. Ask the recruiter the right questions in the right way. Don’t be dismissive as she learns her role, but don’t be handicapped by her ineptitude.

For more guidance to get the most from recruiters, click on the recruiter category on the right.

[Experience has taught me this sort of look behind the curtain enrages many recruiters who do not engage in these activities. This report is about some recruiters, not all. It is a warning to job seekers to avoid these parasites and put them out of business. It is not a condemnation of recruiters.]

Recruiter Cattle calls and recruiting open houses are on the rise. Are they great tools or just another way to get burned in your job search? You be the judge.

Would you use the lottery as your investment strategy? Are the odds appealing? Do you feel lucky, well, do you?

That’s exactly what you do career-wise when you submit your resume to random recruiters and recruiter groups; play the job-search lottery.

Recruiters post appeals for resumes every where from LinkedIn groups to Craigslist. They frequent sites trolling for resumes to add to their stash. Do you have any idea how they use them? Do you know what happens to your contact information?

Chances are the job you want is local. Chances are the recruiter representing the company you want to work for is also local. Why then, would you seek representation of random recruiters in distant locations, perhaps even distant countries? And why would you seek representation along with a herd of others from across the country?

Doesn’t it make more sense to stand out from the crowd with personal contact? As a hiring authority yourself, were you not always more interested in people to whom you were introduced rather than a faceless resume that found its way to your desk? Who would you invite for an interview? Someone who made the effort to find you, learn about your company and the opportunity or someone who simply sent in a resume through a random recruiter?

Hiring authorities tend to spurn unsolicited resumes. Random resumes are submitted by most of the cattle-call recruiters. They collect resumes and submit them anywhere they know there are openings. They don’t necessarily have the job search, they are playing the placement lottery with your resume.

It only looks good until you are rejected. While that seems appealing at first blush, it is actually quite damaging to your search. Once a resume lands in a company through a recruiter, whether the company invited submission or not, no other recruiter and certainly not the individual, can submit credentials. You are effectively locked out of any jobs from that company because they chose not to deal with that recruiter. And there is no way for you to stand out from the crowd; in fact you rarely know where they have sent your resume.

Follow the money. Once a recruiter has your resume they retain the right to earn money if you are placed where they present your credentials. That is why some recruiters submit your resume to various job boards with their own contact information instead of yours. You have lost control over your resume and wound up in the hands of someone who knows neither how to represent you nor how to represent the job opportunity.

If you are a sales executive the affects of bad representation are doubly damming. You are expected to get to the right people with the right message. What message do you send when a recruiter unknown to the company slings your resume about?

Why run the risk of being shut out, ignored or scammed when there are recruiters who actually have searches for jobs for which you qualify? Don’t take the line of least resistance, you are not a lazy executive, so don’t be a take-the easy-way-out candidate.

Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. The good news is, there are many reputable recruiters who do not engage in such opportunistic activities. Learn to connect with the right recruiters. There are many types of recruiters and the ones you want are established, respected by their clients and typically, looking for you through their network. Learn how to be found. No matter how compelling your resume, without an introduction, the best recruiters will ignore you.

Executives: Retain control over your resume; send it not to cattle-calls or any public forum. Participate, network but don’t expose your resume. Use your LinkedIn profile to attract attention.

All recruiters are not created equal. How do you find the right recruiter(s) for your company?

Bet you have asked this question. And bet you got a lot of different answers. That’s because there are so many different styles and needs reflected in the answer. There is a lot of confusion about what to expect, how they are paid and how to vet them. This post is targeted at employers looking to hire a recruiter or recruitment firm. The second post for candidates will follow soon. You will notice little overlap but both need to know about each other’s bar.

What is your objective? Are you looking for executives, individual contributors or middle management? No one firm specializes in all three, regardless of their claims. Ask for statistics on the levels of placements. Do not accept number of resumes on file, only actual placements. Check references with those companies who have hired for the same job title you are trying to fill.

What kind of relationship? Are you building a long term business relationship or just a one shot? Do you want one or several companies sourcing candidates? How much do you want to pay? Do you want to negotiate fees by offering several placements?

Do you need a retained search firm?  These firms typically have a deep bench and national affiliations. They are best used for the most senior executives only. They are also the most expensive and require partial upfront payment and complete payment regardless of where the employee came from. Your Board will often recommend or even insist on one. Be as careful qualifying a retained search firm’s representative as you would any other. Remember, when it comes to hiring, the buck stops with you.

Contingency recruiters are often the best resources for less senior executives and individual recruiters. You pay only if you hire someone they source. Make no mistake, just because they are on contingency, they are no less professional than retained search recruiters. They often ask for and get exclusive recruiting assignments (meaning no other recruiters are used) and have long term relationships with both clients and candidates. They tend to know a huge population of people in your local community. Not all contingency firms are created equal. Look for their list of repeat clients as indication of the quality of their work. Talk to some of those companies.

Con-Tainer recruiters get a small retainer up front and are paid the remaining fee upon placing a candidate. They often have a strong local client base and cannot recruit from many local companies. If you have a target company in mind, make sure the recruiter has made no placements with that company for 12 months. If you are hoping to create a long term relationship with a recruiting firm who is proactive, you may want to create this sort of relationship with a contingency recruiter you trust.

Qualifying questions: Create a list of questions and hoped for answers and ask each recruiting firm/recruiter for their answers. Beware the company representative who gives you a great pitch and impressive statistics, then assigns your account to an account representative. Insist on interviewing that person. It is important that the company stats are good, but it is critical that your actual recruiter has impressive stats placing candidates in your specific job title as well. Even if you are working with a retained search firm, you can insist the recruiter has recent success placing candidates at the level and job title you have open.

Ask “How many of the people you placed as VP Sales (for example) are in those same companies after three years? What is the rate of turn on your candidates (especially important if you are hiring technical employees).” Don’t let them dodge this question. They know. Check a reference who has been a long term account of the recruiter and ask that question again.

“What do you require from me?” If they say they will write the job description, insist you want to participate. Most job descriptions are written to please you; they are not the actual marching orders for the job. They are often canned except for the company description and in no way reflect the actual deliverables the candidate will be expected to perform once hired. Since the job description becomes part of the hiring package, you must insist your requirements are listed and offer the recruiter what you feel are reasonable metrics for the proper candidate. Remember, this is both a company private and public document. Candidates will be given the job description and it will become part of their hiring package.

Also offer the recruiter your go/no-go list of requirements. If you want only local candidates, insist. If you require a minimum of three years in the last two jobs, include it. If there are technical or business requirements (Agile or ad sales, for example) make it clear these are non-negotiable. Be sure to list a few companies you feel the right candidates will come from and those to avoid.

Ask the recruiter in charge of your opening to role play the pitch they will give candidates. Don’t let them start with, “I would…” Do an actual role play. Then you ask the hard questions you suspect candidates will ask. Once this is accomplished discuss the results and make course corrections. Don’t expect them to be perfect the first time. This is an uncomfortable process but it delivers you an important element in your search for the right employee; assurance the company and the position are portrayed correctly.

Set expectations. Ask about their process. Not their work product, but what you can expect. Will they vet groups of candidates and submit them at once or individually as they are located? What sort of feedback can you expect? Who negotiates the compensation?

In the end, the recruiter works for you. You pay them. But they don’t get paid unless they find the right candidate, therefore, they are invested in ‘selling’ you the product. Don’t allow yourself to be sold. Know what your criteria are and the metrics by which to judge them.

Today I read three posts on the importance of state-supported seed funding. The mortality statistics on seed-funded efforts makes one wonder why we even try. Here’s what I think is the best insurance for success for any new venture, seed funded or otherwise.

More than Money. Seed funding is important. But proper guidance and mentoring resources make the difference between success and failure. As a confidential Executive Coach, I assist senior executives and CEOs with problem solving and leadership issues. Most of what I know I have learned from successful business people whom I have observed and interacted with over decades and those who, today, are generous sharing their plights/solutions/outcomes.

Different companies, same issues. Last year I worked with FOUR executives caught in the same loop. Each company was at a different stage and health but the issues and the importance of proper resolution of the issues, the same. i.e. New VP Dev or CEO of small company takes on low morale, underperforming dev team. The dev team holds the CEO and VP hostage with threats of leaving so management abides by the dev teams’ wishes not to hire senior, more experienced developers. And in each case, the Board’s advice was conflicting at best, and wrong at the worst. No new executive wants their first report to be about defections.

In one case the CEO was told to do what it takes to keep the current Dev team happy. That advisor had never faced the issue and never had to deal with the horrid environment created by such a decision. Not one on the Board had lived through any aspect of this issue primarily because their expertise was based on decades-old experience or just plain imagination. What the clients needed was advice from people who were living through the challenge now, people who had solved for this problem with today’s devs [whom most would agree are very different from devs of a decade ago in attitude and skill.].

That I saw this problem in four disparate organizations proves to me the importance of general purpose mentoring. Even if I propose myself out of contracts, it is the right solution.

In the U.S., do we feel that by default, the founders of a startup are business geniuses? History of startup failure shows us it is rare that the founders are those who bring the company into that special circle. There are few Jeff Bezos’ starting companies today. For every Jeff/Amazon there is a boneyard filled with skeletons of companies with great vision and products and very poor business decision making.

SOLUTION: We need a cadre of proven successful business professionals to take on the mantle of coaching and playing devil’s advocate to startups. New ventures need proven expertise as much as they need money. Investors who sit on Boards are not always the best advisors. They have a conflict of interest and in many cases, no current track record to advise a small company on personnel, team building, strategic alliance and/or financial decisions. In fact, one of my clients gets so much conflicting advice from his Board of Advisors and Board he is serving three masters. In the end, he has selected a few CEOs in similar companies but who are further along the success trail [and me] for important input.

Many is the CEO who has been given poor advice from the investor’s ‘Deep Bench’ because few things age faster than experience.

Experts have outcomes. I suggest, each fund needs an ancillary group of experts whose role it is to see their charges succeed. These experts are not in the news. They are doing the job solving the same problems every startup faces. For example: Amazon, Zillow and Microsoft, to name a few, empower their VPs and EVPs to run their organizations as though they are independent companies. Those VPs face the same challenges any startup might, today, and could be excellent resources to a certain subset of startups. Each successful corporation has people at the Director level on up who can marshal startups to success.

CEOs and investors of successful corporations are often too far from the action to have excellent solutions to the daily challenges and frequent crisis startups face in today’s business climate. I propose a system that taps into that incredible resource of proven executives within successful companies to add to our [any] state’s efforts to create new companies that succeed and hire.

It takes a village in business, too. I am convinced this is where economic recovery will come from.

Addendum: If you want to discuss the process to create such a cadre, contact me. This is not a frivolous plan. In fact, I presented something similar to the country of New Zealand ten years ago and they went wild. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the infrastructure or $$$ to follow up. We do.

Yet many six figure plus executives do believe they will land a job through job boards. Some job boards are so aggressive they advertise they only source jobs and candidates over $100,000. Research proves these executive level job boards vet neither candidates nor job submissions for income level. They do charge candidates for what is promoted as a premier job board, but there is nothing other than cost to differentiate them from other monsterous job boards.

I contend that people do what is easy. When they are stressed and their confidence is on the wane, they grasp at anything that requires only a little effort. They are willing to believe the magic of random submissions. They are convinced their resume is spot on to the job description and all they need to do is submit and wait for the phone to ring.

More often, the executive finds using the computer for outreach and research far less daunting than talking to people. The prospect of rejection and the feelings of inadequacy that accompany joblessness destroy the urge to reach out.

Would that it be true. Less than 1% of executive level jobs are filled through job boards…spread out among all of them, that leaves any one job board with a dismal record indeed.

So why to companies post on job boards? If the stats are true (and they are) why are executives finding so many job openings listed? Human resources professionals are typically chartered with hiring new executives less than 5% of their employment time. They are not experts and they are not, for the most part, skilled in locating candidates. They post but they do not read.

Many companies have specific rules that say any job must be publicly posted before it is filled from any source. Thus, instead of a newspaper ad, which was the former outlet, jobs are posted on boards.

Some less than scrupulous recruiters thrive on job boards and the candidates they find there. Great, you say, that’s fine with me. Well, maybe not. Frequently, the jobs are not real, the ad is simply used to lure resumes of high income individuals for other reasons. That contact information if quite valuable. Or worse, they use the resume to penetrate companies for jobs they don’t have an assignment to fill.

Frequently internal recruiters post their job openings on job boards out of habit or desparation. While they have little reason to expect to find the right person, they post because they have a budget to do so. Why do they have a budget when using the boards is so futile for executive level jobs? Because boards are a very good resource for finding individual contributors.

And let’s not forget the multi-level marketers who lure candidates with glorious job descriptions that turn out to be bogus with a bait and switch result. Many job boards are simply scams.

How many times have you submitted a resume which caused no response? You felt it was not even read. You are mostly right. Companies of all sizes rely first on referred candidates. Many have financial incentives for employees to refer their friends. In today’s market, the referral from current employees works well because everyone seems to know folks out of work.

What’s the antidote to job boards? Networking. Well over 75% of all executive level jobs are landed by networking. You even have to network to find the most professional of recruiters. Networking has always been the most productive way to land a new job. That has not changed. People are still willing and eager to help. They just need to know what help looks like.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

As we age and our career matures, it is still important to have a mentor. Accepting the guidance of those older and more successful can often mean the difference between unemployment and continued career success. In its purest form, role models and mentors provide routes to job security.

Share with us. Who is your mentor? Why? How did you find/attract that person?

Role models and mentors are the fulcrum of leadership. Whom you read, emulate and ask for advice defines your success. Share with others how you decided who would fit your style and needs. Use the comments section to share.

RuPaul is an example of a leader whose gentle style is inspirational. Care to add a link to your own inspirations? Stephen Covey? Peter Drucker? Jeff Bezos? Talk to your peers, tell them your views on who and why.