During my “sabbatical” I’ve had a lot of time to read and chat with a lot of people from different walks of life, or at least a lot of people who are team managers, recruiters, product managers, and generally high level muckety-mucks. The rabble have tended to remain quiet, which is good for rabble.
In any event, there is a common refrain amongst these otherwise perspicacious group (look it up … rabble) that I find either surprising or funny, depending on my mood. The common refrain is more of a complaint, really. The complaint has to do with the fact these people all seem to be having a devil of a time attracting, recruiting, and retaining the sort of employees you normally want as a manager. The people they (and the rest of us) dream of attracting and managing are intellectually curious, skilled, experienced, passionate about their career, and self-motivated. In other words, the people you don’t actually need to manage except in acting as a conductor who directs and helps enliven the work.
As some one who’s had a small amount of success building out teams apparently made up of these sorts of people, I sometimes am asked about my “secrets” or “techniques” as such. I’ve been hesitant to divulge my secrets for recruiting really good people, until now. I will now give you my primary secret/principle for attracting and recruiting top notch talent.
I try and be someone for whom I would want to work every day I’m at work. The rest of the stuff like training budget, high salaries, beer parties, and the like are largely either out of my control or somewhat superfluous. Here are the actual things you need to implement and practice if you want to bring talented people to you like ants to spilled ice cream.
Respect – Assume everyone on your team and on other teams (often more difficult) are reasonable, talented adults who can be trusted to do their work efficiently and capably. If you have reason to believe to the contrary, first check your beliefs. It’s more likely you are just using a different definition of “efficiently” and “capably” than they.
Openness – This one comes in two parts. You need to be somewhat explicit in your success expectations. You also need to be somewhat current and explicit your expectations are not met. Since we can assume we’re all adults (see above) we can also assume most adults really do want to do a good job. If you are open to them about how they can do better, they’ll usually surprise you by exceeding your expectations.
Honesty – Being honest usually goes hand in glove with being open, but it also implies consistency. No one likes aiming at a moving target or being told they messed up sometime in the past, when they’re no chance to correct it. Honesty is about communicating successes to be celebrated and failures to be corrected. It’s about engendering a reputation of trust so people feel confident enough to come to you with any problems or victories.
Interest – Everyone likes to think they matter to someone or something. For most people, this translates to the workplace even if only due to the amount of time we spend there. A good manager shows interest in their employees’ lives, professional ambitions, and daily toil. They also show interest in their own role and industry. Nothing attracts talented people in a certain industry more than the chance to work with others who share their interests. Nothing keeps talented people around more than knowing they’re valued and appreciated on a daily basis.
Availability – Finally you need to be available to your team as much as humanly possible. You never know when someone will need help resolving a thorny issue, overcoming a seemingly meaningless bureaucratic hurdle, or just want to kvetch in general about the injustice of it all. You also never know when someone will want to show off a brilliant solution to a problem or run a new idea by you to see what you think. You need to do paperwork and attend meetings, but your primary job is to manage a team of people … not resources. People (even adults) will stop coming to you if they feel they can’t count on you being available.
The other thing to remember is you often don’t have to spend a lot of time recruiting talented people. You can encourage your current staff to become talented. In order to do that, you may have to fire or transfer away anyone not willing to themselves practice the rules of respect, openness, honesty, interest, and availability. That’s the downside of building an excellent team, but there’s no way I can see around it. Some people do not have the personality or desire to be excellent. Aptitude is something you can work with. Personality is not. You can’t make some one excellent in spite of themself, but you can bring some one down.
In the end, I suppose that’s the one over-arching rule for success as a manager. Create an environment where people know they are expected to exceed and will be given every tool they need to get there. If you let them take charge of their own path to excellence, they will always surprise you with their capabilities and growth. If you force them down your path, they will always disappoint.
It’s been a while since I updated this thing, I know. Fortunately all you hungry little prospective cogs out there keep the page views up and running. You know that’s a great way to keep me motivated, you sly boots. I’ve been neglectful, again I know. There’ve been other writing projects and an actual paying client (GASP) who seems to think my time is actually worth a few ducets; as opposed to you freeloading lot. Oh who am I kidding? I love you guys and (I hope) gals. Even if you just breeze through my little corner of the blogosphere, leaving behind nothing but the lingering memory of an increased counter tic. In the immortal words if Mr Glen Campbell, “It’s knowin’ that your door is always open and your path is free to walk that makes me tend to leave my sleeping bag rolled up and stashed behind your couch.”
Or something like that. Anyway … you’re probably wondering what’s wrong with your job hunt now that you’ve done the things I suggested. Specifically you’ve done your homework on the company you want to woo. You’ve tunneled down deep into their departmental culture and identified the general archetype by which they tend to judge each other. You’ve taken an honest appraisal of yourself and realized either those people are just like you or that you want to be them. Finally you’ve started ringing up old classmates and distant relatives just to say “hi” and chat about their wonderful careers. At this stage you’ve probably started getting a few half-hearted letters from the corporate human resources department, which is better than before by a long mile.
Unfortunately few if any of these contacts ever amount to anything. So what are you doing wrong?
Chances are good if this is happening to you that you are not physically located within the primary geographic area of your target. Yes, it’s just that simple. The sad truth of modern job hunting is due to increased political, economic, and educational pressures often external to most companies, budgets for relocation have been slashed or outright terminated. It didn’t used to be this way for talented knowledge workers. A short decade ago, many companies were willing to offer relocation funds, language training, private schools, and company owned or subsidized housing in order to attract talented people with specialized skill sets. These days are over. The promise of telecommuting is also not bearing out as more and more companies adopt agile development processes relying on tightly integrated teams sitting in close proximity. In other words, most companies will require you to be physically present during the business day and are not willing to move you and your family in order to get it. This means the candidate who will need to relocate in order to start work will always be ranked lower than the local candidate who already understands the cost of living differences and commute times.
But don’t get me wrong and think there’s only one reason to relocate. Location also brings other benefits; benefits that are actually more useful to the potential job hunter. Being located in the same region as the department you wish to join means you will probably get to meet people already working for said department when you start attending special interest group meetings and seminars. Large companies slough off special interest groups, startup companies, societies, and other ancillary groups like humans slough off dead skin cells. Large companies attract talented people who usually want to socialize with other talented people interested in the same things. Since chances are good their home life is not filled with discussions of packet security or encryption algorithms, they will usually start or find some sort of group where they can find such company. If you join said group as well, you’ve now found another possible source for entry since said person will already know of your interests and talent. But most of all, they’ll know you’re “just like them” and would be a good fit.
Finally being conveniently located gives you a chronological advantage over other candidates. Oftentimes if you are doing your job correctly, you will have a good relationship built up with at least one corporate recruiter. These are the best relationships to covet as they see all the jobs in which you are interested. Many times in my career, I have found out about a position before it was published simply because I knew the recruiter who was notified it might be posted soon. If you are conveniently located, the recruiter knows they can call you up and set up an interview the next day with no cost to the company. You can then drop everything, take the meeting, and probably get the job if you really are a good fit. No one wants to extend the interviewing process longer than it has to unless there are perks such as free food or drinks. If the hiring manager can find a great candidate even before the job is posted, they will count themselves lucky and hire you if they’ve done this before.
So to wrap up today’s lesson in corporate schlepping … you need to be where the action is. Most companies are not importing foreign talent at the same rates, which usually means they aren’t at all. Candidates who will need to relocate their families, may not understand the local cost of living, and may not understand the local culture will not be as attractive as other candidates requiring latitude for those reasons. But on the positive side, being local to your dream job means you can network with actual employees at special interest groups or other industry social events. It also means your relationship with the corporate recruiter will be meaningful as they will be motivated to get you into their offices on short notice.
Of course, there are several alternatives to actually moving yourself. But that’s for next time ….
Good afternoon, evening, and morning to you, my faithful readers. Or as Warren Ellis is fond of saying, “Good morning, Sinners.”
When last we left my tawdry little walk through the ins and outs of seeking out employment with a giant behemoth of a company where you can rest safe in deep pockets filled with money and advancement opportunities, I’d advised you not to directly apply for a position through the corporate career website. This time around I think it would be beneficial to my readers (and my view counts) to start imparting some actually usable advice on how to attract the attention of a independent headhunter (good) a hiring manager (better) or an internal corporate recruiter (best).
Let’s start by reminding everyone of the realities of seeking a job as a cog one of the great machines of commerce. You will have a lot of competition. A lot of people out there like being a cog, it would seem. Plus there’s a certain attraction to inserting yourself into a team doing really large things your family and relations will have heard about. The most positive feedback I ever heard from relations about my career was when I did a brief stint with the XBox team over at Microsoft. My job was to basically push buttons on a controller and venture out of my hole every couple of days for my turn at a trough full of Thai food or pizza, but I got a lot of good reactions doing it. A lot of people associate a known brand with quality or importance; so having the name “Microsoft” associated with my job made me instantly more important (and memorable, which we’ll return to later) in a lot of people’s estimation. The painful reality of this situation is a lot of people will be attempting to elbow you out of the way when attempting to attract the attention of the people they see as having the ability to let them into the club. If you don’t find some way to positively attract the attention of people who can help you, well you’re going to spend a lot of Saturday nights standing at the door watching others have fun.
So how do you positively attract the attention of those what can help you? It’s not as simple as it sounds. Continuing the metaphor of attempting to enter an exclusive club, there are basically two ways once a club has become amazingly popular. Backing up, a common method for gaining entrance is to start attending said club before it becomes popular. In this manner you will be welcome as a “regular” once it gains in popularity and hopefully allowed entry. There are three problems with this strategy as far as we are concerned. First you won’t know which club is going to become world-famous popular at the start unless the promoters and owners have a history of popular clubs, but then they won’t let you in anyway. Second there is always the very likely chance you will be suddenly denied entry once the club becomes popular and you no longer fit the desired clientèle persona. Third this strategy is really only applicable to people looking at joining startups. We’re talking about attempting entry with an established and currently popular enterprise.
So to gain access you have three actual strategies. First, you may be lucky enough to be just the sort of person they look to patronize their club. Second, you may know some one who can vouch for you or put you “on the list.” Finally you can bribe the doorman.
We needn’t worry about the first strategy since it obviously doesn’t apply to us. If you’re the software version of David LaChapelle you won’t need my advice because the companies will come looking for you. My only advice for you all is if they aren’t, then either you need to start self-promoting your talent through articles, books, and conference engagements or perhaps I might suggest you aren’t as talented as you think you are. Alternately I suppose it might be possible to fake the sort of talent and personality that may appeal to your corporation (see my previous posts about the mythical self-image of specific corporate employees) but in the best case scenario you will eventually be expected to produce at the level of talent everyone thinks you possess, then the jig will be up. You can also say hello to the land of being black balled, but more on that state in a different post.
So strategy number two, knowing some one who can put you on the list, is where we’ll start.
This is probably the most effective strategy available to a potential cog. Personal references are still crucial to entry even in the age of digital media and social networking. But not all references are created equal. Having the receptionist pass your resume onto the VP of Product Development may not be incredibly effective (unless said receptionist is actually romantically involved with said VP, but that’s against corporate policy and the VP might wonder how you know the receptionist which opens up a whole … but I digress) but its still better than cold calling the recruiter. The best reference is some one said VP knows, respects, and trusts has some idea of the actual job and who would be a good fit. To accomplish having a person like that available to you means you’ll need a fat Rolodex of contacts and people you know already in place. To build such a Rolodex you’ll need to start right now … after you leave a comment of course.
The way you build such a network of contacts is referenced in my blog title. You’ll need to take your pride and feelings of shame, box them up in a neat little storage bin, and tuck them safely away for future use when you have your job and can afford such luxuries. Feeling positively amoral and shameless yet? Good. Now start reaching out to everyone you know and start chatting them up about your life and how they’re doing. Occasionally and inadvertently drop how you’d heard good things about your corporation. What you’re attempting to do is take advantage of the memorable nature of the branding efforts I mentioned earlier. You’re making a connection between you and said corporation hoping it will either spark the memory of a mutual acquaintance or relative who’s safely sitting at the bar already. Talk to everyone, including ex boyfriends or girlfriends. Remember that we’re no longer at home for Mister Shame. Social networking sites are excellent for this endeavor. I heartily recommend a blitz campaign using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Naymz, and any other heavily trafficked site you can find. But a word of caution, you may want to set up accounts specific for this activity unless you want some one to refer the VP to your Facebook page where they can review those pictures of you your friend posted from that time in Seattle where you partied for two days with Layne Staley and ended up … I’m digressing again, right?
Your ultimate goal is to find a friend, a friend of a friend, a relative, or a former colleague who’s working at your corporation to whom you can attach yourself like a lamprey eel. Once the connection’s been established, keep it current but casual. The point is to keep yourself in their mind when some one mentions a new opening in a department for which you’d be a great fit. The scene should play out where your contact approaches the person after and talks to them a little more about their needs. You’re casually floated as a possibility, and a promise of an introduction is made. You then either meet to chat with the “hiring manager” and you’re in if you really are a good fit. That’s it. It’s really that simple.
But how do you get the person to want to put you forward as a candidate, especially if they only know you from boarding school? The answer is you won’t have to because you’re already bribing the doorman.
All large companies have what are called “referral bonuses.” This is essentially free money of varying amounts that a company promises to pay a current employee if they find them another cog to join the machinery. Policies and amounts vary from a percentage of the eventual salary paid after six months to a year of employment all the way down to a flat fee paid immediately on your first day of employment. So by referring you to the “hiring manager” they are satisfying their own sense of greed, and in this case greed is definitely good. It costs a lot of money to advertise, recruit, screen, and interview qualified candidates. By referring a candidate directly, the internal employee is saving the company a lot of time and money. You get a great job. The company gets a great employee or a really good liar, which may be the same thing depending on the company. Your contact gets a nice chunk of money to spend on video games, vacations, or possibly the book I’m helping write <shameless plug> that’s scheduled to be released this Fall </shameless plug>. And to top it all off, the recruiter can go back to working their screenplay/novel/play/web comic taking a satirical look at life in a corporation.
So what’s the first thing you’re now going to do, Sinners? That’s right … comment. Then you should poke that fellow in Burnsby you used to work with and just check to see what he’s been up to. I know. It’s been ages. You? Oh just more of the same. Actually you were just reading about that new product over at [fill in company name] and was thinking they’re really doing interesting things over there. Oh really? He is? And he’s on that team? Ha ha. Didn’t he nearly get fired for chatting up the receptionist all the time? VP of Product Development now, is he? Small world ….
