Author Archives: Laura Machan

This week, my Facebook feed is full of graduation photos.  It’s been a while since Prince Charming graduated so it’s been refreshing to see all the big, shiny smiles. It’s hard to tell whether they are actually happy or totally panicked.

This is true for both the parents and the kids.  There is an awful lot of pressure about what happens after school is done.  Of course we want our kids to be educated and contribute but I think we need to reevaluate the importance we place on agonizing every step of the journey.

What your child does in September may not, in any way, be related to what they will be when they grow up.  Whether they start with college, university or a gap year, it’s all progress.

I was at a summit put on by Colleges Ontario and it was amazing to hear about how closely they are working with industry to develop supportive curriculum.  New programs are being added every year and they lead to occupations that are new and exiting.

Think about the world of digital media and all of the new jobs in that industry.  And what about app development?  Is there an industry that is not moving toward being more connected?

This is our big frontier.  The fourth revolution ( after the industrial one) is the digital one and it is just packed with opportunity.  Things are changing faster than ever before and you can either keep up or get out of the way.

When your kids want to sign up for a one year program that leads to immediate work, try hard not to be discouraging even if you feel that university is the only real way to build a great career.

If you believe in lifelong learning (and who doesn’t?) then expect your kids to do a combination of college and university over the first 10 years of their career and then continue with courses as things change in their lives and in their jobs.

So relax.  Listen to their rational and help them sort out they best way to maximize the experience.  Then sit back and let it happen.

Last week, our local police force announced that they are going to spend the next few years modernizing their organization. One of the pillars of the plan is a hiring freeze.

I just about exploded when I heard that.  If a major culture change is prescribed, a hiring freeze is the last thing they need.

Putting the brakes on hiring people has long term consequences.  It ripples all the way back to students choosing their fields of study. We are still seeing the effects of this in the utility sector. There is a big gap in mid-career managers because no one was actively recruiting new graduates for the sector in the late 90’s.

Change requires the acceptance of a new point of view.  Different people react to this in different ways.  Once you identify the people ready to embrace the new view, what do you do with the rest?  Offer a graceful way out, that’s what.

People will self identify as well.  They will take a look at the impending changes and decide to move out on their own.  Organizations lose a lot of good talent when a change is imminent but not fully explained.

So now you have holes created by people choosing to leave and people being asked to leave. If you expect to just spread the work across your existing folks, it will surely take a big toll.  You will see the effects on morale, productivity and an increasing level of drama around everything.

And you are going to need evangelizers.  People who come to your organization because of the changes you are making.  They are already wired to believe in them and to spread their passionate views throughout the organization.

When I add this up, it looks like they will actually need to hire quite a few people.  Recruitment should be careful and deliberate but definitely not frozen.

Contrary to popular belief, the summer is a great time to get a new job.  Sure, hiring managers go on vacation but that does not mean that all activity stops.  Business goes on and plans for the fall often require new skills and more people.

Summer is rich with networking opportunities.  A bunch of my colleagues did the Ride to Conquer Cancer last weekend.  Aside from accomplishing a tremendous physical challenge, they spent two days with 5,000 other riders, many of whom were on corporate teams.  It is not hard to pick out someone wearing a team jersey of one your most admired companies and strike up a conversation about bike gear.  It’s safe to say you have more in common than just saddle sores.

And let’s not forget sports tournaments.  Whether you are at a charity golf thing or your kid’s soccer tournament, you will be spending time with people you don’t know.  These are prime opportunities to learn about new industries, companies and jobs.

If you meet someone interesting, jot down a couple of notes on your phone.  When you get back to your regular life, find the person on LinkedIn and ask them to connect.  Mention where you met in case they don’t remember.  The next time you see a job posted at their firm, you can hit them up for information.

Sometimes the conversation can turn serious pretty quickly.  If you find yourself talking about your work and the person says “We should talk – give me a call on Monday”, then get their card and ask what time would be best.  Do some research on the company and make the call.

Be ready.  This stuff really happens.  I cannot tell you how many times I have asked someone how they got their role and they start with “Well, it’s kind of a funny story…..”

When I tell people what I do for a living, they nod knowingly but I know the truth.  People have no idea what “headhunters” really do.  The label conjures images of short, hairy people with spears out looking for the perfect specimen of nuclear engineer who will let nothing stand in the way of bagging the big catch.

That all sounds very glamorous but frankly, a bit far-fetched.  We are really about relationships, balance and respect.

It’s kind of like being the host of a big dating game.  We listen to the hiring manager and learn about the kind of person they are looking for.  We ask a lot of questions about the situation, previous relationships, places where possible candidates might be hanging out and so on.

Then we start researching.  We sift through resume databases.  We talk to people who know other people.  While we are doing this, we are watching for patterns and styles that are going to fit well with what the client needs.

When things begin to line up, introductions are made.  The first interview is really a blind date.  We hope it goes better than the one with your neighour’s cousin, but it’s the same kind of thing.

If that first date goes well, then the next step is like going on a dinner date – something a little more formal, perhaps with some other people in the group, maybe you get a tour afterwards.

And if all of that falls into place and both parties are presenting balanced and enthusiastic feedback, then you start the process of meeting the in-laws, looking at the dowry and begin to plan the wedding.

Notice there was no mention of spearing, yelling or shoving?  Recruiting is about making people’s work lives better and at it’s best, it’s done with the highest level of care and respect.

I spent yesterday morning in a sales workshop.  One of our executive sales leaders took us through the process of using insights to help customers get a better understanding of how we do what we do.  The insight part was not really new – we have always been pretty consultative on the whole.  The new part was actually laying out a specific plan on how we were going to take them through the conversation, almost like chapters of a story.

Two things struck me.

This is exactly the same process we use to write a stand-up comic bit.  You lay out a scenario, take your listener through the details and then, BOOM, drive them to the punch line.

That was a very fun (but unsharable) realization midway through the morning.

Here is the more relevant part:  everyone in the hiring process needs to get a handle on this technique.

As a job seeker, the only way for hiring managers to understand what you can do, is to take them through what you have done before.  You need a concise, relatable way to share those details.

As a hiring manager, you need to be able to paint a picture of your group and the cool things they are working to accomplish.  That’s how you attract the really great talent.

When someone asks for an example of a behaviour or a situation, they are really asking for a story.  Smooth story telling does require some practice.  Your best joke is the best because you can tell it with the right amount of details and you don’t leave out anything that’s important.

Your best stories are the same thing.

Describe the setting (A string walks into a bar) and some details about what transpires ( he asks for a martini, the bartender tells him they don’t serve strings).  He ties himself into a knot, tousles one end and asks again. (Bartender says “Hey aren’t you a string?”.  String says “No, I’m a frayed knot.)

That may be a little too simple to explain real work situations but you get the idea.  It does not have to be complicated but it does take practice.

Take some time this weekend to practice telling some good work stories.  You will be glad you did.

Do you know where your resume is?  When was the last time you updated it?

I know you don’t need any more pressure in your life but keeping an outdated resume on a memory stick or worse, on your work computer is not going to cut it.

Telling a recruiter to refer to your Linkedin profile is not the answer either.  Sure you can keep it up to date but it is never going to have all the information that a resume will nor can it be forwarded to someone else.

When a person of influence says “send your resume and let’s talk”, they don’t mean next week when you get your act together.  They mean in the next 24 hours.

Spending time at work or time after midnight updating what you have been doing for the last two years it really not going to show your best self.

Tips:

• Put an appointment in your calendar to review your resume every month.
• Keep it in the cloud (dropbox, google drive)
• If you are starting from scratch, use the templates that are set up in Word and Pages. They are clean and attractive and will give you a strong framework to start with.
• Send your resume to at least two friends (best if you can find an English teacher) to check your spelling and grammar.

If you get lost in the weeds reading blogs and articles about resume building and formatting, remember this:  it is a document that represents what you do and where you have done it.  You can listen to all kinds of arguments about fonts and styles but ultimately, if you feel proud when you hand it to someone, you have done it right.

It is graduation season.  Lots and lots of new grads will be looking for their first full time jobs.  You will be contacted by nieces, nephews, neighbours kids and who knows who else.

You have two choices: make a few minutes to talk with them and answer their questions or ignore and procrastinate until they go away.

Take the first option.

Not just for karma, although that’s important.  Do it because every successful person can point to one or two conversations that were pivotal in making decisions about their early career.

Wouldn’t you like to be at least partially responsible for someone’s meteoric rise?

College and universities are not preparing people for the process of looking for a job.  They are not talking about LinkedIn or networking or how to polish their resume.  As far as I know, only MBA programs offer this sort of preparation.  Most kids are graduating without any idea how to get anything but a job at the mall.

So be helpful.  Talk about how people get hired at your company.  Talk about companies you know that are hiring or have new grad programs.

Point them to the Jobs page on LinkedIn, Indeed and Talent Egg.  Offer to connect with them on LinkedIn.   Ask them about their introduction/elevator pitch and help them refine it so that it’s smooth and interesting.

These may seem like little things but they could be enormously helpful to someone looking for their first job.  Plus it could come in handy if you discover in ten years that they are your new boss.

If you have not been on Linked In lately, shame on you.  If you have, you have probably noticed the new steaming video feature.

This offers users some nifty capabilities but honestly, for the first week, all I saw was the same cute crap I see on Facebook.  I don’t log on to LinkedIn to get sucked into the kitten/puppy vortex.

I want to see what colleagues are doing and read interesting material posted by people I admire.

So what can we really do with this feature that is not annoying?

It is, at its heart, at huge differentiation.  If you get video in your profile in the next few months, you will be able to ride the novelty factor.  People are going to be curious and it will be easy to capture their attention.

• Post a video of you giving a presentation.
• How about a video resume?
• Before and after of a transformation.

Ultimately, it is a great way to show more about who you really are; the stuff that your experience and credentials alone can’t show.

The only thing to keep in mind is to keep it professional.  This stuff follows you forever so be careful what you post and for heaven’s sake, don’t let anyone else post for you!