Chapter 5 - Let Me Introduce Myself!! (Marketing Yourself)

All right, you’ve got your resume, you’ve got your plan, and you’ve got your market information, now it’s time to introduce yourself.

If you are still employed and looking for your next job, you will want your search to be confidential. So, how do you get your name out there and also keep it a secret?

Know the laws that protect you. Be sure to let any recruiter or potential future employer know that your search is confidential. You can add the words “confidential search” on your resume and introduction. If anyone carelessly lets it slip to your current employer that you are searching for a new job, resulting in your termination, that person can be liable. Do not request to be contacted at your place of work. If you do not have a cell phone, be sure that you have an alternative way to be reached while you are work. Some suggestions are Hot Mail or Yahoo! free e-mail services if you have access to the Internet, or have voice mail, outside of your place of employment, set up so that you can frequently check your messages.

Networking (gaining information rather than giving information) and working with the right recruiters are your greatest allies during a confidential search.

Have you ever wondered how recruiters stumble across those positions that employers are willing to pay fees to find the right person? We market call. Market calling is not a right reserved only for recruiters. It is just the best way to introduce ourselves and find out what is going on in the market. You can do it too. Make a list of employers that you are interested in, a long list, 50+ employers. Contact the senior managers within the department you are interested in. You are not calling to ask for a job, you are introducing yourself. Be sure to write a script before you call, but you don’t want to come across as though you are reading the script while you are on the phone. Practice your script several times before picking up the phone. The script should say who you are, the type of work you are looking for, why you targeted that employer, and end with an open-ended question. For example “Hi Mr. Jones, My name is Job Seeker, I am a senior level widget maker. I have heard that your company recently won a substantial contract for the production of widgets and I was wondering how that has affected you staffing plans?”

You are not asking for a job, you are asking what the projected needs might be. This will give you information of whether the employer is anticipating hiring someone with your background. With all the responsibilities a manager has, often times they will overlook where they need to increase staff until they notice that there is a gap (or opening). More importantly, you make them consider whether or not they need to anticipate hiring someone of your level.

If you are not comfortable with market calling yourself or if you would like to increase you market exposure, it would be a good idea to team up with a of couple good recruiters. However, there are so many to choose from. How do you distinguish one from the next? There are some questions you can ask.

Are they certified? There are a number of certifications available. The nationally recognized certifications come from National Association of Personnel Services (NAPS). NAPS awards the Certified Personnel Consultant (CPC) and the Certified Temporary-Staffing Specialist (CTS). The CPC is awarded to recruiters whose focus is permanent placement. The CTS is awarded to recruiters whose focus is contract or temporary staffing.

A recruiter must meet the following criteria to achieve either a CPC or CTS.

· Experience of at least two years staffing or recruiting

· Proven Knowledge of current employment laws and procedures

· Ethical Standards set forth by NAPS standards must be followed

· Commitment to continuing education through NAPS

The advantage of working with a certified recruiter is that you are more likely working with a professional who is dedicated to their chosen career, has a good working knowledge of the laws that protect you and is required to follow standard ethical practices.

Are they specialized? Some recruiters specialize in particular jobs or industries, others prefer to be more generalized. For example, Executive Search Firms often specialize in Senior Management and C- Level positions, regardless of the industry. Many firms may recruit for all levels of positions within an industry such as, technology or medical. Other agencies diversify to several industries and recruit for all positions within their clients.

Each type of Agency has their advantages and disadvantages.

If you are working with a recruiter that specializes in your specific skill set, that recruiter probably understands all the ins and outs of what you do for a living. They should have established relationships with employers that are seeking your skills. However, a recruiter that focuses on a small number of specific job types may develop tunnel vision. Their networking skills may not expand into areas that can affect the future of your career. The other downside is that it may be difficult to develop a long-term relationship with such a recruiter, because as you expand and diversify your skills, you may outgrow your recruiter.

Agencies that are more industry focused may not know your specific job as well as the recruiter who only recruits for people with your skill set. However, they should know how your specific job affects the industry, your place in the product or service life cycle, and the career paths that are available to you. If you stay in the same industry long-term, you can hopefully find a recruiter that can be a long-term partner in assisting you to achieve your goals. However, industry specific recruiters may not be able to assist you in transitioning to another industry. Even if you meet with a recruiter that works in your newly chosen industry, they may not understand the industry you are coming from well enough to sell your transferable skills to a potential employer.

Agencies that are more generalized have their hands in many different industries placing all types of people in all types of positions. These agencies could give you wide exposure into the employment market. However, consider that since they do not specialize within any industry or specific job, their knowledge of what you do may be limited.

The job market of the mid to late 90’s was geared to Employer Paid Fees, meaning the employers paid the placement fees charged by the agencies. In tighter job markets agencies have charged Candidate’s the placement fees. Today there is a combination of both available. The more specialized your position the more likely that employers will pay a fee to find you. However, don’t discount the candidate paid fee agencies right away. If the fee is contingent on finding you a position that you willingly accept and the agency can offer a comfortable payment plan, often times their influence with their client employers can be worth the cost of getting you that ideal position.

How is the recruiter’s job is structured? Most agencies have recruiters that work entirely with candidates while the account managers work entirely with clients. This allows the agency to have high volume with an assembly line type of efficiency. Some recruiters work both sides, developing a relationship with their candidates and then marketing their skills to their clients. This allows that the recruiter who knows you best is representing you personally to the client employer. Others have developed a structure that is a combination of the two, where the recruiters work in a team environment, sharing information to develop relationships with both the candidates and clients, giving them ample exposure. However, often times efficiency gets lost in the process. The structure that is best suited for you depends on your needs and expectations.

How do you feel about your recruiter? Remember, the recruiter is representing you. Do they present themselves professionally? Are they knowledgeable? Do they really know who you are and what you want to do? There are some key things to look for. Do they tell you about a great opportunity before they ask you what you want to do? It is better to work with a recruiter that may not have the right job match right away, but is willing to get to know you well enough to find it, and not waste your time until they do. Do you know where you are being presented, or is the recruiter mass faxing and e-mailing your resume everywhere without consulting you? Sure you want exposure, but you want the right exposure.

If your resume is being submitted to the same employer two or three times by different recruiters, it is a poor reflection on your organizational skills. Be sure you know where you are being presented and always try to get some kind of feedback on what the employer thought of your resume.

If another recruiter asks to present you to a position that you have already been presented for, but did not get the interview, inform them that you have been presented. Often times candidates feel that if the first recruiter didn’t get the interview arranged, maybe the next one can. That is sometimes possible, but the recruiter needs to strategize on how to approach the employer, and they cannot do that successfully without complete information.

In order to stay organized and remain in control of your job search, you should not work with too many recruiters. However, you should never shut out a recruiter who calls you if you have already reached your limit. Listen to what each recruiter has to say. Ask detailed questions. Recruiters, whether their clients or candidates are paying them, are ultimately working for you. You can replace one with another if you feel it will get you further.

Many people have suggested that recruiters were an endangered species since the outbreak of online job boards. It is true that recruiters who tend to collect resumes and then mass distribute them are rapidly becoming extinct. However, more specialized recruiters have yet to feel very threatened.

Job boards have become a somewhat efficient and effective way to connect employers with future employees. It has also become a hindrance to many candidates and employers. To best utilize online job boards, you must first decide exactly what it is you want to achieve from them.

Before posting your resume on multiple job boards, evaluate how the job boards affect the rest of your job search plan. Once your resume is “out there,” multiple recruiters will be calling you about a variety of different positions and employers will be adding your name in their database. This sounds good, except that many of these recruiters and employers are not actually reading your resume. There are simply too many coming at them at one time. As a result, you could be receiving calls about a zillion positions that are not even close to what you are looking for. You could be screened out of a employer that your chosen recruiter tried to present you to because the employer already has your resume in their database.

If possible, find out how employers retrieve resumes. You could not even be considered for your ideal position because you didn’t have the right key words on your resume enough times. Many job boards retrieve resumes in order of the number of times the searchable key word appears on the resume. Some list in order the resume was received, so in a day or so, your resume could be at the bottom of the list.

If you are working with a couple of good recruiters, it is probably best not to post your resume on job boards, but rather to reply to specific advertisements. This keeps you in control of where your resume is going. Investigate whether the ad is written by the employer itself or an outsourced agency. If the ad is for an outside agency, call them before submitting your resume and find out how they work. Be sure that by submitting it to the agency, the resume is not going to their client without anyone informing you of who the client is. If the ad is for an employer, consider alternative ways to submit your resume so that it won’t be herded in with all the other responses. You can contact your recruiter and see what influence they could have. Recruiters usually keep your information confidential until there is mutual interest, so if they were not successful, you haven’t hurt your chances of getting in, because the employer still should not know who you are. You could also introduce yourself to the hiring authority with a personal market call. Be sure not to mention the ad, remember the market call is to introduce yourself, not to ask for a job. Do your research to find another reason to call the hiring authority. Follow the steps as described in the "Marketing Yourself" section and bring up the idea of a possible opening. You can also submit your resume directly through the employer's website if they have a career section available. This may put you in a smaller stack of responses than the online job board stack.

Remember to keep track of your efforts. It has been mentioned a number of times in this manual the importance of staying organized and staying in control of your job search. No matter how well you track your efforts, it will do you no good unless you cannot easily retrieve the information.


Be sure to track:
· Where your resume has been sent and the date it was sent
· Who you have personally contacted and the date
· Who has contacted you and the date
· General information about each employer you have contacted (either personally or through another source)
· Feedback you have received
· How you found the employer or contact person, or how they found you.