Question:

My interviews (3 levels of them) for the position that I’ve been pursuing were done just over a month ago! Why haven’t they made me an offer? I’m perfect for the role-

– Signed,

Anxious in Waiting

One of the hardest times for a candidate for a position can be the time period after their interviews have been completed (seemingly). Many things can be holding up their decision process, and their choice of you as their ‘new, best employee’.

As you had mentioned in the detail of your email to me, you had been told that, in fact, you were the first candidate to be interviewed and they warned up front that it could take a while for the process to come to completion. That plead for patience is of little consolation when we’re the one that finds ourself waiting endlessly.

Trust and have faith in yourself. From the steps that you had outlined, it seems you did put your best foot forward, including sending in a creative proposal for them to consider after your interview process. Even though you may be the best, and the right one, a company has to also complete its process to be sure that they are hiring the right person for their team at this troubled time.

It may help to understand how long a traditional hiring process typically takes. In a normal market (which, of course, this is not), it takes somewhere between 6 to 8 weeks for a hiring process to run its course. It can be a little longer or a little shorter, but that is the average time. Of course, that’s if the position and budgeting has been approved, the decision to truly add to the staff has been made, and they are ‘ready’ to start the process. Just posting the ad for the position on web does not mean that they are ‘ready’, just getting prepared.

If you were the first interviewee to begin their three-level process, and that only began in the 3rd week of January, well it seems as if things are moving right on schedule, at least for them. The decision will likely be forthcoming in the next week or two, based on a typical time frame. Remember that these are not typical times and anything can happen, so be sure to be working your network and keeping your ears open in case additional opportunities arise to convey your value to them.

Also be sure that you have done the work outlined in the Self-Recruiter® book to prepare for the time of offer, rather than just waiting for news.

Be ready and stay in control, with preparation.

John Crant

www.SelfRecruiter.com

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Ask,Self-Recruiter

Tags: Advice, change the rules, confidence, ego, Get Motivated, guide, Interviewing, Job Hunting, Job Search, secrets, taking control

Suffering After a Layoff

Taking that first step back toward control can be a very difficult one whether your confidence may be suffering after a layoff, restructuring or even while you are still employed, but worrying about your future security with your current company. Many great, productive and talented employees get laid off too. There’s the perception in our minds that once laid off, others may see us as the ‘bottom 10%’ (Thanks to Jack & GE).

While continually cutting or replacing the bottom 10% may have real merits for a business’ performance (not to mention being a really great motivator for others in the company to work very, very hard), if we end up laid off, it can be a difficult blow to our ego and confidence.

Get over it. Period.

Of course, do a realistic self-assessment and correct and improve any areas that may need it, but great people do get laid off too, so put the guilt up an a shelf and out of your way.

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker

on Job Search and Career Management

© John Crant

Question:

I just got passed over again for the next-level position in my company (came in 2nd place several times now), what should I do now?

– Signed, Frustrated in NJ

It can be very difficult when we see others get positions that we may be right for, but don’t let that stop your efforts. From what you had described in your longer email, it seems your company may be making the same mistake over and over again: Trying to find ‘any’ spot for top performers within the company, rather than the right one. This has resulted in rapid turnover, even among those ‘placed’ into positions, because they were not at the ‘right level’ in their career path for those roles in the first place.

While it may be understandable, even admirable for a company for find roles for those left out when the music has stopped with everyone scrambling for a chair during a restructuring, but simply putting an over-qualified individual in the role so that they ‘don’t lose them’ will add up to more pain for the company in the long run. You had mentioned having 5 bosses over the last 3 years. Many of those, from your description, were ‘saved’ and placed into that role, which was not necessarily the correct position for their career path and career ‘arc’ (career path + career achievement, graphed in a way to show the correct current level for the individual’s career progression). That is also why they left the role after such a short time: it was just a weigh station on the way to they right career position at another company. Short sighted decision-making during the hiring and restructuring process has wide effects across an organization and that results in both short and longer term pain for the company, its employees and their end client customers who suffer from the lack of constancy in direction, affecting results.

My advice to you is to actively be pursuing the right level of position in another company that may be better positioned to make the correct hiring choices, while continuing to go after the right positions within your company. Work hard to give your support to your new manager, but be sure you are carving out time in your personal schedule to market yourself to other opportunities as well. Be sure you are following all the Self-Recruiter® steps and use the forms provided to manage your job hunt process to maximize your efforts.

It can be scary to consider changing employers with the current economic conditions, but good candidates do get hired and those at the top of their game understand that value has value in any market.

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker
on Job Search and Career Management

Copyright © John Crant

WELCOME

Congratulations (for the work you are about to do)

Really. Congratulations- you just took on a serious challenge, one that you may not be sure you are up to meeting. That, a period of challenging oneself in an unfamiliar area, is where magic can happen. I still believe in making magic happen. Maybe not the tricks you performed as a child at family gatherings, but taking on, and making, the unexpected or unattainable happen. Simply being willing to take on the challenges that I will put forward to you in this book will make you a better candidate for your next position, significantly increase your chances for success in each role you apply for in your job search, and make you a better employee that contributes more to your company. Now that is someone a hiring manager wants to hire, especially when companies face many of the same types of challenges that you may be experiencing personally.

Why, Why Now and How this Book will help you as a

Personal Specialist and Coach.

Over the last ten years, I have worked as a recruiter in several fields and industries, and they all have a central commonality: people, human and social nature, combined with different styles and methods companies use in their hiring process. It can feel scary and out of control.

“Why haven’t they called me? I’m perfect.”

“Why did I not get that second or third interview, or an offer?”

“Why did they offer me so much less than I was expecting?”

“Why do I feel like they think I’m not qualified?”

And endless others.

Doubt and insecurity creep in and, little by little, you grow less and less confident. You may seem to be a weaker candidate as more time goes on without finding that right next step in your work-life. It can become a self fulfilling prophecy of missed opportunities.

Change the Cycle, and Change the Rules.

I never met a rule I didn’t like (to break).

We all know them: the rules. Social and work convention has slowly stripped the humanity from the hiring process. We apply. We wait and wait. We call, but rarely get any meaningful answers. Sometimes they never call. But what happened? (Answer: You followed the ‘Rules’)

Hiring managers and HR professionals are too busy and overworked, just like everyone else these days. They have real work to do and participating and driving their own hiring process is just one small part of their responsibilities and challenges that have to be met. More and more on their plates, until vital things (like great candidates) begin to fall off the pile. Lost opportunity for the candidates, the hiring managers, HR, and the company’s stockholders, who will ultimately feel the results when the best talent slips away and the aggregate results of this happening again and again result in the company’s lower shareholder earnings.

This key reality of the modern business world is why the recruiting business can exist. Companies and hiring managers need an expert, a specialist that will not take their eye off the ball and, in the end, will provide them with individuals that are not just ‘capable’ of doing the job, but exceptional. And exceptional individuals add to a company’s bottom line, regardless of their role.

So, why not just find a recruiter that specializes in your niche? You could, and maybe should, but in this market and economic climate, recruiters are facing many of the same challenges and frustrations, along with lack of results that individuals are facing. Everyone is closing the purse strings trying to cut costs (of course, now is just the time that companies should be using really great recruiters even more). In my experience over the last ten years as a recruiter, recruiting and sales trainer, and as VP of a nationwide system of recruitment offices, the numbers never lie. The reality is that even in a good market, for every candidate a good recruiter interviews and qualifies as a ‘good candidate for their niche’, ultimately that recruiter will only place 1 to 2 out of every 100. Scary, I know. It’s a sales business and sales is always about getting past many, many of the typical responses and rejections, until you finally get that yes. Recruiters may seem to be paid quite handsomely by their client companies, but they work extremely hard for each result that comes to fruition. Typically, only the very best of the best candidates in any niche will find occasional success through a recruiter (from a candidate’s perspective). The companies know and understand the value that recruiters offer and that’s why they are (usually) willing to pay recruiters for help.

But in these times, you really need to be your own specialist, your own career counselor, and your own recruiter: a Self-Recruiter.

And I’ll teach you how.

I’ll demystify the process step by step, and without the ‘filter’. I’ll show you how to begin to take back the control and how to ‘drive’ your own hiring process with companies for which you want to work. And along the way, I’ll share the secrets and insights recruiters use to benefit their clients and candidates. You’ll learn how to get your resume noticed and get that next interview. How to reach out directly to hiring managers and how to beat the other candidates that you are competing against. You’ll learn how to build chemistry with anyone you meet. You’ll learn how to negotiate a better offer with a better salary. I’ll teach you how to avoid common traps in the Human Resources department. How to utilize the Internet resources available to you. How to plan for the unexpected and I’ll teach you how to plan, set goals, and manager your job search.

Taking that first step back toward control can be a very difficult one whether your confidence may be suffering after a layoff, restructuring or even while you are still employed but worrying about your future security with your current company. The techniques that I will teach you here are the necessary steps for you to learn, grow and get that right next career challenge. You will grow in ways that will add to your performance successes, both immediately and long into your future.

This book is not about finding yourself. It’s not about making a silk purse out of a.. wait, no more swine references! It’s about how to leverage your real assets, not just your desires. Those assets are why you will get the job.

So, what are you waiting for?

Let’s Get Going!

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker
on Job Search and Career Management

© John Crant

Liftoff!

I Can’t Really Do This Can I?

Nice Attitude, That Will Get You Places

(that you don’t want to be)

Our natural traits of questioning and doubting ourselves can help us avoid one of the major things we face in life: risk. That risk-avoidance can be a lifesaver. It keeps us from some of the dangers of the world that could be our undoing. It keeps us from getting too close to a cliff’s edge. It can help us make the choice for taking a well lit street, rather than the shortcut through the dark alley. It keeps us from coming face to face with some of our worst fears. But those traits, while very useful at times- especially when evaluating our steps and choices as a Self-Recruiter, will also hold us back when taking on a new and challenging role for ourselves as advisor, counselor, and motivator in the Self-Recruiter process. Yes, we need to question and doubt at every step of the way to be sure that our selections and choices allow for the best possible chance of success. But we mustn’t allow that questioning and doubt to erode our fortitude for taking on the daunting challenges set forth by this book.

Though I did not overly challenge myself with sports and those kinds of competitions as a child, once out in the world, I did discover a strong love for the outdoors. I grew to love camping and hiking and just getting away from it all in nature. It’s a wonderful antidote to what ails in the modern world. One of my favorite places to visit is Yosemite. If you have not made it there for a visit, it must be added to your list of must-sees. Though a much larger park than most people think, the area most people visualize and associate with Yosemite is just a small valley within the park. It has a single road in, which loops the valley and, when done with your visit, it loops you back out through the same tunnel which is cut straight through the mountain. Be forewarned, the area of roadway just after exiting the tunnel and entering the valley is one that is home to many a fender-bender. The view is so astounding and unexpected to our minds, that many a driver has seemed to have forgotten that they are still behind the wheel driving a vehicle and, well you can imagine the results. When standing there on the valley floor, which is only about a mile wide, though several miles long, you are surrounded on three sides by nearly sheer cliffs rising a mile or more straight upward. The trees are enormously tall, yet seem like miniatures on a model against the backdrop of the sights and waterfalls rising toward the heavens. It really does look like a painting or artificial backdrop that might be found in a photo studio somewhere, especially once you step into the shot.

A quick Google search will return many pictures with the valley’s most prominent features. The most photographed of which is probably a massive, sold monolith of granite, sheered off on one side, appropriately named Half Dome. My favorite camp area sits near the back of the valley at its base and next to the winding river. It’s an inspiring and awesome sight to behold. Since my very first visit, I had such a strong desire to be one of the relatively few that made it all the way to the top. Over 8,800 feet high, and directly above my campsite. In order to get there, you have to hike about nine miles each way, and that was thousands of feet going up, and thousands of feet coming back down. No supplies, food, water or porta-potties along the way. But, who was I kidding, I was not ‘that kind’ of outdoor guy. I think it was on my third visit where I undertook this challenge. It involved overcoming many a warning stating that the average person could never accomplish this feat in a single day and must plan for camping in the wilderness en route along the way, if they were to be successful. It also involved ignoring the warnings of bears and mountain lions in the area meant to trigger the risk-avoidance in us all. And, of course, those animals are really there, it’s their habitat after all. If you ever doubt that point, the park service has a nice display of a car with its windows smashed out and its door ripped off by a hungry local that had spotted a cooler of food sitting on the back seat, instead of in the bear-proof storage lockers, as recommended.

Fear can be a wonderful thing.

It can be a great motivator to be our best selves (thanks again, Jack) or it can keep us from achieving our goals. Determined to achieve my goal, I did all the research and planning that I could do. I concluded that to make it in a single day and arrive back at my campsite before sunset, I would need to head out at about four in the morning, in the dark. Until you actually try hiking and climbing all those thousands of feet over the course of nine miles toward some goal, you really can’t be prepared for just how taxing and strenuous that it can be. So yes, I had unbelievable burning sensations throughout my body for the next 13 hours that my round trip ended up taking. I had decided that I was going to make it, or quite possibly, die trying. Once you focus in on that kind of determination, you will be amazed at what that focus will help you achieve.

Maybe because of just how difficult I expected the journey to be, along with how determined I was, it ended up being easier than expected to near the base, and the final 900 feet, of my challenge to the top of Half Dome. As I grew closer and closer to the base, the close-up of the Dome finally came into view. My heart nearly stopped as if facing a precipice on the edge of eternity, for the last of the challenge was a near vertical assent. Its surface is smooth with nothing to hang onto. The park service had drilled holes deep into the rock’s face and every Spring they insert long poles into the side of Half Dome and connect them together with a steel cable forming some sort of pathway and last-ditch attempt at safety. Every few feet of assent, you will find a small two-by-four nailed into the smooth surface of the rock in an effort to somehow allow your boots to  dig in and hang on. After putting on the prerequisite leather gloves to protect against the steel cables, I began my four appendage climb. If you are to make it more than a few feet, you must climb with both your legs and your arms in a very coordinated effort. Did I mention yet that this path, carrying what had appeared from only a slight distance away to be ants moving upward, and which was now disappearing over the ever-so-slightly curved slope above -was intended for two way traffic!? One slip, one false step and not only would my goal be dashed. Half way up this monster I had found myself actually crouched with my feet firmly residing on the side of one of those poles sticking out from the granite, my arms clinging to the steel cable now just above my head, and with my eyes closed recounting the wonders of my life as my heart pounded in pain within my chest. Breath. Breath. Breath. I thought about loosening one hand to reach into a pocket for an anti-anxiety pill. Maybe not, probably not a good idea to be relaxed when my life is in danger. I had accomplished and done most of what I had set out to do: I was on Half Dome, if not at its top. As evidenced by my death grip on the cable at that moment, I surely had in fact risked my very life to achieve my dream. I could just slip back down and still hold my head up high. But with nothing more to lose, I mustered the strength of character and might and forced my way against the rock to its very top. It was like the explosion of energy from within the sun. Shaking violently, crying tears of joy, wanting to throw up, and truly feeling what it means to be alive for the first time in my life, I knew that nothing ever again could stop me.

The challenges I have laid down for you in this book may be equally scary to you.

Trust and have faith in yourself.

Work and develop your abilities as a Self-Recruiter, and never shy away from the most difficult and unappetizing pieces, and you could end up in the place you might never have expected: the top.

Congratulations again,

and now get to work!

John Crant

Author, Career Coach & Speaker
on Job Search and Career Management

© John Crant