If you get a chance, I’ll be live on WGN Radio on Saturday, December 29th from 12:30 to 1 p.m. CST (720 on the AM dial) discussing a new, lower-cost alternative (10% of the cost) to outplacement for displaced workers, called World2Work™

You can also listen in to this broadcast live on the Internet at http://www.wgnradio.com/about/listen/ and then click on “Click here to listen live” towards the top of the page.

Lastly, please let me know if I can be of assistance.

Here is a tip that can help you with your job search CandidateTips 6-9-09-Interviewing Tip #1 A-MPEG-4 Improved NTSC for CD

Recently, I have been bombarded by requests by friends, family and clients to help them find a job. Unfortunately, there is no secret to landing a job especially with this terrible economy with the real unemployment (including those who are involuntarily working part time because they cannot find a full time job and those that have given up looking) at about 16% or 1 in 6 workers! However, I do recommend being very diligent and using a three-pronged approach including:

1. Developing a quantitatively laced resume.
2. Selectively using recruiters
3. Networking, which is the most important of the three!

Let’s take these from least important to most important. First, having a resume is a necessary evil. Most companies (especially human resources) require it. Therefore, you should mold your resume into a quantitative one. Please go to http://www.strategicsearch.com/interview-preparation-tips/interview-preparation-tips.php and review my 1st Commandment of Interviewing. The key is the mantra: numbers, numbers, numbers. As a rule of thumb, when you put some wording in your resume, ask yourself the questions: a) “so what?” or b) “what does this mean to an employer?” or c) “what is the benefit of this to an employer?” Then add one of the following (or some variation) sales bridges to what you say:

1. The benefit of (whatever you wish to say) was (e.g. a 40% increase in sales or $560,000 profit etc.).
2. That was important because (tell the benefit in quantitative terms).
3. The result of (whatever you mentioned) was (mold the result into dollars or profit or percentage change).

You should not lie on any of these “numbers”, but you can error on the high side. Remember that your resume is an advertisement about you! It is not an encyclopedia of your entire life. It is only meant to quickly share your highlights. For example, if you think you saved your employer somewhere between $10,000 and $45,000 with a new computer control system you selected, then say, “the result of the new computer control system was about $45,000.” Once again, the key is to seed your resume with: numbers, numbers, numbers! Also, try and keep it concise (e.g. no more than two pages). However, do not spend too much time, effort or money on developing a resume, because as my 2^nd Commandment of Interviewing says, “Resumes don’t get you hired, you do!”

Second is the selection and use of recruiters. I recommend using recruiters who place both full time and temporary positions. To access full time recruiters, I recommend getting a copy of The Directory of Executive and Professional Recruiters. Please go to http://www.recruiterredbook.com to learn more. It is available at most libraries. It divides recruiters into two main categories: a) retained and b) contingency. Retained recruiters, like myself, work mainly for the company to find talent. Contingency recruiters only receive their fee when they place someone. It also further divides each group into their specialty areas.

I also recommend using temporary (also called contract or staffing) agencies. This is an often-overlooked tool. Please review my 9^th Commandment of Interviewing for more details. The key is one of the trends today is towards temp-to-perm conversions. This means companies hiring you on a temporary basis, trying you out and then hiring you full time after you have proven yourself. Unfortunately, many people think temporary positions are beneath them. However, if you overlook this avenue you may loose out on a tremendous job! Please go to http://www.americanstaffing.net/jobseekers/find_company.cfm to view and select several temporary agencies.

I recommend selecting 1-2 retained recruiters, 4-6 contingency recruiters and 4-6 temporary or staffing agencies within your areas of expertise. The reasons are: a) contingency recruiters and temporary or staffing agencies will probably work harder for you since they will only get paid if they place you b) temporary or staffing agencies may know of a few good assignments that will lead to full time work c) temporary agencies can probably find you more immediate income (and you can continue your job search with a pay check coming in) and d) it helps to also add a few retained recruiters because they have access to higher level jobs. There is no magic formula to selecting recruiters. Instead, you should follow several steps:

1. Review The Directory of Executive and Professional Recruiters find: a) 5-6 retained recruiters and b) 10-15 contingency recruiters in your specialty areas.
2. Review the database of temporary or staffing agencies and find 5-10 that seem to meet your needs.
3. Develop a list of questions to ask these recruiters (e.g. how many searches have you done in the last two years in my area of expertise).
4. Call these recruiters and narrow it down to: a) 1-2 retained recruiters b) 4-6 contingency recruiters and c) 2-4 temporary or staffing agencies that you feel comfortable with. Some may ask you for an exclusive. I would tell them they have an exclusive, but do not sign anything. You do not want to narrow your possibilities!
5. DO NOT RELY UPON ANY OF THEM! They will all help to some extent, but your main way to help yourself is networking (below).

The third and most important part of my recommendations is networking. There are two types of networking: a) the old fashioned form of meeting people and b) e-networking. Please refer to my 2^nd and 3^rd Commandments of Interviewing for more information. However, one of the cornerstones of any networking approach is developing a 20-30 second elevator pitch. During this pitch you want to quickly convey three things:

1. Who you are?
2. What you are looking for (be specific)?
3. Your 2-3 greatest strengths.

To develop this pitch, I recommend following these three steps:

1. Write down on paper your most pertinent information.
2. Work and rework this information until you have a very concise document that fits into 2-3 paragraphs.
3. Practice pitching this document aloud to yourself into either: a) a tape recorder or b) the mirror at least 50 times until you feel it is very concise, “rolls off your tongue” and conveys everything you wish to convey. Also time yourself and do not take any longer than 30 seconds to complete your pitch!

Once you have a pitch that you feel comfortable with, you want to practice it on everyone you meet and know. Also, use the written version of this on social media sites like LinkedIn. Join appropriate business groups and meet people. When you meet someone new, don’t forget to share your 30-second elevator pitch because you don’t know who might know about your next job.

Remember, there is no secret to landing a job especially in this terrible work environment. You have to be very diligent. However, remember that networking is the key and as part of that, you need to develop a very strong, 30-second elevator pitch. I hope this helps.

What Is The Cost Of Hiring The Wrong Person? You don’t want to find out. Instead, I recommend taking an investigative approach to interviewing.

For some ideas, please go to my 9th Commandment Of Recruiting video. at http://www.strategicsearch.com/technical-recruiting-tips/ and click on 9th (below) to view the video. The caveat is some technical positions are becoming scarcer due to increased demand. As a result, I recommend becoming even more thorough in your interviewing process to separate the wheat from the chaff. Include four investigative checks: a) criminal records b) civil records (e.g. bankruptcies) c) educational verification and d) detailed reference checks. This is the case because past behavior is the greatest predictor of future performance. As a result, you need to dig deep to uncover hidden problems and find the best possible candidates for your needs.

I would like to invite you to an extraordinary event that can benefit you and your colleagues in several ways. On Saturday, August 20th starting at 10 a.m. I have arranged a special symposium showcasing two experts well versed in applying SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to job hunting and recruiting.

You may recall that I am an executive recruiter on the cutting-edge of applying state-of-the-art techniques like SEO to recruiting, including running the largest SEO group in the Chicago area with over 530 members. Please go to http://www.meetup.com/chicago-seo/ to learn more about our group and http://www.flickr.com/photos/62192465@N08/sets/72157626449504491/ to view some photos from one of our recent events.

The first segment, will target job seekers and be entitled, “I Want To Be Found: Using SEO to Enhance Your Job Search.”

Employers and recruiters are increasingly relying on online search as a way to uncover and attract qualified candidates. But how can job seekers ensure that they will be found? What SEO techniques can enhance one’s prospects? Expert Gordon Dymowski will discuss these topics and more including optimizing online channels to create a “communications hub” to make oneself a lot more “visible” during online searches, resulting in a higher frequency of contacts and more job interviews!

Mr. Dymowski has over ten years experience in non-profit/cause-related advocacy and marketing, building communities one cause at a time through a strategic, creative approach to social media (and other online channels) and interpersonal engagement, allowing non-profits and small businesses to outperform their competitors through engaging their constituency. His past employers include, Harvard School of Public Health, Salvation Army, the National Council on Alcoholism & Drug Abuse, and Zocalo Group. Gordon continues to indulge his passion for community building, co-organizing the Chicago Net Tuesday group (which enables social benefit organizations to leverage the tools of the social web) and coordinating marketing efforts for the Chicago Red Cross’ Mission. He also blogs on a variety of subjects ranging from comics and popular culture to non-profits, and is a frequent contributor to the Chicago Now Job Stalker blog. Gordon has a master’s degree in counseling psychology from the Loyola Graduate School of Education. Please go to http://www.gordondymowski.com/ to learn more about Mr. Dymowski.

The second segment will be devoted to applying SEO to recruiting and is entitled, “Candidate Sourcing Makeover – SEO Style.”
Job seekers are changing the way they look for job opportunities, which means that employers need to change the way they locate good people. It’s not surprising that candidates use search engines to find jobs. Unfortunately, less than 2% of the time they’ll locate a targeted company’s career website and job postings. Attendees will learn: 1) why candidates are not currently finding their company’s career websites and job postings and 2) how to leverage SEO to make their organizations more “visible”, which will attract many more qualified candidates.

Leading this discussion, Nicole Bodem, Director of Search Marketing at Bernard Hodes, will be flying in from her offices in Minneapolis to speak to our group. Her areas of focus are SEO strategy, implementation and candidate traffic growth. Prior to joining Bernard Hodes, she held positions at Arbita, a recruitment-advertising agency as well as Jobs2web, where she was responsible for defining the SEO methodology used on their recruiting platform. She has lectured at many search industry events including Search Engine Strategies (SES). She also regularly leads webinars and writes about SEO as it relates to the recruiting space on her blog. Please go to http://www.hrsearchmarketing.com/ to learn more about Nicole.

The seminar will be hosted by TechNexus in their 15th floor conference room at 200 S. Wacker, Chicago, Illinois 60606, on Saturday, August 20th from 10 a.m. to 12 noon. Please go to http://www.technexus.com/ to learn more about this unique venue.

Though this event is closed to my SEO group, seating is limited and RSVP is required, I would be happy to squeeze you into this unique event if you contact me directly.

Today’s unemployment rate of 9% came despite gains of 244,000 non-farm jobs in April. After falling 1% over the past 4 months, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported a .2% jump to 9%. However, many sectors showed job gains including manufacturing (+29,000 jobs), health care (+37,000 jobs), leisure and hospitality (+46,000), retail (+57,000) and mining (+11,000). The culprit may be the throngs of unemployed workers who, had previously given up looking and were thus not counted by the BLS figures, have started to search for work again. As a result, companies, which have not considered hiring in almost two years, have started to aggressively recruit again!

Despite the jump to 9% I have noticed many of our clients starting to hire again. Unfortunately, many recently hired or promoted managers lack the recruiting acumen necessary to successfully complete an effective staffing assignment. As a result, many hiring mistakes will be made in the upcoming months. That is one reason for an enormous, recent spike in our consulting assignments to advise companies on their recruiting practices. One useful tool is our 12 Commandments of Recruiting. Please go to http://www.strategicsearch.com/technical-recruiting-tips/ to view. These can be very helpful for novices to increase their recruiting efficiencies.

I have an idea for a seminar to benefit your company, your clients or portfolio companies. It would be based upon my 12 Commandments Of Recruiting. Please go to http://www.strategicsearch.com/technical-recruiting-tips/ to view.

My more than 20 years experience and extensive research shows that most entrepreneurs lack adequate staffing acumen. As a result, they often make costly hiring blunders which can often jeopardize the health of their companies. My twelve tips can be very helpful. Furthermore, I have successfully taught them in similar seminars to my high-tech clients. If this sounds interesting, let’s meet and talk further about designing a custom seminar to benefit your company, clients or portfolio clients.

My SEO (Search Engine Optimization) event went well last Saturday. You may recall that I am an executive recruiter and staffing consultant who is on the cutting edge of applying SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to uncover difficult-to-find candidates including forming the largest group of SEO experts in the Chicago area with 526 members (and growing)!

Please go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/62192465@N08/sets/72157626449504491/ to view the photos from the event sponsored by Borders.

Many of the SEO tools we discussed can be applied to both: a) increasing your sales and b) recruiting hard-to-find talent.

Please let me know when I can be of help with any of your staffing or SEO projects.

Even though the Chicago Bulls are still leading 3-1 in their series with the Indiana Pacers, I am still very worried. I had hoped they would “go all the way” and win the title. However reality is now sinking in. The playoffs are like a war, which is very messy, things often “get bogged down in the mud” and are not pretty. Schemes that often work during the regular season are often overcome by rough and intense play. That’s why all-stars are needed who can get their own shot! Unfortunately, the Bulls only have one such player in Rose.

Boozer and Deng are nice players, but are inconsistent scorers. Historically, teams need at least two consistent scorers to win the title. Here’s my analysis of the playoff teams and how many consistent scorers each has. In the East:

1. Bulls= 1= Rose.
2. Miami= 3= James, Wade and Bosh.
3. Boston= 4= Garnett, Pierce, Allen and Rondo.
4. Orlando= 1= Howard.
5. Atlanta= 3= Joe Johnson, Smith and Crawford.
6. New York= 2= Stoudemire and Anthony.
7. Philadelphia= 0 (Caveat: a lot of nice players, but no one they can count on for consistent scoring).
8. Indiana= 1= Granger.

In the West:

1. San Antonio= 2= Duncan and Ginobili
2. LA= 2= Bryant and Gasol.
3. Dallas= 3= Nowitzki, Kidd and Terry.
4. OKC= 2= Durrant and Westbrook.
5. Denver= 0 (Caveat: a lot of nice players, but no one they can count on consistently to score).
6. Portland= 1= Wallace (Caveat: Roy used to be, but he’s still not 100% and cannot be counted upon all the time).
7. New Orleans= 1= Paul (Would have been 2 if West was healthy).
8. Memphis= 1= Randolph (Would have been 2 if Gay was healthy).

As a result, what the Chicago Bulls need in the off season is to recruit a top-notch “2″ (i.e. scoring guard) who is at least 6’6″ or taller who can both play tough defense and score consistently. There is hope because they hold two first round draft picks and there are many college forwards available in this draft (if there is not a lock out) who can be groomed into a scoring guard. Case in point Danny Granger was a forward at New Mexico who the Indiana Pacers took with the 17th pick in the 2005 NBA draft.

With the unemployment rate at 8.9% and prospects of it going even lower, certain talent is becoming increasingly scarce. With hiring gains last month in manufacturing (+33,000 jobs), health care (+34,000 jobs) and transportation and warehousing (+22,000 jobs) employers are scrambling to attract talent. Unfortunately, ads on job boards such as Monster and CareerBuilder are very costly and only attract quantity not quality! Fortunately, hope resides in adopting SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies for economical recruiting.

I so strongly believe in SEO as a vehicle for recruiting that, over the last six months, I have built up one of the largest SEO groups in the Chicago area with over 500 members. This is because Search engines are the new Yellow Pages and SEO techniques can be selectively adopted by employers to: a) rank higher with search engines and b) stand out among job seekers. For example, developing a blog or contributing to social media sites on specific keywords will be noticed by Google, Yahoo and Bing and in turn discovered by job seekers searching for your type of opportunities. I invite you all as my special guests to our next meeting on Saturday, April 23rd where we will be discussing six free new SEO tools that you can easily adapt to your requirements. Please go to http://www.meetup.com/chicago-seo/ for more details.