World-renowned executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles committed a major blunder when not fully vetting Scott Thompson before presenting him as a CEO candidate for Yahoo. In fact, they never uncovered Thompson’s falsified educational credentials! Instead, it was activist shareholder Daniel Loeb, whose hedge fund Third Point controls 6% of Yahoo’s stock, who discovered that Stonehill College didn’t even offer a computer science degree until four years after Thompson graduated. This raises a lot of questions about Heidrick & Struggles quality of work including: 1) Why did it take until 4 months after Mr. Thompson started to unearth this falsehood? And 2) Why didn’t Heidrick & Struggles discover this misstep themselves as part of their background investigation?

This spotlights the need for our main mantra, being thorough. As part of our extensive background investigations we check criminal records, civil records (e.g. bankruptcies), educational credentials and references. Our private investigator, who is an ex-FBI agent, doesn’t just rely upon mass databases, which are often outdated and riddled with errors. Instead, he digs deep by going to directly to the courthouses where key information is housed. He takes this extra care because past behavior is the best predictor of future missteps. We have even trademarked our unique process, which is called Accu-Check™. Please go to http://www.strategicsearch.com/accucheck.php to learn more.

This thoroughness has paid off many times over including during our recent search for a CEO of a venture-backed nanosensor company. During the vetting process we unearthed several DUI’s with one of the top candidates. Though he adamantly denied the infractions, I repeatedly quizzed him about this (Key: I learned from my investigator to ask and restate the same question in a variety of ways in order to “trip up” candidates). One version of my questioning was, “why would you agree to pay fines and do community service if you were not guilty of this infraction?” He folded under repeated questioning. As a result, my client was saved from the trauma of misinformation.

With the mega IPO pending for Facebook, I am reminded that LinkedIn has been a much better business networking tool for our firm. Though Facebook is trying to push into the business market, they still seem to be more slated towards personal contacts. This contrasts with LinkedIn, which has netted me a lot more useful passive candidates for very difficult searches. That is why I have put very little effort into either Facebook or Twitter as business networking tools. Instead, I have put a lot of effort into building up 1300 key connections on LinkedIn, which makes me one of the top 1% of all LinkedIn networkers!

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported this morning that the unemployment rate fell .1% to 8.1% in April. Unfortunately, only 115,000 new jobs were created, which was a drop of 5,000 from March. Furthermore, the number of both unemployed and underemployed (e.g. involuntarily working part-time or just giving up and as a result not being reported) stayed the same at 22,800,000! This is 1 in 6 of all Americans! Fortunately, relief exists in the new form of networking: Link Building.

After several years of reporting on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for numerous media outlets, I came to realize the importance of applying SEO to job hunting. As a result, I built up the largest, non-profit, professional SEO group in the Chicago area with almost 600 members. Last week I hosted a special symposium focused on Link Building, which is one of the most important SEO tools. It is the new, electronic version of adding contacts to your Rolodex. As applied to job-hunting, it helps link high-quality connections to one’s online presence (e.g. blog or website) by providing what search engines call “Link Juice” or increased reputation. Candidates can leverage this increased reputation to enhance their chances of being found and hired by desired employers!

Please click here to view the Power Point presentation on Link Building.

Today’s figures released by the ISM (Institute For Supply Management) point to an expanding manufacturing base and increased hiring activity. Manufacturing activity expanded for the 33rd straight month as evidenced by the reading of 54.8 in April. This was an increase of 1.4 over March. The key is that any reading above 50 means that manufacturing is expanding. Also, the ISM employment gauge increased to 57.3 in April from 56.1 in March, which was its highest reading since June 2011. These figures point to more and more openings and scarcities of talent in many areas.