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Do Recruiters Share Feedback With Candidates?
This is my first official post on AskBINC it took me a while since no topic has really pushed me or motivated me enough to spend time and write on a topic, but the day has finally arrived. I’ve been really irked lately by a tremendous amount of posts talking about how recruiters are not sharing feedback with candidates, like this one on CareerRealism.
Now, most recruiters won’t tell you what you did wrong. Why? For one reason, they aren’t paid to give you the bad news. Second, they don’t want to burn a bridge. And third, as I mentioned, they just don’t have the time.
The 10,000 foot overview goes something like, we don’t care if they succeed in future interviews and we “water down” feedback if the reasons clients are passing on our candidates are based upon factors such as a candidate’s wardrobe or their personality during an interview. I can’t certainly speak for every recruiter or firm out there, but I think this is complete nonsense.
If anybody knows how a recruiting firm works, the motivations of most agencies are to place candidates with clients, it’s that simple. Agency recruiters, like me for instance, only get paid if they successfully place a candidate with one their clients. What that means is, it’s in the recruiter’s best interest to share as much information with their candidates as possible! I know damn well that if one of my candidates was passed on because one of my clients thought he was dressed too formal or too casual I am going to certainly tell them. If they had a negative attitude during the interview, or came off as too desperate, I am going to tell them. Simply because I want to find that candidate a job so I can put food on my family’s plate. Any recruiter would be wasting their time not sharing this sort of information with candidates, since we want them to get the job.
To take this a step further, we are human beings for god’s sake people. We are not immune from a recession and our families and friends are also being affected. If I speak to a candidate who is unemployed and putting his trust in me to find him a job, I am going to do everything in my power to help my fellow man, this means even if I am not going to get paid doing it. We also want to get out of this recession and no one is on the front lines more than us recruiters. So long story short, stop trying to demonize recruiters and ruin their credibility by saying recruiters don’t give feedback, because as far as I know we are the only people in your career search that actually will.
College Graduates – Differentiate Yourself Using Social Media
College students here, college students there, college students everywhere! The amount of people
that are in college or are recent graduates has been continually rising over the years and it is something that will continue to increase in to the future. It’s pretty much gotten to the point that it’s very difficult, if not nearly impossible, to get a job if you don’t have a college degree. But even if you do have a college degree, how do you separate yourself from everyone else? Yes, getting good grades, working at a good internship, and being involved with the community and extra curriculars definitely helps, but is that enough? Is that really enough to differentiate yourself considering that so many people have the same, if not better, credentials than you? Honestly, probably not.
Realistically, most of the time that people get new jobs it’s through connections that they have with family, friends, or neighbors. Why? Well, simply, because they know who you are and they are able to have some sense of trust in you. But what if you have the right credentials, you’ve already exhausted those relationships and you’re still left jobless? Somehow you have to show future employers that you’re a hardworking, trustworthy individual that is able to get the job done, no matter what. But it’s hard to get that point across simply through a resume.
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College students HAVE to use Twitter
So unless you’ve been completely separated from the media lately, you’ve probably heard of Twitter. You might not be a user. You might not even understand what it means or what’s the point of it. But you’ve heard of it. For those of you that don’t know, Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging tool where you can communicate with others through a maximum of 140-characters. The basic premise of Twitter is to tell your friends (followers) what you are doing, but as anyone that’s a user knows, it’s much more than that. Twitter gives you the ability to connect and chat with people that you otherwise would have never been in touch with. For example, the other day, Newt Gingrich actually replied to a question that I had asked him, and famous people like Shaq, Ashton Kutcher, and Lance Armstrong (just to name a few) are active users that have conversations and reply to people all the time. But this is just the beginning.
The thing about Twitter is that it’s a great example of the saying “the more you put in, the more you’ll get out”. If you sign up for a Twitter account and never update your status, and don’t follow people that interest you, then it becomes a useless service for you. But if you take an active approach to constantly update your status, if you follow people that seem genuinely interesting, and you start and maintain conversations with other Tweeters then you will find that Twitter is a great service. And the best part is that it will only get better as more and more people create accounts, thereby creating more value for the entire user base.
Now that’s all great, but how will this benefit a college student? I’ve included a list of a number of different reasons for why I think every college student should create an account on Twitter.
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Don’t Worry, Be Happy
Nothing brings around good thoughts like listening to Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”. If you haven’t heard it in a while or just need a little pick me up, you can listen to it here.
But here’s the thing: yes we’re in a tough time, and yes things aren’t easy, but things WILL get better. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next week, but things WILL begin to turn around. Companies will start getting credit, which means they will be able to begin focusing again on innovation, on developing new products, and on beating out there competition. Companies will realign their vision and their strategies and will again begin hiring new talent in order to meet future goals. And from this, consumers and employees will start increasing their savings and their spending and the cycle will continue to evolve and increase from there.
The thing is, we need to push through this time in order to get to that point when things begin turning around. My whole idea about this post came from an article on CNN about how a family moved from Beverly Hills to a small farm-town in Oregon in order to get through this time period. Obviously, for them, this is not an ideal situation. The article talks about the lifestyle that they had to give up, but no matter what they’re giving up, they’re doing it. They’re staying optimistic about their situation and they continue to look forward to the day when things will get better.
To me, this story was a story of inspiration. If they can do it, so can I. And if I can do it, then hopefully every American will be able to push through this time period and come out the other end feeling stronger that they didn’t quit. I truly believe that we will be able to overcome this time period and come out as a stronger, more unified nation. And after reading this article from Business Week, I have found that I am not alone. Although the story is titled “The Job Market Has Business Students Worried”, nearly every quote talks about optimism for the future and the ability of the American people to push through this time. I don’t know if it’s a business thing, or a Generation Y thing, but there is no doubt that although times are tough, people are still being optimistic about the future.
From a college perspective, it’s understandable to be worried and nervous with everything going on in your life and with everything going on in the world. But there is definitely a bright side. Hey, you’re about to be a college graduate! There are many many people worldwide that aren’t able to say that. Although finding a job may seem difficult and things are definitely “down in the dumps”, things will get better. You have battled through years and years of education to get to the point that you’re at now, and even if you don’t get a job right when you graduate, you’ll still make it. You have been through tough times before whether it’s school, relationships, work or whatever else and this time period is nothing different. You will get a job and you will be successful. You just have to stay patient, look at the bright side of things, and like Bobby McFerrin says, “Don’t worry, be happy”.
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Did College Prepare Me For the Real World?
That was the question I was pondering the other night as I sat and thought about what my plans would be when I graduate. Surely, I must have learned something useful in college, right? I mean there’s more to college then drinking and partying, right? I think everyone gets something out of college, but how much and what exactly obviously depends a lot on where you go to school, what you’re majoring in, and yourself and your own personality. Maybe this is me just being overly optimistic but I definitely think I learned a couple of tangible things that will help me out once I graduate. Although the classes I took were important and they probably helped me learn a thing or two, I really don’t think that learning Greek mythology and philosophy are going to help me out too much once I enter into the real world. Here are a couple other things aside from my classes that I think will be the most valuable to me once I graduate.
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Graduating College and Can’t Find a Job? Here Are Some Alternatives!
So in my last blog post I expressed my concern and worry for the upcoming college graduating class of 2009. In all honesty, I’m just worried that people will settle, take unsatisfying jobs, and then be left in a perpetual cycle for the rest of their life being in a job/industry that they have no interest of being in. If people continue to stay patient while looking for work, or completely change direction for a year or two, then I definitely think it will be beneficial to them, as well as to society in the long run.
Now obviously I realize the many different pressures that are forcing future college graduates to take these unsatisfying jobs – college loans, pushy parents, societal pressures, etc – but I think it’s definitely important for college grads to focus on what they love doing, especially in their first job out of college. So rather than taking that first disappointing job and being stuck for the rest of their lives, I have come up with a couple different options that could help college grads get through this tough time and back into an era where their dream job could just be a successful interview away.
Click to continue reading “Graduating College and Can’t Find a Job? Here Are Some Alternatives!”
Graduating College in 2009? Might as well just take a year off in Tahiti!!
Ok, fine so maybe going to Tahiti wouldn’t be the best choice, but wow, this year sure is a tough year to be graduating college. Besides dealing with the many emotions that everyone deals with when entering the “real world”, many college seniors are entering into a job market that is one of the worst in recent 
history. As I was thinking about this thought, as well as debating my own personal future, I suddenly became very scared, and not about myself, but about my fellow graduating classmates.
Take this situation for example: I thought about what happens to me when I’m really hungry and all I really want to eat is a hamburger. So like any hamburger craving college student, I go to the nearby J Box, but it was closed. Then I go to Wendys – Closed, Carls – Closed, McDonalds – Closed, etc, etc. Not a single burger joint open! But yet my stomachs grumbling and I need food, so I decide to settle for a burrito. The problem is that now I feel completely unsatisfied because all I wanted was a burger, but hey I guess food is food… right?
What does the future behold??
So I just came out of watching Wall-E, you know that cute little robot movie, and it really got me thinking. It made me amazed about the work that I get to be doing – I get to work at a company that literally has an overview of everything going on within technology. It’s pretty amazing actually. We get to work with brand new development teams working on technologies that I couldn’t even dream of. We get to represent start-up companies that when I tell people about them I myself have to laugh because their concepts and ideas seem so far-fetched at times. It really makes you wonder about what the possibilities are for the future. Will technology continue to advance at the rapid pace that it has throughout the future? Or will the billions of people and the overpopulated world that we live in eventually act like an anchor for our technological drive?
If I had to guess, I’d definitely have to go with the first one. I think the best part of my job is not only the fact that I get to hear about all this amazing ideas that people are creating, but I actually get to talk to the genius minds that develop and implement these ideas. It’s one thing to go “hmm wouldn’t it be cool if I could be typing this on the beach in Thailand and still get back in time to go to work in the morning” and it’s another thing to actually go out and make it happen. It’s truly amazing the work that the individuals that we speak to on a daily basis are able to achieve and it’s pretty extraordinary to think about what else they will be doing in the future.
I think that that’s what’s going to keep technology moving at the rapid pace that it has been recently. The bright and genius few that are able to go out and literally change the world with the work that they do. There aren’t many people in the world that can say that, but it seems like within the web world, every player is able to affect tons of people with the work that they do on a daily basis. The thing is, we’ve only just reached the surface of the realm of possibilities of what could happen with the Internet. What else will be created with the massive amount of data being collected and with the intense interconnectedness that is seen throughout the world?
Think about it, five years ago when you were trying to find information on some of the people that you went to elementary school with, you had not the slightest clue on how to do so. Now, it’s quite easy, you type their name into Facebook’s (or Myspace, Friendster, Classmates, etc etc) search bar and voile they appear. Now, not only can you find out what they’ve been up to and what they’re doing now, but you can talk to them, message with them, and for all intensive purposes become friends with them (well, except for the fact that they’re probably on the other side of the country).. but that’s the beauty of it… is that location just doesn’t really matter anymore.
All I know, is that I’m hoping that I’ll still be involved within the tech market 5 years from now, 10 years from now, 40 years from now – just for the sole purpose of how amazing it is to watch the progression and to only dream and imagine the possibilities for the future.
Top Talent Tuesday
Bay Area Top Talent
Candidate #1 – This week, I have had great success with talent from Ask.com. My most high profile Ask professional holds a PhD in distributed grid computing from a top university and was responsible for building a soup-to-nuts distributed application that is chartered to cleanse and optimize Ask’s 4 billion pages of online data. If you are in need of an expert C/C++ code writer with a subject matter expertise in distributed and parallel computing, data mining and information retrieval, this is your guy. If you are interested in this candidate or any others from Ask, email boris@bincsearch.com.
Candidate #2 – This candidate is a very well spoken, very educated and experienced in leading high performance technical teams. In his 20 + year career in high tech, he has progressed from developer to project manager to product management/marketing. He is a hands-on, achievement-driven builder and leader of high-performance technical teams. He is a seasoned guide, advisor, and sounding board to scientists, engineers and analysts. He is an adept, dynamic planner with long, successful record managing complex, volatile, technical projects and project portfolios. He is a collaborative problem-solver equally comfortable with product, client service, sales, marketing and executive managers. He is a high-integrity team player with excellent work ethic who still believes in the power of play. If you are interested in speaking with this candidate please contact mel@bincsearch.com.
Los Angeles Top Talent
Candidate # 1 – This week’s top talent out of LA is a Dir of Engineering and Architecture for a very well known LA Web Property. Currently this gentleman has 22 direct reports and is responsible for the entire dev group including Back Office, Web Development, and Business Intelligence. This candidate has an extremely strong background with both Java and .Net and is an expert in Web Development and Transactional Systems. Mr. X has a collaborative management style and is an excellent mentor – He is open to opportunities in both Orange and LA Country. Contact Cameron Thomson at Cameron@BINCSearch.com to set up an appointment.
Seattle Top Talent
Candidate #1 – My Candidate is a Lead Engineer for a well known Game Studio in the greater city of
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