We're covering hiring-manager pet peeves about executive job interviews, background checks, and
pre-employment assessments and screenings.
But it wouldn't be a new year's issue without a nod to career resolutions and intentions, so we've got those covered, too.
Hey, we have a favor to ask. The U.S. Department of Labor is helping job-seekers by
collecting tools to aid in the job search. We're honored that QuintCareers has been
nominated, and we'd love it if you would add your recommendation.
All you need to do is go here,
click on the thumbs-up "Recommend Tool" link, and then enter a small bit of information to register for the site.
--Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., Master Resume Writer, Credentialed Career Master,
Certified Electronic Career Coach, and editor at
kathy(at)quintcareers.com
Feature Article: Interviewing Pet Peeves
Top 20 Executive Interview Pet Peeves from Hiring Decision-Makers
by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.
Every aspect of marketing yourself in the job search is highly subjective from the hiring
decision-maker's viewpoint. Their view of resumes is subjective; cover letters even
more subjective; and by the time we get to the interview phase, opinions could not be
more subjective. I've participated in enough interviews from the hiring side of the desk
to know that one interviewer can be blown away by a candidate's interview performance
and salivating to hire him or her, while another interviewer may be lukewarm toward the same
candidate based on the same interview.
In the communication venue that is the job interview, where subjectivity reigns and chemistry
and rapport are often keys to success, hiring decision-makers at the senior and executive
levels still agree on candidate interview behaviors that annoy them -- sometimes to the extent of
sinking the interviewee's chances.
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Five Career Resolutions You Need to Make -- and Keep
by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
It's funny how it often takes the start of a new year for us to face the realities of our
lives and decide to make changes for the better -- resolutions to find a better job,
lose weight, exercise more, and the like. The reality, of course, is that we can take
actions steps at any time -- and usually, the sooner the better.
It's the same for dealing with your career. While the beginning of a new year is a great
time to reflect on your career, don't feel you have to wait. Placing your career higher
on your priority list today should help make other things in your life better as well.
Why do you need to make five career resolutions? You don't, of course. On the
other hand, you could make more than five. These five career resolutions were chosen
for their importance -- the best you can do for yourself and your career without overwhelming
you with too many. Some of these resolutions may not fit your situation, so feel free to modify
them to better suit your needs and desires. The important thing, though, is to do something;
don't let your career continue on autopilot.
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Even in a bad economy, there are still job postings and career opportunities!!
Go now to search for jobs, post your resume, build an online portfolio, receive career consultation,
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Employment Background Checks: Minimize Skeletons that Employers Might Find
by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.
The words of Jay Meschke, president of CBIZ Executive Search, Kansas City, MO,
capture the prevailing philosophy about background checks in the job search:
"For executives, background checks are so routine in the recruitment process that
one would need to question the sanity of the hiring entity that does not perform
background checks in this day and age." Resume and credential fraud, Meschke
notes, have contributed to a dramatic increase in background checks.
Nick Fishman, chief marketing officer and executive vice president for
employeescreenIQ in Cleveland, OH, notes that his firm "finds a 56 percent
discrepancy rate between what candidates claim about their past employment and
academic credentials and what we find when we inquire."
Employers also conduct background searches to guard against lawsuits filed
claiming company liability when an employee causes harm that better
vetting might have prevented (because the check probably would have prevented
the individual from being hired and causing the alleged harm).
New: Quintessential Careers
Executive Interview Case Studies
Sometimes, the best way to grasp critical job-search skills is to learn from the experiences of others.
Quintessential Careers Executive Interview Case Studies take you through the interview process as seen
through the eyes of case-study executives and cover some of the unexpected contingencies,
demands, and developments that can occur during a series of executive interviews.
Real executives told their true case-study stories for this section. You'll find:
Case Study One: Multiple interviews over a many-month period
Case Study Two: Presentation interview
Case Study Three: Interviewing for position in new industry
Case Studies Four and Five: Two CEO Interviews with Boards of Directors
The definitive guide to strategizing, writing, formatting, and designing resumes for senior management and
executive opportunities.
Buy it today!
Extra Feature: Pre-Employment Screenings
Handling Pre-employment Screenings and Assessments
by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.
Employers are increasingly using pre-screening and assessment techniques early in the interviewing
process typically after one or more initial phone screenings and before the first face-to-face interview
or between the first and second interview. Sometimes they are used only when the field is narrowed down
to just a few candidates. Ira Wolfe, author and president of Success Performance Solutions, cites surveys that
indicate more than 80 percent of Fortune 500s use assessments for executive positions and says that
small businesses also use them. "Utilization, however, is growing," Wolfe says.
Executive recruiter Lorne Epstein, who conducts these screening procedures on behalf of his client employers,
says the purpose of the pre-screens and assessments is to "assure the company is hiring a reliable and qualified
manager/executive." Epstein adds that because hiring decision-makers are "trusting the future of the company
in [candidates'] hands with little or no direct experience of their professional ability," testing prospective hires
is good business. John M. Beane, president of Staff Development Services in Leland, NC, notes that an
appropriate assessment can provide information about how well a candidate "can handle the tasks
associated with the position and how will he or she handle the people."
"Many companies are moving looking beyond just past credentials and past experience to
using pre-hire assessments," says Jan Margolis, founder and managing director of Metuchen,
NJ-based Applied Research Corporation," which are more accurate predictors of future
success or derailment in a new job and work culture."
Both Get The Job You Want, Even When No One's Hiring and Job Search Debugged
are written by career coaches who have successfully field-tested their own advice with their
clients.
Ford Myers's Get The Job You Want, Even When No One's Hiring offers two distinctive
features -- first, a companion Website ("Your Job Search Survival Toolkit") with many
bonus downloadable job-search tools, and second, an explicit understanding of just how bad
the current job market is. The book makes 83 pronouncements of advice for the job search
and contains a rich section of additional resources.
Among the strengths of the rich, comprehensive Job Search Debugged is the fact that
author Rita Ashley was a recruiter for many years, so she thoroughly understands the hiring
process from the employer's side of the desk. The other distinctive feature is that the book
is filled with stories of clients and other job-seekers. Nothing beats real-life examples
and anecdotes to get points across. Ashley is opinionated, and sometimes her positions clash
with conventional career-expert wisdom. She disdains, for example, the typical advice to
be coy and guarded about one's salary request when negotiating salary.
This site, operated by career coach Carl Wellenstein, offers numerous
resources for executive and mid-level job-seekers, including 12 Steps to a New Career,
Resources and Worksheets (such as resume checklist, skills worksheets, achievements
inventory, pre- and post-interview worksheets, salary-requirement calculation
sheet, and more), Resume Advice, and Job Search Q and A.
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BilingualDiversity.com -- a diversity job board
where job-seekers can search job listings (by keywords, location, job category), post your resume, and
find information on the more than 170 diversity job fairs conducted in 90 cities across the U.S. No cost of job-seekers.
HundredK.com -- an executive job search and
recruitment site for $100K+ jobs. Offers no-cost standard membership for passive job-seekers (which includes
posting resume) or paid premium membership for active job-seekers (which includes resume posting
and ability to search and apply directly to recruiter job postings).
LinkUp -- a job search engine with
a twist -- it only lists job postings taken directly from company Websites, helping
job-seekers find jobs typically unadvertised (and hopefully theoretically eliminating
work scams and fake job postings). No cost to job-seekers.
SalesProfile -- an innovative job-search 2.0
Website for sales professionals, where job-seekers can search job listings (by keywords, state, region) and/or create a multimedia
profile, deliver a 30-second elevator pitch video, and complete an optional online behavioral assessment. Can also find
industry news, user forums, and other tools and resources. No cost to job-seekers.
Find even more career and job site additions to Quintessential Careers by visiting our
Latest Additions section.
Find Your Career Future. Learn More About Yourself
Career Maze is designed to help every job seeker, at every level, make smarter
career choices. Individualized to reflect your unique personality and written in
"plain English," it is thorough and easy to complete.
Once completing the assessmemt, your 2-part report includes:
A specific, career-relevant discussion of your workplace personality
A list of job types compatible with your personality
Career Maze encourages you to think about tapping your full potential to find your future.
Q TIPS:
Quick and Quintessential Tips to Guide Your Job Search and Work Life
Well-known career author and expert Susan Britton Whitcomb offers 10 career intentions
for 2010. She writes: "I love serendipity and allowing room for 'Life' to intersect with best-laid plans.
But sometimes I sway too far on the side of serendipity and don't focus enough on clarifying the things
I would like to create and achieve. ... I sat down to think about my intentions for 2010 and wrote up
my personal list. Then I got to thinking about what a savvy careerist would need to be intentional about to
create a career that is radically rewarding."
ExecuNet's newsletter, Executive Insider, offers Lessons from Leaders, a compilation of peer
and expert advice for executives seeking to transition to a new industry:
"Stress the similarities [between you and a job's requirements] in your cover letter, and
remain silent on the rest. If your resume shows that you are a solid management asset, it may
at least receive a call-back."
"Do the research; we live in a world with so much public information one should be able
to demonstrate some insight. Caution: Always be upfront that your slim knowledge is based
on public info; don't be a know-it-all."
"I must help them [the hiring company] see how well I understand their customers, their
products, their metrics and processes, and then relate my level of understanding and
abilities to how I'd contribute to their personal success and to their organization goals."
"First, see what industries are most portable with your skills. Second, show the interviewers
that you understand the applications of the knowledge you bring to the table and that you
can help them monetize that knowledge. Finally, make sure you understand the gaps that you
don't fill well and speak to those in a positive way."
"Executives interested in making a transition to a new industry must understand how to make
a strong case for such a move. They must be able to make a connection between their
current industry and a new sector and demonstrate their value to prospective employers. Identifying
transferable skills is the first step in building that connection from one industry to another."
So create a name badge for yourself for all the conferences, seminars, and workshops you
attend and let the conversations flow.
Have health goals in 2010, but no time to exercise and eat right? Propose to your boss a flexible work
arrangement so you'll have the margin of time to prepare healthier meals, work out more often
and lose weight as a result.
Quintessential Careers Press Announces Our Latest Book: The Quintessential Guide to
Job Search 2.0: Advancing Your Career Through Online Social Media.
The
Quintessential Guide to Job Search 2.0: Advancing Your Career Through Online Social Media,
by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., and Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D., provides six chapters to guide you
through the next revolution in online job search. Since job boards, vestiges of the first
revolution in online job search, should still be part of the job-seeker's toolkit, this
book helps you navigate those while also considering the future of job boards. The book
looks at building your personal brand, teaches you to make the most of social-media venues
in the job search, guides you in creating a digital presence, suggests you consider blogging,
and discusses ways to integrate multimedia elements into your job search.
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Also follow @KatCareerGal for regular career-related tweets.
QuintCareers Network of Empowering Blogs
What are QuintCareers empowering blogs?
The Career Doctor Blog:
Especially for those who miss our former regular feature, Ask the Career Doctor, this blog each day features a question and answer from The
Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD.
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send a request to your site's Webmaster to establish a
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career, and job news? Interested in learning more about Quintessential Careers?
Our Press Room
is your one-stop location for getting the information and resources you need.
QuintZine: Topics in Upcoming Issues
WATCH FOR feature articles on these topics in upcoming issues of QuintZine:
* How Job Search is Like Online Dating
* Turn Your Hobby Into a Business
* Entrepreneurship Quiz
* Warning Signs You Won't Like Your Next Employer
* Contrasting Good and Bad Job-Search Techniques
* New Grads: Roadmap to Work and Play
* Working Night Shifts/Odd Shifts
* Tips for Dealing with Office Politics
* De-Stressing Before an Interview
* More Cover-Letter Components
* Empty Nest Job-seekers
* How to Stay Motivated at Work
* Quintessential Career Profiles of YOU, our readers
* Q&As with well-known career experts
* Book reviews
. . . and much, much more...
Among the strengths of the rich, comprehensive Job Search Debugged is the fact that
author Rita Ashley was a recruiter for many years, so she thoroughly understands the hiring
process from the employer's side of the desk. The other distinctive feature is that the book
is filled with stories of clients and other job-seekers. Nothing beats real-life examples
and anecdotes to get points across. Ashley is opinionated, and sometimes her positions clash
with conventional career-expert wisdom. She disdains, for example, the typical advice to
be coy and guarded about one's salary request when negotiating salary.
