Minnesota Headhunter

Conversation With A... Startup CEO: “But Paul, I Don’t Have Time To Recruit”

A couple of months ago I had a “moment” while chatting with a Minnesota angel investor... this would be a really good conversation to blog about. Problem was (is) I need to be careful to take out names and not give out info that could lead back to the person and I need their permission to use some of what we spoke about.

Most folks have been OK with me talking about our conversation so this is my first try with this...

This week I had a Minnesota startup CEO say to me:

“But Paul, I don’t have time to recruit.”

And I sat there with a blank stare trying not to react. My mind is yelling:

“Whaddya mean you don’t have time?!?!?!?!”

I have heard this multiple times this year and each time I do my best not to react.

Reasons given range from: raising money, coding a beta, managing the team, product development... you know, all the things that a startup CEO does.

I get that... I get that all of that is important.

So is recruiting.

Presentation: Recruiting For Minnesota Start Ups And Technology Companies

Below is my MinneBar 7 presentation “Recruiting For Start Ups (Or any Size Company)”.

There is some “inappropriate” language in the session which for better and worse happens with me from time to time.

Part of it could have been because I was really fired up for this session.

I am really happy how it turned out and feedback from attendees was really, really good and I need to say thank you to those who did not have chairs and had to stand or sit on the stairs.

I have had a number of inquiries since MinneBar so here are some FAQ’s:

• Yes, if you need some help (now or in the future) with hiring IT consultants or full time employees I want to chat with you.

• Yes, I have much more content than this.

Who Is The #1 Minnesota Executive Search Firm?

My colleagues in search and consulting firms are some of the most competitive people I know.

We have to be and for most of us it is in our DNA, to some extent.

We are always trying to find competitive edges, how we can do a search or project better than someone else, we have to find the best people, can we save the client time, etc.

And I like lists.

They may not always be accurate and some are subjective but it gives me an idea of who is doing well.

Last week the Minneapolis St Paul Business Journal released List Leaders: Twin Cities executive search firms with the 25 largest Twin Cities-area executive search firms ranked by revenue.

There are some curious things about the entries on the list:

• Revenue divided by Placements = Average fee
  • Those are some amazing, way above industry average fees
• Placements divided by Twin Cities recruiters
  • There are some very low and very high averages

Survey: 37% Percent Of Companies Use Social Networks To Research Candidates

Carerbuilder has released survey results from 2,000+ hiring managers and HR pros about if and how they are using social media profiles for researching candidates.

I really wish these surveys used different language as I bet the results would change a bit.

For example, rather than say are hiring managers researching candidates it should be are hiring managers sourcing/recruiting candidates or are hiring managers using social media profiles as a background check.

These are very, very different things.

In the former... my guess is most managers are using social media sites to recruit.

In the latter... my guess is some managers are looking for “stuff” (good or bad) about those who have applied.

The former includes people into the process and on occasion the latter excludes people.

Anyway...

Results from the survey are:

Barrier To Hiring... Sometimes Superman Is Not Good Enough

Internet Cartoon by Andertoons

I don’t get it... I really don’t.

I received an email from a Senior Software Engineer I met at MinneBar who wanted to talk about how he really wanted to work at “Fill In The Blank” but was rejected because one “nice to have skill” was not quite good enough.

With Minnesota IT unemployment at less than 2% some companies are still being so specific about who/what they are looking for that they will pass on someone who is 90%+ of what they are looking for.

Memo to those folks: the market has changed, it is passing you by and you will be lucky if you ever find someone better than the Superman who is knocking on your door.

Thankfully I found this cartoon which says way more than I could in the long rant I had planned so I will stop here before I blow a gasket…

Click Recruiting for more posts on the topic, Minnesota Headhunter for most recent blog posts.

 
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Some Tech Companies Not Retaining Staff Because Of $5 An Hour

Last night I was chatting with Steven Sorsveen (my business partner) about how nearly every day a client says they lost a key employee to a competitor.

In this case it was a web development shop losing a mobile developer who was truly underpaid.

I told Steven I think it is silly that $10K more a year would have likely kept the person. They liked the company, culture and work.

Steven said, “Even more silly, that is $5 an hour”.

Think about that for a moment... $5 an hour.

The $10K would only have put the developer almost even with market rates. So no, they were not being greedy.

Why could that $5 an hour not have been added in to the projects when they were pitched?

I guess if you have 4 mobile developers working on a project that’s an extra $20 an hour and over a 160 hour project $3,200.

But $3,200 is cheap compared to the time and energy (those are dollars too) to recruit someone new. There is also the ramp up time of the new hire and likely lost revenue in the process.

All over $5 an hour.

Really does seem silly...

Click Recruiting for more posts on the topic, Minnesota Headhunter for most recent blog posts.

 
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Client Or A Source: A Difficult Conversation

I have had a number of conversations these past weeks with companies in Minnesota about whether or not we are going to be partners in the recruiting of their IT staff.

There is a BIG elephant in the room that sometimes gets missed by who I meet with... IT unemployment in Minneapolis and St Paul is thought to be <2% that means you are either a client or a potential source of candidates.

Example: if a client of mine is looking for a Microsoft.NET and SQL Server developer I am going to use a variety of tools and tactics to source and recruit these folks.

Maybe a developer is someone I know and they contact me after hearing about the opening.

Maybe they get the RSS feed of this blog and see the job post.

Maybe they subscribe to the newsletter.

Maybe they follow me on Twitter and they respond to my Tweet.

Maybe a friend of a friend refers them to me

Maybe they find me on LinkedIn.

Too many maybes for me.

I am going to be aggressive in finding who my client needs and that includes recruiting IT pros away from their current company.

That’s what I do and I am fiercely loyal. Either you are on my team or, well... you get it.

 
Click Recruiting for more posts on the topic, Minnesota Headhunter for most recent blog posts.

 
Connect with me by clicking:

Check out HireCast Consulting:

Recruiting For Minnesota Tech Companies & Startups

As the weeks go by the number of phone calls and email from friends and colleagues about the difficulty in recruiting Minnesota IT professionals continues to increase.

Part of me wonders… where have they been?

Minnesota IT jobs came off the bottom from the Great Recession around March of 2010. Since then we have seen a series of upticks and plateaus in the growth of jobs.

Most IT recruiters I know (corporate recruiter and HR and search/consulting folks like me) have been feeling the pain for a long time.

Some of them are now tossing around “The War for Talent” freely.

I get that. It gives a visual about what is going and for some it gives them an excuse for not performing.

I take a slightly different approach to this… if it is a “war” then you are doing everything you can to fight it, right?

But that seems to not be the case. Most in my opinion are still using a slingshot and spitballs.

This IT Job Post Sucks

I was having a conversation with a client about their job posts and after many months saying theirs sucked… they said “You are right.”

After asking them to repeat that last part (it was a minor victory) we took a tour of some different company web sites and job boards.

I found the following IT job post on Craig’s List:

 

STOP THE PRESSES INTERNET!!!

Who thought this was good idea?

Search Firms Used For Competitive Intelligence And Corporate Espionage

I have had quite a few conversations in 2011 with my search firm friends (all independent of each other) about how clients who in the process of a legitimate search (as in the search already started) have asked to see candidates from certain companies or firms.

While this is a common thing for hiring managers to want, people from a certain company, these conversations and perceived incidents seemed more of a “fishing expedition” to learn more about their competition.

A colleague in Silicon Valley was asked to add to the interview pool 2-3 candidates from a particular company. It was “out of place” to ask about it at that time.

During the post interview phone call my colleague learned that the questions these particular candidates were asked were much different than the rest of the pool.

One particular candidate shared some of the code he was working on with the CIO. For the candidate... he was sharing work samples. For the interviewing company... they were getting competitive intelligence.

Infrequently over the years there have been times when candidates tell me what questions they were asked and my ears perk up and I know the client was fishing for some info.

Wondering: What do non HR folks think of the phrase "Human Capital"

From the get go let me say I am biased… I think this term sucks. I am also not a fan of “Human Resources” but that horse ran out of the barn long before I got here.

Why you ask???

I think the the words and phrases we use matter.

So when companies say that people are their greatest asset, that without them their companies would not be successful and then words or phrases are used make the people who are their greatest asset into “things”… I object.

It’s just not consistent.

So my question is posed to those not in HR or Recruiting… what do you think of and/or how do you react to the phrase “Human Capital”?

I asked this question yesterday on Twitter and Facebook and had some immediate reaction.

Buzzwords That Should Not Be On LinkedIn Profiles Should Not Be In Job Descriptions

Today’s “link of the day” in the Recruiter and HR world (and on some major web sites) is this one from LinkedIn, Buzzwords 2011: Who’s been ‘creative’ and ‘effective’ this year?

The list is the “Top 10 overused buzzwords in LinkedIn Profiles in the United States”:

• Creative

• Organizational

• Effective

• Extensive Experience

• Track Record

Back To Basics: Blocking And Tackling

I think too much.

I strategize too much.

I think about the thing and what might happen next and then branch into a flow chart of all sorts of possibilities.

It can be good that I can see likely outcomes and how to get there.

It is bad when I never start doing the thing.

Three quotes have jumped out at me in the past day and a half.

The first came from an old college friend and entrepreneur Darren Cox. We were talking about his startup UCaSTT and about my HireCast Consulting.

He could tell I was a little “wound up”, had some things on my mind and was doing a lot of thinking.

He told me:

"Stop thinking, start doing shit."

The second came in an article (I do not remember which one) that referenced a quote from Chris Gardner (The Pursuit of Happyness and Will Smith):

Recruiting: OK, So What (Who) Are You Really Looking For?

I think I have had the following conversation every day at least twice a day for the past six months with clients, corporate Recruiter and HR friends and search firm colleagues.

Upon receiving a job order, job description or hiring summary:

ME: Huh

FRIEND: Huh... what do you mean “Huh”?

ME: This is... a lot

FRIEND: What so you mean?

ME: It seems you want someone who can fly (like Superman), speak 4 languages, juggle (while blindfolded) and have six pack abs.

FRIEND: (confusion)

ME: What or who are you really looking forward?

FRIEND: What do you mean?

We Don’t Need More Jobs... We Need More Skilled Workers

I hope this title does not offend anyone. Here is what I am trying to say... companies across our country have jobs that are not being filled and we have workers looking for jobs.

The skills of those looking do not match the skills of the open jobs.

I am not laying blame on anyone for this because frankly everyone is at fault.

So should we create jobs to match the skills or... should we train to fill the jobs?

Clearly you can see that I lean towards the latter.

What happened to internships?

What happened to apprenticeships?

What happened to on the job training?

My opinion: we do not need a jobs program we need a training program.

So instead of sitting idle, instead of just watching this happen why do we not do something about it?

Follow The Program And TheLadders “Guarantees” You A $100K Job Offer

Today The Ladders announced Signature their new job coach program that for $2,500 guarantees you a $100,000 job offer in six months or your money back.

There are some requirements on the job seeker so check out Signature Terms and Conditions.

is this worth checking out?

Yeah, I suppose it is. They say during their trial period they have had a 90% success rate.

Here is why I am a bit skeptical…

Marc Cenedella, The Ladders CEO, was on CNBC this morning announcing the program with the video below.

He says they guarantee an offer within six months.

Is the guarantee an offer or a job? There is a huge difference between the two. I have seen it said both ways.

Recruiters: Stop Spamming LinkedIn Groups

For the love of (whoever or whatever you believe in) please make it stop!!!

Memo to LinkedIn Group Managers:

You could help with this. Email the offenders and explain to them that their relentless posting will not be tolerated.

Or… risk losing people from your group who opt out of the whole thing.

Hey you Recruiter person, yeah you… your every day job posting on LinkedIn groups is annoying.

It’s called Spam.

How is it working for you? Are you getting the folks you need?

Or are you annoying people?

Have you even thought about this? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Instead of just ranting at you allow me to give you a few tips:

- You do not need to post each job.

• How about one post that says 4 new jobs have been posted

Excel And The Recruiting Process: Can They Coexist?

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

 

No. When I started recruiting in 2005, my company still had file cabinets to store resumes. They used vanilla folders as “buckets” for hot candidates and clipboard worksheets as the hot-list. When the recruiting manager suggested that I do the same, I cracked open the excel file.  He was full of disbelief and pessimism that I could succeed using a spread sheet. He was wrong.  Soon, the other recruiter in the office had adopted the spread sheet as the method of applicant tracking.

Fast forward 5 years. I interview at a $300 million dollar company that is growing by rapidly. When I ask them what Applicant Tracking System (ATS) they are using, they say Excel. I guess I smirked or laughed and I didn’t get the job, but that’s okay.

If you are still using Excel in 2010 to track your applicant pool, you have serious recruiting process re-engineering to consider.  If you are using Excel as a part of your recruiting process, again you need to consider how much money you are losing in missed opportunities.

Social Media – Friend Or Foe For Recruiters? | Presentation

 

I was asked to do a presentation for the Minnesota Recruiting & Staffing Association and talk to my colleagues about the use of Social Media in recruiting and if it helps or hurt us:

Here is the description of the event:

It used to be staffing companies and recruiting firms were the only ones with all the information, the "Golden Rolodex" of candidates and companies.  Now our clients and candidates have access to much of the same information.  Social media sites are a great tool but some clients are hiring their own internal recruiters to mine these same sites for candidates. 

So what can we provide that they still need and how do we show our value?  What are companies doing and what could we be doing?  Finding people is easy, it is the information overload we all struggle with and how to best handle that.  Come hear about some simple techniques that you can implement when you get back to the office.

The Job Market Is Returning, Consumer Confidence Is Up, The GDP Is Going Up...

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:
 

So what does this mean to you the candidate or the hiring manager?

As a candidate, it means there are more job openings, you can expect multiple job offers and recruiters will be calling you more.  So as a candidate, you need to make sure you are networking, your resume is ready and you start polishing your interview skills. 

Also you need to expect more competition for jobs, because not only will all the unemployed be looking, the one who stopped looking will return and those who are working but don’t like their jobs or want something new will start looking because there will be more job opportunities that will get them excited.

As a hiring manager, this means candidates will have more choices, so if you are not selling your opportunity they will move on to the one that sounds better.  In addition, as the number of jobs increase there will be less fully talented/qualified people for each job.