Organizations everywhere are choosing to bypass purchasing on-premises equipment in favor of renting hosted space and equipment.  Referred to as colocation, it provides rapid scalability, tremendous cost savings, secure connectivity and all of the stability and protection that is needed to gain a competitive edge in today’s market.

For this reason, colocation is a hot commodity as the market is currently undergoing a 15 percent growth rate that is expected to last through 2014.  And industry pundits are projecting that this growth is far from over, as it is anticipated that it will reach $10 billion by 2017.

As a result, job seekers stand to benefit significantly since manpower is needed to support this growing industry.  Colocation is fueled by data center infrastructure such as racks, servers, cables, switches and power.  Data centers are massive facilities that require both advisors and operators to function properly.

Here are some of the jobs that you can expect to find opening up in this space, and what each position entails:

Solutions Architect:  This position mandates having the highest level of pre-sales technical compliance on the data center team.  Solutions Architects typically involve managing multiple projects at once, and therefore require advanced knowledge in developing and guiding IT projects.  The Solutions Architect is responsible for developing technical project components and standardizing central processes.

Colocation Engineer:  Colocation Engineers are most often involved in providing developing technical designs for colocation, but also have a hand in providing technical support, presenting projects to clients and working closely with them to deliver need-based solutions.  This position mandates a thorough understanding of the technical components of network infrastructure.

Director of Product Management: Colocation services need to be created, priced and sent to market—and this falls under the responsibility of the Director of Product Management.  This position oversees not only data center space, but also power and cooling needs.  Essentially, Product Managers ensure that the colocation center is both marketable and profitable.

Cloud / Colocation Services Sales Executive: Once the services are created and sent to market, someone needs to make sure that the space will be rented out to businesses.  This is where Sales Executive come in.  Sales Executives are one of the main arms of the colocation enterprise as they are responsible for filling seats and making sure the operation brings in enough business to stay afloat.

Operations Manager:  Operations Managers take care of the technical components of a colocation center.  Colocation centers typically guarantee maximum uptime, and these are the people that make sure the promise does not go unfulfilled.  Operations Managers oversee the team that provides day-to-day technical maintenance and support in the colocation center.

Datacenter Technician:  Technicians are perhaps the ones who are most immersed in the daily ins-and-outs of colocation center operations, as they are the ones responding to service tickets and fixing equipment.  They work directly with hardware such as fiber optic cables and servers.

Facilities Engineer:  Colocation centers have a lot of other components outside of the network, such as water pumps and treatment systems, HVAC, generators, UPS, electrical distribution and network monitoring systems.  Facilities Engineers provide the equipment that keeps the network healthy.

Systems Administrator:  Systems Administrators typically install, configure and fix computer networks for end-users.  These administrators are responsible for service delivery and applications that are based off-site.  They typically take an active role in managing network processes for customers.

For more information about how J. Patrick and Associates, a firm specializing in data center and IT firm recruiting, can help you find quality and qualified colocation experts to fortify your team, click here.  If you are an experienced industry professional with a strong track record of success as well as technical depth and innate business savvy, contact us today.

The rising market need for flexibility and business agility is driving software-defined networking (SDN) in next-generation data center and enterprise IT environments.  In fact, 40 percent of recently surveyed IT professionals plan to embrace SDN by this time next year—and by 2016, the global SDN market will reach a robust $3.7 billion.  SDN is an innovative and disruptive new approach to solving many of today’s critical networking challenges, realizing improved security, efficiency and network utilization as well as cost-savings and automated management and provisioning across global networking operations.

In addition to spurring various mergers and acquisitions in the corporate world, the technology is also creating a big demand amongst data center operators and enterprise organizations for IT and networking-related professionals to advise, manage and direct these new SDN-related operations.  However, many are finding that this calls for a specialized set of abilities. 

Unlike its architectural approach to decouple control and data in technical applications, in the job market, SDN requires the convergence of IT and business skill sets.  This is why - as SDN continues to proliferate throughout the industry - development and operations, or DevOps, professionals will be in high demand.  These professionals maintain both tactical and technical skill sets, as well as the ability to collaborate and coordinate strategic, business-related initiatives – critical to designing the SDN networks of tomorrow.  Other in-demand skills will likely include expertise in OpenFlow™ protocol, a foundational element for building SDN solutions, and open source switch controllers.

The SDN industry is still emerging; and while most can identify the latest in-demand skill sets, experts are still working to pinpoint exactly what jobs will be in store.  For instance, many are debating the question of whether or not we will see “virtualization engineers.”  According to Research Director of 451 Research Eric Hanselman, the requirements are already there.

“We already have requirements for engineers who want to understand how virtualized networks work, because there are subtle differences between those and physical networks.”

Still, others are saying that while the position of an SDN engineer might be questionable, there will definitely be more than enough room for those with knowledge of how networks work. As Matthew P. Davy of InCNTRE explained, soon there will be little to no need for network engineers still relying on command line interfaces (CLIs) for configuring network devices.

“...there will be fewer network engineers who can perform their job while knowing little to nothing about servers, storage, hypervisors, system administration and scripting,” he explained.

One thing is certain, however.  This forecasted, exponential growth of SDN in the coming years is not only changing the face of data center and enterprise networking at the technical level, it is also evolving the landscape of the job market.  Professionals with higher-level skills that involve programming software and understanding the use of various automation tools will play a critical role in the propagation of this technology.  Keeping a pulse on this ever-evolving market is executive recruiting firm J. Patrick  + Associates.

With over two decades of experience in linking qualified executive management, sales, marketing and technical candidates within IT markets, J. Patrick and Associates has all of the tools you need to link the best talent with the best companies.  J. Patrick and Associates works directly with hiring managers and executives in industry-leading technology vendors, system integrators, telecom service providers and end-user organizations to identify the most in-demand skills as well as the latest professional requirements.

We handle sales, marketing and technical placement with Cloud-enabling product vendors and service providers.  This includes Data Center Management, Security, Storage, and other Cloud/SaaS/Virtualization verticals.   In addition to the Colocation and Data Center infrastucture firms, Cloud- or SaaS-based application providers are the backbone of our practice.

 Are you looking to ride the SDN wave? Click here for more information. 

Last month I made our annual pilgrimage to the RSA Security Show, an event chock full of clients, prospects and excellent candidates for our Security practice.  The show had grown by 30-35% since the 2013 edition, with an entire 2nd pavilion devoted to the largest vendors such as Symantec, HP, cisco, Juniper and Microsoft.  There were so many small and medium-sized vendor booth, that some of the booths were shared by more than one vendor, each having a day to themselves.  Attendance has jumped and repeat, multi-day foot traffic was tremendous.   

Literally each and every firm I met with was hiring technical people, primarily developers, and more than half were hiring revenue-side people in sales, marketing and sales engineering.  Many of the hiring managers I met had lost one of their key people since the start of year, in addition to trying to make new hires associated with increased demand and a growing sales force.  I expect that the second quarter of 2014 to look the same:  strong demand for moneymakers!

As we continued to work on searches and solicit for new ones, the demand picture has clearly emerged that the Sales Engineering talent arms race is reaching a boiling point, with 

candidates receiving multiple offers, as well as counteroffers from their current employers.

Hiring manager and their HR counterparts obsess over creating a winning team atmosphere, and work hard to be competitive on salary, benefits, quality of life and opportunity to achieve sales targets.  This helps them attract and retain the best Sales Engineers.  But in times like these a high-demand, seller’s market (especially in the NYC, SF, Boston and Northern Viriginia geo markets) where candidates have the upper hand, those factors may not be enough to build (and retain) a great team.

When the demand picture changes this drastically, hiring team must adapt their tactics and streamline their process.   You should assume any candidate that you are interviewing, and certainly the few that you deem worthy of an offer, will have multiple competing offers, from your direct competitors and from firms who compete for the same talent pool.  Too often hiring managers think of the direct competitors in their Security market product niche as their only competition.   Resellers, consulting firms and end users seeking Top Security Talent should also be considered competitive threats for the talent pool.

I’ve found in 27 years of recruiting that hiring firms react slowly to a hot market and alter their hiring process ONLY AFTER a few painful losses.  Those who adapt fastest, maybe even before the p
ain of a defection or missed opportunity for a great hire, will always thrive.  Otherwise all that effort in being monetarily competitive and team-building goes to waste.

Think aboout these when you look at how your firm is hiring:

Never stop sourcing candidates and interviewing.
Interviewing candidates fairly continuously allows managers to keep an eye on the talent pool, collect all kinds of competitive information (you know you do it!) and limit then downside risk of losing a member of your team, whether to a competitor or internal transfer and promotion.   This may not be practical for more complex hires, but the best sales VPs, SE managers and especially Inside Sales managers I know are never far from an interview.

Simplify:

Eliminating or simplifying steps may allow you to see that extra candidate, or get that Rock Star candidate through the process to an offer faster.  

Question all the steps in your process:  

Does this person really get a vote on these hires? Why does a marketing manager with no direct reports get a vote on this Sales Engineer hire?

Can we do this interview on a conference call with more than one decision maker?  In these we suggest that one person run the call and ask the questions, with others mostly listening or IMing the questions to the moderator.

Can we eliminate this step?
Can we change the order of the steps in order to eliminate "bad fit, no hire” candidates earlier and with less team involvement.   We had a client that used a sales assessment as a threshold test.  If the candidate didn’t fit their profile for a sales rep, according to their online assessment, the process ended there.  Think about which step may be that threshold, and move it to the beginning of the process.

Speed:  

• Use technology like Skype, Webinars, videoconferencing and other collaboration tools to shorten the hiring process.
• Pre-Interview questionnaires that can be submitted with resumes can make that initial phone screen highly productive, and candidates can volunteer mnore information on the areas that are critical to your decision process.
• Interviews in parallel rather than serial: conference calls, recorded calls and the like.
• Don’t assume that the candidate is at the same place in the hiring process with your competitors.   You may be in the fifth inning with a candidate, and meanwhile he’s in the ninth with other firms.  He may even be in the early innings with another firm, and they make the decision to speed the process to closure faster than you currently can.

Trust your hiring managers.  Expect them to make mistakes. 

So much of the trend towards multiple interview rounds is about CYA.  Everyone is petrified about the costs of a bad hire, particularly when there's a recruiting fee involved.   Managers must know that they can survive some bad hires.  When I talk to Sales Engineering Managers about hiring, they always remember bad hires, or bad employees that they inherited when they moved into the jobs. At some point, all of those people must have looked good enough to hire!  They can also recall the people who rose the occasion and grew into SE roles they may not have been hired for, had hey been an outside hire.   For nearly every manager I speak to, this is how they got into sales or sales engineering.  Someone gave them a shot!   You can't interview your way into emliniating the risk of a bad fit.  Frankly, interviewing is the least-best way to hire, because everyone (including the employer) is on their best behavior.  This is why people hire employees they have worked with before, even if the role or technical fit is not ideal.  They know how this person is going to work and interact with the rest of the team and more importantly, with sales prospects.

Managers need to pull the trigger on hiring decisions with a little less than optimal confidence, if they want to compete for the best people, and if they need to hire multiple people in this market. That may be very uncomfotable (especially engineers!) but that is the current market reality.

You’ve identified the winner.  Now what?

• How quickly can you generate an offer?  How many signatures are required? Can we automate that process?
• Do you have an alternate identified?
• Does the offer have a drop-dead date?  Many of our clients allow candidates no more than 48-72 hours to make a decision on an offer before it is withdrawn, and they move to an alternate candidate.
• Can we automate the offer process?   Electronic signature services such as Adobe’s Echosign.com or Docusign allow you to see if candidates have received, viewed or signed the offer letter.  No need to chase or guess on any of those status issues.

The market for revenue-producers in the IT market has bloomed, at least for the short- and medium-term.   What worked in a low-demand environment (2008-2011) will not work in this high-demand market.     

Take a hard look at your process, and choose to compete at every step.

Employment for life is increasingly a thing of the past – even at the executive levels, according to a study recently published in the Harvard Business Review. Executives are switching jobs more frequently – on average every four to five years.

If you’re looking to take the next step in your executive leadership career, here are some guidelines and keys to crafting a winning executive resume that’ll make you stand out as a candidate, whether you’re in the public, private or non-profit sector.

 1.  Who

Rather than beginning your resume with an objective, use a title – for example, as outlined in this Chief Operations Officer resume sample. You can also include a brief elevator style pitch below that, succinctly outlining why a company should hire you. This should serve as a compelling positioning statement that sets the stage for the rest of your resume.

According to the study, while elite schools still hold sway at the top levels, the majority of corporate executives today went to public universities. Whatever your education background, your qualifications are important and degrees earned should be included along with any other relevant professional certifications. Space on your resume is valuable, so ensure any qualifications you choose to include pertain closely to your roles and competencies.

2.  What

It’s helpful for someone viewing your resume for the first time to be able to see where your expertise lies. When addressing relevant topical items in your resume, under a Core Competency Section as shown in these executive resume samples, you fulfill the keyword optimization required by humans reading your document and resume databases digesting your document.

Provide an overview of the areas you have experience in (finance, operations, sales, marketing), what kinds of industries you’ve been exposed to (consulting, manufacturing, food and beverage, consumer goods) and what levels of responsibility you’ve held. This will provide context for your achievements and core strengths.

3.  Where

Following on from the last point, explain (briefly) what each organization did and put it into perspective. Was it publicly or privately held? Regional, national or global? What markets and regions did you work within? It may be helpful to describe the size of the workforce or the company’s annual revenue. Don’t assume everyone is familiar with individual companies or even the industries.  Outlining how to effectively define size and scope when describing current and previous employers is shown on this VP-Medical Affairs Executive Resume Sample.

4.  How

Particularly at the executive level, demonstrating performance is crucial. Let your accomplishments speak for themselves. Provide evidence through specific examples – what you achieved, when, and where – that will also implicitly communicate your mastery of your profession.

Sales success is easy to quantify, but other functions might not translate as easily to numbers. You may be able to point to cost savings you achieved, processes that you made more efficient, productivity increases, projects delivered on time and on budget, or other initiatives successfully deployed. Use active verbs that reflect your role in each, such as ‘spearheaded’ and don’t waste time with generic and empty adjectives.

Here are some other questions to ask yourself when building your executive resume:

• How have you been involved in setting a vision and carrying out strategy for organizations? How have you used ‘big picture’ thinking to initiate change?
• Have you hired, fired and built teams? What about personal development – have you mentored more junior employees?
• Have you been responsible for budgets, fundraising, high level negotiations or other financial matters?
• Have you been involved in any mergers or acquisitions, or other major business initiatives you can point to?
• What kinds of business relationships do you have and at what level? How do you deal with stakeholders, clients, and suppliers? Do you have a valuable network of contacts?
• What kind of experience do you have with public speaking, writing or giving presentations? How have you represented your organization to the community and the wider public?

Following the who, when, where and how model of crafting specific details in your executive resume will ensure hiring managers will see how you can add value and make a difference in how soon you land that interview.

Written by Lisa Rangel, Executive Resume Writer

Putting an Effective IT Business Ecosystem to Work

 J. Patrick & Associates has been around nearly two decades.  Over this time, we have developed a clear vision of the IT business ecosystem.  Along the way, we’ve also developed sector-specific hiring expertise and understanding that the needs of the hiring firm go well beyond matching a paper candidate to a particular position description.  You may be familiar with many of the advantages this enables us to offer you over traditional firms and database-driven hiring.

Agility, for one. We’re ready to move now and leverage unique industry insight to help drive your most favorable hiring decisions.  Market Intelligence, for another.  We are prepared to help you the right person for that key position right now--but also ensure you’re positioned for the larger demands of an evolving business environment.  And perhaps most importantly, relationships.  We’ve been placing great candidates at great firms for practically 20 years.  In the recruiting world, that’s no mean feat.  It’s no accident either; it’s proof of a winning track record.

We’ve been blogging recently about some of those more easily seen advantages to engaging a top and successful search firm like J. Patrick & Associates.  Let’s talk a bit more now about what that looks like when it’s put into action.  After all the initial legwork is done, then the real work of hiring a candidate begins.  It’s time to close the hire. I’ll start by saying that in the 20-year history of J. Patrick, we have never been the hold up during the recruiting process.  While average times to hire vary by industry, in the IT sector this is usually about 4.8 weeks.  One of the advantages we offer our clients is an opportunity to contract that time frame.

It’s worth pointing out that the cost of vacancy can be really, really painful to your bottom line, so it’s in your best interest to get the right person on the job as soon as possible. Say for example, you need a sales engineer and you’re willing to offer him or her an $80,000 annual salary.  Each day that spot goes unfilled, you’re looking at a loss of earnings potential between roughly $900 and $1,540.  That adds up in a hurry.

J. Patrick recognizes that sourcing is just the first step, and we transform interest to intention, walking you and your potential candidates through the process by preparing, communicating, qualifying and following up on each phase until it’s time for you to meet face to face.  And here is another step in the process where we help you reduce your recruiting timeframe and close the hire through hands-on engagement.

Once we’re confident that we’ve got the best of all candidates for you to select from, we bring everyone together and bring the process to a quick and successful close.  Your staff, your candidates, and the J. Patrick team converge at a select venue and, in effect, sort the wheat from the chaff.  In short, we get all the players in the same place at the same time and create an environment that enables you to be proactive, coordinated, and efficient.  You’d be surprised at how something this simple speeds up the process. But the threefold value of momentum, shared feedback, and immediacy (memory fades) is undeniable.

Why does it work so well? Simple, it’s intense and efficient.  Everything is set up for your team, and that ensures you obtain maximum return on your time and effort.  It’s a turnkey solution from the venue, the candidates, the documentation, right on down to the catering; we’ve got it covered.  You’re free to focus on building a winning team from the best candidates available.  All this takes tremendous time and effort - you won’t get this level of service (or results) from a LinkedIn Recruiter subscription.

It’s time to consider a firm with proven expertise and resources, like J. Patrick & Associates, to provide the results your business demands.  Reach out to a qualified J. Patrick recruiting professional today to see how we can help you assemble a talented, motivated, and dedicated team. 

The Value of a Recruiter in the Age of LinkedIn

Chances are, if you work in the business world and are not using LinkedIn, somehow you didn’t get the memo.  LinkedIn is a massive social media platform for businesses, job seekers, and online influencers. LinkedIn is a great way to connect to other people and substantially grow your network.  Considering the fact that over 280 million people have a LinkedIn account, recruiters see LinkedIn as the greatest tool ever invented. In fact, 93% of all recruiters maintain a presence on LinkedIn.

Not surprisingly, LinkedIn has a specialized platform for use by HR Managers and recruiters.  It’s called LinkedIn Recruiter. Put simply, LinkedIn Recruiter is a giant database of all the profiles on LinkedIn.  While one might think that all you have to do is purchase LinkedIn Recruiter and then simply select and hire the best candidates for your open positions, the process is much more sophisticated than that.  Frequently, when businesses and their in-house HR staff purchase LinkedIn Recruiter, they think can instantly replace their recruiter. However, these companies quickly realize the amount of time required to locate, attract, and hire the perfect candidate. 

How has the recruiter’s value increased in the age of LinkedIn?

LinkedIN Recruiter takes time to learn

In-house HR Departments are wrought with the challenge of optimizing the search and selection process while managing deep databases of candidates.  

This is why many turn to a firm like J. Patrick & Associates.  We have worked in the recruiting business for almost 30 years and we understand that it takes a lot more than just querying a database to land your firm’s ideal candidate.

Recruiters are personable

Recruiters are increasingly valuable in the age of LinkedIn because they offer the human connections that most LinkedIn Recruiter rookies just can’t provide.  Recruiters like J. Patrick & Associates perform a critical human role in the hiring process and we have developed sector-specific IT hiring expertise for over two decades in the business.  Because we are dedicated to understanding both the specific needs of the recruiting firm and the needs of job seekers in the IT business environment, JP&A is uniquely positioned to add even more value during the hiring process. Why?  The phone call. The phone call still remains the ‘killer app’ in the recruiting business. Sending a message via LinkedIn just doesn’t cut it.

Recruiters have Expertise

Many articles bemoan the death of the recruiter and LinkedIn Recruiter certainly has put some ineffective and uncompetitive recruiting firms out of business.  However, LinkedIn Recruiter is only as good as the person using it. Many HR professionals have a lot on their plate. Overseeing all aspects of compensation planning, training and employee relations leaves limited time they can dedicate to recruiting.  Filling critical positions requires time, resources and first-class expertise to deliver unparalleled results.

Contact J. Patrick & Associates and connect with a certified recruiting consultant to structure a plan, staff your LIR platform, and achieve optimal results for your firm.

Make no mistake--being found by the right job is not a passive job search tactic. Eliminate the vision of sipping margaritas on the deck waiting for recruiters to call. Today’s job seeker must put a lot of thought and hard work into ensuring she/he is a part of communities where hiring managers source for viable candidates.

There is much written about how to find the right job.  However, one of the most overlooked items in a strategic job search plan is how to ensure the job seeker is searchable—or how to have the right job find you.  With the prolific rise of the internet to source candidates by corporate and search firm recruiters, it is paramount that job seekers take steps to ensure they can be located and sourced for the positions they seek.

Recruiting for an open position by posting an ad is one of the last tactics a recruiter wants to utilize. It is a waste of their time to wade through a flood of resumes, which often contains many poorly-qualified candidates.  So it is not very effective for job seekers to apply through a job board posting. Recruiters source and recruit--and candidates that are present and active in those pools get attention. So how do you become that candidate? 

How to Be Found by the Right Job 

Why is it important to take control of your job search?

It can be extremely frustrating and demoralizing to not get any response from search firm recruiters after you have submitted your resume to them. You may feel you’re perfect for the job posted and know you can succeed at it, however you never hear back.  It is hard not to take things personally.  However, there are some easy solutions to keep you upbeat about your job search, and get better results! 

1. Set Yourself Up for Success

Know your background and see if it matches what recruiters are looking for.  If you are missing even one piece of what is being sought, they won’t be sending your resume to their client. If you know you have a background that is lacking what the recruiter needs, no matter how well-qualified you are, you are wasting your time.  Stop approaching recruiters and instead find other channels to present and market yourself and your experience.  Network, apply directly on company websites, and update social media to ensure you are active and top of mind. 

2. Put Skin in the Game

Commit to doing the work YOURSELF needed to execute an effective job search plan. There are no short cuts. Do not pay someone to do the dirty work. If you need help, pay someone to show YOU how to do it correctly. But the key is to do it yourself.  If you need to update your credentials, learn about what is going on in the industry you want to be in, or grow your network, do it.  There is no time like the present!

3. Be Creative

Be Creative In Your Job Search. Use venues that increase your chances of being reviewed and called for a particular job.  If you have a background that is not going to be attractive to search firms, then choose other venues: Use target company lists, industry-focused job boards and networking groups.  Utilize LinkedIn and other social media sites.  Check out company websites, career fairs, and even volunteer in relevant fields. 

4. Quality over quantity

Better to create a target list of companies and do research. It is more effective to mindfully pursue 30 leads directly than to send a mass, impersonalized, poorly-targeted email to 3,000 people.  The less effort you put in, the less results you get back.

5. Build a Brand

Commit to have the best branding presentation ever. So many cover letters and resumes are poorly written, formatted in an amateur manner or simply do not do the candidate any justice.  Make sure your communication documents (resume, cover letter, LinkedIn profile, networking communications, and blogs) help put your best foot forward.  This will ensure you are not automatically disqualified due to careless errors or omissions. 

Using these 5 suggestions may not be a guarantee that you will get a call back for every position you apply for.  However, being proactive and using all the opportunities out there will help you remain upbeat and in control of your job search!

Written by Lisa Rangel, Executive Resume Writer

Frustrated by search firm recruiters not calling you back after you have submitted your resume to them?  Feel you’re perfect for the job posted and baffled by the fact that you haven’t heard back?  Here are some answers as to why you haven’t heard back, and some things you can do to better optimize your job search. 

1. YOU may think you’re qualified, but that does not mean THEY think you’re qualified!

Search firms are paid a significant fee to evaluate candidates that the client company cannot find on their own. They are charged with having to determine if a candidate will exceed expectations for that client in the given job. The client company gives the search firm a series of parameters to meet that justify paying a fee to the search firm if the candidate embodies those requirements.

Frankly, it just does not matter that you think you can do the job. The search firm has to ensure you have ALL of what their client's expects:  the proper years of experience, company caliber exposure, demonstrated track record of results, culture fit potential, professional training and educational credentials. If you are missing even just one piece of it, typically you will not be considered by the search firm and your resume will never be submitted for the job. 

As long as you have not been contacted by the search firm or submitted to the company by them, apply through a different venue (networking, applying directly to the company website, etc) that does not add a fee to your head if hired.

2. Search firms are not paid by you, and therefore, do not work for you.

Reputable search firms are only paid by their client company. The company is their client--not you, and they do not exist to find you a job. Credible search firms do not accept fees from candidates for representation to companies, and only get paid when they actually make a placement for a company.  If your background will ensure that they get that placement fee, rest assured that they will contact you.

3. You paid a firm to send your resume to 1,000 recruiters…and it shows.

If you are doing a mass emailing, you cannot expect personalized response results. Even a very successful direct email campaign has a response rate of just 1-2%.  If you have a properly targeted, well-written direct campaign to 1,000 contacts, you will get 10-20 quality calls. If you have a well-written campaign sent to a random sampling of recruiters, you may get 5-15 calls from recruiters who may not place what you do.  And if it is a non-targeted, poorly written campaign, no one will call—or you will receive calls to sell you job search services since you clearly need some help!

4. Search firms don’t place what you do.

You are a Medical Director of a Big Pharma Firm and the recruiter places digital media experts within advertising agencies. You live in Wyoming and the recruiter works with companies in Illinois and Texas.  No matter how great you are and how good your experience and achievements are, you are not getting the call. It is important to know the capacity of the search firm before you send your resume.

5. The search firm has no idea what you do.

Your resume is filled with so much corporate-speak and fluff that they have no idea what you do.  Saying “Leader in the industry” does not help anyone understand what you do. What kind of leader? What level of leader? What industry?   What did you achieve? If the recruiter has to work at figuring out what you do, you are not going to hear from them.

6. They do not have the right job for you.

The search firm actually thinks your background is amazing. They know what you do and are impressed where you do it and how you have done it. But they simply do not have the right job for you. Given that recruiters need to focus on finding candidates that can fill their jobs to make a living, they most likely will not have time to call you. 

7. Your background is not worth a company paying a fee.

This may sound harsh, but it is true.  If you are unemployed or you have too many jobs in a short period of time, you may fall into this category.  If you do not have a series of promotions or you have an eclectic group of varied experiences, you are in this boat, too. This is a simple economics issue.  The supply of these types of candidates is too great right now and companies will not pay a fee unless your background is worth it.

Accepting this fact about yourself does not mean you are doomed to not find a great job. It just means you will probably not find one through a search firm. This really is not that bad of a situation. Search firms account for a very small percentage of hires in the US.  Most hires are made through networking!  So companies will hire you, just through other venues without the price tag attached—so go to those venues!

8. The search firm is overwhelmed and, unfortunately, cannot get back to every applicant with the “Thanks, but no thanks” email.

Don’t take it personally when recruiters do not call to tell you that you are not right for the job. Do not cause yourself added stress by thinking it is personal—it is simply a logistics issue regarding limited resources.  With the volume of resumes that third party and corporate recruiters receive in today’s market, it is physically impossible to get back to everyone. To help ease the rejection you might feel, set goals for outbound activity each week, knowing that only a certain percentage will reap results. It is all a numbers game.

9. Your resume has been posted on all the job boards for a long time.

Companies pay recruiters to find candidates they cannot find themselves. If your resume is posted on many job boards for any significant length of time, you are not exclusive. You are readily available and easily found. When I recruited, I had company clients tell me I could not submit candidates that were found on the job boards--even if I sourced that candidate myself or the candidate was referred to me!  As frustrating as it was, I understood.  Why would they pay a recruiter for someone they could easily find on their own? 

Does this mean you should not be on the boards? Not necessarily. It depends on your story.  If you are not working or know that your company is going to be laying you off and you cannot be without a job, do what you have to do to get that next job.  If you know you will not be well served by recruiters, then you must use other means.  But consider being selective and not post yourself everywhere. Or consider submitting to job postings only. The best option is to commit to networking within the target company list you create and approach contacts directly.

10. You are looking to switch careers or start your career.

You are a successful pharmaceutical sales manager, who just recently graduated with a bachelors in accounting. Now you are looking to get an entry-level position in accounting.  The best option is to contact companies directly for a position in your new career. A recruiter cannot help new college graduates or individuals who want to change careers. Why? Remember, recruiters get paid by clients to find candidates who have had prior success in a job similar to the one they need to fill. A company is not going to pay a recruiter to hire someone to start a new line of work with no proven track record in the field.

11. Don’t test the waters on the recruiter’s time.

On paper, you may appear too comfortable in your job.  Recruiters want to work with candidates who want to make a move.  If it seems you may be shopping or comfortable, but not serious about a new position, your resume will be passed over. Reformat your resume to show career progression, achievements and promotions.  If you present yourself as someone out looking for the next ripe opportunity and who gets results, you increase your chances of getting the call. 

You may find that you identify with a few of the reasons and fall in a few categories above.  Does this mean you are not destined to find a job?  Absolutely not!!  This is a lesson in marketing and economics.  Instead of expecting results from recruiters, you need to present your background in venues where you will be reviewed and perceived as a valuable candidate that should be hired!

Written by Lisa Rangel, Executive Resume Writer

How Being Private can Negatively Affect Your Job Search

A high-level executive is eager to find a new job.  He uses Facebook for personal things, is present on Linkedin but barely uses it, and sees no value in Twitter.  He states he is looking diligently at job boards and networking strategically but has gotten nowhere in his search. He believes it is vital to maintain his online privacy, and it seems to be working:  he is so private, no one can find him!  It is impossible in this day and age to conduct a job search without using these social media tools in a robust and proactive way. 

There is one thing most people looking for a job may not realize:

Recruiters automatically filter out the less technically savvy from their applicant pools by using these tools. So make sure you are present in these mediums, or consider yourself filtered!

There are certainly legitimate safety reasons for some to remain under the radar and off the grid. I am not advocating publishing your social security number or the answers to your banking security questions on public domain. However, with the exception of a select few individuals, both passive and active job seekers need to have a branded presence on the web to ensure the other aspect of their search strategy can be effective. Everyone must have a vibrant online presence in order to be found by the right people--those who can lead to the next opportunity.

Have at least 250 LinkedIn connections. 

You are already on LinkedIn, so make it work for you. If you consider people on all levels from many different aspects of your life (professional employment, education, childhood, family, friends, neighbors, vendors, clients, service partners, personal services, hobby enthusiasts, extracurricular activities…you get the idea.), you can reach this connection threshold. This will improve your qualitative search result dramatically to yield you better job search leads.

Side consideration: If you are thinking, “LinkedIn never really worked for me.”, ask yourself, “Do I REALLY work it?”  Would you walk into a networking event, not speak to anyone, and then come out and say “Wow, what a waste of time…no one spoke to me and I did not receive one lead!” Of course not!  You need to think of LinkedIn in the same way--use it to proactively reach out to others to make it work for you.

Strategically use Facebook contacts to help your boost your job search network. 

Using Facebook for mostly personal stuff is okay, but consider contacting certain people offline to connect with them and determine if you can help each other out in a professional and meaningful manner.  You won’t be able to help everyone and everyone will not be able to help you, but all you need is a few key contacts to help bring you to the next level in your search.

Start using Twitter, even if you don’t tweet!

If you are not sure what to say in the 140 character limit, then don’t say anything!  Instead, create an account to follow recruiters in your industry and/or discipline that post positions in which you have an interest. You can be a silent presence on Twitter until you are ready to tweet—which may be never. But until then, do not let this goldmine of opportunity pass you by.

Create a searchable webpage housing your resume, achievements and means of contact.

This page only needs to include your general location, phone and email. Specific identifying information does not need to be listed. Even general location does not matter if you are open to relocation or are looking for virtual positions or jobs that naturally require significant travel.  You can even create an email address for your public page that is different from your personal email address.  As hiring managers run searches for what you do, doing this ensures you can be more easily found by them.

With many cases of identity theft occurring every year, online privacy is obviously extremely important.  But when you need to advance your career, get out of a dysfunctional company or end your time in transition, there is a way to prudently advance your online professional profile that doesn’t risk your security.   Otherwise, you have to consider the consequences of staying hidden and determine if it is a cost you are willing to pay in the form of stagnant career or unemployment.

Written by Lisa Rangel, Executive Resume Writer