In one of America’s most historical and intriguing cities, a new spirit of NPA collaboration emerged – and it wasn’t the spirits encountered on the Haunted Pub Crawl.  Like many of you – I lost traction in 2009 but suddenly in Savannah, SplitZone was very real to me – again.

Maybe it was the “wheels coming off” period we survived together, maybe it was John Bartos’ optimism and forcing us to look at metrics, maybe it was the sponsors and their resources that help make placements – regardless, I trust this spirit is alive and well and will be moving across your desk this week and the weeks to come.

I left Georgia’s first city with clarity and wanting to do more business, more NPA business – how could you not?  This spirit was evident from seasoned veterans even – people with colors of precious metals on their nametags.  Folks I met in Columbus, Ohio, a few short years ago had gone from mildly abrasive to quite engaging, even welcoming.  I won’t name names and I won’t even change their names to Rhett or Scarlett – let’s just say – I found that at this conference – frankly, they gave a damn, everyone did.

I was incredibly impressed by the international folks that traveled from the other side of the world to this meeting.   Melbourne, Milan, Hong Kong, Vancouver, Beijing, Germany, Timbuktu, BFE – what an investment these people made to attend.  How you say? Uhh…No one forced them to be there – they wanted to be there – everyone I talked with wanted to be there – that spirit thing was hovering.

My takeaways – use SplitZone daily, get on these conference calls, find ways to attend future events, Facebook has a “large, diverse and engaged” audience we need to tap into more, get face time with your trading partners, great goodie bag by the way, show up and contribute more, Genie Matthews is still…simply the best, eat more small meals standing up talking with people that want to make you money, don’t use Paula Deen or any butter references in this blog post, find your why (more on that in the next paragraph), be grateful for this network, convenience stores aren’t so convenient in Savannah, you cannot have enough of those little stuffed Monster monsters for your 5 year old, don’t be there at closing time, TFI is a great resource, ask clients about international opportunities, don’t throw toilet paper into chandeliers, stop leaving money on the table and drink tickets in your hotel room, and finally – Be Like Mike (Pettit, that is).

As far as finding your why – WHY are you in NPA?  I have a far better answer to that question now – thanks to Geoff Crews via Meri Laird Jones.  We are all owners of this worldwide network – so I say to my fellow “owners’ as you move from takeaways to intentions to initiatives to execution – OWN IT!

In case you had not heard, the next annual conference is in Las Vegas.  March 2013 – Las Vegas.  Bring cash, plenty of business cards, and prepare to keep your hands on the table. You and your team need to show up – based on my Savannah experience, clearly – with this NPA spirit it will be more of a gamble not to attend.

I wanted to avoid having to write a first paragraph justification for my writing vaca in my first post back – so I am just firing this warning shot post.  I will probably still manage to justify it in the written word anyway.  Bottom line is that I have been recruiting and that has been why 2011 has been a great year.

Since about 7 people read this faithfully, the impact of my writing hiatus was quite minimal.  I look forward to the posts swirling around in my head making it to my WordPress dashboard and on to your screen.

Standby.

This is the type of year-end post that spews the leftover crumbs of the oft asked, if not daily, question, “Andy, what do you think about this?”

Although my wife and kids never recognize me for this attribute, I listen too well.  I hear the subtleties in your presentation.  In the spirit of the holiday season, sorry but I must ask – Do You Hear What I Hear?

I love the discussions with job seekers that are all about what they said, what the interviewer said, and so on.  As much as I enjoy this back and forth with a job seeker, they mostly dislike the exercise.  BUT – the point here is to examine what you are saying, what you are projecting and what they are inferring. Controlling the interviewer’s inference is critical and you are responsible for their interpretation.

Let’s talk the obvious ones first.  My personal general favorite – flinching.  Next, the word – “probably.”  The phrases – “pretty much” and “I think so.”  I think subtleties cost you.  If you aren’t getting the offers to jobs you want where the chemistry is good, you are projecting tentativeness.  Tentativeness does not begat reassurance.  Reassurance is what you are closing the I want to work here deal with – we need the resolute “I can do it, I know I can because I have done it before, I own my desk” mentality.  They brought you in so your skills are a given, chemistry gets you to the next round, reassurance solidifies employment.

What prompted this post was my recent exchange with a candidate and some things I look forward to pointing out to him.  I had trouble reaching this candidate and he had trouble reaching me.  It was frustrating for both of us.  Believe me it pisses me off when I can’t reach people but I don’t project it (I bitch before the beep and after the hangup.)  It clearly annoyed this guy.  Did he say the words?  No.  He never said, “Andy, I am trying to reach you and it pisses me off I can’t.”  It was the lack of self-control subtlety in his voice.  Do you realize what you sound like?  Do you?   Think it but don’t say it.  Think it but don’t show it.

As much as I appreciated his urgency in reaching me (refreshing), I didn’t appreciate the tone  and actually considered not calling him back because of it.  I write this because his entitlement refrain in the form of terse voicemail tidbits was not some calculated tactic nor was it compelling.  Seething with entitlement, flailing job search guy lacks self-awareness.  Seething with entitlement, flailing job search guy is not owning his search – not practicing a self-control he must possess.  No wonder HR doesn’t call you back.  They may be scared seething with entitlement, flailing job search guy will become angry, workplace violence guy.

Do You Hear What I Hear?  Start listening to yourself.  THINK.  Check your subtleties at the interviewer’s door – in fact, just leave them in 2010.  You may be entitled to unemployment compensation but you are not entitled to say anything like THAT.  Hear what I hear.

On my mind today, search assignments.  Process Engineers and Senior Process Engineers all over the country need to be found, a Maintenance Manager, an HR Manager.  The work is there – I am calling YOU – YOU need to call me back.

My hiring manager says, “I need to see some results, Andy.”  Those six words attached to my name is really all I need to hear.   She said it matter of fact but in an encouraging tone.

A differentiating factor of the clients I enjoy working with – they use the word “need.”  Need says they have a key opening that will be filled as soon as the right candidate shows up.  One inspiring word.

Now to find those candidates that say, “I have been thinking about making a change, I just haven’t done anything about it.”

Person came back with questions -typed an email even – they seemed legit and I liked the effort.  Questions you might have, questions we hadn’t covered yet – “Why is the job open?  What is the bonus structure?”  I knew most of the answers but just needed to clarify a few details with the client.  The candidate was worth getting the specifics for and I like to prove I am different from other recruiters -so…bottom line – I had enough doubt I just wanted to make sure on a few things. I went and got the answers.

I had already failed at this point.

You may know where this is going.  Let’s cut to it.  I get all the answers, we review them and then, ” I AM NOT INTERESTED.” (definitely all caps from my recollection) I pretty much heard a game show buzzer and a large WTF? appeared on the wall in front of me.  I was rather miffed… but not really.  Honestly, this had been an exhaustive search and I was more disappointed in my recruiter optimism than anything.  I was lacking a wise perspective at this point – more pissed than miffed.  Maybe miffed but from the pissed sort of genre.  Ah..emerging clarity.

The real clarity on this conflict came on Saturday morning from my 3 year old.  My wife had taken the 7 year old to the American Girl Store in Chicago that weekend so it was the least I could do to take my 3 year old on a similar outing.  We chose Dunkin’ Donuts.  Seemed like a fair response to the shopping spree in a Dad sort of way.  Between the two outings, we spent $304.99.

You take the 3 year old for donuts – you know you are all about assorted donut holes, varying sprinkles and chocolate milk (see Donut handbook).  What you don’t expect between the donut hole collage and chocolate milk bottle repeatedly teetering on table’s edge is a recruiting mentor to emerge?  The colorful sprinkles needing wiped from her mouth, mouth full of cake donut, chocolate milk drip on her chin and all in a milk throat kind of voice – my Lucy says, “What else you got, Dad?”

I had come full donut circle at the teachings of Lucy Skrentny Leffkowitz.  The candidate’s emailed questions were crystallized into one gigantic question -

“What else you got, Recruiter?”

Big time learning from the smallest recruiter trainer.  Look for her training modules soon but don’t expect candidates wielding this concealed question to resign in the near future.  While the 3 year old in her discovery ASKS the question – the wannabe masks the question with tire kicking, counts a healthy bonus potential that hasn’t paid out in 3 years as income and clings to unreciprocated loyalty with a value system that worked well for his parents.

I failed because I should have re-re-qualified him specifically for his seriousness level – I did not – those darn unvalidated assumptions.  I wish good blog posts came from the victories and not all these learnings.  Now that you know the official question of the unrealistic – You need the song of the unrealistic because I know you wannabe a “JobStar!”

We need to discuss the above first.

A good career conversation is going to include painful discussion. Why would you leave your company?  What would you change about your current role?  What does your boss say about your future?  What does your boss’s boss say about it?

These are going to be questions you hear from me.  You may be asking them to yourself – maybe you should be.  Perhaps you self-medicate with over-the-cubicle remedies like “It’ll work out” self-talk, the ever-present – denial and unreciprocated loyalty.  If you face the pain, you know you have to take action, right?

Is it time for a painful discussion?  I am happy to pull up a chair if you want to talk.

One more thing – as you manage this career of yours – I hope you will SERIOUSLY ponder – Can the powers that be resolve the root cause of your concern?  Is it even possible?

This policy is solid – and while I live in the gray most of the time – we are going B and W on this standard. Your email needs to be your first name, initial, whatever plus a really creative dot…or no dot for you old school email artisans – and the email provider of your choice will typically take it from there.

Here is the new policy – if you have one those overly cutesy email addresses (confident I have not written a blog post with “cutesy” in it) – I will ask you to repeat it so much, spell it a couple of times, mix in a huh? or two and soon…you will discern – “Ya know…I really should change that.”

And here is why the policy is now in force. Because believe it or not – people say to me – “Hey, what is up with that email address?” Look, I promise you that if they don’t say it – they THINK it.

Hypothetical example to follow. Suppose, you are a dog lover and it is natural that you would wanna email address reflective of that, right? I mean, you got the hand painted dog biscuit jar and the furniture scars to prove it. Is that your feisty little Chihuahua barking as I interview you – oh, you have 3….ok…really? And 3 rescues on the way to your wannabe kennel? Wow. Ok.

Bottom line – people may want to email you. They want to drop you a line and your phonetic spelling of Chihuahua – spelled
“C-h-i-w-a-w-a-w” in your email – as in chiwawawlovr@dogguy.com – since chihuahualover@dogguy.com was taken – basically, your email…well…you screwed the pooch here. (Sorry… but you did.)