You Control More Than You Think

About a year or so ago in addition to the normal phone calls and emails that come on a daily basis I wanted to find a way to make sure that I was continually available and accessible to our members but also to do more in terms of sharing with them some of the lessons I had learned from my stumbling around the world of career management for the last 45+ years.

I don't mean to imply that I haven't been accessible; my email and number is all over the site.  What I mean is that I didn't just want to be there to react to questions or whatever, but rather I wanted to do something that was more proactive, especially in a market that has been and remains so difficult to navigate.

One solution I thought would be to create a weekly forum (live) that members could attend by phone and talk about whatever they wanted.  This would not be something where I was trying to guess what might be of interest to callers, but rather an event where the member could feel totally comfortable to discuss whatever was on their mind, and I would see what suggestions/ideas occurred to me that might be of help.  The scary part, among other things, was (a) not knowing if anyone would show up, and  (b) would they find value?

After some weeks of trial and error the answer to (a) seemed to be yes and (b) people felt the calls were indeed helpful on a number of levels. 

In latter case, there were two main things that callers told me they took away: (1) They got an immediate answer to something that they were dealing with at the present time and (2) it was comforting to learn from the issues raised by others that they were not the only ones experiencing this stuff. 
In terms of what I have learned from the calls, the lessons have been many, but the one in particular that stands out is this:

No matter how the market or technology changes over time, the process of career management has remained fundamentally unchanged which is one of the things that remains a source of big time frustration -particularly to action oriented senior level executives.  People want "answers" (are used to getting them) and they want them sooner not later.

So, it is not surprising that one of the recurring themes on these calls is trying to help listeners understand that when it comes to this matter, there are no "plug and play" answers.  At best there are opinions (and lots of 'em) which sometimes serve more to confuse than clarify, but as they say, "it is what it is," and coming to understand this is helpful knowledge all by itself.

It is partially for this reason that I always try to have a guest join me. A different voice, a different set of experiences, and sometimes a different opinion. The feedback from callers has been that they like this a lot largely because it helps to understand an issue from different perspectives and often will generate different approaches.  (An added benefit, of course, is that they are not subjected to me the whole time, but most are polite enough not to mention that.)

Anyway, in a process where much of the frustration is driven by the fact that people feel (and rightfully so) that they have no real control of so much of what is going on, one thing that can be controlled is expectation level, and managing that has a major impact on the emotional ups and downs, and anyone who has ever been through a job transition (myself included) knows full well what I mean.

The trap that is all to easy to fall into in today's technology driven environment is to think that as long as I keep firing off my resume into the ether it is only a matter of time, and maybe there is a statistical case to be made  for that, I don't know.

What I do know is that results oriented executives don't manage that way and they don't solve problems that way.  They set realistic expectations based on thorough research, plan accordingly, bring the product to market, gauge the reactions and adjust.

For sure there are always going to be those aspects over which they have no control, but as professionals, they know it, expect it, and constantly keep focusing on the things they can control.

It reminds me yet again of the axiom we have all heard many times: Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. The operative word being preparation.

It's Still Personal

Okay, I admit it, I am a bit of a "machineophile" or maybe in the current era and vernacular a "gadget geek."  I love the apps, the widgets, and the QR stuff.  I have no idea what most of it does, worry to death about which ones come preloaded with a virus and then end up deleting the vast majority about every 6 months to make sure I still have disk space on my PC and cell phone.

Well, yesterday when I needed something to take my mind off of how badly I had done in this week's office football pool I decided it was deletion time again, and it was during that process that I came across a reference to an app that if you believed what they were saying, was supposed to be the job seeker's answer to automated responses and messages that come from many job board postings, which, loosely translated, stop just short of "Dear Occupant."

Apparently, after this certain piece of software is up and running, the applicant can send out an automatic message to any posting on any site it searches for the keywords one sets as the criteria. If true, this would make my list of finalists for the ultimate recruiter's nightmare and the job changer's time-waster of the year award.

I recall when the Internet first showed up on most of our radar screens, many of the industry pundits were forecasting the early demise of the whole executive search industry, and what we could expect before too long was all job openings would be filled as we slept. Okay, a bit of an overstatement to make a point, but that is what it was starting to sound like. Here we are a couple of decades or so later, and for sure the death of the industry was, as Mark Twain said, "greatly exaggerated."

Admittedly, at ExecuNet be it career issues or business issues, we are focused on only one segment of the market (i.e. C-level executives and their direct reports) but by observing and interacting with that segment (as well as the executive search community) on a daily basis, we continue to see more of an emphasis on human judgment and less on robotic matching, and for all its impact on the speed of research and communications, the search community keeps telling us that the time to fill the assignments really hasn't changed all that much, the Internet notwithstanding.

Indeed, in our 19 year old annual survey (Executive Job Market Intelligence Report) we have always asked search consultants about the time it takes to fill positions. With the exception of the height of the '08/'09 recession, when they say it took on average a month longer, the answer has always been between 3 to 4 months.

As I think about this issue, and keep reading about the latest and greatest technological enablers that often literally "pop up" it just keeps reminding me of three things:

1. There is no substitute for quality, and

2. There is no substitute for making qualitative judgments, and

3. As a consumer, no matter what the economic conditions, I am always willing to pay a premium for quality, and so, by the way when it comes to talent, are companies - in any market.

Negative Feedback Loops

For sure, like the one Fortune ran for their cover story in the May 16th issue way back in 2005 (50 and Fired) are attention grabbers designed to sell the magazine, but I wonder if those who read that piece or others like it these days come away feeling anything like I did.

What a downer! After reading it back then and checking out the look on the faces of some of the folks they featured, one would think that the only option if you were unemployed and over 50 is to adjourn to your garage, shut all the doors, fire up the car, and drift away listening to Stairway to Heaven!

Why bring all this up again now?  Because stuff like this tends to surface again and again depending on what the economy is doing at any given point in time.  The tougher the times the more the media seems to invest their time and resources into trying to make us all feel worse.  No wonder they call it a "negative feedback loop."

This isn't to say that there isn't rampant age discrimination in this country. Of course there is, just like there is rampant discrimination of about any flavor you want. It has all been around for far too long to be sure, but around none the less. The way that article came across one would think that there is simply nothing to be done and you might as well cash in your chips and head for HR department at Wal-Mart or Home Depot unless you are really into cultural stuff and want to be a guide at a local historic site.

Is age an issue? For sure! Is making a change easy? Absolutely not, but it is a long way from having to swallow a gun which is the impression one gets from articles like these.  What a disservice to the tens of thousands of people impacted by the recession, and the further up the organizational hierarchy one goes, the more the age factor comes into play.

As tough s it is, however, making a job change is really a process with which most of us (age notwithstanding) are all too familiar.  It is a sales process and for most people I know, in order to be successful in sales, you need to really believe in your product, understand how its features and benefits will help the buyer and even more importantly, understand the objections the buyer might have and provide the information and answers that help the buyer to see that their objection is really not the problem they might have thought.

This may be an over simplified way of stating it, but when you peel away the anxiety and fear of rejection that is inherent in any sales process, and which is even more pronounced when the product is "you," the fact remains that this is really what it's about.

Maybe I am overly sensitive because I'm 72 and still feel I am still a long way from having to be kick started in the morning. It also might be because the average age of ExecuNet members is 52, so we talk to 50 somethings all the time.

But most of all, I think it's because we hear from and talk to members every day who are telling us about how they moved on to their next gig, and we get pretty excited each and every time.

The most recent came just the other day when I got an email from a member (age: 60) who was writing to tell me that he was about to start his new job as the CFO for a pharma company in the Northeast or the member (age 58) who had accepted the CEO position at a consumer products company in California.

Bottom line, I think and hope those who are working as hard as they know how to get on with their lives and careers are way too busy to take the time to read something as de-motivating as the one that appeared in Fortune back then and continue to show up in other magazines, blogs, and 2 minute "reports" on the tube these days.

When one reflects on the challenges facing the country, especially in terms of the economic competition and the numerical advantages faced by the U.S. versus the more rapidly developing economies, you would think that as a nation we would want to take advantage of every ounce of experience we can lay our hands on.

But then this is the country where our elected officials seem to think they are helping people deal with all this by spending their waking hours doing nothing except wringing their hands and calling each other names.

Making Your Own Luck

As you might guess having been part of ExecuNet for 23 years during which time there have been at least three recessions and given the depth of the most recent one, we could probably say four and not get too much of an argument, I have talked with thousands of executives about more career related issues than I can remember.

Given the economic turmoil of recent times, it isn't surprising that many of the conversations have revolved around the frustrations associated with making a job change, and especially trying to make that change when the unemployment rate is getting better but is still where none of us likes to see it, and the recovery isn't going fast enough. 

Then, of course, many add to that minor administrative details such as having kids in college, a mortgage to pay, and being on the other side of 45 and getting tired of hearing that they are "over qualified" if and when they hear anything at all which isn't often and which just adds to the frustration.

Since most of our members come to us by referral, it is also not unusual that by the time they "find" ExecuNet they have been travelling around the career changing universe long enough to be almost deaf from all the noise.

With that as the backdrop, when we talk to prospective members one of the first things we often hear is that they say they have tried about every job board known to man, and to use their words "haven't had any luck" to which I will then often ask: "What do you mean by luck?"  The answers vary, but can be pretty well summarized by the fact that they have sent out hundreds if not thousands of resumes and have gotten very few if any phone calls and/or interviews much less even acknowledgment that they responded in the first place.

It is at that point that I often will ask them if they have ever heard this definition of luck?

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunituy.

Most say they have, as have I. I even tried to find out where it came from at one point and at least for now the consensus seems to attribute it to the Roman philosopher Seneca, and am happy to give him the credit.  Indeed, if this was one of his "keepers" then we owe him a real debt of thanks because it puts something very important into perspective, at least in terms of the frustration I am talking about here.

So what's the point?  Just this:

When we're trying to help many of the executives we talk with to understand the why of "no luck" it usually comes down to the person admitting that their "preparation" to date was pretty much focused on responding to online postings, even though they were generally aware that most job changes don't come about via job postings in general and is even more the case at senior levels. 

Indeed, in our 19th Executive Job Market  Intelligence Report which was just released, many are surprised to learn that 92% of the openings at $200,000 and up are not posted at all!

All of which is to try and help the person understand that if they really want to have "luck" come their way in this process they have to invest the time, research, and energy to prepare themselves to take advantage an opportunity when it surfaces.  And this is the real reason why when I explain that we are a private career and business network and not a job board per se but rather a community where we invest the time and effort to provide the member not just with the "whats" of  "preparation" but as or more importantly with the ways and means to implement the "hows" things begin to make more sense.   

Clicking and praying is easy, but not particularly productive for most.

Quiet and determined preparation may sound harder, but when you are part of a professional environment with the committment to showing you "how" it beats noise every time.

Well Connected

Given that most of us have gone through our business and personal lives either knowing intuitively or having learned through experience just how important networking is to both our personal and/or career success, it should come as no surprise that when I see a book that talks to that subject that immediately want to check it out.

That's what I did when Gordon Curtis sent me a copy of his new book titled Well Connected, An Unconventional Approach to Building Genuine, Effective Business Relationships, and I'm glad I did.

Over the years, as anyone who knows me or ExecuNet is well aware we have tried to figure out 1001 ways to help people understand that when it comes to either your professional life or your personal life, by far and away the most powerful tool you have is your ability to build a network that you can call upon for any number of reasons.

There are times when I think that people have heard us talk or write about this that they just roll their eyes in a way that clearly says "Dave, don't tell me again, I have heard this all before."  I don't blame them, when I hear the same thing from the same source a lot, I certainly can and do tune out.

On the other hand, when I hear (or in this case read) how a different person comes at the same topic it often will resonate in a different and stimulating way, and this was another reason why I wanted to see how Gordon approached a topic that a lot of folks think they understand but not too many really know how it should be applied, especially when it comes to managing a career change.

In a sense, I think Gordon really has captured the essence of all this by choosing a title like Well Connected, because most of us can readily relate to and understand that there is a world of difference between being "connected" and being "well connected."

Whether it's your business or your career, success comes from the "well."  Indeed, that becomes even more important if the career piece is about making a job change. 

Our members know well the phrase "to be remembered and be referred."  We use it all the time to underscore the fact that the biggest percentage of job changes happen as the result of networking, and the name of the game when it comes to your network is to be remembered and referred.  The same, of course, is true in business as well, especially if you are in a service business as millions of us are.

My point, however, is that I might "know you" and be happy to refer you to my dry cleaners, gas station, or plumber, but when it comes to things where I am really putting my reputation on the line, I need to "know you well."

Wether you are interested from a business perspective or a careers perspective, Gordon's book, I believe, will do a lot to help with the operative word in the title: Effective.

Time Flies When You're Having Fun?

For those who work in the staffing world, Kevin Wheeler is a name that needs neither introduction nor defending. He is both well known and very well respected on both a personal and professional level. Kevin is also a regular contributor to ERE, and one of his recent posts caught my eye because it dealt in part with what goes on in the life of a recruiter. The title of the article is: Multitasking: The Key to Success: Challenges that only the agile recruiter will be able to conquer.

If you have never been one or if you are a candidate waiting to hear from one and are wondering what's going on, Kevin's piece may well help in understanding and therefore mitigating to some degree the level of frustration that thousands if not millions of candidates feel in being part of a process that from the candidate's perspective is often not well understood.

Indeed, in the 20 years that ExecuNet has been around, to say the failure on the part of recruiters to respond has been a major complaint would be the understatement of the year. It is a complaint that has followed the recruiting world for many, many years, and of which the profession is acutely aware.

That being said, when we talk with recruiters, as we do on a daily basis, it is a major source of frustration to them as well, but awareness doesn't necessarily translate to progress or in saying that some happy medium has been reached. Ask both candidates and recruiters alike and I think both would say we have a long way to go.

Anyway, since the readers of this blog (or maybe I should just say reader?) tend to be senior level executives, I thought suggesting they give Kevin's article a stare might be useful.

If you decide to read it, keep in mind that what he is describing is a recruiter who "gets it" and who behaves like someone who understands that they represent not only themselves but who also understand that they represent a profession. Not everyone "gets it" in any profession which is why the ones who do have earned the reputations they have and of which they are justifiably proud. They are also, by the way, those with whom we like to do business.

In Search of the Perfect Job

I guess if I had the proverbial nickel for every book that has been written about how to go about a job search or just managing one's career in general, I could retire yesterday and not have to worry about the future of social security or anything else.

Furthermore, there are a number of the books out there that are, in my opinion, quite good. So why do people keep writing them? I think because as I learned to my own amazement some years ago, that while many people can write or talk about the same subject, we all come at it from our own personal experiences and "learnings" which usually means that how one communicates his thoughts on a given subject is likely to be different from someone else's and therefore will resonate differently with different people. The result? In one instance I come away and felt I have learned little, and in another I feel like I just had an epiphany of major proportions.

While we have never met, I have known Clyde Lowstuter both by reputation and phone almost since I became involved with ExecuNet nearly twenty years ago. Clyde has written a number of books and In Search of the Perfect Job - 8 Steps To The $250,000+ Executive Job That's Right For You while the subject is certainly not new, it is nonetheless very timely in that it is written for really senior level executives, and if you think it is easy to write something for a group of folks whose lack of attention spans are legendary, think again.

That said, I can promise you that some of its readers are going to rebel at some of the exercises that Clyde has built into the book, but that's only because they force you to think and don't come with a mouse you can click that promises to take you immediately to the URL that is going to answer every concern you have ever had and comes with a seven figure sign-on bonus. In other words, the real world, as we all know, doesn't come with pat answers.

Anyway, even if you cop out on some of the exercises, Clyde has a neat way of putting in light bulb type things to remind the reader of some of the key "learnings" and one that showed up very early on is one that I think many of us should print out and paste on the bathroom mirror because it wise counsel indeed no matter what is going on in your life as a leader:

"Authenticity is the single most important derterminant for personal and leadership success."

When I saw this little gem it reminded me of another quote that I've been told was attributed to Lincoln. I have never been able to verify that came from Lincoln, but even if it didn't, I have always liked it. It goes something like this:

"There is not a man alive with a memory good enough to be a successful liar."

Clyde, they are important values to live by ~ thanks for book and the reminder.

Fear Induced Lethargy

Anyone of us who has ever found themselves "between portfolio assignments" or whatever other euphemism you want to use for looking for a job while being unemployed knows full well the range of emotions (very few of which are good) one experiences in the quest for the next gig.

Some of us talk about it, others write about it, most of us intellectually fully understand what we're supposed to do about it, but for a multitude of rationalizations often hold back desperately hoping that the world will finally feel the pain of not having us as the answer to their prayers and that one day our phone will ring and the person on the other end will say "Dave, I am so glad I finally found you, please just fill in the blank on this check, and come help us become #1 in our industry."

So why is it that so many senior level executives in a job search seem to find themselves waiting for that call, or who feel they are really having a productive day because they have sent of lots of emails with resume attached to job board after job board or if they were really on an efficiency kick, sent off lots of emails to jobs they found on one of the aggregator services that have been scrapped and published from the net thus saving themselves the click and loading time going from site to site.

One of the best answers to this behavioral phenomenon I found in the musings of John Reinke (who in the interest of full disclosure is a member of ExecuNet) and who among his myriad activities has a blog which he calls Reinke Faces Life.

John came up with the phrase "fear induced lethargy" in a communication he was sending to one of the many folks who come to him for free advice regarding their search. John, who, like many of us, has far more experience in looking for a job than he would like, has what some might consider a pretty cynical outlook on a number of things. Said differently, the advice he dispenses from what is clearly a very giving and compassionate heart is neither "warm" nor "fuzzy." It falls much more into the Howard Cosell school of career management circa 2007. Hence the phrase "fear induced lethargy."

When John used these words he was really trying suggest why it is that many of us take the easy way out (and hope) rather than putting our time and energy into those aspects of a search that are much tougher (e.g. really trying to think about and articulate what it is that I really bring to the table and being able to communicate same in a compelling and confident fashion.)

Fear of rejection is indeed a very powerful motivator for inaction.

It is for this reason and lots of others (but this one will certainly suffice for now) that when people ask what ExecuNet is all about that one of the answers I will give is that we are in the career management education business for senior level executives and professionals.

When the lethargy takes hold, it's as if all of our self-confidence and self-esteem resided on only one side of the desk, and for many that perception is in fact the reality.

So, what helps to change all that and make what John calls "fear induced lethargy" morph into result producing proactivity and action? For me, the hold a gun to my head one word answer is information.

When the "what" seems overwhelming, often it is only because we don't have the information that provides us with the knowledge of the "how". Once I know how, somehow or another the self-confidence adrenalin kicks in and it is for that reason that we spend the time and energy we do on the "how" and I have to say the feedback we get helps me to understand why many teachers love what they do.

Senior Executive Job Market

As time has passed since ExecuNet was founded nearly 20 years ago we have become pretty accustomed to people coming to us with questions about what's cooking in the senior executive market place. The subjects cover the waterfront from wanting to know about the advent of social networks like LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, etc. to age discrimination. Often it is the media, but obviously it is a subject of even more intense interest to our members.

While we spent a good deal of time throughout the year trying to respond to the inquiries, it became pretty clear pretty fast that it would be a good idea to at least establish some sort of a more comprehensive data source from which we could track market changes year to year. For the past 15 years that effort has turned into an annual publication which we call The Executive Job Market Intelligence Report.

As it has grown over the years, we continue to get more calls asking for copies or at least wanting to know more about it. Since it is a member benefit, naturally it goes to our members first in hard copy as well as being available to them online. Once that is done, however, we also try to be as responsive as we can within reason and cost to respond to the requests for more information.

It is with that in mind that I thought for those who might have an interest, I could at least make readers aware that in addition to an executive summary of the report which is available online at no cost, that Peter Clayton, executive producer at Total Picture Radio also recently spent some time talking with our President Mark Anderson and myself about both the report and the market in general. It was a fun discussion (Peter always makes it easy) so if it is a subject of interest, it can be heard here, and even if this is not a subject of interest, if you are not familiar with Total Picture Radio, but are interested in pro active career management in general, it is a URL well worth book marking.

Anniversaries

My colleague Robyn Greenspan reminded me that today marks two years that she coerced me into doing a blog. Given that my normal attention span is something short of a nano second, I found it hard to believe that I have actually stuck with it, mostly because I still have an uncomfortable feeling in putting my thoughts on electronic paper when no one has asked for them. Just seems a bit presumptuous. I am much more comfortable when people ask me for my opinion rather than my just putting it out there as if it was too important not to.

Still, it has been and continues to me an interesting experience for me, and I have to admit, there are times when I feel better for having written some things down.

Anyway, Robyn, who in addition to heading up the publication of one of our bi-weekly newsletters called the Career Smart Advisor, also gets "rewarded" by being the author of our annual Executive Job Market Intelligence Report survey which she is just finishing up as we speak.

In addition to my blog, Robyn also reminded me that this year's EJMIR as we call it, also has an anniversary. Specifically its 15th. Hardly seems possible, but for sure it's true, and in preparing this year's report, Robyn shared a few interesting stats that have developed over the years.

While it won't be published in its final form for another few weeks, for those who are interested, here are a few early headlines:

Back in early 90s, healthcare, medical/pharmaceutical, high tech, environmental and manufacturing were identified by recruiters as the top five growth areas in executive hiring. In this latest 2007 report, three of the frontrunners have shifted positions, and environmental and manufacturing didn’t even make the top five list.

On the other hand, some of the issues that were at the forefront of executives’ job search journeys in 1992 are the same concerns they have today. Age discrimination and the length of time to find a new job are two issues that have been most prominent over the last 15 years. We’re happy to note considerable improvement since 1992.

In 1992 (remember that recession?) a 41- to 50-year old executive could expect a search time of roughly 14 months, but in 2007 this has shortened to 9 months for this age group. Fifteen years ago, executives aged 51 to 60 could expect a 16 to 22 month job search. Now, those in this age range report that it should take under 11 months before they land a new position.

The biggest — and most encouraging — progress lies in what we’ve learned about the 60+ executive. In 1992, this group of senior leaders expected it to take 27 months to find a new position — more than twice as long as what the 60+ group is now reporting on average about their expected time in job search.
I know there are some who would wonder why one would even comment on someone over 60 or even 55 for that matter in terms of making a career change thinking that over 60 and jobs is an oxymoron. Maybe it was close to that 15 years ago, but it isn't now, and certainly isn't given the current dearth of talent in many sectors. It isn't just about "adult supervision", it's about the retention of 'know how' and the passing of knowledge in order to remain competitive both domestically and globally.

If this were not the case, you would not be seeing the surfacing of such sites as: Retirementjobs; Jeff Taylor's new gig Eons, Senior Job Bank or Jobs4.0 which is the most recent of which I have become aware.

And from the more things change the more they remain the same department, every year in the survey we have asked the search world how long it takes them to fill an assignment. Interestingly enough, the answer has not changed over the course of the entire survey. The answer then and now is 3-4 months on average, technology notwithstanding.