Passive Candidates vs. Unemployed Candidates

An op ed piece on ERE.net by Jeremy Eskenazi entitled “Where the Truth Lies: The Need for Balance Between Active and Passive Recruiting” … naturally … caught my attention. I say “naturally” because I am always interested in the hiring trends that will affect my senior finance clients.

On one hand, the article mentions the story about a CEO of a major executive search firm who would only present passive candidates because the unemployed folks were, by definition, inferior. (I’m loosely quoting the story now, not giving my opinion).

The other extreme is the school of thought that says recruiting passive candidates (luring someone who is currently employed into another position) is shameful. 

Every recruiter has their preference and, sadly, even in this market the prevailing perception IS that an executive who is employed has a higher value than one who is unemployed. Mr. Eskenazi tackles the balance question. I’d like to talk about the idea of proactively managing your career to exponentially increase your chances of positioning as a passive candidate. 

Jason Alba, of Jibber Jobber renown, wrote a blog post two years ago and re-posted it today. It looks at a career management mindset versus a job search candidate. It is the essence of how one proactively positions himself as a passive candidate versus reactively, and unintentionally,  achieves positioning as an unemployed candidate. 

When you manage your career like you manage your company, department, or division, you have a plan and you are constantly and consistently executing that plan. It’s a fluid process, not stop and go which only puts you on the endless merry-go-round of look for a job, find a job, work a job, lose a job … and … repeat. 

All the cool Web 2.0 technology available today has made building and maintaining a strong visible presence and social network easier than ever. Seriously, what title would you prefer … passive (and able to be found) or unemployed (and all over the job boards)? When you proactively manage your career, you have a much better chance of choosing your title!

Who Owns Your Linked In Profile?

I received an email from a FENG member last week. I spoke to his Orlando group a few weeks ago, and one of the talking points was around the importance of having a digital footprint. Of course, that included having a profile on Linked In.

Here’s the question he posed and his follow up clarification:

I have had 3 people ask me how they fix the fact that they have 2 profiles on Linked In, without deleting all of their contacts on the profile they get rid of? I have 3 people I'm Linked In with that have multiple accounts, one did it with one firm then left, started at a new firm and did a new profile, another has her name a little different on her two profiles.  She said she couldn't figure out how to transfer her contacts without deleting them.

I bet my colleague Jason Alba, author of “I’m on Linked In, Now What” would love to weigh in on this topic.


This situation points to the importance of  opening your Linked In account in YOUR name, not your company’s name. When you leave that company, you want your Linked In profile, account, and contacts to remain yours.

Tips for Better Networking

My friend and colleague, Jason Alba of JibberJobber fame, posted a very thorough list of networking tips from author and speaker Thom Singer. Jump on over … you might learn something you can implement immediately.

If you haven’t yet explored Jason’s great contact management tool (JibberJobber) for managing your networking contacts, I highly recommend you give it a try.

Personal Branding Telesummit

If you are interested in hearing the very latest in the development of personal branding from some of the leading experts, you will want to join The Global Telesummit on November 8, 2007. The Personal Branding Summit is expected to draw more than 100,000 professionals from throughout the world.

I will be interviewing Martin Yate, executive career strategist and NY Times bestseller with over thirty years in the career management field. You may be most familiar with his Knock ‘em Dead series.

Please be sure to register for the event so you will get access to all the recordings of the calls. There is no charge for this event which comprises of 24 separate seminars, and the value of the content and the expertise of the speakers rivals any world class professional development conference.

With bestselling authors and personal branding experts as speakers and panelists, this unprecedented event is important for people who want to increase their career and business success and companies who are interested in attracting and retaining top talent.

Confirmed presenters include Jason Alba, William Arruda, Dick Bolles, Anita Bruzzese, Silvia Cambié, Krishna De, Tim Demello, Kirsten Dixson, Stewart Emery, Phil Gerbyshak, T Scott Gross, Neville Hobson, Thebe Ikalafeng, John Jantsch, Catherine Kaputa, Guy Kawasaki, Andrea Kay, Liz Ryan, David Meerman Scott, Andy Sernovitz, Debbie Weil, Susan Whitcomb, Carol Wilson, and Martin Yate.