Kennedy Conference

More from the Kennedy Conference

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Thanksgiving was here and gone and it’s already December. Only 3 weeks & 2 days until Christmas, and then we will speed right into the New Year. Are you already thinking about your New Year’s resolutions? Dreaming about what you would like to be different next year. Thinking and doing are two different things.

As you think, and plan to do, here are a few more gems tweeted from the Kennedy Conference that might help you in your planning.

––36% of CEO's lack confidence in their own company's recruiting department (Steve Lowisz, CEO of Qualigence)

It seems inconceivable that CFO–types would actually want to be going through HR to secure their next position. But, when you play the Internet job search/job posting game, that is exactly what you get … unless it is a specific TPR (third party recruiting) listing, and those are rare.

Sitting in front of a computer searching for posted positions on public job sites is safe, and a HUGE timewaster, because it is ineffective and keeps you from doing the things that are effective and will move you towards that next position. Remember the old cliché, “if it looks too good to be true it probably is.” It’s true.

HR is a screen designed to filter out candidates who do not meet the list of requirements. They have no decision–making authority. Great candidates rarely succeed in this process. Even if they meet all the skill requirements there is still culture fit, work ethic, and track record of bottom line impact to consider. Bypassing HR gives great candidates a fighting chance.

–– Elements of a killer brand: Choice and expectation. Every choice that will be made will be based on expectation. (Steve Bonomo and Steve Fogarty, Adidas)

Expectation – People make decisions in life – and in the hiring process – based on emotion. And decisions about the brands with which we choose to associate are incredibly emotional. An assessment about you is typically made within the first 3-5 minutes of an interview. Think of the power your brand brings into that interview. They probably already like you based on the connection they feel – which is based on who they believe you to already be. Set the expectation.

Choice – The candidate gets to choose where he wants to go rather than accepting whatever is offered. What is different and unique about what you’ve done in your finance career that will position you from a place of power rather than commodity, and shift the paradigm to choice … yours?

Tweets from the Kennedy Recruiting Conference

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The Kennedy Recruiting Conference was held in Orlando last week and while I wasn't able to attend, some of the recruiters who tweet kept us updated. Here are some interesting stats tweeted last week:

—LinkedIn adds 35,000 new members daily. 41 is average age.

–If MySpace was a country it would have the 11th largest population in the world.

–11% of all all Internet time is spent on MySpace compared to 2% spent on Google.

–36% of CEO's lack confidence in their own company's recruiting department.

–90% of revenue earned by job boards comes from job posting and resume searching. Commodity products. They will go away.

I'll post some other comments, along with my thoughts about the statements, in the next day or two. Stay tuned!

Passive vs. Active, Employed vs. Unemployed

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I posted this question at Linked In, and received some very interesting responses. I thought my blog readers might like to join in with their thoughts as well …

The overriding theme by internal recruiters at the recent Kennedy Conference was the desire to primarily (and preferably) recruit passive candidates (those who are happily employed and not looking).

So my question is, if you knew that your marketability as a candidate would spiral the moment you became unemployed (even through no fault of your own), what would you do differently today to manage your career for the future?

Recruiters on Resumes

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At the Kennedy Conference last week, our recruiter panel offered up the following thoughts on what they wanted to see in a resume:

––Results–driven contributions, not a listing of job descriptions
––Enthusiasm & passion (this is where branding becomes so important)
––Polished presentation
––Vision (strategic initiatives – start to finish)
––The ability to clearly communicate
––Reverse chronological format
––Tailored cover letter

One panelist said he loves the concept of personal branding as it "provides evidence that the candidate can get the job and do the job.”

One other speaker at the conference said this, and it speaks to the first item in the list … “candidates confuse performance with experience … without performance experience doesn’t mean much.”