You don't have to be a whiz to hire great people or find a great job. This site is about recruiting made simple. Find who you are looking for with tips from a whiz!
I have a theory that the majority of Black Friday shoppers actually lose money by hitting the stores early to get the “best” deals. I’d love to see a study reviewing lists of items shoppers go out with the intent to purchase with a comparison of the total cost of only those items before Black Friday, as well as the total cost of ALL items purchased during Black Friday shopping. I know, I sound Grinchy. I think all that beautiful marketing and crowd effect makes people forget if they even really want that thingamajig on the shelf.
This absolutely relates to job searches, by the way. During my first conversation with a candidate, I ask them what has prompted them to consider a new job and they always say something like growth opportunity, more stability, more interesting role, etc. I also ask them how much money they’re making now and what their expectations are regarding compensation if they get to the offer stage with my client. It’s amazing to me how many people will get an offer that meets their original compensation expectation (which is always more than they’re making currently) and offers some non-monetary incentive that they said they were seeking, but their primary reason for not accepting immediately is that they were hoping for MORE money.
I think this is Black Friday Search Syndrome. Sucked in by the glittering numbers and utilization gets completely ignored.
And I’ll be honest, we use it on the other side as recruiters too. I remind candidates that they’re not the only one who wants this job; there are other candidates pending. (Crowd Effect.) And if they didn’t get a big pay increase, I’ll try to show them how it might be recovered in other benefits. (Marketing Hand Trick.) Mostly, though, I try to remind them about what they wanted originally and how it matches up with the offer in-hand. If it doesn’t, we don’t usually get to the offer stage anyhow. (The Truth.)
Don’t wait until you get to an offer to tell me the only thing you care about is the money. Don’t get up at 3AM to buy crap you don’t need and didn’t want until you got there, then tell me you saved money. Both are silly.
Grinch out.
Last night, I sent a mental thank-you note to Air Canada for the free eye-mask I’d received during a flight to London last year. It was one of those nights where I’d been running so crazy all day that I literally needed to block out all input to my eyes and just shut down.
I’m a huge fan of new technology and get absorbed for hours in clicking through links along the path of new and interesting information. I’m absolutely guilty of checking my Blackberry at 2AM, after waking up to help the baby settle down again. My info-seeking muscle is loving these days! I’m getting text messages, voicemails, emails, tweets, Facebook updates/messages/invites, LinkedIn invites/messages/groups, etc at all hours of the day! I have the added bonus that my kids will provide second-tier alerts if I miss the buzz or ding of my Blackberry. “MOMMY! Your phone is ringing!” or “MOMMY! Your phone went ‘Bzzzzzzzz….’” IT. IS. AWESOME.
On the downside, I’m going to need a clone or figure out how to do without sleep if I don’t learn to disconnect. I’ve been thinking about how to refocus and was suggested an article called “Two Lists You Should Look at Every Morning” by Peter Bregman. He offers a great suggestion on how to “pause, prioritize and focus” by creating a Focus List and an Ignore List for each day. He talks about a study on car accidents revealed that drivers in 80% of car accidents were distracted in the 3 seconds before crashing. It’s ironic that in our constant quest for that little bit of info that might get us ahead, we miss moments of great importance happening right in front of us. CRASH.
The idea of creating a Focus List seems pretty straight-forward. It’s what I need to pay attention to today. These are the things that I don’t want to miss because they make me happy and make me feel successful at the end of the day. My family is tops on this list, followed by friends, my work and personal goals. I know what I need to get done today.
I find the Ignore List much trickier to create. What am I willing to ignore today? For me, I suppose I’d designate these to be things that aren’t time-sensitive. Clearly, reviewing my friends’ Facebook statuses can wait until the end of the day, if I have time after everything else or between other things. I’ve created separate personal email accounts that help me filter necessary vs low-priority messages so I don’t feel so over-burdened by a huge Inbox needing review. This list still requires some work for me.
What is on your Focus List today? What is on your Ignore List today? How can you adapt tools on yesterday’s Ignore List so it provides useful, focused info for tomorrow? Have you found any useful tools to streamline your Focus List so you can add more items? Would love to get your thoughts and feedback in comments.
Hi! I'm Jessica. I believe that recruiting (when done correctly) is about creativity, minimizing limitations and applying new methods to make the whole hiring & job search process a little more efficient for everyone. In this blog, I will focus on recruiting and how HR, jobseekers and recruiters can make the hiring process a little smoother – and maybe a little more fun!
