How to alienate a recruiter..

Recruiters should be a candidate’s friend? After all there are no fees if they can’t fill the jobs. So they should treasure you and be delighted to hear from you on any occasion.  And what a recruiter thinks of you can make a significant difference to your career prospects, so why do candidates fail to build successful relationships with recruiters? What are the pitfalls of building a positive relationship with recruiters. How do candidates alientate  recruiters?

1. 1.       Don’t read the information provided. Many adverts include weblinks to further details.  Just calling up the recruiter without reading those details first makes you look idle.. you are soaking up the recruiters time when you could have answered the questions without bothering them.
2. 2.       Talk more than you listen. When you do speak to a recruiter about a vacancy, ask questions and listen to the answers. Yes,  you want to impress them but when candidates get onto ‘broadcast news’ and don’t listen, it can just suggest your ego is rather larger than you emotional intelligence.
3. 3.       Send a previously constructed CV and supporting material. Sometimes people send the wrong version and their paperwork has the name of the wrong organisation on it. This makes you look sloppy.  Or they send the same paperwork for every job they apply for.   This makes you look like a serial applicant and desperate rather than a ‘hot property’. Read any instructions about how to apply, follow them and tailor your application, carefully.
4. 4.       Applying for everything. Well clearly you are desperate if you do that and you are not thinking realistically about your  marketability in this current climate. It is fine to be ambitious but being overly ambitious is being foolhardy.
5. 5.       Fail to turn up for the interview. Well just failing to show needs no further comment.  But ringing the office on the morning of the interview and saying you are too busy is also a poor show.  Try at least to re-arrange.
6. 6.       Not doing your preparation. The job market is a generally still crowded. In the private sector there are skills shortages but in the public sector senior roles are over subscribed and there are lots of well experienced candidates, so showing up at an interview without having really done your preparation and researching the organisation will put you at a disadvantage and let your recruiter – who ahs recommended you be seen – down.
7. 7.       Being critical of the client/employer. However badly the employer has treated you, which you don’t deserve, the recruiter will want to have an enduring relationship  with that client. So sounding off, sending letters of complaints or claims for the ‘time wasted’ on the interview may make you feel better it will not improve the relationship between the client and the recruiter. And that will knock on to you.
8. 8.       Turning down an offer. Whilst I often say to coachees ‘you don’t have to accept it’ (and you don’t) turning down an offer will not endear you to the recruiter. Their job is to present a great short list, part of their ‘due diligence’ is to make sure you are a solid and firm candidate. So rejecting an offer for no good reason (and the only good ones are another offer or failing to agree terms with them) you will upset your recruiter.
9. 9.       Pester the recruiter to find you a job. Executive search consultants  make their money from the clients and to make more money they need to get more clients not candidates. Once you are in their database and their brain then let them get on with finding more clients to put you in front of rather than making weekly calls to ‘catch up’.

No doubt when you have been reading thinking… I would never do this… great.. build great rapport with your recruiters and be a fabulous candidate! And have  a great career!

What will work be like in the future?

ILM's futurologist's predictions – could the following be coming to an office near you?

• Artificial intelligence – towards the end of the decade, computer-based intelligence will provide much of the effort in many jobs. Employees will concentrate more on the human aspects of their work, which are harder to automate.Love one another....
• Visors & 3D immersion – semi-transparent visors are coming soon and some of these will enable a fully immersive 3d experience, with a separate display in front of each eye. Together with fingertip tracking and gesture recognition, this will give a whole new interface to our computing, even with virtual keyboards.
• Augmented reality – the convergence of the virtual and physical worlds. Enabling superposition of graphics everywhere we go will give marketers, games manufacturers, retailers, fashion designers, architects and social network designers a whole new platform to play with.
• Restructuring – company structures are changing rapidly and this trend will accelerate as the web matures, automation increases, skill shortages increase, and global labour costs change, all in parallel with changing regulation.So we will all be waiting til 67 for a pension but with no work to do?
• Miniaturisation – today's IT will reduce in size potentially to digital jewellery and smart dust. This is good for sustainability, requiring far less physical resource for the same functionality and quality of life value.That sounds good, but a phone implanted in my skull? maybe not
• Cordless Energy – as well as wireless comms, tomorrow's electronic devices will almost all be cordless for power too. thank god i say, no more trailing wires or running out of power!
  
  How will you cope?

Thanks to the Institute of Leadership and Management.

Nearly half (46%) of organisations gather background information on potential candidates for senior management

Nearly half (46%) of organisations gather background information on potential candidates for senior management roles using methods including criminal record disclosures and the use of candidate-checking agencies.
This is according to XpertHR's survey on recruiting senior managers, which found that, of those that carried out background checks for senior management positions, 38% obtained Criminal Record Bureau disclosures and 17% paid for candidate-checking agencies to confirm details on applications.
However, the majority of employers carrying out background checks did so through references, with nine in 10 (92%) gathering work-related references and seven in 10 (72%) collecting personal references from referees.
Personality questionnaires were also a popular selection method and were used by 50% of the 139 employers that took part in the survey.
The survey found that, on average, senior management vacancies took 10.5 weeks and cost £9,921 to fill. Those employers that used agencies faced fees of between 15% and 24% of the vacancy's annual salary.
Rachel Suff, XpertHR author of the report, commented: "The main reason why senior management recruitment costs more than filling other kinds of vacancies is that many employers pay fees to external specialist agencies.
"The most costly type of agency is one that employers in our survey make the heaviest use of - search and selection agencies, or headhunters as they are more commonly known."

Thanks to Personnel Today

Top careers you may have thought you wanted but which do not live up to reality!

Top overrated jobs of 2011
My thanks to careercast in the USA for this gem….
There are so many aspects of our world that we can say are overrated. From reality stars (ahem…the Kardashians!) and movies (Avatar) to food (red velvet cake), fashion (hair extensions) and air travel (fees and crowds). We all have our opinions on whom and what just can’t live up to the hype.
So when thinking about our jobs, many of us enjoy careers that the rest of world perceive as great, even though we know the truth. For example, others may see your high salary and not have an understanding of the amount of work you’re required to do. Or perhaps they’re wowed by the prestige of your job title. Or maybe they’re impressed by the perks they think you receive.
To us, overrated jobs are those that on the surface seem to be outstanding, but in reality carry unrecognized downsides that can, at times, make them not so great after all. The jobs look terrific on paper, but tend to include more stress, environmental dangers and physical demands than are typically recognized, and their hiring outlook may be downright depressing.
For example, many of us would agree that senior corporate executives have a fantastic job given their power and prestige, and we have little sympathy for those who set sail with a golden parachute as their company fails. However, senior corporate executives rarely shirk their responsibilities to their employees and shareholders, and they work incredibly long hours and handle massive responsibilities that take a toll on their health and families. Thus, senior corporate executive is at the top of our list of the most overrated jobs.

The top ten jobs that made the list:

1. Corporate Executive (Senior), average income $161,141.00

2. Surgeon, average income $365,258.00

3. Physician, average income $192,065.00

4. Psychiatrist, average income $160,242.00

5. Airplane Pilot (Commercial), average income $106,153.00

6. Attorney, average income $113,211.00

7. Architect, average income $73,193.00

8. Stockbroker, average income $67,470.00

9. Real Estate Agent, average income $40,357.00

10. Photojournalist, average income $40,209.00

11. Flight Attendant, average income $40,000

12. Advertising Account Executive, $62,000

"Ultimately, it's my responsibility to run the company well enough to make sure my employees have a job, not only today but for years to come,” says W. Andrew Motsko, senior corporate executive of an Omaha communications company, who adds: “I get paid to balance the employee’s needs with those of our clients, vendors and shareholders. Even though I'm the boss, I answer to a lot of different people." Mr. Motsko says he feels his job can be overrated because it carries many responsibilities beyond his daily work at the office. “My family life and personal time many times have to take a back seat to the needs of my company.”
While a senior corporate executive takes top honors in our rankings, a job much more widely held - real estate agent – also qualifies for our overrated jobs list. "It's definitely overrated because the demands continue to be 24/7/365 to meet your client's needs," says Bill Dallman, an Arizona real estate agent who admits that the economy has taken its toll on his profession. "Sure, you may get a large paycheck for selling a house, but there's a lot more legal and financial risk to the job than just putting a sign up in the yard and doing home tours. I really enjoy the work and the people, but a person has to understand the demands of time and continuing education that are required to remain successful."
To be sure, a job that’s overrated doesn‘t mean it fails to serve an important function in our society. In fact, these jobs play an integral role in our workplace ecosystem. It’s just that the hype surrounding them sometimes makes these jobs sound much better than they really are. And, yes, we know there are plenty of people in these professions who love their jobs and couldn’t think of any other career they’d rather do. They’re simply willing to live with the fact that their job is overrated.