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Entries from March 1, 2011 - March 31, 2011

Thursday
Mar312011

Good advice at any age

Last night I had the chance to catch my friend Lauren Berger, better known as the Intern Queen, speak to a group of students at St. John Fisher College located near Rochester, NY.
If you are not familiar with Lauren, or her website, InternQueen.com, the basic premise is to match college students seeking internship opportunities with organizations that offer these opportunities. Hundreds or organizations across the country have signed up with InternQueen.com, and the site provides a kind of unique platform to help facilitate this niche labor market. Kind of like what TheLadders.com does at the high end of the market, InternQueen.com does for the internship space. Except of course that InternQueen.com does not charge students to use the site.

Lauren’s talk at Fisher was not really about InternQueen.com though, it was more focused on strategies and advice for students that are just starting out on their professional journey. Some of the recommendations were pretty specific to the college internship space, but surprisingly much of what Lauren advised would hold true, perhaps in a more general sense, for job seekers at all levels, or anyone interested in furthering their careers.

Some of the highlights of the talk:

Know what is important to employers

Lauren suggested that quality internships are critical to today’s students because the first question prospective employers will ask is “Where did you intern?”, not what your GPA was, what clubs you were in, and how many awards you won at school. Those other things are still important, but unless you have a good answer to question number one, you won’t get too far in the process.

Control your image

Lauren gave the students the expected, and solid advice about being in control of your image and projection on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Even in 2011, with stories of employee hijinks and inappropriate behavior all over the web, I still get the sense that many college students don’t fully realize the potential negative impact that wild pictures on Facebook or late-night Tweets can have on one’s image.

Lauren also described some example of how students could turn this around and use social to their advantage - by connecting with potential employers and hiring managers online, and contributing to the dialogue in their fields of interest by participating in discussions, commenting on blogs, and even creating their own blogs.

Networking is everything

Probably the most compelling part of Lauren’s talk were her stories of how she was able to leverage the connections she made in her early internship positions later in her college experience, and in her new entrepreneurial venture. She advised the students that during their internships they must connect with everyone that they can, learn, volunteer for assignments and tasks, and connect some more. And just not with your boss, or the company executives - forge connections with your fellow interns, they are quite likely to be as driven, ambitious, and intelligent as you - exactly the kind of people that form the foundation of a great professional network.

How can students (or anyone for that matter), stay connected after the internship is over? Lauren advised the students to stick to their college schedule and make sure you reach out to these contacts three times a year (Fall, Spring, and Summer), just like college semesters are typically configured.

All in all it was an excellent talk with advice and information that while directed at students and the market for internships, had many salient and applicable points for anyone in the job market.

If you are a college student, or an employer that is looking to source some of the brightest and most driven college interns around, I suggest you check out InternQueen.com.

 

Wednesday
Mar302011

And this is what we do

Remember the Chrysler spot featuring Eminem that ran during the Super Bowl a few months ago?

Of course you do - it was pretty epic, and by many accounts it was the one of the best, if not the best, commercial that ran during the game. In case you don't recall, or just need another two-minute fix, here it is again (email and RSS subscribers may need to click through):

Yesterday, the Mashable blog ran a short video piece featuring highlights from 25 Years of Animation from Pixar Animation Studios. Equally cool as the Eminem spot, but for different reasons. If you missed it, the video is embedded below (email and RSS subscribers may need to click through):

While not ostensibly recruiting type videos, they both easily could pass for them, and probably have a kind of ancillary benefit as such. When we talk about recruiting in the context of communicating to prospects and candidates about the 'employee value proposition' and conveying the 'employer brand', it seems like much of the conversation focuses on humanizing the organization - sharing the stories of real employees via video or written testimonials; and encouraging recruiters to develop more meaningful relationships and increased levels of genuine engagement and interaction with their talent communities.

While I agree that this 'humanization' concern is often necessary, and certainly important it might be that all the talk about making the personal connection and driving home the message about 'who we are', can take our focus too far from 'what we do'. And the 'what we do' message might just be as important, if not more important than the 'we have lots of fantastic people working here message.'

Every company has great people, or at least some great people. It isn't all that hard to find and highlight individual stories and achievements that help to drive home that message. But not as many organizations truly set their great people free to the degree that they do indeed create fantastic things, like we see in the Pixar example above.

An aspiring animator or storyteller can watch the Pixar piece above and know that while none of the 'people' that create that kind of magic were featured or even named in the video, that certainly going to work at Pixar would mean being surrounded by incredibly talented colleagues, and better still, ones that have the environment that supports that kind of fantastic achievement. 

Sending out a recruiting message that says 'we have some amazing people here' is good, sharing the message of 'And we do some incredble things here' is better. And a much more challenging story to tell, but if you do, and can shape the story the right way the effect is pretty powerful.

How about you? Could you tell your 'And this is what we do' story in a way that would make us want to come and join you?

Tuesday
Mar292011

Hold my calls

Recently a piece in the New York Times titled 'Don't Call Me, I Won't Call You', highlighted our increasing reticence and reluctance to talk on the phone. The article describes the downward trend in adults overall use of voice communications, with increasing time and energy spent on alternated methods of electronic communication - email, text, IM, and social network mediated methods.Can you just send me a text next time?

Past HR Happy Hour Show guest Sherry Turkle devotes an entire chapter of her book 'Alone Together' to this phenomenon. Various people that Turkle interviewed for the book offer explanations ranging from a teenager stating, 'You wouldn't want to call, because then you would have to have a conversation'; to an overworked Gen X professional sharing, '(phone calls) promise more than I am willing to deliver.' Throughout the chapter, we see again and again a general unwillingness to share that most precious commodity in our overscheduled, hyper-connected lives, something known as 'private cell phone time.'

And so whether it is hard date from sources like Nielsen; phone call activity logs kept by recruiters or salespeople; or even personal or anecdotal evidence - once we have accepted this lack of interest or desire of many friends, colleagues, or customers to take our calls what matter know is what we choose to do with this information.

It is common in many sales and recruiting roles for organizations to place quotas on the number and repetitive frequency of calls made to customers, prospects, or potential candidates. These requirements often stem from historical trends - 'X' number of calls will yield 'Y' number of prospects, which will result in 'Z' sales. It is simple, or simple enough math. If you aren't having much luck moving the 'Z' number, then simply fire up the coffee pot and keep dialing, eventually history says the numbers will move in your favor.

But taking that kind of an approach can only work for so long - if indeed there is (and most indications seem to be bearing this out), a more widespread trend favoring other methods of communication, or perhaps more accurately avoiding the phone, then the design of strategies, rewards, performance metrics, and job descriptions that attempt to proscribe particular methods of communication and contact might need to be reconsidered.

A better approach that attempts to account for the ever-changing preferences and profiles of the target market might be something more like, 'We need you to make 'Z' sales. In the past, it would take about 'X' calls to make that happen, but since no one answers the phone any more, we really don't know how many calls you will need to make. In face, making more calls might not be the answer at all. Maybe you have to figure out a new strategy, that factors in blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter, and SMS. Fact is, we don't know. You figure it out.'

The broader issue is, I think, when we try to prescribe to colleagues and employees 'exactly' how to accomplish something, then that becomes the way they will attempt to meet their goals. Once the presciption starts breaking down, we might not have given them the freedom, or equipped them with the capacity to adapt quickly enough to address the changing conditions. 

When the only thing we know how to do is dial the phone, a world where no one answers any more is quite scary indeed.

Monday
Mar282011

Safe at home

"When you live with someone a long time, pretty much your whole life, you kind of get to know them."

- Patrick, age 10

When I was 8 or 9 years old I attended my first major league baseball game. I insisted on bringing my baseball glove, as I wanted to be prepared to snag one of the many foul balls that were sure to be hit into the stands within reach of my seat during the course of the game. My Dad didn't try to talk me out of hauling along the glove, although he must have known that the sheer distance from home plate to where we were sitting would have made a foul ball actually reaching us incredibly unlikely. I remember a snapshot that we took from that game - an image captured of me looking at the camera, smiling, glove in hand, with the players on the field in the deep background, so far in the distance that they were mostly indistinguishable.

Years later when I took my son to his first major league game, I wanted to make sure everything was just right, that the experience was perfect - choice seats (and ones that were not up in the top decks, a mile away from the action), great food and drinks, and a trip (or two) to the souvenir shop. I knew, or at least assumed, that much like I remember the first game my Dad took me to all those years ago, that 10, 20, even 30 years from now, my son would look back on his first game as well. I wanted to do everything I could to make sure that the memory, one of the few childhood memories I was sure would resonate with him, was as close to perfect as I could create.

But looking back on both these games, with the added luxury of time and perspective, I should have realized that just like I can't really remember many of the specific details of the game I attended as a child that my son as well will eventually forget (if he hasn't already) the details of his first game.  Who played, who won, what we ate in the 5th inning, whether or not it was cold or hot, what I bought him from the team store - these details fade over time. What we both will remember is the connection with our Dad, the shared experience, and the feeling for at least those few hours, that there was nothing else at all happening in the world.

We do the best we can for our children. We work as hard as we can muster, and as our capabilities allow, to try and make the best lives possible for them. This often entails working more than perhaps we should, saying 'yes' when we ought to say 'no', and sometimes sacrificing little things in an attempt to secure bigger things. We take calls when we should be helping with homework. We break out the BlackBerry at soccer practice, send a few texts during the school concert - it's not a big deal right? It's work. We convince ourselves we are doing it for them. And by working this hard, we can score box seats next summer, bag the suite at Disney World, and pass out iPads next Christmas.

I think most kids, eventually, begin to care less about the 'stuff' we can provide and care more about our attention.

Mostly, I think, our kids just want to feel safe at home. 

 

Thursday
Mar242011

Live from ERE Expo

Today and tomorrow, I will be at the ERE Expo in San Diego hosting what we're calling 'HR Happy Hour - Live from ERE Expo'.

I will be hosting the event's live web stream, doing some previews and summaries of the day's sessions and themes, and also having some 'web exclusive' conversations and interviews with some of the leaders from ERE, event speakers, attendees, and HR/Recruiting industry experts.

You can get all the details about the live web stream here - we will kick off each day's coverage at about 8:15 PDT, and will broadcast throughout the day, supplementing the live streamed sessions from the event.

Some of the folks you will see/hear as part of the Live HR Happy Hour programming:

Thursday, March 24

Alex Douzet - TheLadders

Laurie Ruettimann - The Cynical Girl

Gerry Crispin - CareerXroads

Bill Inman - Emergent

China Gorman - CG Group

Friday, March 25

Eric Winegardner - Monster.com

Matt Brown - Work4Labs

Amy Wilson - Wilson Insight

And more special live stream guests to be added in the next two days at the show as well. We plan on taking some questions from the web stream chat box, as well as questions that come in from Twitter on the hash tag #EREexpo.

If you weren't able to make it to San Diego for the ERE Expo, then the live stream is the next best thing. Several sessions will be streamed, including the keynote speeches, and in between, you can catch the HR Happy Hour Live programming as well.

Many thanks to David Manaster and the entire team at ERE for including the HR Happy Hour in the ERE Expo event.