Tesar-Reynes

About every two months I get asked by one of my candidates whether it’s better to write an e-mail or a handwritten thank you note to someone after an interview. The people who ask this question tend to fall into one of three groups: they are over 40, they’re very concerned about relationships, or they came out of public relations.

I can argue the cause from either side. I personally feel that e-mail is the currency of communications today. I do think any form of IM or twitter is far too informal. On the other side of the coin, a handwritten note shows an extra sense of caring and work to produce the document.

In the final analysis, I always try and listen to the …

Eye contact, like the handshake, is absolutely essential to all physical communications, particularly interviews. In my rating system, you can lose just as many points by not looking at me as by having a fishy handshake.

When someone looks at me when I talk to them I feel that they are processing what I am saying. They’re trying to be committed to understanding what I’m talking about. I can also extrapolate that this person will treat other people in a like manner. Also, when someone silently looks me in the eye while I am talking, they are not talking back or interrupting. I feel that most of the processing is going to listening, and not a rebuttal or trying to act smart.

I lose interest when someone is talking to me, and …

I have read the statistics for years and can’t believe that all of a sudden boomers really are going to retire.  I talk to my peers and many of them have moved to places with less winters and downsized so the kids can’t move back in. I look at our clients and there seems to be a disconnect with the stuff in the media. I see lots of gray hair. These people appear relatively happy and not ready to check out.

Maybe a better way of phrasing “retirement” is that people are seeing 2-3 careers in their life. Maybe the first formal career is going away for something new. For many, it’s consulting. There appear to be a growing number of boomers out there …

There was an article in the latest issue of AARP magazine talking about changing careers. The title of the section I read was “Because you have the guts to change careers”. Yes, I am old enough to receive this magazine.

At least once a week, someone in our office gets a call or an e-mail from someone asking us to help them in a career change. We tactfully suggest that we are of no use in this transition. People forget that we are hired on a search to find people that have a number of years of relatable experience. The hiring company is not retaining to us for someone who just has a lot of …

One of the very best candidates I ever met on a very tough search happened to be a Hawaiian woman, who was six foot two and about 230 pounds.

The moment I met her, I knew I’d found the very right person for the wrong job.  It had nothing to do with her gender or origin.  It had everything to do with her size.  The hiring manager was five foot two with a minor Napoleon complex.

One of the toughest things I have to do as a person that is executing a search is to find people that will really fit.  Not just the job spec, but the boss.  I am constantly in awe of what I don’t know when I start a new search.  Some people want a higher clone of themselves, …

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I watched the show Mad Men a few times last year. I was struck by the fact there was such a high level of congruence to my memories in my early career. I went to my first ad agency in the late 60s. And it was everything that the client side people said it was… except they worked damn hard.

I remember the martini lunches, the funny-smelling smoke on the creative floor and the blatant sex that seemed to be a precursor to the next decade. I also got wise to the fact that it was pretty much a white Protestant men’s club. The other thing that struck me, after four years at Notre Dame and a couple years …

I have found that there seems to be an increasing amount of resumes that I receive that have at least some dates missing in them.  Typically, they fall into two areas.  The first is leaving out dates of graduation from college.  This second is the truncation of the career history, where the first item that appears is at the director or vice presidential level.

Some people are concerned about their age; others feel they have had too many jobs or a dodgy career track. When I ask for the additional information, many are combative.  What they don’t understand is the fact that I have to understand their entire career before I can present them to a client.  Invariably, I asked the most negative, “If the situation were reversed and I was working for you, would you accept any resumes from me with dates missing?”

It …

I remember a long time ago, when I got into the search business that I was embarrassed to ask people what they earned.  I felt it was an invasion of their privacy.  Nowadays, I just see it as another statistic like a street address or the year they got out of school.

Even though I am not uncomfortable with asking the question, I still experience pushback from the people I’m talking to.  What they don’t realize is the question is an essential tool in the overall evaluation of them as a product for the job marketplace.  I tend to believe that many people feel they need to inflate their worth by telling me a salary or package that is higher than what they really earn.  On the other hand, I think some other people feel they are underpaid and are embarrassed by it.

Once I know the scope of an individual’s experience …

Image by Malcolm Tredinnick via Flickr

I just got off the phone with a person who is looking for a job. He asked some questions about on-line registration.

Many companies now require that when sending in a resume, a candidate will also fill out a company registration on their site. The company sees it as means to “time stamp” when a potential candidate contacted them.

This information can settle potential conflicts with search firms about the source of candidates and it can serve as a reservoir for new people. My experience is that in many companies it is a black hole: everything goes in and nothing comes out.

Back to his questions:

Q. Do I address my cover letter “To whom it …