Tesar-Reynes

There seems to be a few things that are in common with many of the people I talk to today. They are fearful, frustrated and reinventing themselves.

I just talked to a person who spent many years in the QSR industry and they have honed a new concept store that will be opened by the end of the year.

Recently I ran into another person who is going into personal career training to help Baby Boomers transition into a new way of making a living.

We are dealing with someone we knew years ago who is trying to buy small distressed agencies and grow a local midwestern network. I had lunch last month with an old candidate who has propelled herself up the organization by becoming …

I have an entrepreneurial spirit. Often, I daydream of starting my own business and making Business Week’s list of America’s Best Young Entrepreneurs. The young men and women who populate this year’s finalists look like rock stars to me. One of them, Shama Kabani, caught my attention because she made her mark by starting a business specializing in exactly what I do – Social Media Marketing.

This girl is 24 years old and she already owns a company that expects revenues of $280,000 in only its second year of operation. Her business, …

After being out of work for a while, the idea of any money versus no money becomes pretty clear. The problem lies in negotiating with a potential employer for a lower salary. When working with a search firm, a person has a sense of perimeters. When going into a job negotiation solo, there is a sense of flying blind.

Two questions you may have are:

1. If I ask for too much, will I price myself out of the job?

2. If I price myself too low, do I come off as damaged merchandise or desperate?

There is no good answer. Two suggestions:

1. Bounce the question off a trusted recruiter you know.

2. Ask the interviewer what the salary range is for the job spec.

…

I am working on a search where the right candidate will probably have to relocate to the New York Tri-State area. Most of the people I have talked to are, knee-jerk, saying no. Too many of them are under water on their mortgage.

They intuitively knew that a future employer wasn’t going to bail them out of their mess. It is sort of a catch-22. “I got to get out of here and find a job; but I can’t get out of here to find a job.”

The only short term answer I know is either commute to the new opportunity or rent your home and then rent on the other end.

In a recent gathering I was asked my opinion on the subject of age and the job market. After the conversation progressed for a while, the issue broke down into two pieces: chronological age versus perceptual age and naive preemptive cutting of the candidacy due to age.

I fully believe that chronological age is a poor qualifier for an individual’s candidacy. I have known people in their teens that acted like they were in their 50’s, conversely I have known people in their 80′s that acted like they were in their 40’s.

Perceptual age, how one acts, is all about enthusiasm, flexibility, curiosity and the ability to relate. As a search company we are much less concerned by someone’s age, and more how than by how they act and think.

There was a general consensus in the room that …

I had the good fortune on the second of June to speak at the Chicago chapter of the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG). Check them out. There were about 60 or 70 people in the room, and I was impressed by their level of commitment to help one another.

As I understand it, about one third of the group worked for local companies, one third were consultants, and one third were in transition to a new job. The leadership of the group was enthusiastic, helpful, and offered a great deal of resources. The members reflected the leadership’s emotions and seemed genuinely concerned about helping fellow members. They have branches all over the country.

On a fairly regular basis I’m asked by senior management about whether there should be a great deal of space devoted on their resume to their corporate summary or the bullet positioning of their experience and accomplishments. In most cases, these people have agonized over this piece of real estate. They’re unsure how many words to use and how all the key words will be scanned by recruitment software.

My position on this is pretty simple. I never read this part of their resume until after I’ve read the meat and potatoes down below and I feel that this candidate belongs in our database or that they fit a search that I’m working on. Only then will I go back and read a summary and only then will …

I was interviewing a very successful lady who had an outstanding resume but was out of work for five months. Her husband was just laid off three weeks ago. As we talked about the lack of potential jobs out there for either of them, she became increasingly agitated. At one point there was a tear in the corner of her eye.

I tried to lighten the conversation and get her on a more positive note. I flashed back and remembered the feeling when I was out of work and the checking account was getting dangerously close to zero. I remember the desperation, fear and isolation that set in.

From my point of view, the worst thing to deal with is the sense of helplessness and of being alone. When I started thinking about the sense of isolation, …

I am a natural born optimist and have been looking for something that would show a sign that the economy was turning for quite some time. I think I got my first sign in the second week of May. That’s when our phone started to ring, and we got six new searches or projects in the course of the next seven days. We are not back to full activity, but it’s nice to be busy again.

The one frustration is dealing with a couple of clients that have fought the good fight internally and are now looking for people to join their company. Some of these hiring managers feel that they can get good people for less than market value and that they are doing them …