In an economy where thousands have lost their jobs, how can you stand out against the stiff competition in the search for new work? What do you have to do to get employers to choose you? And what does it take to really make a connection with recruiters?
These are questions to which executive recruiter David Perry has some answers. He has compiled strategies he believes are key in his latest book, Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 2.0: 1,001 Unconventional Tips, Tricks and Tactics for Landing Your Dream Job, co-written with Jay Conrad Levinson, which was excepted in the Careers section of The Globe and Mail on July 10 and 17. Globe Plus subscribers can read the excerpts here.
A consultant, author, public speaker and thought leader on recruiting, executive search and strategic human resources planning, Mr. Perry has more than two decades of experience in the field, including 20 years as managing partner of Ottawa-based search firm Perry-Martel International Inc.
He has written or co-written several books, including an earlier version of Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters: 400 Unconventional Tips, Tricks and Tactics to Land Your Dream Job, as well as Career Guide for the High-Tech Professional: Where the Jobs Are and How to Land Them.
Have questions related to a job hunt, recruiting or any other work or workplace-related issues? Mr. Perry is online now to take your questions.
Join the conversation by submitting your questions here. Jump the queue by sending your question now.
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Terry Brodie, Editor, Globe Careers, writes: Hi, David, thanks for joining us.
Let me start things off by asking you for an update: What's your assessment of the job market and recruiting activity now? Are you sensing things are getting better, worse, or about the same? What's changing?
David Perry writes: On a macroeconomic level, the market remains the same – which means we’ll continue to read about layoffs and belt tightening. On a microeconomic level, the remarket remains as buoyant as ever – which means that employers are continuing to hire “key performers” while they’re letting go less critical staff.
It's different for every company. That can mean someone may be great asset in their function but their function is not as critical RIGHT NOW as another area where the company “perceives” it may get a bigger bang for their investment.
For example, the all-important sales function may not be as critical in Company A as the marketing function because marketing in that company is responsible for demand creation, while across the street, Company B has a critical requirement for sales and downsizes the marketing group. Product management may trump product marketing in another.
These types of tradeoffs are commonplace now and will remain so until the CEO is convinced they have the right “mix” of skills and talent. And this will be different inside every company.
What’s changing is the time to hire. In short, how long a company is taking to make a decision because they either assume there’s plenty of talent on the street or they fear the consequences of a making a poor choice, or both. For candidates, this underscores the need to position themselves to address the company’s “value requirements” on a company-by-company basis. You can only do this by customizing your approach to each company. That's time-consuming, I realize, but absolutely essential.
