September 8th, 2010 by Amanda Musto, Social Media Marketing Representative at Treeline, Inc
By Chris Isidore, senior writer – September 8, 2010
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Does allowing the jobless to get nearly two-years of unemployment checks give them an incentive to not work?
When Congress debated whether to extend unemployment to a record 99 weeks, some Republicans said that the unemployed are staying home collecting benefits when they could otherwise be working.
“[An unemployment extension] doesn’t create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work,” Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., argued during Senate debate in March.
And with the current extended benefits due to expire soon after November’s mid-term elections, that argument seems to be gaining some traction.
The extension of benefits “is almost surely the culprit” behind sky-high unemployment, argued Robert Barro, Harvard University economics professor, in a recent Wall Street Journal column.
Barro said unemployment, now at 9.6%, would be less than 7% if unemployment benefits had not been extended.
“If people have different incentives to be searching and accepting jobs, it would make a big difference how many jobs would actually be filled,” Barro told CNNMoney.
Barro admits his estimate is more of a rough approximation than a hard economic forecast.
“I don’t claim the research I did was definitive. It was saying ‘What if the increase in long-term unemployment was all related to this extension of benefits, what would the numbers maybe look like,’” he said. “It was partly motivated by trying to get more people to work on this topic.”
Critics of extended unemployment often point to research by Lawrence Katz, a Harvard economics professor and a leading expert on the topic, which showed that more generous benefits have historically raised the unemployment rate. But even Katz himself says his previous research is dated, based on data from the 1970’s and 1980’s when workers were more likely to be temporarily laid off, rather than permanently displaced, as is the norm today.
“The most compelling research suggests only modest impacts of extensions on the search effort and duration of unemployment,” Katz said while testifying before Congress in favor of extended benefits earlier this year.
Most Democrats and many other economists agree, arguing very few unemployed workers are staying home by choice.
A study by the San Francisco Federal Reserve found there is very little difference between the length of unemployment for those receiving unemployment checks and those who don’t qualify for benefits.
During Senate debate, Max Baucus, D-Mont., argued that everyone collecting unemployment benefits would rather be working, but with five unemployed workers for every opening, they don’t have a choice.
“The [unemployment] payments are so much lower than a salary or wage would be,” said Baucus.
Raj Chetty, another Harvard economics professor, said that when the economy is closer to full employment, extended benefits can deter workers from accepting jobs below their skill level and cause labor shortages for employers looking for help. But that is clearly not the case today.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to have 99 weeks of unemployment in general. But in the current state of the economy, with a severe recession it makes sense,” he said.
And the extra benefits can also stop the economy from slowing further, Chetty said. The additional billions the government is spending on extended benefits is quickly being spent on necessities, which helps reduce unemployment by increasing economic activity.
“Most people who lose their jobs don’t have much in the way of savings,” he said.
Eliminating extended benefits could lower the unemployment rate, Chetty agreed, but not because it would put people back to work. Rather, it would cut the number of people being counted as unemployed.
The government only tracks those who have looked for work in the previous four weeks, and workers collecting unemployment must be actively searching. So without an extension, many long-term unemployed would simply give up, resulting in a deceiving drop in the reported unemployment rate without a corresponding increase in jobs.
September 7th, 2010 by Amanda Musto, Social Media Marketing Representative at Treeline, Inc
Senior Account Manager
Senior Account Manager 648 – Boston – Business to Business – $150k- uncapped
Our client is was founded 25+ years ago and they have become a valued resource for Fortune 500 companies nationwide. They offer their clients the ability to gain strategic market advantage. They focus on qualitative and quantitative research consultation and ideation, letting them work as ongoing partners with their clients.
This individual will be responsible for identifying, qualifying and closing qualitative and quantitative market research projects while growing key account relationships. In this role you will also be supporting the project teams and be responsible for ensuring client satisfaction in all phases of client relationships.
Candidates must have a college degree with at least 5+ years of client management experience and at least 5 years of primary market research experience. Must be willing to travel 25% nationwide.
September 7th, 2010 by Amanda Musto, Social Media Marketing Representative at Treeline, Inc
Written by Ralph Burns, a consistently top-performing sales manager with over 20 years of sales and sales management experience, the goal of the blog is to inform, entertain and interact with sales managers and aspiring sales managers in every industry, experience level and walk of life.
The job of a top sales manager is a lot like old-school video gaming. The more you succeed, the deeper you get into the game, the harder the challenges get thrown your way. And the same is true for sustaining the revenue growth of a large company.
Success breeds imitation.
Look at it this way. According to a worldwide CEO survey, most CEOs these days are putting focus on revenue growth rather than cutting down on prices and meeting consumers halfway. The same CEOs are also looking to be more flexible in satisfying the changing needs of consumers. But this isn’t a recent phenomenon. In fact the situation hasn’t changed since 1997, when the industrial average grew only 5%. After tax profits stayed at a humble 0.5%.
Why is it that a lot of sales managers and CEOs are having a hard time maintaining positive company growth for a sustained period of time? Because success inspires imitation. Morningstarwrites, “Success breeds competition as surely as night follows day.”
The lifecycle of success and its eventual fallout is presented below.
• Service/product is introduced to address a problem.
• Service/product is a huge success. Competition enters the market.
• Competitors struggle to differentiate themselves, resulting to complex but ineffective products or services.
• Complexity blurs differentiation.
• Market is oversaturated resulting to loss of revenue.
So what can you pull as a top sales manager to stop, or at least slow down, this downward spiral? There are three tried-and-true methods, which are:
1. Fix your sales force
Most companies believe that the product or service is everything. If you could put a superior product on the shelves, no one cares who does the selling, right?
Wrong. A superior product or service is useless if consumers aren’t “getting it”. As a top sales manager, you should be handling a team of articulate sales people who could convince consumers the real value of the product or service your company has to offer. These kinds of sales reps are your sales superstars. They’ll go a long way into helping you sell more and sustain a stable company growth.
2. Offer solutions, not commodities
When one product becomes successful, it is inevitable that too many others like it will start showing up in the market, like wild mushrooms. Over time people will see your product as a mere commodity.
This is where the top sales manager comes in. As a top sales manager, you need to be able to position your product or service as a “solution” to the consumer’s problem and not just a product or a service per se. It’s the reason why lately you’ve been seeing a lot of variations of the slogan, “we provide the total solution for the customer”.
3. A combination of the two methods
A superior product without a skilled sales force to back it up is nothing. Likewise a skilled sales force won’t get anywhere selling an inferior product. But a combination of both – superior sales force and product/service – ensures long-term success for your company and career.
To learn even more about sales manager training, get our free sales manager training.
Share your tips on how to sustain long-term positive growth of your company by leaving a comment below.
August 30th, 2010 by Amanda Musto, Social Media Marketing Representative at Treeline, Inc
Enterprise Account Executive
Enterprise Account Executive 680 – West Coat/ East Coast – Technology – $200k
Our client was founded in 2005 and after 3 years of struggle in the market, hired a new CEO and re-launched the company in 2008 to get on track and it worked. They develop a cutting edge, 3D tool that allows the engineering community to be more effective and productive. Our client’s goal is to lead the market for direct modeling software, expanding the use of 3D in manufacturing, industrial design, concept and bid modeling, model preparation for CAE analysis, and rapid prototyping (additive manufacturing). They have built the product and company from the ground up. They are growing exponentially – they grew 250% last year and they are on target to hit 200% growth this year. This is an opportunity to join a growing team selling cutting edge technology and grow.
This is an Enterprise Account Executive SW Sales role selling into the Engineering community. This organization offers a cutting edge 3D modeling technology that allows companies to make their engineering depts more efficient, react quicker to proposals and cut down their time to market.
August 27th, 2010 by Amanda Musto, Social Media Marketing Representative at Treeline, Inc
How to Network Effectively
Success in business requires you know what other people know but also who other people know. But networking takes more than just a LinkedIn profile or a deep Rolodex.
By Lou Dubois
Making connections and maintaining relationships with the people who support you throughout your career can be the key to success for most individuals. By effectively building a network of colleagues, business associates and more, you are ensuring that whenever you need a new client, a new job, or to develop your skills further, you can call upon your network to help you.
Networking is perhaps more crucial than ever, as an established relationship can make you stand out against the competition. For anyone who has ever worked as an intern at a large organization, one of the best pieces of advice you’ll receive is to network, network, and network more while you’re there. Take advantage of the access you’ve been given, go out of your way to meet other intelligent individuals and build up a network of contacts so that when you leave (or if they do first), there is a foundation for a relationship in place.
This guide will teach you about the different categories within your network of contacts, how best to utilize some of the newest features on LinkedIn and lastly why face-to-face networking also known as in-person offline networking is still the best.
How to Network Effectively: Networking Categories
Back when snail mail was the main form of business communication, it could take days to establish a connection with someone from another company. With the advent of the telephone, professionals gained the ability to just pick up the phone and call someone to make that contact. Today, technology has in many ways made even telephones unimportant. With only a person’s name, you can Google them, look at their LinkedIn profile, their Facebook information and if they tweet then their Twitter stream. The availability of information on people has drastically improved, but it doesn’t detract from the importance of old-fashioned offline networking. If you ask ten different people to define networking, you’ll get ten different answers. But according to The Oxford Dictionary, a network is “a group of people who exchange information, contacts, and experience for professional or social purposes.”
“The real definition of networking to me is building relationships before you need them,” says Diane Darling, an expert on the topic and the founder and CEO ofEffective Networking, Inc. based in Boston. “It’s difficult because we tend to only do things in life when we need to. But if you’re running a marathon, you don’t wait until the morning of the race and then just go out to run. On that day of the race, you remember all of the time and hard work you put in ahead of time while training to get to that point. With networking, when you really need a job or new clients, empowering your existing contacts is the key to getting you there.”
When considering your contacts, Darling recommends that you think of them as five different subgroups within your network, try not to interconnect and view it like an inverted pyramid.
1. Database: Everyone in your contact that you’ve interfaced with (email, phone, speaking engagements, rolodex, Twitter), this is the largest group.
2. Network: Your friends and family network, alumni network (example:University of Florida alumni), or business network, these are specific sub-groups but people you trust. They should rarely go over 200 contacts, and to determine if someone is in your network, consider if they would immediately return your phone call. If they get back to you, then they are in.
3. Inner Circle: Ideally about 50 people who can rotate annually and give you candid career feedback about your career. Darling likes to put together a survey atSurveymonkey.com every two years so these people can give her honest thoughts without fear of offending her.
4. Personal Board of Advisers (PBA): 5-6 individuals you are particularly close with and who should be your go-to network for advice that not only touches on your career, but on you. How are you doing as a person?
5. Friends, Family and Fools (FFF): The most obvious group, these are people who probably like you because they either have to, or they just do.
Dig Deeper: Social Networking Answers for Skeptics and Newbies
How to Network Effectively: Social Media Networking
While networking has always been vital to business relationships and growing a client base, it’s never been quite as easy as it is now. While face-to-face-interaction remains the best form of networking, you no longer need to rely on snail mail or even phone calls to interact and create a group. With social networking sites, you can research and connect with other professionals easier than ever. And the leader is LinkedIn, a seven-year-old business-oriented social networking site. As Darling notes, it’s called hybrid networking, so taking the online to the offline (digital relationships to face-to-face meetings).
Launched in May 2003, LinkedIn has seen its biggest growth the last few years. It has gone from 30 million members and 200 employees in early 2008 to over 75 million worldwide members and over 600 employees, according to company spokespersonKrista Canfield. Additionally, a new member signs up for LinkedIn every second of every day, and the users span 200 countries worldwide.
There are plenty of additional options out there for social media networking (from the obvious ones in Facebook and Twitter to the less obvious like Ning, Yahoo! Groupsand more). But the real value of LinkedIn lies in using it to discover the hidden connections between your network and the rest of the world. There’s not a lot of social tools or games, which is good because you won’t get lost in all the features as you may on other sites. But to be successful on Linkedin, you must have a completed profile and have some a strategy.
According to a recent report from Nielsen, Americans now spend more time using social networks and online games than they do e-mail. In June alone, U.S. Internet users spent about 22.7 percent of their online time on social networking sites, up from 15.8 percent just one year ago, the report said. But there are tips and tricks to using LinkedIn (beyond simply creating a profile and connecting with contacts) to get the most out of your experience.
Dig Deeper: An Introduction to LinkedIn
How To Network Effectively: Utilize LinkedIn’s Features
If you’ve joined LinkedIn but haven’t filled out any of the more detailed descriptions of yourself, you’re not getting the most out of the network. It’s all about engagement in the community. And the more complete your profile is, the more that potential clients, HR managers and friends can learn about you. If you think about it very simply, your LinkedIn profile is search engine optimized (SEO), so the more information about your background, the more recommendations you’ve received, and the more quality contacts you have, the less barriers there are for a stranger to learn about you. But there are some additional tools on LinkedIn you should take special note of to optimize your experience.
Avoid Generic Requests One of the biggest mistakes you can make on LinkedIn is to send a request to connect with a former colleague or business partner but without thinking about personalization.
“It bugs the heck out of me when I get an email that says ‘Please Join My Professional Network’,” Darling says. “You couldn’t even take the time to change one word in the invitation? Why should I accept that invite? And even if I do accept, I might not delete you as a contact, but I’d probably be less likely to go out of my way for you.”
Mind Your Online Manners
Your LinkedIn network is not the same as your Facebook friends or Twitter followers. This should be a pure business connection, so think about what you’re saying and posting before you put the information out there. While some of your friends might be intrigued to know that you had bad sushi for lunch and would never go back to a specific restaurant, is that something your business contacts need to know?
“Think about managing your network and groups like you would handle yourself at a business lunch,” Canfield says. “If you wouldn’t go into lunch announcing that others should buy your product or service, don’t do it in a LinkedIn group. Think about how you would feel if you were in someone else’s shoes and you saw that post.”
Quality Not Quantity
While certain sites like Twitter may be more about quantity of followers, LinkedIn should really be looked at as a home for quality connections. It really is about having those personal relationships. There are people on LinkedIn called LION users (short for LinkedIn Open Network), who will accept connections with nearly anyone without really having a true relationship.
“Slow it down and don’t try to meet the entire world on LinkedIn,” Darling says. “If you have 5,000 people in your network, it’s not humanly possible to maintain that network well. The reason people loved TLC’s Jon and Kate Plus 8 is that it was just total road kill. There’s just no way to manage eight kids without a lot of money and a lot of help. It’s the same way with networking. Spend extra time on the people you actually know.”
Follow Companies
One of the coolest new features on LinkedIn (released April 29, 2010) is that you can now follow companies. For those familiar with the Facebook model where you can become a fan of a page or organization, it’s quite similar but with a lot more benefits. By following a company like Apple, Microsoft or others, you can see status updates from that organization just like you would get from a person, including company news, new hires, departures and job listings. With LinkedIn’s degrees of relevance, you might be surprised to know who in your network knows someone at that company or can put you in touch with the client or hiring manager for a position. Additionally, if you’re a small business, you can actually see what people are following your company.
Search Your Competitors
This skill is certainly not specific to LinkedIn, as you should constantly be monitoring what your competitors are doing (not just companies, but individuals). If you work as a vice president of sales, do a quick search by title to see what other people with the same title have done with their LinkedIn profiles. You can see what is working for them, where they’ve been and more. That can in turn help you to make the most out of your profile, but more importantly maximize your value to your company.
Join Groups
Create them, join them and just get involved in them. Depending on your industry, there are plenty of groups that gather professionals in your field from similar positions and companies who you might not know. Users can click on the Groups tab at the top of the LinkedIn homepage to search groups formed around interests, industry or careers. As a group administrator, you can send out announcements to everyone in your subset or just read what others are up to.
Dig Deeper: How to Use Social Networking Sites to Drive Business
How To Network Effectively: Importance of Offline Networking
While online networks have certainly changed the industry and made it much easier to meet contacts and stay updated on their status and career news, nothing will ever touch the offline impact of face-to-face networking. The most obvious places you can network offline include “networking” events, conferences and more. And while many view conferences as an opportunity to learn information about new technologies and companies, it’s also a great networking opportunity. And technology can help you both before and after the fact.
“When I go to a conference or networking event, I’m able to research the speakers and attendees online and see who I’m most interested in talking or listening to,” says Darling. “In years past, you were stuck with a pamphlet and a three-line bio of folks, but now you can find out so much more. If it’s someone I’m really interested in, I’ll send them an email ahead of time with the header ‘Look Forward to Meeting You at the Conference’ and try to set up a time to talk.”
Once you’re actually at the event, the art of swapping business cards is just as important as it’s always been. You can share your information with someone in just an instant, and many of the more creative individuals are including more than just basic information these days (LinkedIn URL’s, personal websites, Twitter monikers, etc.). Some people even put their own photo on a business card, which is great in helping others remember who you were.
Again, technology and smartphones have made swapping information at an offline event easier than ever. With an innovative new app for the iPhone and Droid operating systems called Bump Technology, you can literally bump your phone with another person’s and instantly your contact information is transferred (including info, pictures, calendar events, and even social network connections like LinkedIn). But once your information has been exchanged, it’s vital you focus on engagement once you’re home from the conference. Send a personal message to tell them how great it was to meet them, set up a time to meet again if they’re in town, or join groups that they are a part of to engage in conversation.
Effective networking is all about the people you know and meeting new people through other people. Your network is only as strong as the way you manage it.
Dubois , Lou Aug. “How to Network Effectively.” Inc. Magazine. 11 Aug. 2010. Web. 27 Aug. 2010. <http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/08/how-to-network-effectively.html>.
August 25th, 2010 by Amanda Musto, Social Media Marketing Representative at Treeline, Inc
Sales Representative
Sales Representative 679 – East Coast – Technology – $160k
Our client is a global leader in logistic software solutions. They have a great reputation in the global marketplace and offer an open honest environment. Employees are dedicated and committed to excellence and the company’s strongest attribute is their sales team. Sales people are highly respected and important to the company’s success.
In this role you will be responsible for prospecting to uncover new opportunities in an assigned geographic territory. You will be supported by lead generation tools and the business development team but in this role you will be responsible for building a pipeline of potential opportunities that can lead to new business/revenue. You must be knowledgeable of company’s software applications and maintain a well organized sales model. Comfort managing existing clientele on a regular basis and up selling new system solutions and upgrades is required. You must be familiar with SalesForce.com and be very comfortable with communication via the telephone, in person meetings and presentations. You must be able to work closely with pre sales, finance, marketing and legal departments.
3 – 5 years selling supply chain management solutions
Track record of success and quota achievement as a Sales Professional
Strong understanding of software solution sales
Self motivated and great listening skills to understand the needs of the prospect
Demonstrated ability to successfully forecast potential deals
August 19th, 2010 by Amanda Musto, Social Media Marketing Representative at Treeline, Inc
Personality Testing for Sales Recruits
He can close, but how’s his interpersonal sensitivity? A guide to screening sales candidates.
By Susan Greco
There may be nothing more important for a business — or more difficult — than hiring good salespeople. “There are more mistakes in sales hiring than any other position,” says Bob Kreisberg, CEO of Opus Productivity Solutions, a company in Laguna Hills, California, that administers tests used in hiring salespeople. “The difference between a good interview and good performance is often wider than usual.”
So it’s no wonder that more companies are using specially designed personality tests to identify top sales recruits. Such tests are similar to workplace assessments like Myers-Briggs, which requires test takers to select statements and adjectives that best describe themselves. But instead of determining whether someone is, say, more logical or emotional, the tests assess traits such as dominance and empathy.
Different testing providers use different terminology and offer their own spin. Some seek to separate “hunters,” who relentlessly pursue new clients, from “farmers,” who are better at nurturing existing relationships. One popular tool, the Caliper Profile, measures assertiveness and aggressiveness. The Hogan Personality Inventory measures prudence and interpersonal sensitivity, qualities important in building long-term relationships with customers. Another test, the PDP ProScan, looks at energy level. Whichever one you choose, experts recommend giving a personality test early in the hiring process, say, between the first and second round of interviews. “Do the assessment after you’ve met, before you fall in love,” says Greta Roberts, CEO of Target Teams, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, company that administers the DISC personality assessment (see Summing Up Salespeople).
That’s what Bob Dolan did when he was recruiting a new sales team for Kinaxis, a software maker in Ottawa, Ontario. When Kinaxis hired Dolan five years ago as vice president of sales, the company had only one high-performing salesperson for North America. Dolan hoped to hire four reps from a stack of about 100 resumés. After interviewing 20 candidates, he whittled the list down to 10 and tapped Opus Productivity Solutions to administer the PDP ProScan test.
It cost $400 a candidate, and the recruits took the tests online. Dolan and Kinaxis’s star salesperson took the test, too, and Opus analyzed their test scores and created a personality benchmark. Afterward, Opus discussed the results with each of the candidates to see if any of them disagreed with the assessments. None did. “They’re spooky accurate,” Dolan says.
All the candidates scored as highly assertive and extroverted. But compared with the benchmark, two candidates scored too high in conformity and too low in dominance. To Dolan, that signaled they might be too eager to please and more likely to cave to a prospective customer, no matter the cost. He cut those two and subjected the remaining candidates to a lengthy reference check. He had them provide the names of major accounts they had closed in the past 24 months. He ended up hiring the applicants who had been able to close at least three or four big accounts. “The personality assessments are a key component of our hiring,” says Dolan. “They give us some insights, before we go in too deep.”
Some companies use these tests to identify promising sales candidates who are fresh out of school. John Gregoire is a partner at Praxes Group in Westbrook, Maine, a consultancy that hires salespeople and farms them out to clients. When Gregoire was looking two years ago for someone with a science background to work with clients in the pharmaceutical industry, he interviewed a recent grad with a chemistry degree. The candidate lacked professional experience, but his personality profile matched that of top performers Gregoire had hired in the past. Gregoire decided to give the young man a few projects. He helped bring in more than $500,000 in new accounts.
How can you tell if a particular test will work for your company? Any reputable testing company should be able to produce a summary demonstrating how successful its tests have been for different job descriptions and industries. But don’t expect the tests to do all the work for you. Even the testers say that personality profiling should account for no more than about 30 percent of a hiring decision. “My instrument is not a silver bullet,” says Roberts of Target Teams. “I wish it were.”
Dolan says the same about the tests he uses, but he also says that so far, the tests have been pretty spot on. In January, he terminated a salesman who, at the time of his hiring three years ago, had scored low in a measure called pace. That signaled that the salesman might be impatient with a slower sales cycle. Dolan hired him anyway, hoping that coaching would help, but it did not. “Kinaxis sells to very large companies that take some time to make decisions,” Dolan says. “He irritated executives at some large prospects by being too impatient.” Impatience is often considered a good trait in a salesperson, but not for all circumstances. “Salespeople who create a great sense of urgency can be very effective when selling to the owner of a small business,” says Kreisberg of Opus. “But that same salesperson can become extremely frustrated when trying to sell to a big organization’s purchase-by-committee approach.” Dolan says the salesman would be an asset in another type of company. “There’s no perfect score,” says Dolan. “The key is what mix works best for your company.”
Do you use a personality test when hiring salespeople? Have you taken a personality test? Let us know what you think.
“Sales & Marketing: Personality Testing for Sales Recruits.” Small Business and Small Business Information for the Entrepreneur. 01 Mar. 2009. Web. 19 Aug. 2010. <http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090301/sales-and-marketing.html>.
August 16th, 2010 by Amanda Musto, Social Media Marketing Representative at Treeline, Inc
Territory Manager
Territory Manager 499 – Boston – Technology – $160k
Our client is one of the highest volume start ups in New England. They have recently received their 2nd round of funding and are growing rapidly. This software company offers one of the only affordable BPM applications in the market today. If you are looking for a fast growing and dynamic organization this opportunity could be good for you.
This is a senior level Territory Manager position. You will be located in Massachusetts and be responsible for selling at the C-Level. You must be strong technically and middleware experience is helpful. You will be responsible for developing a large territory while also conducting online demonstrations. This product is fully downloadable for potential customers and a talented sales professional with a strong understanding of prospect business cycle will find much success with this opportunity.
7 – 20 years enterprise Software Sales Experience
Proven Track Record of Success
Middleware Experience
Articulate, Intelligent individual with entrepreneurial spirit
August 11th, 2010 by Amanda Musto, Social Media Marketing Representative at Treeline, Inc
10 Hiring Manager Deal Breakers
By Kaitlin Madden, CareerBuilder.com write
Everyone has encountered a deal breaker. That one unappealing characteristic — no matter how attractive something initially seems — that completely overrides any positive aspects. For example, you found a great apartment but it’s a mile from the subway or your hot blind date acts like a cast member from “The Jersey Shore.” Like anyone else, hiring managers have deal breakers too — things that a job candidate does or says that immediately get their application sent to the “no” pile.
Here are some automatic applicant disqualifiers, straight from the recruiters’ mouths:
“I provide personal PR consulting as part of my practice, and job interviews have come up recently. In talking with other managers, the worst interview blunder that I keep hearing about is young grads using social media speak during conversations, as if LOL is a real word. Most hiring managers are social-media savvy, but they want to know that their future employee can carry on professional conversations with all levels of the organizations — using real words.” – Jules Zunich, owner, Z Group PR
“The first thing that comes to mind when I think about deal breakers is the candidate’s online personal brand. I Google candidates and if I find online content that is concerning, it’s an immediate deal breaker. Examples of this include: pictures of the candidate drunk or acting in a promiscuous way or albums of pictures that represent a ‘party animal’ image; blogs or videos that are not in good taste; blogs, articles or any written content with below par writing and grammar skills; lack of professionalism or good conduct in group discussions (i.e. LinkedIn groups); complaints about prior companies and managers; and just a general usage of improper language on any social-media venue.” – Jessica Simko, human resource manager and owner, WorkandLifeSolutions.com
“A few of my common no-no’s:
1. Bringing up salary in the initial interview (for an otherwise great interview, I’ll excuse this if it happens during the Q&A at the end).
2. Speaking about scheduling limitations or prospective reasons to leave the position right off the bat.
3. Acting impolitely or speaking down to any person in our office (receptionists or secretaries included).
4. Telling me that dealing with people is your biggest challenge/weakness or least favorite thing. Very few jobs let you work without other people.
5. Consistently answering questions other than those I asked.
In general, it’s often the little things that distinguish a good candidate from a bad candidate, so keeping all of those little things in mind is very important!” – Josh, commenter on TheHiringSite.com
“Deal breakers I have seen include: having a really immature [cell phone] ring-back (I called one girl for an interview and her ring-back was some hip-hop song). Also, once a candidate didn’t know what company they were applying for. Although the job posting didn’t note the company name, the root domain of my e-mail should give away our Web address, and we were looking for someone that was tech-savvy for the job. Another time I told a candidate to dress fashionably for the interview because we were a fashion company, but she was a total mess when she came into the interview with loose clothing and really messy hair.” – Danny Wong, hiring manager, Blank Label Clothing
“Lying on a résumé. I had a marketing director e-mail me her old résumé (which I only had a paper copy of) and an updated résumé. The dates of employment on the updated résumé did not match the dates on the previous résumé and the first job listed on the previous résumé did not appear on the new one. When I asked for an explanation, she told me that she could not remember the dates of employment at her previous job and that she had removed her previous job from the new résumé because she wanted everything to fit on two pages. When I told her that I could not proceed with her candidacy because of the inaccuracies, she actually got angry at me. The second was a lawyer who, on a new résumé, changed the dates of his previous employments and removed one job completely. The funny thing was that he knew I had the previous résumé. The rule is simple: Liars need not apply!” – Bruce Hurwitz, president and CEO, Hurwitz Strategic Staffing
“Arrogance. When a candidate is overly confident, I find them to have a sense of entitlement, which is the last thing any employer wants to deal with. Remember to be gracious to anyone you meet during the job search process. Being humble will get you farther than being conceited.” – Elliott Martimbeau, recruiting manager at Sapphire Technologies
“One candidate I met recently came into my client’s office and complained about the sign on the building. She said that it was too high up and was blocked by the trees surrounding it so she was unable to find the company. If you are this negative going into an interview when you’re supposed to be at your best, think about how negative you’ll be when you face challenges as an employee. Another candidate interviewing for a coordinator role asked for directions when I scheduled the interview. These days with Google Maps being so prevalent, candidates should be able to find their own directions, even if they don’t have a GPS. Worse yet, she got lost on the way to the interview, and rather than asking someone in the neighborhood to help her, she called me. It took me five minutes to explain where the building was. Clearly this was not a person who was able to think on her own — a deal breaker for a coordinator role.” – Abby Kohut, former hiring manager and author of “101 Job Search Secrets”
“Internally here when interviewing, we try and be somewhat forgiving as we understand everyone is only human. However, when the competition is high, there are things that can immediately remove people from consideration — particularly if it’s something that reflects on skills or attributes relevant to the job.
One of the big ones for us is spelling on a résumé, simply because it speaks to a person’s attention to detail. If they can’t check their own résumé over to ensure there are no mistakes, how could we expect them to do it once they get hired by one of our clients? So unless someone is a true superstar or has skills and experience that are in high demand, spelling mistakes are a deal breaker for us. The lesson here then is to make sure you triple-check your résumé before applying.
In addition, we’ve heard from a number of our clients about their personal deal breakers as well. While many are the same, we’ve definitely heard some unique ones. One hiring manager eliminated a short-listed candidate because her bra strap was showing. Another because a woman’s skirt was too short. You never know the type of person you’re going to be interviewing with and what type of quirky biases they may have. While some hiring managers’ personal deal breakers might not exactly be fair to candidates, the bottom line is that they can and do eliminate candidates based on these personal judgments. Our best advice would be to err on the conservative or more professional side if you’re ever in doubt.” – Greg Masiewich, manager, IQ Partners Inc.
There you have it, hiring deal breakers straight from the source. It appears that all of the disqualifiers mentioned above were caused by one thing: lack of professionalism. Remember, no detail is too small to be overlooked by a recruiter, so make sure you exude a professional demeanor during your job search. Whether it’s in the way you dress, your manner of speaking, your online profile or even your cell-phone ring-back — recruiters take everything into account.
Kaitlin Madden is a writer and blogger for CareerBuilder.com and its job blog, The Work Buzz. She researches and writes about job search strategy, career management, hiring trends and workplace issues. Follow @CBForJobSeekers on Twitter.
This rapidly growing, dynamic and innovative company is a leading global provider of front-office software for the alternative assets industry — hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, prime brokerage, and funds of funds since 1998. They have experienced double digit revenue growth every year and anticipate the same for the immediate and long term future.
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