Comments on: Personal Branding Interview: Nick Corcodilos

By: Glenn

Glenn — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 22:44:44 +0000

Far too much in job search concentrates on what you have done. The real emphasis needs to be on what you can do.

If you look at the instruments used in hiring such as resumes and behavioral interviews, you’ll see all of them wrongly believe you are best at what you have done the longest. This also traps very capable people who’d like to change careers yet feel they’re sentenced for life to the field they chose at age 22.

I can also understand why some candidates Nick calls feel all they can talk about is their past. They’ve never met an employer who’s really interested in talking about the current assignment. They’ve never had someone ask them, “How would you do the job I need doing now?” Instead, they’ve been told to perfect elevator pitches that exclusively highlight past succeses. When I hear those, I crudely reply “So what?” You did that for somebody else, what are you going to do for us?

Many employers also overvalue experience. They believe the only people who are successful are the ones who’ve done it befpre. Nonsense, we all have to start somewhere, and sometimes our first attempt at something is actually very good. (And some people merely have the luck of having their first job be at a successful company with a recongizable product name; employers wrongly believe everything they touch will turn to gold.)

I think now more than ever in 2009 when it’s almost impossible to make sense of things (e.g., unwrapping toxic assets of the financial mess), we really need to embrace techniques like Nick’s that make us focus on the present. What do we as managers want to achieve now, and how will we achieve it?

P.S. About active vs. passive candidates, I have a stronger preference towards the active who appears applied and competent. (Okay, I may persuade a passive one I spot to join me.) Employers proclaim they want self-starter, self-motivated types. That sounds like someone who actively makes things happen, not someone who passively hopes to be discovered. In addition to being able to do the work, the bigger question is will you do it? Again, you may have done something many years, doesn’t mean you want to keep doing it. I’m always intrigued when a candidate actively seeks me out, just the curiosity is invigorating.

By: “Connections” VS “Relationships”…which would you trust more? « Cachinko

“Connections” VS “Relationships”…which would you trust more? « Cachinko — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 01:28:53 +0000

[...] I know what has worked for me in the past, so I didn’t have to think it over too long; but just in case you’re mulling that one over, I wanted to provide you with a couple articles and a recent real world scenario that should help bring the point home. I read an interesting article recently on RecruitingBlogs.com by John Sumser entitled, “Digging Into RecruitingBlogs.com” that I am sure a lot of you out there can relate to. I know I did! Also, if you like a little professional humor and a lot of truth, you will like a blog posting by Dan Schawbel on PersonalBrandingBlog.com on March 7th titled, “Personal Branding Interview.” [...]

By: Felipe Villasenor

Felipe Villasenor — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 20:54:18 +0000

Dan, great article (I especially enjoyed the part about detrimental reliance on candidate databases). As you mentioned, candidate databases are just historical records (not live relationships). I had a demo just the other day with a leading IT staffing firm in Houston that has a fairly large candidate database. Over the past year they have been enlightened with recruitment networking (blogs, social networking sites, referral recruitment, micro blogging, etc.) and are convinced it will change the recruiting landscape. In fact, they said they would not renew their subscription with the major job boards for next year. I was also surprised that this staffing firm admitted that their large candidate database may be obsolete over the next 5 years – in other words their traditional candidate database will have less value and their network more value. Today, recruiters are realizing more and more that relationships with other people (talent networks) are the key to sourcing talented individuals – this should have always been obvious. Job boards still serve an important purpose for a small sector of the market, but sourcing through relationships brings more overall value (more talent, passion in the workplace, less expensive sourcing approach, repeat referrals, higher employee retention, etc.) to recruiters/employers and it just makes sense.

If you have a email newsletter, please put me on it. Thanks.

By: Maria Duron

Maria Duron — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 04:13:14 +0000

Excellent interview, Dan! I really appreciate you being able to get to the information that it’s the “sources” that are most important and of interest to him. Thanks!

By: Mike Tieden

Mike Tieden — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 05:21:18 +0000

Thanks for this information. It will help me in my career search tremendously.

-Mike Tieden