How Not to Get a Job: Mistakes Job Seekers Make

Billie Sucher at CareerHub has a short list of five Mistakes Job Seekers Make.

Good advice.

REA: Best Career Web Site – My votes

Reviewing the Recruiting Excellence Awards winners was an interesting exercise. The corporate culture of all four organizations comes through strongly, (sometimes intentionally, and sometimes not!) These web sites show what can be done with will, time and vision.

So, if Dr. John Sullivan asked me to serve as judge, and present the statue to the winner, here’s what I would say.

Best Corporate Careers Website, MBA (Modified Bettinger Awards):

This award is for the best Corporate Careers website of the four highlighted at REA. Using the Bo Derek scale (rating from 1 to 10 with 10 high), I’ll rank the contestants thus (link goes to my review):

* FedEx 10
* Rackspace Managed Hosting 9
* Starbucks 8
* Citigroup: 6

And the MBA Winner is: FedEx!

Maybe more companies need to enter the contest next year.

PS: John – I’ll hold the banquet weekend open for you. Give a ring and I’ll be there!

REA: Best Career Web Site? (#4 of 4)

Rackspace Managed Hosting

The smallest company on the list, Rackspace was nominated for “Best Corporate Careers Website” in this year’s REA. They didn’t win, losing out to Starbucks. They did a great job. Rackspace runs a separate careers site which is branded differently from their business page. They had the best branding.

SITE DETAILS
+ Direct Link on Front Page? Yes
+ Using www.rackspace.jobs domain? Yes
+ Present benefits information? Yes, “The Super, Duper, Uber-tastic Benefits Package” (TM pending)
+ Present Company Culture Information? Yes – multiple links, including a big button at the top
+ Present Job Preview Information? Yes and no
+ Response sent to applicant? Don’t know. Nothing in the area, couldn’t apply.

JOB POSTINGS:
+ ATS Engine: HRsmart
+ Postings Dated? No
+ Show Specific Work Site? No. City locations only
+ Show Explicit Travel Amount? No
+ Show Salary Information? No
+ Consistent posting formats? No – widely variable
+ Steps to apply: everything is on one screen

IMPRESSIONS, THOUGHTS AND WHINING:
+ OVERALL: My People! These are my people! Very well done! Provides a consistent message, great visuals, and real people.
+ GOOD: Strong branding, theme carries over all pages.
+ GOOD: Great navigation, well organized.
+ BAD: The monospaced Courier font is a bit hard to read at times.
+ BAD: Job postings are vague, don’t show travel, salary or location.

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After looking at HRsmart, I’m sure I hate the Taleo application engine.

REA: Best Career Web Site? (#3 of 4)

FedEx

FedEx was nominated for “Best Corporate Careers Website” in this year’s REA. They didn’t win, losing out to Starbucks. After visiting their site today, I wondered why they fell short. I give them high marks – better than Starbucks.

SITE DETAILS
+ Direct Link on Front Page? Yes
+ Using www.fedex.jobs domain? No
+ Present benefits information? Yes
+ Present Company Culture Information? Yes
+ Present Job Preview Information? Yes
+ Response sent to applicant? Yes – And I got an automatic “thanks but no match” right away.

JOB POSTINGS:
+ ATS Engine: Hodes IQ
+ Postings Dated? No
+ Show Specific Work Site? No. City locations only
+ Show Explicit Travel Amount? Yes – sort of. Shows a vague “Some Travel” on some, others list a percentage
+ Show Salary Information? No
+ Consistent posting formats? No – obviously not a priority
+ Steps to apply: 7

IMPRESSIONS, THOUGHTS AND WHINING:
+ OVERALL: I like the FedEx site. They have a complicated requirement to support 10 different companies, and they carry it off. The images on the site are of real people – they might be models, but they’re wearing, carrying or standing in front of the corporate logo.
+ GOOD: Nice video of a real person at start.
+ GOOD: They make a big deal of the Courier job in their Areas of Talent section. FedEx knows that these are the guys that most people interact with. FedEx doesn’t appear to treat this as a second class job.
+ BAD: Job posting information quality extremely uneven.

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After using Hodes IQ, I know I hate the Taleo application engine.

REA: Best Career Web Site? (#2 of 4)

Citigroup

Citigroup was nominated for “Best Corporate Careers Website” in this year’s REA. They didn’t win, losing out to Starbucks. A visit to their site today made clear why they didn’t get the glass award.

SITE DETAILS
+ Direct Link on Front Page? Yes
+ Using www.citigroup.jobs domain? No
+ Present benefits information? No
+ Present Company Culture Information? Yes
+ Present Job Preview Information? Not really.
+ Response sent to applicant? Yes
+ Steps to apply: 7

JOB POSTINGS:
+ ATS Engine: Taleo
+ Postings Dated? Yes
+ Show Specific Work Site? Sometimes. Retail sites are shown, professional sites are not.
+ Show Explicit Travel Amount? Yes
+ Show Salary Information? No
+ Consistent posting formats? No – obviously not a priority

IMPRESSIONS, THOUGHTS AND WHINING:
+ OVERALL: Not as good a site as Starbucks. Main impression is of a huge bureaucracy that demands very careful wording on everything. They have just the right number of stock photos of diverse models who don’t work at Citigroup.
+ BAD: Navigation through cultural section is only through the tiny drop-down menu. Why not have arrows to move through all screens?
+ BAD: Navigation tools overall suck. The arrows for the rest of the job lists are tiny. They must assume that I’m surfing this page on my cell phone.
+ BAD: No back arrow to return to the job list. They buried a link at the bottom.
+ BAD: Job search screen is split, and can’t be resized in a full window. (“Go ahead, waste one half of my screen!”)
+ BAD: List of sources doesn’t have the Internet.
+ UGLY: I have to complete a stupid profiler in order to apply.

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I’m really getting to hate the Taleo application engine.

REA: Best Career Web Site? (#1 of 4)

Last week’s Recruiting Excellence Awards (REA) recognized four web sites as finalists for Best Corporate Careers Website:
* Citigroup
* FedEx
* Rackspace Managed Hosting
* Starbucks WINNER

I hope to visit and critique each site nominated. I’ll look at some standard areas, and then point out the good, the bad and the ugly. I encourage you to visit and share your thoughts in the comments.

Update 03-MAY-07: Welcome to all who linked in from Jason Whitman’s site. The Starbucks review is below. You can check out my REA rankings here, a comparison to the CEA winners here, and a my CEA award rankings here.

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Starbucks

Starbucks Coffee was awarded the “Best Corporate Careers Website” this year. A visit to their site left me with some distinct impressions about what “Best” might be. Here are my impressions (standard disclaimers apply).

SITE DETAILS
+ Direct Link on Front Page? No
+ Career Entry Point: About Us
+ Using www.starbucks.jobs domain? No – but splash page is available on HotJobs
+ Present benefits information? Yes
+ Present Company Culture Information? Yes
+ Present Job Preview Information? Yes
+ Response sent to applicant? Yes

JOB POSTINGS:
+ ATS Engine: Taleo
+ Postings Dated? Yes
+ Show Specific Work Site? No
+ Show Explicit Travel Amount? No
+ Show Salary Information? No
+ Consistent posting formats? Mostly
+ Steps to apply: 6

IMPRESSIONS, THOUGHTS AND WHINING:
+ OVERALL IMPRESSION: Hip, cool and eco-conscious with a focus on giving back to the community. Navigation is a problem on the site.
+ GOOD: They have tons of jobs, and have organized them well.
+ BAD: Asks if you want to search US jobs, then makes you complete a second step of choosing what country to search.
+ BAD: Their location engine requires way too many clicks to get where I want. This is awkward and requires extra clicks. Most of their hiring looks to tied to local retail outlets. Can’t they grab my IP address and ask if I want to look nearby?
+ BAD: First job splash screen shows lots of jobs in Washington State. I’m nowhere near Washington State.
+ BAD: Have sliced up Colorado to make it hard to look in neighboring locales.
+ BAD: They don’t have a category for Retail.

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On to the rest.

The Meme: Five Tips for Hiring

Last month, Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-founder and CEO of Atlassian, started a meme asking for the Top Five Tips For Startup Hiring. Mike, I’m glad you asked. I’ve done my share of start-up, high-growth hiring. Here’s my $.02:

1. Put a link to your “Careers” section on the front of your web page. The web guys won’t like it – it spoils the cool vision they had. They’ll claim it looks too crowded (no) and that you’re soliciting customers (well, yes). Don’t let them shut you out. Help your busy candidates find your opportunities quickly. Then ask the web guys to check. They should find that your “Careers” pages are the busiest on your site.

2. Take time to interview your final candidates. Too many hiring managers think they can get all they need from a 30 minute interview. Geoff and Brad Smart of Topgrading fame suggest that every hiring manager should do a three hour final interview that covers everything from high school to yesterday. That may sound a bit extreme, but think about it. You’ll have to live with this person (and their work) for at least eight hours a day. Your success depends on their success. Don’t you want to know who they are?

3. Maximize your candidate touch points. Every experience a candidate has interacting with your company is a touch point. Make those touch points positive. Are you leaving Mr. Candidate out in the lobby cooling his heels for 10 minutes after every half-hour interview? Does your web application continually lose candidate information? Did you tell the candidate how much time to block out for the interview? Each of these touch points says something about your company. Make sure it says something good.

4. Interview behavior is best behavior. Does your candidate seem a little odd? Did they snap at you, argue or never answer the question you asked? Guess what – it’s never going to get any better. It can, and probably will, get worse, but it will never get better. Don’t let desperation blind you to what the person in front of you is really doing.

5. You’re not done until the new hire starts. Second thoughts happen. A good candidate will have other opportunities knocking at their door while you’re preparing for them to start. Don’t depend on HR – you keep in touch with the candidate. Send them press releases, call them to check up. Remind them that they are wanted. Set the stage for their first project. Mr. Candidate should be more excited to start day one than he was when he signed the offer letter. Otherwise you’ll lose him.

10 Word Bonus Point: Get off to a good start with a good orientation. Your new hire will need some structure to get them going. Orientation is the payoff – where you prove what your corporate culture really is.

Here’s the meme from Mike Cannon-Brookes:
Life Is A Hire Way: 5 Tips For Startup Hiring

1. Recruiting Is Marketing [editor's note: YES YES YES!]
2. Trust Your Team
3. You Don’t Win With Money
4. Make Space For Smart People
5. Know When To Fold’em (at hire/no hire time)
Quickie Bonus Tip: No Keyword Hiring

Don MacAskill has tagged the meme at
How we hire at SmugMug:

1. Get the right people on the bus (and get the wrong people off).
2. Hire for passion first, talent second.
3. Passion for the job, not passion for the company.
4. Getting stuff done.
5. Embrace diversity.
Bonus: Hire your own customers.

Check these tips out!

REA: Etched Glass on a Low Rectangle

Not to be confused with the Creative Excellence Awards, the Recruiting Excellence Awards were handed out last week at the ERE Spring 2007 Expo in San Diego. This program is run by ERE.NET, and specifically targets recruiting and related talent acquisition successes. Only corporations can apply – no agencies are allowed. The judging panel is a mix of high-profile Staffing gurus – Sullivan and Adler – and winners from last year.

So – Congratulations to the 2007 Recruiting Excellence Award Winners:

Best Diversity Program: Compuware Corporation
Best Corporate Careers Website: Starbucks
Most Innovative Employee Referral Program: Tenet Healthcare
Best Employer Brand: Intuit
Most Effective Use of Staffing Metrics: AIMCO
Most Innovative Recruiting Process or Departmental Structure: Whirlpool
Best Employee Retention Program/Practices: AIMCO
Best College Recruiting Program: Ernst & Young
Most Strategic Use of Recruitment Technology: Electronic Arts
Recruiter of the Year: Achuthan Nair, Wipro Technologies

After a bit of web work, I’ll post some further reflections on the different web and branding entries. It will be interesting to see if any of the REA winners are CEA winners too!

How Not to Get a Job at Brains on Fire

Robbin Phillips (actual title = “Courageous President”) of Brains on Fire runs a national naming and identity company. She recently noted another way not to get a job.

Step One: Address an envelope to Robert Phillips, President.

Step Two: Start the enclosed letter with “Dear Mr. Phillips.”

Obviously, Mr. Candidate didn’t do his research.

How Not to Get A Job: Nothing is Impossible

Video resumes are supposed to be The Next Big Thing. An October 2006 article on Forbes.com tells the story of one guy who got attention with his video resume. It wasnt the kind of attention he wanted.

Another recruiting year, another job applicant humiliation. This season, Yale senior Aleksey Vayner went far beyond the usual misaddressed e-mail or keyboard-in-mouth embarrassment.

Vayner, an aspiring investment banker, sent a video titled “Impossible is Nothing” along with an 11-page résumé and glamour shot to financial services powerhouse UBS. Within hours, scores of investment banks noticed his application, as bankers e-mailed the seven-minute video and turned Vayner into the biggest joke on Wall Street.

The Forbes article also details some of the more ignoble faux pas in recent recruiting history. Check out their Career Hall of Shame.

[Editor's note: The Forbes.com site is real slow]