Recruiting Animal

How to Overcome Skepticism

Source: Brian Clark

We aren't suckers. We aren't gullible rubes. We have been subjected to so much advertising that we have been trained, properly, to be skeptical. We know that we shouldn't simply believe.

So how does a poor recruiter get through to this kind of sophisticate? You have to prove somehow that you know what you're up to and that you're not out to bamboozle anyone.

What does that mean? That you have to build a relationship first. Before you do business you have to get them to trust you. It takes time but you'll have many opportunities to make deals after you've convinced someone that you do deliver the goods.

This makes tutorial marketing on a blog a smart way to present yourself online.

A free introduction to your subject starts the relationship and your regular blog postings keep it going. And eventually, you’ll turn some readers into candidates or clients and get some referrals.

The ongoing value of an ongoing relationship is much greater than what you get by asking for someone's business as soon as you say hello. Old-school closing techniques just make people see you as a social predator who disrespects them and only wants to push them around.

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How To Write For Your Blog

A roadmap. Source: Brian Clark

1. Your main goal is to get the first sentence read
2. Goal number two is to get the next sentence read.
3. Use simple writing for simple people.
4. Have a killer headline

5. Make an offer. Tell the reader what you are going to give her if she takes the time to read your piece. This is your promise to the reader. This is the hook you place in your reader's mind. And you have to be very explicit about it.

6. Each part of your piece should have a main idea that supports your promise. Stay focused. Don’t ramble.

7. Support your ideas with evidence or solid logic. If you tell someone there's a good fairy watching over him, you'd better prove it with statistics, expert statements and other interesting testimonies.

8. Restate your promise, your hook, your offer.

Race and Gender

Stereotyping and prejudice

One hundred milliseconds after we see someone, we have made a determination about their race; 50 milliseconds later, we have determined their gender.

Stereotyping is ascribing a set of traits to an individual based on his membership in a specific group. Prejudice is disliking someone because of her group identity.

Most whites are quicker to associate positive words with images of whites, and negative words with blacks. However, this bias can be reduced or erased because racial stereotyping and prejudice depend on the context in which someone appears.

When people are shown images of well-liked black public figures, for instance, bias disappears because the context tells people that the person is not someone they need to worry about.

So, you can get people to stop thinking in terms of race by identifying a black person with membership in another group which then becomes the context and focus of attention. But you can't do the same with gender because assertive, commanding, leadership qualities are deemed offensive in a woman no matter what the context.

The only other trait that we notice as strongly as gender is age.

Source: Drake Bennett, Boston Globe

Write Simply On Your Blog

Because many people are stupid.

50% of post secondary school American students at 4-year schools and 75% at 2-year colleges could not understand newspaper editorials or compare credit card offers with different interest rates and annual fees.

And they have more education than most older people so no one is going to complain that your writing is too easy to understand.

Use clear, concise, simple words.
Bend the rules of grammar if it makes you more readable.
Use bullets and numbered lists.

Source: Copyblogger

How To Interview

Brazen Careerist gives interview advice:
1. Get the interviewee talking by asking about things she's already thought through.
2. Once the tongue is loose, ask about things she hasn't thought about or figured out

This makes sense. Things get interesting when you go beyond the commonplace but many people are unable to articulate even the commonplace well. They go into a job interview without having thought through their daily job functions for themselves. That means a lot of silence and looking at the ceiling while they do their homework there and then. And that’s not interesting at all

Dummy Of The Day

Yeah, it's off topic but I couldn't resist this:

In your leader you describe Cuba as "undemocratic", but this is simply not true. It does not have a multiparty democracy like we do, but there are other kinds of democracy outside that narrow definition.
-- Mary M. Scott, Aberdeen, Scotland, Letter to The Guardian

Norm replies:

It is, of course, true that there are forms of democracy internal to single organizations, and that some organizations are democratically healthier than others, allowing for more debate, internal contestation and so forth.

But... The option of exiting and legally contesting a party's progammes and policies from outside is an indispensable democratic resource.

Hey, Mary, you dope, Fidel promised to restore the democratic constitution when he came to power, not create a one-party state. How many university professors have promoted phony democracies to their naive students? Norm is a Marxist and a university prof but that's something that he doesn't do.

How To Get Read

Don't leave persuasion till the punch line. You've got to hook them step by step along the way.

You want to get your blog posting or networking email read? Your main goal should be to get the first sentence read. That's what the Joe Sugarman taught. “And the purpose of the first sentence is to get the second sentence read.” And so on.

Here are the rules:
- a strong headline is critical;
- focus on the benefit to the reader immediately
- make a promise you can fulfill
- back up everything you say with proof

Source: Copyblogger

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Sue DanboM, Quest For The Best

A newish blog by a recruiting trainer.

If you listened to my show last week, you'll know that some women have started dreaming about me. Sue isn't one of them. But she did flatter me a bit in an email so I decided to mention her here.

Sue has a blog on ERE called Quest For The Best. (And leave the rest). Here is a review of her articles so far.

Driven to Distraction tells us how to deal with the offensive things candidates do and judging from the issues she covers (stains on their clothes, limp handshakes, stinky cologne or perfume, in need of a shave), it looks like she works with a real high class crowd.

Good Knight, Bad Knight is about great candidates with bad personalities. Should you cut them loose?

The Waiter Rule starts off with a very intriguing story about an interviewer who, counter-intuitively, focuses on the candidate's first crappy jobs. This isn't elaborated as much as I would like and the article goes into what I know as The Dirtbag Rule (How do interviewees treat your staff?).

In Employee Retention, Sue tells us how she's held on to hubby for 31 years and recommends the same for your office. (Yeah, it's really hot).

Star Attraction is a rah rah piece about blogging. She knew Jeff Bezos way back when.

Asking Questions claims that asking questions is the key to a good rebuttal.

Auld Lang Syne advises you to do as the Scots and hogemay your talent pipeline at New Years.

It's A Wonderful Life relates the Christmas movie to office management.

Liar, Liar is about resume padding.

Where do they hide? is about a fun variation of hide-and-seek called Sardines and recommends that you get candidates by contributing career information to trade organizations in your business niche (if you have one).

Sue Danborn's LinkedIn profile