Key Word Madness

In the internet age it is very important to leverage all resources to get a great job. One very important tool to get you found are keywords. There are two very important things about keywords that we are going to share with you: How to include them in your resume and what keywords to include.

First, more and more people are putting some sort of summary paragraph in front of the meat on their resume that stuff keywords into the document. Don't try to jam a bunch of terms into a poorly written paragraph. Instead, create a keyword section. Just make your resume the old fashined way and at the bottom add a 'keyword' section.

Second, use Google Adwords to help generate your keyword list. Here is the link to Google Adwords . And search job boards for postings and copy the keywords for the types of jobs you want.

Hope this helps.

Rule #1 For Getting That Job: You Got To Believe!

I had candidate who I thought was a great get turned down this week. That is frustrating for the client, candidate and myself. I really thought that he could do a great job and was ready to take a leap up to this firm and opportunity. And so did the client,,, initially. That was the problem. We thought he was ready, but he did not.

He did not say it outright to anyone. But, over time he showed us that he lacked the confidence he needed for this job. He looked ready and in many respects. But he knew he was not and it eventually showed.

If you want to move up; you got to believe in yourself. If you don't it will show in the interviews and subsequent screening. Or worse yet, 90 days into the opportunity we will all be sitting around scratching our heads wondering why we got it wrong.

Bottom line, only you know if you are ready. And if you are, you got to believe in yourself. If you don't believe, don't bother.

Acronyms?

We reviewed a resume today. It was from a very qualified information technology candidate. However, it was filled with acronyms. Now, I spent 9+ years with IBM Software Group and I was confused. Imagine what some recruiter fresh our of college looking at that resume would feel.

A piece of advice: Never assume the person your are sending your resume (and cover letter) to is intimate with your industry. In many cases, they are the first filter that you have to go through to get the interview and they are not industry experts. If they say no initially because they did not understand your resume, you will never get the chance to interview.

Have a great weekend.

Please email us about any topics you would like discussed here.

The Telephone Screening Interview

I consider the telephone screening interview to be one of the most awkward recruiting tools used. But it is one that if properly handled can be very impactful for recruiters and candidates. Recruiters, particularly outside recruiters, are probably more adept at handling these calls because that’s the basis of their business. In many respects it’s getting the person on the phone and pre-screening to a set of job specifications. If you make the grade, you are asked for a resume, and invited to have a face to face screening interview. However, in the new order of corporate budget constraints, before the live interview, many candidates are also asked to take a screening phone interview with a corporate recruiter, a line person working in the area for which you are being considered, or both. If you are working with external recruiters more than likely they will supply both sides with all the relevant information to ensure a productive call. Unfortunately, that’s not true in all cases, and the recruits need to take the initiative to get the best results for both sides. The candidates need to get as much information about the company, the department, the job, and qualifications needed for the job. They also need to get a meeting agenda. How long will the interview take. Who will be on the call. What do they do with the organization. What kind of questions do they want answered. Ensure that you have all the information you need to prepare for the meeting. Also ask them, if they have all the information about you that they need. Don’t be bashful but don’t be obnoxious. Ask them how you measure up to what they are looking for so you can respond to any shortcomings they see. When you are on the call, eliminate any distractions. Stay focused. At the beginning of the call, ask them how the call will be structured, listen well, and answer all their questions succinctly. Remember the purpose of this call is to get you the face to face meeting. You also should have time to ask them questions about the organization, the culture, the job, and career opportunities. At the end of the call, thank them for their time ,quantify the time frame for next steps, and what those steps will be. A thank you e-mail or letter for their time would not be inappropriate. Now that you have successfully crossed hurdle of the phone interview, let’s get you ready for the face to face meetings

I I I I I I... Me Me Me Me Me Me

I interviewed someone the other day for a client. A 15 minute screen went into 45 minutes of: "I did this. I did that. I was here. I was there. I know him. I know her...." Not once did the candidate ask anything about the client, the organization, the business plans or the opportunity. I literally had a migraine after the call. I learned only one thing about this candidate: He thought very highly of himself.

The candidate was not presented.

Two points:

First, there needs to be a balance between what you give yourself credit for, who around you gets some credit and what the organization as a whole did. Business is too complicated to be made up of a bunch of individual islands. For most, there is more value to individual plus the other people that help you out. ie: The sum of the whole greater than the sum of the parts.

Second, you must always try to gain an understanding from the interviewer as to what is important on their mind at the time you are talking. Of course you do your research up front. But you should always try to get the other person to talk and reveal key nuggets of information for you. Then you can use this information to scope your presentation of yourself properly.

Soon we will give you some techniques that you can use when interviewing to make sure that you put yourself in a position move forward.

Please email us about any topics you would like discussed here.

The Art and Science of Career Planning: The Resume

Organizations don’t hire resumes. They hire people. However resumes get you in the door. You get yourself hired. Bottom line is you and your resume need to look their best.

Lets focus on a good resume: Do not write the resume for yourself. Write it for the organizations that you want to pursue. Put yourself in the seats of the hiring managers, and envision what they want in their next great superstar. Do your homework before you make any contact with the company or people. You need to know about the organization and people that you are submitting your candidacy to and what they look for.

Don’t fool yourself, and pursue careers and organizations that are totally out of your reach. You will only become frustrated as the 'no's' come in. And worse, you will most likely fail if you do get hired.

You should perform a gap analysis on yourself. Be completely honest and map your qualifications and work experience to the opportunities you seek. Determine what the gaps are and if you can fill them through classes, other work experience, or that you can genuinely grow into that position. Now you can begin to write your resume. Include an objective which states what you can do for the organization. Summarize your qualifications, skills and abilities and how they complement you achieving the objectives you can fulfill for the organization. Quantify all your achievements so the organization understands the scale of your success and it maps to its requirements. Tell them where you have been work wise and how long you were there. Importantly, use action words and sentences for everything you write.

Hiring managers don’t want to know you attended meetings they want to know what you accomplished. Be concise. Remember, you are using the resume to get the meeting. It doesn’t get you hired. (I will write more next steps in the future. So sign up for our email feeds).

Next entry we will summarize the resume.

One thing every resume MUST have.

If you take 96 years combined experience x 270 working days a year x 10 resumes a day = 259,200 resumes we have seen. There is one commonality among all the outstanding resumes. They all have factual statements about your accomplishments. For example, a sales persons resume that states "sold $1,000,000 worth of xyz" gets more attention than "was top 10% percent salesperson..."

We are finalizing a short, concise White Paper about this topic. For a free sneak preview email us and you will get a draft copy before we send it to our publisher.

People

Founders and Principals

Jeff Sanderson holds a BS degree in Mathematics and a MBA. He served four years with the United States Navy as an Officer stationed in Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

Jeff has been both a provider and buyer of executive search services. He spent the majority of his corporate career at Goldman Sachs & Co., as the Director of Employment and Employee Relations. In addition to his overall responsibilities in recruiting and employee relations, he also directed the diversity and affirmative action efforts. Jeff has been a Technical Recruiter and Project Manager with Electronic Data Systems, a Director of Executive Recruiting for the Coopers & Lybrand Consulting Practice, and a Senior Vice President & Director of Investment Banking Recruiting and College Relations for NationsBank. Prior to becoming a founding member of THE EXETER CONSULTING GROUP, Jeff was a Manager within the executive search practice of Coopers & Lybrand , a Senior Vice President with Sullivan & Co., a New York based financial services executive search practice, and successfully built and operated an executive recruiting company.

Jeff has conducted a number of search assignments in financial services broadly covering investment banking, capital markets, operations, technology, and personnel. Within the consulting sector, he has completed assignments for senior individuals with general management, human resources, marketing, technology and finance backgrounds. On the corporate side, he has built internal executive search capabilities, corporate recruiting research departments, managed college relations programs, and developed and implemented diversity programs. He has also worked with executive management in building and expanding businesses in domestic and international markets.

Barry Robert Ozer holds a Bachelor in Science degree and an Masters in Business Administration in Finance and has successfully taken many professional education classes at IBM and in real-estate.

Barry has conducted a number of search assignments in financial services covering investment banking, and capital markets. Within this sector, he has completed assignments for institutional salespeople and traders across all capital structures, commercial loan originators and bond traders. He has also completed a variety of assignments in the insurance and information technology sectors.

Prior to becoming a founding member of THE EXETER CONSULTING GROUP, Barry spent nine years as an award winning salesperson and sales operation manager at IBM and four years as a project manager in the real-estate and construction business. Barry has been an executive search consultant since 2006.

Bill Nolte holds a Bachelor in Economics and Philosophy and continuing professional education courses by Arthur Andersen and Coopers & Lybrand.

Bill has been a provider and a buyer of executive search but primarily a provider. From Andersen Consulting he joined a client, a Wall Street venture capital firm where his duties included buying search services to assist portfolio companies recruit executives. Subsequently, he focused on recruiting executives at Korn/Ferry International before joining Coopers & Lybrand. There he served as a Practice Leader - Executive Search in the New York Region. Prior to becoming a founding member of THE EXETER CONSULTING GROUP, Bill organized his own firm when Coopers & Lybrand stopped offering executive search as a line of business.

Bill has conducted searches in many industries and across most management disciplines. In financial services he has dealt mostly with the needs of insurance carriers, banks, and broker/dealers. Bill has developed an expertise within information technology completing many searches across a number of industry sectors. Within the consulting sector, he has completed searches form Practice Leader level to the Project Leader Level from strategic systems planning to package implementation. Not confined to the services sector, he is regularly engaged by manufacturers to recruit corporate staff specialists, division general managers, heads of sales, marketing, manufacturing, engineering, distribution, E-commerce, and of course, MIS.

About

THE EXETER CONSULTING GROUP (TECG) is an executive consulting and search organization focused on the financial services industry.

At TECG we believe executive consulting and search are neither an art nor a science although they reflect aspects of both. Our view is that consulting and search are strategic processes that have significant implications for a business unit and the entire organization. Mutual success depends upon the strength of the partnership between the client organization and TECG, and how effectively relationships and team participation develop. The ultimate goal is not the process itself but, the output of the process: successful candidates or applicable strategic methodologies that meet the expectations of the client.

This is how we have built extremely successful relationships with our clients over a combined 96 years of human resources and talent search experience.

Assignments

Industries

Capital Markets
Investment Banking
Insurance
Corporate and Retail Banking
Consulting
Brokerage

Functions
Quantitative Programmers, Developers and Analysts (Front, Middle and Back Office)
Sales (Institutional and Retail)
Investment Bankers
Traders
Research
Corporate and Retail Banking
Business Leaders
Consulting Practice Leaders
Human Resources
Administration
Operations
Information Technology

Recent Relevant Assignments

Institutional Fixed Income Salespeople, various specialties, Middle Markets and Tier One
Institutional Traders, various specialties
Investment Bankers, High Yield and High Grade, Middle Markets and Corporate
Public Finance and Municipal Investment Banking
Institutional Equity Salespeople
High Net Worth Financial Specialists
Reinsurance and Insurance Business Line Leaders
Equity Research Analysts
Real Estate Originators
Syndicators
Structured Products Sales, Traders, Originators, Syndicators and Business Heads

The TECG Process Recruiting Cycle

Our clients trust us with their recruiting assignments because we understand how to complete them efficiently. Hiring people is not difficult. Identifying and recruiting the very best person for an organization can be daunting, time consuming, and downright frustrating. Drawing upon years of successful recruiting experience, we have developed a framework for a process that has held up over time with different industries and disciplines. It is collaborative, allowing each of us to share candidate information and market intelligence in a timely fashion to virtually assure a successful conclusion to any recruiting assignment.

We have a proven and honed Process Recruiting Cycle that we will share with anyone interested. Just email us at barry@TeamExeter.com with your contact information and we will send you a copy.