What You Need to Know About Recruiters

Recruiters. They are the secret sauce that makes the job search and hiring world move along smoothly. Simply put, recruiters either work in-house or for an agency but there are many different terms for the various types of recruiters out there (and even more questions!) so this article aims to bring you some answers.

I’ve broken this article into the five most common kinds of recruiters: corporate, temp agency, contingency, retained, and executive search. Keep reading for some great tips from recruiting experts in each area.

1.     Corporate Recruiters

Let’s start with the kind of recruiter most people think of when someone says ‘recruiter.’ That’s the corporate recruiter – also sometimes referred to as an in-house recruiter. These are internal company employees who lead the recruiting process for the company and are an employee of that same company. Corporate/in-house recruiters are paid a salary/wage by the company they recruit for. Once a new employee is hired, this kind of recruiter is sometimes also involved in new hire onboarding. I connected with Chris Graziani to get you first-hand intel on how this type of recruiter thinks. Chris is a Senior Technical Recruiter for Tinder and prior to that he was in a similar role at Meta for almost 6 years. Here’s what Chris had to say:

Q: What’s the best way to get noticed by a corporate recruiter?

A: First, keep your LinkedIn up-to-date. Second, my goal is to help you in your job search so reach out to recruiters with intent on the job you want by staying away from, “Do you have any jobs for me?” I have jobs but I’m just one recruiter in a larger recruiting function and often don’t have insight into every job at my company. If you want to go the extra mile, send the job description link you’re interested in along with your request.  

Q: What’s your biggest piece of advice on working with a corporate recruiter?

A: Send your resume in PDF form please, not word doc. 

Q: What’s one misconception people have about working with a corporate recruiter?

A: Sometimes it seems there is a misconception that recruiters dictate how much someone gets paid. In reality, the compensation team usually decides how much a company can pay for a role. 

Love his advice. Straight-forward and easy to follow. The four other kinds of recruiters we’ll look at are all agency-based recruiters. Agency recruiters recruit for positions to be filled at companies that are their clients. To start, let’s look at the temp agency side of recruiting.

2.     Temp Agency Recruiters

I’ve had many clients who ended up with their dream job by first getting a short-term placement at the company that ultimately led to a full-time, permanent role. The short-term placement was more often than not filled by working with a temp agency. Temp agencies are often also referred to as staffing agencies. This type of recruiter hires for temporary, seasonal, or contractual employees for their client company. This is a unique structure because the agency typically hires the employee and pays the employee’s wages and any benefits (and bears the entire employment burden of taxes, social security, workers compensation, etc.). The agency sends the employee to work for their client company, who in turn pays the agency for that employee’s time. The agency makes money by billing the employee’s working hours to the client then paying the employee a percentage of that pay. For example, a contract employee who makes $25/hr could be billed at about $32/hr and the agency is taking the difference. There’s huge variability in what the employee is being billed at vs. what they are taking home. Overall, getting into your dream company through a temp agency can be a great foot in the door as I’ve seen many times temp workers be perfectly positioned for full-time roles when they open up.

I connected with Abby Engers, who is the Director of HR Consulting at Boly:Welch. Abby is a former recruiter herself with ten years of experience at a Boly:Welch, which is a top recruiting firm with a strong history in temporary placements. I asked Abby to help us understand how temp agency recruiters think. Here’s what she had to say:

Q: What’s the best way to get noticed by a contract/staffing agency recruiter?

A: Make sure you have a good understanding of the types of contract roles and industries that the staffing agency works on. Then, follow the application process the agency lays out and include any context that might be helpful – location, timeline, salary expectations, type of roles you’d be willing to consider. You can also connect with staffing agency recruiters directly via LinkedIn or by asking your network for referrals.

Q: What’s your biggest piece of advice on working with a contract/staffing agency recruiter? 

A: Temporary roles are often about timing and flexibility, so the more open you are, the better chance you’ll have at being placed. If you’re realistic about the salary rates, flexible on timing and location, and have aligned experience, you’re likely a great candidate. However, if you’re seeking a specific schedule, salary, location or you don’t have a ton of experience in the roles you’re targeting, you might not have as many opportunities run by you. It’s not because you’re not a great candidate – it’s just the nature of contract work!

Q: What’s one misconception people have about working with a contract/staffing agency recruiter?

A: Although contract roles are generally more flexible in their requirements than direct-hire roles, they still require experience. Also, most roles are full-time positions and often in-person – part-time and remote roles are very rare currently!

Great advice from Abby. Now let’s look at the third kind of recruiter: contingency.

3.     Contingency Recruiters

Contingency recruiters (often just referred to as ‘recruiters’ or ‘agency recruiters’) get paid when they find the candidate who gets hired into a vacant role at a company. Like all agency recruiters, contingency recruiters don’t work for the same company they are recruiting for. Essentially the recruiter’s pay is contingent upon a candidate being hired. As a job seeker, these are great people to know because they are typically connected to many companies and hiring managers in the industry/industries they specialize in. I often tell my clients to work on building relationships with contingency recruiters who recruit for the type and level of position they’re looking for as it’s a mutually beneficial relationship (use LinkedIn to find them).

Dave Henry runs Talent Finders, which is a leading recruiting firm focused manufacturing and specifically on Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, Quality, and Technical Sales. Dave has 20+ years of experience running the firm so I was keen to hear his advice on how job seekers can best work with contingency recruiters. Here’s what he had to say:

Q: What’s the best way to get noticed by a contingency recruiter?

A: Have an active LinkedIn profile with as much detail as you can offer. Recruiters use countless different approaches when running searches on LinkedIn, including searching by industry, field of study, and definitely keywords. If you design machines, be sure to include all of the various components within the machine that you design (i.e. valves, gearbox, cylinders, actuators, etc.). The more detail you have the higher probability you will be noticed. 

Q:  What’s your biggest piece of advice on working with a contingency recruiter? 

A: Do your research and find recruiters who are aligned with your professional niche and also look for references or testimonials. Think of it as a vacation rental search; do you book homes with no reviews or a track record of negative comments? At least for me, I target homes with lots of 5-star reviews and that’s the way you should vet a recruiter relationship. That way, you have a good sense of what you are getting into before the relationship starts

Q: What’s one misconception people have about working with a contingency recruiter?

A: They are not all bad; however the majority are not very good. Do your diligence and partner with recruiters who have been doing this for a while and have a proven track record of success. In any given metro area there are probably 3 outstanding recruiters representing a specific professional discipline (technical sales, engineering, accounting/finance, IT, etc.). If a boutique recruiter is recruiting on all of these disciplines, it’s a huge red flag.   

I love Dave’s analogy about home rentals. Just because someone is a recruiter, it doesn’t mean they’re the best recruiter for you to be working with. Read reviews, do your homework. Great advice. Now let’s look at retained recruiters. We’ll see some similarities to contingency recruiters.

4.     Retained Recruiters

The next kind of agency recruiter to look at is retained recruiters. Like I mentioned, retained recruiters have some similarities to contingency recruiters in that a company pays the recruiter to find the right candidate for an open position. The difference with a retained recruiter is they’re paid an upfront fee (aka a retainer) to undertake the search and the remainder of the fee is typically paid once the recruiter finds the candidate and they are hired by the company. This type of recruiter is usually used for higher-level positions and companies often have a long-term relationship with retained recruitment firms valuing that they consistently deliver high-quality candidates. I’ve been fortunate to know Roy Notowitz for several years. Roy runs Noto Group, a purpose-driven firm specializing in senior level placements for companies that support active, healthy, and sustainable lifestyles. Side note: Noto Group publishes a regular newsletter that is phenomenal and I’d encourage you to sign up for it if you don’t receive it already. I asked Roy to go into detail on working with a retained recruiter. Here’s what he had to say: 

Q: What’s the best way to get noticed by a retained recruiter?

A: Be honest and professional. When initiating contact, be upfront about why you’re reaching out. Maintain self-awareness on your true strengths, weaknesses, and capabilities. Retained recruiters will evaluate core competencies and leadership style as well as the scope and scale of previous roles. They will know if you are reaching. Think of it as a two-way relationship built on trust. You have to help them determine if your experience, approach, and leadership style lines up with their client needs and culture. At the same time you can expect them to help you determine if the client opportunity, culture, and compensation is a compelling fit. Even if you do not get the job, your professionalism and integrity could put you at the top of their list for future opportunities. 

Q: What’s your biggest piece of advice on working with a retained recruiter? 

A: Research before reaching out. It's important to thoroughly research the firm, its industry specializations, and the types of roles it typically fills. Approaching a recruiter without knowing whether they work in your industry sector or discipline is a common mistake. 

Q: What’s one misconception people have about working with a retained recruiter?

A: Retained search firms are hired by companies, not job seekers which means that they are not set up to market you or help you to get interviews with their clients unless you are an exact fit with a search they have in progress and assuming that the client is still at the stage where they are accepting new candidates into the mix. Even if you are an exact fit, recognize that there are always several really strong candidates and only one opening.  So it is a bit like musical chairs for the final few candidates. Don’t take it personally and recognize that the recruiter informs hiring decisions but does not make the hiring decisions.

Roy’s last comment is really important – realize the difference in how different recruiters intend to market you (or not). Understanding how the different types of recruiters work will help you manage your expectations and set up successful working relationships with them.

5.     Executive Search Experts / Headhunters

The final kind of agency recruiter is the executive search expert or headhunter. I’ve worked as a career coach for several years and this is the type of recruiter than is the most misunderstood in my opinion. Like temp agency recruiters, contingency recruiters, and retained recruiters, executive search experts work for a client company to fill an open position. What they do is often called conducting an executive search and it is typically done for the highest-level positions such as CEO, COO, or Vice President. The goal of a headhunter is to find the best candidate possible. If the ideal candidate is currently gainfully employed, the headhunter may convince the target candidate to consider the position they're looking to fill. Headhunters can be paid like contingency recruiters or like retained recruiters – it varies. It’s common for headhunters to receive a fee that equals a large percentage of the candidates first year pay if hired. For example, if a headhunter is recruiting for a CEO position with total compensation of $400,000/yr, the headhunter may be paid over $100,000 (typically about 1/3 of the base salary) as a one-time fee. If you’re feeling like there’s overlap between retained recruiters and executive search experts / headhunters, you are correct. The difference is retained search experts usually work in larger firms with many clients and executive search experts / headhunters usually work independently in smaller firms typically on 1-2 clients at a time. Side note: headhunter is becoming an outdated term but I’ve included it because I commonly get asked about this kind of recruiter.

Shelly Gourlay is a legend in the recruiting world with over 30 years of experience across Nike, Columbia Sportswear, and most recently with her own executive search firm, Gourlay Consulting. I featured Shelly in my book, Made To Hire, a few years ago, so I knew exactly who to ask when I wanted to bring the voice of an executive search expert to this article. Here’s what Shelly had to say:

Q: What’s the best way to get noticed by an executive search expert / headhunter?

A: Make sure your LinkedIn profile has as much detail as possible. LinkedIn is a database, and search professionals are looking for people with a combination of experiences and talents. A brief summary is not enough!

Q: What’s your biggest piece of advice on working with an executive search expert / headhunter?

A: Executive search consultants are looking for talent that is a match for their client on ALL levels – professionally, financially and culturally. Be honest and forthcoming about your goals and objectives, because if you are not, you will leave critical questions in the search consultant’s mind. 

Q: What’s one misconception people have about working with an executive search expert / headhunter?

A: Search professionals are always focused on the needs of their current clients, so if you don’t get a response, you are likely not fitting the specific requirements of those projects. It does NOT mean that you’re not a fit for some future role, so take heart and don’t consider it a failure if they do not immediately answer.

Such great advice!

Hopefully you found this article helpful. One thing that stood out for me across all this advice is the importance of LinkedIn. I know from the many conversations I’ve had with recruiters, they are very active on LinkedIn and if you look at a recruiter on LinkedIn, odds are they will also look at your profile. I always tell my clients to make sure their profile is recruiter-ready before they start searching. If you need help with this, I offer a quick turnaround on my LinkedIn Review Service, which gives you personalized feedback on how to majorly up your game on LinkedIn.

4 Ways Job Seekers Can Win on LinkedIn

If and when you are looking for your next job, these are 4 easy ways you can use LinkedIn to make the job search process more fruitful and less painful.  

#1: Use Your Time More Effectively

Most job seekers spend the bulk of their time on LinkedIn scrolling looking for job or reading posts from people in their network. I love the job search feature on LinkedIn but I encourage you to spend an equal amount of time using LinkedIn to identify your targets. What do I mean by targets? I mean the actual people inside the company you’d like to work for next. As a job seeker, you need to find a way to break through the large number of applicants for any position. Knowing who’s actually hiring for the role you’re interested in is crucial. Next up, we’ll talk about how to get them to actually notice you.

#2: Position Yourself as an Expert in Your Field (or at least as someone who is highly engaged in your field!)

Most profiles are not well done (see this post if you want help with that) and on top of that, most people are very passive with their activity on LinkedIn. If you’re a job seeker, you need to up your game; you need a strong profile and I recommend regularly posting content related to your field (once every week or two is perfect). Another way to strategically up your game is to like and comment on the posts of your targets. Also occasionally consider sharing their posts. Even people with large followings on LinkedIn pay attention to who interacts with their posts. Liking, commenting, and sharing your target’s posts is an easy way for you to get noticed by people you want seeing you.

#3: Build Real Connections

Most people send out connection requests and that’s it. Going back to my comments in #1 about identifying your targets, ideally you’re getting some level of engagement with your targets once they become connections. How can you do that? First, I’d add a quick note with your connection request. Once they accept your request, send them a direct mail message asking them for 5 minutes of their time. The goal is to have the opportunity to ask them a few questions about the role and even if they don’t respond, the goal is to get noticed by them.

#4: Leverage Recruiters

As a career coach, I can tell you that recruiters are one of the most underused, incredible resources there are in the job search game. There seems to be a misconception that recruiters don’t want to hear from job seekers. Contingency recruiters and executive recruiters (sometimes called headhunters), get paid when the candidate who they find gets hired. Leveraging these experts to help you in your job search is a no-brainer for anyone at the senior level and can also work well for mid-career level job seekers. You can use LinkedIn’s search function to look for recruiters who recruit in your industry at your level. I encourage you to reach out to them.

If you’re going to job search on LinkedIn, these simple tips will help you get more out of your search time. Feel free to email me at merryn@madetohire.com if you have any questions or need help.

You Need to Do This in Your Next Interview

There’s one question you will be asked 100% of the time in every interview. It is, “Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?” It’ll be some variation of that question where you’re asked to tell your own story. It happens EVERY time. And it’s usually where most people lose the job.

I get it, for most people this is the most uncomfortable question. People can talk about all sorts of things very well but when asked to talk about themselves, they struggle. If that’s you, let’s fix that.

There are 5 keys to telling your story well and ultimately making sure you start the interview off the right way. And they are: 

1.     You need to speak with confidence and enthusiasm. There’s nothing you know more about than yourself so be sure to approach this initial question with a confident tone. And realize that if you act bored when you’re telling your story, the interviewer will be bored. Put some energy (and ideally a smile or two) into your story as you tell it.

2.     Start your story off by positioning yourself and establishing credibility. People too often jump right into the details of everything they’ve done in their career and the listener is still just trying to understand the big picture. For example, if it were me, I’d start by saying something like, “I’ve worked in marketing and career coaching for the past 20+ years. My expertise is helping people land their dream job. In fact I wrote a book on how to do this called Made To Hire. I’ve also taught in the business school of a major university for the past 10 years. I like to say that my secret power is unlocking potential in others.” That’s an example for me but the key parts to how YOU position yourself would typically include how many years you’ve worked in your area of expertise, what you’re known for, and any specials accomplishments or degrees that will help someone understand you professionally. You want the interviewer thinking, “Wow!” in that first minute.

3.     Provide meaningful details. There are so many potential things you could share when you give a few minutes of background about yourself but you need to think about specifically which parts of your story are the most relevant to the job at hand. Share a few examples of the type of work you’ve done and the impact it had. Those examples will likely peak the interviewer’s interest to come back to them with a question later in the interview.

4.     Your story needs to emotionally connect with your audience. You need to make the interviewer feel something. By the end of the first 5 minutes, you want them thinking, “I like this person, they’d fit in here, and I feel confident they can do this job.” The rest of the interview is a validation of that initial reaction they have to your story in those first few minutes. What are you going to share in those first few minutes as part of your story, that is going to make them feel something? If it’s just boring details, it won’t happen. For example, when a prospective client is ‘interviewing’ me and I’m telling my story, I always share that I know how tough the job market is and I know how looking for a new job makes even the most confident person question themself. That makes people feel that I get it and that I’ll be part of the solution. What’s your version of that?

5.     Connect yourself to the company. Your story should make it seem like it isn’t a coincidence that you’re interviewing for this exact role at this exact company. If you tell your story well, it should seem intentional and almost seamless that you are there. It should feel as if it was meant to be. A great way to do this is to understand the company’s mission and be sure to talk about it and perhaps also share how passionate you are about specific products or services the company offers.

Start your next interview off with a plan for how you’ll tell your story. The results will be very different!

One of the Surprising Keys to a Successful Job Transition

People come to me in all stages of a career change – some are thinking about making a change, some have recently been laid off, and some have been looking for a while without the success they expected.

Anyone with a solid resume and decent interview skills can land a new job eventually (albeit sometimes a painfully long process) but at the heart of a successful job transition is actually being happy with where you end up on the other side of the change. Job seekers are often anxious to land something that they end up taking a role that 6 months later leaves them wanting to start looking again. That’s a rough feeling and tough on the resume as well.

So how do you avoid this?

In my years as a career coach, I’ve found one of the surprising keys to making a successful job transition is doing values work. I say this is surprising because so few people do this work as part of their career planning. So what is values work? Values work is diving into the things that matter most to you in your life and, in particular, in your professional life then using those core values as guiding principles in making your career decisions. This work becomes a guiding light to help you steer career decision-making.

The process of taking a step back to understand what matters most to you will help you make a better longer-term career decision. This is work I do with my clients in a 1-hr session that ultimately leads to them feeling empowered in their job search and affirmed when making the decision on which role to accept.

Please feel free to reach out to me at merryn@madetohire.com if I can help you get in touch with what should ideally be driving your current or future job transition beyond the obvious things that are already on all our minds such as compensation, job security, work/life balance, etc.

5 Things You Can Do if You or Someone You Care About Has Been Affected by a Layoff

April has been a rough month for many people. Every time you open LinkedIn there’s more tough news about layoffs. As a career coach, I feel these struggles through my clients and know how challenging the job market feels right now so I wrote a short article with 5 actionable pieces of advice if you have recently been laid off. Or feel free to share this with anyone you care about if they have been affected by a layoff.

5 Things You Can Do if You or Someone You Care About Has Been Affected by a Layoff:

1.     Make smart updates to your resume and your LinkedIn profile: Everyone automatically goes straight to updating those things but let’s focus on the updates that will give you the most bang for your buck. Here are my favorites:

a)     Get your resume to 1-page. A multi-page resume won’t be fully read. You can accomplish everything you need to, make ATS (applicant tracking software) happy, and make a strong statement in 1-page. Insider tip: I’ve never seen a multi-page resume that wasn’t stronger as a 1-page resume.

b)    Write a powerful headline on your LinkedIn profile. Look at mine as an example of how you are much more than just your current or most recent job title.

c)     Make sure to work keywords into your resume and LinkedIn profile that you’re consistently seeing in job postings that interest you.

d)    Be sure to have a summary statement on your resume and text in the ‘About’ section of your LinkedIn profile. This is your chance to position yourself – don’t pass up on this.

2.     Practice telling the ‘new’ version of your story: In every networking scenario as well as in every interview, you will be asked to share your story. This is where you win or lose in my opinion. Focus on establishing credibility (think years of experience, companies worked for, significant accolades) and provide some details that validate your expertise while also being sure to connect your personal mission and passion to the company/role you’re interested in.

3.     Use your network: People want to help you. You just have to be brave and put yourself out there. I recommend starting by thinking about the five people in your network who are the most likely to lead to your next job. Those are the people you want to get on a call with so you are on their radar. Also consider building a target list of companies you’d love to work for and use LinkedIn as the tool to fill out your target list with people’s names. You’ll be surprised at how many connections you already have who can help you build relationships with people on your target list.

4.     Get on the radar of recruiters in your industry: Use LinkedIn to look for recruiters in your industry and reach out to them to see if you fit the profile for any role they’re recruiting for. LinkedIn’s search functionality is the perfect place to find them. You aren’t bothering them. In most cases, they get paid when they fill a role so they’re happy to hear from you.

5.     Know your worth: Your resume, and all the success it showcases, wasn’t an accident. You spent years building your career to this point so don’t sell yourself short financially in this career transition. I recommend using payscale.com and/or glassdoor.com to research pay ranges for your industry/profession. Know your worth, put in the work to strategically search for your next role, be patient, and be sure to negotiate when it comes offer time. It will pay off.

Feel free to reach out to me if I can help – merryn@madetohire.com.

How to Conquer Being Laid Off

Getting laid off really hurts. It makes you doubt yourself and makes you question why you were so committed to a company that cut ties with you seemingly so easily. And getting laid off leaves most people feeling a little (if not very) lost.

If you feel like this now, please read this post as there are three things I’ve found are consistent misconceptions of people who are where you are at right now:

1.     You think you’ll never get into a company again that’s as ‘great’ as the one that just laid you off.

2.     You think your financial future is in serious jeopardy.

3.     You feel ashamed and embarrassed that your network will find out and think less of you.

The truth is I’ve found that most of my clients look back on their unemployment period as the blessing that launched them into something more rewarding and even more lucrative. So let’s debunk those misconceptions and help you turn this transition into your next victory.

How to conquer being laid off:

1.     Use the company that just laid you off to your advantage. The good news is you now have that ‘great’ company on your resume. The last time you looked for a job, you didn’t have that advantage. You are more marketable now than you were then. Use that company on your resume, on your LinkedIn profile, and in how you tell your story. And know that how you tell the new version of your story will be key to winning in this transition. You do not need to volunteer the information that you’ve been laid off when you introduce yourself. If they specifically ask you why you left, you can share that but there’s no need to volunteer it in the first three minutes of meeting someone.

2.     Know your worth. One of my favorite parts of people going through a career transition is they get more in touch with their market value and so often they were being underpaid. So many of my clients have been over-the-moon thrilled with how much more money they make in their new jobs after coming out of a layoff. Your resume, and all the success it showcases, wasn’t an accident. You spent years building it. You will absolutely land a new job. Please just don’t sell yourself short financially. I recommend planning the transition to take up to 6 months to get the right job. It’s much easier to take something too junior (in pay and responsibility) quickly but that will indeed jeopardize your financial future. I recommend payscale.com and glassdoor.com to check on pay ranges for your industry/profession. Know your worth, put in the work to strategically search for your next job, and be patient. It will pay off.

3.     Leverage your network. People want to help you. You just need to take the time to get over the tough feelings you’re having. I always challenge my clients to tell me the five people in their network who they think are the most likely to lead to their next job. Those are the people you want to get on a call with so you are on their radar. I also recommend building a target list of companies you’d love to work for. Use LinkedIn as the tool to fill out your target list with people’s names. I bet you’ll be surprised by how many connections you already have that can help you start making progress on building relationships with people on your target list!

It might feel really crappy right now but you’ve overcome tough times before. You’ve got this.

If you need help, feel free to reach out.

3 Things Most Job Seekers Aren’t Doing That They Should

Looking for a new job can be frustrating. It can feel like a lot of effort for very little return. One of the first questions I ask people when they reach out to me is how many jobs they have applied for online. The second question is usually to ask them what else they did other than just apply online. Job seekers tend to focus more on how many applications they submit each day or week rather than on other things that could be more fruitful.

Here are 3 things I recommend all job seekers consider doing:

1. Reach out to the 5 people in your network who you think are the mostly likely to lead to your next job. Schedule a 10-minute phone call with each of them to bring them up-to-speed on where you’re at and ask for their advice. Hopefully this will lead to a job lead or introduction.

2. Look for recruiters in your industry and reach out to them to see if you fit the profile for any role they’re recruiting for. LinkedIn’s search functionality is the perfect place to find them. In most cases, they get paid when they fill a role so they’re happy to hear from you!

3. If you’re going to apply for a job, network with someone at the company to help your chances. This could be through a connection you already have or you could use LinkedIn to make a new connection.

Sometimes a small shift in your approach can lead to a big change in the outcome.

If you want more easy-to-implement advice to help you get hired faster, check out my book ($20) or online course ($50).

You're Not Willing to Get Uncomfortable to Succeed

If that’s you, you need to listen to this podcast.

I was fortunate to guest on former-NFL player, Alex Molden’s podcast, The Shark Effect. His podcast is all about helping former elite athletes and top performers create impact in their lives beyond just the field or the court or wherever they are used to winning.

We had a very candid conversation about success, failure, and how you can make changes in your life to succeed. It involves getting uncomfortable, getting real, and doing the work.

Check out my episode with Alex and tune in to The Shark Effect for other episodes to help you live the life you want.

Want more info on Alex? Check out his website. Want more of my advice? My book is a great start.

So You Think a Short-Term Role Will Hurt Your Career?

One of the biggest misconceptions in the job search game is that a short-term or temporary or contract position will hurt your career.

I couldn’t disagree more.

 It’s tough out there. It feels more competitive than ever. And it is as the average corporate job receives 250 applications.  

One of the things I wish job seekers would consider is that there is more than one route to land your dream job. Yes, you can absolutely do the work to stand out and land your dream, full-time, permanent job but I want to encourage you to consider that there is another path to that dream job. That path is to enter your dream company in a short-term role.

Here are 3 big reasons you should consider a short-term role as your next career move:

1.     A short-term role is the perfect way to showcase what you can do. Typically, short-term roles last anywhere from 3 to 12 months. That is a substantial amount of time to prove what you are capable of.

2.     A short-term role is a great opportunity to build relationships within the company so when a full-time, permanent position opens up, you are in a great place to go after it. How many times has an ‘internal’ candidate been the lead candidate and ended up being the one who gets hired? More times than I can count. That could be you.

3.     In a short-term role, you have the opportunity to try out the company and see if it’s a good fit for you. Sometimes people forget that the decision for a longer-term hire works both ways. What is right for you matters as much as what is right for the company.

Many of my most successful students and clients got their big break into their dream company by starting in a short-term position and then turning that into a full-time role.

Want more ideas on how to land your dream job search? Check my book (it’s on sale on Amazon!) or my my online course (it’s 50% off until 10/16!)

Your Resume Needs to be 1-Page

If you have a resume that’s longer than 1-page, you need to read this.

A multi-page resume says:

1. You don’t know how to edit your information to amplify what’s important.

2. You think every job you’ve ever had is relevant to every position you’re applying for.

3. You think a recruiter will read more than 1-page.

4. You think a recruiter will read the 8 bullet points you wrote under a job. Under every job.

5. You are probably way too wordy in how you communicate in general.

Your resume will be looked at for about 6 seconds if it makes it to human eyes. How much can you read in 6 seconds?! Yes, many companies use ATS (applicant tracking software). This is not a reason to write a novel to get all the key words in that you think should be in your resume.

Have a short, effective summary statement below your name and contact info. Include your work experience, education, and any other special info. Be concise. Explain what you did plus the impact of it. Sell. Yourself. Effectively. Need more help? There’s a full chapter in my book on resumes and much more.

Is Your Age Affecting Your Odds of Getting Hired?

The simple answer is YES, it very well might be. And it’s an issue on both ends of the spectrum – if you’re viewed as being “too young” or “too old”, you may be subject to ageism. In this post, I’m going to focus on ageism against older applicants as this has been a topic many of my career coaching clients have asked about lately.

First off, what is it really? Ageism is prejudice or discrimination against people based on their age. For example, has someone made you feel like you’re out of touch because of your age? Or that you’re slower or less productive because of your age? Or have you been asked your age in an interview when it has nothing to do with the work? Those are all examples of ageism.

We have a long way to go as a society to combat ageism and how it’s affecting the workplace. In the meantime, here are 4 things that could help you combat age-based discrimination in the workplace:

1.     Be up-to-date on trends in your industry and/or functional area. In your next interview, make it obvious that you know what is happening in your industry and in your functional area of expertise. Reference recent news and in particular anything the company you’re interviewing with would be impacted by.

2.     Take a course or certification to show recent education or training on your resume. If you’re most recent education or training was before the 21st century, it would be good to have something on your resume showing you value staying up-to-date with your skills. Something as simple as a low-cost, online course on something relevant to what you’re looking to be hired to do could go a long way.

3.     If you have over 20 years of experience, describe your years of experience as “20+” rather than the actual number. This could be on your resume, on your LinkedIn profile, and in conversations when you’re asked to describe your background.

4.     Consider updating your look to reflect current, age-appropriate trends. Still be you, but it isn’t a bad idea for all of us to refresh our look once in a while.  

Let’s be honest, this isn’t the most comfortable topic but it is unfortunately affecting some hiring decisions so hopefully these tips will help. And if you need help with your job search, check out my book or my online course.

3 Things You Can You Do on LinkedIn to Help Land Your Dream Job

Nobody said it would be easy to land your dream job. Think for a minute about how many roles you’ve applied for and not heard back on. Argh. That feeling sucks, but it hasn't doesn't have to be nearly as difficult as you're making it.

Here are 3 things you can do today on LinkedIn to help yourself get closer to a job you’ll love:

1. Spend an hour giving your LinkedIn profile a mini-makeovert. You probably spend well over an hour aimlessly scrolling social media each day. Why not put an hour into helping move yourself forward? These are the most important things to spend time on with your profile:

   1. Have a great headshot. Be yourself but make it professional.

   2. Insert a background picture behind your headshot. It should represent your professional passion.

   3. Use a strong headline. You are more than just your current job title. Look at my headline as an example.

   4. Write an impactful ‘About’ section. This section should give a strong overview of your expertise and experience (years, industries, functional areas) as well as what you’re looking for.

   5. Leverage keywords. Two options here: a) put a keyword paragraph highlighting your areas of expertise at the end of your ‘About’ section or b) work keywords in throughout your profile.

2. Once you’ve given your profile some love, use LinkedIn’s search feature to search for recruiter in your industry, functional area, or city. Many recruiters get paid when they place a candidate in a job so putting yourself on their radar could be a great thing for both of you. One of the biggest misconceptions people have about recruiters is that they don’t want to hear from potential candidates - they do!

3. Use LinkedIn direct messaging to start to building connections within companies that interest you. I always tell people that goal is to get someone on the phone for 5 minutes to ask them a few questions about their role and about the company. As long as you are polite and professional, the worst thing that will happen is you won’t get a reply.

There’s so much more you can do on LinkedIn but I assure you, spending an hour to revamp yoru profile then putting in an hour each week networking on LinkedIn will be a game-changer towards landing your dream job.

Want more advice? Check out my online course, ‘How to Get the Job You Really Want.’ For the next 5 days (through April 6th) I’m giving my readers half-price on the course (now $24.99) using the link above or the coupon code MTHREADER. The course includes 6 hours of on-demand videos (no tests!) covering everything from how to stand out, interviewing, salary negotiation, and more.

How Do You Help Your Kid Pick the Right College?

If you have kids close to college-age you are probably a bit overwhelmed by how to support your kid on the big decision about which college is right for them. While my three kids are too young for college, I can recommend how you help them make this important decision. I currently teach at a major university, I’m a career coach, I’ve held admissions-related roles at two well-known colleges, and while not as interesting, I spent 6 years in college (undergrad + grad school). The articles you read about how to choose a college all say the same things. My advice is different.

I will argue you should focus on:

a) Will your kid be taught by academics or industry people? and

b) Does the college have a pipeline to help your kid get hired?

Before I turn this big decision on its head and dive into why those two things listed above are so important, let’s review the basics. We can all agree several things matter when considering colleges and we read about (and probably think about) these often:

1. Where your kid can get into. The average acceptance rate for all ranked colleges that reported their admissions stats to U.S. News was 70%, with several schools accepting every student who applies. The ivy league colleges are certainly much tougher with, Harvard, for example, accepting only about 4% of applicants.

2. What you can afford. Average 4-year college tuition rates range from about $5,000 to over $40,000 per year dependent on which state you’re looking at and if your kid would be in-state or out of state. About 85% of 1st year college students have some kind of financial aid, with the average student borrowing about $11,000 per year for college. This is an expensive endeavor no matter how you look at it so what your kid get out of it matters.

3. What student life is like. There are many factors to consider here including size of student body, campus experience, housing options, sports, clubs, and other cultural options with the most important student life factor being what is the right fit for your kid.

4. How reputable is the college. Let’s be real, if your kid goes to a well-known college vs. a no-name college, that impacts the weight their degree carries on their resume. Sure, it’s what your kid does with the degree that matters most, but I guarantee you the kids coming out of top colleges are getting more interviews and more offers than the kids coming out of no-name community colleges.

5. Where is the college located. For parents, this can be a huge one. How far away from home are you comfortable with your kid landing? Will you be saying goodbye forever if they head out of state for college? Will they ever return home? As someone who went to undergrad on the opposite side of the country from my parents, my feeling is the further away your kid goes to college, the less likely it is they’ll ever return home.

Those five factors above certainly all matter in helping your kid decide where to go to college but I’d argue that who will be teaching your kid and how closely connected the college is to jobs are as important, if not, more important, than most of the factors listed above.

Why does who is teaching your kid matter? Aren’t all university teachers the same? No. Imagine learning to drive from someone who has studied driving but never driven or learning to drive from someone who drives for a living. Who would you want your kid learning to drive from?

Many university teachers are highly accomplished academics with PhDs in their fields who have studied, researched, and published in their fields of expertise. Many, however, with those credentials have never worked in the industry they are “experts” in outside of their work in academia. They are essentially teaching your kid to drive although they have never driven themselves.

Many universities also have teachers who are highly accomplished practitioners in their fields who have worked in or managed the day-to-day duties and people involved in their fields for example, in business or in science or in journalism. These people have worked outside of academia and are now teaching students based on theory but also on their hands-on expertise having done the things they’re teaching students about. They essentially drive for a living or used to drive for a living and are now teaching your kid to drive. For your information, that is me, I have an MBA (not a PhD) and have worked in industry (marketing) for 20+ years so my teaching is focused on teaching my students based on some theory but much more so on real-world application.

There is also the magical combination of someone who is an accomplished academic (i.e. has a PhD) and is also an accomplished industry practitioner (i.e. 20+ years working in industry in their field) - those people are like unicorns and you should listen to everything they say.

There is certainly value to be added from both academics and industry practitioners, and who is best suited to teach your kid depends on what your kid wants to do, but I will argue that in most cases, unless your kid wants to become an academic, a theorist, or a researcher, your kid will be better equipped if they are taught by someone who has actually done first-hand what they are teaching the class about - someone who has driven a car themselves.

So in short, look at the faculty website for the schools your kid is interested in and dive into where the teachers have worked. Is it only in academic settings? Or in industry settings? Or both? If the full roster of teachers is all academics, I’d go back to my driving analogy and rethink that school / that program.

And now the other factor I think you should consider:

Why does there being a pipeline to help your kid get hired matter? Colleges are great at charging tuition and giving out degrees. Where there is room for improvement is in how connected colleges are to jobs. What’s the point of a degree if your kid ends up working at a restaurant after they graduate. I built my online course, “How to Get the Job You Really Want” and wrote my book, “Made To Hire”, because of this gap. There is a huge gap between having a great degree and/or a great resume and actually getting hired.

I would explore what career services the colleges your kid is considering have and how connected those colleges are to companies, to internships, and to jobs. Ask for details, for specifics. Which companies recruit from the college? What services do they offer (before and after graduation) to help students get hired?

As an aside, I believe we are going to continue to see a shift in education with people choosing to pursue shorter term training programs that are more directly connected to jobs rather than 4-year degrees.

I hope this helps you consider a few other factors that you might not have been thinking about as you help your kid navigate their way into college. It’s a big decision and definitely one they will benefit from your help on.

I do occasionally do 1-on-1 coaching for college students and new grads (typically paid for by their parents - another reason to get them into the right college and get them hired so you can stop having to pay for everything).

For more advice, visit madetohire.com and follow me on IG @madetohire.

Don't Accept the Offer

In the past month alone, I’ve helped 5 people negotiate thousands of dollars more than they were originally offered by companies looking to hire them.

One of the biggest career mistakes people make is accepting a job offer without negotiating. So much time goes into developing your resume and building other tools like your LinkedIn profile. You then put more time into networking and looking for jobs. And even more time into applying for jobs and if all goes well, interviewing for jobs. But then, the mistake happens. The hiring manager or HR person calls you and offers you the job and you accept it over the phone. Game over. Yes, you have a new job now but you left a lot on the table and you can’t go back. So don’t make that mistake because it is much more difficult to move your base salary once you’re inside the company. On your way in is the best time to negotiate. I’m continuously surprised by how few people negotiate offers.

To be fair, getting an offer is great news. It feels like a huge sigh of relief, especially when it feels like you’ve been job searching and interviewing forever. BUT why do you feel a sense of urgency to need to accept the offer right away? What is the huge rush all of a sudden? You have power in the process too. Take your time and remember, if they’re making you the offer, they’ve considered many other candidates and it’s YOU they want.

A few key things to consider:

1. Don’t accept the position over the phone. Thank them for the offer and ask them to email you the details. If you accept immediately over the phone, you lose any leverage you might have had.

2. When you review the offer, consider all components that make up the offer. There are many things to think about beyond just pay such as bonuses, benefits, training or education allowance, retirement contribution matching or pension, etc.

3. Most positions have hiring ranges. They are likely starting you at the low end of the range and are expecting you to negotiate.

4. Know your worth and don’t sell yourself short. There’s lots of public info on what the role you’re being offered should pay. Check out sites like Glassdoor.com or payscale.com to see what the salary range for the position should be.

If you’re expecting an offer and want my help negotiating it, shoot me an email at merryn@madetohire.com. I do this for free for my college students and charge 1 hr of my time to others. p.s. All my client work is confidential. Think of me as your secret weapon.

LinkedIn is your own personal billboard. Start acting like it.

You’re scrolling LinkedIn again. Some days you’re on it A LOT. If you’re on LinkedIn, it means you have a profile and you think the site is valuable. I get that, I do too. But most of the profiles I see on the site are in need of major work to actually be effective.

LinkedIn has long been a staple in the job search and networking world but since Covid, the virtual nature of interviewing and hiring has made LinkedIn even more important. Your LinkedIn profile is truly your own personal virtual billboard. If you’re going to be on the site, it’s time to step up your game and have a profile you’re proud - not to mention a profile recruiters will notice.

So what are the keys to a great profile? There are many but here are 10 of my favorite tips to quickly improve the appeal and effectiveness of your profile:

1. Have a great headshot. Be yourself but make it professional. Consider the background behind your head - keep it simple. Be aware of your facial expression not being overly enthusiastic or overly serious.

2. Insert a background picture behind your headshot to tell more of a story about yourself. Click the pencil icon that allows you to edit your profile. From there click the pencil icon that sits on the wide image space.  Many people have the default filler image from LinkedIn or a meaningless image of a mountain or an ocean - that says nothing about you professionally.  It’s best to personalize your background image with something that represents your professional passion. You can pull an image off Google or check out unsplash, pixabay, or pexels sites for free images. Canva is a great app to use to create the background image within the LinkedIn template. Be sure to view your profile on desktop and mobile so you choose an image that works well for both. 

3. Use a strong headline. Your headline appears below your name in your profile. You are more than just your current job title, which is what many of your profiles currently show as your headline. What you write there greatly affects how you show up in search results. Instead of saying, for example, ‘Marketing Coordinator,’ you could say, ‘Marketing Coordinator. Consumer-Focused, Brand-Builder, Digital Marketing Expert.’ You have 220 spaces for your headline, which LinkedIn increased from 120 but I’d say somewhere between 100-150 characters is perfect.

4. Have up-to-date contact info. Make sure your contact info is up-to-date and includes at least an email address. Consider joining us in the 21st century with a gmail account if you still have a hotmail or yahoo email. I have those too so don’t worry I’m kind of old as well so I feel you but agism is a thing so let’s not seem even older.

5. Write an impactful ‘About’ section. This is the first section below your headline. Many people neglect to write anything there, which is a huge missed opportunity to tell your story and plug in keywords. This section should give a strong overview of your expertise and experience (years, industries, functional areas) as well as what you’re looking for. Here’s an example for a job seeker in her 20s:

   - Former Division 1 collegiate athlete with 4 years of experience in basketball marketing and ticket sales. Expertise in project management, marketing planning, and social media buying in the sports and entertainment industries. Seeking a challenging marketing position in a major league headquarters location or team office.

   I would love to you to add keywords in your ‘About’ section too, check the next tip for that.

6. Leverage keywords. Put a keyword paragraph highlighting your areas of expertise at the end of your ‘About’ section. This is a great way to align yourself with the type of positions you’re interested in and come up higher in recruiter search results.

7. Actually put details against your work experience. Many profiles just list past positions with no details on what you were responsible for and the impact you had. Also be consistent with your formatting across jobs - bullets or a short paragraph not both.

8. Include visual examples. There are many places in your profile where you can add examples as images or links to sites or files. This is a great way, especially in your work experience section, to bring your expertise to life in more than just words. This is a unique way in which LinkedIn offers you much more than your standard resume in terms of your ability to tell a more robust story.

9. Have a recommendation written about you. Ideally have 2-3 in fact and have at least one from the current year. This section shows up at the bottom of your profile and is an easy way for people reading your profile to get a better feel for your professional reputation. Note: I don’t advise jumping right into LinkedIn’s automated ‘Request a recommendation’ feature. Email your contact first to ask them if they’re willing to do this for you otherwise it can come across as pushy if they just get the request from you through LinkedIn.

10. Ditch the ‘open to network’ feature from your profile. Everyone on LinkedIn is open to network. Highlighting that makes you look desperate. Even if you are feeling a little desperate, hold your head high.

The bottom line is, if your’e going to be on LinkedIn then bring your A-game. Spending a little time making the updates above before you start scrolling again will pay I off. Proof: I get lots of notes from people who read my book or took a LinkedIn Workshop with me saying they made the changes I suggested and BAM the job machine is in high gear for them now!

If you want more job search and career advice, check out my book ($19), “Made To Hire: How to Get the Job You Really Want,” or my online course ($50), “How to Get the Job You Want.”

5 Steps to Land Your Dream Job

Let’s get real, if ALL you’re doing is applying online, you’re wasting your time. With most jobs getting hundreds of applicants, you need to stand out. And standing out starts WELL BEFORE you submit your application online.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Have you built your brand? Yes, you are a brand! I encourage you to act like one especially during your job search. Things to consider: Have you gotten really good at telling your own story? (You’ll need this in your 1st round interview.) Do you have an amazing resume? Is your LinkedIn profile top-notch?

2. Does your network know you’re looking for a new job? Are you asking for introductions and recommendations to companies that interest you? Or are you flying solo? I guarantee you the people getting hired have help in the form of introductions and recommendations either from someone inside the company or from someone outside the company who is influential.

3. Do you have a set of documents that represent you beyond just your resume? Your resume is one tool but there’s so much more you can create as part of your portfolio to stand out. Two of my favorite tools are a Suitability Map and a 30-60-90 Day Plan.

There’s so much to do before you even apply online. These tips are just the beginning. Learn the full process in detail in my top-rated book, Made To Hire: How to Get the Job You Really Want, or in my online career course, How to Get the Job You Want.

Why You Aren't Getting Hired

Job searching can be pretty defeating. There’s the excitement when you see a job posting that actually looks like something you’d want to do everyday followed by the feeling of accomplishment once you send off your application online. Then you wait. And you wait some more. And 99% of the time, nothing happens. Rewind and repeat that several times over the course of many weeks (or months), you have the perfect recipe for self-doubt. Over time you start wondering what’s wrong with you. Let me tell you, there is nothing wrong with you, it’s your approach that stinks.

The problem with that approach is it’s passive. Put bluntly, it’s lazy. Would you hire someone who only does the bare minimum to get noticed? To get hired? By bare minimum, I mean all they did was apply online, they did nothing else to stand out and set themself apart. No, you wouldn’t hire that person and neither would I. If you’re frustrated, and I get it (!), then it’s time to rethink your approach. I promise you, there is a better way and it works.

I believe there are 5 steps to land your dream job and applying online is step 4. Most people think it’s step 1 and that there is only 1 step.

I hope my 5 steps visual gives you some inspiration to truly go after that next posting that you see that excites you. If you really want it, then really put in the effort.

If you want to dive into my recommendations for each step, check out my book, “Made To Hire: How to Get the Job You Really Want.” I’ve helped countless people rejig their approach and land their dream job.

3 Ways You Need to Win in Your Next Interview

Have an interview coming up? Want to move to the next round? And ultimately get closer to the offer? Here are the 3 big things that most directly lead to a successful interview:

1. You need to know how to tell your own story really well. You will definitely be asked to tell the interviewer about yourself. The goal here is to share the parts of your story that are most important and that make sense with the position. The first few minutes of the interview is when the interviewer decides if you’re moving on to the next round. The rest of the interview is a validation of that initial feeling.

2. Figure out the 5-7 stories you’re going to share that best align you with the position. The interview then becomes a game to place those stories against the questions asked. Most people haphazardly answer interview questions and then end the Interview realizing they didn’t even get in some of their best examples.

3. Connect with your interviewer. Know their background (hint: you can research them on LinkedIn). Know what matters to them. Mentioned any unique points of intersection such as you went to the same college or both used to live in the same city, etc. At the end of the interview also be sure to ask them what’s the biggest thing they’re looking for in who they hire. This is a great question because it makes the interviewer feel valued and it also gives you the chance to share an additional story if their answer is something you haven’t had the chance to demonstrate yet.

Want more interview tips? Check out my book, “Made To Hire: How to Get the Job You Really Want,” and my online course, “Ace the Interview.”

Interviewing is a GAME. Learn how to play it.

I recently ran my “Ace the Interview” Workshop as a session open for anyone to attend. Check out the video below to learn my proven methods for what you can do before, during, and after your next interview to greatly increase your chances of getting the offer.

Jump to 7:56 for tips on how to prepare for your interview.

Jump to 57:52 for tips to use during the actual interview.

Jump to 1:23:16 for tips to use after the interview.

Stop repeating things that don’t work and start getting results. And if you want to mock interview with me, I offer a limited number of sessions each month. Click here to learn more.

Salary Negotiation: The biggest DOs and DON'Ts

You’ve gone through the application and interview process and you’re the chosen ONE. Finally!!! The company has decided that of all the applicants, they want YOU. So now is the time to leverage that, not give away all your power.

On your way into a company is your best time to negotiate. Raises are typically small (~3% annually) so it’s important to maximize your total compensation when you enter the company. So let’s get specific on things you should DO and should AVOID DOING when negotiating a job offer. It’s time to sweeten the pot.

What to do when negotiating a job offer:

1. When they make the offer, be excited and grateful.

2. Ask them to email you the details of the offer and let them know you’ll get back to them tomorrow.

3. Negotiate the most important thing first. For many people that’s the salary/pay.

4. When negotiating money, give them data to support higher pay (i.e. What you made in your last job, what payscale.com or glassdoor.com says that role typically pays, and any other relevant facts).

5. Once you’ve gotten as far as you can with your most important negotiation item, bring forth the other items you’d like to negotiate.

6. Realize there are many items you can potentially negotiate including: salary/pay, title, start date, retirement contribution, PTO, flexibility (WFM), relocation, signing bonus, annual performance bonus, stock options, expenses (cell phone, laptop, etc.), professional development, conference attendance.

7. Look at the offer as a whole. Don’t get too hung up on one factor alone.

What NOT to do when negotiating a job offer:

1. Don’t accept the offer over the phone. Get it in writing then negotiate it.

2. Don’t feel rushed or pressured.

3. Don’t negotiate all offer details at once otherwise the employer will give you items on your list that are the least valuable. But also don’t be annoying here. Get your big thing done then tackle the rest in one batch.

4. Don’t undervalue yourself. If they’re making you the offer, they want you. Be reasonable but confident.

If you have an offer and would like my help negotiating it, I offer 1-on-1 career coaching to do just that. And every client I’ve helped negotiate their salary has been very happy with how far we’ve moved from the original offer.