The reality is, that’s just not true. I’ve done hundreds, if not thousands, of reference checks over my 12 years in Executive Search, and I don’t think anyone has ever given me “nothing but the facts” about a candidate. I always get color on the person and their performance, and I mean always.

I recently spoke with an old friend of mine who lost her job. I say lost, because I’m pretty certain that’s what happened, even though she said, it was pretty mutual between her and her boss. Subsequently I heard all the reasons why it wasn’t working out. Well, now is not the time to be without a job while looking for one, and I know she knows that, so I really think things didn’t work out between her and her boss for some reason.

Back Channel Checks: As a pretty large retained executive search firm in Southern California, and with relationships with over 4,000 executives through The McDermott & Bull Executive Network, there aren’t many companies we can’t call to get more information about someone without that company being given to us as a reference. I recently had a candidate who worked for a company 10 years ago, where I happen to know the most senior person in the Western U.S. today. While he didn’t know my candidate, he did some checking and found out a lot from people that had worked with the candidate 10 years prior. In fact, I don’t recall a search in the recent past where I wasn’t able to conduct a back-channel reference check, or my client wasn’t able to call one of their peers in the industry for more information.

When I asked my friend (story above) what her boss would say about her if called by a prospective employer, (being that it is a small world) she said she assumed in this litigious environment, it would be “name, rank and serial number.” I said “that’s absolutely incorrect”. People in her industry know each other, and sometimes are old friends and former co-workers. Would you not tell your friend about an employee that might have been a handful, or maybe didn’t perform up to your expectations? Absolutely you would.

I told my friend to reach out to her old boss, let him know that he would likely be getting called by future employers, and ask him what he would say. If it wasn’t positive, I suggested she take him out for coffee and have a heart to heart. Mend those fences. It might be as easy as falling on your sword and saying, “While I know you expected this and this out of me, I didn’t feel I had the resources to deliver that, or I was honestly in over my head and in my future pursuits, I will make sure not to bite off more than I can chew.” If nothing else, your former boss will likely have a more positive impression of you after you confront the “elephant in the room” and talk it out, and you will have a better idea about what he will say about you.

While companies are on the hiring trend again, they are still doing it cautiously, and there are good candidates, both working and non-working today. Any questionable reference could torpedo your chances, so make sure you know what your former bosses will say about you, even if you don’t mention them as a reference. Count on them being called.

And if you’re a hiring manager, make the “back-channel check” a must-complete before hiring item on your checklist. If you don’t know people from a candidate’s former employers, call us and we’ll see if we do. I often get calls from Human Resource leaders at client companies, or other hiring managers that I know, about a candidate they’re looking to hire on their own, asking if I can do some checking. I’m always happy to do that for a client or a friend.

Rod McDermott
Managing Partner
McDermott & Bull Executive Search

We’ve all heard it before – we make our first impression (positive or negative) in the first 8 seconds we meet someone. This includes your first handshake with a potential employer, but let’s not forget this could also include a view of you getting out of your car or waiting in the lobby. We all decide whether or not we “like” someone within the first 4 minutes of meeting them. This doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t get the job offer if you’re a qualified person. And finally, whatever impression you’ve made in the first 4 minutes, you can still change it in the next 15 minutes directly following that time frame. If you tripped or said something questionable, you can turn it around in your favor. However, you can also negatively affect their first impression.

Not too long ago, I had a conversation with a friend and business partner, Patsy Cisneros (co-owner of Corporate Icon and co-author of The Professional Toolkit – How to Look Like You Mean Business), and she made a great and relevant point. She quoted Dr. Albert Mehrabian, saying there are ten, subliminal perceptions involved in a first impression. According to hiring managers that were polled across the US, the three most important perceptions are trustworthiness, education level, and moral character. “It is the job of the image consultant to ensure you look like the best authentic version of who you are.”

Patsy referred an Image Consultant in the Bay Area to a member of the McDermott & Bull Executive Network, who happens to be a senior HR professional. She was kind enough to share her story of recently landing a position with our Executive Network mixer attendees this past week, and commented on how the Image Consultant really helped her. You could see it in her level of confidence.

Patsy had some good advice for folks considering working with an image consultant:

• There are many different types of consultants so check out their website and figure out what exactly they specialize in (i.e. men/women, etiquette, etc.).
• Conduct a phone interview. Ask them questions like, “What kind of stores do you take your clients to?” to ensure you’re a good fit and you’re on the same track.
• Don’t give up. If one consultant doesn’t have the same vision you do, keep searching for one that does.

As the most recent past president of the So Cal Chapter of the Association of Image Consultants International, Patsy is a great resource of image consultant professionals for all levels of experience. Also, AICI.org is a website that offers lists of consultants all over the US.

If you have a story about where a good, or not so good, first impression made a difference in an interview, please share it.

The Rabbi started off by putting a large glass vase on his lectern, and beside it 6 large rocks, a large bag of gravel, and a pitcher full of water. He squeezed 5 large rocks into the vase and couldn’t get the sixth one in as it was full. He asked the crowd, “Is there any more room for anything else?” “No” was the response. He then picked up the large bag of gravel and poured half of it into the vase. The gravel filled up all of the empty spaces surrounding the large rocks. “Is there any room for anything else,” he asked. “Of course not” was the response. He then poured half of the pitcher of water into the vase and it filled to the brim. “Can anything else possibly fit at this point?” The answer was definitely “no.” I think most of us have heard this exercise before.

His sermon continued in a unique direction, “If you attempted to fill the vase with water first, you wouldn’t have been able to add any rocks or gravel. If you filled the vase with gravel before anything else, none of the large rocks would have fit inside.” He then asked the congregation, “What are the large rocks in your life?”

Wow, that hit me like a ton of bricks.

I spend a lot of my time paying attention to the water and the gravel, but don’t leave a lot of time for the large rocks – my wife, my kids, and my closest friends and colleagues. I am definitely guilty of misguided priorities. For some reason, I’ve allowed myself to become consumed with the tiny and often least important things in life – hundreds of emails and tons of voicemails on a weekly basis, leaving little time for the big rocks. I have found myself over the last few months not having time to enjoy reading a good book because I get up in the morning at 4:00am just to get through an inbox of over 150 emails from the prior day. Stop the insanity!

There are three steps I’m choosing to follow (I really hope I do) to have more time to focus on the big rocks:

1. Make a list of priorities – the big rocks – and what I hope to accomplish with them. For my family time, it might be – I mean it WILL be – as simple as calendaring dinner with the entire family 2 times per week (it sounds crazy, but that only happens on one weekend day now).
2. Clean my slate. If my calendar was clean with no emails or voicemails, what would I choose to do to make progress on my objectives?
3. Set daily and weekly commitments and hold myself accountable. Don’t make any progress on the little rocks until these are met.

Each night recently, after a day full of work, maybe some Pilates to rehabilitate my back, breakfast, lunch, and dinner meetings, back to back meetings at different locations, and phone calls during drive time, I walk in the door and my daughter, Maddie, runs up to me with script in hand to her school’s most recent play, “Dudes,” instructing me to fill in Alan’s lines as appropriate to ensure she’s got the part of Sue down without looking at her lines. This is definitely a big rock for me!

Where do we find time to do it all as well as respond to all of the business calls, emails, texts, as well as read the “important” tweets, blogs, etc? The answer is we don’t. We just make sure the big rocks make it into our bucket. The little rocks will find a place – or not.

A few questions for our readers:

Please send us your comments and let’s get the best ideas out to our readers.

While most business books I’ve read don’t really introduce new concepts (I know my blog doesn’t really either), the really good ones get me to focus on the important things I’ve been missing, or some areas for improvement, generally in leadership. This book falls into that same category and reinforces some important concepts we’ve all learned in the past, but does put a different perspective, in my opinion, on the mindset the Linchpin has while doing her work. She’s an artist, and is “giving” away her art, or, in my opinion, her gifts and strengths to an organization and those it serves. It’s just who she is – she is going to do a great job and not keep score, and make sure she leaves those she serves better off for having interacted with her. Keeping score – “They don’t pay me enough”, “I’m not appreciated”, or “They overwork me” – can be very tiring and generally leaves the score keeper not feeling better for the experience.

I ran into a Linchpin last night at dinner. I had a candidate for a search fly in from out of state to have dinner with me and an associate of mine, before meeting with my client today. We met at Hanna’s in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA, a great little restaurant run by Dave Hanna. While it hadn’t dawned on me before, the service has always been excellent, and the staff, from the greeters to the waiters, has always been extremely cheerful and accommodating, no matter how busy they were at the time. Last night, I ordered something not on the menu that they didn’t have an ingredient for (I know, I’m high maintenance). When Jessie, the server, mentioned they didn’t have that in the back and it would take a few moments, I said not to worry about it. She quickly replied, “No, we’ll get that for you. The market is close and we’ll send somebody out.” Wow! I can’t recall that happening anytime recently, and can probably count on 1 finger (or less) how many times that’s happened before. When I commented on her service level, she said Dave has a rule that they serve their customers and most requests can be accommodated if they go out of their way (I’m paraphrasing here, Jessie, if you’re reading this). Why can’t we all just say “yes” when a request that can be accommodated is made?

Jessie is a Linchpin, and I suspect Dave is lucky enough to have more than one working for him. In fact, it might be his leadership that attracts and encourages that type of mentality in his company. We are lucky enough to have a few Linchpins at McDermott & Bull too, and we really, really appreciate their extra efforts to serve one another and the customer.

After my dinner, I went to a presentation by Kevin Hall at a conference called Performance Breakthrough. He mentioned a concept we talk about from time to time and that is having passion in ones’ job. As he discussed it, I kept thinking of the word “purpose”, which has always given me passion.

If I’m working on my purpose, I can be passionate about what I’m doing and the work I’m doing doesn’t feel like work. I think the greatest job of all, the Dream Job, is the one that doesn’t feel like work. It’s the job I would do for free. Linchpins approach their work like this, and from an artist’s perspective, it’s a privilege to have the opportunity to carry out the job they do everyday – and it’s not work!

Let’s all go out and be Linchpins in what we do – it sounds like a blast!

Please send us your comments and let’s get the best ideas out to our readers.

How many times have you said to yourself, “I’m perfect for this job”? I’ve recently spoken to far too many job seekers that have recounted their most recent prospective job opportunities only to tell me they fell in love with one or two opportunities and focused all their efforts to pursue them only to be let down in the end. Not only is this damaging to your corporate ego, but you’re hurting yourself by not incorporating a funnel or pipeline (more comparison to sales) of possible job opportunities that you can seriously pursue all at one time.

Just like in sales, you want to create a “formula” by working backwards from your goal. If your goal is to have 4 or 5 job offers that allow you to make the best decision for you and your career, then you probably need to interview with 15 (or more) companies. And if you want to get at least 15 company interviews, you probably need to identify two or three times that many opportunities that seem to match your background and experience. To find those opportunities, you may end up building a list of 50 or 60 prospect companies. Keep in mind that your formula may change depending on the response you receive and whether or not you are achieving the appropriate milestones – and many times, that change will result in you targeting more companies, and therefore opportunities.

The trap that many fall in is that once they successfully interview at the one company they think is perfect, they immediately cease all activities in their original formula. When you commit to identifying multiple opportunities, you reduce the risk of a few different scenarios that may happen when you put all of your eggs in one basket. Seriously considering only one or two positions could make you appear desperate since you focus much of your time and energy pursuing that one thing. Many individuals end up making the wrong career decisions because they’ve got tunnel vision or they feel like they have no other choice, which in turn could cause their run at “x” company to be short lived. People – the interviewers can tell if you’re desperate and are always turned off by that – so don’t be desperate.

So, ask yourself, why aren’t you building your pipeline? You don’t want to cut yourself short; it’s time to start treating your job search like a full time sales job. Create a large target list of prospects, networking with people that can help you gain access, and work your funnel.

Please leave your thoughts and comments so we can get the best ideas out there.

OK, onto the topics:

I. Head Trash
We’ve had this conversation once before, but it seems to prevail in the marketplace. I refer to head trash as those thoughts, ideas, and beliefs that serve no purpose other than to create a roadblock in your head. I have a theory on it as well: sometimes head trash serves to be the “reason” we’re NOT making progress in our job search. For instance, if I want to be a leader/manager in a company in the healthcare industry, I can tell myself, after being told the same thing many times, that it’s almost impossible because I don’t have healthcare experience. What does this do for me? It validates why I haven’t made progress and therefore, it can’t be my fault, right?

Well, as a counter point to this, I have a client in the healthcare industry that appreciates that our firm looks for people outside his core business for new ideas to help them serve their customers and beat the competition. CEOs like this are out there, they just have to be found.

If professional athletes listened to head trash, would they ever make the pros? What are the odds of someone making the pros in baseball, basketball, or football in this country? The odds against making it must be huge, right? Head trash right there!

Recently, I heard from a friend of mine with nearly 20 years of mortgage experience, (having been part owner of a very successful company) that a wholesale mortgage company wouldn’t look at him because he didn’t have wholesale experience, only retail. Now, I can turn this around very easily in my head – he is probably one of the best suited wholesale mortgage brokers, since as a large retail broker, he was a customer of the best of the best. He knew what made the difference between the leading firms and what he, as a customer of their products and services, looked for in a wholesale partner probably better than most with solely wholesale experience.

If I were him, I’d find wholesale company CEOs that are most interested in out-serving their competition and building market share, and send them a special report on what differentiates the best from simply good. Additionally, I’d share my thoughts on how best to penetrate and grow market share, based on my own experience regarding what would have made me try a newcomer. With the mortgage industry in a rebuilding mode, this is like the Wild West all over again, and most likely a prime market.

So, question 1: What is your head trash? Share a few thoughts so that we can get them out of our heads and start making headway toward our search (pun intended).

II. Going Above and Beyond
With Memorial Day falling just yesterday, I couldn’t help but watch at least one World War II movie (ok, it was more than one). One of the all time great movies of that genre is “To Hell and Back” with Audie Murphy as himself. Having not seen it in over 20 years, I didn’t remember the beginning. General Walter Bedell Smith kicked off the movie by talking about those many men (and boys) and women who distinguished themselves everyday on the field of battle by going “above and beyond the call of duty”. I seemed to have focused my thoughts in the past to just the “above and beyond” part, but “the call of duty” part is really critical to consider as well. Why? Because it depends on the circumstance. Our troops risked life and limb everyday, and some took additional risks to save their buddies, or “take the hill” and meet the objective, which might have served to save their own or other troops.

I continue to hear that people are working and trying harder, doing more today than in the past with their job search efforts. Is this really going above and beyond? In my introductory post on CEO Charlie, I profiled that he spent nearly 40 hours writing 4 special reports to get interviews with companies, rather than sending in his resume. It worked and he got the interviews! How many people have gone to that extent? I know many that have written special reports, but an entire week on just 4, with no certainty that it would work??

Question 2: What are some things you’ve done to go above and beyond? Maybe we can get some good ideas out to our readers that they can incorporate into their searches.

That’s all for now. I have more to say, but word count says I’m over 800 and that’s getting long for a blog, so signing off…

One last word – Linchpin. It’s a book written by Seth Godin and is very good. If you haven’t read it, you should. I might blog about it soon…Are you a Linchpin?

It’s been an enlightening, busy, and productive couple of weeks for CEO Charlie. He’s been focused, open-minded, and determined. Unfortunately, he is still plagued with the same few questions:

1. “Am I making a mistake positioning myself as a ‘digital media’ guy rather than a broader software centric technology transformational leader and giving up on my initial job search plan too soon?”
2. “If CEO’s are feeling potentially threatened by me, should I target Board Members instead? If so, how do I find and reach out to them?”

Disappointingly, Charlie got calls from two different companies letting him know they didn’t think he was the right fit for their opportunities sighting his year out of the industry as their reasoning. He plans to continue to compensate for that time by attending tradeshows, reading trade publications, blogging, and staying active in industry groups. He has also been exploring a promising board seat opportunity at an IT services firm and is in the process of scheduling a third phone meeting for next week.

In even better news, Charlie’s hoping the same questions he keeps asking himself will be a mute issue as he’s traveling east next week for a 2 day marathon of meetings for a position as CEO of a smaller company with a cool technology and an aggressive growth plan. If successful, he’ll be Executive Platinum as a bi-coastal CEO. He’s also landed a consulting job, helping an early stage Silicon Valley company update their business plan and find serious funding.

Meanwhile, Charlie attended a couple of networking events, including the McDermott & Bull Executive Network Forum and made helpful contacts with specific follow up plans. One such plan from the M&B Forum is to take advantage of his transition time (as suggested by the speaker at the event) by joining a local gym which, so far, has added to his confidence, and will assist in outshining his competition. He’s also going to attend an Executive Image Finishing School seminar in June to identify and clear up any branding concerns he has about himself.

Charlie’s done a great job at maintaining detailed search metrics and self-monitoring his progress so far during this process. He has also started to update his wife on daily activities and results since she’s a helpful supportive task manager.

He’s focused on a mail campaign involving interim CEO opportunities, getting 5 warm introductions to OC software firms and reviewing and upgrading his resume and LinkedIn profile.

Now, off to the east coast…

Edited by Jessica Balicki

Charlie has an extensive background in the media and entertainment technology industry, but not in media companies that develop content like Disney, CBS, etc. He has an even deeper background in IT technology applications that are software related.

When he started his search, Charlie was focused on his media domain knowledge, but with that industry is going through tremendous contractions including further layoffs and consolidations, he had to ask if it was a wiser idea to step back and position himself as a technology turnaround guy rather than a broadcast tech executive? Another question that I posed in my last blog that continues to plague Charlie is, “Am I a potential threat to CEOs and therefore should I be reaching out to board members instead?”

Charlie’s Recent Successes
Networking has been a tried and true strategy to stay connected and open the door for more opportunities both while in transition and while working. Charlie joined the McDermott & Bull Executive Network during his last transition and has stayed involved, which helped him to maintain his network. He’s also established relationships with about 30 retained search consultants throughout the world in the broadcast space. Strategically, he’s targeted the technology and media leaders of the top 10 search firms, as well as the local firms in Southern California.

His network helped him get 4 interviews in 5 weeks as a result of contacts through:

• Retained recruiters that he previously knew (2)
• A direct mail campaign (1)
• A job posting on the Ladders, which he received a call from the CEO who reviewed his submitted resume (1)

Charlie’s Personal Challenges
“Why is he in transition?” Charlie was hired specifically to transform his last company. The son-in-law of the major family shareholder got rid of the top 20 executives at the company after a dispute about strategy. Charlie hasn’t had any down days, so far, as he knew this coming months in advanced and was already geared up. Charlie is cautiously optimistic that his transition period won’t be a very long one, although financially and mentally, he’s prepared for a 12-month search.

His biggest concern about his search is that he’s already questioning his strategy after only 5 weeks, given the weakness in his core industry. Of the 90,000 attendees at a recent industry conference, it felt to him as if 1/3 were exhibitors, 1/3 were visitors, and 1/3 were job seekers.

Advice to Charlie
If you have any advice or thoughts for Charlie, or if you’ve had a similar challenge, please share your comment below so we can help get the best ideas out there:

• Should he change his plan and brand himself as a tech turnaround guy or a broadcast guy?
• Should it be one or the other?
• Why can’t it be both?

Learn what a CEO/COO candidate does to make himself stand out from the masses in this tough job market.

Hard work, being extraordinarily strategic, and impressing the potential boss even before the dance begins has allowed this job seeker to have 5 interviews in his first month on the market.

In addition to my continuing blogs on “Networking Nancy”, I would like to introduce “CEO Charlie” and his background. Again, due to the very real nature of the details in these blogs, I will refrain from using their real names as well as generalizing some information that may reveal their identity. However, these executives have willingly participated in this series in hopes that they may get your ideas, feedback, and support in their job search. They also hope that their story may help and encourage anyone that may be going through something similar.

PROFILE OF CEO CHARLIE

CEO Charlie builds custom resumes for a particular job that speaks to the needs of the company vis-a-vis his experience. Every resume is customized to a specific opportunity, and therefore no generic resumes or cover letters are ever sent. Shouldn’t everyone be doing this?

Special Reports: Charlie learned the concept from John Hall and it’s been a huge tool for him. He recently got a meeting with an industry leader that he could never meet with before sending him a special report and getting a meeting at the industry conference. This CEO has said he’s never responded to the hundreds of resumes he has received. He also did a document for the CEO that shows his qualifications for each company and analysis of their future strategic imperatives. These two concepts have gotten him two jobs in the past and he is convinced that it will help him land his future job.

What would you tell Charlie? Charlie feels he might be threatening CEOs as possibly a stronger candidate for their jobs, even though in many cases, he’s seeking to support them and be a strong #2, which everyone could use in this economy, right? Question: If you were Charlie, how would you handle this dilemma? Help him out by sharing your perspective below.

• Should Charlie target Board members in the event the Board is not happy with the CEO’s performance and might be contemplating a change, or continue to market himself as a great strategic partner/problem solver to the CEO?
• If he was to target Board members, how does Charlie reach Board members?
• How can he impress a CEO without threatening him/her that he might be better for their job?

Follow my blog on CEO Charlie’s travels through the job search maze and please share your thoughts. In my next blog, I will share about Charlie’s concerns about being too focused on one industry that’s still in decline, or becoming unfocused and not effectively building his brand. Stay tuned.

UPDATE FOR NETWORKING NANCY

ADVICE FOR NANCY:

• Nancy’s been concerned about being too aggressive in her job search in the past, but still wants to be proactive. Question: Where do you draw the line?
• She refers to herself as a superb networker. Question: Given the number of interviews she’s had since her transition began over a year ago, is she focusing too much on this strength and not enough on others that will help her get to her ultimate goal of more interviews to land the right job?

Please leave your thoughts and suggestions to Nancy so we can get the best ideas out there. Feel free to share whether you’ve been experiencing something similar…or completely different.