Going Off the Rails On a Fail Train

Hutch Carpenter has a sad cautionary tale.  Read “How to Tweet Yourself Out of a Job“, and have a good wince on him.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Love Songs and Salary Negotiations

Sooo….. you did it.  Created a great, relevant resume.  Sent in a killer cover letter to the right person.  Aced the interviews.  Took care of your references.  But, did you handle the “how much do you need?” portion of the process?  You know: the awkward, who-blinks-first-loses moment. 

It’s a tough one. 

Here’s what I’d advise: Try and avoid giving a number.  The reasons are: A - if you give a number that’s too low, that’s likely what you’re going to get (or they might even wonder why you’re such a bargain, and have second thoughts about you); B - if it’s too high, all they’re going to see is that big salary on your forehead – even if in the end you might get that amount, stating it too early could queer the deal.

Here’s what I’d advise: tell them what you make.  Tell them that you’d like to stay whole – heck, that you’d love a bump – but that the opportunity the job presents is so compelling that you’d like to hear their offer, and that you’re confident when they make an offer that they’ll put their best foot forward.  This politely puts the ball back in their court, and compliments them on what a great organization they are.

Shameless, Shameless Plug…

…for votes   For whatever reason, Good to Know  is up for best recruiting blog of the year.  I’m pretty sure it’s not because my employer is paying for the grand prize (seriously – what I suspect is that Jason Davis, the guy who runs RecruitingBlogs.com, the organizer of the whole contest, is just ridiculously nice and felt bad at how poorly I did at poker last time we hung out).

While I’m under zero illusion I’ll win, I wouldn’t mind not coming in dead last.  Seriously.  Soooo…. if you’re so inclined, I’d appreciate it if you clicked here and exercised your right to vote.  Primarily in categories #1& #6 – well, feel free to vote in the rest, too – in fact, I’d recommend checking out all of the nominated blogs – there’s a lot of really great guidance out there, from a gang of remarkable minds.

Writing the/ a Book on Job Searching

So, this is a pretty selfish post, but the heck with it.  I’ve been toying with the idea of writing a book, or possibly editing a selection of essays from other recruiters/ career coaches/ managers on job hunting.  That said: there are a ton of books out there on the topic, and I’d rather not do this just because I’ve got an itch to write a book.  I’d rather it be something useful for candidates – if you’re reading this, and have a suggestion on  way to make it more useful than the resources already in existence, mind popping the suggestion in the comments?  Would really, truly appreciate the input…

Thanks!

Open positions at ZoomInfo

Shameless, shameless plug, but what the hell, it’s my blog – we’re hiring like crazy.  If you’re looking to work for a very cool, red hot, interesting company, and you live around Boston, get in touch.  Like, now.  We have openings in: sales, marketing, web development, core development, QA, etc, etc…  I would love to talk to some of you interesting people….

Oh, and one thing (because it needs to be said, sadly, again): use spellcheck on your resumes.  It’s free, it’s just a button you have to hit, and it will keep you from spelling “motivating” motavating.  I mean, c’mon…