Are You a “Dynamic Team-Player?” Let’s Hope Not.

It’s long become a known fact that over half (yes, half) of Canadians have pursued post-secondary education and, at the very least, over 20% of the market is filled with university graduates (a number that continues to rise daily).  Millennial (twenty-to-thirty-somethings) in particular are becoming more specialized, more skilled, more available for positions in which university-acquired proficiencies are considered imperative and non-flexible. 

Basically, the Canadian job market has been slowly but surely filling itself up with a smarter, more educated workforce who has finally begun to catch up to the need the market has for their skills.  Well done, graduates!  The workforce has risen to the challenge demanded by improving and increasingly-complex economic conditions.  Grads have worked hard to specialize themselves in one way or another, to become something different, to get that degree alongside that internship (even if it sucked at the time), to stand out from the grad next to them.  So once it’s time to job-hunt in the “real” marketplace, do you really want to reduce yourself to being a “dynamic team-player?”  Graduates and seasoned workers alike, when it comes to identifying yourself and separating yourself from the herd of hyper-educated Millennials charging behind you in the rear-view mirror, you can do better.

            Let me rephrase that; you must do better. 

            And so, a few clichés to avoid (at all costs – seriously):
 

1. “Dynamic”:  Everyone is dynamic, especially when job-hunting, and if you’re not dynamic, don’t bother leaving your couch for your next interview.  Any contact you have with a company, recruiter, or network contact should be infused with dynamism – your first interview is that first impression, and it starts with a pleasant and outgoing personality, smart conversation, and a humble yet interesting display of your skills.  You know how awesome you are, but *spoiler alert* the rest of the business world doesn’t; it’s your job to prove to them, with every contact you have, that you could easily become a part of their world without breaking a sweat, like the boss you’ll surely be (eventually).  Confidence, anti-cliché, interesting: there’s being dynamic for you.
2. “Team-Player”: Of course you are – you and I both know that; would you be anything less?  Has there been evidence to prove that you are somehow in fact a selfish egomaniac?  Announcing what should be obvious often has a backward end-result, and people begin to question things they might normally assume to be fact.  It’s kind of like saying the phrase “To be honest” at the beginning of every sentence you speak: are you normally lying?  Are you really being honest this time in particular, as opposed to other times, hence the announcement?  The business world is, whether you like it or not, a complex network of teams, and that “team-player” mentality governs, bolsters, and allows businesses to operate on a daily basis.  There’s no “I” in team, but there is one in “cliché” – don’t become one by calling yourself a “team-player” (just don’t).
3. “Hard-working”: …seriously?  Do I really have to explain this one?  If you’re not interested in working hard, your career will hardly work.  Work hard, work always: your career doesn’t end between jobs, or after you’ve left the office.  Improve your skills, learn new ones, study, experiment with new projects.  People who are truly “hard-working” don’t need to say it; their skills, their interests, their passions say it for them.

Don’t have these exact words or phrases on your CV or cover letter?  Well done!  There are still tons of other ways in which we regularly display our stale, uninspiring, unimaginative conceptions of ourselves (without being conscious of it), even when we are, in reality, the exact opposite of those things.  The point is, be mindful of it – cliché is easy to slip into (hence, our natural attraction to it), and especially easy to miss once it has made itself comfortable in our personal and professional lives. 

The landscape of the modern marketplace has changed, period.  It’s our job as employees and employers to elevate the standard of expectations for the business world accordingly – indeed, innovation is born out of a pressing-back against clichéd norms.  You’re a good person, you worked hard, and you deserve a fair chance at a promising career.  Don’t let bad rhetoric and even worse clichéd practices take away that chance – that’s a shame if I ever heard one.

Stefano Faustini - Headhunter, Pronexia Inc.

 

Gangsterism and Recruitment at TruMontreal

           As a fresh pair of eyes peering into the recruitment world, I was excited to attend TruMontreal, an interesting “non-conference” conference on recruitment in our beautiful city which took place last week.  To be frank, I participated in much of the standard conference-related stuff: listened intently on presentations, card-exchanged with some connections, hung by the buffet table to sneak a better look at a few notable-looking people in the industry while stuffing more mini-croissants in my mouth than is probably appropriate, etc.  The crowd was the first thing I noticed.  Eclectic, diverse in demographic, this was a hodgepodge of strays who had fallen into the profession, much like myself.  The ambiguous crowd reflected the recruitment industry as a whole: fluid, unfixed, wide-opened and bursting at the seams with potential for transformation.  Any sharp-minded individual with drive, boldness and an innovative mind could wreak havoc on the customs in the industry and take it by storm.  The crowd and the field equally were ripe for the taking.

Enter Marina Byezhanova, Co-founder and Chief Headhunter of Pronexia Inc.  Sure I had a bias to her authority: she was my boss, in charge of my security, my success and, in truth, she scared the hell out of me, in both good ways and bad ones.  However, I quickly realized that my judgment wasn’t so subjective after all.  Five minutes spent among the conference buzz of chit-chat and coffee-sipping, it was clear the room was hers.  People knew her, knew of her, admired her and slightly loathed her simultaneously, and (if they were smart) feared her.  She knew the highest members of the inner-circle, the impressive ones and the ones supposed to be more impressive than they actually were.  Sitting in on conference speeches and roundtable discussions, she easily challenged any suit-and-tie bigshot with a counter-argument, her black-and-gold high-tops strapped on tight.  She was a recruitment gangster, through and through.  She challenged her counterparts to doing things differently, to think outside of pre-established expectations, to improve, to transform, to do better.  It was impressive to watch from the sidelines.  She was Biggie Smalls, spitting fire and leaving people in a cloud of ash and awe, and I was Puff Daddy, throwing in a word or two at the chorus in support, handing her a water bottle on stage.  It was awesome.

TruMontreal taught me something, but it unfortunately had nothing to do with the conference itself, aside from providing a venue and some snacks for my realization.  Recruitment needed a gangster, someone with the audacity to question things, to crack open old-school mentalities, to refute foregone practices, to re-prioritize, to dismantle the machine entirely and build it back up differently.  Everyone stands to benefit: job-seekers, job-holders, the recruitment industry, both the business and the socio-cultural world at large. 

People make or a break a company, bottom line – so shouldn’t we be doing this hiring thing right?  Shouldn’t we be finding the best people, for the best companies, in the best ways possible?  Our current “best” is not the best.  When things are not perfect, get gangster on them: change, reconfigure, break them apart just to see what happens.  Remember, remember, remember: if you’re getting complacent, and if you’re not thinking critically, then what exactly is it that you’re doing?

Stefano Faustini

Headhunter, Pronexia Inc.

 

Why a Globe and Mail article for women enraged me!

As a female business owner, I am naturally passionate about women’s place on the business arena. When scrolling through my Twitter feed, I always pause when my eye catches a post targeting professional women. That is exactly what happened when I came across this article posted on Globe and Mail’s website. I paused, clicked and started reading.

As I was reading, I kept getting confused (it was Friday evening, so my brain might have been in slow down mode). Is this written for teenagers? Recent University grads? Students? Nope, it is in the Small Business section and is called “Ten ways women can raise their professional profiles”.

I quickly went from confusion to anger. When you work really hard on actually raising your professional profile as a business woman, it is frustrating to read pieces that seem to be written for little girls. Let me break it down for you.

Everything in bold is the advice from the original article and what follows is my response.

Embrace being a woman. Thank you, but shouldn’t this have happened years before I became a professional woman? I am teaching my 5 year old to love her gender; I certainly wish and hope nobody will be empowering her to embrace her womanhood when she is out of the sandbox and on the business playground.

Build your brand consciously. This point advises women to be conscious about the way they dress. In addition to also being incredibly patronizing (as a business woman – and an adult - I have somehow managed to figure out how to dress myself), this advice is plain misguided. No one cares about company CEOs wearing hoodies as they keynote large scale events - shout out to Gary Vaynerchuk whose work I have been obsessing with lately, but I digress - and you know what? No one cares when I wear sneakers to meetings. And you know what I actually build consciously? My business! I wear what feels authentic and it has zero impact on those around me.

Network, network, network. I personally hate the concept of “networking”, but that’s my personal preference and I fully support everyone who enjoys the process. That being said, this advice applies equally to men as it does to women, so what irritates me the most is the unnecessary gender segregation.

Sidenote: if you do hate networking, it is not a gender issue – it is a personality thing. You can raise your professional profile without it. Reach out; I will gladly share experience.

Be open to opportunities. Don’t wait to be perfect before accepting or asking for an opportunity. Men don’t. They accept the opportunity and figure out how to make it work as they go along. Umm, no. No! Many men do wait before accepting or asking for an opportunity. Some of the male consultants on my team at Pronexia know I am virtually pointing at them with this one. Women don’t need labels but neither do men; there are different people who, regardless of their gender, act and react differently. What a notion, I know!

Be kind. Can we have a campaign to ban this word for women actually? Let’s start when they are young. If I get a dollar every time my 5 year old is advised to ‘be kind’ when she shows even one degree of personality deviating from ‘mild’… . It makes my blood boil. And now that I am an adult, I am in even less of a need to be advised to be kind, nice, sweet, – well, you get my point.  

Welcome feedback. Great advice! For any human being. Why is it more pertinent to professional women? I don’t know.

Take up space. Be aware of your body language. Stand tall, speak clearly and project confidence, even if you don’t always feel that way. Great tips for anyone looking to project more authority, but ironically this is something I (a female professional) coach my male consultants on. Again, not a gender issue. 

Don’t be afraid to be different. I feel very different reading this post. Right now, at this particular moment, I feel different and not the good kind.

If you choose to be a leader, lead. And if you choose to be a manager, manage? And if you choose to be a teacher, teach? And if you choose to be a programmer, then program? Got it.

Recognize that men can and should help. No comment. I typed and erased my response to this, but – no. Just no comment.

This is why:

Gender equity will not happen without men’s support and attention, and substantial change must be generated from the very top of organizations.

This goes to the core of the problem I have with this piece. Substantial change must not be generated from the very top of organizations. It should be generated from within each one of us. We need more women to get enraged at the suggestion that building their professional profile requires them to ‘be kind’. We need more women ready to step away from the tired gender stereotypes of grouping all men into one category and all women into another one. We need to talk about building our confidence, finding a voice (a loud one works well but is optional!) and releasing the guilt that might be the bottleneck of our potential success.

In short, if you gain absolutely nothing else from my post, I implore you to at the very least dress in whatever the heck you want. Whether you are a man or a woman, give it a shot. I promise - it will be liberating! Send me pictures.

by Marina Byezhanova

 

I just checked out your Facebook page!

Yep. You sent me your résumé earlier today to apply for a position I am advertising and before calling you (or actually not) I Googled your name and checked out your ‘digital footprint’.

I know that it sounds stalker-like and I used to scoff at the idea of looking up job seekers’ personal pages online. However, that was until one of my clients did and came up with an obscene video of a candidate of mine they were about to hire. And then another client Facebooked a candidate and found stuff that was far from inappropriate but was enough for them to decide not to interview the person in question. And then another one, and another one… It was time to realize that it was no longer a fad or a temporary trend, but was rather a new permanent part of the hiring process.

As you are preparing for your next interview, you might be researching how to best dress, what to bring with you, what information not to divulge. But why waste all that time if I Google you and come up with the most inappropriate images, quotes about you hating your job and other not-so-flattering stuff? Yes, in theory the interview process should be fully objective and void of any emotion. I have read countless books and articles about that. Yet, in reality, we base our perceptions and decisions involving others on all of the information they provide to us.

I am using Facebook as an example, but any other social media sites that leave a trail also have an impact on your chances of being hired. If you are constantly grumpy and negative on your Twitter, the hiring manager will question how pleasant you will be to have on the team. If your Instagram is full of pictures of you dancing on top of tables and chugging alcohol, think of an impact it might have on that application you submitted for a managerial position.

“Wait a second”, you might say. “But why should my personal life have any bearing on my career? The two are separate and I am fully capable of being professional during the office hours”. You are right and so here comes my advice:

• Set your Twitter to private or use a nickname
• Set your Facebook to private or use a nickname
• Set your Instagram to private or use a nickname
• Etc.

If, however, you are leading a fully authentic life and want to be seen exactly for who you are, then go ahead and keep your social media as transparent as it is right now. I support both privacy and transparency as it is a deeply personal choice.

I am just Googling you to learn more, that’s all!

Marina Byezhanova,
Director of Candidate Experience

3 Things that make your Manager Cringe

When discussing a new opening with a hiring manager, recruiters usually zero in on personality traits a potential hire must demonstrate. Many tend to be fairly cliché – autonomous, cooperative, pleasant, friendly, and so on. I like asking something different: “What makes it difficult for you to manage someone? What makes an employee average?” I have heard very different answers throughout the years, all depending on the personality of each particular hiring manager. Yet, three commonalities have emerged.

1. Lack of passion (aka enthusiasm). Think back to your last meeting and analyze what you must have looked like to others. Extraverts and introverts tend to emote and express themselves differently, but did you find a way to express your engagement regardless of your personality type? What was your body language like? If you feel that you went generally unnoticed, here is the bad news – your manager did notice you but not in a positive light.

2. Inability to take criticism. Unless you work for a self-saboteur, in which case you should stop reading this post and start looking for a new job, your manager wants to see you succeed. In order for you to learn and grow, you are bound to make mistakes as you learn. It is your manager’s job to tell you when something in your work needs to change and to coach you accordingly. The worst thing you can do is take the situation personally and dwell on it. The best thing? Listen, discuss (disagree if need be) but then … move on! Constructive criticism is not meant to negate all of the great work you do and is not a personal attack, so take it in stride and don’t let it be a stumbling block.

3. Lack of self-motivation. A great many books and articles have been written on managing employees. Companies are realizing the importance of employee experience and are implementing creative programs to enhance it. Yet, as adults we hold the responsibility of finding our own ways to stay motivated and engaged. Yes, Millennials, this advice applies to you too! When you require constant appreciation, encouragement and a celebration of each minor accomplishment, you inevitably drain more than you contribute.

If you find it difficult to stay motivated in your job and feel constantly on the defensive, there are two ways to look at your situation. The first obvious conclusion is that it might be time to look for another company and perhaps a completely different set of tasks. But before you do that, dig deep – is this feeling a trend in a few jobs you have had? Is it possible that it is time for some self-awareness before you jump into another job where yet again you will fail to feel fulfilled? Certainly, it takes a lot more to be considered a top performer than being energetic, motivated and open to feedback. However, the three traits outlined above are sure to negate any amazing work you might be doing.

Should you hide your criminal record?

Years ago I met a candidate who was in the running for the position of Executive Assistant. She came across as polished, professional and demure throughout all of my conversations with her, including of course an in-person interview. My client, President of a Montreal-based distribution company, interviewed his prospective assistant twice and was eager to have her join his organization. At his request, I informed the applicant that we were in the final stage of the hiring process – checking her references and conducting a criminal background check. My soft-spoken candidate suddenly became uncomfortable and shared that she had indeed been convicted of a crime a few years prior. She had been charged with an assault with a deadly weapon. She was willing to share the details of the case with my client, if he was still open to considering her for the position. Well, he was, and after the conversation they had, she was hired and spent years working at my client’s firm!

Here is another story. A job seeker I had in the running for a different company and a different position successful nailed every part of the interview process, until it was time for references and background verification part of the process. She filled out an authorization form indicating that she had no criminal record, but we soon found out that the information was not truthful. Her criminal record was due to reasons much more benign than those of the 1st story, yet she was quickly dropped from the running for the coveted position. Not because of her record, but because of dishonesty.

So, what can you do if your criminal record is not spotless? 

- Select which positions you target. Most companies cannot discriminate against applicants with a criminal record unless your conviction comes into a direct conflict of interest with duties that are part of the job description. For example, if you were convicted of financial fraud, you should avoid applying for positions with financial institutions. If your criminal record prevents you from crossing the border, then you should abstain from jobs that require travel. It seems evident, but we have witnessed both numerous times.

- Don’t volunteer your criminal record (or your credit situation) with a hiring manager unless prompted. My colleague was on the receiving end of an interviewee’s long and detailed story about a crime he had convicted in his youth. It had no bearing on the position of Software Developer he was targeting, but his desire to share all the details within the first 10 minutes of the interview showed poor judgement and put a strain on the rest of the interview.

- If directly asked whether you have a criminal record, be honest. Whether you are asked on a form you are filling out, by a recruiter or a direct hiring manager, be candid. If you do not feel comfortable divulging personal information and feel that it has no impact on the job you targeted, inquire about the reason behind the background check. You may be well within your rights to refuse or better off simply walking away, but dishonesty will surely impact your chances of landing the position.

- Get the offence removed from your record! I once met a candidate who had been convicted of a DUI 20 years prior to our interview. Yes, 20 years! My client was uncomfortable hiring him for a position that required extensive travel, including extensive driving, unless the charge was removed. It took my candidate a few days to clean up his record and the job was his! Had he done it prior to the interview process, it would have also saved him numerous uncomfortable conversations.

Many hiring managers are tolerant of criminal record, but hardly any are accepting of dishonesty. Be transparent and it will lower your chances of missing out on a coveted position.

Ditching résumés from the interview process!

How surprised would you be to walk into an interview with a recruiter who does not have your CV? No, not because he expected you to bring a copy, but because of the new trend - resumes banned from interview rooms. According to Anna Lambert from Shopify, Ottawa-based high tech success story, this innovative approach is at the core of the company’s recruitment methodology. Laval’s mega retailer SAIL Plein Air takes it a step further – no CV necessary to even apply! The company invites job seekers to submit a compelling story instead. You can read more about it here.

Anna shared the idea behind Shopify’s approach at our #NewSchoolHiring event and it resonated with many of the guests in the audience. Shopify’s recruitment team simply does not believe in trying to stump you, their applicant, make you uncomfortable, zone into something on your CV and dig relentlessly. They believe in having a two-way discussion between two equals, a genuine conversation aimed at discovering if there is a potential fit between the company and you. Fit trumps skill and although many may disagree with this approach, Shopify’s low turnover rates are the best metric of its success.

So what does this mean to you? Shopify’s and SAIL’s unique style will probably not become a standard, but the tendency of leveling the playing field between you and a hiring manager is prominent.
 
Here is what you can expect to see more frequently during your job search process:

• Informal conversation-style interviews. Companies are realizing that an interview is a two-way dialogue and that candidates need to be impressed and engaged. Expect more hiring managers to take the time to make your comfortable prior to the interview and to tone down the formality of the overall process.

 

• Less behavioural style questions. All those advice books on answering questions of the “When was the last time you had a conflict and how did you handle it?” variety are quickly becoming obsolete. Recruiters are realizing that rehearsed answers serve no purpose and that trumping a candidate does nothing for building rapport. Instead of answering useless questions expect to spend more time discussing projects you have worked on.

• Say “adios” to riddles, brain teasers and puzzles. As headhunters, we always shuddered when hearing our clients say that they were going to hire like Google. We knew that what it meant was having you tortured with such questions as: “How many golf balls can fit into a bus?” What did it ever do to predict on-the-job success? Nothing! And Google finally admitted it last year – let’s breathe a sigh of relief.

 

• Your “chemistry” with the hiring manager is taking precedence over your experience and skill set. This one is tricky. You want to work for a company whose mission and values are aligned with yours, yet you get frustrated when not retained for a position that matches your skill set perfectly on paper. This is a big topic and we will address it more in a future post, but companies that hire based on fit between you and the company culture do report lower turnover rates and happier, more engaged, employees.

All of this is major bad news to old school recruiters and hiring managers who enjoy the power trip of riding into an interview on a proverbial high horse, making you feel uncomfortable and inadequate and then disappearing into oblivion unless your candidacy is retained.

For you, this is great news! Next time you leave an interview disappointed and doubting yourself, remember this post and rest assured – you don’t want to join a company that still has not realized the core importance of candidate experience. And when you walk away energized and feeling that the person you met took the time to make you comfortable and truly listen to you, it is a very good indication of a company worth considering!

Recruiters, enough with misguided and self-serving advice!

Long gone are the days when supply outweighed demand and job seekers had to go an extra mile to stand out and appease recruiters and hiring managers. While top headhunting firms are now recognizing the need to differentiate in order to engage potential candidates, outdated advice to job seekers still abounds.

 

Let’s take for example an article that recently ran on Market Watch, an online financial news resource, a subsidiary of Dow Jones, along with the Wall Street Journal no less.

 

In its attempt to provide advice to job seekers on how to better optimize a LinkedIn profile, this article is the epitome of all that is wrong with the recruitment industry.

 

ADVICE #1:

Rule No. 1: “Your LinkedIn profile should be public”.

 

How interesting and self-serving (not for you of course; the priority here is to make a recruiter’s life easier). Rule #1 for you to be found is not to focus on optimizing your career, not to build an impressive portfolio of achievements, but to publicize a LinkedIn page. It will come as a surprise then that some top professionals do not even have a LinkedIn page (gasp!). How do they even manage to “score the next great gig”?

 

ADVICE #2:

Most people spend so much time crafting their pitch, they forget about how they appear in a search result. “It’s the first thing that recruiters look at”.

 

If you choose to have a social media presence, as most of us do in one form of another, it is certainly important to be mindful of its impact on your job search. That aside, don’t worry about missing out on recruiters who put looking at your social media profiles as first task. If a recruiter’s number one focus is not on your experience and accomplishments, it is a predictor of the lack of focus you will receive thereon after.

 

ADVICE #3:

The title should be razor-sharp. “Don’t write senior analyst at Ernst & Young, write hedge fund financial analyst at Ernst & Young”.

 

One of the world’s top travel companies called G Adventures uses the title of “CEO” for its tour guides. And you know what? True headhunters who operate in that space will know that, as will the true headhunters who operate in yours. You do not need to customize your title for uninformed recruiters – you are better off flying under their radars.

 

There were numerous other gems about recruiters punching in keywords, recoiling at buzzwords, “looking for reasons not to court you” and getting nervous over parts of your LinkedIn profile. There was also advice dedicated to older job seekers (anything from over 10 years ago is a no-no on your CV, unless you are applying for a job of Chief Executive Officer!).

 

Dear recruiters whose views were well-represented throughout the Market Watch article, the days of your reign are fortunately coming to an end. You make it difficult for recruiters who work tirelessly on self-improvement (not candidate optimization, believe it or not!). Yet, your old school ways and inability to perfect the recruitment craft are catching up with you and job seekers are taking note.

 

Dear candidates, please know that the views represented in the article quoted throughout this post are not representative of all recruiters. You do not need to change your profile to be more searchable and your experience and career path should definitely not be reduced to a bunch of standard keywords.

 

Personally, I would not want to be spammed by individuals who believe that “Most hiring managers don’t want to hire someone who’s smarter than them”, would you?

HR is rarely the best Messenger for your Recruitment Campaigns!

Have you noticed that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find and retain candidates for your most important positions? Has it become challenging to even quickly fill roles that used to receive dozens of qualified CVs in response to your ads?

Congratulations! You are ahead of many others who still fail to recognize that the job market has turned and the decision making scale has tipped in favor of job seekers. Posting a bland job description on the same job board you have been using for the past decade, listing 20 requirements and conducting an authoritative interview that sends you on a power trip no longer works. So what to do?

Fiona Buell from Aldo Group joined us at the #NewSchoolHiring event to share Aldo’s innovative approach to using storytelling to engage potential candidates. According to her, HR is rarely the best messenger for your recruitment campaigns. Who is? Your employees!

Let me ask you a question. Who represents your company at job fairs, open houses and during on-campus recruitment campaigns? My guess would be it is your Talent Acquisition Team. Well, Aldo Group takes a different approach. Placing key importance on matching the message with the messenger, they walk the walk and engage their staff in representing Aldo to potential job seekers. When looking for interns, they let one of their former interns whose position grew into a permanent role do the speaking. When hiring for the Marketing team during an on-campus campaign, they bring an employee who is a former grad from that particular university to speak about his or her experience. Tasked with the ongoing challenge of mass recruitment for their retail locations, Aldo launched a competition that had their employees upload self-made videos on social media essentially “selling” the company’s employer brand. After Fiona played one such video, the audience erupted in applause. Profoundly effective and all she did was let someone else do the talking!

As Fiona said: “We need to start treating our candidates as we do our customers”. Your marketing department reaches customers via storytelling, media campaigns and the use of testimonials. Your HR team needs to take a step back, craft a strategic campaign and choose the best media to deliver your employer branding message to reach your candidates. Are you ready to relinquish the power and let someone else be the messenger?

#NewSchoolHiring

This month marked Pronexia’s biggest milestone so far – a high profile event we hosted on April 3^rd on the topic of Employer Branding. Our co-founder Moranne Elarar summed up the end result perfectly: “It was more than we ever expected but exactly what we had envisioned”.

We had set off to put together a unique event for Montreal’s hiring managers and HR professionals and were thrilled to have met and surpassed our speakers’ and delegates’ expectations. The venue was buzzing with excitement, and by noon #NewSchoolHiring was the #1 trending topic in Montreal on Twitter! It was thrilling to see so much engagement not only from 100 of our guests, but even from people who were not in attendance. 

We have many posts coming up to summarize the various topics discussed and to highlight the most memorable talks. Yet, we are compelled to start off by thanking everyone who made this important day for the Montreal HR community such a success. We are immensely grateful to all of our speakers who believed in our vision and agreed to share their behind-the-scenes stories and practical advice. We are humbled to have received overwhelmingly rewarding feedback from our delegates.

Here are a few of the comments sent to us in the days following the conference:

“The speakers were enlightening and allowed me to think about some changes that I can do to run a more efficient operation and create a really interesting culture.” – Director, Customer Service – Industrial Distribution

“I have many takeaways to share with my group here and if there is another event like this planned, I would definitely love to be there!” – Director, Operations – Consumer Goods

“FANTASTIC job on the event! It was great, heard some wonderful speakers and it definitely energized me to start shaking things up around here!” – Manager, Administration – Digital Marketing

“It was energizing and I learned so much. I was happy to discover how companies are doing things differently to attract and retain talent. It is rather refreshing compared to what I have experienced myself in the past.” – President - Consulting Services

“The feedback from other attendees that you had organised a Montreal conference that had a "soul" was amazing!” – Director, HR – Consumer Goods

“I was extremely happy with the conference: amazing topics and speakers, inspiring and challenging visions. Being able to connect with various talented individuals was also amazing – plus the great food and venue! I think Pronexia really put together a new, different and much more enriching type of event. Thank you for having me there! I hope you’ll have other events on other HR topics and it brings new dynamics to the Montreal HR Scene.” Director, HR - Retail

And finally, we could not be more proud of the incredible team we have at Pronexia. Employer branding was a topic we wanted to tackle not only because it is important to our clients, but also to us internally. As a young company, we have been and will continue innovating to attract and keep the city’s top talent – people who will help us drive change and revolutionize the face of our industry!

Stay tuned as we formulate an answer to the now most frequently asked question: “When is Pronexia hosting the next event and on which topic?”

What is your Reputation as an Employer?

On April 3^rd, Pronexia will be hosting our first ever Employer Branding Event. We are honored to have confirmed an unbelievable line up of speakers, all responsible for Montreal-based talent. The feedback we have received from the local business community has been truly humbling.

As always, our blog aims to bring you an inside scoop into all that we do and the reasons we do it!

If you have ever collaborated with Pronexia, then you must be aware of the core importance we place on our clients’ commitment to candidate and employee experience. We partner up solely with companies we are proud to represent and would happily work for personally.  All that equals to employer branding, a company’s reputation as an employer. We thought that it would be incredibly exciting to bring together HR professionals and business owners from companies that truly care about the most important contributor to their success – you, their People. We aimed to put together an unparalleled line up of speakers, all of whom are responsible for hiring or managing teams based in Montreal, and all of whom are choice employers.

We kept the event by-invitation only, staying true to our corporate value of “fit above all”, which translates into our relentless commitment to placing “quality’ above “quantity”. The intimate setting will allow for full candor and frank experience sharing. This will be a day full of information exchange, with no tradeshow booths or sales pitches.

Most high caliber events of this nature happen in stuffy hotel conference rooms that tend to limit the inspiration and interaction. Employer Branding 360° will take place at the visually stunning state-of-the-art PhiCentre, located in the historical Old Montreal.

Yet, the main reason we decided to undertake this ambitious project lies at the core of Pronexia’s mission – to refute old school recruitment practices and to change the face of our industry! We are proud to be hosting this event and to be facilitators of the change-inducing conversations that will be taking place on April 3^rd.

And the hashtag of our event? #NewSchoolHiring of course.

Introducing our new Manager, Client Strategy

Pronexia’s 2014 started off with a few exciting initiatives and changes, one of which was the promotion of Jordan Greenberg into the newly created role of Manager, Client Strategy.

In 2011, when Pronexia was barely a few months old we decided to host our first Open house. As we were organizing the event and looking to “wow” our clients by adding an educational component to the evening, we had the idea of inviting a guest speaker to host a presentation on Social Media and its impact on recruitment. Through extensive research we came across Jordan Greenberg, founder of a Montreal-based company called Social Media Boy. Intrigued by the catchy copy on his website and impressed with the very cool avatars on it (true story!), we gave Jordan a call.

From our first meeting to his presentation at our Open house, Jordan did not stop impressing us. So, a couple of months later, when we sat down to write up a job ad describing our ideal next hire for the position of Client Strategist, we wrote it with him in mind. And as is frequently said, timing is everything. Our first applicant to the ad was … Jordan!

Fast forward a year, our team grew, we moved into a beautiful office in Outremont, expanded, renovated, grew some more. Throughout every change, every new and crazy endeavor, Jordan has positioned himself as Pronexia’s “rock” – a relentless evangelist of our brand, passionate relationship builder and a teammate you can count on with your eyes closed.

Jordan’s promotion into the new role – catalyst of change and optimization for our corporate clients – was a natural decision. His ability to connect with people both externally and internally is innate and his potential to achieve greatness is exciting for us to see. We are thrilled to watch him cultivate and carve out his new path with Pronexia and we are eager to see how 2014 unfolds. Congrats Jordan - cheers to a kickass year!

 

Marina Byezhanova & Moranne Elarar, your secret admirers

Three recruiters contacted me for the same job via LinkedIN! Is this normal?

Could you share your opinion about the following situation: in the last two days, I have been contacted by three distinct recruiters via LinkedIn. They sent me the very same job description. It's unlikely that the employer hired three HHs to fill in a single position, so it looks like they simply took it from the employer's website. I searched and found the job description on beyond.com

Could you explain what happened? If the opening is publicly available, to me it means the employer didn't want to involve HHs at all. Then why those three guys decided to get involved?

There are two possible answers to your questions, but unfortunately neither will paint these “recruiters” in a favorable light.

Possibility #1:

The client did indeed give out the mandate to three different firms, in addition to posting the ad for the position on various sites.

Some clients do this in hope of getting a wider reach by tapping into as many possible candidate sources as possible. What they sometimes don’t realize is that most recruiters do not even take the time to re-write the job description and come up with their own creative ad. They copy & paste it onto the same job boards and spam all candidates matching certain keywords on LinkedIn. The savviest of candidates will do exactly what you did – search the description on Google and find out which company is hiring. Unfortunately most get turned off by being bombarded with the same job offer and end up not moving forward at all. These lazy and unprofessional practices certainly don’t help anyone.

I feel compelled to share an anecdote. Recently we came across one of such copy & pasted ads a well-known Montreal-based recruitment firm was running. They replaced the client’s name with the word “Company” throughout the ad, which resulted in the following sentence: “To find out more about Company, please visit our website: http://www.Company.com/aboutus. “

Possibility #2:

You might very well be right in that the hiring company in question did not even mandate any of these recruiters to assist with the search. Recruiters sending out a job description they pull from a website is becoming a widespread practice. It is a desperate move but undoubtedly one we have heard about from clients on numerous occasions. A job ad gets blasted out and if a potentially suitable candidate “bites”, the recruiter will take the resume, remove all identifying information and “market” the profile to the prospective client. A client of ours told us that one recruitment firm in particular sends him upwards of 100 resumes on a monthly basis. They never met and never mandated the firm with a single search, yet the influx of resumes is never ending.

On a separate note, I have to clarify that inMail spamming is not headhunting. LinkedIn offers extensive training to hiring managers and recruiters on crafting these inMails and sending them out en masse. This is nothing more than an equivalent of an email campaign. True headhunters build their reputation on relationship building – we pick up the phone and reach out to prospective candidates, we network actively and we conduct thorough in-person interviews.

Hope this helps shed some light!

My Journey from Leaving Pronexia to Back Again!

I started with Pronexia Inc three years ago when they were just starting out in the basement of a Westmount office. As Pronexia's first ever employee, I worked closely with the two founders - two young women like myself - who had taken a risk to leave their steady careers and open up their own business. In the year and half I was there, I was able to learn about an industry I knew nothing about, feel like I was part of growing a business.

Witnessing such enthusiastic entrepreneurs do their thing with such passion, actually gave me the courage to reach out and pursue my own dreams! Which is why I left the company last year, to go to school in New York and train in an acting & musical theatre program and pursue art as my career path.

Last week I was called by the Pronexia team to help them out with a client event, and because they wanted to know all about my New York experience. After so many laughs and memories about my time there, I couldn't help saying to myself just how much I really missed these people!

After a further meeting this week, it has been decided that I am coming back to the Pronexia team as Office Manager! I feel SO blessed to be surrounded by creative individuals who BELIEVE in me and INSPIRE me to pursue my passions and allow me the flexibility to run off to auditions.

I think it takes people with creativity themselves to be so open and push others to strive and grow and gain success in whatever they choose!

I usually don't write big things like this on social media but I am feeling lucky and blessed, and excited. Always surround yourself with people who will lift you up in life and believe in your potential. Part of me having the courage to go out there and be an artist - regardless of the struggle - was because these people actually told me I can!

They looked me in the eye before I left a while back and said:  Lanisa, you can be whoever you want to be and you truly need to believe that. It stuck with me and honestly affected me to the core.

With that ... I introduce our team! We're young, quirky, out of the box thinkers on a mission to REVOLUTIONIZE THE FACE OF RECRUITMENT!!!

HAPPY MOVEMBER ;)

Lanisa Farnsworth

Tips on Concocting a LinkedIn InMail… or Why Recruiters get what they Deserve

Recruiters tend to have a bad rep. Many wear it as a badge of honor and take pride in the monetary gains that are still associated with outdated sales practices. Others lament the lack of respect they receive from the business community, yet don’t do much to change the face of our industry.

I recently came across an article that is so unfortunate and sadly typical in our field that it compelled me to reply. The article advises Recruiters who are not capable of building valuable professional connections via a direct approach to concoct dishonest inMail messages to spam prospective job seekers (you can read the full piece here: http://www.recruitingblogs.com/profiles/blogs/writing-a-compelling-linkedin-inmail.

“While each person won't be a slam dunk for the position at hand, you will have impressed them with your style enough to rise above the recruiter fray” – promises the author. Intrigued to find out more about the superior writing style? I was too, so let’s take a look!  

Tip #1: The Subject

The author of the memorable piece suggests spending time on crafting the subject of your message. He recommends going with something catchy, but not “flowery” (not sure what that means either, so please don’t ask). He suggests “Poised for Greatness” which is so high on my personal scale of “flowery” (still not sure I know what it means though), that this imaginary inMail would automatically go straight into my Trash folder.

 Tip #2: The Opening Line

Curiously, the suggestion here is to always start with the same line of “Impressive Background!”, yet Tip #3 is to ensure that each inMail makes the candidate feel exclusive. Well, nothing would make me feel more exclusive than knowing that a message I received is nearly identical to the one sent to a hundred others.

Tip #3: The Grabber- Make it Exclusive (see, I told you!)

"I'm reaching out to a few choice profiles before I launch a full search..."

In other words, lying is a fully acceptable practice and there is no shame in it whatsoever – it is proudly placed at the core of this post. Although perhaps the author is being honest here and he spams a few “choice” profiles before embarking on a real search.

Tip #4: The Content

Ironically, not much attention is given to the actual content of your spam email. Advice here is to leave some “mystery” and to let your prospect do their own clicking to look at your company and gather additional info. No need to introduce yourself either – let them do their own clicking to find out!

Tip #5: The Close

“Be bold!  One line I use is "Keeping in mind that most successful people find opportunity not when they're looking but when it knocks, how's my timing?” Enough said.

Recruiters, the time has come to put an end to cheesy one liners, dishonest claims about selective searches and allusions of exclusivity. Your prospective candidates can see through it and end up associating all recruiters with these unattractive practices.

There is no magic email and no magic phone script for you to use. Work on developing your own style and put honesty and transparency at the core of it. Professionals you reach out to do not want mystery and they do not want you to stroke their ego when you actually do not mean what you say. What they want is for you to take an actual interest in their professional background and career path, and guess what?.. If you do that, they just might take an interest in your client’s job offer.

“Firing” a Client is painful but inevitable for your Reputation

And here are some anecdotes from our short, yet seemingly long, company history to illustrate the point made in the last blog entitled “Pronexia’s 3^rd Year Anniversary and the Key to our Success” (you can find it here: http://bit.ly/1gugFWa ).

In our first year of operation, we landed a highly coveted contract that gave us numerous mandates and would allow for fast growth. As we were patting ourselves on the back after filling four of their mandates within the first month, we received a call from a placed candidate. She had been fired earlier that morning and it was done in a truly humiliating manner. We quickly found out that it was a common way the director of the department disposed of her staff.  This company hired quickly and fired even quicker. When choosing between easy financial gain and Pronexia’s future reputation, we chose the latter and parted ways with this company.

A few months ago, we visited a prospective client whose office was in an almost shocking disarray. Employees were sitting so close to each other that their elbows were practically touching. To make the situation worse, the company president shared with us his views on employees being greedy and overpaid in the job market. Needless to say, we politely disengaged from the prospective partnership even though he was ready to sign the agreement.

Another client meeting that stood out was a memorable experience shared by two of our consultants. During an almost 3-hour marathon meeting with a prospective customer, they were both offered jobs, found out that the hiring manager does not mind hiring candidate with drinking problems but would not stand gamblers, listened to a long rant about the vices of all 3^rd party recruitment firms but got a signed contract. They walked out exhausted but relieved that they did not have to collaborate with this company ever again.

Firing an account or disengaging from a potential partnership is never easy. Yet, the benefit is the luxury of enjoying your work by partnering up with companies that align with your beliefs and allow you to build your reputation in full accordance with your vision. Fortunately, leaders who believe in building a strong employer brand with commitment to employee engagement and internal appreciation far supercede the few that don’t. And as suppliers, if we all commit to only servicing the companies built on values of honesty and integrity, the job market will become a better place for all.