Recruiting
The Rise of the Corporate Entrepreneur
In my newly released book UNCOMMON with Brian Tracy, I wanted to focus on the concept of “corporate entrepreneur.” Thanks to feedback from my social media connections, I was able to gather some great data and comments on what corporate entrepreneurship means to today’s professional.
Below is an excerpt from the book. If you’d like to download the entire chapter, click on the cover graphic and I will send it to you! OR if you’d like to order a signed copy of the book, check out my exclusive offer.
Click on cover photo to receive rest of chapter!
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THE RISE OF THE CORPORATE “ENTREPRENEUR”
Let’s face it. The world of “work” is more uncertain than ever. It penalizes you for things you often can’t control … for being too “old,” too experienced, too qualified, too “educated,” too “expensive.” It might not reward you for this certification or that title. On top of that, corporate hiring processes are a sophisticated mess (to put it mildly), internal cultural and multigenerational conflict is commonplace, and many companies are struggling with how to retain their top talent.
As a result, professionals now make an external career move every 3 to 4 years. That means the average 30-year-old with 35 years (or more!) left in the marketplace can expect 10 or more company changes before he or she retires. Even if this professional were to beat the odds with an internal promotion or two, by say double, he or she could still be out in the market every 6 to 8 years.
If all that corporate “goo” isn’t bad enough, then there’s the job market “zoo” to contend with.
BUT THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT IT’S NOT ALL BAD NEWS!
Each day I work with professionals across the globe dedicated to building in career protection, and they are achieving tremendous results. Just like the rest of us, they face many of the same limitations: age, gender, level of experience, geographic restrictions, lack of credentials, market instability, and so on. The difference is in how they approach these limitations and build in their protection from the storm.
IS THERE REALLY SUCH A THING AS CAREER “PROTECTION”?
People tell me that “job security” is a myth today or that if you work for someone else, such as a corporation, you can’t really control your fate.
And I understand what they mean.
IT SEEMS LIKE SOMEONE ELSE IS HOLDING ALL THE CARDS.
(For the rest of the story, click on the graphic above!)
—About Stephen—-
Stephen Van Vreede is not your average IT/technical résumé writer. He provides career strategy and concierge job search solutions for senior (15+ years) (ITtechExec) and up-and-coming (NoddlePlace) (5-15 years) tech and technical operations leaders. Stephen and his team focus on building simplified, targeted, and certain career move campaigns, be it an external search or an internal promotion. He is co-author of UNcommon with career development leader Brian Tracy (out June 11, 2015). Contact Stephen directly at Stephen@ittechexec.com or send him an invite at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenvanvreede. To see whether Stephen and his team are a good fit for you, take their free (and anonymous) 1-minute compatibility quiz, Is the ITtechExec Approach a Good Match for You? Also, feel free to take his complimentary resume self-assessment quiz, How Certain Can You Be About Your Technical Resume? You might be surprised by what you find out!
The Real Skinny on Prepping for the 2015 Job Market
Great news: Bloomberg reports that after November’s remarkable hiring surge, the job market is expected to grow in 2015. If you’ve been stuck in a non-ideal or part-time job and are looking to make a strategic career move, now is the best time to do it. The way we hire and work is changing now more than ever, and there are many exciting opportunities for IT and other technical professionals. But what do you do if you haven’t been on the job hunt in a while and don’t know the new rules of interviewing and hiring?
Don’t worry, we’ve got your back!
- Expect a different hiring process
More and more companies are realizing that how they hire reflects well (or poorly) upon their brand. Today’s recruiters and hiring managers are aiming to make the process more human and relatable. Use this friendlier recruitment process to showcase your soft skills, but always keep it professional.
- Build a portfolio
Whether or not you have something physical to show for the work you’ve done, hiring managers will want to see examples of your work before you get the interview. Write case studies for projects you’ve worked on to broadcast your skills and back up your claims of success.
- Go beyond LinkedIn
If you haven’t spruced up your LinkedIn lately, now’s the time — but don’t stop there! Develop a social media presence that shows off your skills and interest in your profession.
- Ask the right questions
A report from LinkedIn says that many qualified job candidates don’t get hired because the interviewers don’t know the best questions to ask them. Learn the “forced-choice question” method — asking what the main objectives for the job are, and then using examples to show how you can achieve them — to help improve your odds.
- Anticipate a 3-5 year tenure
Perhaps the biggest change of all, many companies now realize that job seekers will only stay at the company for a handful of years. Know this when going into the interview, and stress what a difference you can make in a short time frame. Be sure to think of this job as the stepping stone to what’s next, not the position you’ll be in for the next several decades.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Before You Toss That Recruiter Out the Window…
We’ve written pretty extensively about the strained relations that often go on between recruiters and job seekers. (See That Recruiter Is Just Not That Into You and Tired of Recruiter Mismatch on LinkedIn?) It’s certainly no secret that the two groups often find themselves on different planets. To reiterate this point, I recently came across this infographic by MedReps.com that sums up the situation quite nicely.
The typical response I’ve been hearing lately by many job seekers is that they find recruiters just too frustrating to deal with, so understandably their reaction is to give up trying.
But before you toss that recruiter out the window…
The problem is that social recruiting is on the rise. Big time. This means that avoiding recruiters altogether could be a hindrance in your career progression simply because you are cutting off a viable job search method (I advocate for a diverse job search approach that uses several different methods to create “pipelines”). Furthermore, recruiters can be a great pipeline, particularly when you aren’t in active job search mode as they can bring opportunities to you.
In the past, it didn’t take much effort to cultivate these pipelines with recruiters, particularly in the technical arena where jobs were aplenty and many professionals were recruited away from one company to another without even really needing a resume. Today, however, the field is much more chaotic and, frankly, confusing (at ITtechExec, we call it a “zoo”).
The biggest issue I find has to do with misalignment or mismatching of the job seeker with external recruiters. It’s no longer about talking to a recruiter who is located near you or near the area you want to move to. You need to know the areas he or she specializes in, the typical companies he or she recruits for, and the geographic regions. (Executive recruiting isn’t all that local anymore.)
Recruiter matching is important to starting the relationship off right…
It’s one reason why we’ve been encouraging our technical members to use Recruiter Matching. By building an extensive network of technical recruiters, our concierge Job Search Agent can vet the ones she sees as most valuable to our member and his or her goals. She can also help our members set up longer term communications with the recruiters who are most responsive to our member.
So be careful not to toss them all out just yet…
Make sure you have been properly matched or aligned first, and then build engagements with the ones who seem the most interested in keeping the dialogue going.
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