Monday, May 6, 2013

Dating vs. Recruiting: How to fill two birds with one stone

In many of my classes I explain how important it is to consider dating and recruiting to be EXACTLY alike. And recruiting is sales in TWO directions. A person to a company and a company to a person. One bird here is dating, and the other is sales. I'll be the rock. Not The Rock, that's taken.

So let's draw some connections and use the caps lock a few more times. In this first entry I will talk about the job posting. This is (of course) an advertisement for a job. I am generally opposed to posting jobs, yet I met my girlfriend through Craigslist. So please, deal with the hypocrisy. And don't judge.

Step 1. Place the advertisement in a the right location. Swedishjanitors.com may have free job postings, but your ideal Manufacturing Engineer does NOT look for jobs there. Likewise, throwing on that little black dress to clean your house only works if you want to date your roommate or the creepy guy who looks in your windows. He says hi.

Step 2. Stop yelling. Honestly people. I think the thought process going on in a job posting or even an online dating ad must be, "If I use all caps, I will stand out!" Picture if you will a pretty woman sitting in her little black dress all alone in a smoky jazz bar. A man, call him "Jason," has met her eyes and smiled a few times. He then comes over with a little swagger in his walk and bellows, "HI I"M JASON, IS THIS SEAT TAKEN?" Yup, I can stand out too.

Step 3. Describe yourself (and therefore your position/product whatever) is the most commonly used terms.Yes I am both altitudinous and erudite, yet still delightfully jocular. When someone looks for their ideal date they may run a search for tall, well-educated and funny. Your product description can't be oddly specific in a way only used internally. I found hundreds of current job postings today for "shop technician 2." Which is what?

Step 4. Open Strong. "Is this seat taken? I don't bite... unless it's called for." Your opening in any sales situation is crucial. In my office we frequently use the phrase, "talked himself out of a job." This happens when a candidate that was doing fine keeps talking until they say too much. It is the Peter Principle applied to conversation.You must open strong, be specific, then SHUT UP. I could write an entire post on the power of shutting up.

Step 5. Be honest. If you are only interested in dating 70+ inch tall ballerinas who have a degree in chemistry, that needs to be stated in your "product needs." Otherwise you end up with 69 inch dancers who studied anatomy and what would you do with them? If you go look at personal ads (or job ads) both often fail to describe the role in honest, detailed terms. If the job requires the person to stare at a screen for 80% of the day, inputting data- why emphasis the need for a team player? You will just hire a team player, who will be miserable. I don't like long walks on the beach. Nor do I claim to. Long lounges on the beach with drinks? I'm in.

Step 6. I never said be yourself. We all put our best foot forward when dating, interviewing, describing the job. That is fine. I can be irritable, condescending, domineering, sweet, patient and charming. Dating should reveal a mix of that, but tempered. And by tempered I mean again, SHUT UP. The job description nor the blog post should go so long as to lose interest. That's why this is just Vol 1.


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