Has Your Product Expired?

The candidate packet sat on my desk, my first to go out. Attached with a perfectly symmetrical white paper clip was my business card - my business card, with my name and other pertinent details. Beneath the card was my perfectly spaced and typed letter of introduction on bond-paper letterhead. Attached to the perfectly written then printed letter was a detailed job description, benefits package, and specifics about the company. The Managing Director walked in to review and approve.

He held the letter up and looked at the paper with the light of the window. I had already received instructions on how to staple the packet and how to place the bond paper in the printer. The water mark could not be backwards or upside down. I watched him and pictured my potential candidate holding that same letter to the light and then deciding, then and there, since the water mark was backwards, that he was no longer interested in the job I was pitching, I mean presenting. A smirk filled my soul. Why not just send a frickin' email? I mean c'mon.

Recruiting has changed quite a bit since the onset of all things email. And of course, social media has had its way with the industry. A good way, the improvement in communication and speed has been essential. The hard part, I guess, is keeping up. Technology moves faster than a Jamaican Bolt. But is speed necessary and what do we lose out on with the onslaught of split fee arrangements and twitter-izations? What do we lose? Probably a fee.

I have met so many recruiters over the last two years that have struggled significantly to merely stay in the game and not just fold. It is not an easy nor sleazy profession, like many believe. At least, it isn't if you are good at your job and really care about it and the people/industry/companies you serve. Those you serve, this is a service we provide, "we" are the product. Has your product expired? Is it out of date? Have you kept it polished?

I really wonder if a water mark makes a difference. Does the extra expense, time and perception really make a difference? Or is what you say more important... Is doing what you say you will do, following up and following through the way to get and keep a client or attract and hook a candidate? Somehow, I don't think a water mark ever closed a recruitment or secured a fee.

And they say it's the little things that matter. hmmm

Tags: bonus track, candidate, difference, email, expiration, impressions, rayanne, recruiting, struggle

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Permalink Reply by Maureen Sharib on August 21, 2009 at 6:40am

I don't know if it ever closed a deal but if the possibility exists that it could, why overlook it?

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Permalink Reply by Harold Ensley on August 21, 2009 at 7:08am

That sounds like a pretty vain candidate. A watermark, seriously? I'm with you on your other thoughts, it's what you do and say that closes the deal. I've had HM's do jumping jacks for candidates just to get them hired -- because I told them how critical it was. If you pair paying attention to what candidates need, and strong candidate management, this is what closes deals.

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Permalink Reply by Andy Gregory on August 21, 2009 at 8:30am

Nice post. This is just another reason good recruiters go out on their own and say Screw You, Jurassic Park Micromanager. Just make sure you resign to their face as they may not use email.

Not to call you out - and with all deference - are you serious, Maureen? I would have thought we were on the same page but my page isn't on fancy paper, doesn't include a watermark, and more closely resembles a bar napkin with some salt shrapnel. It is the person, not the paper.

Watermark, shatermark.

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Permalink Reply by Maureen Sharib on August 21, 2009 at 9:14am

I'm serious. It doesn't do you any good to send out anything on your own behalf that is less than perfect. This includes any form of business etiquette that is generally accepted/expected and it also includes spelling errors.
It's a simple thing to "fix" most of these things - why buck convention entirely because you view yourself ahead of the mainstream? Keeping two feet in different streams is not a bad thing. Things change slowly. Why make an example of yourself how things shouldn't be done?

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Permalink Reply by Rayanne on August 21, 2009 at 1:02pm

OK, so I am going to go out on limb here and presume Maureen, that you don't send anything out on bond paper..., as a matter of fact, I'd like to go further out on that limb and ask if you send ANYTHING by ground/snail mail anymore..., aside from a Thank You note, check, and an invoice. Anyone? Anyone? It is unnecessary in the day and age in which we live and also provides an unnecessary delay in communications. I, personally, even send invoices via email - save the trees, ya know.

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Permalink Reply by Maureen Sharib on August 21, 2009 at 1:22pm

Rayanne, I RARELY send anything by snail mail.

All I'm saying here is that it behooves us to put our best foot forward with the materials we have at our disposal. I am assuming that Managing Director was paying you to do things his way. It appears that the organization you were working for places a high priority on propriety.

I understand your eagerness to do things in what you view as the most efficient manner. But for some reason, the organization doesn't agree with you. It appears the organization has its own "sharp corners" and views any attempt to shave them curved as disagreeable.

Personally, I feel all the things you mentioned make a difference:
extra expense, time, perception and doing what you say you will do

I am not a recruiter but I have been involved in many transactions in my lifetime. One thing I have learned is sometimes you don't know what made the difference in closing a transaction and securing a fee.

Sometimes it just seemed like magic.

I say leave no paper upside-down, allow no corner to be shaved, no communication to go out misspelled and for goodness sakes answer live every ringing phone.

That would be my advice.

Everyone doesn't do things the way we do them online. We must remember that. We may be the centers of our universes but we are not the Center of the Universe. Not yet.

;)

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Permalink Reply by Martin H.Snyder on August 21, 2009 at 1:50pm

I think the watermark is a proxy for the world of the Obsessive-Compulsive. I hear Madoff's office was such a place.....but in truth, there is a subset of people who live that way, and if you want to work with them, you need to live it too.....I can't do it for long.

I always regarded the O/C route when practiced by a businessperson to be a productive anxiety repsonse (you can see how Madoff would need it)- you see it everywhere- in Parenting, Sports, etc. I think these folks feel that when they control everything controllable, life has the least chance of zinging them the wrong way- they don't trust proportionality, or at least anyone else's except obvious fellow travelers.

Part of the art of recruiting and business is playing to your audience. Don't be fooled either by the 'casual' approach- many times it's more ruthless at finding your actual weaknesses which in it's way is worse than being dismissed for something 'stupid' like a watermark being upside down.....

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Permalink Reply by Rayanne on August 21, 2009 at 2:17pm

I agree completely from the candidate side - spelling errors and "messes" are not acceptable... The paper does represent the person and that paper better be spot on. My point was more to Martin's point about being obsessive/compulsive and not seeing technology as an ally.

To set the record straight, this incident occurred several years ago and was but one of many. Additionally, I did follow all the rules then, as I was a new recruiter and didn't know any better... ;-)

Sandra McCartt said:

Once in a great while, not often anymore, if i am meeting in person with clients to present resumes and discuss a position and candidates i will print resumes on bond paper along with write up info on bond to match. Other than that, the only thing i have sent snail mail in years are my tax returns.

I will take slight exception to the comment "it's not the paper , it's the person". In my experience candidates are turned down daily because the resume is a mess or full of typos, formatting errors or not readable. I have had candidates turned down because they made such a mess of filling out an application that it was illegible or that age old thingy that we tell them not to do but they do anyway. "See Resume" on the page that asks for experience by date. I have one client who will automatically turn down a candidate who writes "See Resume". Their attitude is if they can't follow directions when filling out the application why would anyone think they would follow directions in the normal course of business.