Womensphere Summit - New York

I know....I'm a terrible blogger. It's certainly not my forte. It's not just that I work 10 - 12 hour days, but whenever the creative writer in me is ready, I'm usually not at my computer but somewhere inconvenient . Some people have weekly blogs that publish with regularity and then there are publications like, U of T's engineering newspaper - "Toike Oike" that actually declared: ..."published every now and then". That always made me laugh. Well I'm just like Toike Oike,, you'll get a blog out me....every now and then.

So next week folks, the IC Solutions team is off to New York....Columbia University no less. Check out the above link to see full details of the conference. I went to the one in Oxford in October 2011 and was blown away by the talent and information that was jammed into a one day session. Some of the great and inspirational minds of Europe were congregated to inspire and be inspired. I decided that more sessions like these were mandatory for the psyche not just the workplace. So when I received news of another, just an hour plane ride away, I signed on in a jiffy!

I've decided in my dotage, that it's really important to just stop the treadmill of work every now and then, wrestle my attention and laser like focus away from work and do something completely different and joyful, like go and spend a day or so being inspired.

And hey...who doesn't want to go to New York!!

Where did the summer go?

Yes its been another stretch since my last post. Well the good news is its been the busiest September on record and also our best month on record since the inception of IC Solutions. We are now well into October and the pace continues. We have and additional 2 new team members Tony & Lisa and we are working on projects all over the US, in Asia and also Europe and not to mention our own backyard.

On October 19th im off to Oxford University's Said Business School to attend the 2011 Womensphere summit. See link: http://womensphere.org/?p=1258 to learn about the excellent speakers. What a fantastic opportunity to do some international networking and learn about other entrepreneurs.

Ill let you know how it went. Thanks for checking in.

New Talent Alert!

We have a new IT Recruiter who started with us this week. Kannan Uthaman has decided to join us here at IC Solutions and focus on IT recruitment - his specialty. Goodness knows we could use his technical expertise to help us out here as there is always a need for tech gurus client side. I am so relieved we have more tech help!

His bio and photo will be up soon so please keep an eye out.

Can you believe its June?

Im happy to announce that we have 2 new staff members who have joined us. Iain and Dijana. Actually Iain has come back after some time away and Dijana brings lots of experience from a very successful career in media and advertising.

We are also actively recruiting in Asia [Shenzhen] and Europe along with some interesting business in our own backyard. We are working hard and slowly building and trying not to get too distracted now that the good weather is here and monsoon season is over. Like what's with that! :)

Have a great summer everyone!

SS

Growing Pains

First of all, a thousand apologies for not posting a blog in a long time. You know when you are in the middle of something and you are too close to even see it? Well, IC Solutions has been experiencing growing pains. As business picks up sometimes other tasks get left behind. - such as Ye Old Blog!!! So a few things slipped through the cracks especially in the New year. Well we are working on this and there is a light at the end of the tunnel and its not an oncoming train! ;-)))

We are growing in numbers. We have a new recruiter who joined our team in January - James Coburn and for those who are old enough to remember...yes just as in, "In Like Flint". James is as thorough as they come, when it comes to recruiting - talk about detail. He specializes in Media, advertising, Art Direction....well check out the bio on our website, under Our Team.

Also and most recently, Viktoriya Gaponenko has started working for ICS as our first official Account Manager, Administrator. She learns at lightning speed, is so intuitive and just great fun to be around. Look out for her bio showing up soon on the website.

There are new things happening this year. Its going to be a really exciting year too. Keep a look out soon for news of an international presence for IC Solutions. More to come on that later. In the meantime, its great to be back in the Blogsphere. I wont be such a stranger, I promise.
Roll on Spring!

SS

I want a new career!!

I want a New Career...

I hear this every day. As a recruiter, its one of the reasons i do what i do. I work to help people find new roles, but im also working for employers to fill empty roles or newly created ones. Yes my clients pay for this service and they are my priority, however i cannot fulfill this role without the candidates/applicants required to complete this match.

The need for some applicants to make a move - and get it right this time around is very much on the rise, in fact its keeping me very busy - career coaching. Career coaching is a service over and above that of straight recruitment and as such is a fee-based service. Its a modest fee and a small investment for those that really want to make a difference in their work lives, which is their lives, as work takes up so much of our time and is a measure of who we are.

Looking for a new career takes real work - creative work. Its a numbers game and requires different strategies on a daily basis, its hard work! Its not that job seekers are not willing to do their due diligence, its that most people just dont really know how to go about this. Few do, some think they do, but most dont really know whats really involved. What kills me is there is no real curriculum in the schools preparing new high school grads for this. College/University grads are further along on this continuum, but not by much. Even mid-career professionals require guidance.

I am good at what i do and i know how to help people achieve this goal. So, if you feel so inclined, call me. :)

SS

LinkedIn

Isn't LinkedIn great!!!

For those other recruiters out there that dont know this - read these networking secrets:

1. Network in 3D. While the names on LinkedIn are great to have, getting the names of their best connections is even better. As you begin your quest for great referrals, don’t just consider peers. Consider those who these people have mentored, who mentored them, who they most likely worked with on cross-functional teams, and who they regularly work with outside the company, including vendors, customers, and consultants.

2. Track your effectiveness. Don’t waste your time. Networking is not about dialing for dollars. Instead, track how many people call you back, how many are interested in talking about your position, how many are qualified for your opening, and how many referrals you get per call. If you’re not tracking this daily, you can’t get any better, since you won’t know what to work on. If you do track these metrics, you’ll soon discover that great referrals from well-respected people can increase your productivity 5-10X. That’s why the first name found on LinkedIn is not nearly as valuable as a referral from one of these people.

3. Get three referrals on each call. The most important metric you can track is how many high-quality referrals you get on each call. You need to become adept at getting these names. Make sure you highlight the fact that you don’t want to know anyone who’s looking. Instead, ask the person for the best person they know who’s absolutely not looking, but would be open to discussing a potential career move. Thinking in 3D helps here. For example, I’ve called buyers at major retailers looking for salespeople, product marketing people looking for engineers, ad agencies looking for product marketing people, and CPA partners looking for CFOs. The key is not to hang up until you have three great referrals if the person you called isn’t appropriate for the job at hand.

4. Don’t call people who won’t call you back. Great people will call you back if you mention the name of another great person. That’s why step three is so important. Track your callback rates. If you make sure that 80% of the people you call are warm, pre-qualified referrals, your call-back rate will be 75% or better. If you just make outbound cold calls, your callback rate will be closer to 25%. This is a huge difference in productivity.

5. Only call people who are worthy. While getting people to call you back is important, if they’re not worth talking to, it’s a waste of time. That’s why it’s important that you pre-qualify the referral. Just ask the person giving you the name why the person is a top-performer. As far as I’m concerned, a worthy person is someone who is either qualified for the job or knows someone who is.

6. Leave professional and career-oriented messages. Whether it’s a voicemail or an email, suggest you’d like to enter into a discussion regarding what could potentially be an important career move for the person. You must include some substantive proof as part of the message, not hyperbole. For example, “You might have heard that we just merged with XYZ Resources, and are looking for a product manager to lead the first integrated development project. I’d like to chat with you to see if this could offer a significant career move for you.” If you can mention the name of the person who provided you the referral you will more than double your callback rate. Hyperbole — “the greatest position in the world” — will cut it in half.

7. Create instant careers. If you’ve asked the person if they’re open to discussing a possible career move and they answered yes, don’t tell them much more about the job; instead, get them to first tell you a little about them. This is essential. As you quickly go through the highlights of the person’s work history, look for gaps in the candidate’s background your job fills. This could include staff size, scope of the project, impact the person can make, exposure to management, and the like. Mention these as reasons to proceed in the discussion. Of course, if the gaps are too big, or non-existent, smoothly switch your focus to getting three referrals.

8. Don’t take “no” for an answer. In addition to doing everything described above, you also need to be adept at overcoming objections. These cover the range from I’m not looking, what’s the comp, I’m happy where I am, to I’d don’t like the industry, your company has a bad reputation, and I don’t want to relocate. It’s impossible to put 20 years of advice into a single paragraph, other than to say that persistence is the key here. If your position represents a true career move, you owe it to your hiring manager, yourself, and the person on the phone not to give up until the person has the information needed to compare your job to what they’re doing today or whatever else they’re considering. Don’t give up until they do. Even if the person decides it’s not a true career move, you’ll still be able to get your three referrals.

9. Recruit first, network second. You’ll increase your networking productivity by directly recruiting the person first, rather than calling the person on some “networking” premise. To me this later approach should only be used when calling someone who clearly is not a candidate for the job. Recruiting the person first allows you to find out about the person’s background before revealing much about the job. This allows you to determine if you should recruit the person or get referrals. You also establish a different relationship once the candidate has shared some confidential information with you.

10. Become SWK (someone worth knowing). Top prospects want to stay connected with top recruiters who handle important jobs. To become SWK you must know the job, the hiring manager, your company, your industry, and your competition. You need to be seen as a reasonably objective career counselor who is only willing to proceed if the job represents a true career move. You know you’re SWK if you get unsolicited referrals from top people in your area of expertise who want to work with you and give you other top referrals.

What’s great about LinkedIn and its Recruiter product is it gets you in the major leagues on day one. This is an invaluable gift. Regardless, since everyone will soon have access to the same information, your ability to convert a list of names into hot prospects and great hires is the real difference-maker. In my mind, this is the essence of great recruiting.

SS