How to NOT get that interview, get that call - BIG TIME

Based on real events in a everyday life of a Recruiter (nope, this ain't a rant)

We love helping and working with people, of course we do! It's our job and what we are paid for, right?
Yet, there are some behaviors out there which would drive us nuts!

A recruiter's job is tough enough: to match the right candidate to the right company. As the job seeker, being aware of how to deal with a recruiter can keep you off that dreaded blacklist. Stand out! Aim to be the one candidate who is pleasant, professional, and easy to work with.

If you make a recruiter's day a little brighter and their job a little easier, they'll be keen to help you out. The following habits, however, will make your recruiter sigh heavily, roll their eyes, and scream "Argh!" after hanging up with you.

Here are a few examples on how to get on my blacklist:

Be a BIG EGO.

Go On! Go ahead! Continue to hord the phone line and  tell them why you are a “perfect fit” for the position.
Recruiters rejecting you show their stupidity and it's your job to teach them. “Constructively” criticize them and make sure it gets drilled in them what they are missing out. Expressing emotions using colorful language will go a long way to ensure they truly understand how you feel. Yes, please, go on!

Another point to add to this BIG EGOistic personality, are those who actually accept a job offer, and when everything is inked, disappears on the first day of work, unable to be contacted, no emails, no messages, no return calls, no nothing.

This would really really guarantee you a spot on both the employer's and my blacklist, and by that, i really mean blacklist, in our database system, with a black flag at the side of your name; not blacklist on a notebook just to keep note.

Be Loud and Proud.

Recruiters receive hundreds of resumes and, in order to stand out, you have got to be loud. Do so by constantly stalking. calling, emailing and sending PMs on their social networks. Not only will that put you ahead of all the other applicants but, it will show them that you don’t give up easily.

Make Cold Calls.
Do call the recruitment office and ask for a random recruiter who will listen to you whine about how you can’t find a job. If that recruiter doesn't want to listen, ask to be transferred to another recruiter.

Play James Bond.
The best method to find out your market value is to find out how much companies will be willing to offer you. It doesn't matter if you are not interested in the job. Use this opportunity for practice and leverage. Go as far as you can in the interview process, when you receive an offer, back out. Hey, you got what you needed. You can even present the offer to your current employer and they will match that offer.

Calling from a phone with poor reception.
The last thing a recruiter needs is to waste their precious time on the phones saying, "Can you hear me...how about now? HELLO HELLO~~???"

Failing to update your resume.
If you upload your resume onto a job portal and a recruiter calls to talk to you about a position months later, remember to send her an updated resume—before they send an outdated resume to their client.
Of course, most recruiters will do their due diligence and confirm to make sure they have your most updated resume—but sending them one will make their job a little easier, and yours!

Trying to maneuver them and go straight to the client.

THIS PISSES US OFF BIG TIME!We're not stepping stones. We're constantly working hard to maintain relationships with clients (aka your potential employer). By trying to go around or contacting the client directly, you're making us look bad.EG: if a recruiter tells you you're not a good fit for the opportunity, asking the client directly for alternative opportunities is a major PISS OFF.

The worst is when a candidate thinks the recruiter is no longer a part of the hiring process once they've interviewed and never calls a recruiter back, wanting only to deal with the client directly

Also, recruiters usually have a better relationship with the clients (aka your potential employer) better than you do, so go ahead, see what happens.

Exaggerating your skills set.
Lying to recruiters about your expertise will hurt both the recruiter's and your credibility in the long run.
If there is a gap in your resume or you were fired from a job, explain why

There isn't a whole lot of time or resources for recruiters to triple check your skills, so most of the time they'll take your word (and resume) for it. Be honest or else they'll end up unintentionally overselling you to their client. Huge mistake.

Treating recruiters as job-vending machinesSays it all!

The executive recruiter is working for the client to find the right candidate with the requisite experience, skills, and culture fit etc

Executive recruiters are not working for the candidate.
That being said—they are looking for a great fit, and if that's you, then we will do what we can to get to a job offer for you

Just don't call every day looking for updates or new positions; whining about how you have been out of a job for ages.

Building that A - team ( Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Jessica Biel, Sharlto Copley NOT Included )

Having had the privilege to gone through one of the toughest and elite military training within the Singapore Armed Forces as a Naval Diver and setting up my own business venture few years back; these 2 most important journeys of my life has taught me a lot about building and leading teams.

Pretty sure we have all experienced great teams and not-so-great (i'm being nice.. really) teams, so let's not dwell in on how / why bad teams are.

Instead, let's focus on the A Teams;


So...what makes up a A- Team?

If you've been on a team that was all fired up and performing at an elite level, it would have been sort of a near miracle or magical event! 

The amount of synergy, the amount of output energy, the level of happiness, motivation and putting in twice the amount of hard work; Everyone seems like Seal Team 6 conquering mountains and seas with ease, Life is good... real good! (Quit dreaming already)

Then why isn't everyone else the same?

Whether born or bread, an AWESOME leader is a forceful personality who has the most effects on building such a great team; according to traditional wisdom.

This leader is in charge of the Strategic Plan, which includes the Vision, Mission & Values of the organisation  to be hanged somewhere in the main hall or meeting rooms; the Strategic Plan itself is kept in a dossier and ultimately left to be locked up in a lonely cabinet somewhere ( or lost in some thumbdrive )

The optimistic team after all the hype now starts charging and blunders here, there, everywhere, never making it to the top. 

That leader is now deemed a failure, and a new leader is chosen.

Rinse, repeat and the whole scenarios plays like a soap opera gone bad.

So... What is missing? - The Integration of the 3 Dimensions

1) The Leader - Self Leadership - The "I"

Our internal experience whenever we are alone and deep in thoughts ( Om...Just kidding )

2) The Team - the "We"

Our internal experience including and during the who, what, when, why, how of us being located and cooperation with our teammates

3) The Organisation - the "It"

The "it" of our social systems - our organizations, schools, societies, etc. - has a broad and vauge impact on the "I" and "we" dimensions. This dimension is the result of rigid rules, regulations, norms, systems, and the likes.

Imagine the experience you would have in the Armed Forces (The Organisation - the "It"). You know what to wear, where to go, what to do, norms for communicating (hand salute!), how much money you will make, and on and on. 

Fast forward to your first day of retirement. You are out of the regimental life. Your experience is radically different. The Armed Forces, which somehow helped define who you were for 20 years, now has no impact on your internal experience besides lingering beliefs and habits. Chances are you will still wake up, but you may not know what to do with yourself!

The "I" is the world of the interior-individual. This is where you reside inside your head and heart. This dimension is the hearts & minds of the leader's and the teammates, or followers, if you will.

In this Dimension, the individual consciousness and world view are the driving force. From inside each of us, informed by our level of awareness and consciousness, comes:

Trustworthiness - powered by our virtuous behavior

Self-Leadership - we must lead ourselves before leading others

Personal Mastery - the journey of personal mastery is a necessary journey on the warrior's / leader's path

The "WE" dimension is the interior-collective. Here "I" connects with "you" to become "we." In "we" there must be:

Trust -  the trustworthiness of the individuals
Shared Experience - there must be enough common experience to relate
Shared Risk - doesn't work if I take all the credit while you take all the risk (BIG NO NO!)
Service - toward your teammates


Finally the "IT" dimension is the world of the exterior collective where we find various forms of:

Rank & positional authority
Command, control & org charts
Rules and regulations
Support structures & resource allocation 

Elite teams focus on understanding, developing (active growth of "I" and "We" in a healthy "IT") and balancing all three dimensions without stifling or poisoning one another

Ultimately, for a team to operate at an elite level, then the three dimensions must also be operating at an elite level individually. 

Each teammate (including the leader) seeks a strong body, mind and spirit individually while simultaneously seeking a strong collective "body, mind and spirit" of the team. 

When all three dimensions are aligned by their actions, then there would be a successful creation of the "A" team

To weight, or not to weight

I guess this picture says it all huh?

Remember, the difference between a boss and a leader... 

A boss say "Go" 

A leaders say "Let's go"

It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.- Nelson Mandela 

Visualization - What you see is what you get

Visualize Success 
During the times of running my own training business; we frequently employed this technique called Visualization; the creation or re-creation of an external experience in the "mind's eye." Sports psychologists and top coaches have used visualization to enhance performance for some time now. It is estimated that 90% of Olympic athletes use some form of visualization and 97% say that it helps. Most Olympic coaches include it in their training arsenal.

So... 

If it works for Olympians, why haven't most of us in the corporate , leadership, development roles, committed to bettering ourselves and others employed this yet?

Why does visualization work?

A properly visualized event is treated as if it happened for real in your conscious and sub conscious mind, our human brain is unable to differentiate between what is real or unreal.  

Essentially, you are seeing and doing the event a second time when you do it for real physically. Also, during a visualization event your muscles are stimulated as if during a "real event," conditioning yourself by virtue of the repetitive motion. The best part of visualization is that you choose the outcome, and the quality of the performance. Why not start with a winning outcome and great performance in your mind first!

Typically two types of visualization are utilized during our Trainings and Seminars in the past; even right now in my daily work


1. "Practice visualization" is rehearsing an event in the mind before attempting it. Visualizing a performance on a  workout, swim, run, a fight, a sales call, a meeting with your boss, an interview etc can have a positive impact on the results, especially if done well and repeatedly over time.

2. "Future-me visualization" is where we create a powerful image of a future event which is a major goal. A good example would be earning the gold medal, or launching a business or successfully landing your dream career. You create the event in your mind, complement it with full emotions, color, sounds, smell and tastes, all as vividly as possible. 

Then we reinforce this visual image through repeated internal visits. This creates a powerful anchor in our subconscious mind. The subconscious mind then goes to work to recruit the resources necessary to nurture the event to fruition through proper thought and action.

Proper visualization helps to reduce stress of the unknown and control emotional responses 

It builds confidence and helps you concentrate on the important tasks required rather than waste energy on non-productive states of mind resulting from uncertainty. because you have "been there" before. 

When you begin the practice of visualization, you will likely start with second person (external visualization). This is where you view yourself from a 3rd party perspective. As you gain experience you will shift to first person (internal visualization) POV. This is where your imagined event is happening from your perspective, as if you had a helmet cam on. 

Visualization is a valuable tool in the development of any sport or skill (shooting, jumping, diving and public speaking). A solid session can help hone and test a strategy.

I hope this is helpful and that you can put the information to use someday. As always, stay focused and have fun!

Keep Learning, Keep Growing
Jason

Welcome to where the mind is fed (mental nutrition - in - the - brewing)

Hi guys! Welcome to anyone from anywhere reading this space!

For our very 1st entry, let's have a very brief description.
This was set up because i needed a place where i could share (plus.. ahem.. the occasional rants...) any information and my thoughts on Talents / HR / Leadership related topics.

A little haven where all like minded people gather and share (rant) about their work, their thoughts, experiences etc etc etc... (you get the drift?)

So... 

Why the name Thinkers, Builders, Producers, Improvers - TBPI?

Well, I was reading a piece (see original article here) which got me thinking; many of us in the working world passes through these 4 phases in our careers at one point or the other.



According to Lou Adler -The Original Headhunter and Author for: Hire With Your Head and The Essential Guide for Hiring and Getting Hired:


Thinkers: these people are the visionaries, strategists, intellects, and creators of the world, and every big idea starts with them.

Builders: these people take an idea from scratch and convert it into something tangible. This could be creating a new business, designing a complex new product, closing a big deal, or developing a new process

Producers: these people execute or maintain a repeatable process. This can range from simple things like working on an inbound help desk and handling some transactional process like basic sales, to more complex, like auditing the performance of a big system, writing code, or producing the monthly financial reports.

Improvers: these people upgrade, change or make a repeatable process better. 


I don't know how true it sounds to most of you but personally, i have had the fortune to have gone through ( and yes, i'm still growing and going through ) all these 4 stages, especially right now at my current company.

To keep things short and sweet, hope this blog would serve as a informational (my two cents worth of thoughts actually) reading list; for the young millennials and Generation Ys, or even if you are a seasoned, experienced member of the global workforce. 

Topics (and yes, includes my random thoughts and yes.. occasional rants) would evolve around building readers and myself into better of each of the 4 types of persons - TBPI.

Comments and constructive criticism are greatly appreciated; as definitely I would love to learn and grow together with you!

Enjoy reading!

Keep Learning, Keep Growing,
Jason