No Notes and a new recruiter at our firm!!!

 

The last two months I’ve had the opportunity to talk to a lot of Dave’s clients and listen to their stories about him. It’s been awesome to hear how many people he’s helped over the last 30+ years.  Dave has helped people since they first graduated from college until now!  A funny musing anyone he knows well he never kept notes on them – he’d just remember everything about them. So, it’s been an interesting process with no notes – I’m interviewing people that the firm has known for years just to complete their file – we like to get as much detail as possible, so we place them at a great company!

Exciting news - we have a new recruiter at the firm, Sharon Ryder. She has over 25 years of experience recruiting and is excellent with sales, marketing and biz dev people.   Call us, she’d be happy to assist any of your recruiting needs.

Dave Retires

 

Dave is retired from The Ankenbrandt Group. We’ve spent over 30 years working together recruiting, arguing, negotiating, and laughing about work while managing the firm. I remember my first recruiter job description written on a napkin from a local coffee shop, my first deal closing and all the months of work to get to that point. Since then, there’s been lots of deals and many ups and downs, but we’ve always held our standards high at the firm and continued our good work.  The family company has been a challenge and a pleasure for me.  I’m excited to take the helm and continue to recruit for our amazing clients.

Dave will be missed but for us he’s just a phone call away – unless he’s offshore fishing.

East Coast for Ankenbrandt

We did it! After talking for so many years about moving we made the jump. SoCal is a great place but we’ve been hankering for a change and new digs. Scott and I relocated and now Ankenbrandt has both West Coast and East Coast offices.  Dave and Deanna are still in West while Scott and I have settled down in the East  -- where we are lucky enough to still enjoy West Coast sunsets! We continue to recruit out of CA but we are more easily available to our East Coast clients. We’ll pop into CA as needed but right now we are enjoying laying down new roots in Florida.

The office psychiatrist is IN

Dave is always telling people who he’s talking to on the phone that we have an office psychiatrist.  So here he is, Oso the West Highland Terrier.  He’s a rescue and an amazing dog. (Ok I am a bit biased.)

I brought him one day just for fun. Oso is smart, the next day he was waiting in the garage for me to leave for work and wouldn’t take no for an answer. Now, he waits by the door for me to “go to work”. If I don’t bring him in, all I hear all day long is, “Why didn’t you bring in Oso.” Or “Where’s Oso.”  Oso has met many clients and sits in on meetings and interviews in the board room. It’s a bit unconventional but it works for us and he’s a happy easy going psychiatrist of a dog. 

Speaking Dave

Dave, the owner and founder of The Ankenbrandt Group has his own language. He speaks and writes in quotes and short clips.  Sometimes it’s a challenge to take his thoughts and get them written down in understandable English. It’s like his brain is going too fast to get it all on paper. I try to make it all work for TAGBit’s  so I thought I’d give you a peak at how I transform his quotes and clips -  

Below is copy he sent me for October’s TAGBit's and his column Ank’s Angle. This is what he sent me –“Fall is upon us and winter is coming – we need rain - and Halloween is right around the corner. There will be a tomorrow – sure wish that we had leaders in this good old US of A…Seems the problems just keep stacking up. Had a boss one time – if there was a problem you would had to come up with a solution. Back in the day when people had manners.. Maybe go back to those days….”

And this is what I turned it into – “Fall is upon us, winter is coming and Halloween is right around the corner. There will be a tomorrow, but I sure wish that we had leaders in this good old U.S. of A. It seems the problems just keep stacking up for our “leadership”. I had a boss at one time who taught me if there was a problem you would have to come up with a solution but that was back in the day when people had manners, good work ethics and respect.  Maybe we should go back to those days….”

I’d leave it in the original form but then we get too many people calling us telling us we have typos and grammatical errors in our newsletter.  There really is only so much explaining we can do so I change it but still try to capture the essence of Dave. 

Why You Didn't Get The Job.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) had an article in it about “Didn’t get the job? You’ll  never know why”.  It was an article telling you that you’ll never know what you did wrong because no one wants to be sued for telling the truth. I’m going to tell you why you didn't get the job.

1. You didn't prepare well.

2. You never sold them on why you should work there. Which means you didn't prepare well.

3. You didn't know your resume and your background well. 
(Yes, you need to remember the years you worked there. Saying, “It was long ago, I don’t remember” is a lazy response when you’re interviewing. You didn't prepare well.)

4. You did something like wear too much cologne/perfume, looked ill kept, had bad breath, wore the wrong thing or forgot your resume. Check the company's website for their corporate culture (how to dress) to learn how to fit in. Bring a resume.  Again - you didn't prepare well.

• Got the hint? Prepare well. Know the company and know yourself! Sometimes the chemistry is just off - it happens -  but if you found a great job at a great company that's a good fit and you blew the interview, it's because you didn't prepare well.

To learn how to prepare well check out this video from Dave.

Taking my own advice - get out of your own network!

Last Friday I decided to take some of my own advice and get out of my normal work and social network. I RSVP'd for the Chapman Woman in Film Conference. What a great conference for women in general, and what fun it was learning about the film industry.

I majored in Communications/Public Relations. When I graduated from Chapman, I thought I’d never use the skills I learned in school recruiting. I was wrong. My classes taught me how to write and market. In the past, recruiting was all about talking and networking face to face. Now with recruiting becoming an on-line profession with more written communication than verbal all those classes with Janell Shearer and Veston Rowe came in handy. So going back to my roots was a good thing. I reconnected with some people I have not talked to in years and connected with some new people. Getting out of your normal network does work!

Q&A for Job Seekers

So a leader of a  group on LinkedIn sent me a request to answer a few questions. In the interest of providing a diverse set of viewpoints, he wanted feedback/responses/advice from me for those in transition. No idea if he’ll use my stuff but I thought I’d provide his questions and my answers.

1. Question - Facing unemployment in today’s world is complex. Can you give us perspective from different points of view, say a college grad versus someone at mid-career, a woman or Veteran re-entering the workforce, or a degreed versus non-degreed job seeker?

Answer: College grads vs. mid-career. I’m volunteering right now as a Mentor for the Chapman MBA program. I actually think the college grads will have an easier time finding work. They can intern for free and prove to their employers that they are worth bringing on. A mid-career person has to slug through the resume, interview hiring process without the help of a career placement office to push them in. Both types of people need to get aggressive to get a job. You must show why they should hire you. Don’t expect whoever is hiring you to fish it out you must sell yourself.

2. Question - What is unusual about our current economic situation that makes the job of getting a job completely different than in past decades?

Answer - Unusual about current economic situation – companies are cutting back and expecting you to do three jobs not one. So when they decided to replace, rehire or create a new job they combo skills. Quite frequently during our searches the combo is almost unheard of and we’re out seeking that needle in the haystack. Also normally in harsh times companies still need accounting/finance types but not as much now. As accounting/operations gets more automated it takes less people to manage the systems.

3. Question - Other than the economy, what is the number one barrier that prevents people from gainful employment?
Answer - Not demonstrating why they fit the job, not explaining what they bring to the table to help the company and not asking for the job.

4. Question - What does one do if they have been historically employed in an industry that is showing no signs of growth or is in fact diminishing altogether?

Answer - What to do when you are becoming extinct – like mammals did, you need to adapt. Think out of the box, figure out what skill sets are transferable and market yourself to companies that can use those skills. People have a tendency to see what they can’t do instead of what they CAN do.

5. Question - What are the first steps you recommend for a job seeker to prevent feeling overwhelmed?

Answer - Take a deep breath and call a recruiter friend.

6. Question -. What are some of the key pitfalls job seekers face when looking for a new position?

Answers – Their ego – lose it. You won’t be making as much money as before and you’ll be working harder than before.

7. Question - Many unemployed workers start to focus on their passion and look to turn hobbies or dreams into entrepreneurial companies. At what point in the unemployment process do you recommend people begin to look at this as the best or worst option?

Answer - It all depends on the person and how entrepreneurial they are. Running your own business is not easy - you have to market your company constantly and work. Many people don’t understand that or are capable of doing that. Before you launch on something new I’d suggest finding a mentor/coach to talk with. Also do lots and lots of research on your new industry. The more you know the better off you are.

8. Question - What is your most memorable story or experience of a job seeker overcoming obstacles and realizing successful employment?

Answer - No idea - I work mainly with people who have jobs currently and I’m recruiting directly.

The internet is blessing and a curse!

We love the net, we use it daily to find candidates, research companies, check the news. It’s quick, easy and often times incredibly accurate. But it can also work against us. Often candidates develop their expectations of what we can do for them, how much money they can make and who they should be working for by doing a quick internet search. They hit one or two sites and consider their research done! Give them an A for effort but there is lots of information on the net that can get you into trouble - trouble a good recruiter can get you out of. We know our clients, we know our market we know if you’ll have to take a cut in pay or get a fantastic increase. We know because we keep tabs on the market and close tabs on our clients.

Ankenbrandt Group Trivia

Browsing through The Ankenbrandt Groups' old TAGBits newsletter I found out some fun and interesting stuff about the firm -

• Our logo is over 10 years old and we still think it looks good – thanks Rikki!

• We’ve been preaching tech solutions to recruiting for over 15 years. We still love technology.

• We have shared loads of Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving trivia.

• We are continuing re-inventing ourselves. We have recruited in almost all industries – the only industry I know we have not placed people in is hospitality. Anyone want to change that?

• We have found fantastic quotes over the years which are posted on this blog.

• We have been through recessions, earthquakes, fires, floods, huge periods of growth, a relocation to a new office etc.

• Dave “retiring” and then coming back - it’s hard not to work when you don’t have a hobby.

• Dave won’t quit – ever.

Caller ID

I’m annoyed, agitated and needing to vent. I’m on the phone recruiting for a Customer Care person (I have a great job open if you know anyone) and sometimes I get a wrong number. When I know it’s a wrong number I do not leave a message – I hang up. Leaving a message wastes time.

It’s amazing to me that I get so many calls back from people demanding to know who called them and why. When I ask if a message was left they say, “No” and I tell them it must have been a wrong number. Seriously - do you really have that much time on your hands to go through your caller ID to phone everyone back????

Please call back the people who leave you a message, but if a message was not left, why are you calling? Ugh!

I feel much better now. Thanks.

House Rules

At my home we have house rules posted on the wall. These rules are simple but work and I thought they might apply in the work place too. So here is the home version and the work version:

Home:
Play don‘t hurt – not hitting, pinching, body slamming, tripping, etc.
Do as you are told.
No complaining/whining.
No name calling.
No foul language.
Be friendly and thoughtful.
Respect is earned, not given.

Work:
Play well for the team - don’t hurt the team.
Do what your boss asks you to do unless it’s illegal and unethical.
Find solutions to problems don’t complain about them.
No name calling. Has calling your co-worker a nasty name actually furthered your career?
No foul language – we all have better vocabulary than that. Do you really need to let out a f-bomb all the time?
Be friendly and thoughtful – works at the office too. It never hurts to be good to your team.
Respect is earned not given.

Change It Up

What fun! Today, I revamped my blog with a new format, added our company logo and a link to YouTube. It was great to change up the look of my blog to be similar to my company. I like it - it's clean and easy to read.

Dave has been on YouTube for a while and this week I joined him asking questions. It was totally off the cuff, no rehersal and no script - you'll see that is very evident! So check us out on the daveankenbrandt channel on YouTube. Dave has lots to say on career, how to find a job, what jobs are hot etc.

Internet Black Hole

Today while talking to a terrific, very smart USC MBA (he has a MS in engineering too), he mentioned the black holes of the internet: job/resume portals. He said they don’t work, on line networking doesn’t work and emailing resumes directly to HR doesn’t work. For the most part, he’s right. Our world of instant emails, instant gratification doesn’t always work for finding a job. So, note to job hunters – finding a job is very hard work and sometimes you have to go the extra mile. Finding a job is harder work than having a job. In order to not end up in the black hole you need to go the extra mile .

Create - a list of companies that interest you. Then find out who is in charge of what you want to do. Example, if you are a marketing person, find out who is the Marketing Director or Marketing Vice President. Then, send your resume directly to that person – after you customize your resume – see below for more on that. You can also send it to HR.

Tailor - your resume to fit the job you are applying for. Do not lie, do not embellish but do highlight those skills that are applicable to the job you are applying for. Your resume is a marketing tool. It helps you get the job but you need to get in the door to sell yourself.

Follow - always follow up a resume with a phone call. You can call twice and send one email, after that you become a stalker. You do not want to become a stalker.

Interview - When you get the interview remember your elevator pitch, know your resume and sell yourself. Know enough about the company to be able to explain why your skill set fits their needs.

Thank you – write a thank you note, don’t just email it. Personal well written notes are still a nice touch.

Got the job – great! Now get ready to work. Didn’t get the job – make sure you tell the people you interviewed with that they can forward your resume to anyone they think might be able to use your skill sets. Always stay on good terms with anyone you’ve interviewed with – you never know who they know. It’s best not to end up in the black hole of a burned bridge.

Laugh it up, fuzz ball

You know those times where you get writers block. I mean really stuck. Usually I can come up with something, anything. Today all I was thinking about is my son repeating a line from Star Wars, “Laugh it up, fuzz ball.” I had to know who said the line so off I go to the net to find out. It was Han Solo. So today all I’ve got it is, “Laugh it up, fuzz ball."  

Maybe I need a day to laugh it up instead of sitting here stuck like a fuzz ball.

Volunteer your time.

Not working? Have you finished "The Honey-Do" list? Need something to do while you are searching for a job? Work for a Non-profit. Yes, volunteer your time. What volunteering does for you?

1. Makes you feel good. You are helping those who need help while you are helping yourself.

2. How are you helping yourself? By expanding your network. You are meeting people you might not normally meet.

3. Develops new skills or refines skills you already have.

4. Keeps you busy. Idyll hands, idyll mind. Keep yourself sharp by keeping busy.

Dinosaur

I did not call Dave a dinosaur last week. He’s been on the phone all day Tuesday and now Wednesday, today, insisting I said he’s a dinosaur. Dinosaurs are the creatures my son is fascinated with - they are cold blooded, larger than life, ancient and quite interesting. 

OK, maybe I should be calling Dave a dino...

Dave can be cold blooded, especially when he turns the air conditioner down so low my feet go numb, he is always larger than life and lets us know that! Dave, by some standards, could be considered ancient in the recruiting industry. However, in our family, where people live into their late 90’s, he’s still considered young and quite, of course, interesting – it’s never a dull moment around here.

Way to go, “Dave the Dino” you got yourself written into my blog – again.