Come Meet Me!

Last Tuesday, we invited job seekers, recruiters, hiring managers and our very own resume experts to meet up "Live" at the New York Athletic Club, and I'd like to share some photos from the event with you ...

(please note - we take your confidentiality very, very seriously, so everybody appearing in these photos has individually signed a release and knows we took their photo for this newsletter...)

Melissa Klein is an executive recruiter with The Forum Group. She came loaded with opportunities in advertising communications, market research and marketing. We had more than a dozen resume critiquers ready with personalized pointers to improve the structure, presentation and content of your resumes. One of your fellow job seekers, Wayne Jones, got to sit down with NYCREX recruiter Steven Englander to talk job openings. Taiye Henderson-Sanchez peruses our package of tips for resume prep, personal presentation and interview skills. Oneeka Botu is a marketing consultant in the beauty industry. By the end of the evening, she'd had one-on-one meetings with five recruiters! Executive recruiters Lou Rossi and Marina Bokserman of Starpoint were excited to meet top-level candidates in marketing, communications and advertising. My favorite part of the job! I got to meet so many of you and hear about your stories from the job hunt. This attendee takes five before his resume checkup. Job seeker KC Swenson got the chance to meet staffing specialist Harold Laslo of The Aldan Troy Group.

Folks - it was great to meet up with you live and in-person. I get a lot of energy and excitement out of meeting you all face-to-face, and I know from talking to the recruiters at the event that they feel the same way. You know, I think it's because of TheLadders.com screening's methodology - before we let them in, we have two people screen every single job, every single job seeker, and every single recruiter to ensure that they're right for our $100K+ community. And that focus on high-end quality really makes our community great for what we all want - to get you connected to you next $100K+ job as quickly, painlessly, and effectively as possible.

To give you just one example of what I mean when I say that I get a lot out of these events, I'll tell you a story from last Tuesday...

One very accomplished fellow came up to me and asked why I thought he wasn't have success on the system. So I said "let's hear your pitch!"

He handed over his resume and said, "I'm a proven entrepreneur with 15 years experience who can do just about anything a company needs."

And I said, "Well, there's your problem!"

A little startled, he asked, "What do you mean?"

And I explained, "Look, in this economy, you have to realize that everybody is applying for every job. And if I'm a recruiter working in Corporate America, I *know* what my hiring manager is looking for - somebody who can do *this* job right now. And so I'm looking for somebody who is a marketing expert, or a technology whiz, or a sales mensch, or an operations genius to fill my marketing, technology, sales and operations jobs.

"What I am definitely not looking for is somebody who wants to do anything, especially when I have so many choices among people who are great at one specific thing."

"Second, your resume's first two words are 'proven entrepreneur.' Now, how many proven entrepreneur positions are there out there? None. That's not a title that companies are adding to their org chart right now - they are not screening and recruiting and hiring for proven entrepreneurs - they're looking for excellent individual contributors or great managers in their various fields.

"When you emphasize 'proven entrepreneur', the recruiter might say: 'gee whiz, is this guy a team player and is he going to be a good subordinate, or is he going to want to run the show?'

"And, frankly, who can blame them? When you highlight entrepreneurship instead of managerial excellence or team effectiveness, you are sending the signal that that is how you view yourself and how you expect to be perceived. And so it is no wonder that they might be hesitant to contact you because you aren't making yourself look like an easy, obvious fit."

And he nodded - that seemed to make sense to him. So I finished up with: "Look, I can speak for a long, long time about why you need to have a professional re-write your resume. But it comes down to this:

"In this market, just telling the truth about your history isn't enough. That's just the start. What you really need to do is tell a story - what job are you going to be great at, and why should this recruiter bother to put you in front of his or her hiring manager? How are you going to be a slam dunk for this specific position?"

Well, this is just the type of chat that I find so very valuable to have in-person with you, Readers. This, and other conversations I had, reminded me of the challenges you're having finding a job in this economy, and actually generated a lot of ideas about how we can help. So thanks for coming out!

By the way, if you'd like "TheLadders.com Live" to come to your town, please email our team at careerevents@theladders.com and let them know! Please put your city in the subject line so we can tally up the responses easily.

OK, folks, thanks again and I'll hope to meet you all across this great land of ours!

Warmest regards,

Marc Cenedella
Founder & CEO
TheLadders.com, Inc.