Dying newspapers and growing application piles

Recent discussions with Portland, OR employers have revealed the following.

*A job listing in the daily Oregonian newspaper received only a few responses (walk-in applications only).

*The same job listing on craigslist a week later resulted in a steady stream of applicants, but only on the first day. Responses dropped off to only a handful on day 2. The employer was reluctant to post on craigslist due to previous issues with the quality of applicants ("interesting people").

*One discount department store is receiving up to 50 applications a day. Over the summer, hiring will slow down due to participation in the youth (WIA) summer jobs program.

Rags to Riches in 15 days!

I recently read Get Hired Fast: Tap the Hidden Job Market in 15 Days by Brian Graham, which I acquired as an impulse buy at FedEx Office. I bought it after skimming through and seeing that it focused on cold calling, which is a common deficiency in job searches. It is taxing to make enough cold calls to get good at it, and people generally stay away from doing things they are not good at, which leads to few cold calls.

According to Get Hired Fast, it is a mistake to shy away from cold calls, and I agree. The book's strong suit is its support for cold calling as the focus of a job search strategy, from researching employers to developing a script for calls. It's all part of a regiment that prescribes a short (3 weeks) but concentrated (150 calls) calling campaign.

There are 2 things I've started to tell job seekers lately. The first is that job search is what they do outside of my cubicle (meaning that they need to be active outside of our visits). The second is that of all the job seekers who have found jobs while in our program over the last year, only 1 has gotten a job from online-only sources. All the others have used personal contacts (including job developed by employment specialists), walk-in visits (including in-person visits to employers advertising online), or cold-calls to find open positions that they've applied for and gotten.

Get Hired Fast corroborates this position that job seekers need to get away from the computer as much as possible. Unfortunately, cold calling is only the subject of half the book. The rest of the pages are repeats of standard job seeking advice about interviewing and responding to job offers. This highlights the difficulty with cold-calling; even a book about cold-calling needs a little sugar to help the medicine go down. Instead of this generic advice, I wish it would have included more about script writing and more about dealing with rejection. It honestly states that there will be a lot of rejection.

Get Hired Fast is also like a guide to losing 10 pounds or quitting smoking. It tells you what to do and it tells you how to do it. It doesn't make it easy or fun, though, and the hard work is up to you. If you're advocating for job seekers to make cold calls, I recommend checking it out from a library; it is not essential to have it permanently on your bookshelf.

As a bonus, it can help with job development, where cold calling skills are useful.

The employment specialist world of tomorrow

Despite spending most of my day (work and personal time) on a computer, I'm a skeptic about the promises of world-changing web applications. I think MySpace is for kids and I figure that 99% of videos on Youtube are better off not seen. I follow people on Twitter, but don't tweet myself as I don't think my employer would approve. Of course, I do blog.

Still, I think these are all great tools for workforce development. Here's a roundup of the most hyped sites and thoughts on their potential in our field. Real life examples reveal the early adopters and some hiccups with blogs that were suspended after three posts or social networking profiles with zero friends.

Twitter

Basic:
1. Announce Events
2. Celebrate successes.

Advanced:
1. Connect to employers.
2. Advertise specific candidates.

-Workforce Solutions Heart of Texas tweets.
-Workforce Solutions Lower Rio Grande tweets.
-Wise (VA) Workforce Center tweets.
-Worksystems Inc (Portland, OR) tweets.

Youtube

Basic:
1. Recruiting/Informational Brochures
2. Event Recaps

Advanced:
1. Self-produced (targeted) training
2. Employer interviews/profiles

-Workforce Solutions (Houston-Galveston-Gulfcoast) application and interviewing videos on Youtube.


MySpace/Facebook

Basic
1. Announce events.
2. Recruit.

Advanced:
1. Maintain follow-up contact.
2. Connect participants to other resources.

-Workforce Solutions Heart of Texas Myspace.
-Columbia-Greene Workforce NY Myspace.
-Worksource Vancouver (WA) Myspace.


Other examples:

Workforce Solutions Gulf Coast blog.

Huron County (OH) employment specialist interview by the Toledo Blade on Youtube.

Cumberland County (NC) Workforce Development montage on Youtube.

WorkOne Southeast (IN) youth commercial on Youtube.

Wise (VA) Workforce Center podcasts.

More Job Development

Here are additional resources from job development consultants, training organizations, and state agencies:

Allen Anderson articles at Dover Training Group & Employment Management Professionals. Check out the whole site. I like this from the DTG-EMP About Us page:

1. Job seekers do not have to be job ready to go to work. Plenty of people who were not job ready are working.
2. A linear path works for the most able and a nonlinear path for the less able.
3. We respond to the job market; the job market does not respond to us.
4. Job development is sales and marketing, not education or counseling, although education and counseling are often sales and marketing.
5. Employer needs are the keys to jobs, not candidate skills.
6. Failing at a job is a good beginning, not a poor ending.
7. The employer is the linchpin to jobs - gain control here and all is possible.
8. The only absolute must in going to work is the motivation to work.

More from Allen Anderson and Employment Management Professionals. (May have duplicate articles.)

Job development powerpoint presentation to Oregon Office of Vocational Rehabilitation Services (OVRS).

Additional materials from OVRS.

Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) podcast, What Do Employers Want?

ICI article, Increasing Placement Through Professional Networking

Business Class

Job development is not on the job description of every employment specialist, and it can look very different across the spectrum of workforce development programs.

In Youth WIA, I've seen job development handled as an extension of paid work experience (or on-the-job training). As a core onestop service, I've seen job development refer to soliciting or receiving job orders. In customized and supported employment, it becomes an intensive hands-on part of most job searches.

The competitiveness of the current job market emphasizes job development as a key element in employment services for job seekers who face tough barriers to employment. Unfortunately, it is harder to be successful at job development than it is to make a good resume or teach a job readiness workshop.

Even for great and experienced job developers, approaching businesses leads to rejection!

Job seekers don't get every job they apply for, but we still encourage them to keep trying. With coaching and practice, they will get a job. Employment specialists need to summon the same courage, take on the urgency of the job seeker, and keep trying as well.

Here are a few links to job development tips & tricks from around the web:

The Toolbox from Cygnet Associates: 23 tips for job development, and other workforce development guidance for general customer populations.

Massworks Tips for Job Development During Tough Times. 5 tips addressing job development in tight job markets. This is a post from Massworks' blog which has a strong focus on workforce development for people with disabililities.

Job development best practices via Powerpoint for the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Project. Includes basic strategies for incorporating employment into case management, and job development tips useful for working with all job seekers.

Supported Employment job development tips & trends from Canada. The last post is dated 2006, but I didn't see the 3 tips under the heading Relationship-based marketing on other lists.

How To Design and Deliver an Effective Job Development and Placement Program. A Dept. of Housing and Urban Development guide for its Neighborhood Works program. This guide includes telemarketing tips and a sample phone script.

Building Your Pitch, an MS Word outline for an elevator pitch from the Department of Labor's Performance Enhancement Project.

Natural Born Job Developer

One of my fellow Employment Specialists brought a take-out sandwich back to the office last week, and she started raving about how good it was as soon as she took the first bite. What was the first thing she did after she finished her lunch? She called the restaurant and told them how great the sandwich was.

Another time, we received poor service at a nearby pizza place, and she politely reported that she was used to much better at that restaurant. She didn't make them feel bad or threaten to take her business elsewhere, and she even tipped.

Any time we walk down the street or visit a public place, she runs into 2 or 3 people she knows, because she's met people everywhere and she meets more every day.

She's great at approaching employers, because she really values the work they do and is not afraid to let them know this.

Her personal interest in everyone reminds me of posts I've seen from the Sales by 5 blog. Sales by 5 was one of the consultants working on rebranding a workforce investment board I interacted with in Texas. The team there is also not shy about having meaningful interactions with the places where they shop, eat, and play. Here are some related posts on how they react to good and bad service:
Smart Phones - A Slacker's Enemy
An Open Letter to Steve Wynn And Joy
What Happens After a Mistake Matters Most
Systems Need to Make Sense

Sales by 5 also has advice on getting past the gatekeeper, which can translate from sales to job developing.

Word on the street

I spoke to a retail manager today while job developing, and he gave this summary of the hiring for a new store:

500 applicants
200 interviews
37 temporary hires

9 out of the 37 will be kept on permanently after the pre-opening work is complete.

A co-worker and I visited 4 employers this afternoon in inner NE Portland. Although none of them are currently hiring, there were bright spots in that 3 of them had made recent hires and the 4th expects to do some hiring in April. Plus, the managers at each place were friendly and helpful. Each invited us to check in periodically and send information on our program.

Job developing (and job search) frequently reminds me of The Endless Summer, in which the stars would reach a surf spot with disappointing waves and be told, "You should have been here yesterday."

Temp to perm: becoming indispensable

One of the surprises I encountered in job developing is the number of businesses that hire exclusively through temporary/placement agencies, including surprises such as retailers. In the office, I've heard many complaints from colleagues and customers that follow two general paths:

1. Staffing firms get paid X amount of dollars and only pay you half of it.
2. Staffing firms have it easy, because they can pick and choose their customers

These attitudes reflect mixed feelings about how staffing firms relate to government and non-profit employment programs. Many of us think that they are competitors. Others, including myself on objective and optimistic days, think they are a resource that is essentially the same as any other employer. They have the potential to be even better than a direct-hire employer, because they also have an incentive to make sure job seekers are hired.

These podcasts on employment retention from Express Employment Professionals demonstrate that staffing firms are also committed to making sure that job seekers find job security. Staffing firms need their employees to succeed, because they are part of the product being sold to clients.

Now we're back to the rivalry confusion. Staffing firms are selling their talent. As workforce development agencies, we are selling our talent. The difference is that we can sell our talent to the staffing firms. There is a relationship similar to wholesale and retail, or manufacturer and distributor. Staffing firms benefit from our talent due to the development we have already invested in them as job seekers: training, support services, career counseling and they deserve those benefits as all employers do.

A crowded field

One thing I hear from many job seekers, even from some in their early twenties, is that it used to be easy to walk into places, apply for jobs, and get hired at one of the first places they tried.

A common complaint is that they try to be proactive and visit employers but find they aren't able to talk to any managers and are directed to apply online. While hitting the streets to submit applications a few weeks ago, a job seeker and I were even stopped at the gates of one employer and given the "apply online" statement.

While employers have benefited from the online application process by saving time they used to spend answering inquiries at the store, office, or factory, and by being able to quickly scan for keywords and minimum qualifications, the ease by which job seekers can send a resume is beginning to overload human resources staff.

With affordable internet access at home, and near universal access at libraries, schools, and onestops, most job seekers are submitting online applications. It doesn't take much motivation to copy and paste, or attach, a resume multiple times. Someone who wouldn't make the effort to drive across town or buy a stamp to apply for a position will be willing to spend a few minutes on an email. The more lines in the water, the more fish I'll catch, they might think.

The problem is that there are fewer fish to catch today, and the person in the next boat is throwing out their lines as well. Even worse, anglers who used to chase salmon or tuna are now content to catch mullet.

CNN Money's Jessica Dickler writes about the rise in applications for entry-level and "less desirable" jobs. The flood of applications muddies the water for qualified job seekers and frustrates HR departments.

As an Employment Specialist, think about:
1. How will my customers stand out?
2. Where are my customers applying?
3. How can I get through to a real person for job development?
4. How can my customers get through to a real person?

I"m mad as hell...PS, I need a job.

Hopefully you get the reference to Network in the post title. It was either that or "I'm a people person!" from Office Space.

Networking can shorten a job search if the job seeker is able to speak to the right person at the right time. Plus, since so many jobs are not advertised, it's the only way to break into certain positions.

The Gig, a blog at Fortune (in partnership with CNN and Money magazine), has a warning and some tips on how to network without turning off potential allies.

In my experience, the tough truth about networking is that many job seekers (especially youth and the chronically unemployed) have not cultivated relationships for job searching and references. Youth haven't had the time or opportunity to have supervisors and colleagues. Individuals with frequent job separations don't stick around with an employer long enough to make a mark or they leave on bad terms. I commonly encounter job seekers that do not even remember the names of their past managers.

The solution for job seekers who are building their networks is cold calling, professional organizations, and industry mixers. Comments from the post on the Gig lead to other great resources. Alexandra Levit cites and summarizes a good post from Laura Roeder about approaching people that we might ordinarily think are too busy or too important to talk to us.

These tips are also perfect for job developing, and the Employment Specialist's network is a jump start for the job seeker's network.