Looking to Network? Admitting You Need Advice is the First Step

Stop and think back in time for a moment. How often have you said no to someone when they asked you for advice?

The answer for most is likely never. As leaders and professionals, most relish the opportunity to share their expertise and be seen as an “authority” on a topic—even if it is only for a short period of time. It is also why many leaders, like yourself, write blog posts for their company to share their insight and advice into the world they work in.

Why is this important? Well, the idea of asking for advice can help open up a bigger world of networking for most people, they just never really looked at it that way.

Let’s face it, in large part the reason professionals network is an attempt to create new business opportunities for their company and find a new way to meet their monthly sales quota. Very few people really want to go to a networking event for two hours AFTER they have been at work all day long, but they bite the bullet for the drinks, appetizers and possibility they may have a good conversation with one prospect who can make their month go from okay to great when it comes to reconciling their bottom line.

While I am sure some of you thoroughly enjoy the repetitive nature of networking events, what if you took a different approach when it comes to networking? Why not reach out to people—either at the events or through great tools like LinkedIn—and ask for their advice?

How could this work? Why would someone who does not know you take the time to give you advice? Well, let’s look at a scenario.

Let’s say you have identified a company you would like to do business with in the future. Furthermore, you have identified a key member of that organization who you would like to be in contact with because you know they can influence the outcome of the decision. How do you go about reaching out to them?

Most would start with something like, “Dear (insert name here), my name is so and so and I think our businesses would align well in the future. I’d love to set up a meeting with you to discuss. Please let me know if you have 15 minutes on (insert date here).”

If you are laughing right now, it is probably because you sent that email—or one like it—at least 10 times this month alone. On the other side, how many times have you ignored an email just like that from someone you do not know? Probably quite a few times.

So how do you get around this “blocker” of an email?

Well, it is time to turn back the clocks and do some good, old-fashioned research on the person you want to reach, then ask for their advice. “Dear (insert name here), I came across your profile on LinkedIn and notice your company is doing (insert stat from profile or website here) in the (insert industry here), that is amazing! I was wondering if you could share some advice with me on how you motivated your team to reach numbers like that. I have a great team here, but I really want to do something to take them to the next level.”

Your message does not have to be exactly like that, as you will tailor it up to fit your need and the person’s industry, but you get the picture. The identified prospect is much more likely to take a couple minutes to provide you with advice on how they were successful, than set up a 15 minute-fact finding mission with a person they do not know. On top of that, they will likely look into your organization through any links in your email signature as well to find out who you are and what your company does (boom, you do not really even have to spend time establishing credibility). And if you are really lucky, they may extend an offer to “talk more.”

But Wait …

Now that you understand how to ask for advice, I have to tell you something—the message of the email or LinkedIn message is great, but it does not get you in the door. You need to make sure of one thing above all else.

Your request for advice MUST be in subject line or everything we just discussed does not matter.

Finding a way to make your need for advice stand out in the email subject line is paramount. If they are from the same college you went to, point that out (Fellow Viking Grad Looking for Advice), if they are in your industry, mention that (Fellow Marketing Professional Who Needs Your Advice). These are just a couple of suggestions, feel free to get creative with it when reaching out, but unless you draw attention to the fact you need advice before they open the email, they may never see your request!

The moral of the story here is simple.

Everyone is looking for a way to grow their network and develop better business contacts, it is just a natural part of our professional lives. Furthermore, everyone is looking for a way to stand out from the crowd.

Well, standing out has never been easier. All you have to do is stop looking for a cheap trick that has worked for someone else on the internet. Instead, swallow your pride and be genuine—and just ask someone who is doing it right for a little advice.

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What is Your Company Doing to Change Job Seeker Perception?

How often does your company do an internal audit of how you are corresponding with job seekers? The answer to this question, for most companies, is not very often—and it could be one of the main reasons your company is having difficulty attracting top-tier talent for your organization.

A recent study released by research firm “Future Workplace” echoed this sentiment, as many job seekers reported having a poor overall experience during their job search. No, it wasn’t the overwhelming number of job alerts they receive from job boards that they complained about though, it was the experience with the actual employer after they had applied for the job that had job seekers discouraged.

According to their study, which surveyed 1,200 respondents (826 job seekers and 374 employers), 60 percent of job seekers reported a bad candidate experience while applying for jobs. This wasn’t the only relevant data point from the article, here are a few others that really stood out and should be of major concern to companies.

  • Of the 60 percent of job seekers who reported a bad experience, “72% report having shared that experience online on an employer review site, such as Glassdoor, on a social networking site, or directly with a colleague or friend.”
  • In regard to communication post-application, “65% of job seekers say they never or rarely receive notice from employers.”
  • “80% of job seekers say they would be discouraged to consider other relevant job openings at a company that failed to notify them of their application status. Yet, they would be 3.5 times more likely to re-apply to a company if they were notified.”
  • “Fewer than half of employers re-engage declined candidates yet nearly all (99%) believe re-engaging will help them build their talent community and protect their employer brand.”
  • “While the typical job seeker spends about 3 to 4 hours preparing and submitting one job application, the typical employer spends less than 15 minutes reviewing that application. About 70% of employers believe job seekers spend only 1 hour or less in researching, preparing for, and submitting their job application.”

The full article had plenty of more eye-popping statistics about the candidate experience from their research, but these were some of the most important in my eyes. Let’s dive a little deeper at the potential impact of this on your company.

Are reviews killing your company image?

According to the data above, 72 percent of those who reported a bad experience are discussing it online, on social networks or with friends. With our society advancing into a non-stop sharing platform thanks to social media and easy utilization of the internet—you need to spend more time reading what people think of your brand.

Many of you reading this probably have not looked for a job recently, but reading company reviews have become a vital part of the research and review process for candidates now. From personal experience, I would not apply to a company that has a negative review on a website like Glassdoor, without doing more investigating into the culture. Simply, if other people are posting about their bad experiences, why would I as a job seeker want to go there?

While it is difficult to control the overall experience and what people are posting, companies need to make sure they are putting their best foot forward from first interaction.

This is actually something that one of our project coordinators here at NexGoal was telling me earlier today is a common complaint from job seekers he works with, It is also one of the reasons they turn to him as a recruiter to help facilitate their search. Put simply, many were turned off by the first point of contact at organizations and were no longer interested in the position. If they are reporting it to him, how many more job seekers out there are telling the same to their friends and social media about that same negative experience?

Want to learn more about the NexGoal Corporate Client Experience? Click here!

Communication is key…and you are likely dropping the ball!

Interview Mistakes

The least you could do is tell them they weren’t selected for the job.

How many times have you stressed to your employees that communication is key? It is probably written on a white board somewhere in your office, in a handbook or on a piece of artwork hanging on wall. Yet despite this fact, many of us do not practice what we preach—and the data shows it.

In the day and age of auto-responder emails, if your company does not (at a bare minimum) have an automated message going out when someone submits an application—you are doing it all wrong. From there, someone in your human resources department should be coordinating with marketing to send up a follow-up email once you have selected a candidate.

Listen, we are not telling you to send out a detailed reason for not selecting them. But how difficult is it really to send them something along the lines of, “Thank you for your interest in (insert position name here). After careful consideration, we have selected a candidate we think best fits our needs. Though we did not select you for this position, we urge you to check back for other open positions in our company because we think you could be a fit in the future!”

Most candidates are going to be frustrated they were not selected, but this simple communication shows the door could be open one day, which goes a long way. Do you have to take them for a job in the future? That is completely up to you, but what this does is leave the candidate with a sense of closure on the position they applied for—and a positive story to tell their friends when they are all done, which could be the difference between a positive and negative social review.

Re-engagement is a necessity

Now that you have sent them the positive “they were not selected” message, what do you do with these candidates and their contact information? Well, according to the data above—not enough.

As someone who has spent many years in the email marketing industry, re-engagement campaigns are so vital to your organization. If you are not attempting to grow your database, you will continue to decline from those who unsubscribe—because unsubscriptions are inevitable.

In the job industry, the same theory applies. Those who applied to your job previously will eventually get jobs, thus reducing the size of your future candidate pool. However, you never know when they are willing to switch jobs or become unemployed—so stop dismissing them just because you did not hire them the first time around!

Save all of their contact information with your notes in an excel document, and put them on a monthly or quarterly email distribution list with your latest jobs. Or send them out an email asking if they would like to be notified about future job openings. Once again, just a little communication could go a long way.

Your candidates are doing research…and it is time to acknowledge that

Many of us come from the days of mass applications on every job board just trying to get hired. Unfortunately, what this did was create a mentality of thinking job seekers do not actually care where they get hired and are not putting in the effort to get hired.

However as time has gone on, job seekers became frustrated with being just a “number” that was being pre-screened by software and not a person—so they started doing more research. Job seekers began identifying the companies they wanted to work for through this process, and learned more about a company to prepare for their first meeting, so take notice!

Give job seekers more than the 15 minutes you have been giving them in the past. Click the link on their resume that goes to their LinkedIn account, read the cover letter they sent in and do a little research of your own. Just because their resume does not say “10 years of sales experience” does not mean they may not meet your 10-12 years of relevant experience requirement on the job description. You may be passing on your next great hire if you do not dig a little deeper.

Bonus Tip: Market your company to the candidate

Back in the day (I’ve always wanted to say that), most employers were able to get by with the standard job description—because job seekers were easily flocking to them. Then this crazy thing happened, job seekers got smart and realized they wanted to find a place that was a good fit for them before applying for the job.

For those doing the hiring, this means they were no longer getting top candidates to apply because that person could not find out why they should come work for their company in the job description. Every company wants to tell you what they want in an employee, but what they fail to realize is they need to sell to that potential employee as well.

Go and pull up a current job posting for your company and read it over. Would you be motivated to spend an hour or so applying for a job after reading it? More than likely your answer is no—so add a “Company Culture” section or a “Why You Should Work Here” section. You may think it is cheesy, but a potential candidate will appreciate it, and it just could land you that top-tier talent you have been missing out on all these months since your job posting went live.

Struggling to market your company? Let NexGoal help find the candidate you need! Set-up a meeting today!

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NexGoal Receives Praise From One of Nation’s Top Telecom Companies

US Network recently celebrated its 20th year in business by being recognized as a leader in the telecommunications industry. One of the main reasons for this recognition is because they believe in going above and beyond when it comes to managing their business relationships.US Networks Logo

Dedication to their craft is one of the reasons why NexGoal has been proud to work as a recruiting partner with US Network over the past couple of years, as they realize the value in hiring athlete-candidates for their open sales positions.

This week, US Networks President John Nierzwicki reached out to our team here and wanted to share his story with our audience about working with NexGoal for his hiring needs. If you want to learn more about US Networks, you can visit their website here.

“NexGoal has been a recruiting partner with our company for the past couple of years. Their concept of placing former college and professional athletes into businesses has been very effective. As a former collegiate athlete I can attest to the attributes that athletes can bring to any company such as:

  • Team player
  • Goal oriented
  • Disciplined
  • Coachable
  • Able to deal with adversity

John continued, “I have filled sales positions with NexGoal and have had success in their candidates transitioning into our company. NexGoal provided candidates with diverse backgrounds that were well informed about our company and the position they were interviewing for. NexGoal responded to our requests and did a good job of following up. I would recommend their recruiting services.”

We would like to John for his kind words about NexGoal and look forward to continuing to infuse US Networks with our excellent candidates for years to come!

If you would like to learn more about how athletes can infuse athlete-candidates into your organization with the traits John outlined above, click here to schedule a meeting with our team!

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3 Major Ways You Are Wasting Time During Your Workday

Raise your hand if you waste time during your workday. Okay, everyone should have their hand raised right about now. If you do not have your hand raised, you are either a robot or do not understand what wasting time is.

For some reason when I think about wasting time at work, it always leads back to the below clip from Peter Gibbons in the movie Office Space. When meeting with “The Bobs” about how much work he had been missing, Peter stated, ‘I wouldn’t say I’ve been missing it, Bob.”

Though missing work and wasting time at work are two different things, they both end in the same result—not accomplishing the tasks you need to. So, how much time does the average person waste at work instead of doing these tasks? According to Scoro, a data management software company, “Most people actually use 60% or less of available work time. This means we’re productive only 3 days out of 5 every week.”

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Let that sink in for a second, though you are physically at work, you spend close to two days a week in the office not working. Each minute spent wasting time at work adds up, and if you really think about it, you can locate the biggest time-wasters you are performing every day.

Thanks to the good people at Scoro, they identified the three biggest time-wasters according to their survey—which is going to be the focus of our weekly “Three for Thursday.” Since the team here at NexGoal is all about providing solutions to the potential problems, we will take a look at the top three time-wasters and give you suggestions on how to become more productive in the office.

Checking Email

I know what many of you are thinking right about now, “I have to check my email for my job.” While this is true, you do not have to check it every single time a new one hits your inbox. The fine people at Scoro actually suggested in their infographic that you only check email three times per day—and there is a major reason why (aside from wasting time).

If you stop performing a task to respond to emails that just came in, the average person spends 16 minutes to refocus on the task they were working on. This means that it could potentially take you 16 minutes every time you stop, so if you are stopping 10 times per day to check and respond to email—that is 160 minutes, or just under three hours a day you spend trying to refocus on the work you were completing.

Now, not all of us have jobs we can just ignore emails and only check three times a day. If you are in that situation, I would suggest blocking off time on your calendar to work on high priority tasks. Those that you work and share a calendar with will clearly see you have that time blocked off, to make it easier you should close down your email client and focus on getting those tasks done.

Attending Meetings

Another prime function of the workplace is going to meetings, and it happens to be the second biggest time-waster in a person’s workday. Think about it. If you have a 9:30 a.m. meeting and start work at 9:00 a.m., you are not going to start on any major tasks for the day because you do not want stop in the middle of doing it. Say that meeting is an hour, now you are already at 10:30 a.m. of your workday and if the same rule applies (16 minutes to refocus), now it is 10:46 a.m. before you really start working.

I do not think we need to continue breaking down your day, you get the point—for every meeting you have, employees can lose major production time. Now, meetings are a major part of a job for most companies—but I would challenge those setting the meetings to ask themselves two questions before sending that meeting request.

The first question is, “Do I really need all of these people in the meeting?” The second question is, “Is a meeting the most productive way to convey whatever message/discuss whatever the meeting is about?”

When it comes to the first question, companies have a tendency to want to involve every department and every employee in that meeting. I cannot tell you how many meetings I have personally been paid to sit through where it had absolutely nothing to do with my job function. At the end, employees emerged annoyed they wasted time in that meeting, and did not have a better understanding of whatever the meeting was about. In fact, many stated an email would have sufficed, which is directly related to question number two.

My suggestion? Less is more when it comes to meetings. If you control that aspect of your business and are holding meetings every single day, maybe you need to ask yourself those two questions above.

Online Browsing

On the Line

Let’s take another quick survey. When was the last time you checked Facebook or Twitter that was for a non-work related function? Don’t be ashamed of your answer, we are all guilty of it—the 24/7 news cycle that is social media has corrupted all of our lives.

While writing this article, I stopped to check Facebook and Twitter twice each. Not because of a need to know what was going on out there, but because it has become a natural habit while completing tasks. Now, a big part of my job is posting on social media and knowing what is going on in the wonderful world of hiring and recruiting, so I have an excuse sometimes. But it does not change the fact that browsing these sites comes in third place on the list and is causing employees to waste an hour a day.

How can you break this oh so vicious need to be “on the line” (see Internship reference below) so much while you are working?

Turn back the clocks to elementary school, and give yourself a reward system. Set a goal of tasks you need to complete before you can do a little web browsing. Complete an hour’s worth of tasks? You get five minutes to browse online. If you are currently wasting an hour or more a day browsing the internet, doing this means you would need to complete six hours of work tasks per day to “waste” 30 minutes browsing the internet. With this system, you would get 30 minutes of time-wasting back per day, and likely get more work done in this process.

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3 Lessons Job Seekers Can Learn from Cleveland Browns WR Josh Gordon

Albert Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. In the case of Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon, we are not saying he is insane, but his continued disregard for workplace rules is writing a “what not to do” of sorts when it comes to violation of workplace rules.

For those of you not familiar with the story of Gordon, it all starts when he was just getting started as a collegiate athlete. Coming out of high school, Gordon committed to play football on scholarship for Baylor University. During his sophomore year, he fell asleep at a Taco Bell near campus with a teammate. After further investigation, police found marijuana in his teammate’s car which prompted Gordon to be suspended for his first violation and his teammate to be kicked off the team for his second violation.

Now, usually an action like this would be a wake-up call for a gifted athlete like Gordon—but that was not the case. Less than a year later, Gordon was suspended indefinitely from the Baylor football program for failing a drug test and testing positive for marijuana. This led to Gordon’s transfer to Utah a month later, but he would never see the football field and opt to enter the NFL’s Supplemental Draft in 2012.

If you are a Cleveland Browns fan, you know the history from here. The Browns gave up a second-round pick in the 2013 NFL Draft to take Gordon in the second round of the 2012 Supplemental Draft. However, due to his collegiate drug use, Gordon would enter the NFL under a microscope before violating any rules for his new employer.

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Like many of you with your employers, Gordon was provided a contract from his team which included rules and stipulations he must follow in accordance of league rules. One of those rules was that he would be subject to random drug tests to test for banned substances, which included marijuana.

Unfortunately for Gordon, he would not abide by the rules he agreed to in his NFL contract—and he was suspended just one year into his career. After making it through the 2012 season, Gordon was suspended for four games without pay (lost pay for four games total) to start the 2013 season for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy. Reports were that he failed a test due to codeine use, which Gordon stated was in cough syrup he used for strep throat. The NFL must have found some credence to that story, as they reduced his suspension from four to two games.

Thanks to the combination of his collegiate violations and early-career violation, Gordon was reportedly firmly in the middle of the NFL’s substance abuse policy—which includes various stages and increased testing as you move up those stages. Despite receiving letters in regard to where he was in this policy, Gordon would continue his use of banned substances under the contract he signed with his employer—leading to a major suspension from the league for the 2014 season.

Gordon would initially be suspended for the entire 2014 season, but it was later reduced to 10 games which allowed him to return for the final six games of the 2014 season. But his suspensions would incredibly not stop there, as he was suspended for the entire 2015 season after failing yet another test for banned substances following the 2014 season.

Fast forward to April of 2016, where news just came out this week in regard to Gordon’s application for reinstatement to the NFL for the 2016 season. The decision from the NFL was a denial of reinstatement, as reports have surfaced that Gordon yet AGAIN failed another drug test for banned substances. He can re-apply for reinstatement on August 1st of this year according to reports.

Okay, I am going to give you a few moments to let all of that sink in if you did not know the Gordon story in advance. Still with us?

So what can the legend of Josh Gordon teach us in regard to our own jobs? Well, there are three simple lessons.

Know your contract

While it is hard to believe Gordon and his agent did not know their NFL contract in and out, normal job seekers may not do the same due diligence when it comes to their own contracts. Some of us are so excited to get the offer letter and take the first step toward our new career, that we may not see some important stipulations in there.

Non-compete agreements, when your benefits start and when you can use vacation/sick/personal days are just some of the common items job seekers seem to not understand when they go into a job. Once they see the salary and start date that is all the info needed—time to sign on the dotted line and get paid!

Understand your company’s drug policy

This may seem like a no-brainer, but with different states changing their laws in regard to the use of recreational drugs, clarity may be necessary. For example, just because marijuana use is now legal in the state of Colorado, it does not mean you can keep your job if you fail a drug test. Some employers, like the NFL, could still maintain the right to terminate your employment if you fail a drug test. If you live in one of these states, review these rules as they apply to the new laws.

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You should also understand what drugs are covered under your company’s drug testing policy. Marijuana is not the only drug a person can fail a drug test for, there are prescription and over the counter drugs that can trigger your failure of a test as well. If you are prescribed a certain medication that may trigger a failure, professionals suggest to provide documentation from your medical professional to your company in advance so there are not any issues.

Do not let a temporary joy impede your career goals

Nobody truly knows whether or not Gordon loves the game of football, but his continued disregard for his employer’s rules suggest he does not love it more than the drugs he is using. This young man was on track to become one of the top wide receivers in the entire NFL after just two short seasons in the league, but his career has since been derailed thanks to his repeated failure of league drug tests.

While the majority of you are probably not in the same boat, it is important to remember that you have career goals that small things could get in the way of. We have talked about workplace conversation topics in the past to avoid, posting feelings about your job on social media and other actions seeming good at the time, but in the long run they could hurt your career goals.

Take Gordon’s repeated behavior as a chance to prioritize what is important to you in your career. If there are little items like office drama and gossiping that you feel are getting in your way of being more professional, stop doing them tomorrow. Find yourself posting negative feelings on social media too often? Stop hitting the Tweet button right now.

There’s a lot you can learn from the missteps of others, so take this moment to learn something from Josh Gordon.

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