Put a Price on that Head

Nobody grows up hoping to be a [INSERT JOB TITLE HERE].

Many occupations could adequately fill this space- including mine: Headhunter. Fact is, I like my line of work though I used to hate recruiters before I was one. Partly because I thought I knew what their job was (and I was wrong); the other part was anyone can be one- and with that means some real peaches call themselves recruiters.

Headhunters help almost exclusively people with a very specialized skillset or business professionals who have PROVEN they are more effective than MOST of their peers.

If you don't fall into either group, there's still plenty of jobs out there- including interesting and/or high-paying gigs. It's just a headhunter can't help you. Oddly, many wildly successful headhunters didn't fall into either of the above groups either. But they somehow found their way into Professional Recruiting. THAT was the thing they did better than their peers and the indisputable proof is 95% of people who get into recruiting either fail completely or tread water. More of the former than the latter.

Have a good headhunter in your mix because even if you have highly marketable skills and/or you've proven to be above the fray in your line of work- shit happens. Stuff COMPLETELY out of your sphere of influence. The chance of this occurring even to the most successful people in their work is high. At some point in your career, it will happen. It might happen more than once. People, preferences, personalities, politics. It's really out of your control.

The other reason to know a good headhunter: Reality. Reality says that you will some day outgrow what your employer can provide. No bad guys here, This isn't a people, preferences, personalities or politics case study here. This is a case study in reality. A good recruiter knows things you NEED to know.

Next week is Be Kind to Headhunters Week so if one gives you a call..

Indespensable

I’ve joked the only business advice worth an damn I could give a young person is DON’T click the “send” button on an email until you are CERTAIN who’s about to receive it. The Founding Fathers of my selfdom have drafted an amendment.

Don’t be COMPLETELY financially dependent on an employer.

They’re not completely dependent on you- nor should they be.

Unless you can live without most of what you have accumulated, get used to the idea that your income could be wildly reduced on short notice. There are tens of millions of people who have never experienced the aforementioned. They are very good at what they do. Many are SO good they think they are indispensable. Just remember these two corporate maxims. 1.) Increase productivity 2.) Reduce cost.

Can someone out there do 70% of your output at 50% of your pay? Those percentages are not your friend if you earn a decent living and find yourself searching for things to do.

If you’re hoping that the people above you don’t think about these things, hope is a terrible strategy.

Where your talents meet the world’s need lies your occupation. Preferably on your own but tied into a network of mutual reciprocity and equal exchange of value is ideal. The modern corporation as we know it has only been around a fraction of the time of large-scale trade in the world. It made a ton of business sense for a long time because markets required what it could provide. This is not an opinion.

Companies are currently sitting on unprecedented piles of cash with 70% of their previous workforce. Where do you think that 70% number is headed?

How many people in the last 20 years have walked by a co-workers desk and saw non-work related activity showing on the screen? Let’s be honest. Most people have spent massive amounts of their work hours not working, frequently because they needed work to do. Markets would pay that wage because when the market wanted something, it wanted it now. Only fully staffed companies could provide that.

Makers of products or providers of services can now get much of that output on demand.

We all need to re-tool, there’s nothing to be frightened of. What’s frightening is not being needed.

Numbers

We've all been told that numbers don't lie.

Statistics are numbers and politicians and other assorted shady characters have learned how to make these numbers lie. "There are lies, there are Goddammn lies...and there are statistics" once quipped M. Twain. I digress.

I spend a fair amount of my waking hours recruiting construction professionals. I have to pass on many talented people more than capable of doing the work the positions entails. Why? Because their numbers are working against them.

People who invest in other people in the labor market attempt to increase their chances of the proverbial "good hire". Good not just in their work but good in that they'll likely still be working at the company in 5 years- preferably much longer. If their work history includes long stints at previous employers, are they more likely to stick than someone who changes jobs frequently? Ummm...I'm going to opine in the affirmative, Sparky.

If I've learned anything- other than Boston drivers routinely disobey The Laws of Physics- it's life is inherently unfair. How about my life versus a child born in Afghanistan? Or someone born in a loving home that valued altruism and education versus a baby born in a crack house? My point is people change or lose jobs for MANY legitimate reasons, often due to circumstances that clearly could be deemed unfair. If you're one of them, understand the numbers game is not working in your favor. If you think it sucks- you're right- but the kid in Afghanistan thinks your life is pretty "fair".

A great line from a lousy late 80's movie proclaimed: "...all things end badly; otherwise they wouldn't end at all.." Never forgot that line though I'll never get those two hours back. In my line of work, this nugget of wisdom holds weight. Don't be so sure you left your last company in mutual good terms. Just because they presented you with a cake and a couple of drafts at Applebees doesn't mean things got real sticky after you decided to Get Out of Dodge.

It's sounds awful but most companies interviewing you are subtly looking for reasons NOT to hire you. Companies are treated like people in the eyes of the law. Like people, companies have a self-preservation mechanism. Doesn't mean you have to like considering changing jobs or being out of work and looking for a new one. Just understand the reality of what's going on. If you're one of the tens of millions reading this-relatively speaking- your life has been more fair than most people stumbling around the planet.

Plan Accordingly

Today on Wall Street, several hundred people who were at their high school prom 10 years ago will make more money today than you'll make in the next three months.

Meanwhile, an inner-city teacher will put in extra hours of their own time to help three bright kids whose mothers have a taste for crack the way you have a taste for Hazlenut. For the day, after taxes, that teacher will take home $126.91.

The market decides. I don't like the above example of the market at work but it beats the hell out of a planned economy in which a political ideology decides what you earn.

I'm a headhunter but I wasn't always. I worked for some recognized companies in the past and for that reason alone, headhunters would call me. Roughly 4 nanoseconds after my saying "hello", I was asked how much money I made last year. Before I could answer or decide if I wanted to answer, the uber-aggressive headhunter might ask about the last three years of W2's. It pissed me off but the guy was playing the odds and, quite frankly, doing his job. I'm a salesguy and he wants to know how good I am. If I made a ton of dough but wanted to change jobs, we might be able to help each other out

The market- unbeknownst to certain Tea Party nutjobs- sometimes doesn't always reflect value and rarely truth. There are millions of underpayed and overpaid people. The reasons for this are too many to list here but often it's because a person or hierarchy that makes such decisions puts the money somewhere else. If you think that's not fair- you're right- but you need to fix it if it really bothers you.

The world in infinitely unfair. Where and to whom you are born is where you're positioned at the starting gate of life. I was born and raised in New England. What if I was born and raised somewhere in Somalia? There's no bootstraps to pull yourself up there. If you're professionally and/or financially successful, be thankful. If you contribute meaningfully to society with your work- I thank you. If you feel the need to pat yourself on the back- go for it. If you get dealt a good hand at birth, it's up to you to find your own way.

Intel and The Snuggie

Neither fire, the wheel, the microprocessor nor The Snuggie has been invented yet in much of the marketing world.

This is why you still fend off inumerable unwanted marketing messages. Yes, part of it is low cost for delivery- like the lovable Web pop-up window, but for many marketing flatliners/flat-world minds, most of the onslaught is due to people with the IQ of cole slaw and the creative wherewithal of Open-Mic Night for Tax Attorneys.

The reason you (and I) loathe most salespeople is they are taught to "overcome objections". In the late 19th Century, this might have made sense. Now it only makes for antagonism. What part of "I'm not interested" do you not understand? The only thing created by this marketing mindset is the desire to flee from the "sales eagle!" to a place enveloped on four sides by kevlar.

As they continue to tinker with the wheel, these knuckle-draggers LOVE to hear you're "not in the market" for their products and services! Ya see, while they're hanging pictures on their cave walls, they'll explain that you acually have a "latent" need for your product. They read about it in a book entitled "You Can Sell Ice To Eskimos and swimming Titantic survivors while I'm Cashing Your $19.95 for this Book"

Very few business have the resources to build a large and effective marketing engine. Apple creates desires for products in which neither the desire nor product even existed 6 months ago. Your company is not Apple. You work for Fred's Widget and Snuggie Factory.

That means your company and its marketing efforts will need to seek new customers by initiating contact. That contact doesn't need to be wear a plaid jacket. That contact doesn't need to "overcome objections". It needs to be intelligently targeted, it needs to be concise, it needs to be smart and it needs to find people where timing and receptivity come together.

And if they tell you they're "all set" and their needs for widgets and/or Snuggies has been met for the next several decades, thank them and move on. There are people out there who want or need your stuff but are so swamped with work and life "to do's" that they've shelved action. They're listening.

Running Water and You

If some poor soul in the developing world can produce the same output and work you do… though they go home every night to a house that doesn’t even have running water- if the above is true for you- you have to find a new line of work.

It seems unfair but it’s the reality of Labor Market Darwinism, a term first coined by me roughly 45 seconds ago.

There isn’t a politician in the US with the cajones to say this, of course. They default to the patronizing we need to create good-paying jobs! line and everybody cheers. Hoo-ray! We are for good-paying jobs, too!!, they shout.

Lovely idea, it really is. Problem is it’s up to the people and not the politicians and these cheering people are being spoon-fed glee without any substance.

We hear about training and various other vague programs that, apparently, if you elect Candidate A…SHAZAM!..they will be able to create good-paying jobs with their copyright-protected program entitled Creating Good Paying Jobs Via Training And Various Other Vague Programs And Stuff Initiative (CGJVTAVOVPASI as it’s also known as in the world of make-believe).

There are a lot of good people, hard-working people who got blindsided by globalization and that stinks. No man is an island; I don’t care how talented or ambitious someone is. We’re an interdependent species. But let’s look at some of the generations that preceded us and faced hardship more significant than the current Great Recession. These people and these generations prevailed. They did so, amazingly, in a manner entirely different than the Occupy Wall Street movement. Instead, they did it all by busting their stones and managed to do it (brace yourself) without the advent of the iPhone, the standard-issue weapon of the Occupy Wall Street soldiers.

Hall of Fame baseball player Yogi Berra- who wasn’t quite as articulate as your average cocker spaniel- said it best: “..80% of this game is half mental!..”

He was talking about mental toughness. We all need to find it when things aren’t going well- and they will for EVERYBODY from time to time. Tune out the person running for office and tune it to what’s important to you.

And stop staring at your smartphone screen as you’re walking down the street.

1,168

That is the number of pages in the book Atlas Shrugged. You may curse Ayn Rand's name that many times if you choose to soldier your way through this book that weighs slightly less than a small sedan.

Love/hate is not strong enough language to describe my relationship with this book. It is, however, on a VERY short list of books that forced me to re-examine some of my own beliefs. For that reason alone, I view it as nothing short of a masterpiece.

The list of people wildy successful in their work who list it as a major influence in their life is endless. But it has also been read by an alarming number of scientists, bookworms, hardcore capitalists, hardcore Marxists, CEO's, hippies, social workers and every academic who ever walked the planet. Aspiring Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan said the book shook him at his core and changed his life forever.

(I'm aware that 50% of US citizens who know who their elected officials are like Paul Ryan very much; the other 50%, not so much).

Ayn Rand lived the first leg of her life under totalitarianism in the former USSR. Though she left barely a twenty year old to come to the United States, she witnessed plenty of what can go horribly wrong in what would be a political system doomed worldwide.

This book of dystopian fiction and most of her other works (fiction and non-fiction) chronicles the virtue of the profit motive fueled by each individuals maximum creative and innovative output, (i.e. their work). For people born without such innate talents, she professed it was their job to assist in the efforts of those who were to build a just and efficient society.

I agree with much if not most of what she writes. I think the book would have been equally effective at 584 pages. She also is a bit of a zealot. That understatement is analogous to saying "Paris Hilton is a bit of a no-talent".

Rand said many times subsequent to the book being published she realizes that very few people on Earth could ever actually live up to the ideals the books protagonists exhibited and lived. Rand's critics, past and present, paint her to be a heartless industrialist who would send all of the world's weak to the ovens.

Glad I read it, believe all people who consider themselves critical thinkers should read it and feel sorry for people I see on the train reading it who are ONLY on page 584.