Recently in Talent Category

Earlier this week I was writing an article that will appear in an up-coming issue of a market research industry publication. The subject of this particular article was how employers can ensure a return on investment when it comes to recruitment - whether it be through direct hiring channels or through utilising the services of a recruitment agency.

This is certainly a topical piece, however it got me thinking about the flip-side to this "equation" ... how talent can ensure a return on their investment when working with recruiters.

From a candidate's perspective, the recruitment experience can be daunting, stressful, confusing and often unnecessarily complicated. But with the right relationship and respect for (and from) a specialist recruiter, the experience can be effective, efficient and even enjoyable.

How?

In order to get the most out of the recruitment partnership as a candidate, it's in your best interest to co-operate closely with your recruiter of choice. A recruiter can give qualitative information about a candidate to a potential employer so long as they have been given accurate information during interview. A well-prepared candidate should have a detailed and up-to-date résumé that truly reflects who you are and what you have achieved in your previous roles, as well as a personal career objective that would be tailored to the position in question. It also helps a recruiter if you have a succinct and credible personal skills summary (best written in the third person) outlining your strengths and personal extra-curricular accomplishments.

As a candidate, be open and honest with your recruiter in terms of how you really feel about a particular role and the true reasons behind why you want to leave your current position. But more importantly, be up front about where you are at with any other opportunities or offers that may have presented themselves.

So as you would with any other partnership - be it professional or personal - it is important to be honest and communicate your needs as clearly as possible for the recruitment relationship to work best to your advantage.

You will then find that your recruiter works far more actively on your behalf ... and after all, isn't that what you want to happen?

Image courtesy of: opacity

This post was written by Aquent's Alex Weaver. This is a picture of him.

Athletes from the local T-ball team to the NBA rely on Nike to outfit them with stylish uniforms. To make that process easier and more reliable, Nike needed a next generation online sports clothing application. Creating this app however called for a specialized, temporary addition to their crew, someone who would combine left-brained design thinking with right-brained development skills.

Nike's online system for building and ordering uniforms utilized an older version of Flash. Its ActionScript programming was not organized into a central function list nor was it scalable, and the interface needed usability updates. These three issues increased the likelihood of one worst-case scenario: a uniform design would be lost if the connection were broken at any point during the building process.

Inspired by positive placements in the past, Nike contact Tum Hallrud turned to Aquent's Brian Guidry and Suzy Thompson to find the person Nike needed. Within days Aquent talent Mike Slone was placed on assignment and began working with the Nike team both on- and off-site to develop requirements and explore solution options.

Mike started by creating a set of core functions and components which improved scalability because they could be reused in new uniform design projects, thus cutting future development time nearly in half. From there, he retooled the user interface making it more intuitive and letting the user preview the uniform on the fly. He also shortened download times and reduced frustration by ensuring that the uniform was saved to a database as it was being assembled.

Mike saved Nike tens of thousands in development costs and, by streamlining the uniform creation process, improved the user experience and boosted sales. The folks at Nike were so impressed by his superpowers, they retained his services for two years beyond the initial contract.

Now, what do you think of that?

You know, I've answered a lot of marketing career questions as part of my Ask the Expert column on the American Marketing Association's website.

The questions have ranged from the fairly general, "Why can't I get an interview?," to the surprisingly specific, "With an MBA in International Marketing from 20 years ago, what professional degree or certificate programs can you recommend in the field of green or sustainability that would refresh my skills?"

While it can be challenging to give advice to people when you don't know them or the specifics of their situation, I don't let that stop me, and not just because I'm a pretentious charlatan.

The reason I don't let it stop me is that I am extremely confident that, on a general level, I can provide people with the basic framework for getting the job they want and it goes like this: a) cultivate a realistic understanding of your own capabilities and limitations; b) focus your job search on specific positions at specific companies; and c) differentiate yourself from other applicants by creating a human connection with hiring managers.

The hard part isn't laying out this framework for people, or even applying it to specific situations. The hard part is actually doing the work it requires to get the work you're after. No one can do that for you; you have to do it yourself.

On Tuesday, February 10, be sure to check out "My Comedy Show," the highly anticipated Scrubs episode co-written by Devin O. Mahoney and Aquent copywriting talent, Chris Rego Marquiis!

At least 10 people expressed excitement about the episode here, but if you need more convincing, take a sneak peak.

Great digital marketing managers have several things in common: they are passionate users of technology; they exhibit a fanatical attention to detail; they know how to connect the dots in very complex, dynamic systems; and they are skilled at translating business needs into technological reality.

At least that's what I gleaned from conversations with two Aquent talent: Terry Kong, a digital marketing manager represented by Aquent's New York office; and Becky Huber, a marketing manager with strong online experience represented by our Richmond office.

Terry currently oversees direct digital marketing (email campaigns, newsletters, etc.) and intranet management for a major financial company's corporate and institutional business. Becky has worked through Aquent at a well-known credit card company where, among other things, she was involved in their first online marketing campaign. Here's some of what they told me when I asked, "What separates the great from the good, digital marketing-wise?"

1. Passion for Technology

"Subject matter expertise is good," Terry told me, "but you really need to know the technology. Actually, it goes beyond knowledge and understanding. You have to be into technology."

"I'm looking for internet junkies and email junkies," adds Becky. "People who are not just interested in or familiar with technology, but actively engaged with it." Terry, who builds websites and explores the world of gadgets in his spare time, explains it this way, "I want the folks on my team to understand the limitations and the power of technology because they've actually used it." On that score Becky points out, "There is a lot you can learn and pick up in the execution space, but you have to start with genuine enthusiasm for the tools."

2. Attention to Detail

"Effective online marketing, whether we're talking about banner ads or SEM, requires that you compress everything you want to say into 6 to 10 words. You have to drill down to the core, the heart of what you do," says Becky, "then you have to get your hands on all the research you can and find out what it is about what you do that really engages the audience. And THEN, you have to test continually."

The ability to test continually was something that Terry really liked about e-retailing specifically. "In contrast to B-2-B online marketing," Terry points out, "with retail stuff you can see results day to day and you can tweak on the fly to get closer and closer to the pot of gold."

In a comment on my last post, someone wrote: "I am completely baffled and mystified by Aquent. My background and skills are stellar. I see a few people here and there who do get work through Aquent. But there really aren't that many jobs around when I go searching for them. What's going on? Is there some secret mantra I should know?"

I started to respond with a comment of my own, but thought that other folks who have not found work through us may have similar questions. The short answer is, "Nope. There is no secret." The long answer goes like this:

There is no mantra or secret password as far as getting work through us goes. At the same time, I would say that there is an amount of "luck" in the sense of "timing." After we've interviewed you and reviewed your portfolio, if we think there's a match between your skills and our clients' current needs, we'll usually let you know right then and, ideally, it will lead to a placement. And one placement may well lead to another.

If, on the other hand, it turns out that due to bad timing your stellar skills don't match any of the immediate needs of our clients, that could mean, unfortunately, that you never find a position through us. Why is that?

I'm working on a new "About Us" page for Aquent.com. As part of that process, we asked a lot of the staff what they tell people when asked why they work at Aquent. My favorite response was the simplest, "Because it's awesome."

Still, as much as I would like this page to state, "The only thing you really need to know about Aquent is this: It's awesome," I feel a distinct pressure to be somewhat more specific and elaborate. To that end, we also asked people to provide us three words they use to describe this place. The sorts of words they came up with, and I had asked them to do so "off the cuff," were: Unique, Passionate, and Caring; Fun, Exciting, and Global; Creative, Inventive, and Friendly; Wicked Smart, Holistic, and Entrepreneurial [technically, that was four words, but you get the picture]; etc.

I dig all of that, and think that these words do indeed capture what Aquent's about, but I was concerned that they were too "internal." To get an external perspective, I started looking through my notes from various interviews I had conducted with Aquent Talent. Of course, these were people for whom we'd found work, so I understand that they would be positively disposed towards us, but I thought their thoughts would help lend a deeper sense of what we're about. So here's what I found.