Inertia, reluctance to move, outright lies on resumes, arrogance... What mistakes do top managers make when hiring during a crisis?

In times of crisis job search For top manager may turn into an impossible task. There is no longer a twofold increase in salaries when moving to another company, and during interviews you have to talk to ordinary HR managers, not shareholders. In times of crisis, the cost of error increases. With the help of a headhunting company partner "Agency Contact" by Yulia Zabazarnykh(on the picture) Executive.ru compiled a list of the five main mistakes of top managers that they urgently need to get rid of.

1. Closedness to suggestions

The peculiarity of the Russian labor market is that top managers Most companies are closed to new proposals. If the company is currently stable, then they are extremely reluctant to contact headhunters and recruiting agencies.

Why is this an error? The Russian market now, like any market during a crisis, is very unstable - the situation is changing quickly. Therefore, a business contact cannot be superfluous, and a new offer from outside can open up new horizons. In turn, refusing contacts can lead to the loss of a promising job.

Example: employees of the Contact agency spent a long time calling the general director of one large company, who always answered calls with the phrase: “I do not consider any proposals and am not ready for dialogue.” Two months later, the company was sold to other shareholders, and he began to actively study the market, but the option that we wanted to offer him was no longer relevant. If he had started negotiations at the moment when we called him, then by the time the company was sold he could have painlessly moved on to another job. Unfortunately, due to his closed nature, he missed out on the offer.

2. Inertia in the negotiation process

In a crisis employers and the company's shareholders quickly adapt to the new environment. Therefore, when candidates for top management are invited to an interview during a crisis, they often set a salary lower than what the candidate would like.

Why is this an error? Before the crisis transition top managers to another company was accompanied by a significant increase in salaries, sometimes reaching 100%. An increase of 30-40% was considered the norm. Now employers offer the same salary level or even less if they are confident in the stability of their company. The maximum salary increase when a top manager moves into a crisis year is 5-10%. The candidate begins to bargain out of habit and loses the offer.

Example: an agency worked with a sales director who had been bargaining for a long time with a potential employer, a company from Asia. The head office of the customer company considered this behavior unethical and withdrew their offer. As a result, the candidate was left completely without a job and sat without it for four months.

3. Lying on your resume

These candidates for top managers especially during a crisis. They're trying to write just to get into the finals. interviews. Moreover, this is a problem for candidates of any level - regardless of position or field.

Why is this a problem? Embellishing your successes or trying to hide shortcomings and mistakes can lead to very sad consequences. Up to image losses or even complete loss of trust of large employers.

Example. The candidate for the position of commercial director with whom we worked, before the interview, not only corrected his resume, but also erased the entry in his work book. Of course, this was discovered during a security check. Not only did he lose the job offer, this candidate also ruined his reputation in the market.

4. Unprepared to move

In Europe and the USA, top managers are quite mobile; they easily move from city to city or even to another country. In Russia, most candidates are not mobile enough, and in order to persuade a candidate to leave Moscow for another city, a lot of effort has to be made. Moreover, if the candidate agreed to move to Nizhny Novgorod, he will return to Moscow or St. Petersburg with the same reluctance, because the family is always against the move.

Why is this a problem? Because very often, due to lack of mobility, candidates lose good offers and companies lose good candidates.

Example. We were looking for a director of a pharmaceutical plant for a large Russian company. The company offered excellent conditions, but one of the candidates refused because he had recently bought an apartment and no longer wanted to live in rented housing. As a result, the candidate did not dare to sacrifice comfort, although he later regretted it.

5. Arrogance when working with a recruiter

In large corporations, it is customary for the first interview to be conducted by a representative of the HR service or a headhunting agency. A candidate for a top position often states that he will not communicate with HR managers, but is only ready to talk with the company’s general director or shareholders. It also happens that a candidate comes for an interview, but behaves arrogantly.

Why is this a problem? If the shareholders really delegated the first stage of candidate selection, then the person who showed arrogance immediately falls out of the pool of potential applicants and is deprived of the opportunity to participate in the competition.

Example. There was a case when a candidate for the position of sales director in a very large company, with the prospect of becoming a general director, behaved extremely arrogantly in communication with the HR manager. And, although his qualifications and competencies were at the highest level, due to a lack of flexibility, the HR manager gave him an extremely unflattering description, after which we had to convince the client for a long time to meet with this person directly. That time we managed to convince, but often because of this behavior we lose clients and candidates lose job offers.

Comments

According to a survey conducted back in 2011 by the Executive.ru community, top managers are more likely than other categories of employees to encounter age discrimination in employment.

At that time, advanced age prevented 15% of respondents from finding a job as a director (versus 13% of middle managers). According to our observations, today this trend has only intensified, and managers, in general, have become younger.

Among the reasons for this:

rapid economic growth

“overheated” labor market - many job offers with pay below the level of specific top managers

focus of young professionals on their careers

To understand how a top manager can find a job after 50 years of age, let’s figure out what companies are really afraid of when they refuse to hire executives over the age of 50.

• Little flexibility

  Most often, older leaders are seen as people from Soviet times.

  Employers are afraid that such directors were brought up by a rigid system and will not want to retrain to comply with modern approaches to management.

  For example, according to the popular Agile methodology, the manager must not only coordinate the actions of the team, but also carry out part of the work.

• Different corporate culture

  It is important for the employer that the new manager fits into the young team if the total age of the employees is small. Or so that a mature manager feels comfortable subordinating to the young owner of the company.

• Too much experience

  Potential employers are wary of managers with 30 years of experience in the profession and in life.

  Few companies can offer them appropriate payment terms. And if the manager is demoted, they fear that the “overqualified” person will not have enough motivation to work for results.

1. Focus your efforts on the mid-market segment.

   If earlier many managers went to startups, now this option is irrelevant - too many of them burn out.

   Large companies usually have a more stringent selection process, and small businesses simply do not yet need such a volume of knowledge and skills.

2. Choose a “loyal” industry.

   Age is strictest in the IT sector. You will have to constantly retrain and prove that you have your finger on the pulse of digital technologies. Also, in adulthood, it is difficult to find a job as a director in the field of finance, services and FMGG.

3. Show the seriousness of your intentions.

   To alleviate employers' concerns about your motivation, show that the novelty you're looking for isn't just about work challenges and continued income growth.

   Perhaps you have long been attracted to this particular field of activity or a special corporate culture.

4. Personalize your resume.

   Don't describe your entire experience in detail. For a specific company, highlight exactly those skills and experience that may be of interest to it, we talked about this in.

5. Focus on your strengths.

   Especially if they compare favorably with the characteristics of young candidates.

   You have more practical experience, no “rose-colored glasses” and inflated ambitions, a high level of responsibility and self-discipline. You are capable of achieving results - so show the financial benefit that you will bring to the company.

6. Be open and friendly in interviews.

   Arrogance combined with extensive experience makes you think that you are only going with this company for a while until a better offer comes along. Behave confidently and energetically, but refrain from self-praise.

   Show that you continue to improve your skills, discuss modern approaches to management and new technologies.

7. Rely on established contacts.

   Although the option of finding a job through an acquaintance works poorly today, you can get good recommendations.

   Personal connections will be useful if you choose the path of an entrepreneur instead of working for hire. Or decide to change your field of activity, for example, to one.

   The best answer to the question “How to find a job after 50 years?” sounds like this: contact the direct employer. And this is one of the priority areas of job search for our clients.

How to find a job as a manager without experience

The problem of employment is acute on the other side of the age barrier.

Less than half of companies “grow” leaders within their structure. More often they are hired from outside to gain access to existing knowledge and a fresh perspective on the situation.

Again, a lot depends on the area. Young and ambitious managers are building careers in IT companies and are also in demand for the position of marketing directors.

Otherwise, you can focus on those companies in which business processes are streamlined and there is no need for major changes. Then it is beneficial for them to hire a young and motivated manager who can be trained if necessary.

Therefore, do not raise your salary expectations to show that career growth is more important to you.

In your resume, focus on those responsibilities and projects where you made responsible decisions and interacted with company partners.

In addition to your knowledge and energy, your internal maturity is important.

The employer must see that you assess the situation sensibly and will not be offended by constructive criticism and advice from more mature colleagues. And don’t rush to break an effective business model just because it’s “old.”

Using real companies as examples, we see that age-diverse teams are more productive and attentive to the needs of their clients, and age is not a barrier to a successful career.

To understand how to find a job as a director if you are 30 or 50 years old, discuss your situation with a career development partner. We will determine the possibility of a free meeting after reviewing your resume.

When looking for a job, a lot depends on the position for which the applicant is applying: the CEO, IT specialist and secretary must act differently when looking for an employer. What type of applicant are you? Determine this and develop the most effective job search strategy in your case.

According to Superjob research, the entire labor market can be divided into 4 segments. And searching for a job in each of them has its own characteristics.

Mass positions
Who is this? The list is quite wide. Mass items include, for example, the following:
- sales personnel (sales managers, sales representatives, consultants in stores and online stores, cashiers in supermarkets, etc.);
- insurance agents;
- workers;
- employees of hotels, restaurants and cafes (waiters, hostesses, administrators, maids);
- drivers;
- loaders;
- security guards, etc.

What do you need to know? Representatives of mainstream professions find it easier than others: competition is usually low, and those who post their resumes are often invited to interviews.

How to look for a job? Among applicants for mass positions, those who have filled out their resumes fully and competently stand out. When describing your qualifications, place emphasis so that it is clear: you best meet the requirements of the selected vacancy.

Before sending out your resume, select vacancies that are truly interesting and suitable for you - by salary, location, functionality, etc. Be prepared for group interviews and questionnaires - such recruitment methods are typical for mass positions.

Narrow professionals
Who is this? Job seekers working in a specific field acquire unique skills in addition to general professional training. For example, the working methods of a marketer in an online store and a marketer in a machine-building enterprise are different, which means that the skills of the specialists will be different. Programmers of different specializations are also not interchangeable, although they received a similar basic education.

For example, “narrow professionals” include:
- marketing and PR specialists (it is important for the employer what products you promoted);
- information technology specialists (the list of possible specializations in this area is wide - these are programmers in various languages, specialists in the implementation of IT products, SEO optimizers, testers, etc.);
- construction specialists (architects, foremen, etc.);
- engineering and technical workers (engineers, designers, planners, surveyors, electronics engineers, technicians, agronomists, etc.);
- lawyers specializing in corporate and copyright law, international lawyers;
- research analysts;
- in the HoReCa field - sommeliers, cavistas, tasters;
- accountants according to IFRS;
- doctors of narrow specialties.

What do you need to know? Competition among narrow specialists is not high, but there are not always many ideally suited vacancies for them either. As a rule, an employer is looking for specific skills in a resume that his company needs - for example, a design engineer with experience working with certain software or a lawyer with experience representing a company in international arbitration may be required.

How to look for a job? First of all, put your resume in order: it should describe your professional experience as succinctly as possible. Indicate exactly how you completed the tasks, what tools you used and, most importantly, what you achieved. Try to describe your achievements in the language of numbers (for example, the citation of company speakers in the media during the year of your work as a PR manager increased by 2 times). Give examples of successful projects - perhaps a portfolio would be a good solution.

Sometimes it makes sense to indicate a related profession in the title of your resume. For example, if you are a wine expert, then the number of views of your resume can be increased by calling it not just “Kavist”, but “Kavist/Bar Manager” or “Kavist/Sommelier”.

It is also useful to study the labor market and make a list of potential and interesting employers. This way you will be aware of many events, and this in itself is a competitive advantage.

Experts you need to know personally
Who is this? These are specialists for whom not only professional, but also partly personal qualities and/or appearance are important. First of all, we are talking about such professions as:
- personal assistant, personal assistant;
- assistant secretary;
- fitness instructor, personal trainer;
- governess;
- representatives of the arts and entertainment sector (TV presenters, actors).

What do you need to know? The competition is high, but such specialists are often invited for interviews: a resume alone is not enough to evaluate, for example, a TV presenter or a personal assistant. Recruiters want not only to read about the candidate’s work experience, but also to be convinced of his personal qualities, charm, ability to communicate with people, and the compliance of his attitudes with the corporate culture of the company. Sometimes appearance matters.

How to look for a job? Attach a photo to your resume - read about how to choose one here.

Be prepared for frequent meetings and a lot of interviews. The interview is your everything: this is where you need to be at your best.

When preparing for an interview, be sure to think about your appearance. For example, when a programmer comes to an interview wearing an elongated sweater, the recruiter will most likely treat such “eccentricities” with understanding. But for a personal assistant to an executive or an actress at an interview, wearing the wrong clothes is completely unacceptable. So choose your interview clothes according to the situation.

It is also important for “specialists who need to know by sight” to remember that before inviting you for an interview, recruiters will certainly look for information on social networks and blogs. Use this: make your pages on popular resources help you find a job. Remember: a potential employer can be put off by either a complete lack of information, or too much activity of the candidate (especially in online games), or offensive statements (especially about former employers).

The most difficult positions to close
Who is this? The most difficult job search is for the following categories of applicants:
- top managers;
- scientists;
- media employees, etc.

What do you need to know? Perhaps these applicants have the hardest time of all: the competition is high, and few are invited to interviews. Employers not only carefully read the resume (which means it must be designed at the highest level), but also ask for recommendations, get acquainted with candidates’ profiles on social networks, and study their professional achievements through open sources (for example, publications about the candidate in the media). Be prepared for such attention to your person.

How to look for a job? The secret to successful employment is to involve all job search channels. Use your professional connections, do not forget about the opportunities of specialized groups on social networks. Don't expect immediate gifts from fate: an applicant for the position of CEO will likely have to make a presentation to the board of directors with a presentation of his vision for the company's development, and a potential media editor-in-chief will have to present, for example, a plan to attract a new audience. In any case, senior managers should be prepared for a long job search.

The need for talented and responsible specialists has been felt at all times, but with the advent of a market economy in Russia, this need is felt more acutely, and the shortage of experienced and educated senior managers is most acute.

The demand for senior managers who fully comply with the realities of the modern market significantly exceeds supply, and therefore the situation when a top manager is left without a job looks very paradoxical. But not everything is so simple; the higher the status, the more difficult and longer the process of changing jobs. A better understanding of the main difficulties of the process of changing an employer by top managers will be helped by a detailed consideration of the problem, which will analyze the specifics of finding a job for senior managers.

Search for senior managers(Executive Search - ES) implies its own search schemes and technologies, and is so different from the search for lower-level managers that it is separated into a separate production, which is fundamentally different from the search, for example, for middle managers.

EU companies are only looking for jobs for senior managers and nothing else. The same principle underlies the work of companies that engage in middle-level management. However, in Russia there are still companies that deal with the whole range of issues, from the vacancy of a cleaner to the vacancy of an enterprise manager, but with awareness of the specifics of the search, the process of specialization of companies is gaining momentum here too.

Given the strict confidentiality and sensitivity of the issue, the search for a job as a top manager is very limited, and EU companies can provide significant assistance in this regard. The number of such companies in our country is small and they never advertise themselves. Such companies specialize only in solving problems of senior managers and, on occasion, will provide information about any other EU company.

However, it would be naive to think that EU companies always have a suitable option ready, which they will immediately offer to the applicant. Another feature of the problem is that vacancies of this kind are as unique and isolated as the applicants themselves. The opinion that a top manager will find a job in 20-30 days is fundamentally wrong. Sometimes, completely by chance, an EU company can offer an applicant a suitable vacancy within a week, but, as a rule, you have to wait several months or even more. The approval process and interviewing the applicant will take quite a long time, and therefore it is recommended to contact EU companies long before dismissal, and it must be taken into account that employers disapprove of unemployed applicants.

The big advantage of a top manager in finding a suitable position is his publicity (self-branding), that is, his active use of the media to build his image. The logic of using media to build your brand is extremely simple. The better consultants, potential employers, and colleagues know a top manager, the easier it is for him to find a suitable job. It is for this purpose that it is necessary to take part in round tables as often as possible, speak at various seminars, write articles and give interviews to journalists. It should be noted that EU companies closely monitor the speeches of potential applicants and candidates in business and professional media. Thus, a potential applicant's appearance as a commentator or interviewee in the media provides him with fame in certain circles. Moreover, having quite often met him in absentia through the media, a potential employer decides that he needs this particular specialist.

Let's take a closer look at the work of the ES company acting as an intermediary between the applicant and the employer. When an order is received, the company's managers analyze the company's database and their personal lists in search of a suitable candidate. To make the search more productive, a list of enterprises is compiled whose top managers meet the requirements, and a special list is compiled where potential candidates are included. Typically such a list contains about 150-200 people.

The process of compiling such a list is very complex and requires excellent knowledge of the business and the area in which the selected candidate must subsequently work. However, the greatest difficulty comes from the next stage of work – personal contact with a potential candidate. Let us remember that we are talking about the most prestigious position and it is necessary to wisely bypass obstacles in the form of receptions, and no one should know for what purpose they are contacting the top manager. Each consultant has his own proprietary, secret tips on how to get through this most difficult stage. Let us only note that a personal database of mobile phones of potential candidates will provide invaluable assistance in solving this problem.

In case of expressed interest in the proposed job (the name of the company is never disclosed at this stage), the stage of negotiations, interviews, meetings with the employer, etc. begins. At this stage, as a rule, the matter ends with an agreement satisfactory to all interested parties.

Currently, the Russian personnel market is dynamic and staff turnover is quite high. Many companies are in dire need of qualified and successful managers and are willing to incur large expenses in order to invite experienced top managers to work for them. In search of successful candidates, they turn to headhunting for help or search through the recommendations of their friends, since posting available vacancies in an open publication has shown its inconsistency.

Headhunting involves directly searching for a suitable candidate for the proposed vacancy and, in simple terms, means luring high-quality employees from one company to another. Professionals involved in this business, having taken into production an incoming order, collect data from all specialists involved in this area of ​​business. They establish covert surveillance of him, analyze the career growth, success and psychology of potential candidates, identify possible reasons that could influence his decision to change jobs, and only after preliminary work they make him an appropriate offer. According to statistics, all large companies prefer to search for a candidate using intermediaries for this purpose. Of course, the likelihood of a headhunter reaching a top manager greatly depends on the public activity of the potential candidate himself.

As a rule, a successful top manager who has implemented many projects does not look for a job himself, since the job looks for him.

Quite often they are offered very advantageous positions through intermediaries. However, the optimal solution to the problem in the case when the top manager himself has decided to move to another company is to turn to headhunters for help., then you need to carefully analyze existing EU companies, identify the right specialist, arrange a meeting with him and offer your resume only to him. It is advisable to start your job search by notifying your superiors about your departure, since otherwise such an approach to resolving the issue can greatly harm the manager’s business reputation. It is recommended not to rush in such an important matter, since an acceptable offer may not appear soon, and the cost of a mistake fully corresponds to the status of the candidate, that is, it can be very high.

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The relevance of finding a job in our time not only does not decrease when compared with previous decades, but, on the contrary, is becoming increasingly higher. Some, others are fired, some want to change jobs for some reason, others simply face the need for change. But if previously everyone used, so to speak, the classical method: buying a newspaper - searching for advertisements - making phone calls - scheduling interviews; then today the two, and more often than not, even the first three points of this method can be safely crossed out, because people have the Internet at their disposal.

Searching for a job via the Internet allows you to significantly reduce your time, avoid standing in queues and preparing documents, because you can simply find a vacancy you are interested in and respond to it, or write a letter to the organization, sending your resume by e-mail and briefly telling about yourself. Moreover, you can do this while sitting at home at your computer and drinking your favorite green tea.

However, special attention in this matter should be paid to finding the most suitable site for finding a job, because you can find many options, but not all resources can provide professional services and help you finally find a job. Therefore, we decided to provide a list of what, in our opinion, are the best job search sites in Russia, which have already been tested over the years and by a huge number of applicants.

Below we will look at the “hot” ten sites, by turning to which, any person significantly increases their chances of finding a suitable job.

JOB.RU

The site "Job.ru" is one of the oldest job search sites - it has been operating since 1996. By contacting here, the applicant has the opportunity to find work in the Russian Federation and the countries of the former CIS, and the vacancy bank consists of over 100 thousand offers, updated daily. In addition, on the site you can learn how to competently write a resume with an employer, and find a lot of useful materials related to labor law and careers. All resumes received from applicants into the database are carefully moderated, so that requests from job seekers best meet the conditions of employers.

HEADHUNTER.RU

The resource “HeadHunter.ru (hh.ru)” occupies a leading position among resources working in the field of job search. On the site you can find over 300 thousand current job offers and more than 13 million resumes of applicants. Each applicant is offered the opportunity to use a very convenient search system, learn about news on the labor market, get acquainted with the updated salary catalog, receive online help from a specialist, as well as learn about various training and advanced training courses and visit the research section. Among other things, this site is very useful for employers.

GORODRABOT.RU

One of the youngest job search sites GorodRabot.ru is already included in the Top 7 most popular employment portals on the Runet. More than 8 million users choose GorodRabot.ru every month. There are almost 1.5 million vacancies here. The portal contains vacancies from 150 verified sources, including the most famous job search sites in Russia. Employers can post vacancies on GorodRabot.ru for free. Plus, it contains a database of candidates from 1.3 million resumes and services for quickly finding employees. It also contains salary statistics, an indexation calculator, the latest news, useful articles, comments and expert advice.

RABOTA.RU

The website "Rabota.ru" is a portal that offers candidates over 180 thousand job offers in the regions of the Russian Federation and the countries of the former CIS, and employers - more than 3 million resumes. Searching for a job on this site is very convenient, fast and accurate, and its specialists are in touch 24 hours a day. A student, a storekeeper, a manager, an executive, or a specialist in any field can find a job here. However, the resource has fairly strict regulations for posting resumes and vacancies, which was done to avoid dubious publications, repetitions and spam. In addition, the site has a mobile version and a special application that can be installed on a smartphone or tablet.

SUPERJOB.RU

The database of the portal “Superjob.ru” contains over 220 thousand vacancies from companies of various sizes and formats, both domestic and foreign. But the main activity of the site is not only the provision of job offers, but also useful materials and the most up-to-date information in the field of the labor market, salary reviews, career guidance tests, and even assistance from specialists in drawing up professional resumes. In addition, applicants have the opportunity to obtain a list of recruitment agencies, learn about various thematic events and find training courses, advanced training or professional retraining.

ZARPLATA.RU

The website “Zarplata.ru” has been working in the field of employment for 12 years and cooperates with the popular and well-known publication “Work and Salary”. The resource invites users to familiarize themselves with a huge number of offers - there are more than 40 thousand in total, and the number of people visiting the site daily exceeds 100 thousand. The site is equipped with a functional, fast and convenient search for vacancies, which are updated every day, news sections, reviews in the field of the labor market and analytical data, as well as the ability to post a resume and subscribe to updates. Moderating all incoming resumes allows you to quickly find vacancies that meet the specified parameters.

RABOTA.MAIL.RU

The portal "Rabota.Mail.Ru" is very well known to Russian job seekers and employers. Every day on the website you can find a lot of fresh job offers in all regions of Russia. Almost everyone can find suitable offers here, regardless of what their specialization is - there is work for everyone, from general workers and housewives to managers and specialists. In addition, site visitors have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with labor market news and all kinds of analytical data, and students can take advantage of a special section that contains very good and promising offers for people without work experience and who want to combine work with study.

FREE-LANCE.RU

The resource “Free-Lance.ru” is very well known among Internet users and people who are specifically interested in remote work. This site is most suitable for people specializing in copywriting, text translation, article writing, infographics, web design, photography, programming, etc. By and large, the presented resource is one of the most popular also for the reason that it allows offline employees to present their works and creations for sale and opens up a very wide scope for anyone to work and with the possibility of receiving good financial rewards.

VAKANT.RU

The website “Vakant.ru” offers job seekers high-quality services and a convenient search for vacancies, the total number of which exceeds 170 thousand. Users can add their resumes to the data bank and look for work, both on the employer’s premises and remotely. The resource has been operating since 2000, and is currently considered one of the best. What sets it apart from the masses of others is quick registration, the ability to post a resume, and the presence of internal mail, which simplifies the interaction between job seekers and employers. In addition to this, we can note the opportunity to create your own archive of vacancies, subscribe and get acquainted with current news in the labor market.