Confessions of an executive restaurant recruiter

CEC Search - Executive Restaurant Recruiters gets some good press

carl@cecsearch.com (Carl Chapman) — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 22:05:00 +0000

We issued a press release last week announcing the launch of our new website, CEC Search - Executive Restaurant Recruiters. It was picked up by PR Web (CEC Search press release) and OpenPR (CEC Search press release) and a host of others. Since PR Web is the largest press release site in the world, we thought it made since to post the link here.... however for aesthetics, the OpenPR site is really nice.

Look for more press releases to come, announcing some exciting additions to staff, some JVs, and maybe some critical wins with big clients.

An interesting blog post - candidate's bill of rights

carl@cecsearch.com (Carl Chapman) — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 15:16:00 +0000

Cruising the blogosphere and noticed and interesting post about a recruiting company that actually posts a Candidate's Bill of Rights. Didn't see anything in it that was new or different from the way that I was trained nor the way that we do business.

BUT...

It got me to thinking. What about a Recruiter's Bill of Rights? Haven't seen anyone writing about what a recruiter's rights should be. Think I'll develop some ideas along that line. Input from readers in the form of comments would be appreciated.

Why do great candidates not call back?

carl@cecsearch.com (Carl Chapman) — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 14:52:00 +0000

Well today I need help from y'all. I need to try to get some sort of idea of why a candidate wouldn't return any of the calls from any of our recruiters. Everyone that has talked to this guy is completely baffled.

Some background for you. Found a candidate with 23 years of experience in the industry, with a major brand. Senior level multi-unit guy. He was a perfect fit for the post that I had. He was referred by one of my partner firms. The job that I had was just what he was looking for. He was very familiar with the concept and even though it required a relocation, it was to a very desirable area where he and his family had lived before and had relatives.

The first interview (mostly a pre-screen but lasting about 1 hour) went very well. Debriefed with both parties and everyone was excited. We set up the next telephone interview with the person who would be his direct supervisor. During my debrief from the first interview, I told the candidate that I knew he would do well, and that he should start thinking in terms of what an acceptable offer would be. He should also start thinking about what obstacles needed to be overcome in order for him and his family to commit to relocation.

The second interview happened on a Tuesday and the client company conveyed that they were very interested in pursuing the candidate and wanted to fly him in ASAP. Here is where things go haywire. The candidate began ducking our calls. None of the recruiters that he had spoken to could get a call back. He wasn't answering emails. It was if he just disappeared.

Not being one to give up easily, a called in a favor from a friend of mine. He eventually got in touch with the candidate and told him that there was a job in Ohio that he was perfect for. We had the candidate call one of the other recruiters in my office who pitched a job in Ohio (the candidate didn't want to work for the company) and a job in Georgia. The candidate was very excited about the GA position and my recruiter cleared relocation and salary. Before they went any further, my recruiter let the candidate know that he was part of my company.... at that point the candidate freaked... said he wasn't interested, and hung up the phone.

Several things don't make sense to me. Why would a professional of 23 years behave in such an unprofessional manner? What motivates a candidate to suddenly just avoid phone calls? Why not just have a conversation? He was obviously still in the job market and hadn't taken a position, so why not go on the interview? Why would a candidate suddenly have no interest in seeking a job that a few moments ago he described as exciting, based on the company that has the search?

So guys, give me some of your ideas. Have you ever done anything like that? Have you avoided phone calls from recruiters? On what basis? Would you turn down the chance to pursue a great job based on the recruiting company that had the assignment?

Recruiting Myths - Recruiters get jobs for candidates

carl@cecsearch.com (Carl Chapman) — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 11:55:00 +0000

Today's topic is going to be short, at least it should be. Today we deal with a long enduring misconception on the part of the job seeker, that recruiters are in business to get candidates jobs. THIS IS WRONG!

It used to be, back before MRI started the switch to employer paid fees in 1965, that candidates would pay employment services to help them find a job. That was about the only way that it was done. It might cost as much as 2 months pay for a candidate and it was payable upon acceptance of the job. Since MRI was founded, the entire industry has switched to an employer fee paid recruiting model. This means that job seekers no longer pay employment services, it is the employer who pays the recruiting company. Fees are usually some percentage of the annual salary of the individual that is being hired.

What does this mean for the job seeker? Well, it means that you are no longer the client... you are now the product. The recruiter isn't being paid by you, he is being paid by the company. The recruiter doesn't earn money for finding you a job, he earns money for filling an open position with his client company. To some of you, this is a difference that escapes understanding, to others it may seem subtle. In truth, it is a huge difference... one which drives the performance of a recruiter to do some things which are not in your best interest.

"What?" you say. "Did you just say that recruiters do things that are not in my best interest?" you ask. The answer is yes. Recruiters are trying to fill an open position and they will do that with any candidate, not just you. This means that recruiters, especially good ones, will continue to present candidates until the company makes a positive hiring decision. It boils down to this, recruiters will continue to create competition for YOU, they will bring candidates who are trying to get the job that YOU want. So in effect, recruiters are working against your best interest, at times, because they are creating competition for you. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, though.

There is a special relationship that is created between a recruiter and a candidate when they are working together on an engagement. This relationship arises from the fact that the job seeker is really "the product" which the recruiter is selling. If the recruiter's client 'buys' the product, then the recruiter gets paid. Because any good salesman is going to put his product in the best light, a recruiter will, or at least should, work really hard with his candidate once they have identified a reasonable fit for a position that the recruiter is working on. Putting 'the product' in the best light is the reason that recruiters provide all kinds of free services to candidates that have real value. Things like resume review, critique, and rewriting; salary negotiation; relocation and demographic studies; interview preparation and guidance are all provided at no charge, because the recruiter wants you to present as well as you possibly can for the position that is open. We have on our site a plethora of free information for candidates on our job seeker tips page.

"So if recruiters do things that aren't in my best interest, why should I work with them?" you ask. Good question. Recruiters know the hiring company, the ins and outs, they know the culture, they have feedback from interviews where the candidate failed and when other candidates did well. They will use this information to help get you ready to knock 'em dead during your interviews. They will tell you what is going on inside the company to help you better understand the culture and how the position fits into your long term career goals. Recruiters want you to do well during the interview process, they want you to do well enough to get an offer. They will do everything in the power to help make that happen. This is a time when your mutual interests are perfectly aligned, so make sure to take advantage of that fact. Listen to what the recruiter is telling you, it is for both of your sakes.

So now you know, 1) job seekers are actually the product and 2) recruiters work to fill open positions for client companies that will pay them upon candidate acceptance. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't work with a recruiter... they can be quite helpful. They can get you into companies where your direct application would be thwarted. They can introduce you to companies where the job opening is not advertised or even publicized within the company. In fact for some positions working with a recruiter is the ONLY way that you can garner an interview. Just remember that working with a recruiter, you need to keep in mind what is in your mutual best interest and concentrate on working from that standpoint. Having a motivated recruiter working with [since they don't work for] you, can be one of the best and fastest ways to get a job.

-author: Carl Chapman. Carl is the founder of CEC Search - Executive Restaurant Recruiters. He has 20+ years of restaurant industry experience, spent 5 awarding winning years as an executive recruiter with a top 25 MRI franchise office. Carl graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1980.

Recruiting Myths - Candidate Resumes

carl@cecsearch.com (Carl Chapman) — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 15:09:00 +0000

I know that lots of folks out there reading this have a very strong opinion of how recruiters do their jobs (some of it we can't print because we aren't categorized as an adult site.) But most of you are wrong. I had some strong opinions too, from all the research that I had done on job hunting. But when I actually became a recruiter, that is when I found out that things aren't always as they seem - especially in the world of recruiting and what recruiters do for a living.

There are numerous myths about recruiters involving what they do for a living, how they earn their pay, how they interact with clients and candidates, and in fact what very nature of their job is. I will explore some of those in a series of posts and give you my perspective. My perspective comes from the inside, so it will have a certain slant. But, since I work as a recruiter, it will also dispel a great deal of the mystery that surrounds what it is that we executive recruiters do for a living.

Do recruiters fish for resumes? The answer may surprise you.

Many of the folks that I have chatted with have an idea that recruiters post jobs on Internet job boards or place ads in the newspaper to just get resumes, fishing you might call it. These folks are under the impression that vague job postings are "shill" posts that are designed to build up a database full of resumes. These job seekers think that because there are not really specific details about the job or the company, that because it is generic looking and sounding, that somehow means that there is no job associated with it; that some recruiter posted the job just to get a stack of resumes. THIS IS WRONG!

Plain and simple, it couldn't be further from the truth. There are so many reasons that this doesn't make sense and they are so simple and logical that it actually pains me to have to take time and space to point them out to my gentle readers. So let me list just a few of them, so that maybe it will ignite a spark of reasoning that will lead you to discovering more for yourself.

1) Recruiters don't get paid for resumes - This reason sounds plain enough, but some people are under the impression that somehow, somewhere there is a company out there that would actually pay a recruiter for gathering a resume. Doesn't happen, at least not the way you think. Resumes are not worth money. There are 10 million (or more) on Monster that a recruiter with a password and user ID could access at any time. Who in there right mind would pay someone any kind of decent money for bringing them a resume that they could access with an account on Monster or Career Builder or some other job board? Now, there is a position in the recruiting world, some call it a research assistant, which has a component of the pay that may be tied to production of a certain number of resumes... BUT believe me, they aren't being paid for the resume. They, just like the recruiter are being paid for placements. Resume production in the case of a research assistant is just a metric, and if they don't ever produce a placement from the resumes they provide to their employer, they will lose their job. Recruiters get paid for placing people in open positions with companies that have signed an agreement with them. Companies don't pay them for resumes.... therefore the resume by itself has no value.

2) Job postings and ads cost lots of money - Would you post a classified ad in the newspaper saying that you had a TV for sale if you didn't? Of course you wouldn't. One of the reasons is because it costs money and without something to sell, you would lose money because you posted the ad. Now what if it cost a LOT of money? You really wouldn't post an ad if you had nothing to sell, would you? In fact, you might not post an ad even if you DID have a TV that you were trying to sell, because it would take a lot away from the profit you were going to make on the sale, right? So why on earth would a recruiter place an ad on the Internet just to get resumes for a job that he didn't have? That doesn't make any sense at all does it? What would the recruiter do with all those resumes anyway? "Put them in a database" you say. Well that is where we store them, but we only put resumes that are 'useful' to us in there. See resumes have a life expectancy. And once expired they can't be used for anything. Nowadays, the life expectancy for a resume is not very long because people change jobs so often. So even the resumes that we place in our database that we think are useful, are depreciating from the day we get them. The only reason for a recruiter to post a job, is because he is having a hard time coming up with enough candidates to fill a position for which he will get paid. Recruiters, like any other business person don't want to spend money unless they will get a return. There isn't a return on a job ad, unless it leads them to a candidate that they can place in a client company.

3) Recruiters leave out the details for competitive reasons - Recruiters that work on a contingency basis work in a very competitive marketplace. They may not have an exclusive with a client company, and there can be many reasons for this. But because of it, they have to be smart about how they advertise their openings. Why? Well, that is easy to answer.... other recruiters. You see other recruiters out there who are industrious may be looking at the same job boards as candidates, in order to find open positions that need filling. The more information contained in a job posting, the easier it is to identify the client company. With a phone and a few minutes time, a really good recruiter could come up with the same assignment that it may have taken the person posting the ad months to secure. Now it's a race, one that the person who placed the ad could lose. Losing that race makes the ROI for the ad come in at 0% (or less) and keeps the first recruiter from being able to pay his bills. So, knowing this, almost all recruiters will do everything in their power to keep from giving out too much information about their assignments and client companies. Since not all client companies will work with recruiters on an exclusive basis, smart recruiters keep their cards close to their vest. So when you see a vague ad, don't think for a second that there isn't a real job associated with it, it is more than likely just a contingent, non-exclusive arrangement that the recruiter has with the client.

4) Recruiters don't like to say no - (and I will make this last for now) OK, so you applied to one of those vague ads. You sent your resume and cover letter that over which you so slavishly worked. You followed up with a phone call and kept doing so until you caught the recruiter 'LIVE' on the phone. Nine times out of ten, the recruiter tells you that the job is filled, or the assignment is completed, the position is on hold or that there is a hiring freeze. And you think to yourself "I knew it, another fake job ad." Well again, nothing could be further from the truth. You see, recruiters hear "no" all day long. They hate it, they don't like the word and they hate to even use it. They sure can feel empathy for others that may be hearing it as well. So the last thing they want to do is tell you "You aren't right for the job because of blah, blah, blah...." It would be such a crushing verdict to deliver on your resume, skill set, and experience... they just don't want to do it. So, it is easier for them (I don't say all recruiters do this, and I certainly don't, but in my experience there are quite a few who do tell 'white' lies from time to time) to just let you down easy by saying "the job is no longer available." That way, it is no one's fault. They don't have to be critical of your talent, job history, or accomplishments, because those things don't matter.... the job is gone anyway. They have spared your feelings and they didn't have to deliver any bad news. A win-win situation. Now, notice that I said nine out of ten. What about the other 10% of the time... well there is the good news. You see sometimes a resume or an email or an application can slip through the cracks, and you may just be the perfect candidate that the recruiter is looking for. Your call may bring this to his attention, and you may end up getting an interview. So by all means, keep following up, but ask when you hear what really is a 'no' about the real reason behind it.

So, I hope that takes care of the resume myth. Recruiters do want your resume, but it is just a part of the puzzle. It helps them judge whether or not you have the skill set that their client has asked for. Most of the time, a recruiter will ask you to 'tighten' up your resume so that it will present better. Resumes in and of themselves have no value; it is a well presented candidate that receives and accepts an offer that has value to a recruiter.

-author: Carl Chapman. Carl is the founder of CEC Search - Executive Restaurant Recruiters. He has 20+ years of restaurant industry experience, spent 5 awarding winning years as an executive recruiter with a top 25 MRI franchise office. Carl graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1980.

Sometimes, what you've heard about recruiters really is true.

carl@cecsearch.com (Carl Chapman) — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 12:34:00 +0000

Ok, so today is Saturday and it is the second day of my blog. I had everything going really well on Friday. Hit the phones early, talked to one of my larger clients. The SVP of HR told me that they had 35 open positions in HQ and he wants to meet me for an in person visit to discuss particulars. Pretty good start to the day. Talk with a couple of my guys in the field about peeps that they are running down, things are just moving along as they should and we will have some more folks to present come Monday.

Now I take time out to go through my email, check the website stats for CEC Search, put together a new page or two and add some fresh content. In my email is a story about making your site ready for RSS and how RSS is going to change the way that we use the web. The story makes sense to me. I've already got five RSS feeds into my site presenting news from around the globe, so I have some familiarity with what you can do with it. One of the steps to implementing the RSS to good advantage, says the article, is set up a personal blog. Well, I don't know too much about blogging except that everybody and their brother, especially the technorati are doing it....

So that's where this blog starts, I do some research, figure out the tech part of hosting it on my site; get some fresh links set up in the template; add the user, password and paths for FTP upload. I get all that set up and tested, I check the template to make sure it looks OK, I'm about ready to make my first post.... and the phone rings.

It's Chad, one of my buddies that I worked with at MRI (he moved to Dallas when his wife got transferred) whom I haven't seen in a year or more. Chad says "Hey, what are you doing at 2:30?" and I say "I don't know, why?" He says "Well, I'm in Atlanta and we need a fourth, we're playing at Bear's Best." I say "I'll be there at 1:30." (Have to warm up, you know.) So everyone else is late, in fact we tee off with three and our fourth gets there and has to tee off with the rest of us lining up our puts on the first green. The weather was beautiful, temp was in the 70's, greens were a little bumpy from a big tournament that finished just before we got out. But all in all the golfing was lots of fun. Since I hadn't really been playing all that much (just two rounds since Memorial Day) I didn't expect to score well, and I didn't disappoint myself. OK so I lost $16, big deal. Got a couple of free beers in the clubhouse before we left for dinner. Greg (a long time golfing buddy of Chad's that Chad had known from when they both lived in Kentucky) had a neighbor that was having a 40th birthday party at a Mexican restaurant called Monterey's so we all headed over there for dinner. Unexpectedly, Greg picked up dinner for our foursome. Nice gesture.

Now Chad is trying to figure out what he is going to do for entertainment for the evening. Guy (the fourth in our group, also a long time golfing buddy of Chad's) suggests going to the lake. But Chad wants to play cards, and gets Greg to set up a game at Kenny's house (Kenny is the birthday boy). So we drive back to Greg's house, Greg gets his kids to bed, we spend a few minutes talking about the projects that Greg has going on at the house, then head over to Kenny's for some poker. We start off with a six man tournament style no-limit Hold'em game, $50 buy in. Blinds start at $1, $2 and move up on every knock out. Did pretty well, couple of made straights later, I have an extra $250. Then they start playing all kinds of multi-round, bet inducing whacked out games.... You are probably familiar with the concept, teach the knew guy a game that he has never played before and take all your money back. Well, two full houses, a busted straight flush, and several bluffs later.... It was getting near 12:30 and Julie was home by herself so I had let them know that after the next Hold'em tourney, I would be cashing out. I gave them their $50 back in the Hold'em game, but cashed out with $510... not too bad for a rookie.

So why am I telling you all this? Well you see it's just that you have probably heard that recruiters don't do anything but drink, play golf, and deposit commission checks twice per week.... and while that isn't really how it is, all the time.... sometimes it is.

-author: Carl Chapman. Carl is the founder of CEC Search - Executive Restaurant Recruiters. He has 20+ years of restaurant industry experience, spent 5 awarding winning years as an executive recruiter with a top 25 MRI franchise office. Carl graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1980.