A diary of a headhunter in Malaysia

Rant 2011..

2011-03-08T23:56:00.001+08:00

It is the 3rd month of the year and it has been busy on the hiring front for most companies I can think off. The financial industry of course is always going through many transformation projects which need talent, apparently the government has approved budget for technology this year which will require talent, more hiring from multinational companies which require talent and most importantly there is just no excuse to blame non-performance on the recession which all of us has survived through the past year or so etc. It is back to the employee’s market although it is still tough to get a job that pays RM 10, 000 but yes there are a lot of jobs available in the market. So from maintenance mode to bring in the money mode in 2011…..or new career opportunities.

I was browsing through Jobstreet this morning and literally keyed in all sorts of keywords and really, even a driver can find a job in job street, there are actually advertisements for a driver!. I mean, we read in the newspapers about unemployment and how tough to get a job is, I mean frankly it is not hard to get a job! Really! We are generally fussy people especially professionals with varied skillsets but generally for anyone especially SPM school leaver’s there is employment. Although the level of English is important but not all job requires a c3 above in English.

I am now three quarter way through a project of a mass hire for one of my clients and I’ve learnt quite a few things from hiring managers as I get to liaise with them on a daily basis, these are some of the new trends:

- Searching up candidates names on Facebook after the first interview. (APPLICATION FOR EMPLOYMENT FORM) information such as email addresses are tools for Facebook searches. I for one have two email addresses one for entertainment and non professional use i.e Facebook. But still, remember that a level of sensitivity is required as you never know who browses your profile.

- Even though a candidate has spent less than a year a current employment, they will still be considered but usually not at a 20-30% salary increment, maybe 10%.

- LinkedIn is a great tool to get noticed if you have not already registered, yet there are a lot of professionals I’ve came across has no LinkedIn profile. But usually Middle Managers are on LinkedIn. Also btw, Linkedin is pronounced as linked-in and not linked or link-ed-in!  www.linkedin.com - http://my.linkedin.com/in/jonathanmonteiro

- On Jobstreet a typical Recruiter will spend less than 25 seconds on your CV before moving it into a prescreened or shortlisted folder hence it is good to be concise. Actually 10 seconds to be honest.

- A good chat over the phone on the first call ‘this is important’, you never know who will be giving you a call. Always be prepared if you are actively looking for a job.

The landscape of recruitment especially in HR is really changing. Yes the conventional recruitment methods are still very much in use such as newspapers, notice boards, online and other job-boards. But there are quite a few other alternatives which now have to be put in place to attract candidates like a special recruitment career page which a lot of companies use to get direct applications which goes into a database for recruiters to vet though, but again it is subjective because it could be an open application which does not get looked until such time later.
As this is a piece of rant and rave my next piece will perhaps touch on 10 things to do if you are looking for a job.

Cheers!

Back!

2011-02-21T11:05:00.000+08:00

So what happens when you have suddenly reached a point that you might know not know what you want to do at work and deal with work related issues. I am sure that there are a lot of people out there that are feeling this way, but reading about this in the newspaper recently; I learn that there is such a thing as burnout. It is very common and easy to slip into especially in this day and age with such easy communication tools we possessed; Blackberry’s, laptops, tablet etc. Check this out - http://allfreelancewriting.com/2010/08/21/freelancing/work-at-home-parents-freelancing/ladies-and-gentlemen-we-are-approaching-burn-out%E2%80%A6/

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/burnout_signs_symptoms.htm

So take some time to learn about your approach to work as everyone including you and me are capable of falling in to this trap no matter how big of a performer you are.

Well, I’ve been neglecting my blog for some time and it is time to kick start it again. I have come up with some material to share and I will post this out once I have pen these thoughts out. I will be posting regularly and I hope to generate some new readers and the old readers who might have given up visiting this pageJ. Truly a fault of one that has been busy =P.

Talent War

2010-06-08T22:50:00.001+08:00

Hello and welcome back myself. I’ve been visiting this website but for some reason I’ve been lacking in any good material. Unfortunately I’ve been too focussed on work that I’ve not been able to pen down some of my thoughts. I’ve been caught up chasing numbers and have forgotten passion in my work. Passion which would lead me to write. Here i am again, and am wondering why did i start this blog in the first place. I'm back.

The industry has been very volatile of late. The concern with recruitment is much greater particularly ever since the start of this year, let me tell you why. Although last year was a difficult year for everyone, even for the nasi lemak lady, for some reason, i felt that alot of jobseekers which were on the move last year had very good reasons to be on the move. Alot of candidates which wanted new opportunities had pretty valid reasons. Employers were choosy with who was hired last year. Recruitment was done very carefully with certain measures put in place i.e. test and role play hiring i.e. presentations. Also the job market has it at, if you wanted a job, you had to work for that job because there were really good candidates which were considered. Candidates which i spoke to, were focussed and knew what they wanted. I might be speaking for a certain group of candidate’s perhaps middle management and executives.
Enter 2010, yes, candidates with other opportunities when i have contacted them or wrong timing because a candidate is finalizing an offer. Where am i getting to?

Pick up a HR magazine or a magazine which place an importance with management or a business magazine, you will not miss out on at least a brief write up on ‘talent war’, recruitment, retention, Managing Generation Y and total HR Management. In the past few years turnover has been in an all time high and resignation rates increasing. Also, alot of input on Generation Y. But are we all really paying attention to these matters? These important matters?

Think about it, the cost involve with recruitment – retraining, job ads, headhunters, TIME, culture fit etc. If someone is earning about RM8000, the cost of rehiring is estimated at 3 times of that value. Headhunting services alone would cost about RM 20, 000. When the resignee is serving a notice period he or she is just sitting down and might not be as driven as they were as before. So that is paying someone two months’ salary with fewer results. Again, time, again retraining which is time. If managers are always busy as everyone else this year, the new hire will not feel as though he or she is getting the good training then, leave. Of course that is not always the case, but then again, the cost of retraining which includes external training, in house training and so forth.

Talent war is very real today. It hurts alot of organizations both local, multinational companies and regional companies. We need to place a great importance of strategy to curb issues of high staff turnover through retention. Its time that HR is not looked upon as an administration function but a value driver to a company because this is very real. Finance Managers are now value drivers of companies and are not looked upon as just a finance function but a function that adds value out of numbers information, reports generation, how reports are made into information and how information are made into cost savings or new expenditure to produce greater profits.

It is just a matter of driving high human initiatives and placing importance in not just work, but life at work, life outside of work. Easier said than done, but this is management reality. It is thinking outside of the box not thinking what works for the company but works for the value drivers of companies.

Cheers!

Snippets - Recruitment Agencies.

2010-02-08T23:23:00.001+08:00

I’ve actually wanted to write this for a while but perhaps the mood is there tonight, but here i go. Over the years I’ve come across a lot of people that do not seem to know the difference between an Executive Search company and a recruitment AGENCY. There is a lot of difference one for sure is fees and the other for sure is quality. I’ll take you down whatever is in my head at the moment. Althought i find it odd but in different industries i find myself explaining to potential candidates what Executive Search is J. Although our profession has been spoilt by alot of recruitment agencies in the market but i find it rather odd that many still do not know what Executive Search is, usually, recruitment, headhunter or recruiter.

Let’s take recruitment agency. The typical recruitment agencies on the top of my mind are those like, Manpower, Kelly Services, Agensi Pekerjaan MatchLink, Jobslink, Jobs2u, JacRecruitment and JenJobs. These are companies at the top of my head at the moment. Alot of times, recruitment agencies are the companies which conduct database search. They will fish out CV’s in their database storage collected from their advertising, interviews, contact, referrals etc. Plentiful of candidates. They typically spend a lot of money in a recruitment management system that enables them to extract CV’s through keywords and certain criterion’s which a recruitment consultant would be looking for a vacancy. Most cases, the CV’s are not updated and candidates are not interviewed. More often also, the recruitment consultants are usually not industry driven or industry professionals. They work on a case basis, whereby they perform key searches on keywords they find throughout the Job Description. Usually no face to face interviews, no client fronting, no proper understanding of the job role and sometimes just lack of knowledge. This in turn could be a good thing and a bad thing, why?

The good thing is, the client would get fast response, although being swarmed by irrelevant CV’s for the job there is atleast 1 out of 10 candidates which is a potential hire. So, there would be volume for the time. Recruitment agencies are excellent companies for multiple industries low-level recruitment, mass recruitment and certain outsourcing functions i.e: payroll. There is a advantage and disadvantage dealing with a recruitment agency. Still i recommend using them but a reputable company. The bad thing is, well, you can figure it out on your own, base on your experiences. Because i can.

Where executive search is concerned – here is the link:
http://aheadhunter.blogspot.com/2009/04/working-with-headhunters.html

Hello 2010

2010-01-26T00:43:00.000+08:00

Okay I am back. I’ve been slacking but I guess i still have some readers who do check out this turf of mine once in a while. I have to apologize to my loyal readers. I also thank those who have had submitted their CV’s in to me throughout the past two months and I do know I am late in replying, I guess the workload has increased. But, as it is a new year and I have lots to tell, do look out for new posts. I have been gathering lots of material over the past month also and I will begin to update.

Let’s just begin with the market. Yes it has picked up, well comparing to last year at least, it was dead last year. Looking back I am very happy that I made it past last year given the outlook and thankfully a lot of my clients have stood by and supported me with their new recruitment for FY2010.

As I have said many times before when employers start to look for new sales talents, it just shows that the aggressiveness for business is very much there and currently very much alive.
I will update with some interesting material. See you guys soon!

Happy 2010!

Market So far.

2009-11-17T00:44:00.001+08:00

The job market has picked up. I think, one thing good which most companies have put in place is their decision to take their businesses, products and solutions overseas. Either that or they innovated on their sales strategies, worked harder and pressed on deals which were on the pipeline. A lot of companies which implemented operation cost cutting has somewhat bounced back and begun hiring and projects have now started. Maybe I only speak for a few hence the decision on hiring and acquiring new talent. Despite that, the demand for employee’s have been rather difficult as people are still although exploring yet choosy on career moves. It is still the employers market and talent war is very much still alive. Just a few months back there was an influx of SAP Consultants in the market and now, most of the consultants have been employed, in that area of IT the market is still moving fast, despite of the layoffs from a few SAP companies here.

There is much more emphasis on key technical areas, such as talents from project management, solutions architects from various backgrounds, low-level hardcore programming, Quality Assurance, infrastructure engineers, product and solution driven talents to consultants from the consulting industry.

I see the market picking up and this is the time to be aggressive. The hiring game will somehow come about alive again, perhaps not just yet but soon. Maybe during the first quarter. The market has been volatile so I am being skeptical but my fellow colleagues are rather confident.

I am getting more calls for sales talents and most companies have now proposed their resources budgets for FY2010. Usually when companies start hiring account managers or business developers, this is a good sign that business is picking up and there is a need for new and constant business development. A lesson that a few people in sales took from the downturn is this, the importance of client rapport and good client support, innovation on key selling skills and also most importantly relationships. This actually was the same for me because, most executive search firms just come and go, just like that, after an assignment or two. I leveraged on this because despite us not being able to fulfill certain positions and found it difficult to find other clients, I leveraged on rapport and relationships. I took this alternative because I would like them to know whether there was business or not, that I am always there for their executive search needs. Maybe not now, but some other time and this has paid off.

I also think that most people who have moved in 08 and in 09 as a basis to job hop might find it hard to secure something in 2010 because especially in these critical 2 years, companies would’ve prefer their employees to stick with them rather than take flight at the slightest fear of insecurity. Unfortunately but especially in sales. It also separates the real performers than the non-performers. But then again, in this day and age, loyalty is not a factor which is highly regarded right?

I really took a lesson from the 4th quarter of last year because I took the first quarter in 09 for granted. From a business perspective I did not prepare myself for the downturn despite a few signs showing in November/December 08. So a lesson learnt from that is, push harder despite the end of the year being slow business months and despite all the say on how good next year is going to be, I will take it as it is going to be as hard as it was this year.

I think you should too!

Cheers.

Train and Place

2009-11-16T00:01:00.003+08:00

A friend of mine is currently involved in the Train and place program for unemployed graduates or diploma holder students and those with less than a years of working experience and the retrenched. This program is funded by the government and it kicks off with about, if I can remember correctly 80 to a 100 students per-program. Its fully funded by the Ministry of Human Resources and the award goes out to training companies who fit the criteria. More information here:

http://www.google.com/search?rls=com.microsoft%3A*%3AIE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7ADBF_en&hl=en&source=hp&q=train+and+place+program+&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

Anyway, there are more details out on the net, but where I come in is, he needed help from someone from the industry to conduct mock interviews in the real world for his unemployed candidates to prepare them for the interviews after they have completed the program. I think I did about 30-40 interviews with graduates and diploma holders from the Electrical and Electronics qualifications, Culinary, Physiotherapy, Human Resources and a few more, all either Degree and Diploma holders. It was a good session because it reminded me when I was a graduate out there looking for a job and also reminded me of the time when we had implemented a management trainee program for my previous company when I was working in HR, only that time we interviewed about 5-600 graduates.

To be honest, I expected more out of the graduates. The program was good, it does help and transform the graduates but I am worried. Out of the I think the 40 candidates I interviewed I felt that only about 10% were willing to help themselves secure a good job out there. Only 10% stood out. The 10% that stood out were from rural areas and had taken a lot of thought in getting themselves a good foundation for a career and had no luck. Of course, all of them had taken initiative by attending this program but I only I identified these few.

One problem was English. Most of the candidates were from rural areas and had trouble expressing themselves in English. Another problem was the lack of knowledge on the industry and confidence. Base on the issues above, you can understand why they have low confidence. It is upsetting because, what I get out of this interviews is; here are candidates who I know will do a good job because of their aspirations and persistence in wanting to do well but will likely get turned down by employers because of their lack of communication skills. I can see them trying very hard to address our questions and trying very hard to express themselves. Their lack of general knowledge and industry knowledge could also be a factor to this. I am also upset to know that the basis of their lack of either confidence, industry knowledge, passion is from their Education! There is no one to blame unless this changes. Also, industrial training was done for most companies which just needed additional manpower and not much emphasis on learning. This is what I gathered from the interviews.

Sources from this website:

http://educationmalaysia.blogspot.com/2006/07/70-public-university-graduates-jobless.html says there about 20, 000 unemployed graduates in 2006 I think we can add more to that now, what makes it worst is that they are from local universities. Most of the graduates from this programs were from local universities anyway.

My point is, these are graduates which will not be given a chance to be noticed and to work in the field that they are wanting to work in because one fine day after waiting on those applications, countless rejections and no hear from interviews, they will become frustrated and end up choosing just any jobs that come their way. They come to this program expected to be hired at the end of the program and given RM500 per month for the 3 month duration but all in all, this dare I say will not be a total guarantee of their futures, because after the train and place program the training companies are expected to find a job for these graduates or retrenched workers.

These came from those with the qualifications I stated above, but what about the rest I.e., IT, Bio-technology, Civil engineering, Accounting etc? The basis of this is perhaps if local Education Institutions puts in place a learning program to prepare their soon to be graduates for the real world such as making good CV’s, mock interviews, writing cover letters, real world industry knowledge and not theoretical but fundamental knowledge, this will possibly allow a higher chance for their graduates to be land a job after graduation. Also more emphasis on communications skills, please.

On the bright side these graduates took the initiative to enroll in this course because this prepares them and transform for their next phase of life, but in the first place, why did they have to resort to this program?

Sometimes I believe employers should give candidates a chance. Although it is easier said than done, but I have been in a situation before and from what I remember if you can identity a candidate who is wanting to learn, this candidate will achieve. Putting together a management trainee program could also help. Speaking of management trainee and this is disappointing, one of the graduates recently went for an interview with GE Malaysia for one of their management trainee programs and she was told off by one of the hiring managers that she is useless and not appropriate for the program. I mean seriously? Who gave any manager a right to tell off someone about being useless, particularly so if it is GE Malaysia? Damn disappointing.

Anyway my hopes rests on this program because it helps the unemployed graduates to get noticed and given a chance to be hired in their right field and a foundation for their career! One of the better moves by our government. Cheers!

How do you evaluate an opportunity?

2009-10-12T23:38:00.004+08:00

I keep thinking about this and i can tell that no master is good at evaluating an opportunity. Accepting a new job or a career change is a big step to alot of people especially those in a senior level related position. It is always a risk.

I always advice my candidates, to think about what lies ahead and how you would be able to see yourself fitting in to an opportunity, adding value and most importantly understanding the companies need and to see if you would see yourself in such a position. An opportunity keeps you awake most of the time until atleast the resignation is over. So....

Things to consider in an opportunity:

Monetory (This we cannot run away from, no matter how people say tht monetary is only a small incentive, yea right!)

Organization (Once you have been in the industry long enough, you know who is who and most importantly, understand the organizations need of such a position)

Team/Boss (Are you managing or who is your superior)

Expectation (Set it right, in the interview, lay down the expectations and be clear of your strenghts and weaknesses that could be a threat to the job. Atleast, be clear of the interview and the job in the first place).

Growth ( Yes, you are here for a Consulting Manager position, but in two years?)

Position (Is this a new challenge to you? Learn up the job scope and understand it completely and this will make the interview an excellent discussion)

TimeFrame (Give yourself a timeframe on your decision to accept a job offer, its easier said than done, but alot of times the hardest decision. On a personal note, i speak to close friends and associates and usually give myself about 5 days for an answer, not from above but from myself :))

If you have been headhunted, try to get the most of the information out of your headhunter, although at times difficult as they could be a little sketchy on the information given by the client but take the extra initiative to do a google search. Research has always served me well, not only for a job but looking for information that could help my candidate.

I just took some of these thoughts out of my head, hope this helps!

Cheers.

Snippets.

2009-09-09T14:10:00.000+08:00

It’s been slightly more than a month since I have updated this piece of internet turf of mine. I hope all three of my readers would still come back. A lot has happen over the past month. Other than being busy, I have been brainstorming on new possible business ventures in the HR industry which still has very much to do with headhunting. I’m thinking this will benefit most people and potentially might piss off some employers but, it’s still in its early stages, ‘the idea’. I would like to think of it as a reference tool for everyone.

Market has picked up although has slightly has slowed down due to the fasting month. I have recently closed one of my toughest assignments this year, which took both my client and I 3 months to fulfill, through other Exec Search companies and also their internal recruitment procedures. This was an easier said than done assignment. I had to find someone who has many years of experience, technical experience, in OO technologies, someone like a solution architect and to convince them to change their career path into Quality Assurance. Simple, my client was looking for a QA Analyst and wanted someone very experienced. As most QA positions and roles, most talents perform QA and testing on proprietary software’s ie. IBM rational or Tivoli suites, but what we were looking for, was someone with software development background, project management, team leading, IT strategy to someone who had many years of software implementation. So it was quite a challenging assignment, particularly when convincing someone who has many years of experience in trying out a new role. IT was tough, but we did it. Also, our client is a renowned company that specializes in Decision Analytics, I think by now we can already guess who this client is.

One of the interesting observations which I have made myself of myself during this period is this, I help brand companies. A few things which have happen this year is retrenchment. When companies retrench, people talk. Especially in the SAP industry; which is small. So retrenched staffs tend to get a little vocal and expressed their feelings in websites such as www.lowyat.net forum. Well it is normal, companies are not able to please everyone, so when this happens, a company’s image can be tainted because when people Google a company name they will stumble upon forums and they come across bad reviews from other people. It’s a free world; it is not filtered so it’s pretty up in the air, what is posted. So when this happens, recruitment becomes difficult because of word that is going around.

So at this point of time, I have been called into assist two companies in their recruitment for two particular positions. Once I have had known of their challenges and had a good meeting, we move forward, laid some possible strategies and went down to the market to perform our search. We had to brand a company, taking time in explaining management’s decision, company strategy as well as business strategies, the immediate challenges etc to potential candidates. It was a two way game, because we had to work very closely with decision makers of the company as well as work closely with the candidate. I had to gauge many of the decisions which the candidate was making as well as managing the overall expectation and the hiring process.

I was very happy to do this even though it was very hard work, but all in all it paid off. We build a very good relationship with the said client and we manage to find them a suitable candidate which was then hired. It was good, I had to brand a company also had to manage a difficult hiring process. Like how Dato’Idris Jala went in to a company which had a big loss but turned it around in a matter of time!

Interesting read on Gen-Y

2009-07-16T08:28:00.006+08:00

If you have been following this blog, you might have known that i have a keen interest on the Gen-Y workforce. I was reading http://www.zdnetasia.com/ this morning and i came across this study:

"Singapore's Gen Y respondents, aged between 18 and 29, placed greater importance on achieving better balance between work and social life than older respondents. About 71 percent of Gen Ys viewed it extremely important to have a good work-life balance, compared to 64 percent of Gen X workers, aged 30 to 47, and 59 percent of Baby Boomers, aged 48 to 65.

Across the age groups, fewer Gen Y respondents were happy with their current work-life balance than their seniors. About 51 percent of Gen Y respondents were satisfied with the work-life balance in their current jobs, compared to 59 percent of Gen X and 60 percent of Baby Boomers.

It is advised employers keen to attract and retain Gen Y talent that it is important to note attitudes and perceptions of Gen Y employees toward work-life balance.

"The line between work and personal life is blurring as employees are integrating information technology into their lives at many levels," he said. "Employers who use technology to enhance working arrangements are also likely to reap productivity benefits and to be seen as employers of choice.".

(source - zdnetasia.com)

Incase this is a blur, this article was a study on how mobile communications have helped work life balance. Read the rest here: http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/business/0,39044229,62056031,00.htm

SPM Results.

2009-07-15T00:42:00.002+08:00

Are SPM results still relevant from someone whois earning a five figure salary, who is 35 years old and has a job which requires technical knowledge of risk and compliance, H&S, Maritime or business and technical knowledge?

Apparently it does and it took him three days to obtain that particular certificate. This is a big conglomerate company, and while discussing this is a friend on MSN, this was his response after a few lines and being sacarstic:

"HR Manager: Wow a Masters in Astro-Physics and Degree in Aeronautical Engineering. That would be good for what we do here at Aerospace Bhd, but we really need to see your SPM results la!" - This is coming from a director who's company does R&D for batteries.

Does it still really matter? SPM results? Considering you have other qualifications to shout about? Oh, now both our most important taught subjects in school has been reverted to BM - Bravo!

SME Solutions Expo 2009

2009-07-14T23:15:00.006+08:00

I visited the SME Solutions Expo 2009 last week for a few hours, an hour to be exact and did my usual rounds of visiting booths and networking. I went with the intention to find out about how i can improve my companies performance with IT infrastructure and as usual to network with both potential employers and employees. I do not go for the sake of getting name cards, i try to leverage my time at these expo's because there is alot to learn. From marketing campaigns, alternative advertising, IT solutions, business solutions and many more. I encourage everyone to attend expo's as such because there is a lot you can take home and to build on your knowledge especially in technology, because this is where we learn about tomorrow's technology. Belief me.

I found the HR Asia booth and also bought a few magazines and subscribed to the quarterly issued magazine. While reading it today i found something interesting about a survey and it reads:

" A survey done which overs 94000 employees from 21 countries including Malaysia, showed that Malaysia has a more engaged workforce compared to the rest of the world. Almost one in four Malaysian workers is engaged compared with one in five globally". (HR Asia. 2009, Survey done by Towers Perrin's Global)

Isn't that nice to know?

I was thinking about this interesting fact and i would like to believe its true. I mean i look around me and i think for myself. I realize that when i think about my candidates over the past few months especially those in mid to high level positions, i definitely realized this, because i remember a few of them saying, i have to do it for the company. A GM from one of the aggresive document company and i remember him saying this "Our companies numbers rely heavily on my part for the rest of the year as hardware sales has dropped, we will be pushing!" And another candidate said something which i remember which was "My team depends on me for the succesful roll out of this project because our company needs this".

Having said that, i also realise that more employers have relied heavily on the ideas and dependance of their line managers to produce good results by thinking for themselves inline with the companies strategy. 1)obviously because he or she needs to keep his or her job and 2) recognition in this times of need and 3) because new strategies that are well thought of does produce performance improvement.

Another interesting approach which for a fact drew more employee commitment is when a CEO called 25 staff in batches of 5 to the meeting room, to explain the current condition and had to announce 15% salary cuts. I would say, that was done with care and also done with integrity. You would expect high turnover in that company because of this, guess what, turnover was very managable, because employees felt respected and obviously the speech which was given by the CEO was something like Mel Gibson did in Braveheart, it was done with integrity in turn which will generate employee performance. It was one of my clients which over the year i placed 3 candidates in the respective company. They told me about it but were not emotionally affected by it, it only made them work harder.

HR Asia magazine, really provides good knowledge to both employers and employees. Another magazine i would encourage reading is, Enterprise Innovation although it is still hard to find it around here. Overall the SME Solutions Expo was good. It was for me short and sweet after all it is aimed at entrepreneurs and business owners together with professionals. What i think they can do without is, credit card applications, direct sales and wealth management booths, although these also produces millionaires, i mean wealth management companies. All in all, it was good!

Hows it going?

2009-07-13T22:17:00.003+08:00

The market has definitely picked up. It has definitely picked comparing to a few months ago. There has been request from both new and present employers for new and specific talent. Especially in technical positions. Specialised technical positions. I've also moved into the Oil and Gas sector, although i am doing alot of R&D at the moment.

Good technical talent are definitely in demand now. Unlike about a year ago, an average talent will have a higher chance on getting employed through one application. Unfortunately especially in these times, the best gets picked up and they do easily. Althought it is difficult to land a job today, there are still plentiful of opportunities. I realise that people are still quite fussy given the fact that they are sometimes unhappy or are unemployed. I try my best now, to help the unemployed by reverse selling them, but the quote 'beggars can't be choosers' have no meaning in their dictionary. I am talking about middle management people.

Well, headhunting for me has been challenging, which is good though. Employers are really cracking my head in searching for talent for them, and seeing that there are an abundance of headhunters out there, my competition is pretty steep and they are also trying to earn a living. I still or i would like to believe that i have a good advantage because, despite of the many openings out there, i am one that understands not only an industry but i have integrity when managing people and their careers. Although i also at times fail to get back to my candidates but as when i do remember, i am sincere as i find it hard to keep track with alot 0f people. I believe all headhunters go through this. On average i meet about 25-30 new candidate a month, which is about 360 candidates a year which means 360 interviews :), 20-30 phone calls a day, 2-3 meetings a day, new and present clients, 20-30 emails,...Which i find truely great!

Well, assignments are now challenging. Employers are very aware of who they hire, because of cost factors and also budgest constraints. You cannot hire someone who is demanding for exhuberant entertaintment allowance to do business, rather you hire someone that is able to bring deals on board or able to think outside the box. Also, i expect employers to be cautious at these times because despite employment, candidates may put up a very good front to join another company to get out of theirs because of uncertainty. So where i am getting to is, us headhunters have to be tactful when we are recruiting in these times because we have to understand our candidates motivation for a move eventhough they have been headhunted and we have to gauge their level of confidence in delivering their performance. Remember we also have KPI's which we account for our dear clients. So recruitment and headhunting is challenging and interesting. I have to say, i enjoy these challenges because there are moer factors involve than just projects or sales KPI's, we have to consider market demands, economic outlook, government tenders and projects, our clients projects, cashflow etc. Most importantly is understanding our clients needs and most importantly which is in our bible, their business.

Although we meet alot of potential employers today, i still have to ask questions like, what are the main projects which our projects managers will be involved in? OR Do you think these sales targets are achievable for the rest of the year? OR Is this the only project that our team lead will be heading? OR Once the business has turn around, does our CEO obtain a more operational or more business orientated role? One of my friends recently placed two candidates in a company that had only one project on hand, but are paying a high premium for technical guys, so my advice is also, to be careful when you are applying for a job :).

I have also been getting more emails and i thank all my readers out there as i hope i can continue to write. Also, if there are any headhunters reading this blog, please email me to see how we are able to work together as my traffic can be pretty high at times and i would love to refer best talents around.

Cheers!

What inspires you?

2009-07-06T15:16:00.002+08:00

People ask me sometimes, what do i like reading...in terms of books. Mine is simple, i do not have to think because i like reading biographies. From musicians, F1 drivers, succesful businessman, Chefs (Anthony Bourdain so far - it's hilarious) to other inspiring figures. Why? Simple, because i like to read on the trials and tribulations of what a person has to go through to become what they are or were to be today and how they overcome their challenges.

But this caught me. I have been reading Tony Fernandes blog so far and this is basically one of my favourite reads. A man who's dare i say schedule is busier than our Prime Minister but has a few minutes to reply to his readers:

http://www.tonyfernandesblog.com/main.php/2009/04/11/a-compliment#comments

Looks like i'll be headed out to get a new book this weekend =]

Employment Hint.

2009-06-17T12:04:00.002+08:00

There has been a lot of articles in the press lately addressing issues pertaining to enhancing your employment. But I find that the issues brought forward are too repetitive. Such as, do your research, write a good CV, networking etc. I thought I would share something which I hope it can benefit a few people.

Apart from all of those ways of enhancing employment here is a piece that a lot of people aren’t doing or thought of doing.

Firstly do your research, think about companies which you would like to be employed with or companies which you see yourself having a future with. Do some research on that company to see if they happen to have released or post any job advertisements or dive into their careers page. Check out their vacancies. Usually they would have an email address which you could write too, but believe it or not, you are usually one of the few hundred that has written in. Through this you are not only browsing their website but also learning their business. Other ways to see who are hiring in your own domain or specialty is, log on to Jobstreet and JobsDB and do a search based on your job profile. Check out the companies that are hiring ad GO DIRECT, because once again when you apply, you are some of the few hundreds.

Secondly once that is done and you have found something, identify the contact details of the company. This is where you need to take it a step further and a lot of times how we headhunters do it. Call directly and obtain the HR Managers or the person who is in-charge of recruitment’s email address or if you would like talk to the respective HR Manager, go ahead. Make sure you also get the names of the person. Of-course it is easier said than done, but this is a good way of showing initiative, drive and that you are serious in getting yourself employed. The receptionist is usually quite difficult when giving out information as such, but if you could convince the ‘gatekeeper’ and obtain the details you need, you will see that the HR Manager will be looking at your email when you are able to get into the door. Try to get the email address and e-mail your application through straight to the HR Managers email add or whoever the person is in-charge of recruitment is. When you are talking to the receptionist and she is still not wanting to give you the email address, you can usually say that you have tried multiple times and there is still no news or the link is broken and you need the HR Manager or Recruitment Managers email address.

Now your application is in their hands and hope that they will be giving you a call soon. You can also choose to follow up with them since you have the details. Just an advice, this is another creative way of getting employed. It is not an easy method and you could get blown off a few times, but if you hit it right, it could be your best opportunity. I believe this is also shows added initiatives and value that you carry simply by showing your interest.

All the best, let me know how it goes.

Cheers.

Snippets

2009-06-08T12:04:00.001+08:00

A lot of industries have been quiet for a few months. I am taking this off my head but speaking to a few headhunters lately, advertising, FMCG, manufacturing and production have been relatively quiet. Mainly, due to recruitment and headcount freeze as a cost saving factor and stimulus for business recovery for many of our clients.

Still the IT industry looks ‘ok’. I got a friend in the Enterprise printing business that said numbers are rising and there has been good activity in the banking and IT industry. In the first few months of the year, I could count on one hand how many assignments I had and now, the number of assignments have increased and we are back on our toes.

There are a few reasons why companies need to use headhunters now and they are:

Seeing that, even if they reach out to their future hires though advertisements and referrals, a lot of people generally are not applying because is it not that they are not comfortable with their employments but their current jobs offers security.

Some companies have not done their retrenchment processes properly hence when word gets out especially when unhappy employees have been laid off due to the unhealthy retrenchment process, the company will get a bad name and there will be a second thought to those who want to apply, unfortunately.

Should a company be awarded a sizeable project now, they will definitely emphasize on quality and excellent service delivery not by Malaysian standards because in this difficult times not only that it is hard to find projects and win projects but firms will definitely have to provide better service hence with a project generally employees will stick to their companies.

Well these are a few things I thought of as I write this, this hazy Monday morning. These are a few reasons why companies might have to rely on headhunters to reach out to the market and to assist them in identifying talent for their respectable companies. What I also enjoy most about my job is when I see myself opening doors for my clients too, I recently had a catch up lunch with my client about 3 weeks ago and I propose that they hire a good business development manager to spearhead into the market to bring in new business. This sprung up in my mind learning of my client’s business challenges and about a week or two before that I had a meeting with a good business development manager which now has been hired by my client. Cases like these apply to a lot of other businesses. Learning a clients business and challenges has its importance in relationship building because a deal is not just a deal, everyone can get a deal, but it is how you identify opportunities and also how you are able to find ways and add value to a clients business.

Also look out for a new page I will be creating, it will be my job page. Mainly some of the assignments which I am currently working on to share with you as I have more write ins and it is my part to help the jobseekers obtain jobs in my little way, if I can.

So far.....

2009-05-14T19:56:00.000+08:00

This is going to be a very quick one, as I have been busy with some new transitions and a new endeavor. Nevertheless I should always find time to update my blog. Like twitter. Follow me, I am at www.twitter.com/jmjmonteiro.

It is good, it is a good sign. The market again is picking up slowly. When I say market I mean the job market. I guess in that sense the business market is also picking up. I have had a few clients who are now re-hiring and new clients hiring. These are reputable companies which froze their recruitment for Q1. I guess most companies have put in place new strategies to combat the global economic issue and also have finally digested the issue and moved forward. This is always a good sign because we are able to help our clients fulfill their headcount and although it is still the employers market, there are jobs available out there. Jobseekers now experience that the difficulties looking for a job hence job retention strategies might be of a lesser burden and employees stick to where they are.

There is more technical positions available comparing to sales positions. Basically they way I see it is simple, GM’s, CEO’s and CTO’s now are able to push for sales for their company because at the end of the day, these are people that know their business well and understand their industry better than newcomers, but when it comes to technical positions, such as like a SAP MM consultant, you cannot just throw a rock and expect to hit one in the market like you can hit a DATUK everywhere, these are the niche specializations which you need to have when you are on a project or supporting a particular solution.

So the job-market is getting slightly better. There are less and less companies that are retrenching (based on my everyday newspaper readings) and companies have put in new stimulus in combating the global economic issue.

Will update soon..Cheers!

Top ten in Malaysia?

2009-04-10T12:22:00.003+08:00

Here are list of the top-ten employers in Malaysia. (Those who participated). Hewitt recently did a study on the best Emlpoyers in Malaysia in 2009 and here are the results.

The Judges selected 10 Hewitt Best Employers in Malaysia 2009. The results are presented in ranked order:

Rank
Organization
1 - The Ritz-Carlton, Kuala Lumpur
2 -American Express (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd
3 -Four Seasons Resort Langkawi, Malaysia
4-Federal Express Services (M) Sdn Bhd
5-Agilent Technologies
6-S P Setia Berhad
7-Hilton Kuala Lumpur
8-Intel Technology Sdn Bhd
9-Golden Arches Restaurants Sdn Bhd
10-Telekom Malaysia Berhad

Here is the regional list: http://was7.hewitt.com/bestemployers/asia/english/results_2009.htm?expand=10&expand=121

More information can be found here: http://was7.hewitt.com/bestemployers/asia/english/index.htm?expand=1

'Resource - Hewitt- http://www.hewitt.com

Snippets.

2009-04-10T12:08:00.003+08:00

I've noticed that more and more companies are now putting in hard work on staff retention, particularly with IT companies where turnover is high. There are still a handful of companies looking for middle management staff and specialized skillsets ie - SAP and Oracle DBA's. Those with 3 years of experience in IT have less opportunities but those who are Team Lead's, Project Managers, Service Managers, Operation Managers, Performance Manages, Supply Chain Managers (IT) are in very much demand now. There are alot companies that are hiring and identifying good talent, but try alternative job search other than jobs sites, perhaps even go directly. Pick up the phone call HR and tell them that you are in search of a job and open your doors for them! Talent war is still alive and believe me that we are also fighting for good talent.

Don't wait as in this economic outlook, you have to work a little bit harder..Everyone has to work harder in everything...Despite the lay-off's people are also able to find employment. Oh and constantly work with good headhunters...

Working with headhunters.

2009-04-10T12:02:00.001+08:00

I’ve done some stat analysis of this website and over the past few weeks I’ve came across readers which usually Google this ‘working with a headhunter, how does a headhunter work or headhunter Malaysia’. Thanks to Histat’s I am able to obtain information as such. Over the past few weeks I’ve been getting new readers too, so it says two things, many people are looking for jobs or this website has been circulating. I thank everyone for this. Thank you very much I am glad I am able to give you an inside to what I do and if at all I am able to help I will continue too.

Today, I’m going to write about snippets of headhunting on how you can work with your headhunter. Most of the time when a headhunter has contacted you, the headhunter will have an opportunity for you, a career opportunity. They won’t waste their time identifying people they usually do not need. We are on an assignment for a client who we need to identify talents and match their strengths to our clients needs. When we have identified you, we have an opportunity for you. Simple as that. We work on an assignment basis because we get paid our consultancy services from the client.

At this point of time, today, now!, we have more calls from candidates or people who are looking for new opportunities because of retrenchment, looking for a company which provide more job security or exploring new opportunities. Oh I’d like to share that over the course of last few weeks, I’ve been getting many calls from IT Sales consultants, looking to move out of IT if there is a possibility…Anyway, since there are more people that have been giving us calls, we will usually try our level best to help candidates that are looking out for opportunities by helping them open door through clients we have built relationships with and through our business contacts. We are able to do that, or I speak for myself in that matter.

So ideally headhunters work on an assignment basis. If you call a headhunter now to look for an opportunity which by chance the headhunter is working on an assignment which matches your strengths, then it is a plus. However a lot of times, this happens when you have a headhunter that specializes in a specific industry not a generalist headhunter. So pick and choose wisely and do some background research on the headhunting company or ask the headhunter which industry is he or he specializing in.

Best ways to work with headhunters:

Make the call and establish the relationship.

Build rapport.

Follow up calls and stay on their radars.

Keep us updated.

You can also obtain more information about Executive Search here: http://aheadhunter.blogspot.com/2009/01/why-companies-should-use-executive.html

Or something I wrote two years ago:

http://aheadhunter.blogspot.com/2007/06/why-work-or-approach-headhunter.html

Cheers!

Interview outcome.

2009-04-09T14:18:00.000+08:00

I think as a headhunter, hiring manager or CEO, one of the important factors to have for an interview is A goal. Think about it. In an interview, we are going to meet someone we have not met before or will never meet again and most importantly someone whom we are going to hire. It is very crucial that once you receive a formal document i.e.; CV, you need to set a goal of the outcome of the interview.

For instance when I used to interview potential candidates for my previous company when I was in HR, I use to plan my goals for an interview. Every one person we interview is unique therefore if there is no plan that has been set, such as asking specific question pertaining to what has been listed in the CV, trust me, you will not asked the question. It will just be a conventional interview like the question and answer game.

A plan can be a simple plan on how the interview is to be conducted. Whether you would like it to be a very formal or informal interview. It depends on your goal outcome. If you set a goal that, you wanted to know more about a persons personal capabilities rather than work capabilities, well list it down. I usually write a few questions on the back of the CV or I have rough markings on the CV so I will know that I have questions pertaining to what is listed in the CV. If you would like to study or learn about a persons thought flow and how well an individual responds to a specific situation, do explain your question in such a way that you expect different answers back. Answer which you expect and do not expect, but at-least rational.

I plan my interviews because I have questions for my clients which I require to vet through first. I plan my questions and also I plan the interview on what I want to achieve out of the candidate. If there is no set goal or no expectation out of an interview, time will be wasted OR you will need to either call or clarify further with the candidate which In time will waste more time.

So good planning and setting a clear cut goal of what you want to achieve in a meeting will be clear. Such as in project meetings or client meetings, you plan your goals….

Professional Feedback.

2009-03-25T10:24:00.000+08:00

My next post will be about something personal that happens to all headhunters. This post kinds of relate to the next post because sometimes hiring managers can be rubbish too. Literally. This was once when I had a very good candidate on hand. I like the attitude, the experience speaks a lot of the candidate’s capabilities and the candidate is young, dynamic, aggressive and a real go getter. This is someone that knows where she wants to be.

When we head-hunt a candidate and even when we have matched made to a companies need, obviously this has already carried some weight. Our report together with the CV was liked by the client/hiring manager and the candidate was called for the interview. This is for a mid level role.

Some facts about headhunting. Match making has already begun even before the client interview. We have head-hunted the candidate, shortlisted, produced a report and most importantly qualified her for the role. Then the interview. Usually the client has to vet through the profile and only when it suits I will proceed to arrange the client meeting with candidate. Then it is totally up to the candidate.

Well, the candidate went for an interview and on their point of view it went well. Funny enough when I got the feedback from HR, she said, the hiring manager said, meeting the candidate was a waste of time’.

Waste of time?

Come on, how can you say that about someone you have pre-qualified and called for an interview when the headhunter has also qualified and has interviewed the candidate? Headhunters are specific and they cater to the job need and to say that a candidate was a waste of time, it is just wrong. Feedback is meant to be constructive – whether negative or positive because weaknesses can be turned into strengths.

Hiring managers should always provide positive or negative feedback for us to fine tune our search or even so that I am able to gauge what went wrong in the interview so that I could help he candidate in future. Hiring managers should provide PROFESSIONAL feedback. I was quite taken a back, because my client is a reputable company and they have very credible people in the company. I was wondering would this be people that I would like my candidates to report to? I guess ‘I don’t think so’. My point being that, feedback should always be professional.

Some retrenchement issues.

2009-02-28T10:25:00.004+08:00

Over the past few weeks I’ve took on sort of a HR consultant role. I’ve been advising some of my friends and candidates on some clauses and HR initiatives on retrenchment.
So here is one;

My friend got asked to submit a six-month post-dated resignation letter. He is now asked to head another team but also given the green light to resign as and when he wants, which is good and also able to look for a job in the mean time.

From my point of view this is a win-win situation. I cannot see the management taking another step in retrenching him in a short span of time and he is free to explore other jobs in the next six months. This is actually the first time I’ve heard of this.

I think the management is also protecting themselves against any lawsuits of senior management staff in the event that six months later they would release their staff without notice and with immediate effect.

Another one:

R&D departments are usually cost-centre’s ie; those employee’s will be at risk of retrenchment first. So here is what another company did.

They my candidate her one-month salary per-every year she has been in the organization and because of company policy that she had to serve a 3 month resignation period, they remunerated her with 3 months salary as they were letting her go in a month.

So all in all, she had gotten 6 months of her pay: 3 months for serving with the company for 3 years and 3 months to serve the resignation period.

So all in all this was a win-win situation too, but unless is unable to find a job in the nest 6 months. But looking at her technical capabilities, I am sure she will find a job in no time.

By the looks of it, i think companies will try to help their staff as much as they can, such as offering alternatives as above. At the end of the day, companies would not want to be swarmend with unwanted lawsuit issues as it comes with a price. Well, even if u raise up and issue with the union today, your case will probably on be heard a year later, unfortunately.

Please feel free do share if you have any retrenchement stories or issues. You can either email me or leave a comment.

Cheers!

Generation Y.

2009-02-24T23:11:00.000+08:00

I think I am coming to understand more about Generation Y. Generation Y are the cool generation, they embrace brand and live in the new world of digitize communication. Generation Y are the group born between 1979-1994 and some say the earliest 1976 and 2001 being the latest, so roughly around ages 15-28. This generation is the talent that organizations have to work hard to manage. I mean, graduates come to work, with blackberry’s which they want to sync with their new given company PC, wait did I say PC, sorry laptop’s, so that they able to work remotely, they come in equipped with most Microsoft Office functions, which a CEO might not be able to remember fast-key commands and most importantly they come in with rich family values, corporate expectations and new age digital social communication.

Well, the way I see it, Generation Y is impacting the workplace and will continue to change the workplace because, these groups bring new set of values, new sets of working ethics, new sets of thinking and their own unique set of setting their goals. They have gone through university, they know which organization they have to work hard to get into, they are governed by goals they have to achieve (getting a degree) to simply fit into a conform society. They generally know what they want to do.

The aim for an organization now is to retain young talent. In my experience, loyalty factor is about 2 years until they start exploring new avenues. Organizations have to cater to their needs. They have to understand that remuneration packages have to meet their needs because of their standard of living otherwise they cannot and will not join another organization. Their bosses have to know of their goals and to help them achieve it, of course inline with the organization culture and value. Most friendships are also formed in an organization and a lot of young workers will generally choose to work where most of their friends go. So it is quite important that organizations are aware that there are so many factors that govern young workers in and out of the office such as time. It is sort of like organizations have to drive these new age strategies to retain young talent and to respect their needs.

I can actually keep on writing and giving examples but that will just take too long. But one of the hardest factors that will govern Talent Acquisition, Retention and Recruitment is the lengths corporate organizations are willing to go to cater towards new generations. It is how you understand and able to create a healthy, dynamic and a driven organization that attracts and retain new talent.

Once I have read up on more sources, I will blog about how new and dynamic companies are in a way moving towards new workforce/place strategies. Just think how the organization Google works.

FYi - some statistics.

2009-02-17T16:26:00.000+08:00

A total of 33,451 workers lost their jobs last year, according to the Labour Department. From last October to January 20, 13,040 people had been retrenched, according to The Labour Department’s department director-general Datuk Ismail Abdul Rahim (The Star, Jan 21).

Will follow up with a post most probably tonight.

Cheers.

A passive candidate.

2009-02-11T17:46:00.001+08:00

I find handling passive candidates interesting. We cannot blame them that they are passive; it is simply their personality traits. You do not expect a sales person to be quiet and introverted. You do not expect technical people to be highly extroverted and on the go party mood (but there are a few I know of). Different people, different traits.

How do you handle passive candidates?

Ask more questions and find a button that will make them interested in you and the whole discussion. More or less when you are dealing with passive people, most of the answers are one worded; yes and no. But as long as you hit the right button, you are then in and you will be rewarded with a good discussion.

Today I had a meeting with a System Engineer and he was like the above. He was quite passive and only answered my questions very specifically with a word or two. I was trying to get him to explain to me his career progression and it was very straightforward (which is a good thing) but without much enthusiasm. I wanted to find out about what he liked about his job and what role he also could explore other than another System Engineering.

I started talking about pre-sales and talked about POC’s, vendor management, other similar projects, tenders and why he is good for the role I have for him. He suddenly opened up because I spoke his language and then he started looking at the JD in detail and started painting his career and matching it to the JD in-front of him and I got him talking. Somewhere along the lines I hit the right button. He was quite enthusiastic about the job because it was a step forward with more responsibilities and a move to a multinational corporation with good benefits.

I think when you are dealing with passive people, they would like the assurance that they are talking to someone they can communicate with. I once had a friend who only spoke very few words to me, but when I introduced him to another friend whom incidentally use to watch Star Trek in detail, they both became instant buddies. It is good to find out their interest and what motivates them.

I have written about a similar discussion here, have a look at: http://aheadhunter.blogspot.com/2008/03/good-interview-that-ended-up-great.html

My profile.

2009-02-10T17:22:00.002+08:00

Well, after a few thoughts going into my blog, i've decided to come out and explore the possibilities of not being a ghostwriter. I enjoy my job and passionate about the value i add, so i am starting to write today as myself =].

Have a futher read of my profile here - http://aheadhuntersprofile.blogspot.com/

Looking forward to hearing from everyone. Cheers.

About CCIE...

2009-02-03T18:40:00.001+08:00

I was talking to a client about two weeks back and it was bugging me that both of us did not know an accurate number of CCIE (Cisco Certified Internet Expert) holders in Malaysia. Well, they asked how hard it is to search for CCIE certified engineers and I told her that a couple of years ago there were only 20. So it would be a challenging assignment. I told her that there would be less than a hundred today and she said, well she heard from other headhunters that it was about 2-300. So I was shocked that I thought I did not know my facts right and my figures were wrong, felt a bit stupid.

I was kind of taken a back, because when I was in HR a couple of years back, an employee wanted to apply for the course and had mentioned that there were only about 20 certified holders in Malaysia. It was pretty hard to believe that there are 2-300 at this moment of time, as it is expensive, extremely difficult to obtain with stringent requirements and expectations and also at that time you had to travel abroad to take the exam.

So here was my email to her:

“………With regards to the CCIE certification and because it was disturbing me, I called CISCO Malaysia and they verified that they are only 86 CCIE holders and practitioners in Malaysia. I spoke to one of the people from the Marketing Academy team of CISCO. I had an employee when I was in HR; who wanted to apply for the certification about 5 years ago, told me that they were less than 20 CCIE engineers in Malaysia at that time. So by the looks of it, the growing rate for CCIE is about 10-15 engineers per year up to date. I thought we could both share this information….”

Things I do for my clients…..and half past six IT headhunters with inaccurate information..

So far of 2009~

2009-02-03T18:21:00.002+08:00

How is everyone this New Year? As for myself I have been fairly busy not only with the festivities but also striving to keep positive in this current downturn which is currently expected to be the worst recession, nastier than 1997. At least the petrol price is much lesser than it was expected to be, some consolation.

There is plenty of negativity around about the gloomy recession that is hitting various industries and I hate to do this, but I am going to rub it in a little.

Motorola, Flextronics, GlaxoSmithKline, Panasonic, Intel, Agilent Technologies, Logitech, Microsoft, BASF, Western Digital and even Google are expected to lay off workers by the thousands globally. I have the figures but I feel that I should not put it on. These are powerhouse companies which give opportunities to a lot of people of different payscales to keep afloat. These companies provide opportunity to keep people employed, to keep our employment rate low and to provide people with lesser education employed. It definitely is unpredictable at this time. However friends, who are bankers and auditors, predict that this will last 18 months. Well 18 months is a long time.

Well, it is currently back in the EMPLOYERS market. There are still opportunities in the market at the moment but they are not being advertised as most business is trying to be creative, hence if advertised their competitors will know their next move. In the IT industry, business and employment is definitely slowing down, particularly for management levels but the usual technical positions are still in need. Sales positions are also growing and as we know, closed tenders are open for being bidding again, big boys are sizing down the channel sales partners and also very picky at it and most companies are basically surviving on maintenance and existing contracts.

It has definitely slowed down; a lot of big reputable local, regional and Multinational corporates have slashed or frozen their headcount. I have had a lot of calls from candidates, but my advice to all jobseekers is to stay put and not rush into any blatant opportunity because you will not get an opportunity which you WANT. I am biting my tongue by saying this but it is my advice and careful with a job opportunity.

Things to consider – Company, company stability, company size, on-going projects, growth opportunities, superior’s attitude, company direction, company listing and even the work place itself.

Why I say this is because there isn’t much opportunities out there as there was like last year or last two years and employers will be choosy and more careful on their hirers. Be tactful, if dealing with a headhunter make sure to ask questions and go through the opportunity in detail with the headhunter. Good headhunters do that even at these periods, now I speak for myself :).

Be positive, look forward to good growth, always have a positive mindset to counter negativities, get out there and do more sporting and healthy activities and have a good day.

Why companies should use Executive Search.

2009-01-14T15:18:00.003+08:00

Benefits of using Executive Search.

Executive Search consultants or headhunters are professionals in identifying talent across industries for companies that have immediate or long term recruitment needs. Search services is engaged by companies or organizations which require a vacancy to be filled and have difficulty looking for the desired person or used for future resource planning for a company.

Their service reaches throughout more of the hiring process. These includes conducting detailed reports and interviews, only presenting the candidates to clients where they feel the candidate in question will fit into the employment culture of the client along with the correct experiences and desired skill-set.

Executive searches add value to an organization in many ways. Often enough, headhunters are engage for these few reasons:

Time:

· I use to work as a HR Executive in a leading local public-listed IT company and I have faced difficulties looking for people in a desired timeframe. Let’s face it, everyone is always busy and it is difficult having to screen 300 web-based CV’s for a position which we have advertised for, from one of our local leading online recruitment companies. This does not include calling candidates and making appointments for an interview which in my encounters, candidates do not turn up or will reschedule.

· Time is on your hands and you have your KPI’s and deliverables to meet for a recruitment cycle. Well, this is where engaging executive search services saves you time. Once a services fee has been agreed upon, headhunters are able to spearhead directly into the industry and search for the relevant and required people with a desired skill-set. Be it a CEO or a Project Manager, headhunters are able to find these talents which meet your requirement in a shorter timeline.

· When dealing with an experienced headhunter or an executive search consultancy, preliminary interviews are conducted, behavioral and skill-based competencies are measured and character to job matching profiles are carefully evaluated, thus leaving the employer to meet the candidates upon receiving the profile and conduct their own interview to ensure a total fit for the organization.

· Time is crucial therefore engaging executive search services will not only take away your headache but saves you time.

Specialization Positions:

· Candidates are able to bluff their way at interviews at times. What may seem good on paper might prevail to be a hiring mistake by hiring managers months later. A CV is a great marketing tool and it may lead you to think that this is the best candidate at a glance. This is very common in end-user recruitment and many make this mistake. Candidates may boast that they have done a brilliant job throughout their experience but in retrospect after a headhunter does their industry reference check, it could be a deception.

· Mistakes will and does happen in recruiting the right candidate. When dealing with a specialized headhunter, you can avoid these mishaps because other than having lots of contacts and relationships in a specific industry headhunters have strong character references.

· Headhunters are specialized in their specific industries and this gives employers an advantage with working with an industry-centric headhunter. Whether it is the engineering, finance, IT or telecommunications industries, headhunters are familiar with their industries. Headhunters are familiar with industry jargon and are updated with new information from their industry, simply by talking to candidates on a daily basis. They are able to walk in the hiring managers shoes and determine the right skills needed of a person for the job.

Results:

· Search consultants are result driven like any other employee in a different industry. As there is a strong reliance on headhunters to fulfill a position for a company, they take ownership of the assignment and strive to deliver their best for the client.

· As said earlier-on in this article, headhunters see through the hiring process, salary negotiation until the commencement of work of the candidate. These initiatives take away the hassles of dealing with people who do not turn up to work after signing the offer letter and at times resigning in such a short period frame, because search companies usually have a guarantee period as an assurance because of the services fee incurred. Headhunters usually manage the whole hiring process to ensure that their clients have found a competent candidate and the candidate is happy with the new employer. The gap is now closed.

Executive search services have helped many companies achieve its value of finding the right candidate for the right job at the right time. As far as headhunting goes, a lot of companies have relied on their services for timely staffing and to take away unnecessary headache’s from the HR function within the organization. High performers and competent staff re hard to identify this is where an executive search services bring you the best and matches an organization with the ideal candidate.

2009

2008-12-04T11:01:00.001+08:00

Everyone is having a lot of worries about year 2009. The world is in a recession and already big companies have started retrenching and there are talks about salaries of monitory’s compensation being cut for next year.

2009 we will see new challenges. For the time being in the IT industry, for what I see, there only has been 70-80% fulfillment rate for company’s organization or team structure for their manpower or resource plan. Even today as I type this, majority of my clients have 20-30% vacancy in their org. structure and they are struggling with such small teams. Projects at times have been delayed just due to a shortage of skilled staff ie: Java or .NET developers.

There will still be that shortage that us headhunters would be able to fulfill and despite hard times, I still believe that, you just need to work harder and at times be more creative. I am sure it will pay off.

Having said that, there will be new challenges. This year, it was to do with salaries, company benefits, career progression, new product offering and services, company branding and various privileges, every company has its own offering.

I believe next year candidates will be taking a step back to think about not only their needs and wants, but the company as a whole. I have known people to jump to an ABC company offering a 25%-30% increment jump, I mean who wouldn’t?, yet after 6 months they find themselves in a rut because the company is on the verge of slowing down and they will be lucky if they get their salaries paid. We know collection in Malaysia is never so straight forward.

Next year we will see candidates being extra picky of the companies they choose. It is all about its productivity, revenue inflow/generation and STABILITY! Next years challenge for me is the extra convincing power and also to represent companies who’s brand is reputable and most importantly financially stable.

Why financially stable? If a companies Oracle DBA’s leaves, the company has to fulfill that vacancy ASAP. If a Sales Director or Manager or Account Manager leaves, the CEO or other executives would be able to generate the sales for the company, therefore a company has to be financially stable. Most local companies are surviving on maintenance contracts, that is what that keeps them going.

We will also see a drop in applications as candidates would like to keep their jobs and stay where they are. We will see a fall in entrepreneurship and new businesses, unless these particular business can profit from the economic down turn. On the other hand we will also see a sharp increase in unemployment which will in-turn generate more direct company applications possibly to agencies too.

The HR Dilemma

2008-10-29T11:29:00.002+08:00

Couple of month’s back I wrote about the willingness of companies that are now adopting the importance of the HRD within a sizeable company. Of late, while doing a number of Business Development meets with a few companies I have realized that a few companies in Malaysia are finding the same problem as others.

I recently had a long two hour chat with a HR Manager of a reputable company and we shared our views and opinions on the IT industry particularly in retention and recruitment. I believe a lot of companies are going through the same problem. I would call it a HR Dilemma in Malaysia.

1st HR Departments should not be viewed as an Administrative nuisance. I mean, think about it, without certain policies and administration procedures a lot of crucial information will be lost. Let me share with you two important procedures.

Recruitment Procedures:

Without proper forms and documents that are filled out and approved upon by HOD’s, such as a Request for New Staff form, vital information is lost if everything is verbal. I’ve seen my fair share of RNS’s forms and information like dates, description’s of position, budget, race (It is Malaysia lets face it), approval signatures, requirements and expectation will not be clear to the person doing the recruitment and forms like these will be tracked so that when the position is fulfilled, the department will know the exact date of the start of the recruitment cycle. Without a simple form like this which will only take a minute to fill, sometimes recruitment cycles are unknown and the function of the position is unclear. Most importantly, HR is usually the first contact of any company when it comes to hiring hence things like budget, seniority, reporting structure is imperative information when it comes to hiring. This is done not only as a tracking feature but a factor that increases future knowledge in the event that the department has to hire another person for the role. The department, looking at previous form will now understand the difficulties, timeline and also justification of the role.

Exit Interviews:

Send the resign-ee for an Exit Interview with HR!

Obviously you do not expect the total truth to why an employee leaves a company but roughly you can get an idea if five leave and all a few of them have the same answers. Even if it is a non-verbal meeting a sheet documenting your reasons to leave is also a valuable factor as sometimes, ex-employee’s are rather shy when they are confronted by HR and prefers reasons to be written than to be communicated. Exit Interviews is a tool which will enable companies to counter high turnovers by a simple reasoning and analysis of problems voiced out from their staff.

Soooo.....I think dynamic HR managers have to be able to push their way through and earn the respect of HOD’s and seeing themselves as a Business Asset to companies just as the HOD’s are. A Human Resource strategy particularly in Talent Management and retention needs an all round help and without the help of the HOD’s, HR would be redundant. A strategy fails when there is no motive to move forward and mindsets that does not allow a company as a whole to progress for the betterment of talent progression, retention and recruitment.

In the IT industry, today, now and this minute, packages play an important role. Firms are getting competitive. Like I said in my previous posting, more and more firms are moving to 13 month packages.

The differentiators today, which I feel, that could help firms attract employees are perks and benefits. It has to be attractive, not necessarily different but attractive. Without these small policies, procedures and strategies are put in place; a lot of firms will still remain backward. Air Asia for example, put’s its employee’s first. Brilliant!
It takes a lot of collaboration. Without open minds and HR practitioners being aggressive in putting strategies in place and HOD’s co-operating, it is going to be tough moving forward for firms to achieve its employee retention and attraction strategies.

So the dilemma is simple, when HR lays out a strategy, a lot of times HOD’s are not co-operative. I have experience this first hand. The objective is for HR to push their way through acting like a salesman and selling their idea and executing their strategies. A dynamic HR manager sees himself as a person that is able to make things happen and make the company a world class company by convincing MD’s, HOD’s and shareholders that employee’s are the driving forces of a company and we should work for them as they have worked for us’. Very far-fetch, but you get what I mean. Unless HR practitioners are able to push forward and win the respect of the key people within the company, it is hard to progress.

Until then, without analysis and strategies performed to counter people issues within the company, there will always be high turnovers and financial losses.

So the dilemma here is the HR Dilemma.

Relationships

2008-08-21T11:34:00.002+08:00

I had a long three hour sales interview yesterday and it was a solid chat about the industry, yesterday, tomorrow and today.

We had a chat about how political the IT industry is and how a lot of people can be bought to get a contract and deals. We talked about all the RFP’s and RFQ’s and we spoke about ’sebuthargas’ strategy and well as credit facilities offered by a few IT companies.

One thing I hear often from time and time again is; RELATIONSHIPS. You build a relationship for the betterment of a future business purpose and of course to push a sale. As little as RM5000 today, you would be able to re-sell and get another RM5000 tomorrow. Basically a relationship is an element that must always be taken care off.

Sometimes through a good relationship someone else will refer you other people because of the relationships that you have built, such as: technical support relationship, always being there to assist a client, product capability, your promised deliverables are met and most importantly the after sales service. After sales services is highly regarded as a relationship ‘spoiler’ at all times. I like good service and I pay for good service, but when something goes wrong, I like for the after sales service to be prompt and of good quality.

As a headhunter our recruitment cycle extends beyond the candidates commencement date. This relationship is a lifetime relationship because my candidates will follow me throughout their careers, well hopefully. I know 3 or 4 who has done so. It is a relationship based on trust and deliverables.

A good example of a relationship at risk is:

After a deal has been closed and all the deliverables/SLA has been agreed upon all the documentation and operational field work is handed to the operations department. Prior to that, maybe two-three months before, the sales consultant has been to many meetings, walking the floor of the clients site to understand the business engineering processes and learning up the business to implement his product and services. So after all that hard work and many meetings and lunches/dinners/karaoke’s, the client will definitely be fond of the Sales person because of the relationship that has been built over a few moths. Well, so now the project has been implemented and after this all the support and SLA adherences comes from the operational team. Due to company policy the sales person is unable to interfere with the operations department.

So when there is a problem, the client will obviously be pissed off because the SLA is not adhered to and the sales person is under fire and making the client look stupid to his or her boss because of recommending the sales person through because the support deliverables are not met after a picture has been painted and the SLA has been agreed upon. Well, even when the SLA is met which has been met on several occasion, the relationship is now in the hands of the operations/support department and you do not know what would be happening, whether all is good and all has been spoilt and has to be salvaged.

What I am trying to say here is, a relationship is the key to a healthy business, even through the ups and downs. Trust needs to be built as the relationship furthers on to a deeper level, because now you have a responsibility in maintaining the relationship. Once a relationship has been broken down, you need to work double as hard to work for the betterment of the relationship or once it has broken down you will be close to getting zero.

We work hard for the sale but we work harder to keep a relationship alive.

We do not want to fall in the saying that ‘I should have done so; I knew it or I wish I had’. When it comes to dealing with people especially relationships, we need to work harder and always put in the extra effort.

The pleasure in getting a good deal is satisfying, but the pleasure when I get when I am able to land someone a job and he or she accepts my clients offer gives me greater pleasure. I closed the gap which my client has been having difficulty hiring and I manage to assist another person my candidate to obtain a new role with of course a good package.

Quote of the Day - Tony Robbins - "If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten."

Its that time of the year!

2008-08-11T11:19:00.004+08:00

Yup, it is the Employee's Market at the moment. 1 out of 3 andidates which i have interviewed in the past two weeks, has an offer on hand already. Timing is right for a job move as more firms are fullfilling their headcount gaps ie; hiring.

I guess there will be more hiring in the next two months as more people will be leaving their current companies. So all in all, this is the best time to look out for good jobs.

Do you come to a point in time when you are looking for a new job or a career change?

2008-08-09T09:59:00.003+08:00

I have one advice; PLEASE do not rush into it!

When you are looking for a job particularly when you see a headhunter, you have to be very honest. Headhunters are able to decipher your reasons for looking for a job. They can sense inconsistencies in your answers hence be honest with your headhunter. You can also approach a few headhunters as most headhunters are industry segmented and specialized in different roles therefore your chances of getting a job is higher when you see a few headhunters. I have heard that some headhunters are not patient to listen to your headspace, so try not to jump to conclusions when you meet headhunters as such, there are passionate headhunters out there, like yours truly :).

Often Executive Searches involve looking for the correct FIT for a company but lot of times; people seek headhunters for advice and opportunities. But be honest and open. We practice and treat private and confidential issues with high integrity, so you can be honest with headhunters, especially if you come from the sales background. Do not expect an immediate response in like a day or two, because in this game it is about timing, luck, demand for professional/skillset, job availability and job matching. If you would like a swift job move then you can approach Recruitment Agencies which have a lot of positions available at anytime, but might not understand your requirements.

Well, why are you looking for a job? Would you like a step up from your current role or a wanting to move to a more challenging role? Are you are unhappy with your current environment? Is the money is not good or you cannot get along with you boss anymore?

Yes there are a lot of reasons out there as a catalyst for your job move, but you have to be sincere with yourself. You have to think about your progress in your current company, where do you see yourself in a few years and whether you need to re-skill yourself or whether your current company has a good future for you. You also should try and decide what sort of roles that you would like to get into and how your strengths and skills would be a contributing asset to the company for a new job. It starts with you.

Best way of exploring jobs is talking to people, looking at advertisements and company portfolio’s, networking and seeing headhunters. When you are out looking for a job, do not rush into any opportunity that just knocks on your door. Think about it and discuss it with other people. You do not want to regret your move 3-4 months down the road. So if I were to give you a good advice is, always talk to people but be open minded, (WE KNOW THE INDUSTRY IN MALAYSIA IS SMALL AND PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS HAVE COMMENTS), perform your own research and explore various roles which you would be able to maximize your potential and most importantly be ready and do not be afraid to explore.

At the end of the day, a job move, starts with you.

13 Months Salary

2008-07-08T14:04:00.005+08:00

I’ve seen about 6 new clients over the past month. Most of them were listed local companies and one being an international company.

Most of these companies have changed their salary structure effective 08. Four out of 6 companies have adopted 13 months salary which is one months contractual bonus and the KPI structure still stands as up to 2 months salary and other variables depends on company performance. Different company different practice.

The earning power of a IT Engineer is about 13-15 months in most companies now, with or without contractual bonuses. In MNC's the earning power is about 15-17 months salary.

Basic Salary = 14 months, performance bonus X 2 months, company performance up to one months salary. All in all, this is about a 16 months salary structure. Ideally even if you are earning RM 8k you potential earning is about RM 107, 000 yearly.

I think for most firms moving forward, a good market competitive salary structure should be about 13 months basic salary.

Communiqué Asia 2008 Singapore.

2008-07-08T13:41:00.002+08:00

This is probably a delayed post as I have been up and about in the recent weeks. I am looking forward to meeting a candidate tomorrow and she has been so busy participating in many tenders recently. I guess the industry is moving forward.

Well communiqué Asia was an eye opener event for me in terms of learning up new technologies in the world of telecommunications and VA-Services companies which are coming up with ever interesting technologies. I learnt a lot about Satellite communication, operators, convergent technologies and mobile showcases. I believe there were about 50’000 visitors this year. A lot of talks on WIMAX and I hope our 4 WIMAX license holders will come up with something concrete b 3rd Q 2008. I know 3 of the license holders are aggressively moving forward with this but YTL Technologies have been fairly quiet.

Predominantly, the objective of going down was to visit our clients and to learn the Singaporean market. Most Malaysians which I met there, who were about the age of 32-35 have stated that the exposure in Singapore is twice the exposure you get in Malaysia. The designations in roles are also different and their ways of project approach are so structured unlike Malaysia in certain ways, because on two occasions I’ve heard that you can go from A- C and then come back to B after performing D on project and sometimes, on many occasions documentations are messed up. But this year, things have been interesting; I have met more candidates who are PMP/PMI certified and more candidates who have a stringent approach in determining a Project Methodology.

I learn a lot about the industry through interviewing Project Managers. Such as the MITI Matrix 1 project; that was fairly a big screw up and the ‘cleaners’ of the Matrix MITI 2 project rescued the government from spending more ringgits on the project hence the project managers on Matrix MITI 1 project did not do a good job. The MITI 2 Project Managers salvaged the job, but a salvaging job that cost RM 48 million. The MPAJ CCTV project that did not go down to well is also another example, so I diverted my searches to the Project Managers who implemented the MPSJ CCTV projects instead.

The exposure in Singapore is greater than Malaysia and more and more candidates are willing to move to Singapore at the moment. It is a scary thought if we were talking about Brain Drain now. Another scary reason is, when someone has gone to Singapore for two years and comes back; he or she has to settle for a one for one salary expectation and not the value that you bring across. I have not gone to Singapore for about 5 years but the quality of life there is much better than Malaysia and the security which is much of a concern for us all now. Nevertheless Malaysia is home for me and a lot of us.

CommunicAsia provided me with an insight to the future of mobile and telecommunication technology. We are becoming so close to digital communication and bringing people closer together through telecommunications ‘closing the gap’. One of my favorite displays was NTT Docomo. Digitalizing communication in our palm of our hands! ‘Redesigning the world we live in…

Petrol Price Hike =]

2008-06-10T17:26:00.003+08:00

Guess what it has affected my work too. I guess it affects everyone as it is a vicious chain reaction.

Got a call from one of my candidates yesterday – she lives near Puchong and works in CyberJaya which is relatively near to her home. I shortlisted her for a position in Damansara and she was pretty happy with it until Monday. She called me informing me that she is reluctant to move and it is more expensive due to the petrol hike and would spend more on petrol. I actually got her a 20% increment from her current package. Fact is, the increment would just be enough to cover the petrol as it is so expensive now and does not justify her move. Although she works in Cyberjaya and lives in Puchong, Cyberjaya is still relatively nearer to Puchong. She would move if the company gave her a further 10% increment. That sucks! But I understand the situation.

On a lighter note, I have a candidate working in KL and living in Kepong. He is pretty happy that the new job is located in Damansara which is closer to his house. He highlighted that travelling is now so expensive. He is due for an increment in July with his current company but is considering my clients offer because; even if my clients offer is slightly higher than his company’s increment, Damansara is closer to Kepong as oppose to downtown KL.

Another reason we headhunters have to consider now is the distance for our candidates. Being in IT a lot of companies are based in Cyberjaya. Most companies have just released their increment to their staff as early as March 2008 and due to the petrol hike now, their increment has just gone down the drain! I think we will see a lot of movement.

More and more companies are paying above the market rate for exceptional candidates but I foresee the folks at Cyberjaya reviewing their salary structure or have to come with new incentive travelling benefits for their existing staff. Travelling to Cyberjaya from KL, PJ, Seremban is very very costly. To add to that our food prices will increase and this will contribute to the bigger hole that our pocket currently has. Lets just not look at Cyberjaya, maybe even KL and Technoloy Park - Bukit Jalil might have to do something with their salaries.

As far as I know, sales travelling benefits for Sales Executives is about RM500-600 in Klang Valley for our local listed companies. I wonder whether this will be reviewed as the nature of a sales job requires alot of traveling. This will hurt especially for fixed income individuals. I actually forgot to add in my pain! I travel between 40-60 km’s daily and this too actually hurts me.

Have you guys heard of Unos? Maybe if you do not need to go back to the office but have a hi-tech phone ‘wifi enabled, 3G, GPRS’ you will be able to get push mail and many more. Check it out at: http://www.myunos.com/main.html - I have it, I think you should too. That way if you do not have a laptop and have a good phone, you’re pretty much SET, think about it!

You guys feeling the petrol hike painful?

The World Congress of Information Technology

2008-05-24T10:35:00.000+08:00

Visited WCIT on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was such a good event. I spent about 4-5 hours each day attending a few talks and purely networking. The better you know the industry the more add value you are to others and the more interesting it becomes when attending these events. It was such a big event with top companies in Information Technology and Communications using the 4P’s of marketing at its best. Amongst the top booths which I remember visiting was RedTone, GreenPacket, Fuji Xerox, Dell, Intel, the State IT enquiry showcase, our governmental e-kiosk and many more. Their displays was really good and employee’s was on their feet entertaining our enquiries.

Overall, met a lot of new people and exchanged industry knowledge and shared a lot of market knowledge on hiring and recruitment. I sense a different feeling when people talk to me at these days at aforesaid events. I like engaging on knowledge conversations because you are talking to top people in industry. A bulk of information about competitors and business direction is actually gained from attending such events and you get to see companies showcasing their new product line and services. I guess it all takes efforts; you need the effort when you talk to people.

I attended Leo Ariyanayakam’s talk on Scicom’s business. I was actually impressed with his vision on making Scicom a centre of excellence and education forall-centre agents and his sheer hardwork and determination to making it work. He is one visionary which I was impressed with and his facts and knowledge on the Call-centre business was really in-depth of views from all points. He gave me new insides on the business and predicts by 2012 Malaysia will need slightly over 50’000 call centre agents. He outlines how call-centre is a career building opportunity for graduates or any individuals at all. Having this in mind, I agree with this being a career milestone for a person. Imagine if you do not have a degree and only a diploma or a SPM certificate but have worked in a bank for a few years, a company like Scicom is able to give you a new job as a customer services officer and you would able to rise to the ranks of a level-3 or a call-centre team leader. It is etiquette and how you handle people over the phone. To a certain extend, technical knowledge is not a necessary, depending on which customers you are assigned to, whether a bank or an IT firm. School leavers can grow in a call-centre environment and able to keep our employment rate low and staying at work and not robbing and snatching handbags from our sisters who are walking outside of their houses. I must say the call-centre as a career opportunity also pays well. Like I said in previous posts, with two separate graduates one in a call-centre and one in a software development house, the potential earnings of the call-centre agent is possibly higher than the s/w developer two years after graduating.

Well back to WCIT, this is one of the most informative events I’ve been to. I also like the level of creativeness that firms uses to attract participants to their booths from pretty girls, mimes, excellent tech. displays, freebies, accessorizing their display booths and not forgetting Basis Bay’s Lotus Exige. Another factor which I also realize is how detail and committed employees are to their companies. I see employee’s cleaning their booth’s window with a cloth and a window cleaner, adding small detail to making their booth look nice and simply standing there for our in inviting people in for a chat. They are really committed and it was really good to see.

Another brilliant event hosted in Malaysia and I hope to see more. It was really impressive.

In industry…

2008-05-17T10:05:00.001+08:00

The IT landscape looks rather good for this year. More and more big conglomerates are setting up in Malaysia hence there will be more jobs moving around. People move horizontally or to expand their skills and knowledge. We still have a very big skills shortage in IT in Malaysia. I was recently on a PeopleSoft project and learnt that most of these professionals are in Philippines. They were hard to find and locate but rather eager to explore when found. We do have PeopleSoft application which is used in our companies in Malaysia particularly with Telco’s and banks, but the problem is they are not Malaysians. I mean one of those projects take about a year to implement sometimes, and I think Malaysians should consider adopting the expertise for PeopleSoft applications. I see that as a big need very soon if not today and the salary is good!

With Shell’s 4 billion dollar outsourced deal for AT&T, EDS and T-systems coming in to effect, this would lead to more jobs in the market for only ‘in-demand’ professionals. Market predicts there would be 20-30% redundancies at worst. To me that is a lot. Good for me in some ways, in the sense that I might be able to place these few professionals elsewhere.

This is how it will/might work:

“EDS will manage desktop, service desk, onsite services, backup and disaster recovery, mobile information protection and managed messaging services.

AT&T will deliver WAN and LAN, voice services including IP-based telephony, managed security solutions, mobility services and will support Shell's Virtual Private Network service for more than 50,000 remote workers.

T-Systems will take over the infrastructure and IT professionals of Shell's global data centers, including three centers in the Netherlands and one each in Malaysia and the United States and host the majority of its global SAP services”
Source – zdnetasia.

More and more companies are opening their doors to new technologies. I have been doing a lot of sales interviews recently and a lot of companies are now moving towards digital technology. More companies are moving in to the digitalizing business such as Document Management systems, digital archiving and content management systems. Fuji Xerox would be considered as a leader in this technology firms. Their presence now is in our banks and legal companies. As most local SI companies are partnering with other companies to provide a total solution, Fuji Xerox HAS the total solution in this case hence a 70% winning deal.

Content Management professionals. From time and time throughout this year I have been telco’s, services and media online advertising people who are in need of this skillset. Although they are usually found in Maxis, Digi, Astro or Emi the shortage of this skill means we need to hire people from overseas. I’ve got nothing against that but I would rather Malaysians take on opportunities as such. Malaysia Boleh!

It’s the third year of the Ninth Malaysian Plan. From market analysis, most tenders and projects in IT have been halted for a while. Why, political change? No money? Government not Spending? We don’t know, we all have our opinions. Our local companies are still surviving on their maintenance contracts and moving out of Malaysia for more business to unchartered territories like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia or even Cambodia.

I’m quite excited to attend the WCIT next week. Will see what the outcome is.

Will update.

A good interview that ended up GREAT!

2008-03-19T17:16:00.006+08:00

Had an interview a week back for a Senior Lotus Notes Application Developer. We both, candidate and headhunter had the mindset on this position and the usual brief chat and so forth, so the interview begin. As usual, while discussing his experience – an end user lotus notes support and IT Executive with a renowned MNC consumer company, I noticed that this candidate has a lot more to deliver than what is on his CV. He has 5 years of experience in a support environment.

This was not listed on his CV – Project Implementation, Software Lifecycle, End-User presentations, End-user Business Process Re-engineering, Migration, User Gathering and Identifying and Qualifying Cost-Savings Solutions for departments. His CV and the interview lead more to a developer role and an IT Executive role. After about an hour and having dug deeper in to his role and long talks and getting more out of him, I identified great potential. He has all the abilities in being a Business Analyst or a Pre-sales consultant, because he spoke very well and was very confident and had the making and experience needed. Clearly he had all the desired requirements and experience to take up a more challenging role rather than just a step up. This is a leap up and a different experience all together, leaving the sphere of developement and jumping into a customer fronting environment and performing customer add-value work. From an end user perspective into a reversal role. Now he has the domain knowledge because he was from the end user environment, he knows the flaws and possible problems, and being in the opposite role, he now knows his add-value to the client!

We brainstormed, drew out a plan on the whiteboard, he explained to me certain processes in his company and I thought, wow this person has good potential. Daring enough to take the opportunity, he is furnishing his CV and resending it back to me for my client who needs a business analyst for both software and middleware applications combined! This candidate fits the bill, after a long process of identifying prospects and a little persuasion ofcourse. He is now a step above his game and assuming a greater post, rather than be a Senior Developer. We both identified better and new opportunities. This is the upside to an interview and talking to an industry centric headhunter.

That was a good interview went well!

Essentials.

2008-03-19T17:14:00.001+08:00

Its been a busy three month period. Despite having holidays due to festivities it has been a fruitful three-month. I’ve learnt a great deal of experiences of late, despite having being in industry for a long time. Either that, or I forgot what is like to go through the pit-falls and excitement of the headhunting world after a long break before this.

To be successful in this industry despite having technical domain knowledge, there is a whole lot of other essentials that a person has to have. Let me think:

You have to be a people person, posses a positive mental attitude and a strong one, to be very receptive to people’s thoughts, ability to have good listening skills, a definite persuasiveness, not a giver upper, to view perspective from both clients and candidate and lastly to be very assertive.

Let me take 3 points form the above: Assertiveness, listening and being a people person.

Well assertive. You are neither passive nor aggressive, you are assertive. You never are at your 100% everyday, you go through a phone call and to find that the other person is not responsive or the 2 hour interview was not a total fit. At times you may experience that, for all the hard work you have put into a position, and if that position has been filled by another headhunter or you were just plain late. Well too bad, it’s a risk, it’s a gamble hence your planning towards a position or a vacancy went down the drain. After all that hard work has gone to waste, because we headhunters also have targets to meet, it may seem like it’s the end. But wait a minute, you have done your work, why not use it for another company? Well sleep it off, don’t be passive and complain and don’t be too aggressive and get drunk and pick a bar fight. At the end of the day, you know what needs to get done, when a position like that arises and be on top of things. You are assertive, you pick yourself up, you remain confident and you move on to a next assignment.

Listening. Apparently I do not have the best listening skill, however I am improving that. Although it has been years. I believe your listening skills take years to develop. It is critical; to listen to specific words, to understand our candidates, to make do on how they have chiseled their careers, how did they go about planning a project, with what methodology the used, describing their weakness and strengths and so on. I have notice at times, in interviews; my candidates might not have the best listening skill. When we talk, we get cut off or they jump to a conclusion. 74% of our listening make up for 100% of total communication, the rest is speaking and non-verbal communication. At times I realized when I am doing a profile report, I suddenly loose specific information hence in an interview it is 100% focus; which involve listening, reading both person and their non-verbal communication. Listening is crucial, crucial in all areas especially in meetings!

People Person! You have to love people, you have to like people and you have to be passionate about people. We are agents who make a difference in peoples lives. Giving them new opportunities and greener pasture. We add-value in peoples lives. A lot of recruiters do not get this fact right! It is about the numbers game and doing just a job! It is not a JOB it is a career. Well, being a people person, you need to discover what is good about them, identifying mistakes and pitfall and strengths and experience. The total package. You have to understand people from various demographics, culture, backgrounds, race, religion and ethnicity. No one person thinks the same. A lot of times, people are influenced by these important factors and it is important to know, why people think differently than others. It is all variable facts that a headhunter has to identify and relating it to personal strengths. You can sell a BMW or a Ferrari because the facts speak for themselves, at times with people, you have to dig deeper than what's surfaced on his or her CV :).

I recently told a candidate this: Leverage on what you have done outside the job and speak of your accomplishments. It says a lot about an individual. Not everyday you find a 2nd Lieutenant in the Reserve Army Unit.

These few weeks.

2008-03-12T11:22:00.003+08:00

Its been a good start. Really good start.

I've been visiting a few local SI companies lately and sad to say, i do not see any Staff Development plans for alot of our local companies for their employees. I came from an SI company from the HR department and its main agenda was always to stress and focus on Staff Development.

Alot of development plans for staff is usually certifications. When you certify consultants they are usually bonded for a year or 6 months and that is one retaining factor. If you ask me, staff should be compensated more when they are re-certified because, other companies will be willing to 'buy-out' staff.

It is important that in IT a career development plan is instilled in the total overall culture especially in Malaysia. Business is always there, whether it is the private or public sector, at the end of the day the public sector is always spending but unfortunately big tenders goes to big credible companies or ABC companies.

Well, Career Development why? Other than using it as a retaining factor a company should always have its resource plan for now and for the future. For instance, one company has a Middle Management team together with an Executive Management team, where staff from 3-5 years has a say and 5-10 years have a say on its companies processes and overall structure during feedback or planning meetings. Having that in place would mean that the employee will know that it is a democratic culture where by they are able to voice out opinions and to find a solution to a problem. Although it is a 50/50 chance on winning and implementing a new structure, the employee knows that the employer is listening. It is an instilled feeling that the employee has on its management and also the management will know how its companies culture is holding up and will implement policies accordingly.

An IT job can be at times very monotonous, especially in programming or development. In industry, these people will jump for a basic salary increase of just RM200. Believe me it happens and it happens a lot. Why? People get bored, they go to work and project and it’s the same thing different day, as the say (same shit different day). It is frustrating for employers; because the workload will be passed on to another programmer and that programmer because of the workload will jump for another RM200J.

So instead of staff having to come to work and perform coding or modifications everyday for 2 years, a good 2 year executive employee plan will be a good way to move forward. Letting them know that there is a career path for them within a a 2 year period, they will be promoted and in achieving your KPI you will not only be paid to be certified but you will be moving up to a senior post.

In this case HR has to be very hands on in Staff Development and management. They will be an asset to the company and also a member of the Risk Management Team because when a new policy or structure is impose it effects the whole company. Currently HR Development Managers are very highly paid, because they know how change management will effect companies and like business analayst they will come in and analyze current situations, study the organization closely with business heads and also implement policies that will turn around the business (Business Process Re-engineering) as a whole.

I pretty much like to liaise with companies that has a good career development plan for their employees.

A Brand New, New Year..

2008-02-12T15:36:00.000+08:00

Its been two brand new, new years. We came into 2008 and we are currently celebrating Chinese New Year.

So far it has been good. Looking at the industry, we expect alot of resignations and new request for positions real soon. Why? People are resigning after their bonusses and increments, also, most companies now have finalize their Resource Plannning and Headcount adjustments.

It will be an interesting year for IT. I recently read TheEdge and in responding to the Goverment sector spending in Technology/ICT, research is looking at about 1++++ new jobs in the IT sector itself.

Under my demands are still niche technical positions and the usual suspects such as developers, BA's, Consultants from Oracle, Navision to SAP and so forth.

I would like to wish everyone out there a Happy Chinese New year and a good year ahead.

One of my new years resolutions is to write 'a post weekly'. Lets see how that stands.

- I just brief my candidate minutes ago, before he went in an interview and i said this -

.....'Go into the interview telling the interviewer what you would like them to know about yourself rather than let them ask about yourself'...Its like addressing a crowd, you brief the audience on what they should know rather than them coming to find out, because they already know the cause and the interviewer has alredy read your CV' :)

More emphasis on HR?

2007-11-23T15:43:00.000+08:00

Alot of companies and organizations are now learning to realise that HR is a very very important division or an add-value entity in determining a company’s profit and loss. Profit and loss; for example:

"A research conducted by an international recruitment company estimates that it costs a company one-third of a new hire's annual salary to replace an employee. Using an average salary or RM 2, 400.00 per month, it would cost a company RM9600 to replace each departing employee. Estimates of the cost to replace supervisory, technical, and management personnel run from 50 percent to several hundred percent of their salaries".

Basically when one employee leaves, the exuberant amount of dollars that has to be spent hiring another employee costs a lot, in fact three times!. A lot of people do not see this, but consider these factors:

Time: Employee leaves the company today and if their skills are too niche it could be three months until another employee comes on board. Project duration could be push back due to lack of manpower, big deals could be lost or you might need to pay headhunters to perform search services for faster recruitment :).

Re-training: Unlike sales professionals who could come onboard today and be on the phone planning meetings for tomorrow, technical professionals have to be settled in. The new employee needs more training, has start compiling all documents such as user requirements or project timeline, had to get use to new settings, certifications etc.

Scarcity: This is pretty much the same as time, but good competent employees do not come too easily, there is a lot of demand at the moment and supply is limited.

Model of working: No two people work the same way hence the new employee has to adapt to the current culture so does the manager and the rest of the team.

The list can go on. To my surprise, especially reading a lot of articles and magazines, I realized that there has been more emphasis on HR. Retaining and retraining employees. There has been a lot of focus on Human Resources Departments as an asset that helps to improve total overall business and organization structure.

Having worked in HR for a few years, the halo effect that I have gotten is 'HR is just an administrative tool' for a company. Payroll, induction administration, staff activities, medical administration and so on. It is just an administrative office.

Lately, which I am happy about, a lot of companies top management are now collaborating with the HR team in determining retention strategies, induction of young competent graduates, creating a environmental friendly awareness outside and inside the organization, obtaining relevant important information and feedback from the HR Department. At the end of the day, people make an organization what they are. Human resources planning has become a business tool to make the overall structure of a company strong. HR personnel’s are the first point of contact for new fresh recruits. The first impression for new recruits starts from the HR department. If you like an administration tool, there are always HRMS systems out there to be bought, but not the human touch.

How would you know whether your staff in your company is generally happy with the overall structure? The best way to go about obtaining this information is through surveys. I believe a survey is a highly effective model of change management. It is highly impossible to get accurate feedback if a survey is given by your boss, in this scenario HR department although always seem to work in the best interest of the company, should always act neutral when it comes to matters like this. This is just one way of heading towards change management.

I am very glad to see the way forward on how a lot of companies are depending on their Human Resource functions to be an asset and not just an administrative department of a company.

HR soon enough will be a Strategic Human Capital management tool that will help an organization to obtain success and help build a high performing work culture.

Spoilt for choices?

2007-11-22T16:27:00.000+08:00

I was just having a chat with one of my candidates and he happens to be a professor and we were talking about our local employment rates and so forth.

Come to think of it, I believe our graduates are spoilt for choices when it comes to IT. Whether or not our graduates is an IT graduate, one could still end up in IT, simply by assuming a support/global support/level 1 support role in a contact centre.

There is abundance too choose from, Datacom, EDS, Microsoft, DELL, DHL and so forth. These names are just at the back of my head. Well, given our industry standards when you apply for a Software Development/Application Developer/Engineer/Solution Specialist you will fetch a salary of about RM1800-RM2000.

In a contact centre, the last I heard that you are able to fetch a groundbreaking RM2000-2200 basic salary excluding your overtime claims and expenditure which can amount to RM 2500-RM3000. Lets take an example, as I am a fresh graduate. I hop on to 'company name' as a Global Support Executive, basic salary of RM2500+allowances wouldn’t that be attractive than say for example a Software Engineer with a basic salary of RM2000. They have excellent working environments, awards and benefits.

I believe this is where our young graduates could be clouded by monetary incentives in determining their career choices. If two separate graduates and one goes to a System Integrator and the other goes on to a contact centre in two years, the salary range differentiation would be drastic. The Global Support Exec. Could be fetching about RM3000-3500 and the other about RM2500-3000. If we fast-forward five years down the road, I believe equilibrium will speak itself loudly.

The Software Engineer after 5 years will be equipped with a lot of certifications. Companies now, as a part of achieving the company KPI, most companies require their employees to undertake two different certifications a year. So that will be ten certifications in five years. Now this contented S/W Engineer will be able to fetch the big bucks but the other graduate would probably be a Level 2-support manager with no career satisfaction. Often enough-through talks and chats with my candidates, THIS IS ALWAYS THE CASE.

I believe that with the growing amount of global competitive players pave their way into Malaysia in making Malaysia their preferred hub for contact centre and services, our unemployment rate will be low. Having that in perspective, our local reputable companies are not only having difficulty hiring competent and good professionals but also are now reluctant to give other graduates a chance.

Over the last year itself I have interviewed about 800-900 fresh graduates and majority came from contact centre backgrounds with one year of experience and expected to be paid the same, regardless of the fact that they had no experience in development and unfortunately have forgotten how to perform their coding as such.

There are financial literacy courses and fund management courses out there, but what about career guidance and career literacy? Once again we need to be mindful.

Positive Mental Attitude

2007-10-04T16:17:00.000+08:00

Don’t you think a lot we do and our achievements come from having a positive attitude better a POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE. So far I have read three good books which is:

Robert Ringer: Million Dollar Habits
Ryan Walter: Off the Bench into the game
I forgot the third one.

What all these books have in common is explaining and helping you to always be on the ball, accelerate and adopting the POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE HABIT.

“The philosophy of having a positive mental attitude is the belief that one can increase achievement through optimistic thought processes. Having a vision of good natured change in the mind. The state of mind that continues to seek, find ,and execute ways to win regardless of the circumstances.” (wikipedia.org)

This is indeed very true. Us headhunters make a lot of calls. Like Sales Consultants at times we get rejected and at times a deal or a case does not go through. How does a Positive Mental Attitude help here, its enables us to think straight, help us overcome the rejection and move on to the new opportunity. Rejection is painful and frustrating hence why a lot of people cannot do sales and sometimes unable to be discipline and follow up and chase the opportunity. This applies to everyone including Engineers, Teachers (Especially in Malaysia), Entrepreneurs, Project Managers, Editors, CEO’s, Senior Executives in every industry and many more. They have what it takes to always move forward whether with time or technology it’s the total focus and energy that makes people successful and assume positions in which they are today.

A Positive Mental Attitude can help in many ways and in a lot of situations. It just needs a lot of development to always think that there will be a positive outcome through every negative experience, not to give up and not to give in. Such as this person, Viktor Frankl lived in the Nazi jail for three years having eating his own excrement and tortured and live to tell a story, Colonel Sanders who tried to sell his recipe to more than a thousand restaurants and this one my favorite of Abraham Lincoln:

After loosing eight elections, failed in business many times and suffered a nervous breakdown, Abraham Lincoln could have quit many times, but he didn't. Instead, after each defeat he would pick himself up and press forward until he achieved his aspirations because he was determined and committed to make his political dreams come true, he would get up each time he was knocked down. He knew the only way to gain ground, to move forward, to march on, and to turn his goals into reality, was to learn from his setbacks and failures.

True personification of Positive Mental Attitude.

I believe in all we do all we need to take with us is our attitude and thinking in developing a positive mental habit. We strive, we drive and we thrive because our healthy mind enables us any by locking that if our thinking towards our abilities in achieving and getting what we want.

It is always good to envision good returns in my case a healthy case of my finding someone else a new career progression. Helping yourself create this awareness will get you places. I often look and observe successful people and what they posses is this ability to move forward and their with focus in developing attitudes like this. Top Executives get shut down a lot by either bottom up management or vice versa, but at the end of the day they strive to create change, by looking at a macro level of change management with determination that this model of management will work and their power to make it work.

Move forward and make things happen.

Defining Strengths and achievements.

2007-09-24T12:55:00.000+08:00

Writing a life document such as a CV not an easy task. Looking back on the years of experience and accumulated resourceful strengths and skills is difficult. You sometimes look at the white screen staring back at you.

Defining your strengths and achievements especially if you are a Senior Executive can be a daunting task, there could be too many to choose from, or you just do not know what your achievements are.

I found out one of the easiest way in doing this, everyone can try this regardless of your age and your years of experience, and this can bring back memories as well as some good laughs - good times. Thought i'd share it.

Take out a piece of A4 size paper, or a mahjong paper or better if you have a white board that you could write on.

List down all the achievements that you remember from start, ever since the first day you won your 100 meter dash or climbed up Mount Kinabalu. You will be surprised of what sort of achievements which you remember. It can start from school right up to obtaining your MBA or your first 1 million sales deal or your Cisco Certified Network Administrator certification/PMI and so on.

Your own personal achievements sometimes speak louder than your professional certifications in determining good attitudes, mental challenges and our of work activities. Interviewers/employers would like to see what you could bring in to the company besides your experience and skills. I can find a CCNA professional anywhere, but not a CCNA professional who has climbed Mount Kinabalu, cycled up Genting Highlands or been on the Asia 4*4 challenge. Having made known of your achievements, the blank paper has now activities which you a proud to share and to show. Your sheer determination in competing or the love of your hobby.

Once you have written it down chronologically which will take you back in time and giving yourself a chance to relook at your achievements and goals, you can handpicked those you would like to list down in your CV.

Extra Co-curicullar activities (Achievements)

Climbed up the Mount Kinabalu Expedition
Competed in the Melaka International Triathlon.
Consistently an active primary to high school athelete.(400 metres)
Won the Art's VS Science Debate in University (Interstate level)
CCNA, MCSE, MCP or PMI certified.
Active in christian fellowship groups.
Leader of the ........................ group.

List down all the achievements that you are proud of, from when you were young till today. Be proud of what you have done, as it made you what you are today. Do not be afraid to show it, your achievements are something no one can take away from you.

I believe in a personal touch.

2007-09-12T14:13:00.000+08:00

Ever wondered why successful restaurants remain successful? I believe it is because of the nature of its personal touch of the owners. Each decor and its set-up itself has a personal touch. A good restaurant owner is always there cooking, serving, running the restaurant hence making a living, living his or her dream in owning a restaurant. If you look at the Prestige Top 40 below 40 magazine, I see a lot of restaurant owners. Their recipe for success is their personal touch and feel. Each restaurant has a personality. Restaurants such as, Las Carretas, Le Bouchon, La Bodega or big restaurants like Souled Out and Ninja Jones have their character and feel to it. It is definitely the hard work on being different and special. It is doing it your style and your way, it sets the tone and trend. We now all frequent these places due to its own nature. It is the owners perseverance and persistence in believing their vision or dream. Seeing it come true is always something nice, especially when it evolves to be a dining experience. I love dining out.

A restaurant is very much like an organization, SME or a large corporate Org. The staff are well-trained and groomed, there are set protocols and procedures, mentors and the owner like a CEO, engraining their culture with their staff.

I like doing what I do my way. I like to be personal and intimate professionally.

Passive Job Seekers:

Passive job seekers are people who are not actively looking for a job, however will deliberately listen receptively to a good opportunity. We do not find passive job-seekers through databases; we find them from referrals and active social networking. We approach them, though it can be difficult sometimes.

How do we find referrals? - Through being personal and intimate with our candidate’s especially passive job seekers. I am personal and intimate with my candidates. I also do not forget that passive job seekers are open to opportunities too 'someday'. Sometimes as some people have commented here; Headhunters will call them only when there is an opportunity hence if one does not fit the bill, it is like 'wham bam thank you ma'am'. You do not hear from the headhunter anymore. I believe that is wrong and it makes matters worst when I approach others. It is building a whole new foundation. Well I like that building new foundations anyway. Having a strong foundation always has its strenghts ie; a long-term professional relationship.

Being Personal:

In any industry, job or line of work, to a certain extend, being personal is a key relationship builder and a stronghold foundation to a long-term relationship and success. It is disheartening to know that a candidate will not fit a certain Job Description but who knows when an opportunity might come by?

Through this relationship that we've gained we get to learn all aspects of the job, the people, the industry, peoples lives and relevant point of views. These information is crucial to me in becoming better and more receptive and getting a better perspective in the global sphere on industry and people.

We are in the people business, selling knowledge, advice and experience. A hard days works is a new relationship built and a better days work is sealing a deal, getting another person a step-up, a new job, a new experience and a new life.

p/s:

I like telling my candidates, ‘do not go in to an interview looking in getting a job, go in to the interview looking and learning in how you are able to get the job done.

Some thoughts..

2007-09-10T22:58:00.001+08:00

I just visited MATRADE Global SME's tradeshow on Saturday. It was really productive. I met alot of people, professionals and entrepreneurs, learnt new businesses and technology. The enterprise market for sales has pretty much been saturated given political connections and lack of spending in the private sector. With regard to Technology the only forward for a lot of our local successful IT companies is targeting are now uncharted territories such as Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Cambodia where technology and IT Infrastructure can be improved. It is a new economic move for the financial healthiness for our local IT companies.

It was really interesting. What I could not understand is ‘why do companies with potential pay pretty faces to market their product at the event’, not having a proper supervisor or good sales support. I had a lot of questions with regard to their products, as it is both a learning curve and a knowledge gain for me. We not only go to fairs to get contacts, we also help market a business to a certain extend. WE SELL KNOWLEDGE. It is sad that I could see people loosing their attention and patients, getting frustrated about the incompetence of part-time daily paid unenthusiastic employees. What I am trying to say here is potential loss of business and inaccurate information. I believe companies at fairs should reward their staff more and get them to represent you.

For instance head-hunters network a lot as a part of business and contacts. We develop alot of contacts and when we identify a particular business need for a customer/friend or a potential business partner, we will recommend you. It works both ways, we could sell your business and also work for you with regard for recruitment.

A friend recently asked me, 'Do you know of any Mobile Marketing Companies for our SMS blast campaigns?' So i recommended her a company which I have spoken their to account manager before, true enough she is using their product now. Another friend from a rather medium-sized business asked for some Office Automation products and I recommended him my clients products and recommended the Sales Specialist which I have positioned for that company. It works both ways for us headhunters, know the company know the product! That way we are able to promote our clients and other businesses.

Just recently about two months ago, I worked on rather two junior positions. Both of them were for a Software Engineer post. After interviews, salary negotiations and coming to signing the offer letter, to my suprise both my candidates asked me, 'So what are my charges which I need to pay you for getting me a job'? I actually laughed in astonishment. They both have about 3-4 years of experience. That was when I gathered that, headhunting or recruitment in junior positions has not been spoilt. If I provided a good service, chances of them coming back to me are high and I will be referred to others.

Well I was happy that I was able to provide them with new opportunities. Although I do not normally do very junior positions, I was generally satisfied and happy. It was not as stressful as middle management positions but something in me told me to give these two potential candidates an opportunity.

It is all about building a relationship. In any businesses at all, relationship is very important. Its not about sucking up its merely maintaining a professional touch and a personal feel to little things that usually goes a long way. It’s the little effort you do for your candidates and the added personal value you have with your clients and their BRAND.

Looking for a job? (CV)

2007-09-03T15:56:00.000+08:00

I believe one of the important elements in looking for a job, is not just applying.

Its far more deeper than that.

Looking for a job involves alot of research, time, fine-tuning, networking and persistence.

RESEARCH:

You could apply for any jobs listen in jobstreet or jobs-db or replying to newspaper advertisements. You would either get dissappointed not having an interview or not getting any replies at all.

First - What do you want and what are you good at?

Being where you are in a company and depending on the position you hold and the salary you draw you, got to be tactical in choosing your applications. You got to identify areas which you are good in, areas where you can add-value to a company. Some companies might need the certifications you have and some companies might need the characteristics or years of experience you have. You do not necessarily want to apply for a Account Executive job when you have four years of experience knowing that you could be applying for an Account Manager job right? Well, you got to identify your key areas which you are good at. Knowing your key strenghts you are able to sell yourself better to the company and setting yourself different than the average candidate who is applying for a job.

TIME:

I recently read a book and it says: 'we should be spending about 5 hours a day looking for a job that we really want'. This makes sense. Sometimes when you are reading about a vacancy or a Job Description you need to fine tune your CV based on the job specification. It is not a good practise having the same CV being sent out to a few companies. Each company is has its different set of expectations and requirements. Candidates should take sometime and learn the job specifications and tailor their CV's to the said Job Description which is listed on the advertisement. That way your CV stands out more and the inteviewer will spend more time reading your CV knowing that you have the desired skillset that they are looking for.

FINE TUNING:

Realise how alot of things you do looks better than you have spend more time on it looking at every single detail? Yup, fine tuning your CV is very related to TIME. You should fine-tune your CV to job descriptions or fine-tune your CV outlining your strenghts and experience. Spend a little time looking at how you word your experience, introduction and your cover letter. The interviewer at anytime has only 30 seconds to read your document before it goes into the KIV file and big chances are, it will not be read again. These 5 hours a day looking for a job entails fine-tuning and research.

NETWORKING:

Cocktail parties, job fairs, PC Fairs or seminars are good ways of networking. Alot of times i find alot of good potential candidates and employers during these social networking events. Potential employers can be found there. Knowing that you have met either a HR Manager, CEO or CFO or a VP of Sales, it is easier for your CV to be read. You have the introduction sorted out and what comes next will be the persistence in telling yourself 'i got to follow up on the chat, i will email them my CV today'. The next day, your email will be read knowing that you are still fresh in their headspace. In good faith, they wil cal you in for an interview. Networking always has its upside.

Persistance:

You have already given up when you do not try and when you do not attempt. Job hunting can be very frustrating waiting for answers. Ive known alot of people who have given up job hunting because of the lack of perseverance and persistance. At the end of the day all it takes is a little follow up and before you know it only a matter of minutes is gone. A kind phone call or an email sometimes is the trick to letting potential employers know that you are keen for the placement and that you WANT to join their company. It is all persistance. It is the can do attitude which always wins.

A CV is a marketing tool. It outlines who you are, what you are compared to others and it defines you - yourself. It is like a HP Proliant Box brochure, it has its specs, price, colour, strenghts, competitive advantage and its value add. A CV is very much like that brochure.

Interviews

2007-06-28T17:06:00.000+08:00

Going for an interview?

Interviews are not just interviews these days as oppossed to maybe 5-6 years ago. The best avenue for information and market intelligence is in an interview. The best place to know more about your competitors and other companies is, the interview. It is who is participating in which tender or who is handling which project. It is basically to learn more about the market and also to value YOURSELF. I urge all to go for interviews once in a while, not that ure looking for a job but to check out what the market is like.

I currently represent an MNC Office Automation company and it is very very suprising that their competitors knows somuch about my client. Their knowledge encompasses about the quota, the product range and their customers and their sales people, who is good and who is not. It is like; if you work at Digi your knowledge about Maxis might be greater than those who work at Maxis itself. That is wht a candidate has told me before. She was schoked of the level of information which Digi had on Maxis, things she did not know about.

Well, in an interview you not only learn about the job, but also the people who is involved in a project. It is a question and answer game. Ask the right questions and you will get the right answers. Normally Q&A's stays in the four walls but sometimes words get around.

Anyway, i once had a candidate tell me not to position him for one of my clients because of this;

'Hope I'm not too late, can we skip (CLIENT NAME) so we do not waste your and your teams efforts. (CURRENT COMANY NAME) had previous dealing with them, and not in favourable terms, so they may make us go round and round or set an interview just to squeeze some info out of me'.

Well sometimes interviews can get sour and too emotional.

Anyway, before going into an interview, one of the important elements to remember is, asking questions. Kill your curiosity and do not be shy to answer questions, honesty is usually appreciated :).

How does a candidate screw up an opportunity?

2007-06-21T15:39:00.000+08:00

Remember that headhunters provide opportunities rather than jobs, we are agents in stepping you up in your career and providing you a good opportunity. When you see a headhunter or have been identified by one, obviously you are good at what you do and keen to explore some opportunities.

Here is a classic case of what happens when candidates get too demanding and greedy:

Deal goes sour – candidate becomes too greedy and demanding.
Candidates may want to take things in their own hands after the initial introduction and screws up their application by being too demanding and greedy.

There was one case where I was left out in the dark. The whole process took about one month. The offer letter was given and I had negotiated for a good salary package (which is slightly higher than expected) but the candidate got rejected why? Too greedy and demanding! After the negotiation and offer letter was sent out, the candidate decides to take things in their own hands.

This one took over a month and it did not end pleasantly. As a candidate, a professional or a athlete, you need to know that there is always someone out there who is better, less greedy and demanding than you are. You are always REPLACEABLE. Even if you have questions it is sometimes best that you liaise with your consultant because obviously your consultant knows market intelligence and company knowledge. Regardless of whether you have went through a headhunter or an online or a newspaper application, a CEO or a Hiring Manager does not want to be bombarded with a lot of questions, few different times.

Candidate was happy with the package but blatantly wanted to know more about the job demanded more information on allowances and so forth and approached my client blatantly. Candidate took advantage by calling the hiring managers on Sundays, blamed the company for being slow ‘when emails went in to her Spam mail’ and setting her expectations too high.

Typical recruitment sales cycle can take anything from 2 weeks to 2 months. You have to bear in mind that it takes a lot of time and energy in not only making the search but the need of taking care of the candidate and the client. Sometimes I believe selling cars might be easier dealing with people, cars simply do not talk.

If you like an opportunity take a weekend to think about it not a month. It also reflects badly on you given the fact that you take too long and you are just too overly concerned about intangible issues.

Go for an interview ready with your ammunition of questions. In Malaysia, company perks and benefits are rather similar across the board. Asking questions is always good, in this case being too demanding and asking too many questions did not really leave a good impression on the candidate hence no WIN-WIN situation here.

Candidate has a bad impression and the image of the headhunter has been slightly dented.

Promises = Frustrations

2007-06-15T17:20:00.000+08:00

I believe headhunters that make promises out there are throwing themselves in a hot pool of water. Don't they understand that they are dealing with peoples careers? It is very frustrating hearing stories of my clients telling me about their previous experiences and it is hard to gain back the trust of the candidate and sometimes the customer. I guess that is the nature of the job.

I have had some unsatisfied clients and candidates who often tell me that, so and so headhunter promised me results but were unable to deliver. 'A headhunter promised to get back to me but did not'. Worst, they do not return calls and even pick up. It makes me look and feel bad as a person and as a profession it is just unprofessional.

Another usual frustration is, CV's have also been circulated. I believe as a part of this business the P&C issue has to be with dealt with ultimate discretion. As a result of that, candidates get random calls from random agencies and sometimes unrelevant issues. Well, some people like it and some do not. I personally will not like it if my resume be passed around.

I mean, what is happening? Things like these frustrate me. Here we are trying to add-value to peoples lives and here are some of my other competitors promising undeliverable results and are creating a bad name for us, don't they often feel it themselves?

Headhunting is all about adding-value and enabling the right candidate to the right job fit. It is also about how well judge the persons strengths and skills and match it with the job and most importantly the company. This is why face to face meets is highly important. Phone calls and phone interviews do not work. In developing intimacy with your clients, meeting them is an essential element in developing a good fostered relationship.

I guess somewhere along the line, some of these elements have been abused.

Why work or approach a headhunter?

2007-06-11T05:00:00.000+08:00

It depends. You currently could have two years of working experience or maybe five years of working experience. You might have switched companies about two times now. You are wanting to know what is the current market rate of your specialization or skills. Well it all depends.

Why work with a headhunter?

When i tell people that i am a headhunter, the usual response is, ‘oh please find me a suitable job’ or ‘can you get me a new job’? I get that all the time. What the mass does not know is, a lot of headhunters are now specialized and that they work for the disposition of companies. At times the candidate but a lot of times the company. Depends on scenario and the level of the executive.

Well I do not blame them. This is the stereotype of a headhunter, ‘can u please find me a job?’ – Let me take you on a short insight.

Well maybe 30% of ‘can you fine me a job? effect’ might be true, but a lot of times people associate themselves with headhunters because of these few reasons:

Better Opportunity.
Getting a current market rate of their own specialization.
Getting an insight on their current work or career.
Exploring new opportunities.
Seeking new employment/opportunity.
Unhappy with their current employment.

Sometimes they just want more money.

Headhunters are always looking out for the best fit for their clients. Sometimes they refer to the company as the customer and the candidate as the client or vice-versa. You could receive a call from your consultant at anytime if an opportunity arises, that is if you have already developed the relationship with the headhunter. The headhunter now, after spending time with you knows your aspirations, your wants, your Skills and Strengths, your technical knowledge and is able to position you for roles when the opportunity arises hence although you are not looking for a job, you are in the headspace of a headhunter. He knows that you are THERE.

Why work/associate yourself with a headhunter?

When you see a headhunter today, you are not necessarily looking for a job. Quality and competent candidates are not usually looking for a job. A headhunter might have the right opportunity for you possibly in a month, six months or even a year hence when you see a headhunter, you are seeking a service like a very much like a consultation. We take on part advisers and counsellors. Whether or not the headhunter might have the right opportunity for you at that particular moment; cheers and good luck to you!

A lot of times when the right opportunity arises the headhunter will make contact with you thus your one hour spent with the headhunter six months ago has paid-off. The headhunter has identified your ideal opportunity and you are happy with the proposed package – the headhunter has done his/her job and the relationship has been strengthened. The headhunter is now your agent throughout your career from today and you have trust in the headhunter.

When you see a headhunter, be sure to know what you want, what you seek and also keep an open mind. You are sometimes are good at an area which you are blind too. A good headhunter who works with you might be able to pin-point certain strengths which you are blinded to. More often that is always the case. The headhunter usually thinks of the macro picture rather than the micro picture. Suppose today you are in IT and you have good skills and technical knowledge serving customers who are in the Financial Services Industries and tomorrow you could be a Lead IT Consultant within a bank with the help of a headhunter. He has identified an area and knows of a position which is well suited and tailored to your expertise. Two to three years down the road, you will work with the same headhunter and you would possibly be a Senior Executive/Manager in a company which deals with Financial Solutions. Once again the headhunter has customized you to a good job, an agent in your career change.

Keep an open mind. Be mindful about the headhunter you choose to see. The headhunter should be in the same vertical industry that you are in. It could be Financial Services, IT, Manufacturing or even Construction. Most headhunters now are industry-centric specialized.

Keep it open.

You are your worth and value, the headhunter is able to help you.

Introduction - 11.6.2007

2007-06-10T23:50:00.000+08:00

This blog is not at anytime pin pointed at anyone or any company. It is merely a ranting and raving diary of a headhunter who resides in Malaysia.

Though the industry has been exploited by a variant of headhunters, i am here to list and to voice out my current views on my job and what comes along with it.

Just a little background...I am a headhunter. I specialized in Information Technology. My designation is a Search Consultant. While i work at a companies disposition, i value client intimacy and i treat my clients/candidates with utmost respect, honesty and dedication.

What is a headhunter? A headhunter is an Executive Search Consultant:-

" Headhunters vary from Executive Search Agents/Professionals who typically have a wide range of personal contacts within the area in question, a detailed specific knowledge of said area, and typically operate at the most senior level. Executive Search professionals are also involved throughout more of the hiring process, conducting detailed reports and interviews as well as only presenting candidates to clients where they feel the candidate in question will fit into the employment culture of the client. Executive Search Agencies typically have long-lasting relationships with clients spanning many years, and in such cases the suitability of candidates is paramount. It is also important that such agencies operate with a high level of professionalism, and thus usually cold calling or other techniques often associated with recruitment are shunned.Executive Search agencies often also provide clients with (legal) inside rumours gleaned from contacts within their clients' competitors." (wikipediaorg)

While this is not my own introduction, this is where i start to formulate my views and opinions on my life as a headhunter......