Wendy Weber on Executive Recruiting

In this age of LinkedIn, a string of recommendations is a badge of honor. The testimonials of others is thought to be a significant measure of one’s work ethic and abilities.

…or are they?

I just learned that on a website template for small business owners, there existed a testimonial which was supposed to be used as a starting point. But as it turns out, this “recommendation” was left on the websites of the individual companies that purchased the website template. So “Lucas Fayne” appeared as a testimonial for 50 different companies!

Apparently endorsements aren’t always what they appear to be.

While this study is not exclusive to direct marketing, it is encouraging news: Agency Salaries Inching Up.

From a survey commissioned by Ad Age and recruiting agency 24 Seven, here are the highlights:

Creative- and production-agency staffers saw the smallest gains over the past two years, while client-side marketers saw the largest. And surprisingly, digital employees saw less of a bump than ad-agency employees in general.

There’s a new book out based on excerpts from a column I enjoy in the New York Times called “The Corner Office.”

Appearing every Sunday, the column interviews chief executives about their thoughts and leadership qualities. The book comes to the conclusion that there are 5 essential traits that determine who will be chosen for the next corner office:

1. Passionate Curiosity – the infectious sense of fascination that some people have with everything around them.
2. Battle-Hardened Confidence – the ability to embrace, and overcome adversity.
3. Team Smarts – the ability to understand how teams work and how to get the most out of the group.
4. A Simple Mind-Set – the ability to be concise, get to the point, make it simple.
5. Fearlessness – a willingness to be comfortable being uncomfortable.

Rising to the top of an organization results from more than being smart and hard-working. According to The Corner Office: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons From CEOs on How to Lead and Succeed, by Adam Bryant, the executive who will be chosen for the big promotion will embody the 5 traits above.

More and more companies are requiring that candidates go beyond simply interviewing for a position to secure employment. We are seeing that in our recruiting practice, and it was identified as part of the process in a recent interview with the Chris Cunningham, CEO of Appssavvy, a social media focused marketing firm (see piece here). Cunningham requires every job candidate to make a “real life” presentation to a panel of 5-7 people on his staff. This process creates an additional level of confidence that the hire will be a successful one.
Photo of Cunningham, below:

Crandall Associates is currently working with an Agency to fill a Lead Copywriter position. They provided our candidate with an overview of a client and their challenges, and asked our candidate to write a direct mail package for that client. This was not a small request. The candidate spent 2 weeks of his “free time” (after hours) creating a full blown mailer. He even engaged the help of a designer colleague to create a full color mock-up of the package. The client got “free” work out of someone that they had not hired, or even committed to meeting face to face. But the candidate’s work impressed the client, and he is flying in next week to meet with the President of the agency.

We have another client that has a similar process to Appssavvy…all candidates have to make a presentation to a group. The candidates are given an assignment ahead of time, and must create a presentation as part of the interview process. The problem I have with this client is that they require complete consensus. If even one member of the group does not feel the candidate will succeed if hired, the interview process ends with the presentation.

I like the intention of these clients. They want to make a “good hire”. It’s difficult to know from only a resume and several interviews whether the person in front of you is simply “good at interviewing” or whether they can deliver on their promises. At first I was suspicious that the clients were asking interviewees to do projects for them as a way of collecting ideas from people they had no intentions of hiring. I no longer think that. (Although that is a convenient by-product of this trend). Interestingly, I haven’t had any candidates refuse to present, or create a package, for a client. The big question in my mind…does this process result in a more successful hire? Time will tell.