Think Like a Headhunter, Maximize Your Odds & Stand Out.

I am a recruiter, or if you prefer, a headhunter. As I joke on my Linkedin profile, I don't get too wrapped up in titles. I find and deliver specific talent to companies. In essence, I sell people to other people to pay my mortgage. While I make an important distinction between finding people jobs and finding talent for companies (disclosure: the companies pay my fees), I think a recruiter's unique perspective can inform and assist folks looking for new opportunities. When people ask me what I do for work, I joke that I gamble for a living, but it is closer to the truth to say I constantly search for ways to maximize the odds of my own success, and so should every job seeker. Searches I take on are often contingency searches, which means I only get paid when I present the winning candidate and the company successfully hires them,so I am careful where I spend my time. This is one of the first things I want to share with folks looking for a job: The person you contact matters, the way you make contact matters, and your presentation matters. Lots of layoffs are taking place, and the first reaction is often panic, fear, and gloom. One might feel like wallpapering every available surface with a resume and cover letter, but honestly that isn't going to help.

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Flight 1549 versus Gaza: American lives are much more important than Palestinian lives

When we compare the good result of the water-landing of Flight 1549 with the indiscriminate "collateral damage" occurring in Gaza, we can only conclude one thing:  American lives are much more important than Palestinian lives.   After all, saving those 155 American lives was "miraculous," according to American media reports (listen…

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What if college and healthcare were both free?

Erich's post about free college got me thinking: what if college and healthcare were both free? What if America's college-bound population -- the nation's intelligentsia -- could seriously consider getting married and having children at the same young age that the rest of the population tended to reproduced? What if…

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