Scale Up Strategies: The Business Podcast for Coaches, Consultants, and Speakers
We're your hosts and Business Coaching experts Mary Fain Brandt and Laura Bashore
We’re sharing all our mistakes and insider tips from our 20+ years in business and
how we successfully scaled up our businesses without losing our minds or our husbands.
Sure you can piece it together and try to DIY your way to success
OR
you can listen to us every week and learn the shortcuts because we promise there
are some.
Scale Up Strategies: The Business Podcast for Coaches, Consultants, and Speakers
Ask A Pro - Ace Your Job Search with LinkedIn and Recruiters feat. Special Guest and Recruiter Kendra Krieg
Get ready for an enlightening conversation with Kendra Krieg, a powerhouse in the recruitment industry. With the job market teeming with opportunities, Kendra shares how a well-versed recruiter can be your ally in landing the perfect job. She elaborates on how recruiters understand your career trajectory, technical prowess, personal objectives, and desired salary to find the ideal job match. This episode is an essential guide for those navigating the labyrinth of the job market.
We also venture into the world of LinkedIn, unravelling its significance in the recruitment process. Straight from Kendra's expert lens, learn about the crucial role of LinkedIn profiles in building relationships between employers, employees, and recruiters. Discover the secret behind making a strong impression and standing out in this competitive job market. Kendra further dispels common misconceptions about recruiters and their charges, offering an enlightening perspective on the value they bring to job seekers. Tune in to decipher the recruitment process and arm yourself with practical advice for your job search.
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Welcome to the Redefined Your Career Journey Podcast, where we help career minded professionals like you become the CEO of your career.
Laura Bashore:I'm Laura Bashore, and I'm here with my co-host, Mary Fain Brand. Together, we have over 25 years of experience in career development and coaching.
Mary Fain Brandt:We're thrilled to share our insights and expertise with you on this podcast To grab your favorite cup of coffee, tune in and let's start the show.
Mary Fain Brandt:I'm in my pajamas, so that's right Pajamas, messy buns, drinkin' my coffee. I don't have to be camera ready, so that is definitely one reason that. Laura and I like them, and I like to keep it honest. Right, laura? We like to just be transparent about who we are what we do and how we're doing it.
Laura Bashore:Yeah, I mean I can sound pulled together, but that's because I drink a lot of coffee, so I hate where we are.
Mary Fain Brandt:That's what this show is all about Coffee and career talk. So, laura, what are we talking about today?
Laura Bashore:Well, I'm really excited and I think our listeners are going to be as well because we are talking about behind the recruitment process with our special guest, kendra Krieg, and before we hop in, just wanted to say hello, kendra.
Kendra Krieg:Hello, hello. So happy to be here and join you. Ladies, thank you so much for having me.
Mary Fain Brandt:And Kendra, this is your first audio event, right. This is Woohoo. Welcome Kendra to the audio world here.
Laura Bashore:Thank you, ladies so we're going to be talking about recruitment and I just wanted to point out a recent article from CNBC which stated the recovery pandemic economy has proven to be a jobseeker's market and nearly 48 million people quitting their job last year but nearly 76 million taking on a new one. So still, the labor market currently has 11 million openings, and that's according to the labor statistics data, and that's why we wanted to go ahead and bring on an actual recruiter who can give us some tips and behind the scenes as to how to navigate this job market. So we are so excited to have you here, kendra, and we're going to get you introduced in just a minute, kendra, we're so thankful that you said yes when Laura asked you if you'd spend your Monday morning with us.
Mary Fain Brandt:Kendra is an entrepreneur and businesswoman specializing in the recruiting industry. In her role at her previous company, she played a significant part in helping the company grow from a startup to a multi-million dollar company. Wow, that's just a wow moment. Kendra now owns a nationwide recruiting staff and firms focusing on various industries in accounting, finance, marketing, hr, operations, sales and administrative positions. She has a deep network of candidates and companies she has partnered with throughout the nation. Her expertise is understanding the evolving market conditions by working with mid-level to see sweet hiring managers and successfully filling roles for both startups and well-established Fortune 500 companies. She is always authentic, trustworthy, communicative and she constantly delivers top talent to her clients. Wow, welcome Kendra.
Kendra Krieg:Thank you, ladies. It's such a pleasure to be here this morning. I'm so excited. I appreciate the invite and look forward to this show this morning.
Laura Bashore:Yeah, I think one of the things that I'd like you to elaborate on a little bit more before we jump into the questions came from your bio, which is that you partner with professionals and with companies. Can you explain for our listeners what a full scope staffing firm is, how it differentiates itself from just posting your resume to job boards like ZipRecruiter or Indeed. Yeah absolutely.
Kendra Krieg:As you did mention, yes, recruiters work with candidates. Certainly, I have a pretty rich network and deep network of candidates that I've partnered with over the years. On the flip side, I also work with hiring managers and companies throughout the nation. My connections consist of not only candidates but also connections with really amazing companies and really amazing hiring managers. A full scope or full service recruiting firm basically is an agency or a firm that specializes in direct hire placements, temporary and contract placements and then also temp to hire placements. We do it all. We're not just a temp agency.
Kendra Krieg:A lot of people that's a huge misconception that I get these days is when I'm giving you a call and I say I'm calling from talent experts and we're recruiting agencies, it doesn't necessarily mean we're a temp agency. We do it all. The difference in working with a recruiting agency and a really good recruiter versus just trying to work the job market on your own is pretty simple actually. I think we've all been there before. You guys can all relate. I can relate. But when you're on the job search and you're applying to 20 to 30 different jobs on Indeed, let's say, and you're just submitting your resume and you are just waiting, you don't hear anything back and you just hear crickets.
Kendra Krieg:Well, you don't know what's going on and you're probably one of a hundred a few hundred other applicants that are in HR's database. The beauty of partnering with a really good recruiter is these recruiters know your story, they know your career progression, they know your technical skills, they know what you're looking for, the salary that you're targeting, where you want to go in your career, and they're your advocate and they're the ones that are connecting you with you, know the next perfect, you know fit job, job match for you. So you just have somebody in your corner, really that can advise you, guide you and, you know, help you along your journey.
Laura Bashore:Well, that sounds like something I would have liked when I was just searching on my end. So, yeah, because I have definitely felt that right, you submit your resume and then it's out there in the abyss you're like here I am Exactly.
Laura Bashore:So you're kind of helping with the networking side of it and making sure that you can connect the dots as to maybe giving a little bit more background that this is the right fit for you professionally, not just a job that sounds good or a title that sounds good. So thank you for sharing that Exactly. I think it's really powerful to share. Let's move down to when we're talking about how you're working with professionals one on one. So this is something that I think we get asked a lot, which is should candidates reach out to recruiters?
Kendra Krieg:Yes, yes, yes and yes. And again, it's just going back to what I previously mentioned, which is we are, we connect as a career advocate, as an advisor, as we're the experts here, and it's important to find a recruiter that has your best interest at heart, that understands exactly what you're looking for in your career and your next job opportunity, the skills that you possess, because they're the ones that are connected with a lot of really great companies in the area and hiring managers, so they can certainly make recommendations as to, hey, guess what I got this great new job opportunity. Pick up the phone, tell you the details about it, and they know that you would be a good match for their client that they're working with. It's just kind of having that extra resource in addition to what you're seeing out there on the job boards.
Mary Fain Brandt:So, kendra, I have a question about reaching out to recruiters. How should the job seeker career professional reach out to recruiters on LinkedIn? Do they call them? Because I know that there are some recruiters that are on LinkedIn that I'm connected to that are like I get 200 messages a day.
Kendra Krieg:Yeah.
Mary Fain Brandt:Exactly.
Laura Bashore:Great question.
Mary Fain Brandt:Yeah, so how do you reach out to recruiter if they're getting 200 messages on LinkedIn alone, right? How do you? So? Where do you find the recruiter? Do they go on LinkedIn to find them, Do they? I was going to date myself and say the yellow pages. I mean like, do you look locally?
Laura Bashore:Definitely not the yellow pages, Mary.
Mary Fain Brandt:no, I'm just like joking, like okay where, okay. So we should, if we're looking for a job, definitely find a recruiter.
Laura Bashore:Great, advice, but don't yeah. But how do you do it?
Mary Fain Brandt:How do we contact them?
Kendra Krieg:That's a really good question. I think that there's multiple answers for that, but, you know, I would say the biggest and best way to find and link up with a good recruiter and when I say a good recruiter, I'm talking about somebody that really invest their time into you and gets to know you. Okay, because that's just that's, I think, the number one most important thing when, when, matching with a good recruiter. But but yeah, it's word of mouth, it's it's you know, talking to you, know your, your network or your friends or your colleagues, and saying you know who do? You know who have you worked with in the past that has really great connections, that you know has has looked out for you and you know, really given you that guidance and that advice and hooked you up with some, you know great interviews or, or you know, even placed you somewhere. Word of mouth is huge. That's where a lot of my business comes from. If you don't, you know, have anybody in your network, then you know really it's finding a recruiting agency or a recruiter that specializes in the type of role that, that or your career, that that you're, that you're in. So you know, if it's accounting and finance, it's okay. Who are the top finance and accounting recruiters in my area.
Kendra Krieg:I definitely would would start with more of like a local search. But yeah, it's kind of just doing your research and Googling. And you know, looking on LinkedIn LinkedIn is huge, obviously and then also, to you know, looking at reviews and recommendations on their LinkedIn profiles says a lot to you know, candidates that are happy with you know what the recruit recruiter has done for them, clients that are happy with the performance of the recruiter and delivering top talent they're going to, you know, share how they, you know their experience with with the recruiter. So that's what I would say. It's tough though, but and yeah, and then also picking up the phone, hey, you know I'm looking for a job. I just graduated, or you know I'm looking, you know, to take the next step in my career. This is my background, is this something that you know your agency or your firm specializes in? And and they can, you know, kind of give you more, more insight into that. So it's, it's all of that combined.
Mary Fain Brandt:Thank you, thank you. I think that answers the question that I think is on so many people's mind. If you're a job seeker, career professional, you know how do we reach out to the recruiter, where do we reach out? So I think that that helped a lot Thank you. Yeah, sure, of course.
Laura Bashore:So you've also said that you, you work and partner with companies and I think at least I know for me, mary, I think for you to. We've had a lot of our clients who are just wondering what the process is like on the other side when the company is looking for someone, because, as we all know, that process can be dragged out for some time. And since this is a job seekers market and we hear that, but sometimes our job seekers aren't feeling that what is are some ways that you prepare the companies that you work with to be ready to hire the top talent when they see it, instead of saying, oh great.
Laura Bashore:Three months, we're going to get this.
Kendra Krieg:Yeah, yeah, I'm so glad you asked that and, honestly, that is probably one of the first things that I chat with with my new clients about my all of my you know my existing clients that I've worked with, they know how, how I work and and and no kind of the expectation there. But it really is, you know, kind of setting that expectation up front with the hiring managers that I'm working with. Like, look, it's a candidate's market right now and you know you got to remain competitive, of course, and kind of maintain that competitive edge. But one of the biggest problems that I see and setbacks that I think companies and hiring managers are experiencing is is the fact that they got to be able to move and pull the trigger pretty quickly if there's a candidate that they have their eye on. Time kills all deals.
Laura Bashore:Oh, I like that.
Kendra Krieg:Time kills all deals and so you know if you're interview process, if you're interviewing with five and six and seven, you know managers and this process is taking more than I'd say three weeks at most. You know you can, number one, lose the candidates interest, you can burn them out, and you know you can send them the wrong signals and messages to. So you got to be able to pull the trigger for candidate that you like because they're not going to last long on this market.
Laura Bashore:Let's take a pause right here to refresh your coffee and hear from our sponsors.
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Mary Fain Brandt:I just wrote down time kills all deals, because I think I did too.
Laura Bashore:I love it.
Mary Fain Brandt:I think I need to post that on social, because it is a job takers market and they're getting more. You know they're interviewing with their top companies that they've always wanted to work for, because people are like I'm no longer just going to take a job, I am going to take control over my career. I'm going to be more. I want to work and if you've got a top candidate in your office and you make them I heard about someone having it. It was a three month interview process.
Mary Fain Brandt:They had to do a marketing project and they're like I'm going to charge you for that because I'm giving you my ideas for your marketing.
Laura Bashore:Right yeah.
Mary Fain Brandt:The hoop that people that they're making people jump through is, in my opinion, ridiculous.
Kendra Krieg:Well, and you know you're, and you're so right, mary, because and keep in mind too that, yeah, I mean, while you're making this candidate jump through hoops and interview every single person in the company, and you know you're scheduling one interview a week, you know, and we're going past, like I said, three weeks or so they're also interviewing with your competitors, and your competitors might be a bit more decisive and have a much more streamlined interview process. And guess what? They're going to get an offer while they're still in mid interview stage with, you know, with with this other company and, heck, yeah, they're going to take that offer. You know it's so.
Kendra Krieg:That is one of the main expectations that I set up front and and, frankly, you know I'm those, those are the clients and the companies that I want to do business with, that are decisive, that know what they want, that have, you know, tops three interview rounds and and can move quickly and and not lose out on really great candidates, because I'm over here working my butt off to present my top three candidates to your group and you know we essentially work for free until until we make a placement, until, you know, the hiring managers fall in love with one of our candidates and want to hire them. So you know we got to move quickly and it's just kind of market.
Laura Bashore:And I think that's something to share. I think that's something great to share too. Is that a lot of the misconception and working with a recruiter to on the job seeker side or the professional side? Is that? What do I have to pay for this? Everybody wants money for something, so can you kind of just repeat that one more.
Kendra Krieg:Yes, yes, I love that. So, candidates, there is no charge to work with a recruiter. There should never be, let me say so we are purely an extra resource for you in your job search. Where we get paid and where we make our money is with the company or our clients. If they successfully choose our candidate to hire, that is how we get paid. So it is always coming from the company, never the candidate.
Mary Fain Brandt:Perfect. Yeah, I think that is one of the questions. Career professionals how much do I have to pay to work with a recruiter?
Kendra Krieg:No.
Laura Bashore:Yeah, absolutely.
Kendra Krieg:And you know it is again because we are not getting paid by the candidate. But guess what I mean? If you are partnered with a great recruiter again that knows your story and knows everything that you are looking for, I mean we not only you know will give you all the details. If we set you up with an interview with our client, I mean we are going to set you up for success. There is more to it than just say, hey, guess what? I have this job for you. I think you should interview. Okay, bye, let me know how it goes. We don't do that. We don't do that.
Kendra Krieg:So we are investing a lot of our time into these candidates. Like, okay, so here is the deal. You know you are going in for your interview tomorrow with XYZ company. This is what they are all about. You know, I know the hiring manager pretty well. These are the types of things that the questions that they are going to ask. This is what they are looking for. This is. You know, do your research on the company and you know the hiring managers know what they are about. Like, we will prep them, at least myself and my employees. You know we are prepping our candidates. We are giving them so much advice. We are debriefing after the interviews. We are then in touch with the hiring manager for their feedback. We are like that middleman, you know, for both parties to make sure that this is in fact the right match. So there is just a lot more that goes into just, you know, partnering with a recruiter and having them find you a job. There is just so much more work involved.
Mary Fain Brandt:So it's it sounds like you really established a relationship between you and the company and you and the career professional.
Kendra Krieg:That's and I'm glad that you just said that, because I attribute my success in recruiting these last seven years specifically to my relationship building skills and the rapport that I've built with so many fantastic and wonderful people. And if I truly didn't care, I mean you know, you know when people care about you. I mean you're good friends, you're best friends. You know when they make the effort, when they're invested in you, when they're giving you advice. Whether you want to hear it or not, they got your back right Well, and you feel it and you know it. You know that you have their support. The same thing is true of a recruiter, and you should get that feeling when working with a recruiter, and that's what I try and give to not only you know, the companies and the hiring managers that I work with, but also my candidates. I want them to know that I do truly, genuinely care, and it's all about relationships, which builds trust, and it's and it allows you to be authentic right when you were saying in your bio that you're authentic.
Laura Bashore:You have to build that relationship so that you can give the feedback, but that the feedback is taken in a way that's known. It's meant to be helpful, only to help someone move forward whether that's a company or a client, a personal candidate.
Kendra Krieg:Exactly, yeah, yeah, because I mean some of my candidates might have another offer on the table from. That's not my client, and maybe my client also has given them an offer too, so they've got two offers on the table. I'm not going to ever mislead or misguide. I mean, it's really about what's best for the candidate at the end of the day, and I'm often involved in that process and that decision-making process for them, and that is only because I have a relationship with them and they trust me.
Laura Bashore:Yeah, because.
Kendra Krieg:I haven't misled them from the beginning. I'm just upfront, honest and what you see is what you get, and if this is truly a better opportunity for my candidate and it's not with my client, then I will congratulate them and high-five them and tell them to take that other offer. It is what it is, but yeah, it's all based on relationships is what it all goes back to.
Mary Fain Brandt:The topic is LinkedIn and I've got a few questions. What do recruiters notice on a candidate's LinkedIn profile? So when you're Because we all know what is it like 95, 96, maybe 97% of recruiters are on LinkedIn. So if anyone in this audience is looking for a new job, going to pivot and you're not sure if your LinkedIn profile is up to date, you've got two women right here, laura and myself. We are LinkedIn profile writers and career coaches. I'm just throwing that out there.
Laura Bashore:That's true.
Mary Fain Brandt:Because you've got to be. I always tell people do you want to be known and get found? You better be on LinkedIn. Absolutely so, kendra, what do you look at when you're cruising on the LinkedIn platform? What makes you go? That's a person I want to talk to.
Kendra Krieg:Yeah. So there's a couple things. Definitely, I would say I'm looking for career progression. Employers love to see people, candidates, that have, you know, progressed and and and moved along without or throughout their career. But you know, honestly, like for me, when I'm, when I'm browsing through hundreds of different profiles, you know I'm looking for detail as well. I'm looking for, you know, a picture, I'm looking for job responsibilities and functions under each company and title that they've worked for. If I come across a, you know, kind of a half done LinkedIn profile where I'm just seeing a title and a company and you know the dates that you work there, I'm probably going to move on because that, to me, is not enough information number one for me to go off of and you know it just makes me wonder Is this person you know? Would they even respond to me? Are they, you know, serious about being on the job search or not? So I'm always big on. Do you guys agree with that? I mean 100%.
Mary Fain Brandt:I always tell people we need to beef up your experience section and we need to use bullet points and make it easy for recruiters to pick up on keywords that they're looking for.
Laura Bashore:Well, and LinkedIn agrees too. That's how they're going to even get you that filter like a filled out profile works for everyone. That's. That's what you need, right.
Mary Fain Brandt:For most.
Kendra Krieg:Because we are. You know we're searching by keywords to. It could be certain softwares or systems that our clients requiring it could be Gosh, I don't even know. You know socks compliance like certain keywords, and so if your LinkedIn profile isn't detailed, then we're going to also probably potentially skip over or not even you know your profile won't even pop up in our search when I work with my career clients.
Mary Fain Brandt:I help them establish their personal brand because I'm a big proponent that you know everybody needs to have a personal brand. It stays with you for life. You're going to go from job to job, company to company and I believe that a personal brand you know, helps you stand out on LinkedIn, because you can have all the keywords right, but if a recruiter has five profiles and one you can tell.
Mary Fain Brandt:This person knows who they are, what they bring to the table, what they're doing, what do you bring to the table, what their personal brand is? They got this custom background banner. They've got an about you section that tells their story. Right, right, not? Totally not a copy paste of the resume, because no that's not what this is for. Tell your story, tells what makes you?
Mary Fain Brandt:fabulous, do a highlighted accomplishment, but also I. At the end of every career professionals about you section, I say throw something personal in, because there's a person reading this profile and they might connect with you because you volunteer or you have three dogs at home or you know what when you're not. You know out doing saving a company hundreds of thousands of dollars. As an accountant, you are one heck of a baker. Right Like make it real and relatable. That's my advice. But you know, kendra, do you agree with that?
Kendra Krieg:Yeah, yeah, I do, I definitely do. You know, I don't, I don't spend as much time. I mean, I really am focused typically on you know, obviously just jobs, titles, keywords and such. But yeah, I mean that extra personal touch like you were saying, mary. Yeah, 100% it goes. It goes a long way.
Laura Bashore:Well, it makes the difference between, like you said earlier, kendra, if you think that person's really going to respond to you, right, because if you're reaching out to someone, that takes your time, so having a completed profile but also being someone who engages, so you appear to be someone who engages more if you have something personal on there. To Mary's point, and I just want to add that for those who are like, oh, branding doesn't sound like I'm not a person, I'm not a product, I would just say that branding yourself, and not as the difference between showing up sounding like a job description or showing up and sounding like a real person, that's like the simplest way to break it down.
Kendra Krieg:Yeah, I totally agree.
Mary Fain Brandt:Well, we're here every Monday, a different topic and theme every week, keeping it honest and real. We are real people here to help other people on our in our network. We'd love for you guys If you enjoy this show if you would invite other people were really trying to create a movement here where we're talking openly about careers and what works. We're giving free advice to help everyone. We're at the first of every month. We're looking to have a guest speaker, like Kendra today. Love.
Laura Bashore:She was so funny Great. Yeah.
Mary Fain Brandt:I'm going to give her a little heart. Yes, because she was amazing.
Mary Fain Brandt:If you enjoyed the podcast, show us some love. Please rate, review and subscribe to our podcast, and if you have any feedback, go ahead and share that with us too, because we want to hear from you, and don't forget to visit our website.
Laura Bashore:You need to find your career journey that can help you take the next step in your career.
Mary Fain Brandt:We'll see you next week with another episode was to help you redefine your career journey. Until then, stay focused, stay motivated and stay caffeinated.
