View From Madison Avenue

Adventures In Recruiting: The Candidate Who Talked Too Much

2012-02-14T12:01:00.001-05:00

In a good and healthy interview, the interviewer should talk about a third of the time so that there is some give and take. The candidate has to be sure to answer the questions asked and not give too much information. I met an account director who I liked a lot. I sent him to an agency where the Director of Human Resources was both a client and a friend. I thought they would like each

My Take On The Super Bowl

2012-02-07T12:05:00.000-05:00

I have to chime in on my thoughts about the Super Bowl. There are two ways to watch the commercials. First, is as a consumer. Second is as an advertising/marketing professional. Because I was an account guy for so long, it is difficult me to do the former without letting the strategic and advertising creative side dominate. But I have tried to be objective. The interesting thing is that as

Is Digital The Be All And End All?

2012-01-31T11:45:00.001-05:00

I was surprised to learn that one of my candidates, a bright, articulate and forward thinking young account executive, had left one of the major Procter agencies after only about 14 months as an account executive. She had been working on one of the definitive P&G brands and I understand she was well liked, respected and moving ahead quickly. The agency tried to keep her, but a recruiter had

Many Companies Fail To See The Best Candidates

2012-01-24T13:56:00.000-05:00

I have to be delicate in this post in order not to insult anyone. No insult intended. I like to believe that I am among the most honest and straight-forward recruiters. I always ask my candidate’s permission before I send out their résumé (I ask permission even among those who give me carte blanche to just send it out). I double check to be sure they have not previously been submitted or

We Are Going To Have To Accomodate Millenials And They Will Have To Learn To Accomodate Us

2012-01-18T09:45:00.000-05:00

This is the first of a number of posts that I will do regarding executives who are under thirty. They are different from their older compatriots. They have different needs and different attitudes than the people they work for. It really is a whole new world. A few weeks ago, a twenty-something person came to my office. I had been calling her for several weeks. She told me she hated her job

Never Bring Coffee On An Interview, Part II

2012-01-10T12:15:00.000-05:00

I originally posted this in August of 2010 and it brought a torrent of comments and discussion. I thought it time to re-post. and update. I know that many of you will think I am nuts after reading this post. But bringing coffee on an interview may preclude you from getting your dream job. It is one of those pet peeves. We all have them - your nice neighbor who leaves their kid’s tricycle

Adventures in Recruiting: I hate your Candidate

2012-01-03T12:01:00.001-05:00

I thought I would start the year with a little levity. All recruiters, whether on my side of the aisle or recruiters who work for companies, share one thing in common. We often like (or dislike) people who are then seen by other people who have the exact opposite opinion. This is a funny story about that. When Scali, McCabe, Sloves was in business, they had a wonderful HR Director. Al Swann

The Toughest Part of Recruiting

2011-12-27T09:50:00.001-05:00

When I first started as a recruiter, my original premise to clients (companies) was that I was only going to send one candidate – the right person for the job. Within a few weeks I discovered that while it was a great sales tool and appealed to companies, it was totally impractical for me. Candidates changed their minds, companies changed their specs, or companies neglected to tell me key

Ten Steps to Insure that the Job You Interview for is Right For You

2011-12-20T15:13:00.000-05:00

Last week’s post was entitled, “Hot to make sure the person you hired was the person you interviewed.” It was about hiring procedures. I received an email in response which said: “Now you should write one from the candidates perceptive. We've all taken jobs we shouldn't have.)”. So here it is. If you are like most candidates, when you go for an interview, even one you are not sure about, you

How to Make Sure the Person You Hire is the Person You Interviewed

2011-12-12T12:16:00.000-05:00

I have wanted to write this for a long time. Everyone hires someone at one point or another. How many of you have made bad hires? The answer should be that we have all done it. We have all hired someone and once they started work, we discovered all the flaws in their abilities and personality. And then we second guessed ourselves on how it could have happened. One reason this happens

How The Internet Has Changed Recruiting

2011-11-30T15:37:00.018-05:00

Back in the 1980’s when I first started recruiting, the was no internet. There wasn’t even fax.We actually spoke to our clients, took job specs verbally and then, when we had lined up candidates, sent a messenger or mailed the résumés. In the meanwhile, we called our clients and told them about our candidates. We told them who they were; we explained why we were submitting them and we talked

How to Return to Business after Maternity Leave

2011-11-29T12:33:00.000-05:00

I promised that I would write this in my previous blog post about returning to business after a hiatus. Maternity leave is different. I don't pretend to be an expert, but based on countless interviews with returning mothers (and occasionally, fathers), here are my observations. There are a couple of essential points to remember once you go on maternity leave – and it doesn’t matter if it is

Have Agencies Gotten Too Big?

2011-11-22T08:52:00.001-05:00

No matter what anyone says, advertising, in all its forms - broadcast, print, web, social, etc. - remains a creative business. Clients hire agencies for their work. I think size does matter. There are too many agencies which are too big to create consistently good work. No agency is always good. But smaller agencies seem to have the ability to control their output. Remember Jay Chiat’s

If You Want Employees to Succeed, They Have To Know What They Are Doing And Why

2011-11-15T15:15:00.002-05:00

Lately, when I see rather junior candidates (AE’s to AS level), I have been asking a simple question: What is the marketing issue on your account? Not surprisingly, few candidates can answer this; they generally answer with a description of the advertising they are doing and I realize that they haven't a clue as to what it is all about. It makes me cringe. Evey employee has to know what

When a Job is Not As Described

2011-11-08T09:27:00.002-05:00

This happens all the time. And it happens at every level, from Presidents and CEO’s to junior account managers. People start a job and discover that everything they were told while interviewing was wrong. Just last week, I received this email from a candidate who was an account supervisor who took a job at an agency to become an account planner. Here is her verbatim: Hi Paul! Describing my

What Happens When You Want To Return To Agency Life

2011-11-02T11:06:00.000-04:00

Almost every day I receive résumés from people who have left the ad business for other ventures – sometimes client side, sometimes to start a business or other venture, sometimes just to take a sabbatical. (I am not writing here about maternity leave, which is another blog post all together.) They all share one thing in common. It is hard to get back. The simple reason is that ad agencies

The Problem for Agencies Not Using Outside Recruiters

2011-10-25T15:06:00.001-04:00

During this economic crisis, many agencies have been forbidden by either their CFO’s or their holding company to use recruiters for any level of hire. It is a false economy. And it makes both employees and clients angry and frustrated. Every executive I know complains about the dearth of good candidates. Recruiters, unlike their Human Resources counterparts, normally have any number of

Adventures In Recruiting: I Hate Being Dumped On

2011-10-17T09:20:00.000-04:00

Sometimes it just doesn’t pay to be nice and upfront. The first time I learned this was almost 30 years ago. I had an account director working for me who was simply incapable of follow up. He was a wonderful strategist, but just couldn’t get the work done on time. I had been coaching him for months, but finally came to the conclusion that I would have to let him go. It was early December. I

How to Negotiate the Salary You Want in a New Job

2011-10-04T10:39:00.000-04:00

I have literally negotiated thousands of salaries and jobs over the past twenty some odd years. I can only think of a handful of cases where a negotiation failed to produce a happy candidate and a happy client. In order to be successful in negotiating, you have to approach an offer and potential negotiation with the correct mind-set. In almost all the cases where there was a failure, either

What is a Signing Bonus Really About?

2011-09-27T13:22:00.000-04:00

Most people misunderstand signing bonuses – including the companies that offer them. I am amused when a candidate gets high paying job offer and turns around and asks me to get them a signing bonus. Many candidates mistakenly believe that a signing bonus exists merely for the pleasure of hiring them. Not so. I believe that companies initially offered a sign-on bonus, especially at this time

The Elusive Bonus

2011-09-20T16:32:00.000-04:00

It is getting to be that time of year again. You know, the time of year when employees start thinking about possible year end bonuses which may or may not come. I love it when candidates tell me that their compensation is, say, $100k and then I find out that they are making $85k with a potential to make 20% more in bonus. Truth is, they are not making $100 and probably won’t. The operative

Many Agencies Need To Rethink Their Websites

2011-09-13T13:58:00.002-04:00

A candidate of mine who I had not heard from for a while asked me to take a look at the website of the agency he was working for. He was very proud of it. It is a smallish agency – maybe fifty people and his description of it on the phone sounded fabulous. The agency was caring, successful, growing, had a nice list of clients and projects. Just the kind of place I like to recruit for. I was

Are Phone Calls Rude?

2011-09-06T10:43:00.002-04:00

Back in May I published a post entitled “eMails Are Hurting Us”. The essence of it was that it was important for executives to actually talk to each other. This post is an extension of that one. The other day, I published a comment on Facebook, “Heard something scary the other day. The 18 year old daughter of a friend of mine was trying to set up an appointment via email and commented to her

In a Job Hunt, There is No Such Thing as an Informational Interview

2011-08-30T10:38:00.000-04:00

I always tell candidates, especially juniors, that there is no such thing as an informational interview. If someone agrees to see you it is because there is the possibility of a job, either now or in the near future. When people at companies are really, really busy, they just don’t see people. Once someone agrees to see you, there is probably something in your background that they are

Hire People, Not Résumés

2011-08-23T13:47:00.000-04:00

When companies lose an executive, they go into panic mode. Especially advertising agencies. Agencies are so focused on filling a vacant job that they forget to define the issues that they face when replacing the lost executive.. The loss of an executive should be an opportunity for introspection. It is a time to figure out how to improve upon the departing executive, no matter what level he

Adventures in Recruiting: Cross Purpose Interview

2011-08-16T15:06:00.000-04:00

Before I was well established and known as a recruiter, I had a really amusing incident, which is worth describing. I had been recruiting about two months and I got a call from a senior account manager. He said to me, “I hear you can work on anything. If that is true, I could use your help.”I was delighted. It meant that in just a short time my reputation as a recruiter had spread and people

How To Get Promoted (From Any Level To Any Level)

2011-08-09T13:27:00.000-04:00

One of the important aspects of managing your career is to get promoted where you are. That’s why I always recommend to candidates to show their promotions right on the résumé. Every prospective employer likes to see a candidate with growth potential. And showing a record of promotions shows great potential. But how do you get promoted? I have always believed that a promotion should be

Words That Don't Belong On Your Résumé

2011-08-02T12:09:00.000-04:00

I owe the idea for this post to MSN, which is my internet home page. A couple of weeks ago they published an article about ten useless words on resumes. And while my list differs from the author, Beth Braccio, it gave me pause for thought and a good subject to write about. I have written before about my views on résumés. If you are staying within the same business, all anyone wants to know is

When Job Hunting Actions Speak Louder Than Words

2011-07-26T10:35:00.000-04:00

When I interview people, I am very aware that they are on good behavior in every sense. They will answer questions truthfully, but always with a spin that they think I want to hear. I have always believed that while an interview will provide about 70% of the information I need, the other thirty per cent will come while I am working with candidates on an actual opportunity. That's when I am

Why Recruiters Don't Return Your Calls

2011-07-19T10:58:00.000-04:00

Let’s start with a simple concept: Anyone who does not return a call is bad-mannered. That said, I hear all the time from candidates that some other recruiters don’t return calls or emails. In order to explain why your calls do not get returned, you have to understand how recruiters work. On any given day, a recruiter will see from one to five or six candidates. The average, at least for

Thanking Candidates for Interviewing and Providing Them with their Status is Common Courtesy

2011-07-13T10:18:00.000-04:00

I am constantly hearing from candidates who complain that they interview at agencies or companies, are sometimes promised next steps and then hear nothing. Often, these people get passed on, interview with hiring managers and then hear nothing. Their calls go unreturned. Their emails go unanswered. It is really uncaring and callous. Yet the people who did the interviewing don't even realize

Advertising Executives Could Learn A Lesson From "Undercover Boss"

2011-07-05T10:17:00.000-04:00

The other night I was watching CBS’s “Undercover Boss” and I had a fantasy. It was that agency management actually spent time with their own account and creative managers – you know, not their senior cronies, but the ones who actually do the day-to-day work - writers, account managers, planners, even their media people. I was thinking about the CEO's and COO's of the holding companies as well

Adventures In Recruiting: A "No" Means "No"

2011-06-28T11:02:00.001-04:00

One of the advantages of using a recruiter is that most of the time they can get you feedback faster than you can get it yourself. One of the toughest things to do is to tell candidates that they did not get a job. Occasionally when this happens, candidates ask if there is anything they can do. The answer is always no; a nice thank you note acknowledging the rejection and telling the company

Forcing Employees To Sign Non-Compete Agreements

2011-06-21T10:12:00.000-04:00

During the past several years, while advertising jobs have gotten fewer and fewer, more and more candidates are being asked to sign non-compete agreements as a condition of employment. These agreements are presented to candidates at every level of the business. While in some cases, they are referenced in offer letters, more often than not, employees find out about them on their first day of

Why Agency New Business People Turn Over So Quickly

2011-06-14T11:19:00.000-04:00

It is my observation that senior new business people at agencies turn over about every 18-30 months. This is no different than their client counterparts where Chief Marketing Officers turn over at about the same rate. I have been observing this for many years and have concluded that this high turnover is either because agencies use the wrong criteria for hiring, their expectations are not

Adventures in Recruiting: My Shortest Placement, Part II

2011-06-07T11:30:00.001-04:00

This actually happened and should bring a smile. A very senior, highly respected candidate lost his job. He told me he wanted to do something different – he had worked for big agencies his whole career. He had become the director of account management at a highly respected large creative shop; now he wanted to try smaller. After a few months of looking I came up with an opportunity at q well

How Is The Job Market?

2011-05-31T10:36:00.000-04:00

With unemployment hovering around 8.5 - 9.0% nationally, we all understand that this is a jobless recovery. When the economy collapsed, officially in 2008, advertising went into a tail spin. But I started to see advertising jobs disappear far before the official start of the collapsing economy. In mid-2007 I saw the number of available jobs going down. My estimate was that by the end of 2008,

When Does An Interview Begin?

2011-05-24T14:20:00.000-04:00

What many people don’t understand is that interviews begin the moment contact is made with a company. Interviews definitely do not start when you show up for a meeting. If you are working with a recruiter and they have introduced you to a company, your interview starts at that moment. The speed with which you respond to emails or phone requests is indicative of your level of interest.

Why Every Advertising Executive Should Admire Lady Gaga

2011-05-20T08:11:00.000-04:00

I have been thinking about Lady Gaga. She is fantastic. I wasn’t a fan of Lady Gaga – until the Grammy Awards. Actually, I am a big fan of CBS 60 Minutes and Anderson Cooper’s profile of Lady Gaga was a perfect preface to her on the Grammy Awards. I never got her or particularly liked her until I watched her that Sunday evening. In watching the Grammys, the other performers I saw did not

Standing Up A Recruiter

2011-05-17T12:32:00.000-04:00

People missing appointments is part of business. It is annoying and costly. That is why your doctor calls to confirm appointments. Restaurants do the same so that their tables don’t go vacant. When I first started recruiting, I was appalled at the number of no-shows. As I became better known, the percentage went down, but it still happens. Three times last week, which is unusual, but why I am

Ad Agencies Should Hire More Clients

2011-05-10T11:57:00.000-04:00

The following was one of my columns and originally published in Ad Age on September 21, 2009. It bears repeating. I meet a lot of client types - advertising managers, brand and marketing people and others - who tell me that they would like to work at an ad agency. Some of them once worked on the agency side and genuinely want to go back. But 90% of the client-side marketing types I meet

"Promised" Raises Can Send Employees Scurrying When They Are Delayed

2011-05-03T16:32:00.001-04:00

Virtually every day I hear from candidates at all levels who have been promised raises that never seem to happen. The result is almost always that the employee loses interest in their job and their company. Within a month or so they become vulnerable to recruiters and other job offers. I believe a lot of good people are lost because companies fail to administer raises and fail to manage the

The Downside of Portfolios On Line

2011-04-29T12:43:00.001-04:00

I would like to know anyone's experience with this issue. All creative people post their portfolios on line now. However, someone forwarded me a comment, which I will quote here: A year ago I received a strongly worded letter from [name of agency] saying no freelancer was to ever show work done for them on a web-site to promote themselves. The problem with

Reception Can Play An Important Role In Recruiting

2011-04-26T08:53:00.000-04:00

I have just come to something. Observing people’s behavior in the reception area can tell you a lot about a perspective employee. While candidates are waiting to see you, what they do in the reception area can tell a lot about them. Many companies have company literature available in reception. Are prospective employees curious and interested enough to read it? Many ad agencies have

Some Agencies Don't Do Their Own Branding Well

2011-04-19T14:09:00.002-04:00

I was recently interviewing a person who currently works at TBWA/Chiat Day. Of course, like everyone else here in the U.S., she referred to it as Chiat. I am sure that Bill Tragos, U.S. founding partner and the T in TBWA, has fits every time he hears his agency referred to as Chiat or Chiat/Day. I am not sure technically how the merger of the two agencies worked, but I believe Chiat was merged

The Plural of Medium is Media

2011-04-12T14:02:00.000-04:00

I received a résumé the other day in which the person listed that they have worked in a variety of “mediums”. That, to me, is like chalk on a blackboard. The singular of media is medium. Newspaper, television, digital, radio and out-of- home, are, collectively, media. That is why the department was/is called the media department. Each of those means of communication is a medium. It pains me

Lack Of Interview Feedback Is Both Rude And A PR Disaster

2011-04-05T11:33:00.000-04:00

I hate when I send candidates on an interview and I cannot get feedback. There is nothing worse when looking for a job than going on an interview and then hearing absolutely nothing from the company. It happens all the time. It even happens when we submit a resume and are told, often with no reason, that a candidate will not be seen. Several years ago, a client from a top ten agency actually

Everyone Needs A Story

2011-03-29T16:47:00.001-04:00

This post is for anyone who will ever go on an interview. It is also for people who do the interviewing in terms of what to look for in candidates. Knowing why you are interviewing is a vital component of every interview situation. It isn’t enough to just be unhappy in your current situation. You have to be able to articulate what brings you to be looking. Beyond that, you must also be able

Adventures in Recruiting: My First Conflict with A Millenial Mother

2011-03-22T14:04:00.004-04:00

Last August I posted about parents not doing their childrens’ bidding. It is nothing new. As long as I have been recruiting, well meaning parents have contacted me on behalf of their children, usually to help them get jobs or internships. I always tell them that if their children are really interested, they should call or email me themselves to set up an appointment. Most do. Some do not.

I Want to Brag

2011-03-14T11:06:00.000-04:00

Most of you don’t know it, but both my kids are successful advertising practitioners. Both are winners. (I guess it runs in the family! They are third generation advertising professionals.) Both have received amazing recognition for their work. Jeff Gumbinner runs a political consulting firm, Gumbinner and Davies. Liz Gumbinner is a Creative Director at Deutsch and she is the publisher and

Training Programs Don't Teach Advertising

2011-03-08T11:53:00.001-05:00

There are two kinds of training programs prevalent at ad agencies. There are senior management programs which deal with advanced training, relationships and management issues. This post deals with the other programs which are intended to deal with molding and shaping young talent. A mid-level account supervisor called me and asked if she could come over to talk to me. She wanted twenty

Making Your eMails and Voice Mails Work Harder

2011-03-01T09:11:00.000-05:00

Last week I posted about the evils of email. But there are benefits. I am surprised at how many people don’t really understand how to make email and voice mail work for them. This is a short and simple post. I hear all the time from candidates who are trying to set up appointments that they have been exchanging messages with a prospective interviewer. They tell me that sometimes they go back

eMail is Hurting Us

2011-02-22T11:46:00.000-05:00

I guess I am old fashioned. I like to speak to my candidates. I like to call about opportunities. I call with feedback. I call to give bad news. I call to make offers. Ironically, in return, if I now receive eight or ten calls a day, that is a lot. People just don’t use the phone anymore. Everything has become email. Clients give me job orders through email. Clients ask me to extend

Making the Job Boards Work For You

2011-02-14T16:51:00.001-05:00

Sooner or later, everyone will either be out of work or looking for a job. It doesn't matter who you are or what level you are. This post will help you use the internet without over-using it or misusing it in your search. I occasionally use the job boards when my networking is not producing the candidate I am looking for. I am always amazed at the results produced. Consequently, I have

Adventures in Recruiting: Beating Up The Recruiter or Don't Shoot the Messenger

2011-02-08T13:44:00.000-05:00

As a follow up to my recent posting on bad interview answers, I thought I would share some of the weird things that have happened to me directly. Not necessarily bad answers, but strange happenings. The toughest part of my job is giving candidates bad news. But it comes with the territory since, if I send multiple candidates on an interview, only one can get the job. Sometimes feedback from

Adventures in Recruiting: Bad Answers

2011-02-01T16:27:00.001-05:00

I thought I would share some of my favorite dumb answers over the years. These are all true. No creative license. No exaggeration. First, there is the one about the account executive who was on a final interview at a mid-size shop. The job was on a busy retail account. Through the two or three previous interviews, everyone stressed how detail oriented and organized the account needed to be

What's Going On When A Recruiter Rejects You....

2011-01-25T11:29:00.001-05:00

Most of us have had the experience of contacting a recruiter and having them deny a request for an interview or not sending you on a job which you know they have and which you feel qualified to get. Years ago I contacted one of the major search firms only to receive a letter of rejection telling me they did not accept unsolicited resumes. Six months later they called me for an opportunity and

Vacations Increase Productivity

2011-01-18T12:34:00.000-05:00

It is the new year. Everyone should be making a resolution to take more vacation time. Vacations are essential for your physical and mental well-being. Anyone who thinks to the contrary is doing themselves, their clients and their employers and the people who work for them a significant disservice. I recently interviewed a successful, well-placed executive, an EVP at one of the big agencies.

"Plan B", Part II

2011-01-13T12:16:00.000-05:00

While I received a few comments on my blog post about having a career “Plan B”, most comments came directly to me or through Facebook or LinkedIn. I thought I would address a number of issues and questions which came up. The most common question I received – including two phone calls – was, “I don’t know what I want to do. How do I figure it out?” Of course, I cannot determine other people’s

A Quick Look at Ad Agencies During the Last Decade

2011-01-07T09:14:00.002-05:00

It is a new year. It is also a new decade. I started thinking about some of the agencies which have come and gone and thought I would write some of my notables. What are yours? DisappearedA lot of really good agencies, big and small have merged, re-merged and submerged during the last ten years. Here is my list off the top of my head. I am sure I have left some good ones out. Interpublic

When Is It Time For A "Plan B" In Your Career?

2010-12-22T13:36:00.000-05:00