By sending us your CV through our website, it will be directed to an appropriate consultant dealing with your specific discipline. If we can help, we will be in touch to arrange a meeting to discuss your needs in more detail.

HOW TO WORK WITH A RECRUITER

1. Don’t try to be a square peg in a round hole. If the hiring company is looking for a candidate with 10 years of experience in small companies, don’t act as if your 20 years at large companies isn’t right there on paper. “Candidates need to know that nothing would make us happier than saying, ‘Yes, this is a good fit,’ ” said Sr. Recruiter Steve Cooke. “But our clients pay us to bring candidates who most closely align with their ideal profile and we have to keep those standards if not higher.”
2. We need complete honesty in order to position your compensation correctly. Don’t be cagey about compensation. The first question
that hiring managers tend to ask recruiters is how much the job seeker is earning, Rich said. So when candidates hesitate to disclose their compensation or instead inquire about what the prospective job would pay, Cooke takes pause, wondering why the candidate is not forthcoming. “It is always better to give us the information that we need to represent anyone to our clients and to be as honest as possible around issues concerning compensation,” Cooke explained.

3. Establish an understanding about phone calls and e-mails. If your every phone call is not promptly returned, it could be that the recruiter is extremely busy or that your background won’t help him fill an immediate position. While you may disagree, sending frequent or belligerent e-mails won’t change his mind and may make him not want to work with you on future positions.

4. After your interview with the hiring company, contact your recruiter right away. You may be busy or feel like the interview was lousy, but it’s still your responsibility to let the recruiter know how it went. It could be that the hiring company wants quickly to schedule another interview. “The lack of follow-up may show a level of disinterest, which isn’t always the case,” noted Harold Laslo of the Aldan Troy Group in New York.

5. Refer talented friends and colleagues to your recruiter. It could only work to your advantage to recommend talented people to your recruiter(s), even for a role that you wanted but weren’t qualified to perform. Your recruiter will appreciate the help and he may return the favor in the future.

What firms are looking for in leaders has shifted, WALLACE IMMEN writes. Be prepared

WALLACE IMMEN

Malcolm Eade always asked the questions in job interviews during his 15 years as a manager. Now that he’s on the job hunt himself, he finds he’s having to practice answering questions in job interviews.

Mr. Eade, 40, who is in the job market after a restructuring eliminated his position as general manager of a Toronto division of Montreal-based Johnson & Johnson Inc., says he finds candidates for executive-level positions are facing more probing questions than ever about what motivates them and how they react to challenges.

While he is confident he will be able to impress a search committee, “the one I roll around in my mind is the question ‘What are you weak at?’ . . . I’ll rehearse that answer a great deal,” he says.

Executives hunting for a new position should be aware of a shift in what interviewers are looking for in candidates for management jobs, says Sharon Graham, executive director of the newly formed Career Professionals of Canada, an organization of career coaches and résumé specialists.

“Things have changed. Even a few years ago, leaders were hired for their abilities to build solid teams and strategies that would produce long-term value for the organization,” says Ms. Graham, principal of the Graham Management Group, a consulting firm specializing in résumés and management coaching based in Milton, Ont.

“Now, executives are more likely to be brought in to rebuild and redefine an organization. So the skills an executive-level person should be portraying are flexibility and the ability to make change happen quickly,” Ms. Graham says.

Increasingly, executive candidates have to face an additional interview — the behavioural consultation, Ms. Graham adds. In these interviews, candidates are asked to describe how they respond to particular situations.

“When you walk into the interview, you should have a whole series of strong accomplishment statements that relate directly to what the organization is and what they are looking for,” Ms. Graham advises.

She says answers to interview questions should focus on three key qualities that organizations value in an executive:

Your ability to get something done immediately and instantly makes a difference to the organization.

Your ability to deal with constant change and to keep an organization flexible.

Being able to achieve a major transformation that, in the longer term, will set up the organization to meet future needs.

“For instance, if you have been involved in mergers, acquisitions, centralization or decentralization, downsizing or expansion, you need to outline what you did and how you did it and how successful it was for the organization,” Ms. Graham advises.

Her advice is to develop a series of high-impact stories that are very concise. The plot should move from problem to solution, Ms. Graham suggests. For instance, “I came and saw a challenge, I took action and developed a new vision, and the result was a 20-per-cent increase in sales.”

Everything you’ve done in your career should be rehearsed and reviewed in advance of the interview, Ms. Graham advises.

She says that, in coaching senior-level people, she often finds they have so many diverse experiences in their careers that they can forget times and specific details.

“If they haven’t reviewed and memorized their dates, they may start fumbling or have to change their story in the course of the interview. That may be just a simple mistake, but it might not appear that way to interviewers,” Ms. Graham points out.

However, being too pat or too assertive with your answers can also be a pitfall. “It’s important to appear confident you can do the job but you don’t want to turn off the interview panel,” Ms. Graham says. While it’s great to walk into an interview with supreme confidence, in some people that can come across as arrogance.

The first thing to do is to respect everyone you meet, she says. “Make eye contact with everyone in the room regardless of what their position is.”

And let the interviewer run the show. Don’t answer a question before it is asked or try to dominate the interview, which can be taken as a sign you would try to put your ego needs ahead of the good of the company, Ms. Graham advises.

Ego and the exaggeration and bragging that come with it are major interview killers, she adds. “When you emphasize ‘I’ too often, it can appear you are trying to come on really strong. Some accomplishments are certainly your own and you should make those points, but if something was a team effort, talk in terms of ‘we.’ “

Ms. Graham says that stating you built an organization from the ground up is great on a résumé “but it really doesn’t sound very nice when you verbalize it.” Instead, emphasize how you motivated employees to support your vision, she suggests.

And it’s never a good idea to make highly negative statements about companies or people. You never know when you might be offending an interviewer’s friend or former employer.

Finally, be careful with name dropping. “Only do it if there is a valid reason that is on-topic to the discussion. You can even mention the name of a competitor but be tactful,” Ms. Graham says.

To prepare candidates, Ms. Graham uses role playing exercises. They are coached on traditional interview questions about abilities and goals but particularly to think about the final, behavioural round, where interviewers are really asking “tell me a story,” she says.

Answers should always highlight how you fit the needs and corporate culture of the organization, Ms. Graham says. To prepare for that requires doing in-depth research that should go far beyond a look at the company’s website, she says. A senior-level person should be researching the entire industry and talking to people in related associations about current trends and perceived weaknesses, she says.

If you believe in yourself it will show in the interview, she adds. “There’s no doubt as a business leader today you’ve got exceptional ability. By effectively and creatively presenting your qualifications, you can open the door to the next level in your career.”

How to clinch that interview

Tips for a successful interview for an executive-level job, from career coach Sharon Graham:

Prepare a brief career summary to introduce your background to your interviewers.

Research the industry, current market and prospective employer thoroughly.

Memorize your timelines so you can clearly recite when you did what you did.

Impress everyone you encounter, including the receptionist, assistant and recruiter.

Display confidence by speaking authoritatively but without appearing arrogant.

Highlight your value using examples that relate to your prospective employer.

Use the “situation, action, result” formula to articulate clear and concise accomplishments.

Emphasize your personal qualities, values and behaviours that demonstrate your corporate cultural fit.

Show how you can exploit appropriate technological advances for the company’s benefit.

Demonstrate your ability to transform your new organization and achieve immediate bottom-line results.

Explain how you create organizational synergy to adapt to the changing market.