Thursday, April 7, 2011

To a Recruiter, Attitude is The Most Important Attribute

Your attitude is the most critical item when being evaluated or interviewed.  It is not your grades.  It is not how good you are as a team player.  It is not your leadership skills.  It is not even your intern, co-op or work experience.  All very important things I admit, but not nearly as important as you having the right attitude.

To illustrate this point and take it one step further, here is a question for you the reader: What do you think is the biggest fear of a hiring manager is when hiring a candidate?  Some might say it is hiring someone that can’t do the work.  But that’s not it.  In my experience, hiring managers are most fearful of hiring someone with a bad attitude.  Why?  Because it often has a domino effect that can be very damaging.  Hiring someone with a bad attitude negatively affects the whole team.  That in turn causes conflict.  Conflict lowers morale.  Lowering morale increases inefficiency.  Inefficiency translates into lost time and money….which is misery for guess who?  The hiring manager!  At least, if the hiring manager hires an employee that can’t do the work, they have a fighting chance to work around it by sending them off for training or giving them different assignments; having them do work they can do.  But having a candidate with a bad attitude is nothing short of throwing a psychological grenade in the middle of the room with all team members present.

Moreover, who do you think gets a lot of the blame, or even becomes the scapegoat if a candidate gets hired that has a bad attitude?  Yes, you are right; the recruiter!  So wouldn’t it be logical for a company to send out those people that tend to be the best at screening for this relatively subjective, very soft science attribute we call attitude?  That is why you see mostly HR and business type people out on job and career fairs doing the initial screening.  Engineers and technical people tend to concentrate and be more comfortable evaluating attributes that they can quantify, like GPA, months of intern or co-op experience, or even leadership.  But again, it is your attitude that is most important.  The recruiter’s mantra is, “hire for attitude, and train for skill.” 


Mark Lyden

Mark Lyden is the author: College Students: Do This! Get Hired!Veterans: Do This! Get Hired!; and Professionals: Do This! Get Hired! (Coming Summer 2011).  A substantial portion of the proceeds from book sales are donated back to charity to help veterans and to help the stray and abandoned animals at Logan’s Run Rescue.   

Friday, April 1, 2011

Veterans’ Day Comes Early for The Howard Keating Show Listeners

I will be part of this wonderful event along with many other organizations throughout the country which will take place online April 6th through April 7th at www.keatingnetwork.com

24-Hour Web-a-thon Will Connect Vets With Jobs, Financing and Franchise Opportunities

Veterans’ Day is observed every November, but for America’s veterans and listeners of The Howard Keating Show(www.keatingnetwork.com), the holiday will come early this year as Howard hosts a 24-hour national Web-a-thon to benefit struggling veterans and their families.
From 5:00 pm EDT on April 6 until 5:00 pm the next day, Howard will honor America’s most-important heroes by giving them what they need most – access to jobs and a better financial future. By bringing together authors, job boards, financing experts, franchising representatives, social services professionals, entertainers and a their fellow active soldiers Howard will be doing his part to end the national shame of poverty and hopelessness among so many of our veterans.
For more than 30 years, Howard Keating – a veteran himself -- has been one of the nation’s strongest advocates for supporting small, developing or minority-owned businesses. He has been involved with over 25 start-ups and 16 turnarounds and his expertise spans everything from manufacturing, to software, to electronics, to land development, to health care. He has deep roots with the intricacies of federal programs and he organized and chaired the World Summit for Small Businesses in Washington D.C.
For more than 30 years, Howard Keating – a veteran himself -- has been one of the nation’s strongest advocates for supporting small, developing or minority-owned businesses. He has been involved with over 25 start-ups and 16 turnarounds and his expertise spans everything from manufacturing, to software, to electronics, to land development, to health care. He has deep roots with the intricacies of federal programs and he organized and chaired the World Summit for Small Businesses in Washington D.C.

For this live, interactive Web-a-thon, over 60 associations and 200 companies have pledged to help our returned soldiers:
 Get a new job;
 Start a business;
 Expand their business; and 
 Obtain up to $25,000 in business development loans.
“Our goal for this program is to get 1,000 veterans to apply for a job, and make 1,000 business contracts available to veterans,” said Howard Keating, CEO of Keating Network and host of The Howard Keating Show.  “This is just the beginning. We will continue these Web-a-thons until all of our veterans and their families have established the financial independence they so deserve.”
Contact      Patrick Fitzgibbons, Fleishman-Hillard, (212) 453-2124, Patrick.fitzgibbons@fleishman.com