Tag: careers

What We Don’t Learn From Most Job Ads

What We Don’t Learn From Most Job Ads

Quick challenge: Try summarizing all of your professional responsibilities in 150 words. If you’re like most people with jobs that involve decision making and critical thinking, that would be tough to pull off in such a limited space. So why do we put so much stock in the similarly brief job descriptions of the advertising most companies use to recruit employees?

Despite advances in social networking and automation within large human resources departments, hiring for all but the most entry-level positions still remains more art than science. Looking back over three decades of recruiting, I know first-hand that employers and job seekers alike can benefit from a more thoughtful approach to hiring.

Employers: Don’t sell the job. Sell the company.

The pace of the recovery in housing, commercial property and the full breadth of real estate is finally picking up. Likewise, the competition for talent and the urgency in filling positions critical to growth continue to mount. Dangling a title, a compensation range and the boilerplate language from a years-old job description in front of a universe of potential candidates is no longer the most effective way to find qualified people. Companies must declare – transparently and with pride – what differentiates their organizations from their competitors. Too often, these are things hiring managers take for granted. Look at policies like leadership development programs, reimbursement for continuing education and similar benefits for high-potential employees. If something stands out compared to the rest of the industry, let candidates know it when advertising a position.

Also, don’t just recruit for the immediate opening. Look for people who can grow in their leadership over time, and make that potential for advancement clear when communicating with candidates. Driven people won’t just be interested in the current role, but also how it will lead to the next career challenge a few years down the road. Let potential employees know what that looks like. Additionally, give them a sense of the culture they’ll be growing within. Is the company young and changing fast, or established and expanding at a measured pace? How much risk are employees encouraged to take? Is the style of the company’s leaders one that drives hard for a unified vision or one focused on consensus and collaboration from the bottom up? Do people leave early on Friday afternoons when the weather is too good to resist, or are Saturdays a part of the workweek more often than not? These questions don’t have right or wrong answers. But there are right and wrong people to hire to fit the culture that each represents. Creating realistic expectations during recruitment also helps set the stage for beneficial relationships with new hires.

Job Seekers: Research pays off.

By the same token, job seekers shouldn’t assume that life at another company will be the same as it is at places where they’ve worked before. Even within identical market segments, professionals in various organizations interact differently, share different values and approach business in different ways. Generic ads for the same position at two companies might make their demands sound identical. Yet a workplace that touts its support for people with families will offer a different experience than a team that never skips the chance to trade war stories at the bar after a 12-hour workday. As such, job seekers should look beyond the traditional list of benefits and compensation and try to get a feel for what it’s really like to work there. Check what current employees say about their workplace online. Network with people at the company. Ask them, and those involved in the hiring process, to describe their work environment. Is it loud’ Silent’ Competitive’ Sociable’ What personality traits do people who get ahead typically share’ It’s important to gauge these things at companies you’re interested in working for, even if you’re currently employed. That way, if and when you need to, you can enter the job market with some of the most critical homework completed ahead of time.

After all, there’s more to any given job than will ever fit on a single sheet of paper. Employees make the best career decisions – and companies retain the best people – when they have a true understanding of both the role and the workplace.

Christopher Frederick has helped match the talents of executives with leading companies in real estate for three decades. We’ve also developed a better approach to recruiting that combines the power of a 300,000-strong professional network with the discretion and one-on-one touch of a professional recruiter. Want to see this unique process up close? Contact us for a free Join.me presentation and watch how we can create a powerful search customized to your unique needs.

Hot Jobs – Especially in These Fields, Real Estate Pros Are In Demand

Hot Jobs – Especially in These Fields, Real Estate Pros Are In Demand

Things are moving again in real estate. Capital, consumers and employees have flowed back into the market over the last year. Companies are positioning themselves to meet the demand for housing and commercial space pent up over the last five years as the days of scarce financing and weak economic growth finally recede. Likewise, competition has once again heated up for leaders in highly skilled positions.

Hot Jobs

While it’s far from the only sector experiencing growth right now, construction has emerged as one of the most active areas of my recruiting practice in recent months. Professionals with land expertise are particularly in demand right now, with managers in purchasing coming in a close second. In commercial and multi-family real estate, I’ve seen consistent demand for acquisition professionals. Higher up the chain, I’ve also been filling positions for housing construction executives at the division level and regional property managers.

Now’s the Time

There’s wide demand for leadership across real estate specialties as companies rebuild their ranks to make the most of the ongoing recovery. For the professionals who dug in during the lean years, tackling new duties and widening their areas of expertise, 2014 is the year to think proactively about what’s next. Consider how you want to advance in the next five years while preparing yourself mentally to respond to unexpected job opportunities. Look to your former colleagues, peers and superiors. Are they jumping ship? Are they moving up or leveraging the demand for their skills to negotiate better compensation? Competition for talent will continue to ramp up in the foreseeable future, making this a great time to advance from a position if it no longer meets your professional needs.

Build Your Team

For hiring managers, this competition will make it essential to build a good team now, keeping in mind the potential for growth in the next five years. Widen your sphere of contacts, stay attuned to the professional development of longtime employees and keep an eye out for people who can fill positions requiring high-demand skills before those openings emerge.

Often, that process is frustrated by the deluge of off-the-mark applications generated by standard job advertising online. That’s why Christopher Frederick maintains a network of only real estate professionals and screens qualified applicants one-on-one for every position we recruit. We can quickly promote your critical openings by drawing from a database more than 200,000-strong, narrowed by specialty and location. To learn more about how we can save you time, money and work during your next executive search at no upfront cost, contact Chris Hingle at chingle@chrisfred.com.

For more than two decades, Christopher Frederick has helped place leaders with some of the largest companies in real estate. Visit our website at www.chrisfred.com where you can find exclusive job listings for real estate executives and read more about our one-of-a-kind approach to executive recruitment.

New Thinking for the New Year – Upgrade Your Approach to Recruitment

New Thinking for the New Year – Upgrade Your Approach to Recruitment

After a brisk 2013, the new year has found employees in the real estate sector emboldened by improving job prospects. Construction, especially, is expected to be the third biggest job creator among U.S. industry sectors, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics recently predicting annual job growth of 2.6 percent. In the out years, the BLS in December predicted 50.6 million job openings across the economy between 2012 and 2022. Unemployment remains at 7 percent, but improving conditions mean employers and job seekers alike should position themselves for a new hiring landscape in 2014.

On the Move

Job openings nationwide climbed to nearly 4 million in October, reaching levels not seen since the first months of the recession in 2008. The Labor Department also noted that more workers – 2.39 million that month – left their jobs voluntarily than in any period since October of 2008. That indicates a confidence on the part of employees that they can find more fulfilling or lucrative work. Those hunkered down in positions that offered stability during the recession but no longer meet their professional goals should keep a close eye on the career moves of their peers and managers. Opportunities could emerge in the coming months in the form of lateral openings at different companies and vacancies caused by managers taking the jump to more advanced positions.

Network Now

Even in a rising market for property values and skilled personnel, it’s important to make use of resources that have evolved since the last time real estate companies found themselves in tight competition for talent. LinkedIn, for example, grew its membership 38 percent, year over year, in the third quarter of 2013. With 259 million members globally, it’s become critical to maintain a presence on that network. Even if you’re not actively using social media to find leads, potential employers are.

At Christopher Frederick, we’re also taking the hiring process to a new level. We’ve built the fastest-growing digital network of any traditional recruiting firm, while staying true to the level of personal service we’ve provided our clients for decades. Our proprietary network reaches nearly 200,000 leaders in real estate. Unlike automated online services, though, we use this as a tool to reach the most qualified candidates before a personal, one-to-one approach to screening job finalists, all at no upfront cost to our clients. Call us any time if you’d like to learn more about how this approach can enhance your search for the leaders who make your business excel. Whatever your goals for 2014, keep your head up, look for new opportunities, and develop a strategy now to make the most of a recovering job market.

At Christopher Frederick, we’ve spent more than two decades helping some of the biggest names in real estate hire the talent that keeps them growing. Contact Chris Hingle at chingle@chrisfred.com. Or visit our website at www.chrisfred.com where you can find exclusive job listings for real estate executives.

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