The big question everyone looking for work keeps asking is; Why can't you just keep us abreast of the process? Pretty simple and clear cut. Haze On The Radio on Face Book late of Z-107.7 St. Louis says "I thought I wold get good karma for all the calls and emails I returned promptly". Nikki Landry late of KBWF San Francisco says "No one is letting you know where you stand in the interview process". You can't infer in a call or email where a person stands in the process. Managers however can say, "I received your material and thank you for submitting, we will be in touch". Is pretty generic. I have had this recently, where you are interviewed for no real opening.
I read a smart ass anonymous posting recently on ALL ABOUT COUNTRY from a programmer who said, with all the positions I have at the station, production, on the air, music scheduling and multiple stations, I can't take the time to talk to all you whining job searchers. Nice!
I had an interview in Fresno that started in the HR department then went to the hiring manager and they let me know the possible attributes of the position, wages, hours, bonus structure, job detail and more. At the Job Boot Camp I attended last weekend, they talked about how to stay top of mind, thank you letters, keeping in touch with the receptionist about the opening and more. Back to radio and the private sector; Hundred of openings or more for one position. It's not 1992 where you got a phone call from a friend that's a programmer, you send a package and a week later you're in the traded hotel waiting to talk to them.
The pool of possible candidates gives the employer time and the narrowing down of the most qualified candidates. I know this sounds basic - But stay in touch by sending emails about the position, when you see something in the trades that might interest the employer or a congratulations on recent ratings, send great audio every so often. Every conversation that you have about the position, take notes and send the bullet points back in an email.
Also do what the possible employer is doing to you. They are looking at mutiple candidates. You need to look at mutiple positions. Work more than one job, work on a few. Then you can choose at the end of the day, just like the employer will have to do.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
CAN YOU CALL OR CLICK? Chuck Geiger
The big question everyone looking for work keeps asking is; Why can't you just keep us abreast of the process? Pretty simple and clear cut. Haze On The Radio on Face Book late of Z-107.7 St. Louis says "I thought I wold get good karma for all the calls and emails I returned promptly". Nikki Landry late of KBWF San Francisco says "No one is letting you know where you stand in the interview process". You can't infer in a call or email where a person stands in the process. Managers however can say, "I received your material and thank you for submitting, we will be in touch". Is pretty generic. I have had this recently, where you are interviewed for no real opening.
I read a smart ass anonymous posting recently on ALL ABOUT COUNTRY from a programmer who said, with all the positions I have at the station, production, on the air, music scheduling and multiple stations, I can't take the time to talk to all you whining job searchers. Nice!
I had an interview in Fresno that started in the HR department then went to the hiring manager and they let me know the possible attributes of the position, wages, hours, bonus structure, job detail and more. At the Job Boot Camp I attended last weekend, they talked about how to stay top of mind, thank you letters, keeping in touch with the receptionist about the opening and more. Back to radio and the private sector; Hundred of openings or more for one position. It's not 1992 where you got a phone call from a friend that's a programmer, you send a package and a week later you're in the traded hotel waiting to talk to them.
The pool of possible candidates gives the employer time and the narrowing down of the most qualified candidates. I know this sounds basic - But stay in touch by sending emails about the position, when you see something in the trades that might interest the employer or a congratulations on recent ratings, send great audio every so often. Every conversation that you have about the position, take notes and send the bullet points back in an email.
Also do what the possible employer is doing to you. They are looking at mutiple candidates. You need to look at mutiple positions. Work more than one job, work on a few. Then you can choose at the end of the day, just like the employer will have to do.
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If I could offer ANY advice to a job seeker, I'd say "Make "em Want YOU". Here's a little advice to PD's who are submitting ads for job openings. "Post an email address differently then your company emaill address, and have an automatic response to the sender". Why? at least this way it shows you received it. Plus, when you're job hunting, it's a great feeling to see a repply from a job we submitted our stuff too...even if it IS an auto reply.
ReplyDeleteBTW...I landed a gig in a top 10 market, by making them want me....I beleive this is the key to landing the gig.
Good luck to everyone looking, and PD's please create that email address.
Good stuff Nikki
ReplyDeleteThe last time I had an opening here, I got easily 75-100 emails a day from applicants, and despite the very clear qualifications I asked for in the job ads, the majority of them didn't have them (and some even said, "I know I don't know _____ but I figured you'd want to give me a chance anyway.") I still had to read every one of those emails and resumes before realizing they didn't have the right qualifications.
ReplyDeleteI did my best to answer every applicant, but because I was also trying to continue to do the job that takes up a full day even without looking through resumes and listening to airchecks, a lot of times the best I could do was copy and paste something along the lines of "thanks for your interest, I'll be in touch". I did that much because when I was trying to get a gig, I was extremely frustrated that many PDs never gave me even an acknowledgment that they'd gotten my stuff. Heck, even a "you suck, I'd never hire you" response would have been better than nothing!
So, I know how it feels waiting to hear something, ANYTHING, but these days when there are SO many people out of work, you have to know you're one of hundreds of applicants for any position and understand we still have stations to run. So, try to be patient. And Chuck? Great advice.. don't put all your hopes in one station. Work on several of them at once. What a tough position to be in if all of them offered you a job!
Thanks Jess
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