What do I look for in a Recruiter?

Yesterday I received an email that opened with "I recently came across your resume on the internet and believe the job opportunity below would be of interest to you." I get an email like this every couple of weeks. I find this interesting for two reasons. One, my resume has not been active on any sites (Dice/Monster) for over 4 years, and two, you think I am interested because of a single keyword in your search.

This brings up a good question. What do I look for in a Recruiter? Over the past several years I've worked with many different recruiters in the Twin Cities, either when I've been looking for a new contract/position, or been in roles where I needed to hire contract resources. Like any profession, there have been some really good ones, where I keep them in my network and continue to reach out to them when I have a need, and there are others, that, well, let's just say I no longer have their business card on file.

Here are four keys that I view as to what makes a good recruiter:

1. Have a relationship with the hiring manager and/or client company. It's easy to just glean open reqs off of vendor management systems, and throw a bunch of resumes at them, hoping that one of your candidates will get selected. Having a relationship is going to give you a true understanding of what the client is looking for and what you should be looking for in a candidate, which should give you an edge over other recruiters.

2. Know what the position is that you are recruiting to fill. When you get a req, don't just read the description. I can do that. Too many position descriptions are boilerplate, and may not always reflect the client's true need. Work with the client to find out what is behind the req. (Relationship) What is the real scope of the work? Are they posting for a Technical Program Manager when what they really need is a Business Analyst or Developer? Knowing what the client is looking for is only going to enable you to find the right candidate and sell that candidate on the position.

3. Get to know me. My best experience came from a former recruiter who has become a good friend - Robert Stanke. (Ok, it's Bob to most of you, but I met him when he was still Robert!) When Bob first recruited me, he was working on a couple of open reqs that my experience matched up with pretty well. Before Bob would submit me as a candidate he had one requirement - we had to meet for a 1:1. He wanted to get to know me so that he knew what I was looking for in my next position, what I liked, didn't like, what made me tick, the things that don't come through on the resume. He wanted to get to know me so that he knew how to present me, and could sell me to the client.

4. Communicate. Keep me in the loop. Once I’ve been submitted, a periodic update would be nice to let me know the status of the req. Has the req been filled or closed? Delayed? Am I still in play? I’m working with a recruiter now who provides me a weekly status update on an open req she’s working. I know things come up in a business and positions are delayed and canceled. With a good client relationship you should be aware of what is going on with the req and be able to communicate the status to the candidate.

These are the four keys that keep a recruiter in my network and their business card in my file.

Fair food not fair game: Updated

Over the weekend we took the family down to Spencer, Iowa to go to the Spencer (Clay County) Fair. This is something my wife's family has done for years. One of the nice things about this fair is that they have a good sized machinery hill (John Deere, Case IH), and the tractors are open so that you can climb on and in them. This is a big draw to my 4 year old son. He can't get enough of the tractors. He's a John Deere boy thanks to his Papa who retired from farming a couple of years ago.

One of the other things about the fair is the food. 3 weeks ago we went to the Minnesota State Fair. I went conservative at the state fair, only had 3 mini donuts, but did have about 3/4 of an order of cheese curds. Add in 3 glasses of milk at the all you can drink milk stand (2 white, 1 chocolate) and just 2 Sweet Martha's cookies. Needless to say, for the day I was over on my calorie goal by 50%. It could have been much worse. That calorie violation fhad a negative impact on my weightless for the week. For whatever reason I hit that Monday up 2 pounds, resulting in a week that was spent getting me back to the previous week's loss total. A price to pay.

This weekend I knew going in I was going to have one of the Nutty Bars that they sell at the Spencer Fair. Vanilla ice cream on a stick, dipped in chocolate and covered in peanuts. This was going to be a given. No mini donuts this time. No cheese curds. I did have a gyro for lunch. Not very calorie friendly either (it's the pita). I haven't figured out yet how bad I violated my calorie limit for the day, but I know I went over. Sunday added another challenge. A church potluck. You know how those country church ladies like to bake. So many salads and desserts to choose from. I tried to do as best as I could given the temptation. But there was a cherry cobbler that was to die for. :-) Dinner was very sensible tonight. Chicken breast and spinach. Like I could really balance this against the cherry cobbler!!

So what does all of this mean? I've been working on my weight loss for 5 weeks. I've been very dedicated to controlling my food intake to honor my daily calorie goal. As of Friday morning I've lost 13.4 pounds. A good pace. I'm not sure what the scale will say on Monday morning. Going into this weekend I expected to take a hit. Why? Because I was going to allow myself a little food pleasure. Now I know that I will never hit my goal if I continue to take these little holidays from the calorie control. But I also know that to completely deny yourself some of these treats creates the risk that you will go overboard at some point and over consume. Don't get me wrong, this is not something I plan to do every 3-4 weeks. And I'm not beating myself up for the extras this weekend. I just know that I've got to stay true and continue with the overall discipline that I have been working under and stay focused.

My goal is 60 pounds by August 14, 2012. (I'd like to hit that by my birthday in July). My second goal was 25 pounds by Christmas. I have 3 months to get there, and there is no reason that I shouldn't be past that - that's a pound a week. And there are no more fairs between now and Christmas!

UPDATE: On Monday morning the scale told me that I over indulged on the cherry cobbler and other things. Weight was up 2.4 pounds. Now I know I didn't eat that many more calories. One other thing I left out was the fact that I didn't drink near the amount of water that I usually drink on a daily basis. Guessing that also had an impact.

Thanks for stopping by and reading.

Day 30 of David 2.0: Progress update

Day 30 update

Today marks day 30 of my journey to physical transformation. As of this morning I have lost 13 pounds. So what is my goal? Have I set one? The answer is yes. I've set a goal to lose 60 pounds in one year. I set an incremental goal of 25 pounds by Christmas, and am well on the way there.

Why 60?

The short story is that when I looked at a Body Mass Index (BMI) I found that even in losing 60 pounds I was still classified as overweight, but only barely. Now I know that this is not a very good indicator as it does not take into consideration muscle mass, but it is a general indicator. 60 is a round number, and one that I honestly believe I can hit in 12 months. My starting weight was 246.6, so actually I plan to lose 61.6 to get to an even 185. In 2003 I was diagnosed as Type II Diabetic. At that time my weight was around 290-295. Over the next 12-18 months I lost 50 pounds through mostly diet changes. I've maintained that weight loss plus or minus 5-7 pounds since. Now its time to take control and take the next step.

How am I doing this?

The tool. To accomplish this I have been following a reduced calorie diet. To manage this I am using the myfitnesspal application and recording everything that I eat. I've also tried the very similar livestrong app, but just like the myfitnesspal one better. I've found it easier to use, easier to add foods not found in the database, more accuracy on the nutrition values of the foods in the database, and one of the nice functions is that it can scan barcodes on food packaging and then pull the nutrition information from the database. I've logged every meal and snack for the last 3o days and it just becomes automatic. I know meal by meal how I am tracking for my daily calories, and can adjust my eating based on this. Myfitnesspal also looks at my calorie intake, activities, and weight loss and recommends changes to my daily calorie allowance to help manage my weight loss in support of my goal.

Food choices. Since I am recording everything I eat, I am really paying attention to food values - calories, fat, protein, fiber, and carbs. I find I talk myself out of eating certain things because I know it will have a negative impact - too many calories or not enough substance to fill me up, and don't want to risk going over my daily allowance. If I know I'll be having something for dinner that might be a little heavier in calories, I can work backwards and adjust through the early part of the day to help keep me on track. It's the little things. Eliminate the cheese, or skip the sauce, or sometimes skip the bun. It's looking at what makes up the calories in a meal and determining what you really want to eat. I'm not claiming perfection in this. I went to the state fair and paid the price. Cheese curds, mini donuts, a couple of Sweet Martha's cookies, and the all you can drink milk pushed my over my daily calories but almost 50%. Amazing how that impacted the weight.

Water. Water is key. I am averaging 12-16 glasses a day. I've found that by drinking the water I've reduced those hunger feelings that I experience in the evening.

Exercise. I have not added exercise yet, but that is the next step. I've dusted off the treadmill. I'm not a runner. In the past I've typically done 30-40 minutes of walking every night, gradually increasing the pace. That's the plan, and my 60 day progress update will include how I've done with exercise.

That's where I stand today. I am fired up about this. I did not expect to see the results that I have in the first 30 days. I don't believe I will continue to see the same pace of loss, but believe it will be close, especially adding exercise. Each day it gets easier and the results really help drive me.

What's with the 10 pound bag of flour?

A bag of flour you ask? Yes it is. A 10 pound bag. This represents the 10 pounds of weight that I have lost since August 14th, the start of my physical transformation. Actually at 10.8 pounds as of this morning. To help me visualize the progress towards my goal, I decided that I would purchase a bag of flour every time I hit another 10 pound increment. The bags of flour will be stacked on my home office desk, which is also the room where my treadmill is located, to give me a constant visual reminder of my progress.

It really hit me as I was carrying the bag with the flour in it out of the store and across the parking lot. While it might only be 10 pounds, it was noticeable as I was carrying the flour. Then it hit me, I was constantly carrying this 10 pounds a month ago. I can't imagine what a few more bags will feel like. But I can't wait to find out!!

Are you ready for some football?

Order is restored to the universe. Last weekend college football kicked off, tonight the NFL. Until today, Fall was in the air. (Where did the 85 degrees come from today?) Football starting and baseball winding down to the Fall Classic.

I love all sports, football (college and pro), baseball, NASCAR (yes, it is a sport - those guys are athletes), basketball (prefer college), and soccer. Probably in that order.

A fan of the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Oregon Ducks at the college level, the San Diego Chargers and the Minnesota Vikings on the pro. I grew up in Oregon, and married into an Iowa family. Looking forward to this weekend when the Vikings travel to San Diego. The only game where I don't cheer for the Vikings. Go Bolts!!!!

Really disappointed that the Ducks did as poorly as they did against LSU. Not sure they can recover and get back to the top of the BCS rankings. Was hoping they would have a chance to get back to the national championship game and make amends for last year. It's tough to make a repeat trip, but you hope for it.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

As I stated in my first post, my transformation consists of two components - personal and professional. Ok, so what does that mean? One thing it means is that I turned 47 this year and realize 50 is not that far away. But what else does it mean? There must be more. There is. I've spent a great deal of time over the last year in personal reflection and this is what has led me to this transformation plan.

Personal Transformation

In a nutshell it means that on the personal side I have made a commitment to improving my health which includes weight loss and a goal to reduce my dependency on my diabetes medication through dietary changes and exercise. I have a target weigh loss goal, but want to provide a little background before I disclose my goal. I believe this will have a great impact on other areas of my life.

Professional Transformation

On the professional side it means that I am going to answer the question - what do you want to be when you grow up? I've been successful as a Technical Program/Project manager for several years. The last 8 years as a consultant. Something's been missing though. I still haven't found what I'm looking for. I have some ideas as to what that is. And I have some ideas on what it will take to answer this question and I am ready to implement those ideas.

David 2.0

And with that we have the building blocks of David 2.0. Reaching the goals in each of these transformations will be very rewarding and life changing, but I believe that the two are interdependent and that success in either one will drive the success in the other.

Welcome to David 2.0

After much thought, maybe too much, I have joined the world of blogging. Why a blog? Because 140 characters of Twitter just isn't enough to get out what I want to share and say. 

But why David 2.0?  What is it? David 2.0 is going to be the vehicle for me to share my journey through a personal and professional transformation (more on that soon).  I will also thrown in posts about family, technology, sports, and life in general. 

So, welcome to David 2.0. I can't promise that every post will be of interest to everyone who reads it, but it will be of interest to me and I hope that once in a while I share something with you that will make you stop and think, laugh, or learn something.