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Regain Control - Advertise
If you attempt to penetrate the job market with the guidance of recruiting agencies you have transfer all control
into the hands of your competitor. Why do some people allow themselves to be stripped of the lure of profits and opportunity?
Elias Canetti in Crowds and Power speaks of "The intellectual inferiority of the crowd". He say this "is a sign that people are
filtering and manipulating new information to make it accord with their existing beliefs." This type of behavior is known as 'cognitive dissonance.
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Dissonant information, contradicts the collective fantasy, is uncomfortable, and people seek to avoid it
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Leon Festinger argued in Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, "people will tolerate increasing degrees of dissonance if they are motivated
by a sufficiently enticing reward." In the job search, job seekers are prepared to ignore bad news such as "your not an exact match…" ,
no call backs or communication from agency or company. However, they become optimistic again by talking to another headhunter who once again
conjure up optimism, praise their resume and speaks of job opportunity. Their fear is removed as they prepare for a significant bounce in their job search.
Dissonant information, contradicts the collective fantasy, is uncomfortable, and people seek to avoid it.
According to Festinger, "a group will maintain a state of cognitive dissonance until the pain exceeds the rewards." For our job search this
might be seen as the moment when the fear of loss outweighs the reward for opportunity. If your exigency places you at this juncture it
is now time to regain control of you job search.
Regardless, you need to establish your own identity, not the identity of a recruiting agency. Currently, with the melt down of the IT sector
this should be the best time for companies to independently find workers, especially programmers, their a dime a dozen you don't need agencies to find water.
It totally escapes me that any IT hiring manager would contact an agency and pay the silly mark up price between 30-50% while there are hundreds
of thousands of workers unemployed and available! Whats even more frighten these very same managers talk openly about using recruiting firms in
public, news groups and forums as if this is the norm...shocking!
Hang on to your hats on this one folks...
Dont be surprise if you discover that these very same companies continue to complain programmers are to expensive!
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A concept secretly guarded by all recruiting agencies is Marketing Campaign. The firms will never mention this to
the general public seeking to sell their serves. Why? Because it works and is a threat to their business!
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Components
As the agencies begin to reveal themselves for the irrelevancy they are lets take a glimpse on the other side of the job search.
The new job search rules only contain four obvious components.
Marketing Campaign Locate Company Names Establishing Contacts Sell Yourself
Marketing Campaign
A concept secretly guarded by all recruiting agencies is Marketing Campaign. The firms will never mention this to
the general public seeking to sell their serves. Why? Because it works and is a threat to their business! If you initiate
a strong Marketing Campaign you will have complete control over you rate structure, discounts and free services offered. Individuals and
business will save money by paying you direct for your services, recognize you as a professional and will become your client.
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Recruiting firms can not afford to compete or advertise against you as they know it will be a losing battle, consider the following.
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Firms do not have the services, they have to find it.
You are the services
Firms are not position to offer discounts packages or create specific tier plans for a specific service.
To compete against your competitor at full force, you are in control to create any discount
plan based on your knowledge of the services you provide.
The Firms are totally clueless about what the services are and do.
You are the service, its your profession you understand it inside and out.
Firms can not guarantee the services or immediate availability i.e. the amatures in their portfolio are no guarantee
and are free to back out of an offer should a better position become available.
You are the service. You are free to promote any guarantee you are comfortable with and only you
know your availability.
Firms are limited to negotiate services and rate
You are the services, your free to negotiate direct, an unlimited terms of services and rate
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Market yourself! Why do companies contact recruiting agencies for there services? Because the agencies Market themselves and broadcast to the
public that they HAVE the available candidates. However, as we already know, the only candidates they have in their massive portfolio are
those of capture amateurs.
Note the fraud, they don't -have- candidates, they have to go out and FIND them from their own personnel database or search posted resume on the
job boards. Understand the firms rarely post the job opening FIRST, its always posted LAST. They first search their database if no hit
they search the job boards. Either way, when they find a hit they send the candidate to the company then they post the opening, the job is
already dead by the time you read it.
Think about it If you have an opportunity as a recruiter to make a commission are you going to post that info for all to see and hammer, yes other
recruiter and a few ambitious candidate will try to discover who the client is using every trick in the book. Because of this the job opening is
guarded and kept secret until a candidate is found and presented. The next time you get a call from a recruiter ask them if the job is posted
on the job boards, 99% of the time they will tell you its a new job order that just came in, believe it!
Back to marketing, think in terms of a grass root marketing campaign. Look all around, everybody that performs a service understands marketing.
The plumber, roofer, electricians… They massively advertise all over the place using the newspaper, yellow pages, pamphlet, they even use
their van/truck as a marketing billboard. Interestingly, those employed in the IT sector simply do not market or advertise. They grew up
conditioned by society that they should rely on the recruiting firm services at all times. Test it out yourself, tell your friends or family members
your looking to hire a contract software developer. Their immediate response will be "Call a Headhunter!". Now tell them your looking for a contract plumber
their immediate response "Check the yellow pages!".
Spend a few days or weeks learning different marketing techniques, search Google for "Marketing Campaign". Buy magazine such as Marketing or Starting a Business.
One of the first important aspect learned in marketing is, the more you give the more you get. i.e. offer something free or at a substantial discount.
LOOK PROFESSIONAL BE PROFESSIONAL
Create a name for your business, then get a dba (Doing Business As) at the court house usually cost
about $10.00. Usually at the same place where you buy license plates, marriage license…
The Contractor Group
Naming Your Company
Get your Employer Identification Number, EIN, from the IRS form-SS-4. The process may take 10 minutes free over the phone.
IRS - EIN
Should you latter decide to establish a Corporation you have already meet the first two requirements above.
Create a business card. I created my own on a Lexmark printer using Office Depot Premium Mate White
Business Cards -30 sheets, 300 cards Create Postcards to send out -Avery #8387 e-bay is cheap -found 3 boxes for around $20 for a total 600
postcards, expect a one percent return on calls. Printer ink is cheap also!
Include the following on your brochure/postcards
Get a PO box - average $18 a year Get a second phone line and have it register to your business -dba $16.00 a month this also gets listed
in the yellow pages as a one line. Design a Logo for your business Create a catchy phrase, but dont use "Software Solutions that Rock" Create letter heads and envelopes with your logo and business name If you have the money advertise yourself in the Yellow Pages, warning this is expensive, and if you have a small ad the bigger
ones will override you big time.
ADVERTISE
What I have done in the past is to create a small brochure, that folds three ways. My company name and logo on the front,
services I provide on the inside, and billing rate and contact on the back. (brochure paper used by HP," tri-fold brochure
paper gloss"). Basically, this is my resume! Again, think about it, if you hire a plumber or electrician do you ask for their
resume!
In addition, send postcards to potential business. I spent about a month on the process of creating brochure/postcards and what
to say and logo design. Look around your house for examples, im sure you have some type of advertisement received in the mail.
Also, advertise in your neighborhood monthly newsletter, right next to the electrician and plumbers!.
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