Women in the workplace can be seen with lots of different styles. It isn’t about being traditional, up-to-date, outdated or current. It is about being taken seriously and establishing a sense of confidence, approachability, sophistication and professionalism. There are many thoughts on what women should be wearing these days in a business formal or business casual setting. The lines for attire can be so fine and I would always recommend staying classic. A few tips to remember:
Cameron-Brooks’ Newest Recruiter
Samantha Gale is the newest member of the Cameron-Brooks Recruiter team. I asked her to write a post introducing herself. Here it is:
Being the newest member of Cameron-Brooks I have a lot to live up to! The professionalism and dedication to the work they do on a daily basis is mind blowing. I still cannot believe I am officially part of this team….
I joined Cameron-Brooks after spending 5 years in Business Development with Cleveland Clinic. I worked very closely with our physicians and grateful patients coming through the hospital, building relationships and helping increase our patient base and satisfaction. I graduated from Miami University out of Oxford, OH with a Bachelor of Science degree. After school I went on to work as a successful Account Manager (sales type position) for the Unifirst Corporation. At Cameron-Brooks, my focus is on recruiting the best JMO Candidates, providing leadership, and continually building corporate client relations. I am originally from Cleveland, Ohio and just moved to Texas 6 weeks ago!
I will be working with our client companies assisting them in hiring, developing and grooming JMOs in their organizations. I will also partner with JMOs during their career transition process, working closely with them prior to the Conference to refine their interview skills, and during the follow-up process to ensure they are well prepared for final interviews. I will be traveling some to various military bases throughout the US to meet with prospective JMO candidates and those already enrolled in our program to help them learn more about business.
It has been great to be a part of this dynamic team. At Cameron-Brooks, they leave little room for surprises. There is such detail in prepping the candidates, helping them to become Corporate America ready and guiding them through the process of accepting an offer. I am excited to be here, looking forward to all the change I am experiencing professionally, working with our candidates, and joining the Cameron-Brooks team!
Samantha Gale
Filed under Career Management
Interview Attire for the JMO to Business Transition
In a previous blog post, I wrote about professional communication, specifically verbal communication. Today’s blog post is about professional non-verbal communication, particularly business dress or attire for interviewing.
Roger Cameron writes in PCS to Corporate America, 3rd Ed., “Your physical appearance should imply that you are professional and competent and that you can get the job done. This does not mean you should look dull, but if you err, it should be on the side of being conservative versus highly fashionable. Remember that you are not trying to please your friends (I add spouse here) or the fashion experts but rather the people who make the hiring decisions. These individuals are usually older and conservative (at least in their business appearance), and care more about what you can accomplish than how good-looking you are.” (page 100, PCS, 3rd Ed.)
Too often, I hear male candidates say, “If I wear a dark suit with white shirt and a power tie, I will look like every other candidate.” First, you will not look like every other candidate. Ties come in all types of different conservative colors and patterns and as a result make the suit look very different. In fact, my C-B teammates probably do not even know that I often wear the same blue suit all four days at our Charlotte, NC Conferences. I change out my tie every day and it makes the suit look different. Second, and most importantly, you want your answers, competencies, accomplishments, stories, leadership style, problem solving methodologies, questions, and statements of interests to stand out and make the difference with the recruiter. In my 12 years of recruiting, no recruiter has ever said “Yes” to a candidate because of the great looking shirt, tie or suit. In fact, I have never even heard a recruiter provide a comment even close to, “I really liked his shirt or tie.” On the other hand, I have heard recruiters make negative comments and provide constructive feedback about shoes, ties or shirt style. I do not have 45+ years of experience like Roger Cameron does, but I 100% agree with his comments above. I also agree with the additional advice found in “Chapter 4: Physical Factors of Interviewing,” (PCS, 3rd Ed.), and I ask that you trust me on this.
For this blog post, I am going to focus on recent mistakes made by men and suggestions for avoiding them. Why start with men? Because I see more of the female JMOs getting the business dress correct and more mistakes from the men (I will follow up this blog post with one for women). For a complete list of suggestions, see “Chapter 4: Physical Factors of Interviewing,” (PCS, 3rd Ed.).
Let’s start at the bottom and move up.
SHOES: You need to wear leather soled shoes with suit pants because they are wool. Rubber soled shoes should only be worn with cotton pants or jeans. If you do not know what I am talking about, ask your shoe sales person – he or she will know. Stick with black or burgundy/wine/cordovan for your interviews. Too many candidates are now wearing the brown or chile colored shoes. The shoe sales people at some department stores will tell you the black or cordovan colors are out of style. They are not! Just open a Fortune Magazine issue and look at pictures of some of the executives. They are in style for interviewing/professional dress. Brown and chile colors are a dress “down” color and come in many of shades. I do not recommend them for your first pair of shoes to build your business wardrobe. When you are in your job and you get your second pair, yes, go get those – but not for your interviews.
SUIT: For your first one or two suits, I highly recommend blue or dark grey. I am seeing more and more candidates wearing light grey or suits that have a sheen to them. I also recommend you stick with a 2- or 3- button suit with a single vent (that’s on the back of the coat). For your pants, the popular style right now is flat front with no cuffs. The problem is that, while it is a current fashion, it does not look good on all people. For your first suits, I highly recommend pleated pants, with a full break at the bottom, and cuffed. The full break has to do with the way the pants hit your shoes and “break”. In my first two suits, I had half breaks, but after they were cleaned a few times they became more like “quarter breaks”. From now on, I get full breaks.
SHIRTS: Just stick with the basic white shirt and you are safe. I am seeing more candidates wearing light blue shirts during their interviews. Light blue projects an image of soft, comforting, and warm. Those are good feelings, but not one you want to give off for an interview. I am adamant about the white shirt for interviews. You can get great looking white shirts that are wrinkle resistant at Brooks’ Brothers, Jos. A Bank, Paul Fredrick (online only), Land’s End and many department stores. Since Roger wrote PCS 3rd. Ed., we have the travelers/wrinkle resistant material now. This is where I deviate from PCS, and I think Roger would be okay with it. Also, you do not have to get the button down collar anymore; straight or pinpoint work well.
TIES: Choose power ties in red, yellow, light blue, certain shades of green, etc. with conservative patterns or a club stripe style. The tie is a place in your attire where you can stand out a bit with “your style”. Just don’t get crazy. I once had a candidate’s spouse tell him to go put on his smiley face tie for his interview with Wal-Mart. That was back when Wal-Mart’s brand was using the yellow smiley face. Luckily I heard her and put a stop to it. By the way, he did end up going to work for Wal-Mart. Maybe he wore it in the follow up interview?
This post is not meant to be an all-inclusive dress recommendation, but rather to address some of the issues I am seeing. It is pointless to reduce your effectiveness in an interview due to uninformed wardrobe choices. Instead, follow these guidelines, and go to Chapter 4 in PCS to Corporate America for more in-depth recommendations. Even though PCS was published in 2000, these recommendations for initial and follow up interviews remain timeless.
Joel Junker
Filed under Interview tips
Cameron-Brooks Values Face-to-Face Personal Interaction
As a Junior Military Officer (JMO) headhunter (we prefer to be called a recruiting firm or recruiters), we believe in developing a personal relationship with our JMOs face-to-face. Most other JMO and traditional recruiting firms do not do this. This past week, I met with numerous JMOs across Germany, and these meetings reminded me that there is no substitute for the in-person connection and conversation.
All total, between travel, meetings and interviews, I spent a week in Germany away from the office and my family and met with JMOs in three different locations throughout Germany. Some of you may know that I have a family of four children at home who range from 4 to 12 years of age. It is hard leaving them for week and being gone for another weekend missing soccer games and swim meets. During this time away, I start to wonder if I could replace this week long visit with conducting webcasts, Skype or Facetime video calls and phone conversations. I ask myself, “Could I accomplish the same results?”
I gave my first presentation in Heidelberg, Germany last Saturday. After watching the JMOs take notes, fielding their questions, and then interviewing several of them, I had my answer: nothing can replace face-to-face personal conversation. Webcasts, Skype/Facetime, and the telephone are value added tools, but not a replacement for face-to-face. In fact, at the end of one of my interviews, one JMO voiced a concern as to whether he would have additional face-to-face meetings with a Cameron-Brooks Recruiter, despite being assigned to Coleman Barracks, Germany. I assured him that my plan is to have a Cameron-Brooks Recruiter in Germany twice a year, and possibly three times. He said that that made a significant difference in his decision to partner with us.
I find it much easier to fully evaluate a candidate’s marketability during face-to-face interaction. Likewise, I know the JMOs are also evaluating Cameron-Brooks when they meet with me – and they should! I want them to evaluate Cameron-Brooks based on personal interaction and not just on this blog, 1,000+ Likes on Facebook, or our Website. It is absolutely a two-way relationship.
Finally, when we partner with JMOs, part of our mission says, “Cameron-Brooks will help candidates reach their utmost potential—personally and in their career—by equipping them with the tools they need to transition from the military to a career as a future leader in one of America’s top companies.” Ensuring we understand the JMO candidate’s qualifications and interests is best done personally. While we have worked with some JMOs with whom we have not been able to meet prior to their Conference, it is rare.
For me, I am glad I made this trip to Germany. I met numerous talented JMOs who have served our country, accomplished incredible feats, and have tremendous potential for the future. As an individual and as a company, we continue to be committed to furthering our candidates’ success by making the effort needed to see them face-to-face.
From Germany,
Joel Junker
Filed under Uncategorized
2011 August Career Conference Results
We just completed the August 2011 Career Conference this week. 35 candidates and 15 spouses and support team members attended the conference, and all candidates have multiple companies pursuing them into the follow up process. The candidates interviewed with an average of 12.9 companies and averaged 8.3 companies pursuing them for a 64% pursuit rate, resulting in a slightly higher pursuit rate than recent conferences. The entire Cameron-Brooks team congratulates the August conference candidates on their first step in their transition to Corporate America.
Upon completion of their last interviews, I spoke with several of the August candidates about what about skills and competencies companies were looking for. The common themes in nearly all the interviews revolved around leadership, problem solving, process improvement, and project management. The companies wanted to hear specific examples of a time they led a team to achieve a significant result, a time they managed a project, a time they improved a process, or when they led change in an organization.
The candidate feedback validated what I recently read in the 2010 IBM Human Capital Study publication. According to the study, HR executives stated that the ability to develop future leaders has the greatest impact on their organizations’ future success. In fact, creative leadership was identified from this study as the top organizational need over the next five years. When you hear the term creative leadership, do not confuse this as “leaders with good artistic ability”. Rather, the term “creative” refers to those leaders who are able to challenge all elements of a business, who look for innovative ways to improve processes, drive efficiency, motivate teams, and cultivate or even reinvent relationships both internally and externally. Despite the current turmoil in the stock market and the S&P downgrade of theUnited States’ credit rating, our client companies recognize the urgent need for this type of dynamic leadership, and they continue to attend Cameron-Brooks Career Conferences in search of top leadership talent.
The size of the companies attending our August Career Conference varied from a company with 200+ employees to one with over 185,000 employees. Several privately held and foreign-headquartered companies attended the Conference, as well as some of the largest companies on the Fortune 500 list. We also had a number of new companies attend as we continue to diversify and expand our client company portfolio. Industries included biopharmaceutical manufacturing, building materials, procurement, logistics, consumer products, telecommunications manufacturing, semiconductor manufacturing, consulting/risk assurance, mining and construction, oil and gas exploration and production, engineered industrial products, industrial gas and delivery systems, and medical device.
Our client companies brought a wide variety of position titles to the Conference, including District Manager, Program Manager, Field Clinical Representative, Manufacturing Management, Manufacturing Engineer, Project Manager, Project Engineer, Commodity Buyer, Plant Manager, Product Marketing Engineer, Pricing Marketing Engineer, Area Manager, Commercial Procurement Manager, Clinical Sales Representative, Business Analyst, Operations Team Leader, Reliability Engineer, Management Associate, Mechanical Engineer, Program Quality Engineer, Field Consultant, Procurement Manager, and Six Sigma Black Belt.
The list of client companies at the August Conference included:
- The largestU.S.private-sector coal company with a business platform that serves energy needs on six continents. Founded over 100 years ago and with an industry-leading reserve of coal, they produce, transport, and market a vast supply of coal to fuel the fastest growing markets in the world. These markets range from manufacturing plants inChina, to new electric generating stations inIndia, to power plants that provide electricity to fuel theU.S.economy. They are a relatively new client to Cameron-Brooks and, due to their rapid growth, have attended our Conferences in search of top leadership talent to fill a wide variety of positions, such as Engineering Project Management, Business Analysis, and Management Associate roles.
- A Global Fortune 500 company and one of the world’s leading building products and materials companies based inDublin,Ireland. The company manufactures products that range from aggregates, to masonry products found in residential patios and landscaping, to the entire suite of products found in the exterior structure of commercial buildings. This was the company’s third consecutive Conference in an effort to find quality leadership for supervisory manager positions with the intent to develop them into General Managers responsible for running an entire operation (financial profit and loss, manufacturing, sales, safety, etc).
- One of the largest privately held companies in the world and an international brand leader in grocery retailing with more than 5,000 stores in Europe, theUnited States, andAustralia. The company opened its first store over 60 years ago and pioneered the limited assortment grocery industry. Their business model centers around providing customers high quality, cost-effective consumables that are purchased on a regular basis. The company runs very efficient operations focused on cutting unnecessary expenses in an effort to provide the absolute best prices to its customers. While they are headquartered in Europe, theUnited Statesmarket is the growth engine for this company; the significant growth plans in theU.S.provide great opportunities for JMOs.
- An innovator and leader in the semiconductor business with over 20 years of experience providing customers with specialized chip design and manufacturing expertise, continuous innovation, and superior product performance. From the Adidas Intelligent shoe to the Apple iPod, this company’s semiconductor solutions are at the heart of the largest growth and most innovative products, and are an integral part of any system designed for performance. End products include consumer electronics, cell phones, PDAs, telecommunications, automotive, industrial, instrumentation, and solar power. This company has attended Cameron-Brooks Career Conferences in the past and uses Cameron-Brooks to find talented JMOs to grow into leadership roles as the company executes its business growth plans.
- The world’s largest family-owned winery with market share of approximately 30% of the domestic table-wine market in theUnited States. Founded over 80 years ago, they operate five wineries and 15,000 acres of vineyards throughout northernCaliforniaand account for over 50% of every bottle of wine exported from theU.S. This company has been a long standing client of Cameron-Brooks and attended the August Conference to find dynamic leadership they can invest in for the long term.
- A Global Fortune 10 company and leader in the exploration and production of natural oil and gas for over 100 years. This company is best known for its supply of fuel and lubrication products at their 40,000+ local filling stations but they also explore and produce crude oil and natural gas, make chemicals, run refineries, transport natural and trade gas, and develop renewable energy sources such as wind power and biofuels. They have been a long time client of Cameron-Brooks and attended the June conference in search of creative leadership & engineering talent.
- A world leader in the design and development of cardiovascular medical products. This company’s devices help patients with heart disease return to active and productive lives and provide physicians with leading-edge technologies for improved patient management and clinical outcomes. This company views Cameron-Brooks as a proven and trusted resource of talent; the many JMOs we have placed with them over the years are accomplishing great things in the industry..
- One of the world’s leading innovative technology companies that has a proud history of enriching people’s lives through research and technological innovation. For over 150 years, this company has developed life-changing innovations including the glass for Edison’s light bulb, ultra-thin glass for active matrix liquid crystal displays (LCDs), ceramic substrates for diesel and automotive emissions control, and the first commercially viable, low-loss fiber for use in telecommunications. This company is a long-time client of Cameron-Brooks and its various divisions regularly attend Conferences to find top leadership talent.
To learn more about the Cameron-Brooks Career Conference experience, I’ve posted several videos from candidates who attended the August conference on our Facebook site – http://tinyurl.com/dfqoq4
Rob
Filed under Career Management, Career Preparatoin, Conference
The August 2011 Career Conference & The Economy
The Cameron-Brooks Team and the August 2011 Career Conference JMO candidates will arrive in Charlotte, NC this Friday to kick off our fourth Conference of the year. As we head into this conference I wanted to share a few thoughts and observations as to how this conference is shaping up and how the recent economic activities have impacted career opportunities for our candidates.
Filed under Career Preparatoin, Conference, Economy
Mature Communication
Every Conference, a few JMO candidates lose some interviews due to immature communication. This is disappointing because it is completely avoidable. I debated whether or not to write this post, because in reality, I feel I should not even have to address this. However, during an Interview Preparation Workshop this week, two candidates used inappropriate language, so, I figured if I put this out on the web, I can save some candidates from silly mistakes.
First, Cameron-Brooks clients are recruiting those who have the ability and desire to rise to top leadership positions in Corporate America. Thus, they want candidates who are mature, demonstrating the ability to communicate with a wide variety of people (customers, suppliers, management, line personnel, peers, etc.). Slang, cursing, and overuse of military phrases will cause the recruiters to rule a candidate out. To avoid being ruled out in an interview due to silly communication mistakes, follow these simple rules:
- Assume you are interviewing with your boss’ boss or an O-6 and above level officer. Would you say “Awesome”, “Cool!” or “Too easy,” to an O-6? Probably not, and you should not say them to a recruiter either.
- No swearing! I was in the military one time too, and yes, I know that it is part of the culture and probably even more so in deployments. It has no place in an interview and swearing is an automatic rule out. I guarantee it. Also, I not only mean the typical swear words but those words we all use in their place and think we aren’t actually swearing. They are just as bad in an interview, and at home and in the office too!
- Watch your military phrases. The one that gets me is, “Too easy.” This is mostly addressed to the Army JMOs. Now, I have never heard of a candidate actually saying it in an interview, but maybe this will get them to stop saying it to me!
- Be specific and say what you mean with depth. Specifically I am addressing demonstrating interest in an interview. Instead of saying “that’s great”, “awesome,” or “cool,” be specific in what interests you about the topic, company, industry or position. “I am very interested in company ABC because of your innovation demonstrated by your worldwide launch of Six Sigma last year. I like continuous improvement.” That is communicating interest!
- Do not say, “To be honest with you…” On occasion accidently say this, so I need to work on it as well. When you say this, you are communicating that up until that point, you have been less than honest! Yet, what you really wanted to do was emphasize the following point. You communicate much more specifically and clearly when you eliminate the phrase and just say what you mean.
- Demonstrate mature body language. This past week I had a potential JMO candidate sit across from with his arms crossed for 25 minutes. What did that tell me? I assumed he had no interest or he did not care what I had to say. Other times, I have had candidates slouch in their chair or have their legs spread way to far apart. Again, how would you sit across from an O-6?
If you are going to interview with leading companies for development positions, professional recruiters will evaluate you not only on your professionalism, but on your maturity as well. Do not waste precious interviews – use your common sense and be a professional communicator.
Joel Junker Continue reading
Filed under Interview tips
Perseverance and the JMO in Corporate America
A couple of weeks ago, my colleague Chuck Alvarez sent me a really good article about perseverance from USA Today and below is the link if you are interested in reading it:
As I read the article, it reminded me of a couple of potential career traps that JMOs can fall into when making their transition to business. I have witnessed both of them since making my transition to Corporate America eleven years ago and I thought I’d share them with you.
Filed under Career Management
Self-Development Tools for the JMO to Business Transition
I want to share with you some of the tools and books I have been utilizing for self-development. I also appreciate if any of you have other books, websites or seminars to recommend.
Websites:
TED: Ideas Worth Spreading at www.TED.com Instead of watching TV at night, I have been watching TED talks. I have recently watch speeches by retired General Stanley McChrystal, Malcom Gladwell, Steve Jobs and numerous other less well known people on a range of topics to include building trust, how a variety of spaghetti sauces relates to embracing diversity (this is a great one by Gladwell), tying my shoelaces properly (did you know you have likely been tying them the wrong way?), and many more.
Khan Academy at www.khanacademy.org/ This is a rich website of 10-15 minute classes, lectures on everything ranging from banking and money to physics and calculus. If you are going to interview for some finance type of positions, good idea to watch the classes on the Economics of a Cupcake Factory.
Books (Title, author and short reason to read it):
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand. One of the best books I have read.
10-10-10 by Suzy Welch. Provides an excellent way to evaluate critical decisions and the impact they make in the short, intermediate and long term.
Tangling with Tyrants by Tony Deblauwe. I don’t like the title, but it does provide useful specific steps to work with difficult people and bosses. Sometimes, bosses and peers, act irrationally, but they are not necessarily Tyrants.
Liar’s Poker and the Big Short by Michael Lewis. Now, I finally understand what caused the financial meltdown. I recommend you read them in that order. When you read Liar’s Poker, you may not immediately recognize how it relates to the meltdown in 2008 and 2009, but he makes it clear in the Big Short.
The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. This has nothing to do with that weird movie with the same title. This is about understanding random events that have significant impacts. I learned how to better think critically and I no longer read the news the same way.
The Goldmine by Freddy and Michale Balle. A very thorough book on manufacturing and the Toyota Production Method told in a story method. I have not been in a lot of manufacturing facilities, and this book made one come alive.
City of Thieves by David Benhoff. This is not a business book, but a historical novel that I found to be a nice break from business reading and also a good history lesson on the German siege of Leningrad in WW II. It’s a fast paced and entertaining.
Time is a scarce resource. Yes, we all need time to relax, but I encourage you to focus on self development through reading and using great resources like the Khan Academy and TED.
Joel Junker
Filed under Uncategorized
June 2011 Career Conference Results
We just completed the June 2011 Career Conference this week. 39 candidates and 15 spouses and support team members attended the conference, and all candidates have multiple companies pursuing them into the follow up process. The candidates interviewed with an average of 11.7 companies and averaged 6.9 companies pursuing them for a 59% pursuit rate, which is very representative of past conferences. The entire Cameron-Brooks team congratulates the June conference candidates on their first step in their transition to Corporate America.
Filed under Career Preparatoin, Conference
