Finding your next great role isn’t just emotional and stressful. It can feel a lot like walking on a minefield without a map. Our process is designed to arm you with at least a partial map. This will improve your chances for the extreme competition today’s job selection process represents at the best companies.
PHASE ONE: Initial Meeting
The first step of our process entails a meeting at Roy Talman’s office to discuss your background and what you’re striving to accomplish next in your career. We recommend doing it even before you definitely decide to look for a change. To quote one of our recent candidates:
“I learned the hard way that I should have only worked with one person to send me to multiple companies.”
Where have you been? What brought you to this point to speak with us today? Where would you like to go from here as far as a role and work environment?
In our business, we can only represent you to firms that have not received your resume over the prior 12 months from any source. Time and again we hear, “I think another recruiter sent my resume to company XYZ, but I never heard anything from that firm. Can you help?” The answer is – we can’t. As such, it’s imperative that you call us FIRST. Even if you know someone at company XYZ, you should call us beforehand.
Toward the end of this meeting, we’ll give you “homework” based on our initial discussion, which may include reading books on interviewing or practicing taking online tests on a particular skill set to bring you up-to-date, for example.
PHASE TWO: Refining The Resume
While many resumes detail every aspect of a candidate’s work history, you’ll find Roy Talman’s recruiters will take yours on a different path. Instead of listing everything you’ve ever done, we’d like you to judge and refine your resume based on only the things you are passionate and proud to discuss. As people interview candidates based primarily on the resume, we want to increase the likelihood that you’re asked more questions around those things you are prepared to passionately and excitedly discuss.
Using this “passionate and proud” criteria should help you refine your resume to the most focused and effective version yet.
PHASE THREE: The Pitch
With a solid understanding of your background and goals along with a refined and focused resume, Roy Talman will put together a “pitch” for you – namely, the way we present you, the candidate, to a particular client. We will ask for your input on fine tuning the pitch. Our clients usually read our pitch first and tend to make an “interview / no interview” decision in a large part based on how they perceive this pitch.
As we schedule your interviews, we’ll guide you on what to expect, so you know how you’ve been pitched to a company and there are no surprises in that regard.
As part of the preparation for this process, we will assemble and prioritize a select list of firms to present you to. Whether a company has an opening right now or not, the decision-makers at companies we present you to know what they like when they see it. And if there’s a fit, it’s not hard for them to visualize how you might make an impact in their environment.
PHASE FOUR: Internal Referral Campaign
Once we pitch you to a given company, we’ll learn about other employees who work within that company who might potentially put in a good word for you. It’s here that Roy Talman can leverage your (and our) connections to launch an internal referral campaign, which can continue all the way through the process until an offer is forthcoming.
PHASE FIVE: Interviewing and Test Taking Practice
Roy Talman will provide you with an agenda to strengthen your interviewing and test taking skills, which we expect you to be fully committed to putting quality time into.
To give you at least a partial map, we’ll give you a number of suggestions to follow to help you plan ahead for the in-person experience. Since interviewing quite often involves production tests as well, we’ll work with you to get you very comfortable with the process of taking that particular test well in advance. Our motto: Never take a production test the first time you see it. You should be very familiar with the test well in advance.
PHASE SIX: The Offer And Negotiation
By this step, we’ve hopefully reached a point where you’ve received multiple offers. The question now becomes: Which offer to accept?
In addition to talking further with you about what you value most, Roy Talman will supply you with as much actionable information as possible so you understand all facets of the potential employers to influence this important decision before you: The culture. The managerial structure. The history of the firm.
Finally, we’ll help you negotiate compensation with the firm you ultimately prefer to join.
Congratulations!
You’ve just become the latest candidate from Roy Talman & Associates to begin the next chapter of your career with the high confidence that you’ve made the right decision.