Look Up!

If you're reading this blog, you got here one of three ways:

1. You followed a link in my email signature to http://hawkespeers.blogspot.com/
2. You clicked on a favorite for http://hawkespeers.blogspot.com/
3. You've been following the RSS feed for http://hawkespeers.blogspot.com/

Now look up... You're reading the same Blog at http://blog.hawkespeers.com/.

It's a small change, but the Blog has been moved to our domain (drumroll please....), because our new website has been launched at http://www.hawkespeers.com/index.html.

Most of you know that until know the Hawkes peers website has been a logo and a placeholder for our email domain. There are a couple of truths in this business; one is that we've never had a candidate come to us without a referral of some sort, and the other is that clients don't come to you, you go to them.

So we sort of figured on being the last business in America to have a website. It became somewhat of a matter of pride inside out office.

And then a candidate wrote to me that even though he had been referred to us by a trusted colleague, he was unsure if he wanted to work with us given that our website was "a little thin." That note was followed by a other, and another, until we got the message.

I've been pushing for a web 2.0 portal. Something that may come down the road with manual submission and profile editing with direct publishing into our CRM, and resume tracking which shows our current jobs and allows you to self-submit for our consideration, or track feedback from the client.

But for now, we've put up a classic web 1.0 site. Something that says, we're hear, and we're serious about finding you a job, and everything else is a non-core distraction.

If you're reading this, you probably won't learn anything new by checking out the webpage, but head on over anyway- because we could use the push for a Google ranking. :)

As always, feedback is welcome.

9/11- Six Years Later

It's hard for me to truly wrap my head around the idea that 9/11 was 6 years ago.

The first time I heard that something had happened at the towers, I was on the phone with a client, and didn't really pay much attention.

But when you work on the corner of 8th Avenue and W. 36th street, why not go to the roof of the building and have a look see.

When the second plane hit we knew that something was wrong.

When we saw the buildings fall I was in shock.

We walked down 34th street to Broadway and headed downtown. Cars were parked, doors open, radio blaring the news, so people walking by could figure out what was happening. The car owners couldn't get out of Manhattan anyway.

The Bridges were closed, and the subway was shut down. I think you could go to Jersey from GWB but that didn't help the Brooklyn crowd, so we walked.

And the sirens blared by.

The smoke got thicker.

The ash covered you.

Papers floated through the air like dust bunnies cascading down from your ceiling fan.

Like a scene from a bad action movie, thousand upon thousands of people walked across the Manhattan bridge to get anywhere but there.

It was hot that day. Very hot for September. People were sweating in Shirt sleeves. Store owners benevolently passed out water bottles with a wave and a kind word, refusing money as we continued our trek.

All in all I walked 11 miles that day. My feet weren't tired, but I was mentally exhausted. I knew that this would be my generation's JFK assassination. I didn't have the perspective of history, but I knew that I'd have to explain this day to my children someday. And I knew that they'd never quite understand it.

I might have curled up an collapsed when I got home, but my wife hadn't made it back from teaching in Canarsie yet.

So I waited.

I think that's when I knew that my childhood was over. I started the day a twenty something kid, with a degree and a good job, but I was never quite comfortable in my own skin. That day I knew that nothing else really mattered . And I knew I could never go back.

There something round about the number 5. I think last year we gave ourselves permission to move on. The sadness that I remember permeating previous September 11ths seems to have faded away with the smoke that seems so fresh some night when I wake up to check on my children.

This year, the people around me don't seem to have taken note as much.

And I can't help but reflect on how much my world changed that day- how much my children's world changed that day. The rhetorical "war on terror" is something so much greater to me. Iran is seeking Nuclear weapons, Saddam who has used WMD in the past was continuing to produce them, and seeking nuclear capabilities. We'll probably never know how many stockpiles were transferred to Syria before the war broke out.

Israel, the only Democracy in the Middle East, is besieged by terrorist regimes (Hizzballah in the North, Hamas in the South) cold peace with surrounding Arab neighbors, and a dysfunctional government with lower approval rating the W's.

The world is a dangerous place. On the most fundamental level, I truly believe that the world is split between the free world, and oppressive regimes that suppress their own people, and seek destroy anyone who is different.

This struggle for survival is as stark as the Soviet arms race and the struggle to defeat communism.

And we seem to have lost sight of that big picture in our national political game.

I look back and I'm sad. Sad for lost life. Sad for lost innocence. Sad for the world I knew on September 10th, sitting in the Park Avenue Sports Club watching the Giants lose to Denver and talking about the Yankees chances for a 4th straight World Series.

That world is gone, and six years later- or sixty- I lack the wisdom or the perspective to truly digest what that means.

SEM & The Consultant

Wikipedia defines SEM (Search Engine Marketing) as "a form of Internet Marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in the Search Engine results pages (SERPs) and has a proven ROI (Return on Investment). SEM methods include: Search Engine Optimization (or SEO), paid placement, and paid inclusion, the practice of buying paid search listings, different from SEO which seeks to obtain better free search listings."

In plain English, Search Engine Marketers game the system to increase ROI by *LOWERING* the ad position and associated cost per acquisition. If I can appear in the second position and get 70% of the traffic attained by the first position for 50% of the cost... well, you can fill in the rest. They are aiming for second best.

The other way to optimize is to put resources behind managing your campaign, so that you can capture the top spot for pennies more than the second spot, as apposed to bidding high, and guaranteeing the spot without managing the campaign.

There is a close parallel with the job market for elite candidates, like those with experience in top consulting firms.

Many roles are driven by top-line production. these are the roles that will pay recruiters and top salaries to guarantee top talent.

Other roles are driven by bottom line thinking and ROI for the position. These companies are likely to accept the 70/50 discount modeled above by SEM, or to put search resources behind acquiring top candidates at a smaller premium over tier 2.

As Consultants we'd advise our clients to pursue the latter course, but as candidates we seek to maximize our salary potential. This dichotomy is rampant in the job market, where hiring managers tend to maximize their own compensation, while touting the lifestyle/environment tradeoffs that make their workplace attractive at a discount.

The challenge as candidates/recruiters is identifying the hiring managers & companies with the former approach to elite talent acquisition. The value proposition that accomplishes this is selling the "you get what you pay for approach." because of the way the market is built, you can find 70/50 trade offs in the SEM world. I constantly remind my clients that that tradeoff is more rare in the human capital market, and they should expect to pay top dollar on the 120/100 premise.

Can you deliver?
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We've had some shocking news in the past few days at Hawkes Peers. Sherry, a good friend, and one of our top client managers, has been diagnosed with a serious illness, and will be on leave indefinitely. Many of you have had the privilege of interacting with Sherry. Our prayers are with her, as are yours, I'm sure.

Short Roundup 9/3

Happy Labor Day! As you know, I'm a staunch capitalist, so I love the opportunity once a year (or twice if you count May 1st) to act like a socialist and halt the work force so the laborers can have a day off... :)

In keeping with that spirit, I'm keeping the roundup short this week.

• Must Read: Michael Hyatt on leadership failure.
• A step toward bridging the walled gardens. Mange your profiles centrally.
• Do-it-yourself Facebook Apps., from dapper.
• The "final" Yahoo! re-org.
• Effective resume writing.
• No more vacation days at IBM.
• Advice from Guy Kawasaki on hiring from Craigslist.
• Race, gender, zip code and callbacks.
• Heff's Mom invested playboy seed money.
• Tech Industry lobbying group fights for fair use.
• Mark Cuban thinks the Internet is dead.
• And for the I couldn't make this stuff up category...