Customer Reviews

Ask the Headhunter: Reinventing the Interview to Win the Job

5 star:		(43)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

As a Recruitment Professional, I can honestly say that this is the best guide for finding and getting the right job that I have ever read. Nick Corcodilos obviously knows his business and shares with the reader what hiring authorities really want from job candidates and what they are willing to give in return to the well-prepared and knowledgeable candidate. From personal experience, I received an offer of $15,000 more than I was expecting just by using the book's techniques. As a Recruitment Specialist for many years, I thought I knew it all, but even I learned some effective new techniques for getting the right job from this book. If you are job seeking, buying this book will be the best investment in your career that you could make!

Nick Corcodilos runs a website called "Ask the Headhunter." I have never encountered so much valuable advice dispensed without a fee.

In this book, Nick explains why the traditional job hunt almost never works. Then he outlines an absolutely brilliant method of breaking away from the Human Resources machine and separating yourself from the herd of "cows" looking for jobs.

Best of all, almost nobody is going to do it! It is far too different and requires too much work for most people. Which means the few of us who follow his advice have that much more of an advantage.

Old way: Scan the help wanted ads, the internet job sites, register with a recruiting agency. Send out dozens, maybe hundreds, of resumes. All of which gets you into the Personnel Department, where people who do not understand the work you do scan through a checklist and try to find reasons to disqualify you. Even when you find a job that fits you perfectly, now you are one of perhaps a hundred would-be applicants.

Nick's way: Do some in-depth research to discover the companies you'd like to work for. (His advice: "Don't look for a job, look for a company.") Then ask yourself how you might become an "insider." Do you know anybody who works there? Can you find out who their customers are? Their vendors? He offers various ways of getting an inside track to speak directly to the person you would be working for -- not someone in Human Resources. Then when you meet, do the job right then and there! Show them how you work, how you think.

I read this book last week, and followed its suggestions: I did a good deal of research on target companies over the weekend, arranged a personal referral to the hiring manager (not the personnel department) of one of them, and have an appointment scheduled for next Thursday. Having done my homework, I already know what probelms the company is facing. When I get there, I'm going to steer the conversation toward that issue, and start working on that problem right then and there.

To this point, I am further along toward a job I really want with a company I REALLY want than I ever would have been the old way. All because of this book.

Nick Corcodilos, the author of 'Ask the Headhunter', has taken job hunting to the next level!

Maybe I'm totally naive when it comes to job hunting (well, at least not anymore), but this book changed my entire mindset on the conventional methods of seeking employment. To cut directly to the chase....

THE NEGATIVES:

* Some of his writings get really redundant. He's trying to drive home a point, but too excessive.

* His method could leave you spending weeks if not months preparing and researching information just for one company; Especially, if you are changing careers or a recent college graduate seeking employment in an industry you're totally unfamiliar with.

THE POSITIVES:

* Easy to read. I like that!

* Will this book help you get the job you are seeking? - Without reservation nor hesitation, if you follow the method Nick has outlined, your probability of success is greatly enhanced. The real question is 'how could you not?' (beware of personnel jockeys)

* The 'added-value' to this book where the others leave off is simply the difference between SHOW & TELL in your 3rd grade elementary class (showing was always more interesting, huh?) Where the other books will TELL you how to get the job, Nick will SHOW you how to DEMONSTRATE your abilities to DO THE JOB in the interview.

Mark Fredricks

The majority of career books advise you to send out dozens of resumes, take a passive role, and then practice hundreds of "tough questions" to win the job in the interview. Few books have ever discussed the real objectives of the hiring equation: Can an applicant do the actual job? How can this be determined during the interviewing process? What is the best way for a candidate to demonstrate that they can do the actual job? Mr. Corcodilos has solved the equation with his focused and enlightening advice.

Most of the techniques in this book are unconventional. But as the author stresses, being different works in the ruthless hiring game. The author forces you to examine yourself, focus your search, and concentrate on only a few jobs and companies. His most compelling advice is to do the job in the interview itself. Most of us have never been taught the importance of this simple yet powerful technique. "Do the job in the interview." It is the mantra of this book.

It is rare for a headhunter to share the secrets of his success. But the author strongly believes in his philosophy, and graciously shares it with us. After reading this book, your perspective of the hiring process will be altered drastically. That alone might be the most salient feature of this tremendous work.

The subjects discussed in this book will make you a more attractive candidate, along with a better interviewer. You will learn how to target your job search, and to focus on what you do best: your work. Regardless of which side of the desk you find yourself, this book should be required reading. As an applicant, you will learn strategies to make you stand out from the crowd. As an employer, you will learn to make more informed hiring decisions, and to reduce the chance of a costly mistake. This book is a powerful tool.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this book.

The book Ask the Headhunter by Nick Corcodilos can best be described as an honest book; it has done some plain speaking. It should be admired for novelty of style and for propagating proactive and revolutionary ideas in job hunting. It reflects originality of approach to job search; and is conceptualized on hard realities and not imagination and fantasy. It reinvents the concept of interview and explores how it can be used in securing the right jobs and hiring the right candidate. It exhorts job hunters to refrain from gimmicks or perfecting any meaningless interviewing skills. The reader gets provoked into re-examining the interview clichés and stick to responding to the exigencies of the job. The central message of the book should also be viewed as indirectly communicating the changing hiring practices that are being resorted to in the new corporate world. In nutshell, the book helps the jobseeker in many respects including: discovering the job that best suits her disposition, assessing the requirements of the employer, the "how" of taking control of the interview so as to compel the employer to hire her, bargaining the best possible deal, and appreciating issues related with these points of key focus.

In its efforts to focus on some plain speaking, the book contains a good bit of hard-hitting advice. It has succeeded remarkably well in exploding several myths about job hunting and in expounding a new approach to winning job offers. It has tremendous potential of becoming perhaps one of the finest job search books emphasizing ways to get jobs on merits. Of course, it may not be of much help in situations where suitability of job seekers is decided by incompetent or unmotivated and unprepared interviewers, and also where jobs are fixed and pre-decided on extraneous considerations no matter how talented, competent or fit the job-seeker is. Such practices can be seen even in some private sector organizations where the hirers fear talent and innovate ways of finding pretexts for rejecting them so as to hide their own weaknesses and incompetence. Candidates seeking jobs with such employers may therefore need standard how-to books on perfecting the traditional interview skills, along with mastering effective ways of lobbying to get jobs. But as organizations move towards greater degree of transparency and sense of professionalism in a real sense in their working including hiring practices, they will be guided more and more by considerations of merit and purposiveness. Job seekers and employers whose considerations are delivering their best and employing the most suitable will benefit immensely by following the prescriptions and messages contained in this book. It is also interesting to note that the author's website (asktheheadhunter.com) permits access through free membership, and provides a "free sample" of the Ask The Headhunter concepts

Corcodilos has done job hunters a big favor. He has freed us from the outdated, unmanageble "rules" of job hunting, interviewing, and working. The book inspires the job hunter to step outside of the box by focusing on the work to be done. He inspires you to focus on learning your profession and doing your work in order to get the job.

I was alway crippled by my nagging fear that I didn't know the rules, and if I could just learn the rules, I'd get a job. I have a new attitude now--I create the rules.

Corcodilos doesn't skimp on the details either. Even if you've secured a job offer already, read his section on negotiating the offer. Wow. If you're just beginning your job search, this book is chock full of all the details you need to attend to. Definitely a hands-on approach.

As an editor though, I must say he repeats himself a lot. He should have condensed the first three chapters into one and then gotten on with the brass tacks.

Reading through 'Ask the Headhunter' is a truly an eye-opening experience. The book challenges traditional doctrine in the job-search arena, and is clearly not going to be accepted by those still held captive to the "old school" approach.

I cannot think of a better primer to refer to as a level set in an age when technology and and business models are changing the career market so rapidly. Nick Corcodilos structures his job hunting philosophy in a way that allows the reader to clear their mind of outdated thinking as each chapter of his book unfolds. I found myself feeling much less a "pawn in the system" after reading it, and to be much more open to the idea that I have the ability to define the employment paths I choose, rather than letting them put boundaries around me.

I strongly recommend that everyone avail themselves to Nick's inspiring outlook on a subject so difficult for many of us to tackle.

All other job-hunting advice sources - books, employment agency counselors, Websites - are now obsolete, not to mention pitiful compared to "Ask The Headhunter..."

Nick Corcodilos teaches you how to do the research, get to the right hiring manager, and conduct the interview to get not just *a job," but "the job" you really want.

The book is clear, easy to read and, contrary to what "San Diego" says below, the repetition is constructive and useful; no way will you forget anything under pressure of the interview after reading this book.

Speaking from the other side of the interview desk and having recently gone through a round of hiring new personnel myself, I desperately wish every candidate on earth would read this book first.

In today's job market, you need every competitive edge you can get. "Ask The Headhunter" is the next best thing to a personal coach - and a whole lot cheaper.

I picked this book up thinking it might be about new approaches to hiring the right people. When I quickly saw that it was about job hunting, I started to put it down but something about it intrigued me. Nick Corcodilos, author of ASK THE HEADHUNTER: REINVENTING THE INTERVIEEW TO WIN THE JOB had been in the headhunting business for 18 years when he wrote this book. Its premise is rather simplistic, but there is some useful information here for job seekers.

The first thing you learn in this book is to forget everything you know about the traditional methods of securing a position. IN summary, the book tells you, rather than send out countless resumes hoping for a few interviews, focus more on a few companies you wish to work for and be more diligent in your approach. In other words, instead of hunting with a shotgun and hoping a few pellets land your prey, use a rifle with a few well placed shots.

I won't say the book is without merit, but some of the advice does seem rather impractical. I can see how the techniques offered by Corcodilos could be very effective, I don't see many hiring managers allowing a job candidate to "control the interview" and "do the job" in the manner prescribed in many instances. If you can find a hiring manager tolerant enough to allow doing these things, you should be a shoe-in, but that's a big "if".

My biggest complaint about this book is, it is very repetitive. Though smallish at just over 200 pages, what is said here could easily have been reduced to a 50 page booklet with the same effectiveness. Job seekers will learn from this book, but be prepared to read basically the same information, over and over.

I have to admit I came at this book with a lot skeptism as I do most job books. The only good point I can state about this book: is viewing a job interview as a problem solving session with a manager. That means you must demonstrate to employers how your skills can applied to the job. This book is good to use as a guide for your next interview. However it does not give you a concrete method to getting to the hiring manager. Calling a company and trying to find a hiring manager does'nt work anymore. Manager will most likely ignore your calls, get there gatekeeper to screen you or worse send your resume to HR.

In addition, there are a couple of things that I really did'nt care for about this book, such as the excessive repitition of the same idea over and over. I think this book could have been reduced to twenty pages and crystalize the main points effectively. Another thing is the author loves to pat himself on the back as well as the headhunting profession far too much. He makes headhunters look like high and mighty professionals that make perfect matches for employers. Many headhunters I have dealt with are as incompetent and useless as the "personnel jockeys" (ie HR people, Job Counselors)that the author repeatedly bashes in the book.