CAREERS NOW 02-15-09

Two Successful Ways To Jump-Start a Hiring Offer

DEAR JOYCE: Concerning your recent column about a job seeker making a "reverse offer" (at a discounted price, similar to real estate reverse offers) to an employer, you noted the pros and cons and said you had no experience with this technique to prompt a job offer. I do have firsthand experience with the idea.

I used this technique successfully in the last deep recession in 1998. I was a top candidate for a plant manager position, but the company could not afford my salary requirements. (I had already exhausted my six months of unemployment insurance, so I was motivated!)

I offered to work for a lower salary with the condition that I would be further compensated with the savings that I promised - I put their money where my mouth was. If I didn't deliver, I would not receive a bonus equal to 50 percent of my reduced base. I was able to deliver the promised savings and was compensated accordingly.

A few years ago, I found myself again unemployed and turned to an even more aggressive strategy, along with my career coach's help. That was a "job proposal," where I identified companies that could use my unique skill set and could profit from my knowledge.

The job proposal involved writing an abridged business plan, without the critical details on how to creatively accomplish the plan. This document whetted the appetites of two companies. One company sent me on an immediate all-expense-paid trip to its headquarters in Europe. I chose the other company where I remain happily employed.

As for my career coach, Joellyn Wittenstein, The Career Success Coach (career-success-coach.com), I married her. - Howard S., Worcester, Mass.

Five words about your letter: "I absolutely love your story." Thanks very much for sharing it with countless others who may be deciding what to do next in this big question-mark environment.

As the adage goes, there are many roads to Rome. Here's an alternative suggestion on how to jump-start a hiring offer in a weak job market; this one comes from Don Orlando, a premier executive career coach.

DEAR JOYCE: I advise my clients to use the "contingent compensation" technique. Once they're seen as the candidate of choice, they offer the following thoughts.

They acknowledge that times are really tough. They acknowledge that the unavoidable spin-up time means unavoidable lower productivity while they are learning the job. Most know how long that time lasts. And so, here's what they say to the employer:

"You must make money as we all do by increasing revenue and controlling costs. In a recession, it's hard to increase revenue, but we still must cut costs, and personnel costs are among the highest.

"That means you must get by with the fewest people. And those people must be very good - not just to get us through these rough times. When the economy recovers, as it always does, you need those great people to help you attract and retain others just like them. That way, you come out of the recession ahead of the curve in recouping costs and dominating markets.

"I'm willing to share the risks to help us get those rewards. Let's agree to a fair compensation package based on full productivity. Since nobody reaches full productivity during their first X months, I'm willing to accept a compensation that is correspondingly lower. But at the end of that time, we should meet again and renegotiate my compensation based on the return on investment I've brought."

Often my clients make more money under this system than the full productivity baseline they negotiated. More than that, they're serving everybody's needs fairly." - Don Orlando, Montgomery, Ala. (yourcareercoach@charterinternet.com)

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