Free Harper's Rules by Danny Cahill Page A

jobs. These people could hire you back or recommend you for a position they know about.
    It’s wise to include colleagues as business references. Do you know why? Because they receive recruiting calls from headhunters like me! Seventy percent of the time they hear the headhunter out and even send a résumé out of sheer curiosity. But they don’t take a new job; they flirt. They may even interview, but they turn down the eventual offer. They are the bane of any good headhunter’s existence, but they are useful to you. If they have turned down an offer, they feel guilty and want to help the headhunter out. If they know you are looking or have your résumé in their email, you may get a position on the rebound.
    Tactic 3: You need to be working with two headhunters that specialize in your niche, market space, or industry vertical.
    Why two? Because no one headhunter has access to all the opportunities. But limit it to only two reputable firms.
    Never shotgun your résumé to every headhunter posting you see online. Headhunters, especially those working at the contingency level—they only get a fee when the placement is made and the candidate has begun work—all have the same jobs. You’ll dilute your own efforts and become persona non grata.
    â€œSo, Harper, you’re saying I need to be working with another headhunter besides you?”
    Harper clicked off the recorder and glared at me again.
    â€œYou’re riding Secretariat, love. You don’t need to get on the merry-go-round.”
    He reached over to click the recorder back on, but I had a question, so I placed my hand over his, and there was a weird moment where we both realized we were touching each other.
    â€œHarper, I know you because you came after me a long time ago. But what about the people who are going to read your book who don’t know who the connected headhunters are?”
    He pressed the RECORD button.
    Insider tip to find the best headhunters:
    Call the VP of human resources at any of the companies that compete with your last place of employment. The amateur move is to ask them who they would recommend you work with as a search firm; headhunters call HR all the time. But the insider move is to ask them which headhunters they really hate. Who are the ones that try to circumvent them and go straight to the line managers? Who are the ones that have stolen their best people? The headhunters that the human resources people hate the most are the ones you want working for you.
    â€œOkay, you ready? High touch before high tech, tactic four: the big one—the secret of how headhunters get jobs! Learn this skill and you’ll never need me or Internet job postings or classified ads again!”
    He looked so serious that I had to consider if Harper no longer being a necessary part of my life was something I wanted or not. Without me in job crisis, would he care enough to stay in touch? Before I could decide, Harper pulled out his vibrating Blackberry. He clicked, read for a few seconds, and then shook his head slowly. I have been in sales long enough to know he had just lost a deal.
    â€œThis clown is a director of marketing in Redwood City, making 160K. I got him an offer for 240K, but the commute is an hour longer. He’s turning it down.”
    â€œQuality-of-life issue, right?” I offered.
    â€œNah, it’s an excuse. He’s scared.” Harper signed the check and stood up. “I gotta go deal with this. You know, Casey, that’s another way relationships and jobs are the same: If you love someone, you don’t tell him he lives too far away so you can’t see him anymore. You drive faster.”
    â€œHold it, Harper. You can’t make me keep my cell off while yours was on, promise an interview about which I still know nothing, tell me you’re about to share the secret of finding a job, and then ditch me. What if you die on the Merritt Parkway on the way to your