It S a Hot Job Market but First You Have to Get an Interview

It’s a hot job market…but first you have to get an interview By William Armbruster

Today’s market for transportation related jobs in the hottest since 1999, a year when the economy was roaring and dotcoms were snatching top talent away from traditional industries with offers of fantastic stock options, according to Bill Conroy, executive director of Tyler Search Consultants. But, he said first you have to get an interview – and that not east. “Companies only want to interview a candidate if they feel the person can hit the ground running. They don’t want to have to train someone,” said Conroy, whose firm specializes in recruiting people for jobs in logistics, transportation and international trade. On a scale of 1 to 10, the volume of job requisitions Tyler gets is a 9 out of 10, he said. Buts it’s only 3 out of 10 in terms of companies’ willingness to interview prospective candidates. “Precision hiring is the operative term. Getting an interview is an event.” Some employers are willing to wait as much as six to eight months to get the right person, he said. The search can take that long because there may only be four or five persons in the whole country with the specific qualifications demanded by the employer. “The first thing employers ask is whether the family is willing to move. Relocation causes 50 percent of deals to fall through,” he said. In some cases, companies are willing to spend up to $50,000 in relocation expenses, including placement services for the candidate’s spouse. But relocation is an especially acute issue when the candidate has teenage children, Conroy added. Despite a candidate’s success in present and past positions, many companies are unwilling to consider someone who is not experience in their specific industry category. For example, ocean carriers frequently restrict their search to candidates who have worked for another ship line, preferably one with expertise in a particular trade lane. “It’s a conundrum. There are a lot of jobs, but it’s difficult to break into a different field,” He said. Companies are also looking for candidates who are “raising stars” – people who are on an upward career path and whose best years are still ahead of them, he said. Employers are not interested in Candidates who are applying for positions at a lower level than their past or present job. That’s because they fear that the person will leave as soon as a better opportunity comes along. Conroy said Tyler receives three types of search requests from its clients. The first is when he calls “CIA-style searches. Those come from companies that are going to fire the incumbent job holder and want to keep it hush-hush” until they have a person who can step in immediately. The second type is from companies that have been searching on their own for months without any success. The third category consists of small and medium companies that don’t have their own human resources department and that go directly to Tyler. Conroy said there are four types of companies that hire people with expertise in freight transportation: carriers, logistics providers, Fortune 100 companies and small to medium exporters and importers. Tyler does not receive any recruitment request from carriers in any transportation mode. “We don’t go after that business anymore. It’s a closed community,” Conroy said. Instead of going to a search firm, carriers rely on “underground buzz” to spread the word about job opportunities. “A company can have a job open at 9a.m., and everyone knows about it by noon,” he said. “It’s incestuous within every sector of that market. The players know each other.” Whether you’re looking for a new job or trying to hold on to your existing job, Conroy stressed the importance of upgrading your skills. This is especially important “when a new boss comes in and says, ‘why are we doing things this way? Couldn’t we be more efficient?’” Despite the strong job market, Tyler’s mission is not to assist people looking for jobs. Rather; he said, “we find candidates for our client companies. We don’t’ find jobs for people. That’s typical among head-hunters. But if somebody contacts us and has a hot profile, we will call our clients and require confidentially if there’s an opportunity for someone at that level.” Conroy said Tyler’s typical placement is for jobs with annual salaries of $70,000 to $90,000, though it frequently handles searches in the $160,000 to $180,000 range. Its highest placement ever carries a $200,000 salary. But it also conducts searches for clients seeking transportation analysts in the $50,000 range.

Reprinted from Shipping Digest, February 21, 2005 www.joc.com © Copyright 2005 Shipping Digest. All rights reserves Published with copyright permission from Shipping Digest. http://www.shippingdigest.com.copyrights – 3/10/05