Dave Perlman

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March 21 2018

Over 50 and Looking for a Job: Part 6 – Negotiating a Job Offer

Dave Perlman Articles for Work, NL032118, NL091218 401K, benefits, compensation, employment, hr, job hunt, lead generation, negotiation, next act, older workers, pensions, recruiters

In this series Dave Perlman, an executive recruiter and career coach, put together a Getting Started guide that is specifically targeted to seasoned workers.

Last week I wrote about interviewing techniques, which when you boil them down are pretty simple: honesty, confidence, modesty and rapport-building.

This week we’ll move ahead in the process to talk about how to handle a job offer successfully and close the deal.

Pre-Offer

It’s almost always to the benefit of the individual to

defer any talk about compensation as long as possible and
let the employer make the first offer

There are several strategies to defer and deflect questions about compensation. Thanks to Noel Smith-Wenkle, who came up with this list:

If asked for a range or a figure, you can say that you are more interested in fit and the total experience of the potential role, and that you want to defer that discussion (or at least your answer) until you learn more about the company, culture and challenges.
Pressed, you can say that you’ll consider any reasonable offer.
Finally, you can turn it around, and say that the hiring company is in the best position to put a price-tag on your contribution.

Don’t be hesitant to simply, albeit politely, repeat these answers over and over when you are asked again and again to name your magic number. They will probably not torture you to get this information.

Negotiating

Leverage

Key to any negotiating situation is leverage. This can be thought of as each side’s need to reach an agreement, or, conversely, as having the ability to walk away if a solid deal can’t be reached.

What Do You Want, Really ?

Let’s leave aside the terms and conditions for a moment. If this is really the job you want, then it’s best to reach a win-win solution, where both the hiring company and individual feel that they got a reasonable, livable deal.

Trying to extract maximum concessions and/or using extremely strong negotiating tactics can easily boomerang and cause the whole deal to blow up.

Second best is to agree that such a deal can’t be achieved, and for both sides to walk away with dignity and mutual respect intact or even enhanced.

Worst is to end angry, with no deal and no positive feelings.

If both sides stay calm then the worst case outcome can be avoided.

Who Should Talk ?

If there is no independent recruiter in the picture, then you are the de facto negotiator for yourself. If there is recruiter, then a decision has to be made: who will talk for your side ?

The Case for the Recruiter

Using an intermediary can serve to keep tempers in check, and to slow down the dialogue to allow for proper consideration between each negotiating event. Further, the recruiter has probably had more experience negotiating.

The Case for Self-Representation

On the other hand, your incentives and the recruiter’s are often not identical. The recruiter is usually working to close the deal, and you are working for the best deal for you. Not quite the same thing.

Senior people, who will be expected to hire and negotiate with other employees once hired, can be well-served by negotiating for themselves. This can be a great chance to show the hiring company that you are quite good at this critical challenge.

The key, no matter who talks, is that you and the recruiter stay in constant communication and sing exactly the same song.

The Deal

It’s important to look at the offer holistically and not to overvalue or obsess about one or two elements. Too many people get fixated on base salary or title and ignore other deal components which may actually be more important.

Compensation

Base salary – this is often the most important element. Future raises are usually based on your base salary history.
Bonus – many folks focus on the amount of a potential bonus rather than on the conditions for actually getting it. Many bonuses combine the company’s performance and your own to set the final payout.
Equity – this is the hardest component to value, especially for a small, new or privately-held company. In the case of “the exciting startup which could make you rich”, the equity component, usually in the form of stock options, may be more important to you than the base salary. But no one can foresee what the value of your options will be, if and when you get a chance to exercise and sell them.
Variable compensation based on results – this is very common for sales and related specialties. A lower commission eligibility with a better chance of hitting it is often a good thing.
Sign on bonuses – these don’t figure into your base if and when you get a percentage raise later on. Worse, they can sound greedy unless the ask is presented delicately. I don’t ask for them, and if one is offered, would usually try to turn it into a better base salary unless I desperately needed that money right now.
Benefits – most companies have relatively fixed benefits, including vacations and health insurance, but sometimes there is room to negotiate here.

Job Satisfaction

Too many people ignore this. If you like your job you’ll perform better and stay longer. If you get strong bad vibes before you’ve even started, listen to your gut.

Opportunity

For older workers this may be less important, since the chance or desire to advance further in your career may be moot. For people who do want to advance to a better job down the road, this should often be the deciding factor.

I met two folks early in my career who kept hiring me back and forth for decades. As Abe Lincoln implied, you don’t need to fool all the people all the time… Get into a growing company with A players and your future will be assured, or at least a lot easier!

Counter Offers

Never take a counter offer from your existing employer. If they valued you correctly, they would have raised your comp without your resignation!

Never take a counter offer from your existing employer after you have committed to the new employer verbally or in writing. If you do, you have burned two bridges with one bad decision. Neither side will ever trust you again, and people who hear about it will also join that swelling crowd of enemies.

Leveraging Multiple Offers

Using one offer to stimulate or increase another is not something I do or recommend. Choose the best job, not the best compensation package. Treat your negotiating partner with respect. How would you react if a hiring company told you, “Well, we have another candidate who’ll take the job for $10 thousand less”?

If you honestly believe that a few dollars is more important than the qualitative elements of a job (satisfaction, fun, challenge, that “team” feeling and many others), then I’m probably not the right advisor for you…

Takeaways

Do not come in with new asks late in the negotiation. An exception might be to add a minor new sweetener to a potential trade off. For example, to request another week of vacation if the base salary offer on the table can’t be moved up at all.
Never give an ultimatum. Always leave room to retreat and to resume negotiating.
Do not get mad or excited. Negotiation is a game of sorts, with its own rules, and it’s not personal. Feelings of outrage don’t belong and should never be displayed. If the other party has out and out lied, you have to make a tough call: walk away or swallow and keep negotiating calmly – two unattractive choices to be sure.
When negotiating pick one or two elements to focus on. If you ask for more in the base, more vacation, a better bonus structure and more equity, the hiring company may smile and walk away. This also forces you to focus on the elements that really matter.

On the Job At Last

When you’ve accepted the offer and you’re on the job, a few words of advice:

Smile and keep quiet.
Watch and listen. Make notes unobtrusively.
Ask questions in a non-accusatory tone. Verify answers. When one person accuses another of something, don’t assume anything. Get more input.
Respect what has been done before you got there. There is history behind every decision, especially the bad ones. Yes, the decision may look downright horrible in hindsight, but likely there were factors in play you don’t even know about, so don’t rush to judgement.

Photo credit: Pexels

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Dave Perlman has reinvented himself many times. He’s been a software developer, a motel desk clerk, a historian, a forklift driver, a CTO and a few other things.

Currently he runs his own high-performing executive recruiting firm from his home outside Boston. He handles career coaching and resume polishing as adjuncts to that business.

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Read Part 1: Getting Started

Read Part 2: Networking

Read Part 3: Online Job Boards

Read Part 4: The Interview

Read Part 5: Recruiters

March 13 2018

Over 50 and Looking for a Job: Part 5 – Recruiters

Dave Perlman Articles for Work, NL031418, NL090518 interviews, job hunt, lead generation, recruiters, reinvention

Whether you’re feeling age-insecure at your current job, planning a reinvention or trying to get back into the workforce, Dave Perlman, an executive recruiter and career coach, put together a getting started guide that is specifically targeted to a seasoned worker.

Last time we talked about job boards and how to use them effectively. This time we’ll look at recruiters, specifically at independent recruiters who source candidates for hiring companies. These people are typically paid by the hiring company, as a percentage of the hired candidate’s first year base salary. Any recruiter who asks you, the job-seeker, for money is to be avoided completely.

Recruiters are generally classed as a necessary evil. And that’s the good news.

Most recruiters are deeply ignorant about the jobs they’re trying to fill, and about their client companies Many are more focused on closing the deal than on the relationship or the truth. That’s one reason I chose the field of executive recruiting: it’s easy to stand out if you are informed and honest.

Yet despite all this, recruiters do handle most of the really good jobs. Especially at the senior levels, hiring companies tend to believe that the right recruiter has a large and fertile candidate and referral network, and consequently are happy to outsource the tasks of contacting and screening potential candidates.

How can you find the right recruiter for you? A careful reading of job boards can help to identify those recruiters who are active in your target zone. For example, if you’re looking for a VP of Software Engineering job at an early-stage but funded startup in Boston, there are really two or three recruiters who dominate that market. As we discussed last time, it’s much better to get a warm submission via a recruiter or via a member of your network than to apply online.

As a recruiter, I never use job boards to post jobs. When I do I’m deluged by folks who simply don’t fit the role, but who are so indiscriminate – and so eager to land a job – that they apply to anything that might be a remote possibility. The time I spend wading through these folks’ resumes only to politely tell them thanks, but no thanks is wasted — not only on my part, but theirs.

Pull not push

Good recruiters proactively reach out to candidates they see as a potential fit for the role they’re trying to fill. To become visible to the recruiters you want to work with, create good search results for yourself online and polish your LinkedIn profile with keywords, published articles and references from your previous colleagues (you can make this part of your LinkedIn profile by requesting a recommendation.) The Muse has put together this useful guide to further improving your LinkedIn profile.

Reaching out to a plethora of recruiters is not a complete waste of time, but it’s not likely to yield results. Always email, never call. A call is an intrusive demand on time, while an email allows the recipient to choose when or if to respond.

“Getting on their radar” seems like a logical step, but many recruiters have the memory and attention span of a chipmunk. Most recruiters don’t have the patience to speak with someone unless they have an immediate opening for them. The better ones sometimes do, though.

A Good Recruiter

Is low-key and doesn’t waste time
Tries to surface potential deal-breakers at the beginning of the process (Are you willing to relocate? Will you take a pay cut to be part of a startup that has huge upside potential? Does job title matter to you?)
Knows what they are talking about: they know the company, the role, the challenges and the opportunities
Tells the truth, especially about the risks and downsides – every job has them.
Successfully crafts win-win offers and closes them. A deal which benefits the hiring company and victimizes the candidate, or vice versa, is unlikely to last.

If you’re lucky enough to find a great recruiter, they will become a trusted partner, giving you good advice, and bucking you up when you get discouraged. They’ll faithfully pass valuable data back and forth between you and the hiring manager.

Is there value in a bad recruiter?

There may be value in a bad recruiter with a connection to a job you want, but you need to be careful. Bad recruiters routinely misrepresent what you say and what the client company is saying. Their misguided attempts to close the deal at any price frequently boomerang and torpedo otherwise closeable deals. Compensation is one area where poor recruiters are often tempted to tweak the truth.

Listen closely and ask questions when you meet with a new recruiter. If you don’t like the answers, walk away. If the job itself is your dream job, you may opt to grit your teeth and persevere, but prepare to be disappointed. Try to build your own rapport and communications channel to the hiring company and ideally to the hiring manager, so that if the recruiter puts the deal in the ditch by misrepresentation, by employing an ultimatum, or by crafting a one-sided deal unacceptable to the other party, you can try to winch it out again.

Moving forward with a recruiter

Determine if a recruiter makes sense for you. For most executive jobs, it’s mandatory. For many positions, your chances of getting the interview are much better if a trusted recruiter can make a detailed and determined case for you with the client company.

Evaluate the recruiter just as carefully as you evaluate the job. You’re empowering this person to represent you in a high-stakes situation and most of their work will take place outside your vision. The very best situation is when someone you trust introduces you to a recruiter and tells you that they are honest and hard-working.

Validate what the recruiter is telling you when you can. For example after the first phone screen the recruiter tells you that the screener had three reactions, one each positive, negative and neutral. Later in the process, if you encounter the screener again, you can casually ask about feedback and see if it matches the recruiter’s narrative.

Image credit: rawpixels

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Dave Perlman has reinvented himself many times. He’s been a software developer, a motel desk clerk, a historian, a forklift driver, a CTO and a few other things.

Currently he runs his own high-performing executive recruiting firm from his home outside Boston. He handles career coaching and resume polishing as adjuncts to that business.

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Read Part 1: Getting Started

Read Part 2: Networking

Read Part 3: Online Job Boards

Read Part 4: The Interview

March 5 2018

Over 50 and Looking for a Job: Part 4 – The Interview

Dave Perlman Articles for Work, NL030518, NL082918 employment, interviewing, job hunt, older workers, recruiters, reinvention, work

Many interview candidates fail because they simply don’t understand the situation. Interviewing is a pure sales play. The goal of an interview is either to get invited to the next round or to get the job offer.

In this article, I’ll offer some strategies to prepare for and ace your interview.

CHECK YOUR ATTITUDE

You must have the right attitude from the start.

Be Honest You must be who you are. Posturing and pretending won’t work.

Have Confidence You are a great candidate and you must believe that you are a great candidate. If you don’t believe this and project it convincingly, the interviewer will not believe it either.
Take it Seriously You are talking to people who can, if they choose to, give you a large pile of dollars over the next few years. Do your homework, listen, take careful notes, and engage with them thoughtfully.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK

Research Learn about the company, its market, history, and leaders. Read their bios on the website and on LinkedIn. Google the company and the people who are interviewing you. If you understand where they came from you’re part way to understanding them. Look up the company on Glass Door, but don’t overreact to disgruntled or positive comments.

Competitive Analysis If you can, identify the company’s competitors and prepare questions in this area. “What makes us better?” is a great question. Don’t be afraid to talk about the things you think they could learn from their competitors.
Prepare Thoughtful Questions Think about what you want to know about the company culture, the team, and the company’s future. Your questions will define you even more than your answers.

BE READY FOR TOUGH QUESTIONS

Know your weaknesses Try to identify the questions that give you trouble and talk to a savvy friend or a skilled recruiter about how to handle them. Develop short scripted answers. Write them down and practice saying them until they feel comfortable and natural.

Be ready to talk about why you’re right for this role

Key for Older Candidates: You may often be perceived a “over qualified” in many cases, especially if you have held more senior roles in the past. This can be shorthand for “they’ll be bored” or “they’re too expensive” or “they’ll bring too much baggage”. Make it very clear that you want this job, not just a stepping stone into something more senior.

DON’T TALK ABOUT MONEY… YET

Don’t introduce the subject of compensation. You will get more money if this entire topic is deferred until they decide that they want you.
If asked about current compensation, tell the truth.
If asked about your compensation goals, deflect. Try to avoid naming a number if you can, since it will be difficult if not impossible to negotiate upwards from whatever number you cite. You can say that your goal for the meeting is to establish whether there is a good fit, and that compensation is only part of your job satisfaction equation. You can say that you would be more comfortable having the recruiter, if you have one, handle this. Backed into a corner, always give a range, not one number.

Key for Older Candidates: You may be willing or even eager to receive significantly less than you got in past to learn a new skill or break into a new domain. You can make this point, ideally without naming numbers.

THE DAY OF YOUR INTERVIEW

Eat a good breakfast early. Leave time to digest it
Have a snack with coffee if needed to keep energy up and blood sugar consistent
Remind yourself of your achievements to boost your confidence
Remember your message and stick to it
Review your specific answers to tough questions so they’re top of mind if you need them
Give yourself plenty of time to get ready and to travel to your interview
Find a peaceful place if you can, and make a conscious effort to breathe deep and relax
Get into the right frame of mind with a little self-hypnosis
- “I feel good”: I am physically alert, emotionally ready, and supercharged by the anticipation of meeting these people.
- “I am raring to go”: I am here early because I have been looking forward to this. I wantto be here because it’s the right place for me.
- “I look good”: I checked myself in the mirror a few times. I like what I am wearing. I will make a good impression.

BEST FOOT FORWARD

A genuine smile
Make direct eye contact, and maintain it throughout the interview
Introduce yourself to everyone in the room
Use the interviewer’s name when you greet them. It will help to imprint it in your memory
Give a good firm handshake

STORYTELLING

Interviewers usually do want to get to know you. One method is to tell stories about your experiences. Your stories should be:

True
Short – no excessive detail, please
Have a point
Be relevant to the situation

Key for Older Candidates: If you’ve worked in one company or one role for quite a few years you may be perceived as being in a rut, habituated to one way of working, and unable or unwilling to adapt to new circumstances. Make sure that at least one of your stories illustrates that you can adapt, evolve, listen to the room and make changes quickly and cheerfully.

DURING THE INTERVIEW

Interview the interviewer. Take this opportunity to evaluate whether you can be successful and happy at the company
Be alert for clues about culture, expectations, politics and personalities
Be confident AND modest – balance “I” and “we”
Tell the truth
Use examples but make sure that they are short and relevant
Be enthusiastic but not fake
Be respectful
Listen…and let your interviewer(s) lead the conversation
Take notes, but keep your attention on the person you are speaking with
Ask smart questions that will allow you to demonstrate your value in follow-ups. For example:
- What are the challenges faced by the organization?
- What are the key goals for this position?
- Humbly show how your background/experience/industry knowledge would contribute to the organization
- Try to make it a conversation, not an interrogation
Thank your interviewer(s) for their time

DON’T

Fidget
Touch the interviewer
Interrupt
Speak negatively about past employers
Chew gum
Tell your life story. Remember stories should be short, relevant, and to the point!
Don’t be shy about your mistakes. Focus on what you learned from them and how you could handle the same situation better now
Don’t be in a hurry to come up with a solution. When presented with a problem or hypothetical situation by your interviewer, listen carefully and think about it before making a quick diagnosis or offering a plan. Every situation has unique details, and what worked once for you may need adjustment or even reversal in the new situation

AFTER THE INTERVIEW

Have patience Sometimes it takes a few days for multiple interviewers to correlate their impressions, especially if they are interviewing several candidates for the position. Don’t nag the interviewer or recruiter. If they want you they will get back to you.

Send Thank Yous with caution Thank you notes and emails are a double-edged sword. Some people think they are great, but I have seen many cases where they actually sent a candidate backward. I don’t recommend sending them. Your time to make an impression is in the interview. If you must send a follow-up note, make it short, not too friendly, not desperate, not chatty, and not salesy. Be cool, calm, thank them for their time and express your interest in the role. Don’t introduce new issues or topics.

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Dave Perlman has reinvented himself many times. He’s been a software developer, a motel desk clerk, a historian, a forklift driver, a CTO and a few other things.

Currently he runs his own high-performing executive recruiting firm from his home outside Boston. He handles career coaching and resume polishing as adjuncts to that business.

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Read Part 1: Getting Started

Read Part 2: Networking

Read Part 3: Online Job Boards

February 27 2018

Over 50 and Looking for a Job: Part 3 – Online Job Boards

Dave Perlman Articles for Work, NL022818, NL082218 job boards, job hunt, lead generation

Job boards are by far the easiest way to get many leads quickly. In a manic one-hour coffee-fueled search, a job-hunter can easily scan scores of job postings and actually apply to dozens, using Ye Olde Cut and Paste.

This can be deceptive, though. You get the illusion of progress, but…

Job board submissions are usually reviewed either by a very junior person who is simply instructed to match acronyms in your resume against those in the job description, or by a software program which scans your resume and does the same thing even better and cheaper.

Clearly you won’t get a good thoughtful read in any either case. Subtleties will be lost. The unconventional candidate is doomed. Quality will not rise to the top.

In fact, most of the time you will never hear back at all. And that is depressing. I have real job hunt logs from early in my career with disheartening numbers like

Submitted = 152

Rejected = 2

Silence = 150

Really.

That’s a tough way to find a new gig. It can make you hate the whole thing.

And if you apply online and later get contacted by a recruiter working that job independently, it’s dollars to donuts that the recruiter won’t be able to present you, since you’ve already “contacted” the hiring company, even though they ignored you. This will probably damage your chances of getting the interview by 30-300%. Recruiter-submitted candidates get more mindshare, and I’ll delve into that phenomenon in my next post.

I do think, though, that there is value on job boards for intelligence gathering.

First, make sure you select the right boards. Each one has a unique tilt toward particular industries, regions, company sizes, roles and/or seniority levels. Simply Google job boards and you’ll be overwhelmed: Monster, LinkedIn, Indeed and many more. Qualify your search by region or discipline and you should be able to zero on the ones that tilt your way.

Check them weekly, or at most twice a week. Daily checks may feel better, but they’re usually a waste of time you could be investing in a more productive job hunt task. Or just relaxing– just because your job hunt feels like a job in and of itself doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take time for yourself to rest and recharge.

The right boards (and I think a group of perhaps four or five is about right) will help you to answer a few very key questions:

Who is hiring?

When you know who’s hiring, you can likely suss out a better way to approach them than via the cold dark job board submission process itself. By far the best path is a warm introduction from someone who knows your work, and is willing to add a gentle but critical endorsement at submission time. If this person has a positive, respectful relationship with the hiring manager or the human resources manager, this can be a huge advantage. It won’t get you the gig but it may get you a shot at it.

If you can’t contrive a better way to reach the hiring entity, then do apply online, but keep your hopes under control. The odds and the Force are not with you.

What are they looking for ?

When you know what they are looking for (although job descriptions are notoriously incomplete and misleading) you can:

Avoid the ones where you are a total non-fit thus saving tons of time, bandwidth, and patience.
Hone your resume to zoom in tight on the ones where you are a strong maybe.

How many jobs are there in your target zone?

Target zone includes location, seniority, domain, specialty, and whatever other criteria is important to you.

If there aren’t enough jobs that you like the look of, and think you have a realistic shot to land, you need to widen your target zone. Right away. Aiming at too narrow a target window is perhaps the quickest way to sabotage your entire search effort.

Next time I’ll talk about the role recruiters can play in your job hunt– what they can and can’t do for you, their strengths and limitations, and which ones to avoid.

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Dave Perlman has reinvented himself many times. He’s been a software developer, a motel desk clerk, a historian, a forklift driver, a CTO and a few other things.

Currently he runs his own high-performing executive recruiting firm from his home outside Boston. He handles career coaching and resume polishing as adjuncts to that business.

Photo credit: energepic.com

Read Part 1: Getting Started

Read Part 2: Networking

February 19 2018

Part 2: Over 50 and Looking for a Job – Networking

Dave Perlman Articles for Work, NL022118, NL081518 job hunt, lead generation, networking

In this series Dave Perlman, an executive recruiter and career coach, put together a Getting Started guide that is specifically targeted to seasoned workers.

Whether you’re feeling age-insecure at your current job, planning a reinvention or trying to get back into the workforce this guide should help.

The Art of Networking

Last week I wrote about getting started on your job hunt. This time I’ll start with a key component: getting good, actionable job leads.

Perhaps the biggest factor in finding a new job is deal flow.

It’s a numbers game. Many opportunities simply don’t develop, for dozens of reasons: fit, chemistry, background, personality, domain knowledge, whim, politics, confusion, bad hiring practices, poor interviewing skills (on both sides) and just bad luck.But if your flow of new opportunities is healthy and robust enough, eventually the right one will come into the corral and you’ll lasso it.

Without doubt the best avenue to discover new opportunities is through networking: using the people you know. But many folks don’t understand how to network effectively.

Good networking has a few very basic principles.

Give-to-get

Networking, like friendship, is a two-way street. As that great American, Don Vito Corleone said, “I believe in friendship. And I am not afraid to show my friendship first.” Start out looking to help rather than to get and you will get in the end.

One tactic that works for me is to start a conversation – online or in Starbucks – with an interesting-looking stranger.

Step One – make a comment about something neutral.

Step Two – ask for their opinion or viewpoint.

Step Three – praise their contribution.

Step Four -reveal something about yourself and ask them something, ideally work-related. “I’m a CTO. What do you do ?”

Step Five – again express interest and approval, ask about the challenges they are facing, and ask how you can help .

Extending your network

What doesn’t grow shrinks. Networks atrophy as people move and change their interests. To keep yours growing try to set a quota for new members on a weekly basis. Don’t set the quality bar too high – very often an apparently boring or seeming minor-league person can introduce you to a real rainmaker.

Quality trumps quantity

While growing your network is a numbers game, benefitting from it is not. There are always going to be a few people who stand out: they have the best connections, they are the quickest to offer to help, and their help actually works. Since it’s never easy to identify these people in advance, treat everyone with equal respect. These connections, if nurtured, can make a difference for you.

Breadth

Folks coming out of a long tenure at one company or in one narrow niche tend to have very tall and narrow networks. They know everyone in their own narrow silo, but virtually no one outside it. Make real efforts to broaden your network into new arenas. Go to meetups, take the meeting, book lunches, have a coffee with someone you barely know. Work at it. Systematically growing your network takes a lot of time but it can pay off bigtime.

Next week we’ll take a look at other approaches to finding opportunities. Networking is number one, and sometimes can be all you need. But for most of us, it needs to be supplemented with online research, by using recruiters selectively, and with other techniques.

Read Part 1: Getting Started

Photo credit: rawpixel.com

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Dave Perlman has reinvented himself many times. He’s been a software developer, a motel desk clerk, a historian, a forklift driver, a CTO and a few other things.

Currently he runs his own high-performing executive recruiting firm, Grenadier Search, from his home outside Boston. He handles career coaching and resume polishing as adjuncts to that business.