Tag: network

Same Craft, Different Tools – How thinking digital transformed my business

Same Craft, Different Tools – How thinking digital transformed my business

Posted on by peter

When I set out to build a digital network of industry-related professionals—convinced it could transform the recruiting industry—I had no idea how profoundly it would reshape my own practice. What started as an experiment quickly became a catalyst for scale, reach, and—most importantly—better outcomes for both candidates and clients. Today, that network has grown to nearly a million, enabling me to connect exceptional people across real estate, construction, and architecture with companies worthy of their talent—faster and more thoughtfully than ever before.

While the tools have evolved, the underlying lessons remain timeless. A few themes from my experience continue to surface in modern recruiting and are just as relevant for today’s job seekers and hiring leaders navigating an increasingly digital, noisy, and competitive talent market.

Reaching Far but Looking Close

There’s an old New Yorker cartoon of a dog sitting at a computer with the caption, “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” Years later, the joke still lands—because ambiguity remains one of the biggest obstacles in digital recruiting.

I often come across profiles that appear to align perfectly with a search—until I look closer. Job titles like “Vice President” or “Director” can mean vastly different things across organizations. Without context, they tell a recruiter very little. Specificity, however, tells a story.

“Vice President” is vague. “Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the Northeast region, leading a 14-person team and driving 22% revenue growth over three years” is not.

In a world where hundreds—sometimes thousands—of professionals may view a profile, clarity is what converts interest into conversation. If a hiring leader cannot quickly understand the scope, scale, and impact of one’s role, they’ll move on. Precision isn’t about oversharing; it’s about making it easy for the right opportunity to find you.

First Impressions Count—They’ve Just Multiplied

Today, first impressions rarely happen in a single place. They might occur on LinkedIn, through a Google search, in a webinar attendee list, or via a photo posted after an industry event. Digital presence is no longer supplemental to a career—it is part of the résumé.

This doesn’t require perfection, but it does demand intention. Professional platforms should reflect the role one aspires to, not just the one currently held. Profile photos, bios, and public-facing content should be current, polished, and consistent. Sloppy details—outdated logos, cluttered email signatures, unproofed summaries—send quiet but powerful signals.

No one expects constant formality, and authenticity matters. Still, career-specific spaces deserve the same thoughtfulness one would bring to a first in-person meeting. The goal is not to impress everyone—it’s to resonate with the right audience.

Technology Amplifies the Human Element

Digital tools have unquestionably transformed how people connect to opportunity. For job seekers, access and visibility have expanded dramatically. For companies, the ability to identify, evaluate, and engage talent has become both faster and more strategic.

At Christopher Frederick, embracing digital networking—while preserving the discipline of one-on-one executive search—allowed us to scale without sacrificing quality. We’ve grown our internal team and routinely identify qualified candidates in weeks rather than months. More importantly, we’ve consistently helped clients secure leadership talent that drives long-term value.

Our experience reinforces a simple truth: technology doesn’t replace relationships—it amplifies them. When used thoughtfully, digital tools sharpen judgment, expand reach, and elevate outcomes for everyone involved.

The Craft Endures

Recruiting is still about discernment, trust, and understanding people—not just roles. The tools may change, but the craft remains the same. Those who learn to pair timeless principles with modern platforms will continue to stand out in a crowded, fast-moving talent landscape.

For more than three decades, Christopher Frederick has partnered with leading real estate, construction, and architecture organizations to secure high-impact executives who drive long-term success. Learn more at www.chrisfred.com.

What We Don’t Learn From Most Job Ads

What We Don’t Learn From Most Job Ads

Posted on by peter

Quick challenge: Try summarizing all of your professional responsibilities in 150 words. If you’re like most people with jobs that involve decision making and critical thinking, that would be tough to pull off in such a limited space. So why do we put so much stock in the similarly brief job descriptions of the advertising most companies use to recruit employees?

Despite advances in social networking and automation within large human resources departments, hiring for all but the most entry-level positions still remains more art than science. Looking back over three decades of recruiting, I know first-hand that employers and job seekers alike can benefit from a more thoughtful approach to hiring.

Employers: Don’t sell the job. Sell the company.

The pace of the recovery in housing, commercial property and the full breadth of real estate is finally picking up. Likewise, the competition for talent and the urgency in filling positions critical to growth continue to mount. Dangling a title, a compensation range and the boilerplate language from a years-old job description in front of a universe of potential candidates is no longer the most effective way to find qualified people. Companies must declare – transparently and with pride – what differentiates their organizations from their competitors. Too often, these are things hiring managers take for granted. Look at policies like leadership development programs, reimbursement for continuing education and similar benefits for high-potential employees. If something stands out compared to the rest of the industry, let candidates know it when advertising a position.

Also, don’t just recruit for the immediate opening. Look for people who can grow in their leadership over time, and make that potential for advancement clear when communicating with candidates. Driven people won’t just be interested in the current role, but also how it will lead to the next career challenge a few years down the road. Let potential employees know what that looks like. Additionally, give them a sense of the culture they’ll be growing within. Is the company young and changing fast, or established and expanding at a measured pace? How much risk are employees encouraged to take? Is the style of the company’s leaders one that drives hard for a unified vision or one focused on consensus and collaboration from the bottom up? Do people leave early on Friday afternoons when the weather is too good to resist, or are Saturdays a part of the workweek more often than not? These questions don’t have right or wrong answers. But there are right and wrong people to hire to fit the culture that each represents. Creating realistic expectations during recruitment also helps set the stage for beneficial relationships with new hires.

Job Seekers: Research pays off.

By the same token, job seekers shouldn’t assume that life at another company will be the same as it is at places where they’ve worked before. Even within identical market segments, professionals in various organizations interact differently, share different values and approach business in different ways. Generic ads for the same position at two companies might make their demands sound identical. Yet a workplace that touts its support for people with families will offer a different experience than a team that never skips the chance to trade war stories at the bar after a 12-hour workday. As such, job seekers should look beyond the traditional list of benefits and compensation and try to get a feel for what it’s really like to work there. Check what current employees say about their workplace online. Network with people at the company. Ask them, and those involved in the hiring process, to describe their work environment. Is it loud’ Silent’ Competitive’ Sociable’ What personality traits do people who get ahead typically share’ It’s important to gauge these things at companies you’re interested in working for, even if you’re currently employed. That way, if and when you need to, you can enter the job market with some of the most critical homework completed ahead of time.

After all, there’s more to any given job than will ever fit on a single sheet of paper. Employees make the best career decisions – and companies retain the best people – when they have a true understanding of both the role and the workplace.

Christopher Frederick has helped match the talents of executives with leading companies in real estate for three decades. We’ve also developed a better approach to recruiting that combines the power of a 300,000-strong professional network with the discretion and one-on-one touch of a professional recruiter. Want to see this unique process up close? Contact us for a free Join.me presentation and watch how we can create a powerful search customized to your unique needs.

Big Data or Big Mistake? How a Personal Approach to Recruiting Can Beat Out Automated Screening

Big Data or Big Mistake? How a Personal Approach to Recruiting Can Beat Out Automated Screening

Posted on by peter

When it comes to creating a pool of potential job candidates, some employers think bigger is better. Large companies will often make use of their electronic application systems to gather any and all resumes that come their way on a continual basis. The logic for doing so is sound, as personnel departments can then analyze the resultant data for insight into their hiring programs while building a seemingly endless bank of potential employees. In practice, though, such automation is only useful to a point and can actually hinder the very personal process of building a successful team.

To start with, resume-reading algorithms are not perfect, even when it comes to basic sorting. I once read of a job candidate who found he’d been marked as unqualified by a computer program despite a relevant degree from Stanford. The full name of that school is Leland Stanford Junior University, but the computer didn’t understand that Mr. Stanford shared a name with his father, assuming instead that the applicant had only been to junior college. It might be impossible to review hundreds of applications in a timely fashion without some form of automation. But a better solution is to create a smaller applicant pool by tailoring job solicitations to a specific group of the most qualified people. This approach is also more fair to those searching for jobs. Many have grown wary of online applications after submitting them by the dozens and hearing nothing in return, potentially because employers solicited applications on popular job boards as a way to gauge potential response, rather than to actually fill a position. In an environment where candidates feel they are casting their resumes into a lottery drawing, they are less likely to apply for the most appropriate positions or become motivated to pursue a particular employer. Be upfront about the position, its requirements and your hiring time frame. Serious candidates will see you are reaching out to them in good faith and will take extra steps to show that they have the most to offer.

For example, my executive recruitment firm approaches only candidates with demonstrated leadership in real estate, narrowing our target audience further by geographic area. Our digital network has nearly 200,000 members, but it’s our seasoned recruiting expertise that makes that network effective. While we make use of technology to help reach the best candidates, we then review responses individually, interacting with applicants and conducting the one-on-one work needed to find the right personalities and knowledge to fit our clients’ needs. It’s the second part of that process that computers cannot replace. Don’t make big mistakes when it comes to your big data while hiring. Digital technology provides today’s managers with an array of powerful tools, but using them well requires discretion and the ability to evaluate candidates as people whose potential value is not always obvious on a spreadsheet.

Over more than two decades, Christopher Frederick has helped some of the biggest names in real estate hire the people key to their success. To learn more about how we leverage our digital network with our extensive recruitment experience, contact Chris Hingle at chingle@chrisfred.com. Or visit our website at www.chrisfred.com where you can find exclusive job listings for real estate executives.

I’ll Be Doing What Now? How a Thorough Job Description Can Make or Break a Candidate Search

I’ll Be Doing What Now? How a Thorough Job Description Can Make or Break a Candidate Search

Posted on by Chris Hingle

There are a lot of boilerplate documents lurking in the files of personnel departments – disclosures, government forms, workplace policies – but job descriptions shouldn’t be among them.

Updating the wording of a position description may seem an insignificant step when faced with an important hire, but many companies forget that prospective candidates read it closely for clues about the company’s culture and employee prospects. All too often, hiring managers jump into a high-stakes executive search without a second look at the document that actually outlines the company’s expectations of the successful candidate.

A highly specific job description helps align expectations and attract the most suitable candidates. For example, requiring “excellent communication skills” says very little, in contrast to noting that a given position requires weekly presentations to C-level management, development of employee training programs, workplace conflict resolution and the editing of market analyses. Likewise, a “strong management background” could just as easily describe the effective oversight of three people as it could 300. Exactly how many people will the new hire be expected to oversee? Will he or she have profit and loss responsibility?

Candidates never complain of having too much information about the company and the position they are exploring, just as hiring managers rarely complain of receiving too much background on a candidate. For both parties, a detailed and up-to-date job description can greatly smooth the hiring process. Case in point: Christopher Frederick’s carefully written email campaigns have helped discover candidates who meet the exacting requirements of employers. By carefully outlining job responsibilities and opportunities, Christopher Frederick can attract top talent from its extensive network of real estate professionals in weeks rather than months.

For more than 25 years, firm principle Chris Hingle has helped match clients’ needs to the specific talents of mid- to C-level executives. To learn more about our recruiting expertise and affordable services, contact Chris at chingle@chrisfred.com.

James J. Cunningham, Executive Vice President, Marquette Companies, Chicago

James J. Cunningham, Executive Vice President, Marquette Companies, Chicago

Posted on by Chris Hingle

Within a week, Christopher Frederick helped us complete what had been a challenging search for an on-site property manager. We needed someone who brought an asset management background, strong operating experience and who’d proven capable of creating value for owners. Chris applied his recruiting expertise to identify, assess and recommend only the most qualified respondents from his extensive digital network. He brought a depth of experience and advice to the process we would never have received using traditional job websites.