Jeremy Johnson has a new guest blog post this week on rapid-fire bits from a recruiter’s perspective.
Jeremy is a recruiter in Kansas City for EHD Technologies, a recruiting, staffing and managed services company serving the IT, Engineering and Automotive industries.
You can also follow him on Twitter at jkjohnson72
Recruiter Random Thoughts
I’ve had some good conversations with job candidates this week, and as I’m prone to do – because it’s kind of a soapbox for me – I’ve given out a lot of advice. Since it covered a really broad range of job-hunting topics, my brain is going a million different directions as I sit to write this blog entry. So, I’m just going to go with it and offer some rapid-fire bits from a recruiter’s perspective.
Here it goes:
- The resume is the only part of the entire job-hunting process over which you have complete control. So, invest the time and do it right.
- When you get an objection in an interview, handle it like a salesperson. If you’re not sure how, there are all kinds of sales resources that can help you improve this skill.
- The key to job networking isn’t just talking to as many people as you can; it’s more about building relationships with people who will be cheerleaders for you who also can influence a decision-maker.
- Even if the main reason you’re looking for another job is better pay, don’t lead with that in an interview. All it will do is make the interviewer think that as soon as you can find a couple extra dollars per hour, you’ll jump ship from them, too.
- The first bullet point in a section of your resume will automatically get the most emphasis, so be purposeful with it. For example, don’t lead with skills in MS-DOS or Windows NT if you’re an IT professional, just for the sake of being chronologically accurate. You’ll just make yourself look outdated.
- Because we have relationships with, and direct access to, hiring decision makers, recruiters can open doors that you may not be able to open on your own.
- Never lie on your resume or in an interview. It always bites you in the backside – and you end up burning a lot of bridges in the process.
- If your resume starts with something like “20+ years in X” or “A manufacturing professional with 30 years of experience”, all you’re doing is inviting your audience to start calculating age. It’s not relevant. Lead instead with your relevant level of expertise.
- Your resume doesn’t have to answer every single question in your audience’s mind. It just has to make them believe they’re on the right track enough to justify calling you.
- If you’re working with a recruiter, don’t call more than once – MAYBE – twice a week. If you start psycho-dialing, we stop picking up the phone.
- Don’t necessarily be scared off by contract-to-hire positions. These jobs constitute a permanent need with a permanent budget; there’s just an evaluation period. Companies want these jobs to work out and take you permanent. They don’t want to have to start the search over again.
- If your job hunt feels comfortable, you’re not pushing yourself hard enough.
- From a recruiter’s perspective, if your background fits my client’s position, and I think you’d represent my company well, I have a SELFISH motive to try to get you in front of them. So, if I won’t submit you for a particular job, you can be assured there’s a good reason. Otherwise, I’d just be taking money out of my own pocket.
- If you’re not getting the traction in your job search that you think you should, make an honest gut check and see if there are some things you could be doing differently or better.
- It’s okay to tell a recruiter ‘no.’ I’d much rather have a ‘no’ upfront than to end up getting one farther down the road after everyone’s invested a lot of their time.
- On your resume, you have 10, maybe 20, seconds to get your audience interested before you start to lose them.
- If you’re out of work, take consistent action every single day. If you don’t, inertia tends to set in, and next thing you know a month has gone by and you haven’t done jack squat.
- Arrogance in an interview is bad. Passion and conviction is good.
- Don’t reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to. The best job hunting tactics I’ve ever employed for myself, almost without exception, started out as someone else’s idea.
- Don’t think of a company’s job as a job. Instead, look at it as a need. Then, you can better show them how what you have to offer can best fill that need.
- Recruiters aren’t jerks. But, there are some jerks who just happen to be recruiters.
- If you’re out of work, tap into your support system regularly. Job-hunting isn’t something to tackle solo.
- Never write your resume in the third person. It makes you sound like “The Jimmy” episode from Seinfeld.
- A recruiter may be a possible resource, but don’t take your foot off the gas, leaning on them alone to find you a job. It’s still imperative that you’re proactive in your own job search.
- If your resume is written in Times New Roman, change it. Don’t be like everyone else.
- Getting submitted to the same position by different recruiters doesn’t improve your odds of getting noticed. It gets the second submittal automatically rejected, and a recruiter having to explain to their client why they’re trying to “double submit” someone. In staffing, the early bird gets the worm, meaning whoever submits you first gets the consideration and all others get rejected. Be open and honest with a recruiter if you’ve already been submitted for the position they’re calling you about. They’ll appreciate that you did.
- It’s never, never, never about you. It’s always, always, always about your audience (and what’s important to them).
- If you have a generic Objective Statement on your resume, drop it. We don’t read it and it doesn’t tell us anything about why you’re the right solution to our specific need. Instead, use a title or “headline.” Most importantly, be specific and audience-focused.