Chris Wellington “The Recruiting Guy”, President, The Wellington Group, LLC

Jobs are out there, no matter the “economy”

There was a very interesting blog post this month on ERE that had me and many other recruiters or human resource professionals sit up and take notes. Now typically the US Media does not pay a lot of attention to the upside of these reports. Instead, what is highly trafficked and extremely hyped-up when these reports are released are the perceived negatives to help us all feel just a little bit worse about this so called “economy.” Well, economies are like rivers, they don’t stay constant except constant change.

The great news I think that does need to be reported are two critical statistics the media is not talking about (or at least the glimpses I see). The first is the number of people WHO DID GET A NEW JOB in February in the US. This number, approximately 4.4 million, constitutes new hires just for one month! Wow, compare the difference in total separations verses new hires for the year and you only have a difference of 3.9 million “separations.” The separations include total numbers so this also accounts for people who have QUIT a job. Taking that into consideration I don’t think we are in such an abysmal state?

Chris Wellington “The Recruiting Guy”, President, The Wellington Group, LLC

Recruiting and Technology: Session 2

As I tour the country and work with various recruiters and professional headhunters I can’t help but to chuckle at the complaints the modern recruiter (corporate, executive search, staffing and basement dwellers) all seem to have. My internet is too slow, CareerBuilder is down again, my wireless mouse is not working, and on and on. It was not that long ago when we had to fax or hand deliver resumes and you were lucky to get a company email to contact some hiring manager or job seeker.

Now, I have a flat screen TV in my office and can’t live without all the small technology toys to include the so aptly named crackberry! Well most of it I can live without and probably become an even more productive recruiter and member of society, except my multiple monitors! I remember the first time I heard about running dual monitors for recruiting. I had seen the concept for call centers and IT developers but never thought it would apply to me. I was wrong.

I was attending a Top Echelon conference and one of the main presenters was hosting a training session. He had two screens being projected and showed how to run their ATS tool on one screen and look at a candidate or job order on another. What? Yeah I said that and laughed it off but Tiffany who was with me said, “Pretty cool.” Ok, so maybe there was something we were missing here. So, we asked what does it take to set up dual monitors in our office.

Chris Wellington “The Recruiting Guy”, President, The Wellington Group, LLC

Interesting post and news this week on Monster.com and Microsoft Office Online, “Four steps to your next job,” creating a new partnership to help the active job seeker. In the example they start to cite a specific individual’s pain and launch into this combined marketing program. A suggestion is made to utilize the Microsoft Office templates to help develop your resume. Now, unlike many of my peers or other resume writing service providers, I am not opposed to this and thus writing a negative post. Nope, I think it’s a great idea if you have no resume to work with and/or can’t afford or are unable to seek out help.

Living in “the land of resumes” as the electronic age has provided to HR and recruiters alike, I can tell you that a resume DOES make a difference in your job search. Having just the right ingredients, as Greg Miller has pointed out in previous posts, makes all the difference in the world. Too much and it’s usually overlook, not enough and it’s overlooked. I say equally important are the style, format and key selling points.

Greg Miller, Executive Search Consultant, The Wellington Group, LLC

First and foremost, I recommend that you avoid a detailed resume that shows everything you did starting with your first job, unless you are relatively new to the workforce. The hiring manager will not be interested in what you did in 1993 (that was 16 years ago!) or 1988 (21 years ago!).

What to avoid: I know, your past is what made you what you are today, and it all flows in logical professional growth progression, but in the final analysis, potential employers will typically only look at the past 5-10 years. Don’t tell them that you play chess, ride your dirt bike on the weekends, and read in your spare time. The only exception to this might be if you have done some reliable research on your potential new boss, and can mention some of your personal information that matches with his/hers (he/she was an Eagle Scout, or plays hockey for a local club like you do, etc). There may even be civic involvement on the part of your potential new company that you are likewise involved with, and there is nothing wrong with that showing up on your resume discretely. Bottom line: confine your resume to 2-3 pages at the most….no more 8 page resumes! Another blog talks about what to include in your resume…take a peek at that one for more information.

Greg Miller, Executive Search Consultant, The Wellington Group, LLC

So often, it is really hard to know what to include in your resume. This is especially true if you are in the IT or Scientific realm, because your world is very specific and detailed in terms of education and particular areas of expertise. Both of these worlds are vast!

For new resumes, please keep it to two pages, and if you absolutely must (due to longevity in the workforce), three. For revised resumes, the same rule applies…2-3 pages. I have sat down with so many IT folks who live in a world of alphabet soup listings on their resumes: Operating Systems, hardware, software, proprietary applications, and various versions and Service Packs of any number of these, each particular to their specialty. Likewise, for Scientific resumes, I see a wide range of entries including: GMP, GLP, QA, QC, LIMS, IND submissions, in-vitro assays, and much more. Unfortunately, that is only helpful later on in the interview process. What is crucial is to get the interview in the first place! Hiring managers really don’t and won’t wade through 8-14 page resumes. They simply don’t have time for that. They need a quick look – a fast summary that highlights your experience. They need to determine in less than one minute that your credentials look like a strong match with their job description.