If we, as professional recruiters hope to best assist our clients in achieving a career renaissance, then the recruiters who often place them need to regularly review their own renaissance values. In doing so they need to look beyond their purely personal financial and ego gratification, and instead facilitate a situation that leads to the greater good of the job-seeker’s and hiring company's mutual growth and satisfaction.
As in most sectors of the economy, recruiters are sometimes subject to the need-for-greed in their desire to make a quick dollar (placement) and then run; having little, or no consideration for the potentially, negative impact of their actions on the career and life of the candidate, or the success of the client company. Of course, the majority of recruiters do not fall into this category, but in all honesty we generally got into this field to make a decent living, and not to become saints. Well, maybe not all of us…
Recruiters at quasi-ethical or unethical firms are particularly subject to this practice of greed. Harassed by their manager (who often are intimidated themselves by their owners), junior recruiters are harried to make their numbers add up in greater placements, or else face being fired. They (the junior recruiters) are acculturated into this ends-justify-the-means mindset and in so doing are forced to objectify and dehumanize their clients. Why not? It's all about the money after all, or is it?
As luck would have it, the third firm I worked for was based on the principle of establishing long-term, ethical relationships with their clients. We not only made money, but valued friendships with our clients, too. There were even occasions when we would advise a candidate or a client company to pass on a potential placement if we did not think it was in the best interest of the client or the company.
What about letting a bad placement go by when you are struggling in a tough market like today. Well, if recruiters and agencies had created good will in good times and managed their money wisely, then they wouldn't have this problem. This isn't a question of candidate/client control. Most candidates and companies will naturally gravitate to a mutually satisfying hiring situation. We need to have the self control, intuition and, maybe a touch of wisdom to set up the right parameters, offer guidance and skill, and let the good placements happen as they should.
One, positive aspect about a recession is that it tends to weed out the questionable (unethical) characters in recruiting, and as we have seen, in many other types of business as well. Am I advocating a socialistic approach to recruiting? No. I'm stating that although ethical capitalism may be an oxymoron for many, it isn't to me.
Did I never make a placement, particularly when I first started out in the business, that I was not proud of, or out of (a la Ayn Rand) "enlightened self interest"? -- Of course not. But, those placements often led to short tenures at the client company, an occasional fall off, or even a firing, accompanied by a lost fee; let alone the additional anger, embarrassment, and general negative feelings that often followed.
Despite the advent of technological based recruiting, which many seem to see as a panacea to insuring the continued growth of the recruiting industry, particularly of the contingency variety; if we don't add considerable value to a placement, beyond being a surface, but shaky match, then there may be a precarious future for the entire recruiting business. Some recruiters are already well aware of this paradigm, and their business will generally thrive over the long term. Others on the other hand don't realize the inevitable negative impact of their actions, and often eventually leave the field out of frustration and dissatisfaction, which can cause irreparable damage to the credibility of everyone involved in recruiting as a whole.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Saturday, April 18, 2009
An Effective Resume Guide
An Effective Resume
To understand what makes a resume effective, think of what it has to do. It has to attract the eye of a prospective employer, immediately communicate why you’re qualified, and tell something about who you are—inside of a minute’s time! That’s all you can expect from a typical, busy manager.
When you’ve seen as many resumes as we have, you can compile a long list of misguided resumes that won’t even get that minute: five-page resumes; graphics created by somebody with no graphics skills; brash resumes; sarcastic resumes, presumptuous resumes—the list goes on, which is too bad, because it’s not that hard to create a good resume, if you keep a few simple tips in mind.
1) Keep it short. This will take some work and time. Rework it until it says as much as it can about you in the fewest possible words. One page is ideal, but if you have an extensive work history, you’re justified in going on to a second page.
2) Make it attractive. This is the “attract the eye” part. Attractive in the world of resumes equates to clean. You can achieve this by the judicious use of white space, headers, bold face, underlining and italics. You don’t need more than that.
3) Tell a story. This is the story of your professional life. A prospective employer should be able to follow the thread of your career summary, and it should make sense. Detours are OK—most of us have at one time or another detoured into a different field—but in a resume, treat these like spice: you don’t want too much of them.
4) Keep it focused. Keep a strong focus on your goals, incorporating parts of your background to illustrate them. A statement of your goals is one of the clearest indicators to a prospective employer of whether or not there might be a match.
5) No mistakes, please! A resume with a mistake in it is a traveling billboard advertising your carelessness and inattention. Proofread it. And ask somebody else to proofread it. Watch for mistakes in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Check how the dates follow one another: does the chronology make sense?
6) Online Considerations. You need to take into account resume-scanning search engines. They will be looking for keywords and key-skills, for example "J2EE," "C#," in the IT job world. Make sure that you include these key terms near the top of your in a separate skills section. Also, you need to put these skills in the specific job context that you used them. Although your resume may become slightly longer, this can offer you a better match.
To understand what makes a resume effective, think of what it has to do. It has to attract the eye of a prospective employer, immediately communicate why you’re qualified, and tell something about who you are—inside of a minute’s time! That’s all you can expect from a typical, busy manager.
When you’ve seen as many resumes as we have, you can compile a long list of misguided resumes that won’t even get that minute: five-page resumes; graphics created by somebody with no graphics skills; brash resumes; sarcastic resumes, presumptuous resumes—the list goes on, which is too bad, because it’s not that hard to create a good resume, if you keep a few simple tips in mind.
1) Keep it short. This will take some work and time. Rework it until it says as much as it can about you in the fewest possible words. One page is ideal, but if you have an extensive work history, you’re justified in going on to a second page.
2) Make it attractive. This is the “attract the eye” part. Attractive in the world of resumes equates to clean. You can achieve this by the judicious use of white space, headers, bold face, underlining and italics. You don’t need more than that.
3) Tell a story. This is the story of your professional life. A prospective employer should be able to follow the thread of your career summary, and it should make sense. Detours are OK—most of us have at one time or another detoured into a different field—but in a resume, treat these like spice: you don’t want too much of them.
4) Keep it focused. Keep a strong focus on your goals, incorporating parts of your background to illustrate them. A statement of your goals is one of the clearest indicators to a prospective employer of whether or not there might be a match.
5) No mistakes, please! A resume with a mistake in it is a traveling billboard advertising your carelessness and inattention. Proofread it. And ask somebody else to proofread it. Watch for mistakes in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Check how the dates follow one another: does the chronology make sense?
6) Online Considerations. You need to take into account resume-scanning search engines. They will be looking for keywords and key-skills, for example "J2EE," "C#," in the IT job world. Make sure that you include these key terms near the top of your in a separate skills section. Also, you need to put these skills in the specific job context that you used them. Although your resume may become slightly longer, this can offer you a better match.
Monday, April 13, 2009
It is now critical to have a trusted and well-informed professional, career consultant close at hand.
Whether you are employed, unemployed or contemplating a career change, we can advise you on such issues as resume preparation and interview techniques. However, our primary mission will be to present and analyze attitudes, approaches, insights, and macro socio-cultural and economic trends, which affect you and your career. Our emphasis will be on the software and IT career environments. In addition, we will touch upon all fields and levels of employment.
By offering you differing perspectives on career development issues, it is our intention in future posts to provide you with valuable insights and tools to optimize both your career and life situation. For example: we will help you to cope with the stress and sadness that often accompanies job loss. Moreover, we will assist you in both accelerating your reemployment process, and in making the most beneficial, new job decision. Our expectation is that this will maximize your career development and lead you to a true "Career Renaissance."
We possess over twenty years of experience in career placement; mostly in the IT and engineering fields. We also bring to you an expansive and varied background in Human Resources, psychology, socio-cultural scholarship (e.g. at Harvard University and the University of Chicago, et al) and, most recently, in career and life coaching. Through our extensive experience, we are uniquely qualified to offer you advice and support to realize your career and life goals.
Sincerely,
Michael Jay Sullivan
By offering you differing perspectives on career development issues, it is our intention in future posts to provide you with valuable insights and tools to optimize both your career and life situation. For example: we will help you to cope with the stress and sadness that often accompanies job loss. Moreover, we will assist you in both accelerating your reemployment process, and in making the most beneficial, new job decision. Our expectation is that this will maximize your career development and lead you to a true "Career Renaissance."
We possess over twenty years of experience in career placement; mostly in the IT and engineering fields. We also bring to you an expansive and varied background in Human Resources, psychology, socio-cultural scholarship (e.g. at Harvard University and the University of Chicago, et al) and, most recently, in career and life coaching. Through our extensive experience, we are uniquely qualified to offer you advice and support to realize your career and life goals.
Sincerely,
Michael Jay Sullivan
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