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Yesterday I had a call with a candidate I met at the Seattle Job Social. I didn’t have any positions immediately available for him, but wanted to give him the courtesy of a call since we had spoken and he sent me his resume. He was more seasoned candidate, with a significant work history.

The first thing he wanted to know, of course, was what kinds of jobs I might be able to find for him. So I told him, based on his skills and experience, that I would probably be able to find him a data analyst-type position. Then he proceeded to tell me that he wants to go into Business Intelligence, and would I be able to call him if/when I got a BI role? He had been "reading up on it" and was now ready to pursue roles in the BI field.

(Let’s call this candidate George. ) I explained to George that we represent senior candidates, meaning that our clients expect us to present them with professionals that have the requisite skills necessary to peform the work they are hired for, with no discernable ramp time on basic skill sets. I then further went on to let him know that right now, in today’s economy, for every job I have posted, I get bombarded with resumes, and most of the time, there are at least a few candidates that are *dead on* matches for the roles I have.

George asked me what suggestion I had for him to get into the BI field. I suggested that he set up shop as an independent consultant for small businesses and get the experience that way.

He then asked me what version of his resume I had (apparently he numbers them). I told him honestly I had just taken the content out of the document, pasted it into my calendar to call him then deleted the original. I then politely reminded him he could check his sent mail. (v86, apparently.) He tried to convince me that his resume portrayed the skills I need for senior Analyst roles.

My response? Not for the positions I have. I counseled him to tailor his resume to whatever job he was applying for before submitting. He then told me that the local Worksource (WA state unemployment) office had told him that he should always have a couple of resumes that "brand him" and then look for the jobs that fit his brand.

So, this information frustrates me. I have had many candidates tell me some of the strategies they are getting from career counselors and placement coaches, and this is *exactly contrary* to what candidates need to be doing. So I reached out to a good friend that I used to recruit with, who is now an employment counselor at Worksource (and whom I trust because she WAS a recruiter.) I told her what George had said. She looked up his record and said that he has attended "advanced" training sessions that are for C-level candidates and that yes, this is part of the information they receive. But for most people they advise them to tailor their resumes as closely to a job description as possible (thank heavens.)
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A couple of weeks I was introduced to someone that is open to finding a new job. She sent me a resume, and we happened to have a position she might be a fit for. Because we were connected socially, she started to talk about some of the career goals she is thinking of pursuing, and one of them is to get into accounting. From IT. WHOA. I told her that in this economy, I couldn’t counsel *anyone* to try making a radical shift like that. Going back to school to get a CPA, sure. I relayed the same candidate job info I had for George, and it was a major wake-up call for her.

My point is, candidates need to be *realistic* these days. And in George’s case, he needs to *listen* better to what the professionals are telling him, not have selective hearing. I know it’s tough out there. Things are starting to get better, but unless you are ready and able to branch out on your own into a new field and don’t need a steady paycheck or benefits, this is *not* the time to try and make other people see your fit into a mold *you just don’t*. All it does is brand you as a trouble candidate that doesn’t have a grasp on what is really going on in the workforce.

Recently one of my friends found out she is being laid off. She sent me her resume to look at, since it had been a long time since she had been job hunting.She works for a small non-profit on the East coast. The first thing I noticed was that her current title is "Director."

Now, by having that title, as a recruiter I will do one of two things: pass the resume on by, or (depending on the role I am trying to fill) read it and then pass it over. Why do both of these scenarios end with me passing by?

A "Director" is the lowest rung on the executive ladder for most organizations. Most Directors have P & L responsibility combined with an organization that reports into them in a managerial heirarchy. It denotes significant organizational responsibility and a pretty hefty compensation package.

If I was looking at my friend’s resume for an individual contributor role (IC), even if it was doing exactly what she has been doing, I would pass over her experience because as a Director, I won’t have managerial responsibilities, staff, and the commensurate compensation to accompany the title. If I *was* looking at her resume for a Director Role and saw she was actually an IC in a small organization, I would not see the depth of experience and responsibility I am searching for. In short, she was titling herself out of a job.

When I was working at Microsoft and looking for Senior Management candidates, it was understood that a Director at MSFT would often be a VP or General Manager at a smaller company. At a smaller company, titles are often "inflated" by virtue of the size of the organization. If you are the CFO or Controller at a 10 person company, that may mean that you are responsible for all the financial functions; AP/AR, collections, general ledger as well as managing the operations budget for the organization. But that doesn’t mean you, as a candidate, are a good fit for a Senior Financial Manager at a larger company.

The same is also true in reverse. One of the most prevalent questions I hear these days is from senior candidates that are "overqualified" for IC roles. A VP of HR at a 300 person company in a depressed area like, say, Cleveland or Detroit, has a hard time finding a job with the other 500 HR generalists on the market. They *have* the functional skill set to do a generalist job, but because of their experience they are being overlooked for those roles. It is frustrating for the candidate because they need to work. But there are several reasons from a recruiting standpoint that makes these candidates less attractive. The first is quite simply economic; senior candidates make a lot more money than an IC. Although these candidates are willing to take the "going rate" for an IC, it’s a major gamble for any organization that is tight on money. Then there is the fear that bringing in a senior candidate will just be a stop-gap measure for them until the market turns around. In other words, they’ll leave as soon as the going gets better and they can find another job. It is also a more subtle concern that a senior candidate will come in and try to change the established "order" or structure of things.

Let’s face it; it is a buyer’s market, and companies are the buyers. So what can you do, as a senior candidate, to make yourself more "sellable"? First, take your experience to the lowest common denominator. This does, admittedly, border on dumbing down your resume, but you *must* make yourself attractive to a potential employer. Carefully look at the job description and then pull out the requirements. Go through your employment history of the last 7-10 years, and tailor your resume to match *those requirements*. Period. Write your summary to address exactly the requirements for the organization, and get rid of extraneous accomplishments. If you were a manager, become an XYZ professional. For our CFO and VP of HR, they would become Staff Accountant and Sr. HR Generalist, respectively. Or a member of the Accounting team or the Human Resources Staff.

Make sure that your title isn’t putting you out of the running for positions that you are either over- or under- qualified for. These days, for every job opening I have, I am getting a very high number of applicants, and of those, a very high percentage are going to be *exactly* what I am looking for, so I don’t need to stretch to find a "relative" fit. On top of that, many organizations are required to be compliant with certain federal guidelines that state that an organization must consider *every qualified applicant.* And *only* qualified candidates. The qualifications have set parameters, and to even be considered you need to fall into those parameters (which is often defined by a set keyword search).

Remember, your resume is a tool to get you in the door. You may need several versions of it to get your foot over the threshhold.

Recruiters use LinkedIn extensively for finding candidates. It is an easy way for recruiters to find potential talent, not only as a primary source for talent but also for networking. As a job seeker, here are some tips to leverage LinkedIn to make sure you are "findable" by recruiters and other people that are looking.

1) Just like Monster, Dice, CareerBuilder, and corporate candidate databases, LinkedIn allows keyword searching and matching. So it’s vital that you take advantage of this feature. (See my previous entry on effective keyword usage on your resume.) Here are the main fields that recruiters use in conjunction together:

-Title

-Company

-Location

-Education

-Keywords relating to functional skills (ie software coding languages/platforms, terms like GAAP or reconcilation for accounting, A/B testing or campaign for marketing, wireframe or usability for UX, roadmap for PM, calendar for administrative)

2) Profile as Resume: If you look on your profile page over to the right, there is a small icon for the Adobe PDF next to the printer. This handy dandy little widget converts a LinkedIn profile to a PDF document that looks remarkably like a…resume! I remember how enthusiastic I was when this was added, because it meant I could save the profile as a PDF to share with my hiring managers. SO, what does this mean? *treat your LinkedIn profile like a resume.* Follow the same rules of thumb you would with composing your resume. Don’t just list your company, title and dates of employment. Give some detail as to *what you do/did.* Help us find you, and make yourself appealing. You can also upload your resume TO your LI profile.

3) Websites: "My company", or "My blog". I’ve often managed to contact people from their "website" links. Sometimes it is a second business, or perhaps it’s a link to your blog with a "contact me" section. Remember, if someone isn’t in your first degree contacts, they cannot contact you unless you are a LION (LinkedIn Open Networker) or enable open communication except if you are in …

4) Groups: when you join various "groups" on LinkedIn, especially professional or special interest groups, you can choose to let other members of the group contact you. For example, I belong to several groups such as Linked: Seattle and the Seattle Job Social and Amazon Alumni, where I can post jobs and connect up with other people. On top of that, each group has a "jobs" tab where recruiters or hiring managers can post their jobs. (It costs $195 to post a single job for 30 days in the actual "jobs" section of LinkedIn. The "jobs" tabs are a much more cost-effective and generate more interest.) Treat the groups as you would any other professional organization: as a great way to connect with other professionals and like-minded individuals. Join in discussions, make yourself a known quantity. Give people a reason to *want to get to know you* as a resource, and possibly even for generating some business or leads in your field.

5) Status: on your Profile page, you can update your status, and also share out that information as a tweet on your twitter account. This is a great tool because these updates come as email network updates to important individuals in your network, like former colleagues, recruiters, industry professionals, etc., and it integrates Twitter with your LI account. Remember: Twitter is an amazing platform for gathering information, disseminating *your* expertise and branding yourself. Having it integrated with LI is a brilliant move. Don’t just keep a "Steve Smith is seeking new opportunities" or "Jean Doe is available to help you with your staffing needs." Update your profile often; share interesting links to articles or updates to your blog (with the URL of course) about your industry. Keep it fresh and interesting.

6) Recommendations: I have heard of companies in Seattle that don’t ask for references any more. They only use LI recommendations. What does this tell you? That those recommendations are important. And that it is vital to get them *before you think you might need them.* Who should they be from? Managers, peers, clients. People that can attest to your work. The same people that you would use as references when asked for them. These days, many companies have stringent policies about not giving any sort of post-layoff references, so you should start gathering them well before you need them. In addition to your own references, if you get your network email updates and see someone you know is gathering references, it might be a clue that s/he is getting ready to start looking for a new job. Make sure that whomever you are asking/giving for references is someone with whom you have a solid working relationship. I recently was asked for a recommendation for someone that I have known for over a decade, but only socially. I told her I was not comfortable commenting on her work, as I’ve never worked with her (she also lives on the other side of the country and isn’t in recruiting.)

7) Put your LinkedIn profile URL on your resume and your business cards. Recruiters check LI profiles. Make sure your experience on your profile *matches* your resume. At this month’s Seattle Job Social, I was gratified to see very few resumes and lots of folks handing me business cards with their LI url’s on them.

8) Please don’t have multiple LinkedIn profiles and accounts. I know one recruiter I was looking up that had four profiles all under different email addresses. If I have to look *that hard* to find you I’m going to lose interest.

9) Speaking of email : Use *all your email addresses* to accept LI invitations. If you are actively seeking work, put your email address in your *profile* somewhere so that I can contact you easily. Create a job seeking email address if you don’t want to share your contact information with the world. BR />

10) Link to Recruiters. This should be a very basic no-brainer. Even if recruiters are out of work themselves, they still know other recruiters that have job openings.
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11) Be reciprocal. Don’t just ask and ask for people to forward *your* requests. Help others. Pay it forward. This is about building communities and networks.
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12) Check out other people’s profiles in your field. See what they are doing, what their updates are, what sort of articles they are reading. This is a way to learn about your own industry. See what groups they belong to and join them. If they list external blogs, go read it and comment. It helps build your credibility and gives you visibility. LinkedIn is a valuable, robust community filled with interesting people and potential business contacts. If you are a job seeker, make yourself attractive to potential employers, and network your way into an excellent job.
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A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine was sitting in a coffee shop at the mall and was chatting with another patron who had just moved to Seattle and was having trouble finding a job. She mentioned she had a friend that is well connected and a recruiter, and offered to put us in touch. He eagerly accepted her help and they exchanged email addresses.

He did contact me and we arranged to meet at the same coffee shop on a Sunday afternoon. We confirmed, I sent him a photo, and an email earlier in the day with my attire so he could find me. I got there about 10 minutes early. And waited. And waited. Finally, after 30 minutes I left.

I sent him an email, telling him I had waited for 30 minutes and wishing him the best with his job hunt. He replied, saying he was sorry that he couldn’t "make it". He wanted to reschedule.

I politely informed him that I generally charge money to meet with people to discuss career and resume matters, and that I had agreed to meet with him gratis as a favor. I referred him to a friend of mine that is an Employment Specialist at Worksource (WA state’s unemployment office) with her contact info and that he could get go with no appointment, and at no charge.

My point is, the message he portrayed was that he doesn’t care how he is perceived professionally; he doesn’t take his job hunt seriously; he has no understanding of the currency of business "favors". Based on his behavior, I would assume that he is someone that will job hop and possibly call in sick excessively. This goes back to personal employment branding.

Make sure that when you are managing your job search you are treating potential contacts as the golden resources that they are. Use your currency wisely and well.

I was emailing with a friend in Boston that I used to work with. She’s a recruiter and she commented that she reads my blog. I asked her if there was any topic she would like to see, and her response was, "make sure I can find them!"

"Them" is candidates. She wasn’t referring to job boards like Monster, but more about networking sites such as Plaxo, LinkedIn, or other online places. For example, if anyone runs a search on my name, this blog is one of the top searches that comes up. Anyone can leave me a message that I get in my email. My "footprint" is everywhere.

I’ve advised any number of people to write a professional or special interest blog. It does a number of things. It establishes *your* internet identity. It also allows you to expound on current subjects in your profession or topics of interest, which leads you to become a subject matter expert and "findable" when a recruiter runs a search on the subject.

Make sure you have a bio page on your blog. It doesn’t have to be a full on resume, but a list of the sorts of professional positions you have had and the companies you have worked at. This helps the recruiter verify that it, indeed, you that they are looking for.

Do you have a Facebook page? If you don’t, you are seriously missing out on the opportunities recruiters use to reach out to potential candidates. Here’s a hint: anyone can send you a message on FB, and if you come up in a search for a specific skill set, or perhaps you have an old resume in a database with a defunct email address or an old phone number then FB may be the best/easiest way to get hold of you.

So, if you want to found, make yourself visible to the people you want to find you.

The last few days I’ve been working on a skilled trade opening for a Floorlayer. I’m amazed at the number of people that find the position online, send me email, yet don’t have or don’t bother to include a resume. EVERYONE that has a job should have a basic resume. It isn’t difficult to write one, and it doesn’t need to be elaborate. But these days, business practices dictate that you should have a full resume. Whether you are an electrician, plumber, janitor, short order cook, or retail associate, having a current resume is vital to increase your chances of finding a job. There are several reasons why.

1) It shows that you know how to communicate effectively in English.

2) A resume clearly lays out your skills and employment history for an employer to see.

3) You are presenting a more professional profile to a potential employer

4) Any business involved with the federal, state, county, or city government *requires* a resume to evaluate candidates for positions.
5) A resume is an excellent way to track your employment history for purposes of filling out applications.

Putting together a "blue collar" resume is no different than any other. The same pitfalls should be avoided as you would for a profession such an accountant or a lawyer.

B />Full contact information (name, phone number/s, email address, city and state of residence; leave your street address off as it could encourage data piracy).

A nice transition to your employment history is a professional summary detailing any licenses you have (by state and license number), specific industry/job skills with the number of years you have been practicing them, and any specialized training (NOT your HS or college education!) you have received.
B > Brief desription of your main job duties or projects for that employer.

HS/College, course of study, and degree/diploma achieved.
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Yo hould not put your references on your resume. You do not need a generic objective, it wastes space. A cover letter telling me you have 15 years as a journeyman carpenter is NOT a resume. It does not need to be one page or shorter, it should generally be no longer than two pages if you have more than 7 years of experience. lae please PLEASE do not use a functional resume. It does not give hiring managers and HR professionals the information we need in a way that we can make sense of. And please, do not use vague, trite words and phrases to describe your career. Be precise, targeted and contextual. Do NOT just cut and paste the same job duties under every job heading. You should NOT be doing the same thing for every different employer. If you are, you are not growing as a professional. Most of all, use proper grammar and punctuation with perfect spelling. There is absolutely no excuse for misspelled words on a resume. ohn Doe

john.doe1@gmail.com

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Everett, WA

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