Lessons Learned from Executive Recruiters
I just returned from the Kennedy Recruiting Conference where I had the opportunity to pick the brains of numerous recruiters from some of the nation’s top employers. I asked them if they could tell job seekers one thing, what would it be. Here are their responses.
- Be transparent. If there is a gap on your resume, explain it on the document itself.
- Use a chronological format over a functional format; I will assume you are hiding something if you submit a purely functional resume.
- Don’t apply to every job posting. Only apply to those jobs that you truly meet the qualifications for.
- Don’t call incessantly to follow up on a job posting. If you don’t hear from me, I have nothing to tell you.
- Include a profile on your resume explaining how you can add value to the organization, rather than an objective explaining what you are looking for.
- Add a competency section to your resume. Make it easy to figure out what your core skills are.
- Get rid of the entitlement act. Don’t assume you will get a certain salary just because you ask for it. We are willing to negotiate if it is within our budget.
- Don’t upload a Microsoft Word document into the text box of our job site. We can’t read it. The formatting is severely compromised when you do this and we will ignore your application. Instead, convert your Word document to a text only file.
