Yesterday I had an interview with a private university here in the ATL area. I believe it went well but one can never really tell. They laughed at my jokes, I seemed to fit right in, I even followed up with what I would consider a really amazing Thank You email - yet I still have no idea how it went.
I'm reminded of how I felt each time I went to speak with my adviser on the campus of my beloved Capstone. Even when I knew I had everything in the bag, when my semester had gone so well that I may not even have to show up for finals, I was still nervous as a whore in church whenever I would have to meet with her. I always had this sense of impending doom.
I know for a fact that this particular job would be fulfilling, I would NEVER be bored, I would actually enjoy going to it every day, and my boss wouldn't be some crazy Jekyll & Hyde character like I have faced in similar situations before. Add to it that since it is a university and they just don't pay as well as the corporate world BUT I would be given the opportunity to go through the business school's MBA program as a part of my compensation - I just don't see how any one else could be more perfect for the position.
It was probably the best interview I've had in the 6 months I've been unemployed. I know that I've only got three weeks left of unemployment benefits. They're hoping to make a decision by the 4th of July. Forgive me if I'm not all that cheery & witty this go round, I'm just starting to get a bit disheartened by this whole job search thing & am starting to question my whole life direction.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Is it worth it to "get in good" with recruiters?
Everywhere you look today, if you're in the job market, you're bombarded by recruiters. There are the good ones that work directly for employers (HR Recruiting teams for companies like Home Depot & Sage Software are the norm) and then there are the ones that aren't so good. Those guys get paid at different levels if they send a qualified resume to an employer, set up a phone interview, if they get you to an in person interview & at a totally different pay level if you "convert" into an employee.
So, let's say you're talking to a recruiter almost daily, you have quite a rapport built with them, they're coaching you non-stop & then *poof* they stop calling. That means the employer is no longer interested in you & because of that the recruiter no longer sees any value in dealing with you anymore. I personally find this rude and totally unprofessional. There's no wonder that recruiters get such a bad name. If you don't "convert" into an employee there's no point in them trying to "groom" you for the perfect job they found for you, you no longer have any worth to them & they're out looking for someone else to fill that perfect position so they can get paid. I believe that if they really wanted to help you find a job they would spend some time after they hear back from the potential employer giving you feedback about what may have been shortfalls in your interview or resume critiques, but nothing like this has happened for me in the 6 months I have been on the search.
The dedicated company recruiters (HR team members at various companies like Home Depot, et al) will not do any sort of "coaching" regarding the job for which you will be interviewing. They are just there as a front line filter to be sure you fit the criteria that the hiring manager is looking for in a candidate/employee. They aren't paid by the amount of resumes that they pass along to hiring managers, they may get bonuses for finding a candidate after they work there for 3 months or so, but their job isn't to get you into that position like the contract recruiters.
There's all this advice out there about what keywords to use in your resume or on your online profiles on LinkedIn, Monster, The Ladders, Career Builder, Dice.com and the like in order to get yourself recognized by recruiters. But, I find myself wondering daily if it is even worth it. They almost always get my hopes up, never return calls or emails, and dump me after what I consider a good call/interview. It's like dating in college all over again. One starts to get a complex, and with no real feedback about what you could do to change, one just continues to do what one has always done.
So, I'm wondering, for any of you who have been on the search for new employment lately, have you used an interview "coach" to get you primed or to give you feedback based on how you reported the interviews you've had? What say you?
So, let's say you're talking to a recruiter almost daily, you have quite a rapport built with them, they're coaching you non-stop & then *poof* they stop calling. That means the employer is no longer interested in you & because of that the recruiter no longer sees any value in dealing with you anymore. I personally find this rude and totally unprofessional. There's no wonder that recruiters get such a bad name. If you don't "convert" into an employee there's no point in them trying to "groom" you for the perfect job they found for you, you no longer have any worth to them & they're out looking for someone else to fill that perfect position so they can get paid. I believe that if they really wanted to help you find a job they would spend some time after they hear back from the potential employer giving you feedback about what may have been shortfalls in your interview or resume critiques, but nothing like this has happened for me in the 6 months I have been on the search.
The dedicated company recruiters (HR team members at various companies like Home Depot, et al) will not do any sort of "coaching" regarding the job for which you will be interviewing. They are just there as a front line filter to be sure you fit the criteria that the hiring manager is looking for in a candidate/employee. They aren't paid by the amount of resumes that they pass along to hiring managers, they may get bonuses for finding a candidate after they work there for 3 months or so, but their job isn't to get you into that position like the contract recruiters.
There's all this advice out there about what keywords to use in your resume or on your online profiles on LinkedIn, Monster, The Ladders, Career Builder, Dice.com and the like in order to get yourself recognized by recruiters. But, I find myself wondering daily if it is even worth it. They almost always get my hopes up, never return calls or emails, and dump me after what I consider a good call/interview. It's like dating in college all over again. One starts to get a complex, and with no real feedback about what you could do to change, one just continues to do what one has always done.
So, I'm wondering, for any of you who have been on the search for new employment lately, have you used an interview "coach" to get you primed or to give you feedback based on how you reported the interviews you've had? What say you?
Monday, May 7, 2012
Resume Schmesume....
If you're searching for a job in this economy I'm sure your email is bombarded with tons of legit and not quite so legit job search engines. I swear, I should probably try to get a job being a job search engine operator. It seems like every Tom, Dick & Harry has a new one out there these days. If you sign up for one they tend to pimp out your email address to others & before you know it you're getting tons of MLM, Get Rich Quick schemes & make millions by reading emails with no experience in anything... I don't know what kind of socially inept email list I managed to get myself on, but I'm not amused.
But I'm going to get off my soap box about scam emails and "find the right job for you while you wear pajamas & eat ice cream" job offers. I'm going to talk about the perfect resume...
What? The perfect resume? Does that even exist? It seems everyone wants to tell me something different every day. It should all fit on one page, use bullet points, don't use bullet points, tell about your achievements at previous positions, tell about your actual duties, don't tell about your duties... so on and so forth. NOW we come to the biggie, these so-called professional resume writers. Sign up on any of the big 3 job search sites (TheLadders.com, Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com) and when you upload your resume they'll automatically "critique" that resume and then give you feedback on how that resume could better serve you if you paid them to rewrite it for you.
These services range anywhere from $99 to almost $400. I opted for the latter because I had been unemployed for 3 months at the point I got my tax return & decided that I haven't been getting any calls from my resume submissions... what would it hurt? Well, they did a pretty good job piecing together a new resume for me that got the attention of recruiters & HR managers. BUT they only actually spoke with me once & didn't really work with me regarding my short term contract position that I held last year.
Plus, get this... for $395 the girl that rewrote my resume couldn't even cut & paste my contact information. When I received the email with the resume attached I only looked at the bullet points & condensed self promotion for each position. I made the ASSUMPTION that the resume writer would have at least gotten my contact information correct since it was on the original resume. Nope, wrong!! In fact, I had been using the resume with the wrong email address on it for months. A prospective employer was the one that pointed out that an email they were sending to confirm an in person interview had bounced, my email had been incorrect...
So, I did what every red-blooded American would do. I demanded a refund, of the full amount, based solely on a typo that showed on my resume twice (apparently she couldn't copy/paste from MY resume but she was capable of copy/pasting from her own error). I truly wasn't expecting one, I was figuring they would hem & haw about it and offer partial refund or extended subscription to their site. Boy, was I blown away that they offered & actually refunded the money within 2 days of my request. THAT is customer service at its best.
Now, if I could get them to actually find me a job within a decent driving distance... I'd be even happier.
But I'm going to get off my soap box about scam emails and "find the right job for you while you wear pajamas & eat ice cream" job offers. I'm going to talk about the perfect resume...
What? The perfect resume? Does that even exist? It seems everyone wants to tell me something different every day. It should all fit on one page, use bullet points, don't use bullet points, tell about your achievements at previous positions, tell about your actual duties, don't tell about your duties... so on and so forth. NOW we come to the biggie, these so-called professional resume writers. Sign up on any of the big 3 job search sites (TheLadders.com, Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com) and when you upload your resume they'll automatically "critique" that resume and then give you feedback on how that resume could better serve you if you paid them to rewrite it for you.
These services range anywhere from $99 to almost $400. I opted for the latter because I had been unemployed for 3 months at the point I got my tax return & decided that I haven't been getting any calls from my resume submissions... what would it hurt? Well, they did a pretty good job piecing together a new resume for me that got the attention of recruiters & HR managers. BUT they only actually spoke with me once & didn't really work with me regarding my short term contract position that I held last year.
Plus, get this... for $395 the girl that rewrote my resume couldn't even cut & paste my contact information. When I received the email with the resume attached I only looked at the bullet points & condensed self promotion for each position. I made the ASSUMPTION that the resume writer would have at least gotten my contact information correct since it was on the original resume. Nope, wrong!! In fact, I had been using the resume with the wrong email address on it for months. A prospective employer was the one that pointed out that an email they were sending to confirm an in person interview had bounced, my email had been incorrect...
So, I did what every red-blooded American would do. I demanded a refund, of the full amount, based solely on a typo that showed on my resume twice (apparently she couldn't copy/paste from MY resume but she was capable of copy/pasting from her own error). I truly wasn't expecting one, I was figuring they would hem & haw about it and offer partial refund or extended subscription to their site. Boy, was I blown away that they offered & actually refunded the money within 2 days of my request. THAT is customer service at its best.
Now, if I could get them to actually find me a job within a decent driving distance... I'd be even happier.
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