...So you want me to read your resume....?

Candidate,

I hope all is well with your job search.  Before you hit "submit" on sending me the email with your resume I wanted to make you aware of a few facts.

1.) The average job posting I get has over 350 views and 50 applicants.  Please consider that before sending me the same resume you sent to 100 other postings.  I know its frustrating not to get feedback.  I assure you it is equally frustrating to dig through 50 people that do not match my position.  If you have experience with "Inner-Moon Icy Astrophysics" please include that on your resume.  I do not always have time to call back 50 people, plus do the rest of my job.

2.) It can be tempting to think that applying to every job I have posted, and every job my partner has posted can be a good idea.  Don't do it!  We get emails for every posted applicant.  If I get three resumes from John Smith, I know you aren't really reading job postings.

3.) Please make your resume shine!  If you have a good resume, make sure it has bullet points.  If you have a narrative about your life, save it for an interview.  Dates are appreciated, anything that makes you stand out for the right reasons!

All of this is a general few tips to get a little bit of extra notice.  I believe that everyone out there has a job for them (which is why I do what I do), just help me do my job better.

My favorite to this date: A blacksmith applied for a job with me once.  It required a PHD in Mechanical Engineering, and 10+ years of Power Electronics experience.

Please stand out for the "RIGHT REASONS" in my inbox in order to get me to open up your resume.

Hope to see you soon!

-Me

LinkedIn Decisions- Are We Really Friends?

My favorite recruiting resource over the years has always been LinkedIn.  It offers a multitude and depth and breadth of candidates of all shapes and sizes for all sorts of weird quirky openings that I have had to fulfill.  LinkedIn also gives people a nice wow-factor when they are still in the "buy in" stage of advanced sourcing.

My favorite story about LinkedIn over all the years is my attempt to teach my partner Tony how to use LinkedIn.  We ran one search on Google with the Site command (To be covered later).  We found a list of twenty candidates, called the first two Engineering people on the list, left two messages.  Within 48 hours he had put one of the two to work for a really hard to fill spot.  The client was impressed, the contractor was impressed, Tony was impressed (and making more money) and even I admit to a little bit of surprise just how easy it was.

What I wanted to talk about today on LinkedIn though is the "Invite to connect" portion:

Assuming this is someone you DON'T know and have not spoken with, where do we go with an invitation?  Typically the rule of thumb is that sending out random invites to people is the quickest way to get banned, but lets go through the options on top.  Most people in my experience instantly click "We've done business together" by default.  This is sometimes true, but you are relying on either getting permission from them on a phone call, or just hoping that they do not click "I don't know" in a response and cause you to get red flagged.
Some people click friend.  This is my favorite ridiculous choice out of this whole list.  If you are really my friend that is fine, but if I have never met you, and you and I have never even exchanged a contact, please do not claim to be friends with me, and do not claim to be friends with other people.  I will say I don't know you, or archive your request unless your someone with a really big network!
Colleague or Classmate are nice and reliable if you went to school or worked with someone, and only in those choices should you select Colleague of Classmate.
Other is fine if you know their email address.
Ultimately, "We've done business together" is the only choice I would consider making without having permission to add someone from them directly.  At that point it is up to you to spruce up "I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn" into something respectable (To be talked about later)

_staff or die!

Another Favorite Recruiting Technology Tool - Google Voice

I like to call this my number one under-appreciated recruiting tool.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Google Voice or GV, it is a totally free tool put out by Google.  You sign up for an account, you select an area code and a phone number.

Personally I chose (815) for an area code because I recruit for Rockford area jobs quite a bit.

I thought to myself, a strange number shows up, would I pick it up?  If someone from an area code that I am not familar with shows up, I'm more than likely not going to pick it up.  Using Google Voice, I can at least raise the odds of getting a pickup the first time!

I also give out my 815 number to people.  They call that phone number, it calls both my work lines, cell phone, office, and gmail phone number.  I can pick it up from any one of those, and someone can always track me down (its filterable for those of you recruiters that have a work life balance)

Thanks to Blog.frontrush.com for the following:

One application that we have been using in our office here at Front Rush is Google Voice. The advantage in having a Google Voice number is that it keeps you connected and accessible at all times. It helps to alleviate the fear of missing that key recruit call. It also gives you instant feedback so that if you do, you can get right back to the recruit (assuming that it is within compliance at your level)."

Takeaway: Its a great tool for staying connected, for finding people who might be more passive, and for what I call the "double tap" method where you call someone, and if they do not pick up, immediately call them a second time.