The policies only seem to cover employment, not so much conditional employment.
Y U NO GIVE ME JOB?!? The Recruiter Thread
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The policies only seem to cover employment, not so much conditional employment.
I spend less than 2 min on every resume. If the candidate has the experience or background I am looking for, and can present their resume clearly enough that I can actually *find* the info I'm looking for, he'll get a call back. My biggest pet peeves are tl;dr resumes, or confusing layouts where I'd have to spend several min finding the info I need.
I'm actually fairly forgiving for typos. Stupid fonts and colors...I'm less forgiving.
I have to admit, I don't always read them, but I always take a note of who took the time to write one. I like that it shows the candidate is actually interested in the position, and I'll try to call as many of them back as I can (I don't actually get that many cover letters). Sending one can only help you.
If they got to my desk or floor, I'd be impressed that they got through security. I'd be polite on the phone with them, but I wish folks didn't do it. I have openings pretty clearly posted on the internet, along with specific application instructions. Those instructions are there for a reason. If somebody calls me on the phone, I'll tell them to go to the website and apply. If they try to give me their sales pitch, I'll have to interrupt them.
If I worked for a small business, I may be more open to that, but I work for a firm with over 2,000 employees. I don't have the capacity or the time to deal with cold callers. I don't know many people outside of retail who do, actually.
No. The only kind of cold calling that I'll actually respond to above a "please go to our website" would be if somebody sent me a LinkedIn message. I don't get as many of those, and I can deal with them on a more personal basis. That way, I can easily learn a lot more about the candidate, and if I don't have anything, I can see if any of my personal contacts do.
Well, I guess it kinda depends on what sort of decisions we're talking about. I don't get final hiring authority. I can write recommendations (which are usually, but not always, followed), and I can keep somebody from getting hired. I tend to have a lot of leeway in how I do my work...I post on the websites I want, I screen the resumes how I want...I follow a general protocol for how I do my interviews, but I have some leeway there as well. I have less leeway in the non-recruiting parts of my job (30% of what I do is conducting corporate training courses, where I have to follow a certain curriculum).
Bamspeedy
CheeseBob
My wife has been unemployed for two years now. Prior to this she had worked for 10 years as a payroll accountant (in China), so has no work experience whatsoever in America.
What would be better for her job prospects, spending another 2 years pursuing an associates accounting degree (the 'degree' she got in China to be an accountant was just a 6 week program) or just getting a minimum wage job for some work experience?
What would be better for her job prospects, spending another 2 years pursuing an associates accounting degree (the 'degree' she got in China to be an accountant was just a 6 week program) or just getting a minimum wage job for some work experience?
That's a tough spot. Take this with a grain of salt, since I've never recruited for accounting jobs, but I do not believe an associates is particularly valuable, unless it comes with other, specific certifiations. Different states have different licensing requirements for certain kind of accounting positions, do they not?
Getting a min. wage job in say, retail or food service wouldn't help her very much, if her ideal goal is to work as an accountant. If she speaks English well, I would recommend getting a PT job as a clerk somewhere, while getting the right credentials she needs. I think a stock AA "Accounting" degree wouldn't be as useful here. With some flexibility, you could prob get an actual BA in Accounting in 3 or less.
The only ones I give any credence to whatsoever are automotive repair, or similar blue-collar type certifications. If somebody gave me a degree with an AA in a liberal art, or in education, or anything else, I would treat that resume as if the candidate did not have any degree.
Getting a min. wage job in say, retail or food service wouldn't help her very much, if her ideal goal is to work as an accountant. If she speaks English well, I would recommend getting a PT job as a clerk somewhere, while getting the right credentials she needs. I think a stock AA "Accounting" degree wouldn't be as useful here. With some flexibility, you could prob get an actual BA in Accounting in 3 or less.
The only ones I give any credence to whatsoever are automotive repair, or similar blue-collar type certifications. If somebody gave me a degree with an AA in a liberal art, or in education, or anything else, I would treat that resume as if the candidate did not have any degree.
I have an account on LinkedIn, and have linked up with many current and former coworkers (and friends that are professionals in technical fields).
Of the jobs I've had:
-US Navy
-Got hired out of a technical class by the company running the class (that also did network consulting in addition to training).
-Got hired by a network consulting company that my sister's company was a customer of.
-Got hired by an application provider company that offered me a job after I worked with them on a major job the two companies shared.
-Got hired by a customer (videoconferencing company) of the application provider.
-Got hired by an unrelated company (wireless networking) upon the recommendation of a colleague that used to work at the videoconferencing company too.
I've applied for jobs and done interviews with companies where I was unknown, but (excepting the USN of course) all my actual jobs have come via networking/non-jobhunting connections.
Hey, dt, do you have an idea about the proportion of new hires at your firm that are hired on through the online/HR process, versus those hired on through connections?
My employer has a bit over 5000 employees, and in the areas where I work it seems fairly evenly split between HR hires and networked hires, but I don't really have any sense of how this extends to other divisions of my employer, or other employers in general.
My employer has a bit over 5000 employees, and in the areas where I work it seems fairly evenly split between HR hires and networked hires, but I don't really have any sense of how this extends to other divisions of my employer, or other employers in general.
For our part time labor force, we tend to get about 1/3 via employee referral/networking, 1/3 from craigslist/freeboards, and 1/3 from industry specific job boards. The referrals have the highest retention, so we like those the best.
Company wide, I think its over 40% for networking. My firm has a pretty generous referral program for employees, so there is a strong incentive to pass folks along. I think only about 20-25% of our full time labor force comes from applications to our website or job postings...everybody else, we find on LinkedIn, or from passive sourcing. I didn't formally apply for the job I have now...I was headhunted.
The numbers for my previous company were similar I believe.
If one doesn't have a current resume, should they sign up for LinkedIn anyways? Would anyone be able to notice that I made a LinkedIn account and my profile sat blank for a while?
GoodGame
Red, White, & Blue, baby!
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You don't have to post a full LinkedIn resume, and you can link to one posted externally too. It'd be a good idea to have some education and previous work experience posted, with a description that had juicy keywords. Basically there's three ways to use LinkedIn----find old acquaintances (like Facebook), be professionally recommended/recommend (you link to another person publicly, "friend" them), or to do some kind of executive search/job search.
GenMarshall
High Elven ISB Capt & Ghost Agent
How often does your firm hire the long term unemployed (ones who've been unemployed for longer than six months)?
You can, but I wouldn't do it unless you were going to upload a resume. Your name might come up on your friends "people you may know list", but a company would be pretty unlikely to spot your empty profile. Without your resume, LinkedIn is awfully close to facebook...but without mafia wars.
At the full time level, very rarely...but the kinds of people we hire are very unlikely to be unemployed for more than 6 months at a time (at least compared to the rest of the workforce). We're hiring lots of stats guys and computer programmers.
At the part time level (and at my previous company, when I recruited for the automotive industry), it isn't uncommon. Depending on the reason for unemployment, it wouldn't be a negative at all. Stay at home moms reentering the workforce, going back to school, medical problems would be examples of perfectly fine reasons to be unemployed for that long.
GenMarshall
High Elven ISB Capt & Ghost Agent
Looks like I'm screwed
. Would being laid off and not able to find a job for a long time due to recession and no one hireing be a fine reason? I've even gone to school for a third degree.Im just at the point where I eather have to accept my lot in life of being permanately unemployed or enlist in the armed forces (volunteering is not an option for me due because I want money and an independent life).
Well, you're not applying to my company, and every company is different. If you want to work at MY company, you're already screwed, because I told you I'm not going to hire you. Luckily, there are hundreds of thousands of other companies.
GenMarshall
High Elven ISB Capt & Ghost Agent
I was reading some books on psychopaths and one book focused on them getting very high levels of employment even without experience, schooling, or even proficiency. They state that psychopaths are able to adapt themselves to make themselves more appealing to potential employers. Have you ever encountered such a person? Basically, have you had people who had great first impressions, and eventually ended up not being what they advertised?
I was able to "buddy-buddy" myself into a couple of positions, not because I'm a psycho, but because me and the employer had good rapport. I can imagine the levels psychopaths can do this are astounding.
I was able to "buddy-buddy" myself into a couple of positions, not because I'm a psycho, but because me and the employer had good rapport. I can imagine the levels psychopaths can do this are astounding.
Eat_Up_Martha
Prince
I understand that long-term unemployment can be detrimental when applying for positions. Does a recruiters opinion change much if this time was spent on something that precluded work? For example backpacking around Australia or moving across the country?
Why would moving cause long term unemployment?
I moved 4000 km on two weeks notice to start my job.
aelf
Ashen One
Do internships count as experience? Do you value them much less than actual working experience? That's the impression I get.
Another thing is it seems to me that unless your internship experience matches exactly what they want you to do, your application would tend to go into the reject pile no matter what you say in your cover letter. Does that sound about right?
Another thing is it seems to me that unless your internship experience matches exactly what they want you to do, your application would tend to go into the reject pile no matter what you say in your cover letter. Does that sound about right?
It's hard for me to say. I rarely give in person interviews, and my relationship with an applicant after they are hired is pretty minimal.
Yeah, long term unemployment isn't really a dealbreaker, but it is something that I'll ask about. For a guy in his 20s, taking 6 months off to travel isn't a big deal. If they were able to spin that trip into something professionally useful, even better. If it was just to smoke pot for 6 months...eh, I wouldn't be as impressed.
But there are plenty of legit reasons to be out of work that long, including "I was trying and trying and the economy simply sucked".
Totally depends on the job, the internship, and what the client thinks. An internship that is related to the actual job opening is great...its better than just "general" work experience (if I'm recruiting for an entry level auto tech....one guy has an internship and a garage, and the other guy has 2 years work experience just selling parts...I'll call the garage guy first).
For some fields, like political work in my country, you HAVE to do internships. For college students, if you can, I'd absolutely recommend doing an internship over burger flipping if you can afford it, simply because with some creative resume writing, you can spin your internship skills better than burger flipping ones. Burger flipping is better than nothing though.
Nah, it totally depends on how you sell your experience. I see so many people who just write "filed reports, made copies" ,etc...which OF COURSE sounds boring, even if that's all you did.
You need to sell your experience so it looks like what you know is exactly what I want you to do.
aelf
Ashen One
Hmm, yeah, I sell it and I don't think I do that too badly either, but maybe not well enough to snag the more coveted positions.
I do have an internship in the pipeline. It's not great, but I guess it's a start.
