At a recent ACPI-NE event, executive recruiters spoke on what they are looking for in job seekers. Attendees had a chance to ask questions afterwards. The opinions below are those of the particular recruiters at the roundtable and should not necessarily be viewed as cast in stone. But, overall, this snapshot of the mindset of these particular recruiters can be generalized to how most recruiters think.
1. Recruiters spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, so have a strong presence there2. One trend in tech hiring is ithat recruiters are increasingly using social media to find and vet talent
3. More companies are taking search in house: Approach companies you want to work for via internal referrals (find employees on LinkedIn)
4. Recruiters doing tech hiring are looking at output that can be found on the web rather than in resumes, i.e. programmers' coding on sites like github.com and stackoverflow.com will be evaluated and considered as very important
5. We are now experiencing a tighter talent market where strong candidates are harder to find
6. If you're in a design field, you must put your portfolio online
7. Tons of contract and contingent searches are taking place, but retained recruiters are only getting the "purple squirrel" searches (meaning, they are given searches for the person with very specific, very rare combination of qualifications)
8. In software there is a shortage of programmers and a strong need for data scientists who can make sense out of Big Data and data analytics - in part following the trend towards smart advertising
9. They are seeing a lot of IT jobs and sales jobs
10. For those seeking to change industries, certifications like PMP (Project Management Professional) and credentials in BPI (business process engineering) are your best bet - they are relatively industry agnostic and the skills are more transferable
11. A lot of resumes are poor: too long, blocks of text rather than bullets, typos, have no formatting because they are saved as .txt
12. To capture job skills in resumes, reverse engineer the job description: What skills do people in the job use? And then weave them into your resume
13. Be ready for behavioral interviewing by doing #12 and practicing interview answers that show that you know how to use those skills
14. Know your target market and "trigger terms," i.e. keywords
15, Use LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Wikipedia, etc. to find out about the company you're interviewing with
15. If you've been out of work, show evidence that you've remained active doing pro bono work, consulting actively, getting new certifications etc.
16. If you've been out of work, have a good explanation ready
17. If you're a multinational candidate, make your work eligibility status clear
18. Companies are generally unwilling to train folks in this job search environment, so get your training before you apply
19. If you've been at a company for more that 10 years, you need to show work progression in order to be attractive to recruiters
20. Some companies won't look at clients who have had more than 2 jobs in 8 years, but some recruiters see 2+ year stints as OK, especially since the dot-com bust and the recession
21. In your resume make sure to emphasize: What makes you stand out?
22. Try mailing a FedEx envelope with your resume and cover letter to the recruiter - s/he can't help but open it
23. Recruiters welcome consistent follow-up
24. Don't be afraid to show your personaility and be yourself in an interview, says one recruiter: They want to find out if you would be fun to talk with and work with
I hope these insights have been helpful!
