|
25 fact-filled articles
to help improve your performance
•
Newsletter
Articles
•
Subscribe
to Newsletter
Tips for Recruiters
Table of Contents
Strategy & Tactics
w
Make Placements --
FAST!
w
Voice Mail &
E-mail: Eight Simple Rules
w
Job Orders --
Better, Faster, Smarter
w
How to Switch Desk Specialties
w
Who Makes the Most
Money?
w
Retainers: Look
Before You Leap
w
How to Add Value, Not Redundancy
w
Intelligent Online
Recruiting
Skill Building
w
Counteroffers: Can You Spot the
Signs?
w
Resume Makeovers: Quick Tips
w
Is There a MAGIC to Closing?
w
Finding the Right Recruiting Script
w
Storyboarding for Maximum Impact
w
How to Stimulate Candidate Referrals
w
Expand the Supply of Candidates
Candidate Management
w
Playing Softball
with Your Candidates?
w
The Power of Interview Preparation
w
Control: The Key to Recruiter Success
w
How to Fight the Counteroffer Bug
Employer Relationships
w
You’re Worth the Money You Charge!
w
Negotiate for Higher Recruiting Fees
w
Anti-Discount Tactics for Recruiters
For Candidates &
Employers
w
Graceful Exits for Job-Changers
w
Advice for Engineering Candidates
w
What’s Your Capture Strategy?
Q & A
for Recruiters
w
Answers
to Your E-mail Questions
Bill Radin answers letters from recruiters around the world.
|
Resume Makeovers:
Should
You Even Bother?
By Bill Radin
It’s
a fact of life: Worthy candidates often have less-than-perfect resumes.
Which
poses a dilemma. Like most recruiters, I’ll happily throw a rope to a
drowning candidate. Helping an otherwise-qualified job-seeker improve
his odds of getting interviewed is not only the right thing to do; it
also boosts my odds of making a placement.
However,
I could easily spend all my time fixing funky resumes, which is not the
purpose of my business. In order to assist my candidates—without
changing my job description—
I developed a quick and effective resume-improvement strategy.
Here’s how it works: First, choose a resume from your files that you
consider “ideal,” in terms of layout, structure and clarity. Remove
or change any contact data that might identify the candidate or reveal
confidential information.
When you’ve tweaked the resume to perfection, publish it on your
company Web site. Make sure to place the resume on a page that’s easy
to find. Or, if you like, you can create a separate page called
“Resume Tips” and create the necessary linkage to take your Web site
visitors to the page using a minimum of clicks.
Before you begin a resume makeover, ask your candidate if he would be
receptive to making improvements that will give him a competitive edge.
If the candidate is reluctant or too proud to accept your professional
advice, you may want to reconsider your working relationship with the
candidate. A lack of trust regarding something as basic as a resume
could be a red flag. Fortunately, most candidates will consider your
help worthwhile, and will invest a few minutes to further their careers.
Next, ask the candidate to visit your “Resume Tips” Web page and
study the template you’ve created. If you walk through this step
“live” (that is, while you and the candidate are on the phone
together), you can point out the crucial differences between the
“right” and “wrong” ways to structure a resume. Then ask the
candidate to revise his or her resume accordingly.
Ask the candidate to send you a “draft” of his newly-revised resume,
so you can catch any editorial mistakes before a final version is
completed. Involving yourself in the process not only improves the
candidate’s resume (and your relationship with the candidate); it also
helps you gain a better understanding of the candidate’s work history
and accomplishments.
Tip: I’ve found that resume formats will vary significantly, depending
on your candidates’ position title, skill set and industry
affiliation. For example, a powerful sales resume will differ
considerably from a technical resume, not only in the way it’s laid
out, but in the type of information that’s most important to the
prospective employer. So the resume format that’s most effective in
one field may not cross over to another.
An Unfair
Advantage
My experience has shown that most career books, resume services and
outplacement advisors give poor advice to candidates with respect to
their resumes. That’s because they’re unfamiliar with what the
hiring managers in different industry niches need to know when they’re
reviewing a resume. As recruiters, we have an advantage over
generalists, since we know precisely which data points are hot in our
specialty niches, giving us the ability to shape our candidates’
resumes for the greatest possible impact.
Not long ago, I had to help a senior-level candidate completely rewrite
his resume—after
he had just shelled out $300 to a resume service. The resume he paid for
looked very crisp and professional, but the information in it was
totally superficial, and lacked the specific details my retained search
client needed in order to make an intelligent evaluation.
In theory, a candidate shouldn’t need a resume at all; he’d only
need our recommendation. But in our world—the
world of reality—the
candidate’s resume not only serves as a useful assessment and
interviewing tool, it becomes a highly visible (and often indelible)
component of the candidate’s overall presentation. And a
direct reflection of our value in the employment process.
(An
example of the “exemplary resume” technique can be found at www.billradin.com/resume_tips.htm.)
Return to Top
Printer-Friendly Version
|
|
