Expert Advice
Dear Hiring Managers and HR Teams:
Can we get together on something?
We need to rein in the interview process. It’s gotten out of control.
I know you want to keep your beloved culture intact, but sheesh…
It’s not uncommon for candidates to go through an initial phone/video screening, pass several rounds of interviews, take psychology assessments, be instructed to put together an engaging 20-page pitch deck and present it to a panel with a Q&A, meet the senior leadership team, take a tour, problem-solve real-world issues on the spot, and… since interviews now take 8 hours instead of one these days, have the nerve-racking, forced smile experience of eating lunch with their evaluators.
Did I leave anything out?
This process can take up to 3 months (several weeks minimum), peppered with last-minute requests, changing job requirements, cryptic instructions, unexpected disappearing acts from HR, and straight-up ghosting.
And then, after all of this — after weekends spent away from family building a PowerPoint presentation, after rehearsing answers to ridiculous but pervasive questions like “tell me 3 of your weaknesses,” after sleepless nights from fearing the tech interview, after scrubbing the web for “out of the box” exercises, like “tell me how many marbles it would take to fill a school bus,” after 20+ firm handshakes with eye contact, after setting up a professional-grade Zoom studio, after all the followup notes, the tracking in Excel, the time off work, the money for parking, the dry cleaning, the power breakfasts, the mental health debriefings with friends…
After all that…there is no job offer.
For 3 months, this candidate has made your company their life.
They’ve given you their best ideas, their best performance, their best times slots, not to mention serious professional, financial, and emotional expense.
And then its, “Sorry, you’re just not the right fit.”
And you know what’s coming next, you know the question they have for you, their last hope at taking something from this whole disappointing experience: the humble request to know why.
You will inevitably give them one of two canned responses:
“We found someone with more experience.”
OR
“You don’t have enough _____________.” (Something that’s usually obvious from looking at the resume.)
Yeah, I know you’re playing your cards close to your chest to avoid a discrimination lawsuit, but seriously, c’mon.
At the very least, after taking so much of someone’s time and ideas, can’t you at least guide them a bit, as you boot them out the door?
Nope.
It’s “Buh-Bye,” and sometimes not even that.
If you’re a candidate reading this you’re nodding your head. If you’re a hiring manager, you’re shaking it.
An uneven equation, to say the least.
You, the employer, leave with more knowledge of who you need for the position, strategic plans for where to take your business, inside info on other companies, a broader understanding of the talent pool that’s out there, and sometimes free labor!
And the job candidate? They leave with the false hope that “maybe another position will open up and we’ll call you.”
Yeah right.
You hold all the cards. How about a little compassion?
How about paying these folks if you’re going to have them work for you?
How about a probationary period instead of a 3-month interview?
How about looking at their past presentations instead of asking them to create a brand-new one for you?
How about letting them eat lunch alone?
How about treating them like a fellow member of your industry who has value separate of working for your company?
How about taking a little risk and making a better educated guess.
If you must see a benefit, think of this as a business opportunity.
People talk, especially people who don’t get the job.
Why not have them walk away loving the company instead of resenting it?
Why not have them wishing they could have gotten in vs rationalizing why you suck?
I’ll tell you this: the company that designs the first-ever respectful, energizing interview process is going to have an influx of applications and a massively robust referral network amongst people inside and outside their walls. And your new hires are going to love you all the more.
You’re not just filling a job requisition, you’re spreading the word. Whether you want it to be or not, your story is seasoned by the whispers of your detractors. You’re not privy to these conversations.
And you don’t know what you’re missing.
Twitter, Meta, Amazon, Salesforce… titans of Tech, supposedly too big to fail.
But we’re seeing some wavering. And employees are certainly feeling the quake.
Inflation is taking its toll, the global supply chain is still screwy, and consumers are pinching their pennies. As a result, profits are down, even for the big guys, and the #1 strategy of public companies to keep dishing out shareholder dividends is to cut the workforce. And fast.
Tens of thousands of workers are being laid off, in some cases 10%-50% of the workforce.
If you’re not lucky enough to be above the fold, you may find yourself dumping your desk tchotchkes into a cardboard box with an unrequested escort to the front door.
It’s not enough to work hard and be loyal.
When the chips are down, your salary can always be rescinded.
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Part of protecting yourself is knowing this to be true and taking precautions to be ready for when it occurs.
Life is uncertain. Companies have plenty of failsafes in place to protect them from sudden catastrophes.
Do you?
Everything’s automated now. So why not automate the process of building a new resume?
The benefits are obvious: a resume. And fast. You enter a few action verbs and phrases, pick a template, and presto, the resume gods spit out a brand-new resume for you. As a resume writer, I thought about building something like this. I still might but I always come back to the same reasons why I don’t think it’s a good idea.
They can hurt more than help.
If you’ve got a linear career path with no job gaps or short-term jobs, and your most recent position and company are directly relevant to the job you are targeting, then a resume builder should be fine for you. You should catch the attention of recruiters and HR folks easily. Well done toeing the line.
Another scenario where resume builders work well is if you’re applying internally. That is, a job opened up at your company, and you need a resume to apply for it. As long as the people doing the hiring know exactly who you are, then it’s not such an imperative that you wow them with words on your resume. A slight caveat, though: you may be surprised how little people know about what you do, including the colleagues you talk to every day.
Resume builders don’t allow you to pick and choose where to put content, such as titles, company names, dates, education, certifications, and skills. You’re stuck with a template. The template decides which foot you put forward first, and that can mean a dangerous step in the wrong direction.
For example, if you have a job gap or a short-term gap, having prominent dates could be a problem. If your job titles don’t match up with the industry, showcasing titles might trip you up. If you just got a groovy new certification, but the template forces you to put it at the bottom of the resume, under your education, then you’re shooting yourself in the foot.
Resume-builders don’t allow you to have subheadings, sidebars, case studies, and other callouts in your Experience section. It’s tricks like these that help to tell an accurate story, visually and literally.
Another big gripe about resume builders: they rarely offer the option of creating a summary section. You’ll usually be allowed to create a massive keyword list, which is critical, but you won’t have a nice juicy intro on your resume saying who you are and what you’re about.
This leads me to the biggest issue with Resume Builders…
The content comes from you.
You’re already struggling with what to say. It’s hard to know what to include and what to leave out, what to infer and what to explicitly state.
No resume builder is going to help you with this.
There are a few paths you can take to free yourself of the burden of building your own resume (or outsourcing to a bot).
Sometimes a robot can’t do a human’s job. When it comes to mapping out your career and telling your life’s story on 1 or 2 pages, resume builders are usually going to come up short. It’s tempting to want to believe you can magically create a winning resume with the click of a button, but…
If your career runs a path that is anything but straight and narrow, think twice before you push that button.
Getting let go from work is like getting hit by a bus.
And like getting hit by a bus, people who get fired, laid off, or asked to leave often experience PTSD (post-traumatic-stress-syndrome). I see it more often than you might think.
The symptoms show up in one’s work history:
–extended time off
–private consulting
–gig work
–sudden or serial entrepreneurism
–underemployment
A common behavior amongst people with Job-related PTSD is complete and total avoidance of an intentional job search — like a batter avoiding the batter’s box or a veteran avoiding loud noises or a driver circumnavigating busy intersections.
It’s understandable. It’s a smart reaction to a bad experience: the brain saying “hey that sucked. Let’s not go through that again.”
But it abbreviates your life. It makes you take U-turns that keep you from certain roads.
To break free of job PTSD, you have to confront it. (Ghosts hate it when you give ’em a name.) Talk about it, replay the crap-ending to someone who loves you and supports you. No need to deconstruct it or overanalyze things, just pull it into the light and let your emotions go where they go; you’ll probably cycle through quite a few of them.
Then go back before that ending and remember the good stuff too. And if it was always bad at that job, go to the one before it.
You’ve got victories; you’ve just forgotten about them. They’re obstructed. The ghosts are in the way.
Once you get them to move, you’ll see all the roads again. And the intersections will be clear.
Everybody’s doing it.
Even before COVID-19 struck the world, employers have been relying on virtual interviewing to screen out candidates. It’s inexpensive and way less time-consuming. There are several types of video interviews employers use. Make sure you’re savvy in all 4 of these formats. Continue reading this entry »
As a former recruiter and professional resume writer, I’ve looked at a lot of resumes. I can tell you this: people seem to struggle with knowing how, where, and to what extent to include Responsibilities and Accomplishment on their resumes.
Most people have one or the other, the coffee or the cookie. Some have both, a 2-course delivery. Neither of these strategies is optimal.
To show you why Continue reading this entry »
Most interviews start with the same question (which, actually, isn’t even a question):
“Tell me about yourself.”
Why?
Because open-ended questions are the best way to get to know someone. And, they’re the easiest way to allow someone to reveal themselves.
The question is simple enough, yet most people answer it incorrectly. Continue reading this entry »
There is a common misconception that the only purpose of the resume is to get you an interview. You’re short-changing yourself if you believe this.
I’ve watched resumes do many more things for job seekers, time and time again. Here are some of those things. Continue reading this entry »
Is anyone hiring?
Not really. There are, indeed, industries and companies that are going strong, but they’re not necessarily adding to their headcount right now. Everyone’s in waiting. HR departments are in an Arctic freeze. People with jobs are clinging to them like driftwood in the cold open sea. Unemployment numbers are rising, which means the competition for life rafts is growing.
It’s hard to be cooped up in your house, knowing all of this is going, feeling like you should be “out there” looking for work.
Still, it’s always better to take action during a crisis. Action delivers a sense of progress. It fans the flame of hope in the night while we pray for the sun to come back over the horizon.
Here are some ways to stay productive and generate your own warmth in this time of uncertainty: Continue reading this entry »
Recessions tend to push hardworking people into two groups. On the one hand, is the layoff survivor handling the load of multiple former employees. On the other is the hyperqualified, abruptly laid-off job seeker who needs to explain the abrupt ending to their tenure. Different destinies but both types tend to struggle with how to present these career changes on their resumes.
Here are some tips: Continue reading this entry »
I admit I’ve had a couple of challenging clients recently. It’s easy to write them off but it’s always best to look inward before casting blame.
So, what’s really going on? Continue reading this entry »
Recently, a resume client of mine forwarded a newsletter article from a job board discussing ways to overcome “job gaps” of 3-6 months.
Here’s a snippet from the article, and my subsequent retort as to why we should redefine the criteria for a job gap: Continue reading this entry »
One of the best kept secrets in job-hunting: The government has offered to pay part of your expenses!
You read correctly: Career expenses, including fees incurred for career counseling, professional resume writing, and job-search coaching, are tax-deductible for everyone with only a few exceptions: Continue reading this entry »
An aggrieved job seeker, sick of hearing that functional resumes are the scourge of an HR person’s day, asked why this type of format is unfavorable. Here’s my response: Continue reading this entry »
Executive résumés should be distinguishable from lower-level résumés, even at a glance. However, the differences don’t stop at appearance. There’s much to consider when developing and positioning content for senior-level résumés. You may be surprised at how many “golden rules” of résumé writing I’m about to break. Continue reading this entry »
A lot of us hate our job or at least see it as a grind. Getting up in the morning is a chore, there’s not much we look forward to. We become dichotomous in our thinking: “Maybe I should quit.” In other words, it’s either this crappy job or nothing at all. And leaving is often too big of a hill to climb. There’s another way.
Make your job suck less.
1. Find people who don’t suck, and hang out with them.
Ask them what they do and what they like about it. They don’t have to be in your discipline, in fact, it might be better if they’re not. Most important, make sure this new alliance doesn’t turn into a venting session (for either of you).
2. Start a pet project.
What change do you wish to see at work? What would give you energy if it was there waiting for you every day? Maybe it’s about addressing the culture of the company, maybe it’s about changing a process, or rearranging furniture. Own something and chip away at it. Create something to look forward to.
3. Expand your perspective.
Pull back and look at the whole organization, the workflow across the entire enterprise, no matter how big. Which parts light you up. Are you touching them? How can you make it so that you are?
4. Harness your negativity in a positive way.
Determine what’s frustrating you, get to the heart of it. If it’s mostly about you, that’s good news. That means you can change it. If the problems lie with the company, think about an alternative way of doing things. If it really catches fire with you, turn it into a proposal and bring it to a supervisor. Share it in earnest but as a proposal, not a demand. You may be surprised by the reaction.
5. Give yourself something to get up to.
Try not to have your first thought be about the job you hate. Have your first thought or activity of the day be something good. This will shift your perspective for the rest of the day, including your perspective at work.
Sometimes, it’s not about leaving. It’s about tweaking. Change is at hand.
