Friday, January 16, 2009

job search notes: networking event

The local group that I am part of got together Monday night for our networking evening. We had a special guest this time, a recruiter from a local firm to provide insights from her point of view on the job search. My notes from the discussion are as follows:

If you put your resume upon one of the internet websites, consider marking it "confidential". If not marked this way, you will receive multiple phone calls that are not necessarily productive. The best way to find a new position is via networking.

Use one or more recruiters. Meet with them face-to-face if at all possible. Be comfortable with them, build a relationship with them so that there is mutual trust. Be forward thinking, aggressive with recruiters. Ask "what's next?"

As for the economic outlook, we are hoping for a V shaped curve, a sharp downturn (which is what we are seeing) followed by a sharp upturn. We don't know where the bottom is.

Stay positive.

What is the goal of your job search? Job offers. Focus on getting there. You are not selling your resume, you are selling your skill set.
She does not get candidates off the internet, she'll get them via cold calls to folks at work who refer them to her.

Be careful to match the verbiage on your resume to the terms of the open position you are applying for. If the terms match, then as it is imaged into whatever system is used, it should come up in the results.
No match, no results.

Put all the skill acronyms in the top search section. If it is not there, it won't be found.

Corporate recruiters are getting cut, hence she is now working more directly with the hiring managers.

The resume format is the least important. Skills buzzworded.
Must say why you were valuable to your prior company and how you can do the same for the next.

Why are you valuable? Must be action oriented with cost benefit explained.

As for industry sectors with growth opportunities - insurance, health care, energy, biotech

The big problem is the "fear factor", worry about where the bottom is.

The difference this time around is the onus is more on the job searcher to do all the work.

No comments:

Post a Comment