I get a lot of questions about recruiters. The most often asked question is who the recruiter works for. The short answer is the recruiter isn’t working for you.

While, someone who’s out of work recently told me it’s cruel to say this, it’s true.

Retained and contingency recruiters work for the one who pays them. And that’s the employer.

Retained recruiters are paid a fee to find candidates and are generally paid whether the employer hires them or not. Contingency recruiters are paid only if the employer hires one of their candidates. Their fee is a percentage based on the candidate’s first year salary.

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I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen someone describe themselves as a team player on their resume. I can say it’s way too many.

However, descriptors like team-player and out-of-the-box thinker make hiring managers cringe according to a 2021 CareerBuilder survey* of hiring managers and human resources pros.

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Personal branding is a popular concept promoted by marketers, public relations specialists and, more recently, career professionals. Countless articles have been written on the subject. A recent Google search turned up about 353 million results.

Still, questions abound.

• What is a personal brand?
• Why is it important?
• How do I develop one?

While there is no pat answer, there’s substantial evidence that a strong personal brand can boost your job search and positively impact your career.

What A Personal Brand Is

Your personal brand is how others perceive you. As entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk notes in a 2019 article about personal branding, “Your personal brand is your reputation. And your reputation in perpetuity is the foundation of your career.”

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Do one thing every day that scares you. — Eleanor Roosevelt

It’s not easy to step out of our comfort zone and do something that scares us.

But, the only way to make those scary things less scary is to step up and do the things we’re afraid of.

I speak from experience.

Although most people wouldn’t know it, I’m an introvert. I used to be one of those who stood alone at networking events too shy to introduce myself. Two decades later, chatting with strangers is pretty easy.Read more

One of the issues often raised when a group of job seekers gets together is the question of age discrimination.

Several years ago,  I was invited to be a guest at Platform to Employment a program that was developed by The Workplace to address the needs of the long-term unemployed.

Originally launched in Connecticut, the program has had such great success that it was expanded to ten other cities in early 2014. You may have seen it featured on 60 Minutes.

Several days before my visit, I received a list of questions that the group was hoping I could answer from the recruiter’s perspective. Not surprisingly, a number of the questions addressed the problem of age discrimination.

Here are a few of the things I learned while working as a recruiter.

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Every job seeker knows they need to sell themselves to the employer. That said, remember that interviews are not only about the employer; they are about whether or not you want to work for them.

Preparing questions to ask the interviewer is as important as preparing responses to typical interview questions.

Start with a few questions about the job. A good place to start is asking about things that were discussed during the interview, maybe things that you would like clarified or explained.

Here are a few questions to learn what you’ll be stepping into if hired.

=> What are the biggest challenges of the job?

=> What are the expectations for my first 30,60,90days?

=> What are the biggest obstacles I’ll face in the first 30,60,90 days?

Beyond learning about the job, an interview is a good time to learn about your future boss and the culture.
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A strong results-driven resume can help you get your foot in the proverbial door. But after that, you’re on your own.

Even the most compelling, well-designed resume is not a “silver bullet.”

There are a lot of ingredients to a successful job interview. Know your resume cold. Prepare to answer the most common interview questions.

The secret sauce, however, is making a connection with the job interviewer. To do that you’ll need to build rapport, communicate effectively, and end the interview on a high note.

#1 BUILD RAPPORT

Finding common ground and showing interest will help you quickly connect with the job interviewer.

Look for things you have in common like:

• Sports participation or favorite teams
• Interest in the arts or entertainment
• Attended the same college or university
• Share a volunteer cause
• Support or member of same organization

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Resume writers are often asked about the prevalence of age discrimination. As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, serious concerns begin around age 55, but some people, particularly my female friends, tell me they begin to feel it in their mid-forties.

Yes, age discrimination is out there. But there are many other reasons why candidates don’t get hired.

The interviewer may think you are too young or too forward-thinking or too laid back. She may dislike you because you remind her of a former boss or spouse she doesn’t like.

We all have conscious and unconscious biases.

You can’t control other people’s bias, but you can eliminate things that make you look old and/or dated.  Here are 5 things to change today.

#1 Have a Modern Email

Using an @aol or @yahoo email address makes you look like you’re stuck in 1995. Keep those addresses for family and friends but choose something more current like @gmail for your job search. Never use your company’s email to contact recruiters, resume writers, career coaches, etc.

Many employers monitor employee email accounts, and they have the legal right to do so.

Include your email address in LinkedIn About section to make it easy for recruiters and employers to contact you. If your job search is confidential you can include a statement like “always interested in connecting with like-minded people” or “always happy to connect with clients and colleagues” as well.

If you’re unemployed, you can include a pitch for hiring you.

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Just as resumes that don’t generate results have the same problems, resumes that resonate with recruiters and employers share commonalities. Effective resumes immediately grab the reader’s attention. They demonstrate what sets that candidate apart from the competition.

Many people think that recruiters begin by reading a resume from top to bottom.

However,  the results of a 2012 Ladders study proved that in most cases, they don’t.

The Ladders had recruiters review resumes while wearing eye-scanning goggles. The main talking point, or buzz, from that study, was that recruiters spent less than 6 seconds reviewing each resume before deciding if they would interview the candidate or not.

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While most people think of resumes as employment histories, today’s resumes are marketing tools designed to sell you (the product) to a potential employer (the buyer).

They are not boring lists of responsibilities. They are a place to document everything you do on a day-to-day basis.  They don’t include every job you’ve ever had or every single thing you’ve done during your career.

That style of resume is sometimes called a “Tombstone” resume because it focuses on the past, not the future.

To be effective, your resume needs to highlight the skills and achievements that make you valuable to potential employers.

What Future-Focused Means

The days of getting a job based on your experience or job title alone as long gone. You may think managing a $MM budget or having executives reporting to you is impressive. But, on it’s own, it’s not.

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