Some advice to job seekers

[Admiral Beez]

I’m endeavouring to hire a new position at my company and posted our job online.

Most of the applications have been terrible. So.... to my young job seekers...some advice from a jaded, Gen X’r who wants to hire once and hire well for the long term.

1. Read the job posting from top to bottom, understand it. Use it as a check list, have you covered everything requested?
2. Cover every job requirement listed, and focus on your accomplishments in those.
3. Exclude irrelevant information. Omit other skills, training or accomplishments unless they may contribute to the role. But only after you’ve covered the required list. My hiring team is instructed to look for those that best match the job requirements as listed. If you make it hard to see because it’s buried in irrelevant bullet points, well you’re not going to make it.
4. Put the job title at the top. Skip the aspirational statement, you want “this job”, not some fuzzy self affirming opportunity to do good work. By using a canned title and including unrelated skills you’ve clearly used your generic resume, probably sending the same one to dozens of job postings. We can tell, and you’ll be tossed.
5. When listing your technical skills, focus on your accomplishments. Okay, you may have a welding ticket, elevator mechanic’s license, marketing degree, know how to code, etc... but what have you done with those to drive success at your past and current employers? That will give an indication of what you can accomplish for our firm.
6. Do not include your photo on the resume. Back in the 1980s and 90s this was common practice in Europe, used for racial and other discriminatory hiring practices. I don’t care what you look like, it’s not relevant, and it takes up space on the page. I don’t like this feature on LinkedIn either, but that’s the way it is.
7. If a cover letter, portfolio, references, or anything else is asked for, bloody well include it. Your otherwise potentially perfect resume is going to get tossed If you skip this.
8. Once you've done all the above, have two people who are grammar and spelling Nazis check your resume. Not just for spelling and grammar errors and inconsistencies (like ending some bullet points with periods, omitting it on others), but for homophones - words that have the same sound as another word but are spelled differently, such as using break when you mean brake, or lead instead of led.

My firm is medium sized, we’re not using bots to scan resumes for key words, and instead we begin by manually scanning each one. The above eight points will likely get you past my emotionless, hard nosed scanners and onto my desk for proper, in-depth review and perhaps an interview and job offer. But skip these eight points and you’re toast.

 

[Admiral Beez]

A different perspective on point #6 from my teenagers. They said that people include a photo so that firms seeking diversity can see that you appear to be in the targeted group. My wife, who‘s of Eastern European descent has a name that looks African American, and she’s walked into interviews before where the hiring manager has actually said, we were expecting a black woman. A picture would have cleared that up I suppose, but I still recommend omitting it.

 

[Jonny5]

A response from a once jaded job seeker, back in 2008, to the people who are hiring:

Actually have a proper job description, and task list, not simply a vague set of skills required like "time management" and "multi-tasking" which could mean anything, or nothing. List specific software or web applications used, and the level of expertise needed on them. Also, pin down the experience requirements exactly. I can't stand the simplified range requirements like "2-5 years of related experience" because there is a HUGE difference between 2 and 5 years experience and what you can do. If you really want 5, say so, don't waste the time of people with 2 years experience who apply and inevitably get the "we just felt you didn't have enough experience" response.

As for #6, big firms with HR departments will simply strip the photo out before passing it to a hiring manager, they will also wipe out the address too if they are smart.
The really good firms now have HR strip out even the name of the candidates, and they only provide it to a hiring manager after you select one of the candidates for an interview. This is not even done for d&I but for preventing accidental relase and rumour of who is looking for a new job while employed somewhere else.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Actually have a proper job description, and task list,

Excellent points J5, and I'm pleased to say I think we've done a good job on this score.

 

[Soop]

And if the posting says 'no calls', don't call. You'll just annoy people.

I am happy that I don't have to deal with hiring anymore. I much preferred the postings that were anonymous, so there would be no calls.

 

[WislaHD]

A different perspective on point #6 from my teenagers. They said that people include a photo so that firms seeking diversity can see that you appear to be in the targeted group. My wife, who‘s of Eastern European descent has a name that looks African American, and she’s walked into interviews before where the hiring manager has actually said, we were expecting a black woman. A picture would have cleared that up I suppose, but I still recommend omitting it.

My understanding is that it is common practice for most HR departments in larger companies to throw out any resume with a photo attached as a matter of principle (or strip the resume clean of it like Jonny5 said above). Regardless of whether you fit some diversity group or not. When I was graduating and searching for work, we were all told by those in the field to absolutely not include a photo on our resumes.

 

[Admiral Beez]

My understanding is that it is common practice for most HR departments in larger companies to throw out any resume with a photo attached as a matter of principle (or strip the resume clean of it like Jonny5 said above). Regardless of whether you fit some diversity group or not. When I was graduating and searching for work, we were all told by those in the field to absolutely not include a photo on our resumes.

It does demonstrate a lack of judgement and common sense that warns me to skip them.

 

[Johnny Au]

I have written many resumés, none of which have my photo on them (it helps that my surname, Au, suggests that I am East Asian).

However, a name like John Lee can easily belong to WASPs, Blacks, or Chinese.

 

[afransen]

I've never seen a resume with an image--I didn't think that was common practice here.

I like the idea of hiding candidate names. But it is trickier than that. You see an MBA from an Indian university and it is a bit of a hint as well. My experience with MBAs generally is pretty mixed (in a technical role), but the Indian MBAs seem to not count for much. In a profession that skews male, I tend to be inclined to interview every somewhat qualified female candidate but am more selective with apparently male candidates.

My experience and advice to job seekers is not to allow falling short on a few of the requirements for the posting to dissuade you from applying. Job requirements tend to be rather inflated and finding a candidate that ticks all the boxes is somewhat rare. The 1-2 years experience for entry level jobs is also laughable.

 

[Admiral Beez]

My experience and advice to job seekers is not to allow falling short on a few of the requirements for the posting to dissuade you from applying. Job requirements tend to be rather inflated and finding a candidate that ticks all the boxes is somewhat rare. The 1-2 years experience for entry level jobs is also laughable.

Good point on persevering even if you don’t have all the qualifications, one applicant was missing a requirement but we noticed they had another valuable skill set that we’d not considered. On Indeed.com I was getting a dump of resumes, and the help chat suggested I add buttons demanding a yes/no response to 1-2 years experience and a forced question on why they want the job. This has helped slow the dump of generic resumes.

Interesting point about Indian MBAs, I noticed lots of the applicants have degrees from Indian universities. Our opening has no requirements on education so it’s less important, but it caught my curiosity, why so many Indian-educated applicants over others? These seem to be the largest portion of the generic resume dumps, no cover letter, no mention of the job in the resume, no focus on stated requirements on the JD. It’s almost as if they’ve sent the same resumes by the hundreds across the job boards.

Is there an online resume dumping service that I’m not aware of? Hmm like this https://www.workable.com/post-jobs-on-multiple-sites. I’m an old guy now, but back in the ‘oughts I would target specific employees, not blanket the web.

 

[Undead]

A response from a once jaded job seeker, back in 2008, to the people who are hiring:

Actually have a proper job description, and task list, not simply a vague set of skills required like "time management" and "multi-tasking" which could mean anything, or nothing. List specific software or web applications used, and the level of expertise needed on them. Also, pin down the experience requirements exactly. I can't stand the simplified range requirements like "2-5 years of related experience" because there is a HUGE difference between 2 and 5 years experience and what you can do. If you really want 5, say so, don't waste the time of people with 2 years experience who apply and inevitably get the "we just felt you didn't have enough experience" response.

As for #6, big firms with HR departments will simply strip the photo out before passing it to a hiring manager, they will also wipe out the address too if they are smart.
The really good firms now have HR strip out even the name of the candidates, and they only provide it to a hiring manager after you select one of the candidates for an interview. This is not even done for d&I but for preventing accidental relase and rumour of who is looking for a new job while employed somewhere else.

Great post and another add on from my experience: stop asking applicants "why you want this job." Because we bloody need a job to pay the bills. It's an idiotic, inane and degrading question that produces cliche answers. It just selects for people better at blah-blah-blah BS-ing, not actual competence. The only people who do well on that question are the a** kissers from your local business program.

edit: forget the cover letter as well for the same reasons outlined above. I just skip the jobs requiring cover letters (though I'm perfectly qualified) and landed my current gig without a CL.

Also consider posting the salary. When I was applying fresh out of uni, I could have saved a lot of time if the recruiters were up front with salaries. Most of the jobs didn't meet my salary expectations (fortunately I held out and landed my desired-ish salary after 2 months of relentless applications, 50 interviews and two offers).

Finally, and this should go without saying, but these days it has to be said—never hire anyone solely or primarily for diversity reasons lol

Out of curiosity and I hope it's not too intrusive: which industry are you in, @Admiral Beez?

 

[Towered]

Great post and another add on from my experience: stop asking applicants "why you want this job." Because we bloody need a job to pay the bills. It's an idiotic, inane and degrading question that produces cliche answers. It just selects for people better at blah-blah-blah BS-ing, not actual competence. The only people who do well on that question are the a** kissers from your local business program.

edit: forget the cover letter as well for the same reasons outlined above. I just skip the jobs requiring cover letters (though I'm perfectly qualified) and landed my current gig without a CL.

Also consider posting the salary. When I was applying fresh out of uni, I could have saved a lot of time if the recruiters were up front with salaries. Most of the jobs didn't meet my salary expectations (fortunately I held out and landed my desired-ish salary after 2 months of relentless applications, 50 interviews and two offers).

Finally, and this should go without saying, but these days it has to be said—never hire anyone solely or primarily for diversity reasons lol

Out of curiosity and I hope it's not too intrusive: which industry are you in, @Admiral Beez?

LOL - I hate that question too, "Why do you want this job?". It's a very stupid thing to ask, really. When I was young, I once applied for a minimum wage retail job for a large coffee chain (either Tim Hortons or Second Cup - can't remember which), and at the time my approach was to give totally honest answers because I believed it would impress the interviewer who likely has to endure canned, generic answers by the dozens. So, when I was predictably asked that nauseating question as to why I wanted the job, I simply said "Because like everyone else who applies for work, I need the income." My answer was met with a quizzical look and smirk before awkwardly moving on to the next questions. Needless to say, I didn't get that job. It was one of those loss of innocence moments in life where I quickly learned that people don't necessarily want blunt honesty - they want to be told what they want to hear. I became much better at BS'ing after that, even though I can barely contain my disdain for it.

Also agreed about posting at least a salary range. It's very frustrating to invest the time into putting together a CV and resume customized to a specific job only to find out it pays the same or less than what you're currently doing. Waste of valuable time.

I would also add job postings absolutely should add their specific location, or the nearest major intersection. I find a lot of them are sneaky or vague about where they're located. Tons of them say "Toronto", but are actually in Mississauga, Brampton, or York Region. I'm not interested in enduring a miserable commute.

 

[afransen]

Great post and another add on from my experience: stop asking applicants "why you want this job." Because we bloody need a job to pay the bills. It's an idiotic, inane and degrading question that produces cliche answers. It just selects for people better at blah-blah-blah BS-ing, not actual competence. The only people who do well on that question are the a** kissers from your local business program.

edit: forget the cover letter as well for the same reasons outlined above. I just skip the jobs requiring cover letters (though I'm perfectly qualified) and landed my current gig without a CL.

Also consider posting the salary. When I was applying fresh out of uni, I could have saved a lot of time if the recruiters were up front with salaries. Most of the jobs didn't meet my salary expectations (fortunately I held out and landed my desired-ish salary after 2 months of relentless applications, 50 interviews and two offers).

Finally, and this should go without saying, but these days it has to be said—never hire anyone solely or primarily for diversity reasons lol

Out of curiosity and I hope it's not too intrusive: which industry are you in, @Admiral Beez?

The reason why people ask this question is that money is a poor motivator. You want people who are at least somewhat interested in what the company does and find some satisfaction in the challenges of working on those problems. You do not want someone who took the job because they liked the idea of money but hate the work.

 

[afransen]

LOL - I hate that question too, "Why do you want this job?". It's a very stupid thing to ask, really. When I was young, I once applied for a minimum wage retail job for a large coffee chain (either Tim Hortons or Second Cup - can't remember which), and at the time my approach was to give totally honest answers because I believed it would impress the interviewer who likely has to endure canned, generic answers by the dozens. So, when I was predictably asked that nauseating question as to why I wanted the job, I simply said "Because like everyone else who applies for work, I need the income." My answer was met with a quizzical look and smirk before awkwardly moving on to the next questions. Needless to say, I didn't get that job. It was one of those loss of innocence moments in life where I quickly learned that people don't necessarily want blunt honesty - they want to be told what they want to hear. I became much better at BS'ing after that, even though I can barely contain my disdain for it.

Also agreed about posting at least a salary range. It's very frustrating to invest the time into putting together a CV and resume customized to a specific job only to find out it pays the same or less than what you're currently doing. Waste of valuable time.

I would also add job postings absolutely should add their specific location, or the nearest major intersection. I find a lot of them are sneaky or vague about where they're located. Tons of them say "Toronto", but are actually in Mississauga, Brampton, or York Region. I'm not interested in enduring a miserable commute.

I think the answer people are looking for is why, of all the jobs that offered this kind of compensation, did you apply to this one? Why sling coffees, vs working as a cashier or clerk at a grocery store, vs working in a warehouse? There are honest answers you can give to these questions, like you enjoy talking with people, or you like being able to work independently and be accountable for your results. If you say you are there just for the money, the hiring manager interprets that as someone who is purely mercenary and you will be hiring to backfill that role again in 6-12 months.

It may not apply to someone serving coffee, but for roles I hire, they tend to be a drain on team productivity for a good 6 months after hiring them as a lot of energy needs to be devoted to training, coaching, and QCing their work. I am not interested in hiring anyone who sees the job as something to help pay the bills until their next opportunity comes along. The first 6 months of pay is effectively part of the cost of recruitment.

 

[Undead]

^all of that is vastly overstated. of course, many people are indeed interested in their jobs. and in some situations, there are better motivators than money. however, because so much of modern office work is BS from what I've seen, many people begin to see it merely as a means to pay the bills. and there's nothing wrong with that. as long as the work is done on time and to an acceptable standard, managers and HR need to leave us the hell alone. as for training, none of my work required any on the job training. the same often occurred at my family members' jobs. you're expected to "plug and play" in the role. if you don't want people who are there merely for the pay cheque, stop treating employees as disposable (let's not pretend this isn't the norm at most companies).