Some Recruiters Read Some Resumes (How to get yours read)

In an introduction to LinkedIn's article and podcast "Here's How Recruiters Read Resumes",?Andrew Seaman, LinkedIn's Managing Editor for Jobs and Career Development started with "RECRUITERS READ RESUMES! There, I said it.?There's a lot of misinformation online about what recruiters do."

Unfortunately the article and podcast themelves are full of misinformation. Recruiters don't read all resumes sent to them - almost none of them do.

Andrew interviewed a recruiter who suggested that recruiters read every application (Misinformation #1), and that she legally had to read all resumes submitted (Misinformation #2 - There's no law requiring employers to read every application or resume). She continued to say that every single resume and application is reviewed by an actual person, and that it would be against EEOC laws if they did not, so it was a legal requirement to review every application (Misinformation #3, #4, and #5 - Very few recruiting departments staff to read all resumes, it's not a requirement under EEOC laws, and not a legal requirement under any hiring laws).

While it's illegal for employers to discriminate against candidates based on age, race, country of origin, religion, sex, orientation ... it's not illegal for employers to have ATSs screen out resumes, and only have humans read a small percentage.

Dawn Graham describes the exact opposite corporate hiring processes in "Confessions Of A Former Corporate Recruiter", published in Forbes. Dawn truthfully describes the dysfunction of most corporate hiring processes and internal recruiting's role in that process.

Here are some of the truth bombs Dawn describes:

• "Like most corporate recruiters, I was assigned more job requisitions to fill than was humanly possible, wasn’t well-versed in what to look for in potential candidates other than key words, and relied on an applicant tracking system (ATS) to do the heavy lifting of feeding me the most 'qualified' applicants.?"
• "I used outdated job descriptions that didn’t align to performance measures and often was encouraged to inflate the attractiveness of a posting to entice quality candidates, but then was rewarded for making compensation offers below market value."
• "I’d ask your current salary, knowing we'd use this information later to offer you a compensation package that was just enough to persuade you accept the offer, but much lower than what we could afford to pay."
• "Fortunately, we weren't permitted to share feedback with candidates due to liability reasons. This was an especially useful policy when the reason you were rejected was because we had a pre-identified candidate all along and only put you through the ringer to satisfy the legal requirements."
• "As for job seekers, the best defense is to stop chasing fairness. The hiring process is anything but, so put your precious time and energy into proactively beating them at their own game by cultivating your network, building a visible brand and being creative to get past the broken systems."

I see this same dysfunction in the hiring processes of the employers I work with as an outside recruiter.

And since hiring isn't fair, I teach job seekers how to make that lack of fairness work for them, rather than against them. Here are some examples of what I teach job seekers to get their resumes seen:

1. Stay away from recruiters and HR:?Their job isn't to help you get hired, it's to collect resumes (including the ones that were networked) into resume databases, use those databases (ATSs) to screen out all but a small number of candidates, keep the company compliant with hiring laws, and keep candidates away from hiring managers.
2. Job descriptions almost never reflect the individual hiring manager's current needs:?Job descriptions are usually recycled from the departing employee, generic (to add protection for HR and legal), or written a year ago (if written for a new headcount, when the headcount was approved in the company's budget cycle).
3. Qualified = Average:??Employers receive 5-10 times more qualified resumes than they have interview spots, so being qualified isn't enough. To get interviews and offers, job seekers need to do more in their resumes/interviews, proving they're far better than just another qualified candidate.
4. Avoid ATSs by avoiding online applications:?This includes job boards, company career pages, LinkedIn, and Applicant Tracking System applications - these generate poor quality interviews that are either legally required compliance interviews, or internal policy comparison interviews (due dilligence comparison of other candidates), neither designed to choose who to hire. Instead, learn how to be the pre-identified candidate who has already been chosen before the job is posted.

I help people solve the most difficult job search problems, including job search acceleration, getting past ATSs, ageism, remote positions, product/job function/career/industry/ geographic change, unemployment, "bouncy" recent career path, job search turnaround, seeking raise/promotion, industry in decline/consolidation, long term gaps, family leave, or other of the most challenging job search issues.

Join me for my next free Resume Revolution! webinar (enroll at https://x.resumewebinar.com/register for no charge) to learn how accelerate your job search, so you can find your next job faster in 2023.

#jobs?#resume?#career

References:

1.?RECRUITERS READ RESUMES, by Andrew Seaman:?https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/andrewmseaman_gethired-recruiter-hiring-ugcPost-7021529106966003712-Wnqk/

2. Here's How Recruiters Read Resumes, Andrew Seaman for Get Hired by LinkedIn News: Click on the picture on post to get to article (strange that direct link to article isn't working, wonder why?)?https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/andrewmseaman_gethired-recruiter-hiring-ugcPost-7021529106966003712-Wnqk/

3. Confessions Of A Former Corporate Recruiter, by Dawn Graham:?https://www.forbes.com/sites/dawngraham/2019/08/22/confessions-of-a-former-corporate-recruiter/