What do recruiters look for in a resume? How can you get found by recruiters on LinkedIn? My guest Sharon Gerber tells all!

Hello! Welcome once again to The Career Gym ! This week, we have some REAL expert insights from Sharon Gerber.

Sharon is Founder and Director at Talent Matters - a specialist Ecommerce, Retail & Wholesale recruitment business in Sydney. Sharon has over 15 years of Recruitment & HR experience!

As you know.

We only ask REAL recruitment experts for advice to what stands out to recruiters in a job search!

Below is the interview - enjoy!

Russ: Hello and welcome to The Career Gym. This week, I'm speaking to Sharon, Founder & Director of Talent Matters. Sharon, do you want to introduce yourself? Tell everyone what you do.

Sharon: Sure. Thanks for having me, Russell, today. My background is a recruitment/HR. I started my career in recruitment, then moved into generalist roles within FMCG and wholesale and various other sectors, and then came back into recruitment after having children, just to have a little bit more flexibility, and I was working part-time and whatnot. Last year, I actually set up my own agency, and that was in the middle of a global pandemic and talk of a recession, but I just felt like, "You know what? It's time to do this myself."

Russ: So how are you finding the job market at the moment?

Sharon: I try and keep up to date and jump onto a lot of webinars, both within Australia, but also globally. Obviously, through my work, I speak more to the Australian market, but I know it also resonates in the UK and the US. Data shows that the number of applications are lower than they have been in years, and there's an increase in job ads going up. So the demand for candidates is there from an employer perspective, yet the candidate pool is smaller than it has typically been in the past.

Russ: So why do you think that is? Why do you think there's this massive shift, all of a sudden?

Sharon: I think one of the big factors is really COVID. In Australia, we've had various lockdowns throughout this year in certain states, being New South Wales and Victoria prominently. And so there's candidate hesitancy. So people prefer security than jumping into a new role during a period of turbulence, right? I think there's going to be a shift, and they're talking about the great resignation. And typically in Jan and Feb, there's always people reassessing their career moves and whether it's time for them to move on or not. So there's going to be a shift next year probably, with candidates being more open to opportunities. But yes, there's the hesitancy. From a stability perspective, people prefer to just hold onto their jobs and have that security.

Russ: So in what you do, you must deal with A LOT of candidates. Are you seeing any kind of common frustrations from job seekers? Common mistakes? Anything you can shed some light on?

Sharon: Yeah. We speak to a lot of candidates daily, we get resumes through. I'm a big believer in personalized cover letters, and I think cover letters are really important in differentiating yourself, as long as you're putting a good cover letter together. So I think for some of the roles where it's hotly contended, put that extra effort in, do your research on the company, their values, and tie that into that first paragraph. Because if you're just sending off your resume, you'll get a look in, of course. But if you're on that maybe pile, and they're not sure as to whether your skills exactly align or there's a career gap and it's unspoken for, that cover letter can address some of those areas I don't understand.

Russ: Yeah. And I think that's a really good point because I'll admit it. I'm very up and down with cover letters. I see tremendous value in them, but then also I'm a little bit hypocritical because I'll admit. As a recruiter, especially in-house over the past 12 years or whatever it's been, do I read them? Probably not. Probably not. Because if the information on the resume is not of interest to the role, I'm not going to read the cover letter, obviously, am I? What I've actually started to do is talk to candidates about if it is a simple issue of just wanting to marry up a few further points or marry up something specific to the job, maybe get into that opening summary. If you're creating an opening summary, why not put it in there and have that as an area that you tell because they're definitely going to read that.

Russ: So next, what do you look for in a resume?

Sharon: Sounds simple, but I see some really bad ones, I want to be able to see their name, their personal details very clearly, in case I need to email them or call them straight off. Then I like to see a little bit of an overview, whether it says, "I've had 10 years experience in e-commerce working across certain industry sectors."

Something that I often see missed with candidates is they'll name the company and then their position and the period of employment. But they haven't actually given me one or two sentences on the company. And they assume that I might recognise the company. If I don't know that company, giving me one to two sentences as an overview is really helpful to provide some context as to that business environment and what that business stands for. That side of it.

Russ: I really like your point about the context underneath the business, you can't assume people know who the business are. I once got asked if a recruiter would not just google the company.

The fact is, they are screening, at times, hundreds of CVs a day. They won't google every business they don't know! Make it easy for them!

Russ: LinkedIn....do you use LinkedIn to find candidates? How do you search for them? What do you look for when you look at their profile? Tell us how, as a recruiter, how you approach it, and any tips for job seekers on their profile.

Sharon: Sure. LinkedIn is an amazing tool for candidates and for recruiters. So a majority of our placements actually come through head hunting through LinkedIn. Keywords associated with your industry sector or role title are so important!

So let's say I'm a web developer. And if I've just got web developer or company X, and there's no information there, which is often the case if I go and do a search right now, I don't know what platforms they've got experience with. Do they work on Shopify or don't they? So having relevant search terms so that if a recruiter is trying to find you, you make their job as easy as possible and be found.

The other thing, what's the benefit of ticking that 'open to opportunities' button. Are my friends going to see it? Am I going to get that green banner on my profile? I don't want people to know I'm open. I don't want my employer to find out I'm looking.

By ticking open to, you've got the option of either having the green banner or the more discreet side where a recruiter that has a LinkedIn Recruiter license, which you pay extra for, is able to then identify that that web developer is open to opportunities. So if I'm going and running a search on the back end of LinkedIn, which is LinkedIn Recruiter, I'm able to filter my search and go web developer, Sydney, open to opportunities. So I'm now targeting those that are genuinely interested to hear from me. And that helps us appropriately contact people and more likely to contact those. Does that make sense?

Russ: There should be no stigma around the green banner in my opinion. I have seen people claim it looks desperate and they shouldn't do it. Qiute frankly, these people are dickheads.

If you are maybe in a job, and want to be more discreet, use the switch the switch that it shows to recruiters only.

This means anyone LinkedIn Recruiter license can see it EXCEPT THOSE IN YOUR CURRENT COMPANY! LinkedIn are quite good at keeping it discreet.

Sharon: Can I point out a couple more tips really quickly on the LinkedIn profile?

Russ: No.....

Sharon: ??

Russ: OK....

Sharon: Keep your current role updated on LinkedIn! We often contact people and they're like, oh no, I've moved out of the industry and I'm now in accounting

Russ: Great. And then what I'd like to do to round off is real quick fire.....

So you've got a job seeker. They've got an interview next Tuesday. It's a great role. Role of their dreams. They're sitting there. They're reading this thinking, "I'm a little bit nervous. I could do with a little bit of advice about how to prepare for this or what to do during the interview." What would those top three pieces of advice be?

Sharon: Research the company. So now you know who the company is that you're interviewing for. Research them. There is so much information available online, whether that be their website, whether that be through LinkedIn, their social platforms. Have a good look. Try and understand and their values. Look back at the job ad. And then be able to articulate your passion, your genuine passion for their business.

The other one is... And I say this to every single candidate of mine, is interviews are a two-way process. It's got to be right for you and them. There's no point you walking into a role that's not the right fit for you, whether that be company culture, whether that be role specific.

The third one is be yourself. It's got to be a natural fit for yourself. Be prepared with behavioural style questions that are likely to come up, but also be yourself because this is where you're going to spend the majority of your time each week. You want to make sure it's a neat fit for your level of experience. And also back to that culture fit sign, it's got to tick your boxes as much as they're selling.

Russ: That's great. Some really good points. And everyone I've spoken to when I've asked them for those top three pieces of advice, the first one is always research!

So just to round it off, do you want to let people know how they can contact you? Whether that's a business thinking, "Do you know what? I need a brilliant recruiter to help us recruit." Or there's a candidate out there thinking, "Oh, I'll see what jobs these guys have." How can you be contacted?

Sharon: Thanks, Russell. So feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. So Sharon Gerber. You'll find me there. Or visit our website, which is www.talentmatters.com.au and reach out to us. We'd be delighted to assist you either candidate wise or from a client side as well.

Sharon: One last thing I will point out is in Australia, there is a nonprofit called Project Displaced. It is a free service for anyone in Australia that is looking for some level of support. And it was set up in light of COVID. I would absolutely encourage you to reach out to them. They have experience career counsellors there, recruiters, people that have worked in generalist capacities to assist a job seeker and can help with resume writing as well or tips. And I think the more touch points you have as a candidate, I think the better set up for your search you will be. It's a free service. It's a not for profit. Feel free to reach out to them if you want to just tap into a service and you don't have the funds to. It's run entirely by volunteers. And it's a great community.

Russ: That's fantastic. How good is it to see people come together to help people out. Love it!

Thank you so much for your time Sharon. It has been great speaking to you.

Sharon: Thanks, Russell. Bye everybody!

That was this weeks edition of The Carer Gym Newsletter!

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Russell ?// Founder @ The Career Gym