Resume, LinkedIn, and Internet Search Tips and How to Work with Recruiters

I recently spoke to a group of military academy grads on this subject. Here is a list of notes I used. I hope these are helpful. Ping me if you have any questions. Scott Leishman

• What is the mission of your resume? (Tell everybody everything you did since high school or get a specific job?)
• Keep it simple (unless you are going for an art/creative/design type of position)
• These are ingested by candidate tracking systems at companies and recruiters
• Standard format, standard font
• No info in headers (often gets missed in parsing.)
• Different versions depending on job applying for
• AT LEAST City, State, HOME Email and one phone number (cell recommended)
• Minimize your “greatest hits” summary
• Make sure resume Jobs and Dates align with LinkedIn
  • Don’t fill in gaps
  • OK to summarize old data
  • OK to summarize military data unless looking for a job in the sector
  • You can only use acronyms if specific to the position you are applying for
  • Add summary sentence or two for each company
  • Add as much detail as possible barring confidentiality breaches
    • $ sales/Year, names of customers, $ saved/year, % over and amount of budget
    • PDF or Word? I recommend PDF
      • Doesn’t get reformatted in email transmission

Using LinkedIn

• All Recruiters Use it
• Have detailed descriptions/buzzwords in your profile
• Join job appropriate groups
  • Look for recruiters in those groups
  • Look for job announcements in those groups
  • ALMOST NEVER APPLY TO A COMPANY WEBSITE
    • Use LinkedIn/networks to ID someone who works there. They can:
      • Tell you about the job – including salary
      • Tell you about the hiring manager
      • WALK/EMAIL YOUR RESUME OVER TO THE HIRING MANAGER

Internet Search Tips

• Indeed.com Ladders OK, Monster and CareerBuilder for <100K jobs
• Keep a detailed list of where you have applied and who sent you in (if a recruiter)

Working with Recruiters

• 2 Kinds – Contingency and Retained
• Our job = find and screen candidates who match our client’s job spec
  • Criteria usually = “Has candidate done this before, not could she do it.”
  • OK to Follow up but don’t stalk
  • Check their website from time to time, save search there
  • Will work with you on refining your resume if you appear to be a fit for a position.