When I first started in this business… almost 12 years ago- I could still call a client and suggest a candidate without a resume and get him/her seen just with my endorsement. Times have changed on so many incredible levels but our end result is still the same- to get people jobs- the jobs they desire and are qualified for- and to make our clients happy (and of course to get paid- in whatever order you deem suitable). We are a boutique firm so our changes in how we do business are a little more human and a little less big machine- however we too have had industry without question reduce our work to key word searches in database searches, Buzzie bullet points, and zip code aggregation.
We still work along side some of the “old guard” and let me be honest- I am jealous of their paper notes and piles of cards and applications on their desks. They get in a job order from a long standing client and they go to their tangible candidate pool of men and women they have met and screened in person proactively for when the right role opened up… and they submit their resume (yes at least on email lol) and proceed as expected.
The rest of us as connecting blindly on linked in, face timing, searching online databases and platforms. My role as a mentor and leader is to try to teach a combination of the old and new way.
I believe that the largest change in hiring happened right after the economy turned in 2008. And oddly, I don’t think it has anything to do with web, platforms, search engines, or analytics. Years ago- if a candidate was special- and could speak languages, do cartwheels backwards (professionally), and balance lots of different pieces of a job (all examples)- they were desired! Cultivated! Who would not want to hire a $115K Marketing Manager with PR experience with her degree in social work and fluent in Italian as she loves to travel(fictional example)? After the crash, if hiring managers were devoting dollars to a hire – they wanted their $115K hire to be exactly what they needed. They didn’t want to see resumes that would make them ask human and conversational questions – instead if they saw anything interesting or special it actually hurt the candidates chances of proceeding to the next step (why did she get that degree? Won’t she want to work in that field and leave us? Why is his title that ? Will he be board with the scope of this job?) all of a sudden what used to make someone special and different on paper was now costing them the job. I have found myself in the last few years- coaching against my intuition! I teach people to streamline their experience, to speak in one solid voice, to avoid the extras (unless it is obviously computer skills) and to keep a narrow focus for each resume submitted- the key ingredient being that the candidate should tweak his or her resume to the open position each and every time. Marketing Manager resumes for Marketing Manager roles. Nothing else! Net Net, being special & unique needs to be now determined by the hiring manager after the fact instead of before.
Now that the economy has been stronger, we are seeing candidates taking risks again- like leaving a job without another job; (who quits!!!?); pushing back on offers and taking more time to make decisions. We empower people to do what is right for them, but we remember all too well and know first hand what can go wrong when forcing the hand of fate. I will always be conservative with job search. I will stand on my soapbox and say to job seekers in 2016 like I said to job seekers in 2008, be the candidate you would want to hire.
We see hundreds of resumes in a month for positions. All resumes are entered into our system so that we can streamline our searches with key words. Our first recruitment step is to review submitted resumes for our clients’ buzz words and needs, manually reviewing a professional Sudoku puzzle . We then are still somewhat old fashioned in how we do our next step of screening. We call. We isolate if the salary range and scope of the job is on point. We ask about career history and skill set. We check availability and schedule. We ask a ton of questions to establish bond, connection, trust. The candidates who meet the most of what our client needs, we submit first. We also meet every candidate that goes out of the office on our behalf. When we place people, we keep a close check on their happiness. We stay in touch after 30, 60, 90 days and 6 months! We never cut our ties to the candidate and we manage the client as well to the best of our ability.
I am sure there is more science with larger organizations, but we try to remain authentic! We are here to put people to work. We are a service that helps to screen through the bs and find the right professional solutions… We are here simply to remember that no matter how sophisticated the systems become at the end of the day, a hiring manager must connect with a candidate and a candidate must connect with the hiring manager. It can be science, it can be myerrs briggs (personality assessments), it can be analytics, but never will science and math come before two people meeting and it feeling right.
I have built a business and have put food on my children’s plate with gut instinct, people awareness, and intuition. Sure, I have to jump through professional hoops before I can use those innate skills…but truthfully, my measure of success will never be determined by software, it will always be determined by emotion.
I say every single day that I could give hours of advice to a candidate= about how to recreate his or her resume or change thinking or search for open roles…but the truth is, their fate is written. Their next step is right around the corner= whether we help them through Choice or not (though it does feel nice to think our efforts assist in finding correct paths!). I could read 1000 articles and be bootcamped in a million trainings, as long as we are hiring humans and we are humans (wink wink), the final decision will still be an in person, emotional connection.
