Listen up, people.
You are unique. And different. And there’s only one of you. Your DNA. Your neurons. The people you meet. The interactions you have — big and small. They are all yours. Your entirety of you is irreplaceable.
You’re a unicorn… except when trying to find a job.
Gasps filled the air at my last presentation on Getting Hired. A group full of techy job seekers hated it when I said “If you don’t have a picture at your Linked In, I’m not even looking at you.” Or when I told them the average length a resume is reviewed is 8 seconds I could feel their disgust rise.
Getting a job is a game, and you have to know the rules.
And before I get comments about how it shouldn’t be that way, and how we should have more genuine processes, lemme stop ya: I agree.
- I agree that it sucks to have to review 500 resumes that all look the same cause job seekers don’t take the time to create something innovative and fresh.
- I agree that it sucks that there’s the perfect person to fit a role needed but they get missed because they didn’t have a professional twitter and the other candidate did.
- I agree that our current methodology of hiring encourages everyone to “stand out” or “be unique” which means that no one is.
I’d rather no resumes, no applications, face-to-face lunch meetings and make the process more personal and authentic. I’d love to have more time to do that. If I could hire more recruiters to operate my organization this way, I would. It’s a great dream, but it‘s not how most places operate.
For entry level positions a hiring manager may get hundreds of resumes and applications. They have to whittle that down to a handful. Recruiting is all about filling that spot as quickly and effectively as possible.
Remember that the amount of effort put in to finding that perfect job is all on you. Scoff all you want at the amount of work you have to do to catch my eye, but when push comes to shove, I have the job and you want it. The onus is on you to impress me.
Those who put in extra time into details, expanding their reach, and make themselves enticing, get more views and eventually get hired. That’s just the truth.
Does that seem disheartening? It should.
But it’s all good; you’re still a unicorn.
But it’s all good; you’re still a unicorn.
HRTact 