I’m a recruiter AMA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is great and thank you for the insight. Is there any advantage to applying directly to the company website vs going through indeed?

- A determined, F500 50 year old (with 15+ years of experience) trying to find something in this crazy landscape!

On a side note, I am a designer and a clean sans-serif font like Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, and Avenir are good choices and ensure ATS compatibility and easy screen reading for recruiters.

Company website. Always. I know it’s extra work - the website will confirm if the role is still up/open. Sometimes sites like Indeed will lag or hiccup in the integration with the company ATS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like age discrimination and devaluation of experience for you to disregard any work experience from more than 15 years ago.

I am not currently looking. But I have been caught up in corporate layoffs before.

I also recently got a new job in my company where the resume pool was about 200, the top 20 were reviewed, 3 internals and 1 external were interviewed. And I came in 2nd. I didn't get that job but another opening came up within a month and they tapped me. I felt bad for the external person because they were up against dozens of internals with relevant experience.

Inside my F500, with thousands of employees, every week-long posting tends to get 100s of internal applicants unless it's hyper-specific. And that's been true since at least the 2010s.

You don’t have interpret my advice literally. If you have relevant experience to the posted role from 20 years ago go for it and add it back in. MOST candidates though do NOT have relevant experience from 20 years ago. They were in retail or a call center or event planning and that has nothing to do with their now Senior Director of Global Infrastructure and Technology title that they hold today. And when I see their golf course assistant manager stuff from 1999 it actually DETRACTS from the story that they are trying to say which is that they are a masterful VP of Digital Media. Your resume is you communicating a story, your brand, so control the narrative. Everything and the kitchen sink is not an effective story.

[Anonymous]

Do cover letters matter? Is it worth doing?

Do people still send thank you notes after an interview? Or is it annoying?

Does following up with the company ever make a difference?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do cover letters matter? Is it worth doing?

Do people still send thank you notes after an interview? Or is it annoying?

Does following up with the company ever make a difference?

It’s interesting - for very senior level roles - ones that report to the CSuite - I see a cover letter 50% of the time. For other roles I might see it like 10% of the time. I am going to be honest I never read them. Only if I’m reading your resume and something is off - you’ve been in say CPG (Pepsi, Proctor and Gamble) your whole life and now you’re applying into another industry like Bio Med or Consulting which doesn’t track, but I like your progression, you’ve had great tenure, you have the right skills, but just not the industry? - I might go to your cover letter to find the explanation. You have 1 min to convince me then I’m clicking off your resume and moving to someone else.

People do send thank you’s. I think the interview slate (hiring manager and stakeholders) like them because by that time you are one of a handful of interviews. As a recruiter you’re my 20th interview this week. I don’t need one!

Follow up is for your benefit, get the info or update you need. I get it. Know that your follow up will never accelerate our process, remove a role from being on hold, etc. Unless I have specifically told you that I’m keeping you in mind for a role we may open in Q2, your follow up interrupts my day, just being honest!

[Anonymous]

How do I answer the salary questions? What is my current salary and what salary am I looking for. Please share thoughts if salary range is or is not stated in job description. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

People do send thank you’s. I think the interview slate (hiring manager and stakeholders) like them because by that time you are one of a handful of interviews.

Do the people who conduct the interviews send thank-you letters to the candidates?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Excluding CEO/President level (think VP, senior manager, manager types) at what point does a candidate's age start working against them?

Good question. It depends on the role and the company to be honest. I’ve been in old school industries (think commercial and retail banking) where people stay a looonnng time and someone who is say 45 is about the midpoint of the workforce distribution. I’ve also worked in digital marketing where the average age was like 30. And then in F500 the average age might be in the middle say 38, but by 50 the company is packaging people out.

I will say this
There is no reason to ever put more than 15 years of experience on your resume
There is no reason to put your college graduation date. (1982??!)
There is no reason to still be using Yahoo email. SMH
There is no reason to use Times Roman Font
— when I see a combination of these things on a resume I start thinking ‘This PERSON Has Aged Himself/Herself With This Resume - they are demonstrating by this document that they are not adaptable, will not change.

What is the best font to use? Or email? Is Gmail acceptable?

[Anonymous]

What would you advise someone who is more than 6 months unemployed, 45+, about breaking through to get interviews and land a job?

And for others...
What would you advise someone who is just out of college about breaking through to get interviews and land a job?

[Anonymous]

I haven’t had to look for a job since 1996.

My son is a smart, hardworking college student.

Based on what his relatives do and what he’s like, he will probably end up with an offbeat career at a small or midsize organization.

I told my son, “To get past the LinkedIn/Indeed wall, try meeting interesting people from interesting, small companies in person, and just send in resumes outside of a formal hiring process for a specific position.”

My son told me that he has been informed that, if he tries to send in resumes outside a formal hiring process, employers will blacklist him.

Is my son right about the blacklisting situation? Would all employers blacklist him for “just sending in a resume”?

If not: How can he figure out when it’s OK to send in a resume outside a formal hiring process and when it’s clearly a bad idea?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven’t had to look for a job since 1996.

My son is a smart, hardworking college student.

Based on what his relatives do and what he’s like, he will probably end up with an offbeat career at a small or midsize organization.

I told my son, “To get past the LinkedIn/Indeed wall, try meeting interesting people from interesting, small companies in person, and just send in resumes outside of a formal hiring process for a specific position.”

My son told me that he has been informed that, if he tries to send in resumes outside a formal hiring process, employers will blacklist him.

Is my son right about the blacklisting situation? Would all employers blacklist him for “just sending in a resume”?

If not: How can he figure out when it’s OK to send in a resume outside a formal hiring process and when it’s clearly a bad idea?

I'm not the recruiter...but that sounds crazy. My college student kid almost never goes through the "formal hiring process". He finds college alums and fraternity alums that work for a company, or goes through his LinkedIn network (he has tons of VC and other industry contacts) to find someone who worked at the company, etc.

He doesn't cold email anyone a resume, if that's what your son is referring...but having a trusted source forward your email to an actual human at one of these companies (hopefully with a positive note) is a huge advantage.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like age discrimination and devaluation of experience for you to disregard any work experience from more than 15 years ago.

No it doesn't. It sounds like OP gave us their honest opinion on how things work in the real world. Would you prefer she/he had given a well-scrubbed corporately correct answer (let me guess: "Age is just a number. All applicants are looked at equally, regardless of age, or font!") or that they, as they were asked to do, provided their honest assessment of the sausage-making process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven’t had to look for a job since 1996.

My son is a smart, hardworking college student.

Based on what his relatives do and what he’s like, he will probably end up with an offbeat career at a small or midsize organization.

I told my son, “To get past the LinkedIn/Indeed wall, try meeting interesting people from interesting, small companies in person, and just send in resumes outside of a formal hiring process for a specific position.”

My son told me that he has been informed that, if he tries to send in resumes outside a formal hiring process, employers will blacklist him.

Is my son right about the blacklisting situation? Would all employers blacklist him for “just sending in a resume”?

If not: How can he figure out when it’s OK to send in a resume outside a formal hiring process and when it’s clearly a bad idea?

If your son is lining up for an offbeat career, it's likely that his tribe is NOT on LinkedIn. Artists, Musicians, Creatives, DJ & Entertainment, Mid size and SMBs of any kind really aren't using the platform to find talent. My advice to your son is find the people, connect with them, and get introduced to others - Go to industry associations, groups, events, openings, speaker sessions.
I won't blacklist him for sending a resume in (but I likely won't respond either.) The whole 'Just send in a resume' is an awful approach anyway - that's like throwing pasta against the wall and hoping something sticks. There are better ways to land a job in the creative/technical/manual trades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Excluding CEO/President level (think VP, senior manager, manager types) at what point does a candidate's age start working against them?

Good question. It depends on the role and the company to be honest. I’ve been in old school industries (think commercial and retail banking) where people stay a looonnng time and someone who is say 45 is about the midpoint of the workforce distribution. I’ve also worked in digital marketing where the average age was like 30. And then in F500 the average age might be in the middle say 38, but by 50 the company is packaging people out.

I will say this
There is no reason to ever put more than 15 years of experience on your resume
There is no reason to put your college graduation date. (1982??!)
There is no reason to still be using Yahoo email. SMH
There is no reason to use Times Roman Font
— when I see a combination of these things on a resume I start thinking ‘This PERSON Has Aged Himself/Herself With This Resume - they are demonstrating by this document that they are not adaptable, will not change.

What is the best font to use? Or email? Is Gmail acceptable?

Also is it okay to put "xyz professional with over 15 years experience in xyz" in your headline or is that aging too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What would you advise someone who is more than 6 months unemployed, 45+, about breaking through to get interviews and land a job?

And for others...
What would you advise someone who is just out of college about breaking through to get interviews and land a job?

In terms of resume review, when I see someone with a 20 year career, 6 months unemployed is a blip. I know it feels huge to you and your family. It's not a biggie to me. So don't think 'omg, this is a blemish on my resume.' - it's not! All I can say is target the resume for every role. And APPLY EARLY. Within 48 hours of posting a role, I'm sifting through 200 resumes and prioritizing/advancing them. If you're a great candidate but you sat on the posting on a Friday night and took the weekend off, you are now competing with 400 people and if I already have 15 candidates advanced in the funnel, I may never see your late application.

For a college student, if you're a great candidate well-matched for an opening that just got posted - apply and send a note to the recruiter or hiring manager on LinkedIn. Being early and being proactive helps but only if you are super well matched! Like if I post an R&D role in my manufacturing division, and you're a retail management major, you're wasting my time. Also make sure that the student's LinkedIn profile is COMPLETE - college, strong gpa if it's over 3.5, major, minor, work history, awards, volunteering, clubs, officer positions. There is nothing worse than seeing a shell of a profile when I click on a candidate's name. I need to profile to answer Is this candidate RESPONSIBLE, DEDICATED, can they Handle the Workload of corporate life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Excluding CEO/President level (think VP, senior manager, manager types) at what point does a candidate's age start working against them?

Good question. It depends on the role and the company to be honest. I’ve been in old school industries (think commercial and retail banking) where people stay a looonnng time and someone who is say 45 is about the midpoint of the workforce distribution. I’ve also worked in digital marketing where the average age was like 30. And then in F500 the average age might be in the middle say 38, but by 50 the company is packaging people out.

I will say this
There is no reason to ever put more than 15 years of experience on your resume
There is no reason to put your college graduation date. (1982??!)
There is no reason to still be using Yahoo email. SMH
There is no reason to use Times Roman Font
— when I see a combination of these things on a resume I start thinking ‘This PERSON Has Aged Himself/Herself With This Resume - they are demonstrating by this document that they are not adaptable, will not change.

What is the best font to use? Or email? Is Gmail acceptable?

Also is it okay to put "xyz professional with over 15 years experience in xyz" in your headline or is that aging too?

I like those headlines! Keep them.