Resumes are Dead and Recruiters are BUSY!

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Brought to you from the self-elected President of The Run-on Sentence Society.

It is true! Resumes are dead but recruiters are busy! There are many who want to have a job but there are not as many job recruiting. And what?s the output? Many unemployed. Take time to celebrate National Punctuation Day. It seems that National Punctuation Day would be a holiday that will make the respective buildings containing the home offices of Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter on fire, because hardly anybody on those respective websites seems to know what punctuation, or grammar is. It's a fake holiday, like so many other holidays are, but this one at least highlights something concrete, but also a growing problem in that a growing number of adults are functionally illiterate, and people are learning the majority of their written communication skills with text messaging. Maybe a personal loan to celebrate National Punctuation Day would be worth it.

It's really tough in the UK right now. Having applied for about 150 jobs online and getting only 3 interviews (maybe it's me but I'd like to think it's not) I subsequently heard that something like 80% of jobs advertised on these job sites don't exist or have already gone. In parallel to looking for a full-time position I have started my own strategic marketing consultancy. Help from the government is focussed on the unemployed youth and there is little or nothing out there for senior white collar unemployed. To that end an unemployed friend and I created www.whitecollarunemployed.co.uk to help others like us. I feel for Mike Demler and agree that if you aren't a perfect fit you don't get a look-in and employers miss out on real talent because the recruiters don't understand your skills or what the position really needs. Good luck to everyone looking.

@Dave Jones, I worked at my first company for ~ 16 years, and only a half dozen (of ~ 4500) are on LinkedIn (about half of my email contacts are there, but many did not connect, and 5 Recruiters IDK'd me when I sent the invite to all of my contacts). I have heard of Recruiters using LinkedIn, but they tend more to have their own Group so people can find them. One of my Recruiters did that, but I don't know if he actively searches for leads, or just runs his Group. I have had a few people (recruiters?) forward introductions through me to one of my contacts, and the note was about an opening, so I think they *are* using LinkedIn to search and find people for job openings. Which of the 922 Dave Jones in AU are you (although only 1 is in my network)? Not that you have to answer, but LinkedIn can be a useful tool. But if you would like to invite me, look-up Kevin Giardini (w17053 is my email). Wow, there are 277 Giardini's (only 1 Kevin, although I know of 1 other Kevin) Regards,

Ok, I just joined LinkedIn. I found something like 20 people by importing my gmail address book. But only one of them was a former design engineering colleague (who is now in management). Maybe it's something to do with the psyche of aussie engineers in joining this thing? Will have to dig further, but I really like the way it works so far.

@w17053 Strange, I can't find a single current or former colleague on Linkedin out of the ones I've tried. Suppose I should create my own so people can find me huh? I also have never heard of any recruiter or company in Oz using LinkedIn to research people (although I can imagine it ultimately being a good way to catch out people telling porkies), heck most don't even go to the effort to visit my own web site(s)! @Steve Sorry about the Yankee thing! "Yesterday I couldn't spell engineer, and now I are one!"

Hi Steve, One of your points really struck me: "there are only so many recruiters, who are largely contract workers putting their reputations and contracts on the line every time they refer a resume up the ladder." I have certainly experienced that. But I have to say I don't understand it. As a recruiter, you would be doing the company more potential good by forwarding a resume that shows strengths and accomplishments related to the position, even if it is not an exact match to preconceived criteria. Any computer can match keywords. I talked to one employee-recruiter (as opposed to a headhunter), who absolutely refused to forward my resume up the chain for a product marketing job, even though I wrote a book on the subject(albeit more than 15 yrs ago). Good luck. It has been nearly 11 months for me.

Dave Jones: We're "Yankees" here in the USA. "Yanky" is something else entirely ;-)

@DaveJones, LinkeIn is alive and well in Australia (and England, Italy, Romania, Perto Rico, and a few other countries). I find 780,000+ users from AU (> 2,700 available in my network, and ~ 16 that I am directly connected) LinkeIn is not just for Job Searching (you can use Careerbuilder for that), but to connect with your contacts and associates (you can keep in-touch with former co-workers, etc.), or have contacts with like minded individuals, which 'may' lead you to that next position. Regards,

LOL @ the "Director of Talent Acquisition" title!

This must be a Yanky thing, the whole LinkedIn networking craze hasn't happened in Australia (yet?). And of course the job losses haven't really happened here either, so the old rules still apply. Good luck on the job hunting Steve, don't want to see you on the pavement holding a sign "will blog for money"! BTW, I did a 2nd rant on engineering job interview tips for those interested in such things: www.eevblog.com/2009/08/26/eevblog-27-more-engineering-job-interview-tips

Thanks for the good wishes, Dave Ja. With so many resumes boiling in, my impression is that hiring managers are strictly using them as the first line of defense against the incoming tide. Nowadays, it seems networking just helps you with the recruiters.

I thought the whole point of all that networking is so that you can *avoid* recruiters. I've worked with some fine ones in the past, but unfortunately, most are in way over their heads, do not understand the jobs they're screening for, respond only to acronyms (and their absence), and could never hope to tell a BS-artist from an engineer with true "Mad Skillz." Also, from being on the other end of the hiring picture, I've never felt like a recruiter was holding back lesser candidates to keep up his/her reputation. (As an aside, I've heard that if you can come in without going through a recruiter, you can negotiate for yourself some of what they might have paid one to bring you in. I've never pulled it off personally, though.) The points about LinkedIn are interesting -- perhaps sad -- how a site to enhance networking has become a mandatory point of participation if you want to work. It's a brutal market out there, that's for sure. I know lots of good people who are having a difficult time, and any of us could be next. Good luck, Steve. I know you're gonna land something good!