[geeks] Bad monster. No donut.

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 @ 14:47 -0500, Nadine said:

> I disagree.  I have kept my resume on Monster pretty much continuously
> since 03/04.  I'd say between 80-90+% of the "hits" I get are from
> head hunters and contracting agencies (i.e. people who get paid by
> placing candidates).

I think I get about 60% invalid hits in terms of the wrong job, and
about half the rest are in the wrong locations. Then of those that are
real, I can't understand what the recruiter is saying at least half of
the time.

In the last 6 months or so, things have improved quite a bit.

I hope to be able to quit contracting on my own within 6 months.

> If you're not getting hits on your resume, IMO, you are either a)
> someplace that has no demand for what you are pimping, b) you have
> some "negative" in your background which makes you a perceived risk,
> or c) your resume is turning off eyeballs because of poor
> content/design.  

You forgot:

	d) because the industy has no idea how to hire people.
	e) because your job is offshored.
	f) because companies assume you have no capacity for learning new
	   things.

I would agree with you in terms of a-c being frequent problems, but they
are only part of the story.

Certainly in a tough job market, you need to make sure you do your end
of it.

Also, consider that sometimes the "rules" for a good resume are not
always the right idea.

For example, if you are a contractor or freelancer, your work record
will look spotty, so don't put it first. Put your skills section first,
and even push employment to another page if you can.

The "first page" rule is generally true, so put your best section first
where it will be seen.

If they ask about your employment record, just tell the truth, that
you've been a contractor which means a larger number of short term
positions.

On your resume, list not only the individual contacts, but also the
entire time period you've been contracting. It stresses that you were in
demand for a period of time, rather than desperately looking for crumbs.

> The unemployment rate just hit a 5 year low.  

Correction, unemployment *claims* just hit a 5 year low.

If you are past the time limit, or cannot file, then you don't get
counted as unemployed.

Local unemployment rates can be very high, which usually triggers
migration.

> It's nice to vent about the cluelessness of HR folks, but the reality
> is, if you aren't getting hits on your resume something else is wrong.

The reality is that HR folks are a big part of the problem, regardless
of what other problems also exist.

I understand what you are saying, but don't dismiss HR's role.

> To put it bluntly, these kind of comments about job hunting remind me
> of the horror stories told here about bad sys admins--rather than
> analyzing the problem and getting to the root cause, said sys admins
> just keep rebooting the server.

When you can find work and aren't having trouble, it is also very easy
to be blinded by that and not realize things can be very different for
others.

-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["It's a damn poor mind that can only think
of one way to spell a word." -- Andrew Jackson]