STATE OF THE RESUME

Among the most common topics for which candidates seek my advice is about resume preparation. Most often I am asked for feedback regarding content or construction yet some questions are quite specific such as whether it is appropriate to use bulleted text or how much employment history to include. In the legal profession it is not uncommon for law firm partners to have a summary bio prepared by the firm’s professional marketing staff. I have talked to very accomplished lawyers who have never prepared a resume for themselves and genuinely need some guidance when they decide to proactively seek a new opportunity. Aside from the few who probably want me to write their resume for them (which I won’t do, for good reason), at the crux of this is confusion about the purpose one’s resume is intended to serve. 

Wait a minute, what is confusing about the purpose of a resume? It should seem intuitive by simple definition of the end goal. In plain speaking it is the starting document that will get a candidate from point A to point B on the career ladder. A lot rides on that little document as it is THE entry point to the proverbial foot in the door. If the right things are not on that resume, a candidate won’t get noticed. Factor in anything which increases the competitiveness of the candidate pool or the desirability of the job and you can see how the need to make one’s resume stand above the rest becomes more urgent. Candidates need to distinguish themselves in a crowded pool. The resume has become the flag all candidates carry which screams ‘CHOOSE ME!’ It is no small wonder that the mere mention of the word whips people into a frenzy.

During the go-go days of the late’90’s, candidates would do all sorts of wild things to get their resume noticed. I still have the shoebox a candidate sent to me complete with a pair of shoes and a note suggesting he was trying to get his ‘foot in the door’ for an interview. (Yes it was from a lawyer, no the shoes were not my size, and no he did not get an interview.) One of my colleagues at a very large technology company received a resume wrapped in plastic and taped to the top of a fresh hot pizza conveniently delivered to her at lunch time. All sorts of quirky information began appearing on resumes, usually in an ‘interests’ tag line which I can only assume is intended to make the candidate seem more human. Do we need to know that you can simultaneously speak Japanese while eating chicken livers? What on earth does that have to do with practicing law? Nothing! Spare me. Sure I remember the resume, but it did nothing positive for that person’s candidacy.

Thankfully these examples have not become widely adopted tactics, but other disturbing trends have emerged. “Dumbing down” a resume by removing experience or omitting dates of employment has become more prevalent among senior level candidates wanting to compete for a job advertised as seeking less experienced candidates. Title inflation, which is using a more desirable job title on the resume different from the candidate’s current official job title, has crept into the mix. There has even been recent press about ‘whitening’ one’s resume. Sure, a few candidates cross the line from enhancing a title to outright false information. But how did the state of the resume deteriorate to this?

Market pressure on candidates alone is not the answer. Recruiters and hiring managers also shoulder some of the responsibility. At a macro level candidates are responding to signals sent into the applicant stream by virtue of how recruiters and hiring managers respond. In an attempt to be all things to the right employers, candidates are responding to the business of filtering engaged in by many in the recruiting profession. In the sake of expediency and to tackle the volume of incoming inquiries the recruiting staff spends a big chunk of time screening incoming resumes in the hopes that the perfect person appears. They are filtering, not recruiting. Key word identification was the first big introduction of technology in the recruiting process. Instead of plowing through piles of paper a recruiter could do a key word search for something on the resume, like intellectual property, and instantly locate the candidates with that word in their resume. It didn’t take long for candidates to get the message and start adding key words even if it was a fraction of their overall expertise. Boom, the vicious cycle was born.

Don’t get me wrong, key word search capability is a helpful tool. Unfortunately it contributes to a process that is designed like a sieve. It excludes people without the right word but makes no distinction as to relative strength of other characteristics that may be relevant. Yet recruiters are usually the first to say that their best candidates do not come from whoever happens to land in their inbox, particularly where a niche skill set is required. The recruiter who affirmatively reaches out to those with the necessary skills and expertise is more apt to zero in on the right candidate. A focused approach adopts a process that is designed more like a target, where the center circle encompasses all appropriate requirements. Less filtering and more recruiting is in order.

Even though it is a bit of a catch-22, the filtering cycle can be broken if both candidates and hiring decision makers contribute to the solution. Candidates need to cut the fluff and focus on the substance of what they have to offer. Tell us who you are, what you do, where you learned it, and who you have done it for and when. Don’t write what you think a recruiter wants to hear, just tell it like it is. Recruiters need to get off the filtering treadmill and build pipelines of qualified prospects. You can add value to the hiring managers and increase the quality of the overall outcome by knowing their business wherever possible and using technology to track who you want rather than just who randomly finds you. Hiring managers can help by educating their recruiting partners about their business, focusing on candidate skills and competencies in evaluating prospective hires, and being realistic about the timeline it takes to find the right person. Employers that don’t have the resources internally to do this can and should engage an external resource appropriate to the relevant area of expertise.

Before internet technology was widely adopted in the recruiting process, like many recruiters I literally clawed through stacks of cover letters and resumes on a daily basis until it felt like my eyeballs were on fire. I cannot begin to fathom how many resumes I have looked at during my 18+ years of recruiting and let me tell you I have seen the gamut. Behind every resume is a person whose talents and value will accelerate in the right environment. We’ll all be better off if the obstacles are cleared and the state of the resume can shine.

Making Interviews Great ~ 5 tips

The competition for jobs is fierce right now. Companies and law firms everywhere have been downsizing resulting in good people looking to find a new job. Reports abound of companies being overwhelmed with hundreds of resumes instantly after positing one available position. Making it through the resume screening process is the first daunting step, followed by the all anxiety-producing interview.

Whether or not the interview is the most appropriate way to assess a candidate’s ability to perform the job is a separate topic. The fact remains that employers are going to rely on the interview as a principal component in the hiring process. No matter which side of the table you sit on, there are things you can do to maximize interview effectiveness.

I can see the nods of agreement from my recruiter and HR pals when I suggest that not all hiring managers and interview loop participants are adept interviewers, no matter how much training they get. Particular to the legal profession, lawyers can be brilliant interrogators but terrible in the job interview as employer or candidate. Why? The approach of only asking a question to which you already know the answer or, (worse yet), employing a style of “fact finding” through a contentious questioning style, is not conducive to eliciting useful information about a candidate for employment. Productive information should be exchanged so that each party can evaluate and act based on what is learned during the interview. Both employer and candidate participate and therefore each controls the method and quality of the interview. The following are tips for getting it right and making it great.

• Prepare: A great interview starts with thorough preparation. Reading the resume is 101, but I am stunned at how many people skip this step. Great interviewers will prepare a few questions ahead of time based on the resume and any other preparatory documents. As a search consultant, I often prepare detailed candidate write-ups for my clients to supplement the resume which specify experience and background data as well as a skills assessment. Cover letter, deal sheet, whatever documents the candidate or recruiter supplied ahead of time are all fertile ground for information that can be covered in an interview. Candidate preparation should include company research. Candidate prep 101 is reading and understanding the job description (again, an oft overlooked step.) Smart candidates will read the company’s annual report and public disclosure filings, pour through the company’s website to see how they describe themselves, and conduct an internet search for recent news articles. A candidate who knows about a significant recent company event can engage the interviewer intelligently about their business, and set themselves apart as someone who is both interested and invested in the discussion.

• Organize: A great interview flows almost effortlessly. Start with congenial greeting to establish rapport, briefly describe what you want to talk about (“I am a manager in R&D and would like to learn about your experience in the invention disclosure process”), and follow a logical topic sequence before moving into another area. It allows the candidate to follow the interviewer’s train of thought, and the candidate employing active listening techniques will quickly engage in the discussion. Candidates with an organized thoughtful answer which stays on topic, and who resist the temptation to bring in tangential topics, will keep this flow moving easily. It’s a little like ballroom dancing – both leader and follower have to do their part to stay in step.

• Listen: Employer interviewers should follow the basis 80/20 rule - listening 80% of the time and talking 20% of the time. A great interviewer will use information from the candidate’s answer to develop further questions. Too often interviewers log the answer and move onto the next question, as if running through a list. Candidates who demonstrate active listening skills similarly show the interviewer they are engaged and attentive – qualities every employer looks for in an employee! Candidates who deliver rehearsed answers immediately demonstrate that they were not paying attention. Why would anyone do this? I have interviewed candidates who gave me the answer they thought I wanted to hear, instead of just answering the question I asked. Save the academy award speech for another audience, in the interview setting it will only earn you a ‘no hire’ vote. Great interviewers are not looking for snappy canned answers, they want their question answered. Great candidates respond thoughtfully to the topic at hand.

• Clarify: This is part of active listening. Because not everyone asks concise questions, you may have to help them along by clarifying before giving an answer. Check that question and answer when discussing vague concepts or terms of art in any profession to make sure you are both on the same page. Great interviewers will use probing questions with candidates to get specific detailed answers. Questions like ‘what was the result, how did you decide on that course of action, looking back would you do anything differently, what did you learn from the experience’ will yield a complete picture of the candidate’s thoughts, action, and competencies. Candidates will similarly learn far more about a company’s culture and workplace environment by asking follow-up questions around business plans that impact the job they are seeking, as one example. Use what you hear from the other party and probe for more at the appropriate time during the interview.

• Respect: Actions speak louder than words. Show respect for the other party at every step of the interview. Turn off your cell phone and put the land line on do not disturb, stay on schedule, pay attention, say please and thank you and never ever treat anyone as if their time or place in the process is beneath you. That may sound like advice from mom, but the right actions can quickly set you apart from others who are just dialing it in. Engaging in the interview is the most important thing you are doing at that moment. If you are a candidate it is critical to your career. If you are an employer it is critical to the success of your company or firm. You may interview 2 or 20 people for one job, but all of them will remember how they were treated and if treated well is your best unpaid advertising. Candidates who treat employers respectfully increase their odds of being called back when an even better opportunity comes along, or in an encounter within their professional circle. Respect in the interview process is professional dividend.

Employers and candidates are behooved to know thy basics from the get-go. Employers – know the competencies and traits which spell success in your environment. Candidates – be equipped to speak specifically about your work product and provide examples of your work. The best interviews leave the candidate feeling enthused about the employer and knowing they were able to convey their unique skills and knowledge. The employer will have a detailed picture of what the candidate brings to their organization and a clear understanding of if/how that person can contribute to the organization. The ultimate result increases the likelihood of matching the right person with the right employer.