4 ms·

I do a _lot_ of recruiting - either direct for clients (i.e. wearing a recruiter hat and filling their positions) or indirect for my consulting firm (i.e. peopl

by scottru 16y ago

I do a _lot_ of recruiting - either direct for clients (i.e. wearing a recruiter hat and filling their positions) or indirect for my consulting firm (i.e. people who will help us meet our client's needs). In doing so, I place a lot of ads on CL and personally read hundreds of resumes and notes each month. I read every CL mail myself. Before this, I spent 10+ years hiring at various BigCos and MedCos. So it's one person's opinion, but I do know what I'm talking about. If you're applying for a position on CL (or, really, anywhere), it is _absolutely_ worth spending five minutes doing _something_ that shows that you've actually read something - the job description, the company's bio, their videos of their technology, something. I'm reading a lot of people arguing their way out of doing so below, and I'll tell you that I'm happy for your ability to argue but you will miss out on great things (and you can hardly ever know great things from a job description) by not spending five minutes. I don't care about a fancy or detailed cover letter, but if you just submit a generic sentence and a resume, you've done nothing to make an initial positive impression - which is why you're applying in the first place. This does not take a lot of work, it's just called being thoughtful. You don't really know who's reading your submission - could be an HR person, could be the hiring mgr, could be the CEO - but every one of those people has a vested interest in finding somebody who gives a crap, and has limited time. (And yes, the article is a waste of pixels.)

megablast 16y ago
The problem with listening to advice from rectruiters, is every recruiter is different and has different advice. And what one is looking for, annoys the hell out of others. Some insist on mission statements, some hate them. And it was trendy to do a mission statement for a few years, and now it is not. Some of them want only 2 pages, some of them want lots of details, with a capability matrix. Some of them like personal touches like photos, some of them just want the meat and potatoes, and get annoyed at this crap. Some of them get upset when you don't address them by name, some of them hide their name on the ad, and there is no way to get it. Some of them like short cover letters, some of them want you to address every single point they bought up in the ad, sometimes stretching to 4 pages. Some of them only want the last relevant jobs, some don't like seeing gaps anywhere, which leads them to suspect that you were in jail (WTF?). This is why you can't take recruiters seriously, they constantly speak like they all agree, when they don't. They give out useless advice, that can actually disadvantage you if you deal with someone else.
- loupgarou21 16y ago
  I think this separation between what different recruiters want actually makes for an easy way for the applicant to filter out the companies whose culture doesn't fit their own. Make your cover letter and resume fit you, if it gets dropped because it isn't what the recruiter wants (too short, too long, etc.) then that company probably wouldn't have been a good fit anyway.

by scottru 16y ago

megablast 16y ago

The problem with listening to advice from rectruiters, is every recruiter is different and has different advice. And what one is looking for, annoys the hell out of others. Some insist on mission statements, some hate them. And it was trendy to do a mission statement for a few years, and now it is not. Some of them want only 2 pages, some of them want lots of details, with a capability matrix. Some of them like personal touches like photos, some of them just want the meat and potatoes, and get annoyed at this crap. Some of them get upset when you don't address them by name, some of them hide their name on the ad, and there is no way to get it. Some of them like short cover letters, some of them want you to address every single point they bought up in the ad, sometimes stretching to 4 pages. Some of them only want the last relevant jobs, some don't like seeing gaps anywhere, which leads them to suspect that you were in jail (WTF?). This is why you can't take recruiters seriously, they constantly speak like they all agree, when they don't. They give out useless advice, that can actually disadvantage you if you deal with someone else.

loupgarou21 16y ago
I think this separation between what different recruiters want actually makes for an easy way for the applicant to filter out the companies whose culture doesn't fit their own. Make your cover letter and resume fit you, if it gets dropped because it isn't what the recruiter wants (too short, too long, etc.) then that company probably wouldn't have been a good fit anyway.