Tips for Job Seekers: Inside the Mind of a Recruiter | James Citrin | Big Think

Tips for Job Seekers: Inside the Mind of a Recruiter

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Job hunting is one of the more frustrating things to do in life. While many companies offer online job applications, it can feel almost useless to send in a resume to the deep portal of a submission box.

When there is no response, after weeks of waiting, it can feel like a waste of time and effort, and make the job hunter's sense of worth plummet.

Two-thirds of all jobs are gotten by personal referrals, so where does that leave the unconnected among us?

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JAMES CITRIN:

James Citrin leads Spencer Stuart’s North American CEO Practice and is a core member of the firm’s Board Practice. During his 22 years with the firm, he has worked with clients on more than 600 CEO, board director, and other top management searches and succession assignments. In May 2014, he was reelected to the Spencer Stuart worldwide Board of Directors for a fifth term, and has served as a director for 15 years.

James graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Vassar College in 1981 and served as a trustee on the school’s Board of Directors for 12 years, co-chairing the Nominating Committee. He received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1986, earning first- and second-year honors and graduating with distinction. In addition, Jim has served as a trustee and member of the Executive Committee of the Board at Wesleyan University for six years, and serves as a board member of the Cancer Research Institute, as well as the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island.

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TRANSCRIPT:

James Citrin: So let's talk about the tactics of searching for a job today. Some of the tactics are quite different, but some of the principles are absolutely timeless. Some of the tactics that are different: LinkedIn. LinkedIn is an essential resource for potential employees and employers. It is the de facto global standard for 400 million people in business, part of the reason why Microsoft paid $26.2 billion for the global LinkedIn network. But LinkedIn is a really essential thing to do and filling in and completing a good LinkedIn profile is an essential step. You want to have a really good professional but personable picture on it because pictures are more valuable than all the words. And then you want to have the equivalent of a top-level resume in all of your affiliations, your titles and your interests. So the LinkedIn profile is key. Most likely that's going to be how you get a job, but when you're in a job conversation employers will refer automatically to your LinkedIn profile so that's really important.

Before you do a LinkedIn profile it's important to develop a resume. Coming out of college you generally want to have your resume on one page. All the resume basics, there's millions of things written about resumes, but I will tell you one thing, I probably evaluated 20,000 resumes over the last 25 years. Here's how people read resumes. They look at your name and the mindset is do I know her or him or not and where are they based. And then they quickly look to the bottom of the page and they look at the personal things. And this is where it's really in your power to differentiate yourself. You don't want to say capable at Microsoft Word and Excel and PowerPoint, the Adobe suite Photoshop things, that's fine but that's the place where you want to say completed the world triathlon championship or hiked Machu Picchu or enjoy cooking and specialize in Mexican tequila recipes. Traveled to whatever, very specific things, member of the League of Women Voters, if you're a guy. It creates a little bit of a question that's a real entrée into the conversation.

And employers are looking to start a conversation to say you had three holes in one in golf, how did that happen? And it's on the bottom of your resume. So that's the next thing. And then the basics: what the company or the organization or the education is, the year, a couple of the quantifiable basics, internships. And it's okay, especially if you're coming out of college, to be totally real. You mowed lawns for the summer or you bussed in a restaurant. All of those things, which is actually someone in their 20s you might think oh God I didn't learn anything, I didn't do anything, but employers are looking for those real life skills to show work ethic and initiative and they respected that. If you're a camp counselor that's fine too, but talk about what the experience you gained being responsible for a bun...

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