Words of Wisdom

I really have no experience being a recruiter. However, I have many clients who ask me to find people for them. And I have been quite successful. I had one client who hired the first person he interviewed, forcing me to cancel all the other people I had lined up. I am thinking of starting up another separate consulting business just for recruiting.

I have posted here before (sorry, can't link, blogger is being weird again today) about the crazy and wacky things people write on their resumes and cover letters. I think there should be a mandatory class for college seniors about what to write on a resume and what to say and not say on an interview.

I have no resumes to share from my latest search for a marketing person but here are two words of advice:

- Yeah, it's great to have a "story" about why you are leaving your current job. But it is important to listen before just parroting your story. Because when I go into a detailed description about the company and state several times that it is a small company and then ask you why you want to leave your current job, answering "It's a small company and I really want to work for a big company where there's room to grow," just isn't going to get you to the next phase in the interview process.

- Beware of google and the internet. I google all potential candidates. One woman, who looked ideal on paper, had written a review on amazon.com that referred to "insensitive employers" and gave away some personal information that made me decide to pass on her. So, people, how hard is it to use a fake name and location when posting things on the internet? In fact, if this woman had just used her first name, I would never have found her. A friend of mine told me she interviewed a guy who she was ready to hire. And then she googled him and found his My Space page on which he listed "recreational drug use" as one of his hobbies.

People scare me.