Confessions of a Job Seeker (and Recruiter)

Recruiter Chris Brablc fresh off his own job search shared the highlights of what he learned from the process for both sides of the job-search fence.

Cover letters still matter. They were a differentiator for him on several occassions.
Stalk a company. More and more advice says to target a company then break into the social networks [...]

Hired Guns Too Often Shoot Blanks

Does it pay to hire the best candidate money can buy? Probably not, said Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.
More often than not the hired gun is a dud, he said. “Outside successors seldom succeed.” Nevertheless, businesses love hiring outsiders (especially for chief executive officer and other C-level [...]

Why a $90,000 Job Goes Unfilled

Despite record unemployment, recruiters said they can’t find enough candidates to fill certain jobs, according to a survey of recruiters by the Human Capital Institute (HCI) and TheLadders, which operates Career-Line.
The trouble for recruiters isn’t finding willing applicants. They can’t find candidates with the necessary skills and industry experience to fill the positions, several recruiters [...]

Can We Meet for Coffee or Lunch?

An informational interview is usually a waste of an executive recruiter’s time, said the anonymous manager and author of the “Ask a Manager” blog.
Most people who ask for an informational interview are usually trying to sneak an actual job interview, or they’re randomly trying to meet with anyone and everyone who might have a job [...]

Indiana Woman Outflanks 500 Resumes to Land $13-an-Hour Job

The C.R. England truck-driving school, in Burns Harbor, Ind., received more than 500 resumes for the $13-an-hour administrative assistant job it posted in July. Nearly half of the 500-plus resumes never even made it to consideration, but Tiffany Block, a 28-year-old who submitted her resume late in the application process, managed to steer her resume [...]

Overqualified for the Job? Recruiters Say, “Change Careers”

Recruiters don’t like placing or hiring overqualified candidates. It’s a recipe for disaster, said Nancy Anton, a corporate recruiter, consultant and speaker.
“Overqualified workers will be quickly bored, frustrated and discouraged, and the moral in the office may suffer,” she writes on her ERE.net blog. Anton said the only acceptable hire is one wh0 balances experience [...]

What Hiring Managers Should Ask in Job Interviews

Ever have a lousy job interview? It may not be you.
It very well could be the interviewer’s ignorance about how best to conduct a productive meeting, suggests human resources and staffing blogger Randy Levinson.
Levinson goes to great lengths in his post “I’m sorry; you’re just interviewing me wrong” to explain that the many theories and [...]

Recruiters Won’t Shuffle Your Resume

The recession is hitting recruiters as hard as any industry and driving recruiters out of the volume business and into the value-jobs business.
Recruiters right now seek to fill jobs and find candidates that let them pad their margins where they can — a k a the quickest, easiest search for the biggest return, said Don [...]

Why You May Not Be Hearing Back from Your Recruiter Immediately

There is nothing worse than silence on the job hunt.
It can be supremely frustrating when a headhunter or recruiter who sent you on an interview gives you no feedback afterwards.
While the best in the business are going to make a good-faith effort to keep your trust, there may actually be some real reasons that they [...]

Marc Cenedella: 10 Stories You Must Read for Your Job Search

You might not even be aware, but TheLadders’ operates its own little news department to keep you abreast of the issues and events that affect your job search and often get ignored by business coverage in the media. A team of three editors and a handful of reporters writes and prepares stories every week that [...]