Having an endorsement is not the same as having your customer tell your company not to lose you.
OT: Anybody ever used a professional resume service?
- Thread starter drewbagel423
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Having an endorsement is not the same as having your customer tell your company not to lose you.
HA! I'm in the same boat but I've gotten a few market adjustments that have at least made me a very happy camper...but I want the title, I deserve the title. That being said, IMO, I'm done with aero/space/defense. Money may end up being good but the politics suck, the slow pace of work, the lack of wanting to adopt new, more efficient processes... frustrating, very frustrating
Would have to agree. I work in IT for a MAJOR defense contractor. We had a real nice tech group, with a hard lean to the Asian population. About 20 from Hawaii, India, couple of OWM from up north, and one African American women. Half of the group was gay, which made for some interesting topics of conversation. Well, they placed an African American male in there and now the whole division is made up of African American males (6 months later). Everyone else was forced out. Us OWM moved on and made a working group that handles software development for other divisions. We are working for another African American male and even he is pissed off on what is going on. Every leadership position is held by an African American male with the exception of the VP who is an African American Women. I would not mind if it was on merit, but when they gave us an overview on network security it was embarrassing. There were missed spelled words in the slides and for sure lacked public speaking skill. These are level 2 Managers who are all buddy buddy with each other. If you go to HR you are the bad guy.
There is nothing you can do. It is the sign of the times. I would strongly recommend that you go and start you a business for yourself. Black, White, Male, Female, Asian, European, or Islander it does not matter. I had a small company and it was no picnic (thank you IRS) but you will enjoy each day and your people will appreciate what you do for them too. I should note that 60% of the population in my area is African American, so my view point is one side as I have nothing to compare it to( I have lived here for 25 years). This is my first time working for a company for I have always been on my own.
Stopped reading and caring after that line.
This really has to be the defense industry. The prior company I worked for had about 10-20 blacks in the corporate HQ out of 2,000 employees. They did try to diversify but didn’t find the candidates. However, the IT dept was almost entirely Indian Americans, probably because they were the most qualified. Salaries in IT were huge.
Considering the population in your area was 60% black, you might a problem finding qualified white candidates for all the positions.
I didn’t think that they were so many blacks in the IT field base on my work experience .
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Maybe it's the industry, but in Pharma, ever since I retired in December, I'm getting unsolicited job feelers from Linked In contacts and have had multiple offers from colleagues who are in the pharma consulting biz to do consulting at close to 2X my old base pay (which I assume they can afford since they don't have to pay bonuses or benefits/healthcare, which I have from my former employer still). Seems like extensive experience is still highly valued. Likely to just take a 10-hr/week gig consulting at my old employer, though, for a fair amount less than the consulting rate, as I really just don't want to work full-time right now (or have to go back up a learning curve).
I wouldn't discount your hourly rate...if you wanted to go do something somewhere else, ppl in the industry talk. Hey, why is #'s charging me $400/hr when he's only charging you $150/hr?
What a coincidence on the timing of this thread, I work through a contractor for a major pharma company in NJ, I'm in IT. Been working there for 7 years and decided to test the waters, so I updated my resume on Monster and bam been getting a ton of calls from recruiters, but most of the jobs are IT but not really down my alley. Finally I got a call from from a clueless recruiter about a job at another pharma company for a position that I do now, but again it's through a contractor. But my qualifications are EXACTLY what they're looking for and the job pays $8 more an hour then what I get now. I got pretty excited and everything looked up UNTIL the recruiter asked for a photo of myself, which I thought was odd but I complied, after that I've been ignored for the most part, the contractor has been conducting phone interviews since Tuesday and I have not heard from them.
And what I do is a very selective field and community, while it shouldn't be a slam dunk for the job I should have been one of the first to be called. My sister in law does hiring for her company and she told me later that the recruiter asking for my photo is against the law and after doing research I found out this contractor company is based out of India and been sued before for doing this.
And what I do is a very selective field and community, while it shouldn't be a slam dunk for the job I should have been one of the first to be called. My sister in law does hiring for her company and she told me later that the recruiter asking for my photo is against the law and after doing research I found out this contractor company is based out of India and been sued before for doing this.
There's literally zero reason for them to ask for a picture. Did you ask them why they needed it?
How old are you? I once went on an interview where the headhunter eliminated my earlier work experience on my resume and submitted it to the company. I wasn’t aware he eliminated part of my experience and I look 15 years younger. The interviewer was pissed when he saw I had a lot more experience than the resume contained. I was well qualified or over qualified for the position, this was during the Great Recession..
I used TopResume.com
they have a sister service for interview skills too. I didn't opt for that service so don't know how well it works
they helped me modernize my resume and improved my linkedin profile
Not sure it has helped me in the job search but can guarantee I am getting more recruiter interviews and more views on my linkedin page
I would suggest using a professional service, especially if they have staff that is in the recruiting industry. They try to market you in a way to benefit you and know what keywords employers look for in various talent search websites.
Even someone happy in a job should update their resume every few years to be fresh just in case.
they have a sister service for interview skills too. I didn't opt for that service so don't know how well it works
they helped me modernize my resume and improved my linkedin profile
Not sure it has helped me in the job search but can guarantee I am getting more recruiter interviews and more views on my linkedin page
I would suggest using a professional service, especially if they have staff that is in the recruiting industry. They try to market you in a way to benefit you and know what keywords employers look for in various talent search websites.
Even someone happy in a job should update their resume every few years to be fresh just in case.
totally agree with this
Age discrimination is rampant
Young managers are fearful of hiring someone more experienced that can potentially replace them.
They also add to job descriptions language like "progressive experience showing growth from position to position". that eliminates older workers who may have had a lateral move or 2 to maintain a paycheck when layoffs were happening.
For us sports fans do you want your next head coach / manager to be n up and comer hot shot asst coach or a retread who has had the job before? That happens in business too where you want to promote the hot shot youngster who worked at a great company and want to get to the next position vs. the seasoned worker who has been there and done it before.
Is it possible that employers seek candidates with new skills, more room for growth and development, and a fresh and/or diverse perspective all while paying less than for a more senior resource?
If you have experience from 1990 that is relevant in 2020, keep it on your resume. If not, employers and dates of employment are enough up to the point that you want to include employment with currently substantive experience.
Hiring someone overqualified is not ideal. If the company has a specific need and an ideal career path for the person that their hiring, an overqualified person is not likely a fit for that job.
I've been only hired once from people that didn't know me and that was the NFL Draft, and I've done lots of 'things' in various industries.
Let your friends, relatives know that you want to move from your current employer and in many cases that's where your next job will come from.
Story; Semi retired, doing some trades with E mini Futures, driving Mary Anne crazy being home. Ask on my Sisters does she have any ideas of what i should do that is easy and not office bound. Sister says one of her retired store managers (Saks) was a residential real estate appraiser in Michigan and working when he wanted. So I took a class to be licensed in NJ and before I was out of the class another guy in class had me call a friend of his and I was hired. It was great, until I became competent and then I was driving all over Monmouth, Ocean, Middlesex Counties and eating at my computer while I entered appraisals every day. Mary Anne finally told me to quit, I was frazzled.
Let your friends, relatives know that you want to move from your current employer and in many cases that's where your next job will come from.
Story; Semi retired, doing some trades with E mini Futures, driving Mary Anne crazy being home. Ask on my Sisters does she have any ideas of what i should do that is easy and not office bound. Sister says one of her retired store managers (Saks) was a residential real estate appraiser in Michigan and working when he wanted. So I took a class to be licensed in NJ and before I was out of the class another guy in class had me call a friend of his and I was hired. It was great, until I became competent and then I was driving all over Monmouth, Ocean, Middlesex Counties and eating at my computer while I entered appraisals every day. Mary Anne finally told me to quit, I was frazzled.
As a matter of fact I contacted one down here in Charleston. Incredibly helpful but I got an offer without a resume. I called her to thank her for her help and you know how southerners like to chat.?..Well one thing led to another and we are going to brunch on Sunday. Then watching the game. She's from Kansas City. So the answer is yes and it worked out well for me. :ThumbsUpFor her? We'll see.
In many industries it is not about new skills but newer software platforms
An older employee may have worked with 1 financial software platform for many years but has the underlying knowledge and skills for the package. A younger company may require knowledge of the new bright and shiny company's package and since the older employee had never had the opportunity to learn the newer company's package he / she is disqualified.
I see it with IT folks where jobs require Jira, Confluence, and the latest greatest software coding language while an older developer in an older company may not have those skills but can learn them quickly if hired.
For an older recruiter they may not have used video conference interviews and relied on phone interviews. The company they worked for may not have a good recruitment software package and relied on home grown applications or dare I say paper applications filled out on site. The recruiter may be very good but without the names of the software packages on their resume they may have no chance for a role.
1 part of recruitment that all companies seem to do wrong is
- requiring all interviews to be during business hours. If you want qualified folks who have jobs currently you need to be flexible for off hours phone and video interviews up front. Otherwise you will have the unemployed being most available.
- the counter is that the person should take a day off to show commitment. . but... interviews are typically set up with less than a week's notice so it is tough for someone to request time off from their superior at the last moment. If they are a leader they probably have a full calendar that has meetings requiring rescheduling.
My wife is a career coach - she does phone / skype / viber consulting sessions. Can work around your schedule - evenings, etc. If you are interested, let me know and I can give you her contact info. I won't tell her about this, so there are no expectations whatsoever. Good luck!
I wouldn't say that it is only minorities and millenials but there is a push towards it. Large organizations are pushing for diversity which includes minorities and females. Many organizations are still top heavy with White men in leadership roles.
Younger gig economy companies are driven by millenials. They are founded by 20 somethings and in most cases they don't want to hire their dad / mom to work for them. It is partially a culture thing.
I can give examples of older companies not in tune with the younger generation:
- 1 is an older retailer I have experience with. Laptops are not given to all home office employees. Many employees still use paper and pen in meetings. Many employees don't have access to work remote. Employees are expected in the office 5 days a week between 8:30-5pm
- 1 is a large investment bank that also doesn't do laptops. For them it is about information security. They do have a remote desktop solution that you can use via your own device at home. In their offices they don't have readily available wifi and employees use paper and pen in meetings. They also have a ore formal dress code where dress down is nice pants, a button down shirt, and no tie.
On the other hand go to any WeWork and you will see all kinds of gig economy workers on laptops with video conference software active, tools like Slack, and other virtual team software. They also have environments where many work flex hours or remote for quality of life without being handcuffed to a 90 min commute in a city office.
to the OP, if you go on interviews at other companies please research the culture
Some companies nowadays will hold it against you if you show up in a suit and tie. It may be better to be in slacks, sport jacket, and no tie. The younger companies are looking for those in touch with progressive norms where a formal suit and tie may give the impression that you are stiff and an in the box thinker.
Some companies nowadays will hold it against you if you show up in a suit and tie. It may be better to be in slacks, sport jacket, and no tie. The younger companies are looking for those in touch with progressive norms where a formal suit and tie may give the impression that you are stiff and an in the box thinker.
When you get hired at an old fogey company that wants you to appear in a suit, get a made to measure suit. When you are choosing the fabric, have them cut for 3 pairs of pants. The pants will wear out faster than the jacket. More than 3 and frequent dry cleaning of the pants will make them fade more than the jacket.
Dress shirts; Again made to measure. Go to a well know company (Saks, Brooks Brothers, etc.) so that they will be around as you upgrade and add to your wardrobe. Get 5 to start, I went with Oxford cloth, white, monogram on left pocket, normal cuffs and button down collar with normal shape. Add to them 5 at a time. Rotate them in your closet. I have shirts from the 1980's (every shirt has a tab of month/yr it was made) and they are still great to wear.
Dress shirts; Again made to measure. Go to a well know company (Saks, Brooks Brothers, etc.) so that they will be around as you upgrade and add to your wardrobe. Get 5 to start, I went with Oxford cloth, white, monogram on left pocket, normal cuffs and button down collar with normal shape. Add to them 5 at a time. Rotate them in your closet. I have shirts from the 1980's (every shirt has a tab of month/yr it was made) and they are still great to wear.
I respectfully disagree, suit and tie unless they say otherwise. I think you'll hurt your chances more showing up in business casual than if you don't.
How did you like their service? I've heard that they just pump out generic resumes and don't really customize it to your experience and skills. Also read that they're affiliated with GlassDoor.
I'm interested. Please email me her contact info at drewd423@gmail.com
I always wear a suit and tie when I interview. I do not work in an industry that requires formal business attire. The dress code has been extremely relaxed in the past year or two. Some people walk around like they're going to the club, some look like they're dressed for a college lecture.
I know people at tech companies (Google, Salesforce, Facebook, etc...) and they tell me right off that you don't wear a tie.
If interviewing at a big bank / insurance company then the tie is needed
If interviewing for a digital type job you may not even need a jacket
My experience with Top Resume was good. They paired me with someone who knew my industry and we went through multiple revisions before I signed off on it.
Using the other poster's wife is probably not bad either.
For anyone who has not updated a resume in a while it is helpful to go to someone who does it all the time.
Many resumes make people look like doers vs drivers. It is easy to be caught in the trap that you are part of a team and do your role vs showing that you are driving towards results. Sometimes you need to talk up small things you do that are more management tasks. One I see is budget related since many companies keep budget tracking at more senior levels. If you double checked vendor invoices or needed to assist with budgeting it is something to talk up since the competition will be talking it up.
Fair enough. But I think the companies like Facebook and Google and far in-between.
Yeah, if I don't get a phone call I'm going to consider options just on principal, I don't think it's worth getting a lawyer or anything, but the interesting thing is while the recruiters are a little crap company in East Brunswick, the recruiter was stupid enough to tell me in writing that she needed the photo to submit with my resume, which strongly suggests it's just not them taking part in this illegal practice, it's the contractor too and they are a major company that most would be familiar with.
Some recruiters and companies are just stupid. Asking for a photo breaks just about every law know to HR and equal opportunity but...in some positions it is important to know how someone presets themselves. Which is why the better agencies always ask for a Skype type interview which IS legal and does the same thing.
The other things to watch for us any company asking for W2’s or references before they make you an offer. Even on applications that may be required, answer that references can be provided upon request, don’t ever give them before an offer. And never give previous W2’s or paychecks ever.
I filled out an application online for a conservative financial company and they had questions like:
- have you ever been unemployed for more than 3 months
- have you ever had a bankruptcy
- have you ever been dismissed from a job
while there may be some relevance it sets a bad tone up front especially when the company will run a background check and do a credit report
it is common for companies to do layoffs nowadays when a business unit is under performing which means decent employees may be out of work over 3 months. That can also lead to temporary financial difficulty.
I actually always answer those as NA and if I don't hear back from them, not a company I want to work for.
I do whatever I can to get a person to person communication. Make sure to point out accomplishment and relevant experience and everything else, open for a conversation. As you said, those types of questions don't usually apply. Now- for some financial positions, I know, mortgage for sure, bankruptcy is job relevant, as you cannot hold a license with that on your record and no point to waste anyone's time
