If you have been an agency recruiter for any length of time, you have likely come across a candidate who has great skills and experience, but his résumé leaves a lot to be desired. I remember a time when I was an HR Director working with an external recruiter to find an IT candidate. Over the phone, the recruiter sang his praises, but when I received the résumé I was in shock.

The candidate had a photo on the résumé that looked more like a mug shot. In addition, all of the websites he worked on were highlighted in blue with links all over the page in 14-point font. There were so many bullets in a row that I felt like I had been shot by the end of the first page; and oh, by the way, there were seven pages. His title was Senior Manger of Information Technology. Need I say more?

The candidate may have been excellent at what he did; he certainly was said to have the right skills, but his résumé was a fright, and I told the recruiter I could not present it to the hiring managers in its current condition. We hired someone else, but I have always wondered, now that I am a professional résumé writer, if the result would have been different.

As a recruiter dealing with a highly skilled candidate who has a lousy résumé, how you handle this dilemma can mean the difference between a placement fee and a rejection notification. There are differing views on this topic.

• Some recruiters believe that any alteration to the candidate’s current résumé is deceptive. They reason that a candidate who needs résumé help may not be the best choice for the job even if he or she fits the profile.
• Other recruiters send their candidate back to the drawing board. They make suggestions and hope the candidate will come back to them in a timely manner with a revised résumé that is vastly improved.

While this can work in some instances, it may also lead to delays in the process. The early bird gets the worm when it comes to third party recruiting. Often, the candidate comes back with a résumé that is hardly any better than the original.

• Some recruiters make changes on the résumé themselves. If you are a good writer and discuss it with the candidate first, this can be an effective plan. Many times a candidate just needs a little repositioning. However, certain recruiters frown upon this practice and see it as a conflict of interest.
• One strategy that can be effective is to refer candidates to a résumé writing service that can provide quick turnaround time and do quality work. This method is especially valuable for helping very senior level candidates position themselves better.

I work with numerous recruiters throughout the United States who really like this approach. It keeps them from having any ethical conflict and simultaneously helps their candidate shine in the eyes of the hiring manager.

While each situation is unique, submitting a résumé that does not convey the proper message, and contains even minor errors, does not reflect well upon you as a recruiter. Visual presentation, powerful action-oriented content, and accuracy are all important aspects when assessing a candidate’s résumé.

Each recruiter must weigh and balance the pros and cons of one approach over another. There is no one right way to handle this situation. Consider your professional position and the needs of both your clients and your candidates.

Recruiting today should encompass all possible communication methods – of course, this business is a phone business, but if you have the opportunity to take advantage of online tools and resources with minimal effort (as well as minimal investment), why not do so?

Forget social media and Internet research: one of the biggest hassles of developing an online presence starts at the very beginning – creating a company website. Particularly if you are a “solopreneur” with limited budget and manpower.

Thankfully there are some tools out there to help you do this – Top Echelon, for example, created its Hiring Hook product to help recruiters develop a job website and online tools to draw traffic to these sites. Top Echelon started off as a split placement network, then developed a recruiting software product called Big Biller, and now has website development services. This is a great service that I know many of you use.

I was recently introduced to a company called ZipRecruiter, a web-based service that enables companies to post jobs to more than 20 leading job boards with one click as well as search a growing resume database. The company today launched ZipSites, a new feature that lets recruiters create customizable websites to advertise their services and job openings.

The best part? Unlike most other similar services currently available, this particular service of ZipRecruiter is free.

ZipRecruiter launched in March 2010 with a core product of job distribution services. I spoke with co-founder and CEO Ian Siegel who said that when it first launched, they anticipated the services being attractive ultimately to small businesses with lean budgets and limited manpower. However, it also became quite attractive to recruiting agencies, and this category of users has quickly become some of ZipRecruiter’s best customers.

When Siegel and I chatted about the new ZipSites, he said, “We didn’t try to build the website service so that it would provide the fanciest sites – we were more focused on ease of use.” To be sure, when I tried it out myself and created a “website” for The Fordyce Letter, I was limited in how I could customize, however from start to finish it took me all of about 10 minutes to complete. For someone looking to simply get a website out there for candidates and clients to view, it’s a great tool at a price that can’t be beat.

How it works

click for larger view

You start off by choosing your own layout and colors, uploading a logo, and selecting a new URL. You can then add available positions through a simple interface and automatically post them to more than 20 leading job boards. In addition, each ZipSite can be customized with your company overview, available services, team bios, and contact information. Job postings are automatically connected to their website (you do have to pay for these), and you are able to edit any of the site content at any time. ZipSites also feature SEO-optimized content that is automatically indexed by search engines, which ensures that the right candidates can easily find and apply to the your open positions.

Offering free websites for recruiters complements ZipRecruiter’s existing suite of services, which includes job posting distribution, applicant tracking, and a searchable resume database. Thousands of new businesses are signing up for ZipRecruiter every month, with more than 30% of new customers coming from word of mouth.

Siegel shared, “Since ZipRecruiter launched, we’ve spoken to hundreds of recruiters, and learned that creating and maintaining a website is one of the bigger challenges recruiters face.” A brand new recruiting company may find that it’s a great way to get the ball rolling and provide a landing place for new customers and candidates.

For example, I had a chat with Ron Pecca, owner of Desk Jockeys, a 3-person recruitment business based in Omaha, Nebraska and operating in the heavy machinery industry. Pecca started his business on April Fool’s Day this year and has been using ZipRecruiter and was a beta tester for ZipSites. He told me that it’s helped him to market to specific industries as well as begin to develop some international business leads. While Pecca also uses resources such as CareerBuilder, Facebook, LinkedIn, Post Job Free, and eBay classifieds, he says that ZipRecruiter helps to tie everything together – “…it’s like a one-stop shop. You deal with one group of people instead of worrying bout multiple contacts and invoices.”

Additionally, there are several veteran recruiters who have found benefits in using ZipSites. In hearing from Scott Barnard from M ssing Link Services (who has been in recruiting for 27 years), he said that setting up his site recently took him no time at all and that it saved him “scads of cash but gets my message out looking professional.” He also noted the team “has ALWAYS been available, friendly, helpful and fun to interact with. Ian and I talk maybe once every two weeks and it’s almost like a partnership in a way.”

My personal thoughts

As I mentioned, if you’re looking for total customization and control, you’ll be slightly limited. But then again – ZipSites are free, and who doesn’t like free. You can customize (to a certain degree) the color scheme as well as add photos and whatever information you’d like, in addition to linking to jobs and searching the resume database. Access to the latter two varies in cost depending on how much usage you desire, but the price ranges seem pretty reasonable.

For new recruiting businesses just getting started or ones that simply don’t have the time to devote to the creation and maintenance of a company website, I think ZipSites is a great tool to check out in addition to the other services ZipRecruiter has to offer. Take a look for yourself and see if it fits with your company’s needs.

Editor’s note: as recruiting professionals, it is important for us to know as much as possible about the candidate side of the recruitment process so we can do our own jobs effectively. I feel that this article from Susan San Martin provides a few good tips from the written perspective of a recruiter offering resume construction resources to job seekers.

I am an executive recruiter . . . a retained recruiter . . . meaning that companies partner with me to identify and secure talent for key positions within their organizations. My expertise is search within the Communications and Marketing disciplines. Prior to executive search, I spent my career rising through the ranks of various Communications and Marketing roles; this is what I know and it was a very natural segue for me. 

My approach to search is very comprehensive. While my priorities are obviously with my clients, I believe in really getting to know candidates for two reasons. First, a deep conversation allows me to assess not only the “technical” fit of the candidate for the hiring organization — the “can this person do the job” fit — but it also allows me to measure whether this candidate’s own career trajectory is aligned with where my Client sees the role going. I also have the ability to determine whether this person will be the right “fit” for the organization; culture fit can be as, if not more, important than “technical.” Second, I enjoy getting to know the broader circle of candidates because I know that if you, Candidate, are not right for a current search, you may be for the next one.

All of these conversations start with resumes . . . my first glimpse into a candidate’s professional story. With the process of getting to know you, can come the familiarity that is usually preceded by, “Can I say something to you without hurting your feelings?” It’s the way you feel when you know you should point out to your beloved uncle that his shirt and tie are so mismatched that to let him go out in public would be devastating. I feel that way about candidates and their resumes, at times. More often than not, I have to tell a candidate that he or she is simply not right for the search. Many of those times have been followed by a “May I make a comment about your resume?” And then I’ll share what didn’t work for me. Sometimes, it’s as simple as a misspelled word or a spacing issue; but frequently, there’s something else . . . something that goes deeper than a technical misstep. It’s more about the fact that what you’ve told me, Candidate, is not what your resume is saying. There’s a disconnect.

Because reading resumes occupies so much of my time, it is inevitable that certain styles will stand out more than others — for good or for bad. As I mentioned in “Is Your Resume Guilty of Horror Vacuii,” a preferred style started emerging after an exercise where I spread dozens of resumes across a table. I then started pulling out the resumes that caught my eye because they were attractive . . . they stood out because they were inviting. I would then focus on content; it was a case of form over function, at the outset.

When delicately broaching the subject with candidates, I found myself making small suggestions . . . hints about how a few changes to his/her resume could provide a more accurate reflection of who they are as a candidate. In some cases, I rewrote sections . . . in a few instances, I’ve completely overhauled resumes. The suggestions, though, were always consistent with what I saw in the “survivor” resumes from the Great Table Experiment of ’09. Because resume writing is not a service I provide, and the process is so time-consuming, I started pulling those sections together and forming a template that could help those who wanted it. I shared the finished product with several members of the Plan B community who were actively seeking new positions. I wanted to take the template for a test drive and am happy to say that those candidates received very positive feedback about their new resumes.

As I was getting ready to release the template to a broader group, I thought it would be appropriate to provide an accompanying explanation of why I was recommending certain styles or approaches. I soon realized that this would be no small feat . . . that a few paragraphs would not do. Thus, the User’s Guide, which contains about 80 pages of resume guidance from my perspective, was born. As I mention, you can ask 100 recruiters or resume writers or career coaches their opinions and get 100 different answers. These are mine based on what resonates best with me.

With the hiring landscape improving, why not improve your opportunity for being noticed by making some changes . . . or completing overhauling your resume? I am providing links for the Resume Template and the User’s Guide. I’m more than happy to answer questions about either or both, here, or on my company’s Facebook page. I hope you find these tools helpful as you start the New Year with a new perspective on your search efforts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxtRCXhi5E0

His qualifications include:

• Patented inventor
• Best of the best
• Self-proclaimed genius
• Has a lot of powerful friends who want him to enter into politics soon
• Has an education that would “blow your arm off”
• “Young women love him” and he “looks good – and that’s a problem”

He needs:

• Part-time work, since he is on disability and cannot make more than $1,000 per month
• To make a couple hundred bucks a week
• Just a little money – after all, he doesn’t like money

He will:

• Analyze thought values
• Do anything, including shoveling sh#$ (he said so)

Have any of you ever received a voicemail like this?

Beshara, who serves as president of Babich & Associates, is writing his third book on resumes, and he’s reaching out to his network of recruiters, hiring authorities, and other resume experts to gather as much input as possible.

So, if you have a free minute, here are the questions in his resume survey:

1. What are the critical components of a well-written resume?
2. When you scan dozens of resumes, what do you look for?
3. What length of resume do you prefer?
4. What are some of the things you see in the resumes you review that you really don’t like (i.e., what shouldn’t be on a resume?)
5. What distinguishes the resume of the candidate you call from the hordes of resumes you delete?
6. How many resumes do you personally review:

per week _____________?
per month _____________?
per year _______________?
per position you are trying to fill ___________?

7. How important is a cover letter when receiving resumes?
8. You have a stack of resumes in front of you…how long does it take to initially review each one?
9. Do you use video resumes? What do you think of them?

Beshara says he will send a copy of the book to those who help out, so don’t forget to include your full name and address so he can thank you for your efforts!

Email your answers within the next month: tony@babich.com

Supplementals provide a key advantage.

Consider:

• News articles about projects and initiatives
• Examples of “dashboard” metrics they created to track results
• Case studies that highlight situation/analysis/results
• New product pitches
• Research projects
• “Get started” business plan — how candidates would approach the new assignment
• “Deal sheets” that list business/financial transactions

Submit them along with the resume as separate attachments. Or create an additional page to the resume and embed weblinks that can take the reader to the content. Or instruct the candidate to bring them to the interview and use them as a “talking piece” at an appropriate interval.

Supplementals are ideal for those in the early career stage with fewer years of experience. A standout accomplishment in college or graduate school can still be appropriate content as an illustration of your track record of excellence.

Some Success Stories

A young MBA was a near perfect fit for a search assignment I was handling, but had fewer years of experience than the client required for a managerial slot.

During the phone screen, the candidate casually mentioned some news stories in which she had been featured. It was pre-YouTube, so I suggested she digitize the TV clip. I created a Word doc/reprint from the newspaper website. (Another tip: capture news/blog items while they are still available online). I submitted the supplementals to the client along with my recommendations and comments. They still didn’t hire her for the position where there was an experience shortfall, but they were impressed and created another role for her inside the company!

A second-year MBA student had a long tenure in retail but wanted to move into another sector. He had been a store manager and turned a loser location into a top sales and profit leader. I probed how he did it. He was modest and an introvert. “Oh, it was nothing,” he protested, then told an impressive story of targeting, measuring, and rewarding incremental improvements. All with minimum-wage staff, many part-time. Wow! He still had the paperwork to create and track the program. He took it to all of his on-campus interviews and won a role at a top consulting firm.

In my own experience, I was asked for a “Who Do You Know?” roster of VP-level-and-above officers of high-tech companies for a business development role at PricewaterhouseCoopers. In lieu, I created a series of Relationship Roadmaps — org charts that illustrated executives and advisors from key tech clients of mine and where they had migrated. They were populating many target companies of the firm. I explained: “It’s not whom you know. It’s who knows whom and how the relationships work together.” I bested the other candidates and won the job.

In targeting the executive search profession as a late-career move in the last downturn, I created a ramp-up plan: Achieving growth in a down market.

It showed I was serious and had a step-by-step approach to winning business. At a time when firms were downsizing, I was possibly the only person in America to get a foothold in retained executive search in 2002!

And mention “video resume” and many recruiters start running for the hills. But what about adding a less-threatening audio clip to accompany your candidates’ resumes?

After checking out a new tool called Verbal Summary, some might view it as just the technology recruiters need before they make the leap into full-fledged video resumes. In fact, this audio-first approach might be a harbinger for how video resumes could one day be formatted.

Now before you start grumbling about poorly produced video resumes, consider that audio interviews are pretty simple and might make you look better by having the candidate speak with passion about their skill level, experience, etc.

Not surprisingly, Jerry Albright, founder of Verbal Summary, says this tool is “designed for every desk in the staffing world” and allows for “effective and powerful presentations” to clients. Albright says this tool can save all parties the time typically spent scheduling first round interviews.

Is it that simple? Pay a monthly subscription fee ($50/month) and the addition of a call recorder, and voila?

As with any new tool, it’s only effective if all recruiters embrace a new approach. So, in hoping to find out more about these audio-produced clips, we recently chatted with Albright to learn more:

1. When did you go live with this product?

The service has been live for the past few months, at first in a beta test mode and now for use by recruiters. Official “kick off” was a series of webinars beginning July 16. Since then, we have been conducting demos on a more personal approach. We already have recruiters in all parts of the country using it. We are signing up new users every day.

2. Why is the investment worth it?

What investment do we make in ensuring a value-added service to our client? Up until now, there has been nothing available. We all do absolutely the very same thing our competitors do — attach the Word resume and hit the send button. Sure, we’ve all got our “branding/logo/contact info/letterhead” on the top, but that’s just it, we ALL do that. Using Verbal Summary gives you an actual advantage over your competitors when you’re making a presentation to a new client I won’t even touch on the power of sending the actual job order audio to your candidate pool! The impact of that is astonishing.

3. What about people who aren’t so hip to technology? Should they be afraid?

They simply record a conversation with their candidate creating an MP3 file and then easily upload the resume and audio to the website. The profile is then turned into a link, which is sent to the client, who can listen to the candidate’s audio interview while reviewing the resume simultaneously.

4. Why should TPRs care about this?

Good question! TPRs should care about this because this tool is a huge time-saver for the hiring manager. They get to hit the play button and listen to a conversation with the candidate.Just picture that for a moment. No longer are we left “hoping” our clients see something on the resume. Our clients listen to our candidates discuss the specific background/strengths/skills our clients require. It separates their service in a unique way, beyond their competitors. Any way that recruiters have to save their clients time and provide a better level of service is something all TPRs should care about.

5. What is the best compliment TPRs have given you?

It would be hard to pick out just one, but the best compliment is what they are hearing from their clients and that is, “Wow — this is very helpful.” I’ve heard everything from, “Would you mind if I tell your competitors about this?” to “This is the most brilliant approach I’ve seen in 30 years of hiring.” The list of compliments is quite long.

6. What is the best “constructive criticism” TPRs have given you?

Well, I’ve been in recruiting for over 21 years now so my real expertise is in staffing, not software. So, the criticism has been more in terms of “invited” criticism. Verbal Summary needs to function and flow for the users. Our first attempt was pretty “clunky” and had a non-intuitive user interface. We’ve taken our user community feedback, and the software now has an almost self-explanatory navigational flow. How about some actual criticism though? Well about the only thing is from the people who have seen it and then not signed up. They just don’t know for sure if their customers would like it. My guess is those are the same folks who didn’t get the Internet when the rest of us did. I don’t know for sure though.