What We Have Here is a Failure to Communicate: Job Seekers and Recruiters
Social media guru Joshua Waldman featured a great infographic on his blog today. It explores vividly the disconnect between what recruiters say and job seekers hear. While the infographic was compiled by a popular site for medical sales professionals, the points it makes are equally valid for executives.
A few interesting tidbits from the infographic:
46% of resumes submitted contain some sort of false information. 46%!! While this again refers to their audience of medical sales folks, it surely applies to executive resumes as well.
38% of companies have actively open positions for which they cannot find the talent to fill, while around 50% of applicants do not have the basic qualifications specified for the position they are pursuing.
A full 94% of recruiters are using social media to screen applicants. Info I’ve seen from many sources indicates that this estimate is low regarding executives–I believe the number is closer to 99%. So make sure that your LinkedIn profile meshes with your executive resume, and that they are both entirely truthful!
Regarding communicating with executive recruiters, most of us have a tendency to filter what we hear and morph it into its most positive interpretation. But doing so can lead to frustration, unrealistic expectations, and disappointment. When a recruiter says, “We’ll be in touch with our decision,” he does NOT mean “Get packing, you’ll be starting next week”! — much as we would like that to be the case.
Some key takeaways from this post for executives are:
Be up front with the recruiter about your needs and timetable.
Keep in contact, but give that recruiter some breathing room!
Even small fibs on your executive resume can cost you–big time!
View the full infographic here:
What Recruiters Say and Job Seekers Hear
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