by Mike Ososki, PMP

Announcing!

As the most recent Career Series event, five savvy recruiters shared their time and advice with ~130 attendees, speaking about various aspects related to their work, your work, job-hunting, resumes, and more. Many thanks to Amy Chestnut, Rare Disease Research; Chris Auer, Apex Systems; Erin West and Mike Christoferson, Vaco; Kateryna Hodovaniuk, KForce. 

... and thanks to Thomas Wooldridge, PMP, for moderating the event.

IMG0933Resumes are always a hot topic, and everyone had plenty to say about them. Kateryna declared that there is no job shortage, and you just need to stand out from 100 other people. She encourages us to try something different, and don’t remove information from your resume.

Mike feels that AI may now be used too much in resumes, and it’s more important to be honest and genuine. He prefers the 1-page resume or 2-pages max, or maybe 3-4 okay, but it had better be great content!

For best clarity, Chris likes to see both the month and year for durations, including gaps. He is fine with long resumes as long as their content is good. He, too, advocates to be concise, honest, transparent, genuine and authentic—be you. Don’t try to cater to the ATS too much.

Erin says that a 3-4 page resume is good and you can always reduce information, but can’t add it if it’s not there to begin with. She encourages to show off accomplishments on page-1, and to trust the recruiter for how best to present to each specific client.

Amy is big on showcasing accomplishments, preferably quantified. What did you do well and improve for the companies in your past work? If unemployed, she recommends to do volunteer work. Also be found on LinkedIn by using good descriptors. There is no magic formula one-size-fits-all for resumes.

No matter the length, everyone agrees that being honest and concise is the best approach. Hiring managers do not want to swim through irrelevant wordiness.

Other tips and tidbits:

  • Medium-size companies are hiring more than large ones, for both FTE and contract roles.
  • Knowing how to work with AI will increase your value, but don’t over-rely on it.
  • It’s about a 50/50 mix between project manager hiring and layoffs at this time.
  • Shorten information for older jobs—maybe just company, title and duration.
  • If your experience is government work, target highly regulated businesses.
  • Be proactive and prepare well to anticipate and overcome objections.
  • Be ready with answers re/your contract vs. permanent work history.
  • It’s increasingly important to be skilled with change management.
  • Make personal connections with hiring managers and recruiters.
  • Customize your resume to each specific job description.
  • Atlanta is both a huge and small market.
  • Connect with recruiters on LinkedIn.