How to impress a recruiter and get an interview

Posted by Jim Stroud

January 17, 2008

I am so impressed with the English because everything they say sounds so proper. I interviewed this guy once who must have been sent by the Queen herself. His suit was perfectly pressed, on his head was a bowler and he carried an umbrella. He looked just like John Steed! (Remember the television show, “The Avengers?”) When he presented his resume to me, it was inside a plastic sleeve that had been monogrammed with his initials. Is that classy or what? For the sake of this writing, I will call him Steed.

Steed came in by a reference, but what made me put him towards the tip of my interview list was how he replied to my job posting. Usually people reply to one of my posts with a dry cover letter that I give a quick once over and then I click the resume hoping to find gold. Well Steed wanted no stone unturned, you know what he did? Steed dissected my job posting into a table and defended his qualifications for each requirement. It gave the effect of, “You may cease your searches and deliberation for her majesty’s emissary has
arrived.” Okay, maybe I am exaggerating a bit (gotta’ love the English) but his presentation gave me two first impressions every jobseeker wants to make.

* By dissecting the job requirement the way he did, he made it easier for me to understand why I should present him to my client. Yes, I would have asked him questions based on the requirement before presenting him; but due to HIS initiative I feel that I have saved a step. Steed has subconsciously proven to me that he values MY time and let’s face it, most of us live in a self-centered universe. Consider the recruiter: Is this resume worth my time reading? Consider the employer: Is this recruiter wasting my time with this candidate? Consider the jobseeker: Is submitting my resume to this recruiter a waste of my time? Steed, you wonderful fellow, have made me smile. How could I refuse to consider so considerate a fellow?

* Another thing happened when Steed dissected the job requirement; I realized that he ACTUALLY READ THE REQUIREMENT! I know it may sound strange, but many people read the job title and say, “Yeah, I know what that is. I can do it.” When that is not always the case, believe me. A jobseeker may have 3 years experience when the job asks for 5, or the job may require a particular skillset that the jobseeker does not have but feels that they can figure it out. While that kind of thinking got you over during the dotcom heydays, it does not fly during a sucky economy as employers feel that they can hold out for that one person with enough skills to do 3 jobs. (But of course, pay them one person’s salary.)

CLICK HERE TO SEE STEED’S GOOD EXAMPLE!

While it may sound elementary my dear boy, do not make the assumption that your resume should speak for itself. One must first lead the recruiter to water and then make him drink. Oh, one last thing! As I write this, I have just glanced back at the title of this section and realized that I have not explained what it meant. (Sorry!) When Steed stepped in all proper and such, I suspected that he was not in any real need for a job. I half-imagined that he was looking only for a pastime and that prior to his arrival he was
dining on tea and crumpets. With a wave of his hand his butler approached and bent solemnly to attend to his need.

“Oh Belvedere,” Steed would say.

“Yes sir,” Belvedere the butler replied.

“Be a good fellow and create a Curriculum Vitae and seal it with my crest and initials.”

“Yes sir,” Belvedere replied. “Very good sir.”

And as Belvedere marched off to attend to his duty, Steed would continue reading his morning paper adding one final comment.

“And they say good help is hard to find.”

So all that to say, Steed was so fancy that it was hard for me to imagine that he did his resume himself. I say, the butler did it.

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