You have to laugh in the job search process. What is done and said is just absurd.
Have you ever had a recruiter say this to you? “Your resume only shows x number of years. We need someone with more experience.” Yes, that shows on my LinkedIn profile. It seems that many recruiters don’t look at your LinkedIn profile, which seems to me to be the most basic thing to do.
Or a recruiter will say “Your resume is too short, or too long.” I had recruiters tell me both. I once had my resume 7 pages to cover all of my experience and the feedback I got was that it was too long. Fine, now it is only 2 pages and now the feedback is that it is too short.
Oh this is my favorite. Its when a recruiter says “Can you tailor your resume and put in the keywords for this position? The hiring manager does a Control F on the file and if they keywords aren’t in it, he doesn’t ask for an interview.” Great, then I don’t want to work there. It shows a hiring manager who doesn’t know how to ask questions and gauge peoples experience.
Now I have had my resume done by one of the top rated resume companies on LinkedIn. Some recruiters say that it looks impressive, and others want to change it. Some recruiters say that in order to submit me they need me to rearrange things or change the title. I humor recruiters and do what they generally ask, but sometimes I have to push back. Every time that I have added my keywords to the resume and taken the time and effort to do so, it hasn’t resulted in an interview. So why would I do this again? I tell them this and they act surprised.
Another interesting thing is the assumptions that recruiters/hiring managers make. They don’t want you unless it appears you are working for someone else. They also want to believe what they want to believe, without talking to you first. Some recruiters/hiring managers will say that working for X number of companies in X number of years is a red flag. Really? When the company you work for has told you that the client is thrilled with your work, and consulting is about good times/lean times, why is is a surprise that someone might need to pay the bills and work for a different consulting company? A simple question is all it takes, but some are unwilling to let their own bias go.
This isn’t a complaint about the challenges that I have faced in the hiring process. I see other people who complain about these things too. Recruiters aren’t bad people. They often are caught in a no-win situation. They have a client who demands certain things, and they have people like me who demand certain things. No one is always happy. Just like dating there are going to be uncomfortable situations and most of the time its not going to work out. That is ok. You only need one person to love, and one job to survive.