Recruiters’ Alert: Red Flags to Watch out for in CVs

Recruiters’ Alert: Red Flags to Watch out for in CVs

As a recruiter, one of your most fundamental (and potentially boring) tasks is to screen through all the CVs that come your way, and identify which ones to scrap and which ones to move ahead with. At times this can be tough, when you have scores and scores of CVs to go through, and there’s only so much your brain can process. However, to make your job easier, you can train yourself to look out for certain Red Flags in the CVs that come your way. This will make it infinitely easier for you to sift through the CVs, while shortlisting the very best potential hires.

So what are some of the red flags you need to watch out for?

  1. Does not address the basics of the job description

    Even if you may have listed out the specifications you are looking for, very clearly, you will still receive applications that do not heed the basic requirements. For example, one of the easiest ways to short list CVs is to check the work experience of the candidate. If you are hiring for a senior position, you have very specific conditions in mind. Or certain language requirements that may be a precondition. This way, you’ll be able to filter the CVs much faster.

  2. The format of the CV

    One of the easiest and most obvious ways to tell whether or not a candidate is a potential hire is by simply looking at the format of the CV. If it is sloppy and untidy, you know that the concerned candidate is not really serious about his application, because they clearly haven’t spent time trying to make an impression through their application. This reflects a great deal about how professional the candidate is. While the CV does not need to be elaborate and decorative, it definitely needs to be clean, well formatted and definitive.

  3. Unexplained gaps in employment

    Gap years are perfectly acceptable. And at times, even desirable. But that depends on how the gap year has been spent. Volunteering, internships, traveling, freelancing are some of the most common reasons for taking gap years. If the overall professional record of the candidate is alright, this shouldn’t be a cause for worry for a recruiter. However, what you can’t take a chance with is unexplained gaps in employment. In that case, you have no knowledge about how the candidate spent that time, and worse, you don’t know if they’re hiding something.

  4. No achievements

    The candidate might have been educated at the most prestigious institutions, and may have been employed at fairly reputed organizations; however, without achievements these aspects don’t really matter. They certainly do not account for achievements in themselves. In order to decide whether the candidate can be an asset to your organization, you need more tangible proof. While the candidate might have been entrusted with a lot of important roles and responsibilities, it is also important to get a gauge of how the candidate delivered on them.

  5. Lack of definitive  targeting

    A good CV is one which definitively targets all the job requirements, and responds to each one by stating the skills necessary for the requirements. A CV without intent, or target, is not something that you can short list as a potential hire. While the candidate might be a good all round candidate, specific roles have specific requirements. As a recruiter, it is your foremost responsibility to not compromise on this very crucial precondition for hiring.

Even the seemingly “small” things do make an overall difference to the quality of hire. The way a CV is written up, speaks volumes about the overall personality of a person. While you can’t get a thorough gauge of the professional unless you call them in for a personal interview, the CV can give you enough of an idea about whether or not the candidate should even make it to the next round. Want more tips on how to recognize a great CV in two minutes? Read this great article on Undercover Recruiter.

What Makes Social Media the Perfect Recruitment Tool

What Makes Social Media the Perfect Recruitment Tool

Technology has shrunk the world and this is no secret. Social media, a product of technology has ‘connected’ the world like never before. There are very few aspects of life it hasn’t touched and the world of work is no exception. One of the greatest challenges for recruiters today is not just finding enough candidates, but finding the right ones. Social media in the recent years has evolved in its role to become a handy tool to help recruiters in solving this problem and our guest blogger Aanchal Iyer explains how.

Social Media – The Best Way To Connect Recruiters and Job Seekers

Candidates today understand that in order to be visible to recruiters, they must be active on social media. According to ICIMS, recruiters can increase their chance of finding the right candidates by up to 50% when they put up jobs on social media. Also, using mobile-friendly SEO in their job posting, makes it searchable on hand-held devices and increases their overall reach.

Social Media Provides Total Transparency Both Ways

Social media allows for a more transparent screening process – for both recruiters as well as potential candidates. Applicants can suss out a potential employer’s social responsibility strategies, employment principles, salaries and other commitment quotients while employers can also get a good idea of . It’s a way of avoiding potentially nasty surprises and recruitment fails. Hiring managers can refrain from following up with a candidate if they find something they do not like in the candidate’s social media account, and vice versa.

(and which is why there are certain social media mistakes you must avoid while job hunting. Read here to know more.)

Using Exclusive Social Media Recruiting Tools

LinkedIn

LinkedIn allows you to post a job for 30 days. Alternatively, you can sign up for LinkedIn Talent Advantage, which is an exclusive tool for recruiters. These features cost money, but budget companies can still work through networking, joining affiliated groups and using the free advertising option. They can also put their content writing skills to good use on LinkedIn, posting relevant articles and knowledge base tips and tricks to attract potential candidates to the company’s page.

Facebook

Facebook allows employers to post a job for free at the Facebook Marketplace. Also, by building an official recruiter’s Facebook page, one can share one’s company’s profile, products and principles with interested users. Recruiters can also use their company’s page as a recruiting tool. Posting a Facebook Ad is another option, where one can target the exact audience they want.

Twitter

On Twitter, employers can tweet jobs and expand their company’s network and build relationships with candidates. They can also run a keyword search and obtain a pool of contacts from which they can look for suitable candidates. Recruiters can search for candidates based on their interest, location, popularity, industry, hashtag and more. They can also use relevant hashtags along with tweets such as #job, #jobpost, #employment, #recruiting and so on to gain people’s interest and response and also check out what topics candidates are tweeting about and follow them, retweeting their tweets to gain their attention.

So we’re saying…

With social media recruiting strategies, both the employer and the potential employee can get to know each other well. Employers can quickly gauge the skills of candidates. Recruiting through social media takes time and effort; however, you can reap long term benefits when used smartly.

Aanchal is a Digital media marketer, trainer, and a content strategist with over 11 years of experience. She is also the founder of Effcomm Worldwide , a premium content & digital marketing services company, and content4brands.in. She aspires to keep enjoying her work, always.

Making Job Descriptions Gender Neutral

Making Job Descriptions Gender Neutral

Are you a recruiter? Have you, at some point of your career, wondered why is it that most applicants applying to the jobs you put out are male? One of the most obvious answers is how your job descriptions are worded. Is it calling out to male candidates? While you may not have been gender exclusive on purpose, you haven’t been gender inclusive either. In order to defeat the ever-growing glass ceiling when it comes to women at work, every stakeholder needs to plays a more active role. It is important to approach recruitment with sensitivity and to ensure that you are gender inclusive in your call for applications.

In this post, we are going to share some very powerful words from powerful women that Undercover Recruiter put together, in their article How Can Job Descriptions Be More Gender Neutral?

To understand the dynamics of what we are trying to explain, can be best done through knowing how and why gender exclusive job descriptions affect women. Here are their voices –

Angela Bortolussi, Partner at Recruiting Social

A few years ago I sat with my hiring manager, a Director of Engineering, and he said “Angela, I asked my wife to review the job description for our Front End Engineering role – she is also a Front End Engineer, and she told me ‘I wouldn’t apply for this role.’”

He of course asked her “Why?” She mentioned the job description had so many hard stops in terms of qualifications. For example, you must have 8+ years of experience, React experience is a must, and a Computer Science Degree is a must. She felt that she was somewhat qualified but didn’t have the exact qualifications needed for the role, and ultimately wouldn’t attempt applying.

He decided to take this into consideration and re-write the job description to become more gender neutral to hopefully increase the attention of women applying. (Guess what? It worked!)

Keep in mind though it’s a tough to really understand the thought-process when it comes to candidates applying for roles. Whatever the reason is, I think we (women) respond to job ads/posts differently.

Rebecca Fraser, National Executive Committee, Career Development Association of Australia

It is quite interesting how some words can be perceived as being more attractive depending on your gender. Removing gender specific words, an example may be he or she and Chairman or Chairwoman. This is challenging in some languages where they have grammatical gender and this may require job adverts and job titles to specifically confirm that they are being offered to all genders. Other language could be seen as more attractive to the male gender, such as describing the work environment as fast paced and challenging, or dominant and determined. Although many females will be attracted to this environment, research has shown that these words can be perceived as being about a male dominated work environment.

Lysha Holmes, Owner and Recruiter, Qui Recruitment R2R

It is essential that a job description is written as a narrative to the potential employee regardless of gender. Avoid assumptions, focus on skills and attitude, potential and opportunity rather than a “person” per se and therefore stereotypes can be avoided. This should include imagery used to promote any post on social media.

Poonam Mawani, Director, Azuki Accounts

Job descriptions are so important. They are the first impression of a company’s culture. There is software available now that can remove and replace gendered descriptions and words. There are certain phrases that can either attract more men or women. These should be identified and replaced to attract a more balanced candidate pool. How a firm describes itself in a job description is also important.

Amanda Bell, Director of Recruiting, Lever

Luckily, this can be pretty easy. Review your job descriptions with the lens of “Who is the audience here?” If your answer is “any qualified candidate, regardless of gender,” you’ve done a good job! It’s not just about the presence of gender-specific pronouns – it’s also about using language that is inclusive of all genders. Stay away from phrases like “kick ass,” “ninja,” and, believe it or not, “brah.” You can also ask a few employees of various genders to read the descriptions and solicit feedback.

Making sure that job descriptions are crafted in a neutral manner is in fact one of the primary steps towards implementing gender equality at the work place. Have you read our post on implementation of gender equality at the work place? You can read it here. You can also read more posts from our gender series by clicking on the following links:

Gender Equity Before Gender Equality: Why Women Need More
The Importance of Gender Diversity in The World of Work
5 Unconventional Career Tracks Women are Making it Big In

Social Media Resume – The Basics

Social Media Resume – The Basics

Before we delve into the basics of the Social Media Resume, and what makes for a great one, let us understand what a social media resume really is. Simply put, a social media resume is your online presence, across platforms of social media. Lets tweak that a little bit, a social media resume is the ‘quality’ of your online presence.  It is the quality of your social media cv that attracts recruiters and hiring managers to you, rather than you scouring for job opportunities. About 80% of job opportunities are channeled through networking, and a strong social media resume is a powerful way of changing the meaning of networking in the current day context.

Simply existing on various forms of social media, most importantly on LinkedIn does not qualify for a great social media resume. It is your engagement, and the quality of content that you put out which determines the strength of your social media resume. Earlier, we ran a hugely popular series on personal branding. Building a good social media resume is strongly intertwined with the principles of personal branding. Through social media, you put out who you are, i.e., you put out your personal brand, because you are your own personal brand.

Based on the strength of your social media resume, you can attract your dream job opportunities. Here are 5 ways of building a strong social media resume.

  1. Consistency is everything

    You may have an account on every social media platform that exists. However that is to no avail unless you are consistently active on them. Being regular and updating frequently is an imperative to having a consistent and powerful social media presence. Make sure your profiles are updated. It is also important to engage in conversations and discussions relating to topics of your interest. The form of engagement could range from commenting on articles to writing your own articles and posting them.

  2. Understand the unique use of each platform

    Every social media platform has a unique selling point. In order to make the most of the social media platforms you use, understand the uniqueness of each of these platforms. For example, Instagram is a very visual platform, allowing you a number of tools to express yourself and the work you do through photographs. Facebook is a multipurpose platform that also allows you to network. While LinkedIn serves as an information base, and the best place for off-line professional networking. By understanding the unique use of each platform, you can curate the content you put out accordingly. This also helps you to keep in mind the very specific target audiences for each kind of platform.

  3. Integrate your social media profiles

    If you have a blog or a website, you could integrate all your social media profiles into it for keeping them all synced, and easily accessible to recruiters. Most platforms allow you to create social media badges which you can embed into your blog/ website. One pointer before you go ahead and integrate your social media platforms is to keep in mind how your profiles would appear to a potential recruiter. Before you integrate your social media profiles, go through them with a fine tooth comb and scour for anything that may come across as unprofessional. In short, look for any social media mistakes that may stand out for a recruiter.

  4. Be responsible

    We began this post by stressing on how a social media resume isn’t very different from having a personal brand. A social media cv is powerful because everything about you, your qualifications and your aspirations are out there. This kind transparency and outreach lend a kind of validity to ‘you’, which is why a powerful social media resume has the potential to attract recruiters.

    Being responsible about what you speak and choose to put out is a ground rule for not just personal branding, but any form of social media interaction (and otherwise!). Remember that when you put out or say certain things on interactive platforms, people listen to it and engage with it in a conscious as well as subconscious manner. That is the power of personal branding and social media. Therefore while you have access to a wide range of liberties to make speak your mind and make yourself heard, make sure that you do so responsibly.

The secret to a great Social Media Resume is having an impressive online presence. Have you come across a great social media cv, you’ve had a chance to learn from? Comment with links below and we’d be glad to feature your thoughts in our upcoming blogs!

The 5 Most Effective Job Hunt Hacks

The 5 Most Effective Job Hunt Hacks

Yes, we know! There are no shortcuts to success. But if you are on a job hunt, this post is something you cannot miss. Based on our years of experience helping job hunting candidates like you land their dream jobs, we have put together some insider tips (or hacks as the current trend is) to help you on your job hunting journey. What are some of the best and most effective Job Hunt Hacks that can fast-track your job hunting process ? Read on to find out exactly what they are, and why they make such a big difference.

Job Hunt Hack #1 – Use “Keywords”

Go through the job description carefully and pick up on the keywords. Remember that when sending in your application online, in all probability, the first screening is going to be mechanized. In which case, you need to ensure that your application uses as many of those phrases/ keywords possible (in a relevant way of course) as possible. It is only after the initial sorting (the first two stages, at least) that your application will reach the higher-ups in the management. In order to ensure your job application gets there, be as specific and comprehensive as possible. Using keywords is a great way to go about it.

Job Hunt Hack #2 – Use both online and offline platforms

Don’t stop once you have finished applying through the online sources. Start networking and spreading the word about your job hunt. Networking is one of the most effective techniques of offline job hunting. Reach out to your old and new contacts and have casual conversations with them about your plans. You never know what opportunities may come your way simply through those conversations. Also, make sure to avoid these 5 social media mistakes when you are job hunting!

Job Hunt Hack #3 – Modulate your applications

What really hampers your job hunt process is using one stock application and cover letter for all the places you apply to. When you do that, your application depicts an acute lack of interest and enthusiasm. Even if the job profiles you are applying to are similar, there are some fine differences between each of these profiles. Mark them and customize your applications accordingly. This will be possible only when you are truly serious and enthusiastic about the job hunt process. Pay attention to details, and remember that that’s probably the only thing that will give you an edge over the others.

Job Hunt Hack #4 – Your LinkedIn profile matters (most)!

Your existence, and activity on LinkedIn is crucial for a successful job hunt. You could reach out to scores of potential employers, and correspond with them about opportunities simply by making sure you are active on LinkedIn. By being on LinkedIn, you are not only “visible”, but also vested with innumerable valuable resources which you just need to know how to use. Still not convinced about why you need a LinkedIn profile? Here’s why. Have a LinkedIn profile but wondering how you can make it better? Here’s how.

Job Hunt Hack #5 – The magic word is “Thank You”

Incorporating the practice of gratitude into everything you do is the best thing you can do for yourself. Including when you are job hunting. It makes a huge difference when you send in a personalized note, even if it is just two lines, after you finish interviewing (no matter the stage of the interview), to the relevant people. Just acknowledging the time they invested, saying that it was a pleasure having had a chance to communicate and that you look forward. These small things are what set you apart from other candidates, and make you the more like-able, and obvious candidate. However, do it genuinely. It isn’t very hard to tell when the candidate isn’t being genuine – which will just end up making things worse for you.

And the most effective job hunt hack of all – work closely with a great recruiter. A recruiter starts work every morning with one objective – find the best candidate for his/her client and fill the open position ASAP. A candidate hunting for a job wakes up with this thought – may today be the day when I land my dream job. Notice the similarity between the two objectives – so why not work together with mutual respect  to achieve this common goal? Here is how you can help her help you.

If you’ve been looking for job hunt guidance and a lot of material has been coming your way, all of that is bound to be similar in one way or the other. Through all your efforts, remember that you can go a long way by just being yourself. Take your own self to the interviews, and let it reflect in your applications and conversations. Because you’re the best when you’re nothing but yourself!