Re: Recruiters: Is It Just Me?

["Comeau, Lisa" <Lisa -dot- Comeau -at- MOH -dot- GOV -dot- ON -dot- CA>]

Maurice said <snipped for brevity>

MK: some (recruiters)are reliable, some are not, some are intelligent, some
are jerks, etc.
(story about someone who obviously didn't read the resume submitted)

Exactly. It is just as important to research the recruiting company as it is
to research a company you're thinking of working for. I've had one excellent
experience with a recruiter, and one terrible one. Since the latter, I look
alot more closely at how they do business before I submit a resume.

MK: It seems to me (the)recruiter could also ask about the skill in
question, because sometimes things do not appear within the scope of a
resume. To mention MS Project on my resume would have been like mentioning a
mouse pad...sure, I used it, but it wasn't a critical part of my work.

I think the problem here is that you haven't made your experience obvious. I
think that if the job in question requires a certain skill, you'd want to
highlight that skill, even if it's obvious to you. And sometimes the only
way to show a certain skill is to list the tool(s) you used.

MK: ...no matter how much I revise my resume, there's always something that
isn't obvious that should be. ... companies are not likely to know what I
did based upon the company names; however, others have told me that the
resultant resume is unacceptably long.

Generally speaking (if at all humanly possible) a resume should be one page
long. Obviously, you can't fit everything on one page, but you can get the
gist of what you've done in there. So how to you get across the skillset you
have and tools experience in there?

Personally, I use a one page Skills Precis done in a two column table format
which lists all of the tools and computer skills I have. I refer to it in
the skills section of my resume (which lists my intuitive skills). Something
like this:

RESUME
Name
Objective
Skills (things like Excellent communication skills in both English and
French)
        See attached Skills Precis for more information
Education
Experience
References

SKILLS PRECIS
Skills include installation, configuration, use,  instruction,
troubleshooting, and/or upkeep of:
Operating Systems/GUIs/NOS (list of tools)
Local Area Networks (list of tools and skills)
PC Maintenance and Troubleshooting (LIST OF TOOLS AND SKILLS)
Business Applications (list of tools grouped by category - i.e: all word
processing software)
Hardware Installation/Configuration (types of hardware)
Administration (things like project management skills)

This "tying in" with my resume means that any questions about my experience
with a particular tool is obvious, and so is the fact that I can basically
use any tool on the market, because I have either already done so, or I've
used everything else.

This format may not work for you, but it has been invaluable for me, and I
just thought I'd share! :)

Lisa Comeau
Account Representative; Y2K/Exchange Project
Client Services Group, Ontario Ministry of Health
Office (416) 327-1112
Pager (416) 715-9198
mailto:Lisa -dot- Comeau -at- moh -dot- gov -dot- on -dot- ca

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