There is a lot of career advice out there, and to be honest with you, it is easy to find contradicting advice.
We regularly survey employers and recruiters to ensure the advice we give is up-to-date and reflective of the current market.
Here are 14 quotes directly from employers and recruiters hiring in today's job market!
Question: What is your process for reviewing resumes?
“My eyes are trained. I know what I am looking for. I look for titles, the first two bullet points in each job and a degree.”
“For Technical positions, I read line for line.”
“We don’t have ATS. When I have hundreds of resumes, I will look at your degree and most recent jobs.”
Question: Do you read cover letters?
“I don’t have the time to read a two-page cover letter.”
“Cover letters are optional documents in our application. I never read the cover letter; I’d rather read a summary on a resume.”'
Question: Do you look up candidates?
“I google candidates immediately.”
“I immediately lookup candidates on LinkedIn, especially for reviews and referrals.”
Question: How important is the formatting of the resume?
"If I see mistakes grammatical or otherwise, it's a no. If you don’t have the attention to detail on the piece of paper that is supposed to represent the best of you.”
“Fancy formats, colors, and fonts are distracting to what I really want to know. Unless it’s for a marketing or art role, it’s not the purpose I am looking for.”
Question: What do you think of images or pictures on resumes?
“I find pictures more distracted than anything. I had someone send me a YouTube resume. It caught my attention, I opened it, and it was eleven minutes. I only got a minute and a half in before it exited out.”
“Pictures on a resume can be used as a form of discrimination, and therefore we take them off before sending resumes to clients.”
Question: What advice do you have for applicants?
“Before you reach out, do your research, know the role you want, and have an intent for what you want. Be tactful”
Question: How do you feel about job-hopping?
“Some companies have guidelines that someone should be in a role for two years before changing. This allows us to see how you respond to the ups and downs. Being in a role for a short amount of time limits my ability most of the time to see learning and growth in the application.”
“The workforce has changed, and it’s now common for entry-level or recent graduates in the past 18 months to want to leave and gain a new role. The job-hopping is becoming less taboo; however, be prepared to explain.”