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Resume Q&A: Recruited by My Old Boss—Should I Mention That?

Q. About 3 years ago, my boss move to a new company, then reached out to me. She asked me to join her team at the new company. I made the move and enjoyed it. But now I’m ready to take on new challenges somewhere else. Should I mention the fact that I was recruited by my old boss? Will companies worry that I might just be recruited again and leave them?

A. Many achievements can add zing to your resume and make you stand out from your competition. One of them is being recruited by a former boss, showing that you were highly valued as an employee and team member. You should definitely mention recruitment by a former boss on your resume—it takes just a few words and makes a big difference.

Like being recruited by a former boss, many employees find themselves being sought out and rehired by a former company after an absence. They are usually offered a more responsible or different position with higher pay. Boomerang employees—those who leave a company and come back at a later date—account for 4.5% of all new hires according to the Wall Street Journal, a number that has been rising as companies realize they are gaining experienced employees in a tight market.

Both types of recruitment, by an old boss or by a former company, show that your contribution was and is important. Recruiters and hiring managers look for that type of value and appreciation when they are considering candidates who might otherwise have equivalent skills, experiences, and education.

If you have a work history that includes returning to work with a previous boss or company, but do not know to explain that in your resume, Robin’s Resumes® is ready to help. Contact us today.

The Best and Worst of Recruiters

Most companies work with recruiters, whether outside or in-house. Another way of looking at that situation is that all recruiters, the best recruiters and the worst recruiters, are working for the company—not you. Their pay depends on their ability to find good candidates who will last at least a year at the company. Their definition of a “good” candidate can vary widely depending on the knowledge, priorities, and ethics of the recruiter, but it is well to remember that recruiters are not always invested in your best interests.

How to Work Well with the Best Recruiters

The best recruiters, like professional resume writers, often have insights into the job market that you cannot possibly have. The best recruiters are also among the first—and sometimes the only people—to know when a job opening occurs. To benefit from these advantages, you need to know what to share and what to look for:

  • Interview the recruiter because not all recruiters are conversant in your field or industry, and the ones that are not are probably a bad fit.
  • Know what the industry norm is for paying and promoting someone with your experience, education, and background in your geographic area so that you are realistic about compensation and the positions you are qualified for.
  • Communicate in advance what range of salary will be acceptable to you.
  • Make sure your resume is current and marketable. Treat the interview with the recruiter the same way you would treat an interview with a hiring manager. You would never show up at a company with an outdated, unprofessional resume, would you?
  • Determine the best way for you each to contact the other. With all the options available today—email, office or cell phone, video, and in-person—you need to settle on the best means and times, or you will constantly miss each other’s communications.
  • Be honest. The recruiter is in direct contact with the company. If you hide or distort information when you speak to the recruiter, the company will hear it, check it, and turn you down—and you will lose any chance of working with that recruiter. Also, let the recruiter know if you are working with other recruiters, so you do not end up applying for the same job multiple times.
  • Take their advice when they offer important reasons to change your interview style, for example, or offer to negotiate on your behalf to help create an offer you will accept. Be careful about advice to lower your salary requirements below the industry norm or to change your job title or other factual information–these are tactics used by the worst recruiters.
  • Speak up if you think a recruiter is trying to fit you into a job or industry where you do not belong. You may find that the recruiter has interesting ideas—or may need further education on what you are looking for and qualified for.

Reasons to Stop Working with a Recruiter

According to a recent survey, 46% of organizations have cited recruitment challenges as one reason they cannot expand. But you have good reasons for walking away from the worst recruiters, the ones who:

  • Try to pressure you to take a low paying job.
  • Accuse you of wasting their time.
  • Want you to pay for their services.
  • Refuse to listen when you try to educate them about your career or industry.
  • Lie about the position, or lie to the company about you.

What Working with a Recruiter Means for Your Job Search

Not everyone will benefit from working with a recruiter—for example, anyone seeking an entry-level job would normally be of little interest to a recruiter—but even if you are working with the best recruiters, you have to keep up your job search by other means. Working with a recruiter is not a magic key to instant employment. As long as you synchronize your search (again, so you are not applying multiple times to the same job), you should continue all your other job-seeking efforts.

Recruiters need professional resumes to work from. They do not rewrite resumes, although they may offer suggestions. If working with a recruiter is appropriate for you, contact Robin’s Resumes®—we have decades of experience writing resumes that appeal to recruiters and hiring managers alike.

The Recruitment World Is Changing

The following interesting statistics will give you fresh insight into areas of your work history that you may think are problems—they are not.

Are you embarrassed because most of your jobs were part-time or contractual?

If most of your previous employment was part-time or contractual, there is no reason to delay in putting yourself forward for an equivalent full-time position:

  • According to a survey by Robert Half, a recruitment firm, more than half of employers are now more open to hiring contractual workers to fill an employment gap while they hunt for a full-time employee. This number has increased over the last two years alone.
  • In addition, more than 70% of managers consider working consistently in short-term jobs as being equivalent to working a full-time job.

Are you hesitating about job searching through LinkedIn?

If you are hesitant to put your credentials out into the digital world, you should be aware of the following statistics:

  • LinkedIn hosts more than 575 million professionals, more than 150 million in the US alone. You won’t link to all of them, but the potential pool of connections and knowledge (about companies, their employees, and their clients) is astounding.
  • Hubspot found that LinkedIn is 277% more effective in generating leads than Facebook or Twitter.
  • The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that LinkedIn is the most commonly used site for recruitment—94% of organizations that use social media for recruitment use LinkedIn.

Are you worried that your degree is not in STEM?

If you believe that the only path to success is with a science, technology, engineering, and math degree, then these statistics will surprise you:

  • In CollegeGrads’ list of the 10 best college majors for jobs, Marketing ranks second and Human Resources ranks ninth. Neither of them requires a STEM degree.
  • Recent studies, including one by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, show that liberal arts graduates have as much earning capacity as STEM graduates.

Before you worry about problems in your resume that may not be problems at all, consult with a professional resume writer and career coach at Robin’s Resumes®. You may be surprised at just how marketable you are.

Current Trends in the Job Market

Over the last decade the two biggest trends in the job market are the rise of social internet sites and the use of automated applicant tracking systems to select candidates. Social internet sites (LinkedIn, Pinterest, Facebook) are used by job seekers to describe themselves but also by recruiters and hiring managers to research job applicants (which is why I always encourage job seekers to make sure their social media information is professional and matches their resume information). Applicant tracking systems weed out resumes electronically, sorting out those job applicants whose resumes contain the keywords, skills, accomplishments, and education described as vital for the job.

One trend that has remained strong in the job market is the need for networking. That networking may be in person or online, but the one-to-one exchange is important. In my next blog, I’ll discuss how to network both online and in person and the vital role your resume plays in your networking efforts.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has noted a job market trend toward increased hiring in business and professional services, retail trade, and health care. Business and professional services include employment services, management and technical consulting, architectural and engineering services, and financial services.  The largest increase in health care was in home health care and hospitals.

Applicant tracking systems are not the only sign of a trend toward computerizing recruitment. The Society for Human Resources Management’s Employment Verification Survey encompassed 601 for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. More than 60% of organizations use the federal government’s internet program (E-Verify) to determine if a job applicant is allowed to work in the United States. Despite some problems with setting up and using the system, more than 70% support mandatory electronic verification.

As I have stated previously, part of my job as a professional resume writer is to keep up with job market trends like these so that I can better assist job seekers. If you are concerned that your resume is behind the times, please contact me. I can help make sure that your resume receives attention (and the right kind of attention) from recruiters and hiring managers.

Resume Analysis Software

If you are uncertain about the quality of your resume, you may be tempted to try resume analysis software.

Here’s what a human resume writer will do that software can’t:

  • Check for context and flow. Is your resume building up a picture of you as an ideal candidate? You need a real person to decide what to emphasize and what to omit.
  • Detect whether your resume contains information that will stand up to interview pressures. You need a real person to help you prevent overselling—and underselling.
  • Provide strongly worded, keyword-rich accomplishments. Any software program can count up keywords but you do not win interviews because your keyword list is the longest. You win interviews because your accomplishments make you stand out from the competition.

No matter how sophisticated resume analysis software may be, it is limited because it doesn’t interact with you. It doesn’t ask about accomplishments you might have overlooked; it can’t recommend adding detail on a job that will wow hiring managers; and it doesn’t have up-to-the-minute contacts in the world of recruitment and management so that your resume meets their expectations.

Human resume writers are simply better. That’s why savvy job hunters turn to Robin’s Resumes®.

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