The Benefits of Using External Recruiters — Even if You Have an Internal Recruiting Team!

As a thriving manufacturer, partnering with an external recruiter can give you a significant edge over your competition. In today’s fast-paced job market, the ability to find the right talent efficiently is crucial for success. Embracing this strategic partnership can transform your recruitment efforts and skyrocket your business.

Here are some of the main advantages:

Access to a Larger Talent Pool

– Recruiting firms have extensive networks of candidates, including passive job seekers who might not be actively looking for a job but could be a perfect fit for the position.

– They often have databases of qualified candidates that they can tap into quickly, allowing companies to reach a broader audience beyond their internal resources.

Expertise and Specialization

– Many recruiting firms specialize in specific industries or job roles, giving them deep insights into the skill sets, qualifications, and experience required for those positions.

– They understand the market trends, salary expectations, and the most effective strategies to attract top talent in their focus areas, providing a higher level of expertise than in-house recruiters may have.

Time and Cost Savings

– Recruitment can be a time-consuming process, from posting job ads to screening resumes and conducting interviews. Outsourcing this function to a recruiting firm allows your HR team to focus on other critical tasks.

– While there is a fee associated with using a recruiting firm, it can be more cost-effective than the expense of prolonged vacancies, lower productivity, or hiring the wrong candidate.

Faster Hiring Process

Recruiting firms have streamlined processes to quickly identify, screen, and present the best candidates. Their established systems can often significantly reduce the time to hire.

– They already have candidates in their pipelines, which speeds up the search and shortens the hiring timeline.

Higher Quality of Candidates

– External recruiters are skilled at thoroughly vetting candidates to ensure they meet the required qualifications and fit the company’s culture.

– They conduct detailed screenings, reference checks, and often perform initial interviews before presenting candidates, resulting in higher-quality hires.

Reduced Risk of Bad Hires

– Many recruiting firms offer guarantees or replacement services if the hired candidate does not work out within a specified period. This provides a level of security and reduces the financial risk associated with bad hires.

– The firm’s expertise in screening and vetting candidates decreases the chances of hiring someone who isn’t a good fit for the role.

Confidentiality

– Recruiting firms can help companies conduct discreet searches, especially when replacing an existing employee or exploring sensitive hires at a senior level.

– They maintain confidentiality throughout the process, ensuring that sensitive information does not leak into the marketplace.

Reduced Workload for HR Teams

– Outsourcing the recruiting process alleviates some of the burden from internal HR teams, allowing them to focus on employee engagement, training, development, and other strategic HR initiatives.

– It prevents HR from becoming overwhelmed with recruitment-related tasks, especially during periods of rapid growth or high turnover.

Market Insights and Competitive Intelligence

– Recruiting firms often provide valuable market insights, including salary benchmarks, industry trends, and competitor analysis, which can help companies make informed hiring decisions.

– They can advise on how to attract top talent by suggesting adjustments to job descriptions, compensation packages, and employer branding strategies.

Scalable Recruitment Solutions

– Recruiting firms can easily scale their efforts up or down based on the company’s hiring needs. Whether you need one person or a whole team, they can quickly adjust their approach to match the requirements.

– This scalability is particularly beneficial for companies that experience fluctuating hiring demands.

Objective Candidate Evaluation

– External recruiters bring a fresh perspective to candidate evaluation, reducing potential biases internal recruiters might have due to company culture or preconceived notions.

– They provide an objective assessment of candidates, focusing purely on skills, experience, and potential fit for the role.

Reduced Marketing Costs

– Recruiting firms often handle the job advertising process, including posting on job boards and leveraging their networks, which reduces the company’s need to invest in these areas.

– This not only saves money but also ensures that job postings reach the right audience through targeted channels

Are you a hiring manager with urgent, hard-to-fill roles? Let us be your go-to recruiting partner. We’re here to help you find the right talent quickly and efficiently. Connect with us today, and let’s ‘enhance’ and streamline your hiring process!

For more information go to www.enhancerecruiting.com

15 Resume No-No’s

Do you have these on your resume? If so, remove them immediately!

In today’s competitive job market, employers receive approximately 250 job applications for every open position. Ninety-five percent of large organizations use software known as an applicant tracking system (ATS) to screen applications and eliminate the least qualified applicants.

If your resume is among the lucky 25 percent of applications that make it past the dreaded bots, it still must pass muster with the recruiter or hiring manager. With so many applications flooding their inboxes, it’s no wonder that the average recruiter skims a resume for only six seconds before deciding if the applicant belongs in the “no” pile.

When your job application is facing the six-second resume test, it’s important to not include information that will distract the hiring manager from seeing your true qualifications. But how do you decide what to include in a resume and what to delete? Below is a list of what you should not include in a resume. Use this checklist to review your resume and ensure your job application avoids the trash heap.

  1. Resume objective statement

We’ve all seen those generic resume objective statements talk about a professional who is “looking for opportunities that will allow me to leverage my skills.” This vague statement is a waste of space on your resume because it doesn’t help the reader quickly understand what type of position you’re seeking and why you’re qualified for such a role. Remove your run-of-the-mill objective statement and replace it with a professional summary — also known as a career statement or career summary — that delivers your elevator pitch. In approximately 3–5 lines, explain why you’re a good fit for the position you’re pursuing by summarizing your relevant qualifications and career achievements.

  1. Unprofessional email

The email address “[email protected]” may have been funny in college, but it’s inappropriate to use on your job applications and business cards. The same goes for shared family email accounts such as “[email protected]” and email addresses that are offensive or sexual in nature. Create a free email address with a provider like Gmail that’s reserved exclusively for your job-search activities. Whenever possible, create an email address that incorporates your name as it appears on your resume and LinkedIn profile, as well as your credentials. For example: “[email protected].”

  1. Full mailing address

Gone are the days when it was required to include your entire mailing address on your resume. In fact, if you’re trying to relocate for work, I recommend removing all location information unless you can provide a local address. If you’re searching for work near your home, include your city, state, and zip code to show the hiring manager you’re a local candidate. Do not include your street address, as it’s not necessary at this stage of the recruitment process, takes up extra space, and can be considered a security risk (think of all the places you upload or post your resume — hello, identity theft!).

  1. Multiple phone numbers

The more contact options you provide on your resume, the easier it is to miss an important message from a prospective employer. Avoid any confusion by streamlining your contact information. Include one — and only one — phone number on your resume. I suggest listing the number for your mobile phone so you can control the voice message, who answers each call, and when.

  1. Outdated or irrelevant social media profiles

Do not include on your resume social media accounts that host unprofessional content, do not support your current job goals, and are not regularly updated. If you’re going to include the URL to a social media account on your resume, make sure it reflects your personal brand and serves to demonstrate why you’re qualified for the job.

In addition, create at least one professional online profile on sites like LinkedIn and include the link at the top of your resume.

  1. Personal details

There’s no need to include personal information on a resume such as your social security number, marital status, nationality, sexual orientation, or spiritual beliefs. In fact, it is illegal for employers to ask for these personal details. If you’re unsure whether to include a detail about yourself on your resume, consider if the information is relevant to the job you’re targeting. If it doesn’t demonstrate your qualifications for the role, it doesn’t belong on your resume.

  1. Headshot

Unless you’re a TV celebrity or your career requires a professional headshot, there is no reason why your resume should include a picture of you. Your photo will likely reveal your nationality, gender, or age — among other factors — that could inadvertently lead to discrimination. There’s no need to provide an employer with those details until they’ve considered your application based solely on your qualifications. In fact, some recruiters have been known to automatically dismiss a candidate whose application includes a headshot because they don’t want to be accused of discrimination.

Also, some recruiters see candidates who include headshots as egocentric at best and lacking sound judgment skills at worst.

  1. Buzzwords

While it’s important to include in your resume relevant keywords from the job descriptions that interest you, it’s not a good idea to stuff your resume full of fluffy buzzwords. Make sure you incorporate keywords in a way that sounds natural when you read your resume out loud. If you deliberately stuff keywords into your resume or use a bunch of annoying buzzwords, it will be painfully obvious to the recruiter.

  1. Pronouns

While there is some debate within the resume-writing community, the generally accepted practice is to refrain from referring to yourself by your name or personal pronouns such as “I,” “me,” “she,” or “he.” Save the first-person point of view for your LinkedIn profile summary. Instead, write your resume in what is known as the absent first person, where all pronouns are dropped from the sentences.

  1. Elaborate formats and designs

When it comes to selecting a design for your resume, less is more. Not only do elaborate designs and unconventional formats confuse most applicant tracking systems, but they also annoy recruiters who are accustomed to quickly scanning a resume for specific information they expect to find in particular spots within the document. Don’t make recruiters hunt for the information they care about. Play it safe and stick to a clean resume design with a clear hierarchy. Not sure what works? Check out TopResume’s library of free resume samples.

  1. Embedded charts and images

While these design elements may look nice to the human eye, resumes with embedded images become a garbled mess, or get completely omitted from your application, after they pass through ATS. In addition, recruiters don’t want to see a pictorial — and rather subjective — representation of your skills like the second resume I review in this video. Save your creativity for your online portfolio and don’t include images in your resume.

  1. Spelling and grammatical errors

A recruiter survey by TopResume found “spelling and/or grammatical errors” to be the No. 1 resume mistake that could cost you the job. However, with a little effort, you can easily avoid this resume deal-breaker. Print your resume out in a different font, read it aloud, and ask someone with impeccable writing skills to edit your resume for grammar.

  1. Too much of the past

If you’re new to the workforce, it’s time to remove all references of high school from your resume. Once you’ve been working for a few years in your desired field, you can pare down the details from your college experience. If you’re further along in your career, limit the details of your work history to the past 15 years. Anything further back in time can be briefly mentioned in a career note or an abbreviated “Earlier Work History” section. Not only if this information considered less relevant because it took place so long ago, but listing it makes it challenging to stick to an appropriate resume length and can open your application up to age discrimination.

  1. Salary history

Supplying your current or previous salary in your resume is not a great job-search strategy. If you include accurate information, then you might get low-balled when it comes to your starting salary. If you fudge your past earnings, then you risk getting caught in a lie and terminated. In fact, as of April 2018, there are nine places in the U.S. where employers are no longer allowed to ask for your current or previous salary. Do yourself a favor and do not include this type of information in your resume.

  1. References

Do not include a list of references or the line “References available upon request” on your resume. This information is not necessary at this stage of the application process and it wastes precious resume space. In addition, employers know that if you want the job, you’ll provide them with a list of references when they ask for them.

If you are seeking new opportunities or want to learn more please go to www.enhancerecruiting.com

 

 

How to Write a Killer LinkedIn Summary

If you are a professional and don’t think  LinkedIn is important, think again! LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the internet, and currently has over 774 million members in over 200 countries and territories. WOW!

This gives you tons of opportunities to network and leverages your connections, but if your profile isn’t optimized, it won’t be very effective. Part of creating a great LinkedIn profile is having a summary that pulls the reader in, so I’m sharing exactly how to write a killer LinkedIn summary that will get you noticed.

 

Write it in first person 

Think of your summary as a personal bio that gives the reader more insight as to who you are. Part of writing a killer LinkedIn summary is sharing your voice. This is your opportunity to highlight your personality, so speak in first person and give the reader a window into how you talk to others. While LinkedIn is a professional network, your summary can be a little more laid-back than a resume. This is where you can show your funny side or highlight a hobby. Your goal is to establish a connection with the reader and speaking to them directly using first person is a great way to do that.

 

Share something that makes you unique

Share something unique about yourself so the reader can really connect. This can be a personal detail about how you grew up and how this shaped your career, or it can be something about what you do in your free time. Sharing a piece of information about yourself helps the reader get to know you better and establishes an emotional connection. This makes them more likely to keep reading and to remember you. For example, I share that I love to “help others” which is why I am in recruiting in the first place. 

 

Share your goals

If you don’t clearly communicate your intentions, no one will know them except for you. It sounds silly to say it out loud, but it’s true. If you don’t clearly communicate your goals for LinkedIn and for your career, your summary won’t be very effective in helping you reach your goals.

People often get worried about upsetting or concerning a current employer by updating their LinkedIn profile or putting information about looking for a job online, however, there are ways of conveying this information without putting up any red flags. For example, if you’re looking for a job but don’t want to notify your current employer, consider discussing that you’re excited about building relationships and further developing your professional network. An example of verbiage is below:

“I’m excited about the opportunity to utilize my expertise and cultivate relationships through strategic planning and collaboration with both internal and external partners…”

You can also say something like this in your summary:

“Offering five years of experience in the marketing field, I’ve perfected the art of dynamic consumer engagement, and I’m excited to use this knowledge to further develop my career and help companies develop their communication strategy.”

These statements can be adjusted and catered to meet your needs, but they both articulate that you’re interested in meeting people and connecting with others to further your career without blatantly saying that you want a new job.

Quantify your achievements

Similar to writing a resume, when you’re trying to write a killer LinkedIn summary, you want to show a potential employer or professional connection what you’ve accomplished and what you can do for them. Anyone can say they’re good at their job, but very few people can actually show it. Quantifying your achievements will give the reader concrete examples of what you can do and why you will be beneficial to hire. Ultimately you want to show others how you can be the solution to their problem.

 

LinkedIn can be an extremely effective self-marketing and personal branding tool, but in order to use the platform to its full potential, you need to have an amazing LinkedIn summary. Your LinkedIn summary is your opportunity to show others who you are, highlight your personality, and share exactly why you’d be an asset to any company you work for. Do your best to talk directly to and connect with your reader to create your most effective and intriguing LinkedIn summary yet!

Are you in the Manufacturing or Engineering industry and seeking new opportunities? To learn more or to apply go to:

www.enhancerecruiting.com

The Truth About Finding Your First Engineering Position

Don’t panic if your inbox isn’t full of $200k job offers.

Even for senior engineers, job searches can be confusing, frustrating affairs. When you’re a junior engineer looking for your first job, it can feel like you’re flying blind.

You may be armed with general notions about the engineering job market. Engineers are in demand, salaries are relatively high, unemployment is low, and more. What you might not have is context on what finding your first job will actually look like. How many companies should you be applying to? What kind of starting salary is normal? What roles should you even be applying for?

1. How many jobs should I apply to?

Short answer: As many as it takes.

This is a broad question that depends on your criteria for jobs. For example, if you’re only interested in hardware engineering jobs in Reno, you’re dealing with a very limited talent pool and job market. That being said, if we zoom out to the national level, the average U.S.-based software engineer with zero years of experience applies to 23 jobs before getting hired.

Of course, there are a number of factors that will influence this number:

  • The types of companies you are interested in
  • The array of roles you are open to
  • Any VISA sponsorships or other special considerations you might need

If you have applied to 23 jobs without getting hired, that does not mean your job search has been a failure—23 is just the average—and if you’ve yet to apply to 23 jobs, it’s way too early to begin feeling worried.

Also, this isn’t a directive to apply to 23 jobs today. This should simply serve to set some expectations for your job hunt.

2. What kind of companies do I have the best odds with?

Note: Do not confuse this question with “What kind of company do I most want to work at?”

Based on our hiring data, early-stage companies are more open to hiring engineers with zero years of experience. The actual breakdown of companies, segmented by size, posting engineering jobs that are open to candidates with zero years of experience looks like this:

At the same time, while you may have more job options among companies with 1 – 10 employees, their youth should compel you to ask a few questions before deciding to join, namely:
  • Does the company have senior talent to mentor you?
  • Is this company in a financial position to offer you a livable salary?
  • Do you want to work in a typically less structured, but freer early-stage environment?

Early-stage companies are a high-risk, high-reward proposition. The vetting process is even more crucial when you’re considering joining a company at this stage.

3. Do I apply to roles I’m not qualified for?

There’s a difference between not matching all the criteria in a job listing, and not being qualified for the job.

When companies list a minimum years of experience for a job, they aren’t literally saying you couldn’t do this job without having worked that many years previously. They’re saying that the role requires you to produce at the level they’d expect someone with that much experience to produce at.

One caveat here is that we’re talking specifically about years of experience, not domain knowledge or particular skills. If a job listing requires you to be knowledgable in machine learning, while you’ve never studied the topic, that’s an example of a job you are unqualified for.

In general, as long the role is interesting to you and seems realistically within your capabilities, you are qualified enough to apply.

4. Which roles are the most open to junior-level candidates?

Maybe you aren’t picky about role specialization or which part of the stack you spend your time working on. In that case, the natural question becomes: What kind of role is most open to hiring inexperienced engineers?

There are two big takeaways here.

First, full-stack roles are the second most common role in junior-friendly role, coming only after general engineering roles. Full-stack roles at early-stage startups, and U.S.-based early-stage startups are more likely to hire junior engineers.

Second, roles that are more concerned with infrastructure are the least likely to hire someone with no experience.

5. Am I a failure if I don’t make $200,000?

Many junior engineers, after spending too much time reading threads on Blind, get the sense that everyone makes $200,000 at their first job.

They don’t.

There is not an entry-level engineering role that, when averaged across the U.S., lists an average salary of $100,000 or above.

For job listings in San Francisco, the averages all rise. But even then, only DevOps and systems engineering roles—the roles least likely to hire entry-level candidates—average over $100,000, meaning it is still only a small percentage of junior engineers making six figures.

While tech giants may offer gargantuan salaries with large signing bonuses to new engineers, those roles are in the extreme minority. Most engineers do not begin their careers there, and you shouldn’t feel like your career is underwhelming simply because you didn’t start it at Google.

What do you want?

While all of these statistics may be helpful context, they won’t answer the core question that will define your job search: What do you want out of your job?

If you want the fastest possible growth trajectory, early-to-mid-stage startups are your best bet.

If you want to maximize your salary right out of the gate, you should be looking at bigger, more mature companies. They typically have the funding and revenue to pay their entry-level hires more.

If you want exposure to founder-level responsibilities, you should join a seed-stage company. These are tough companies to vet—you almost have to think like an investor.

Ultimately, the ideal first job for you is going to come down to what you’re looking for in a role. Enhance Recruiting can assist you every step of the way. We have solid relationships with the top engineering firms in the U.S. Plus, we will supply you with company data and give you options. With our assistance, you should be able to navigate it accordingly and have a pleasant job search experience. For more information go to www.enhancerecruiting.com or call 512.656.1774.

Tips for a Successful Interview

Congratulations, you were one of the few chosen to interview. Being prepared is extremely important days before your interview. Here are some tips to better prepare, now it’s your time to shine. 

1. Start by researching the company and your interviewers.

Understanding key information about the company you’re interviewing with can help you go into your interview with confidence. Using the company’s website, social media posts, and recent press releases will provide a solid understanding of the company’s goals and how your background makes you a great fit.

2. Practice your answers to common interview questions.

 Prepare your answer to the common question: “Tell me about yourself, and why are you interested in this role with our company?” The idea is to quickly communicate who you are and what value you will bring to the company and the role—it’s your personal elevator pitch.

Tip: You should come prepared to discuss your salary expectations. If you’re unsure what salary is appropriate to ask for, research range based on your location, industry, and experience.

3. Reread the job description.

You may want to print it out and begin underlining specific skills the employer is looking for. Think about examples from your past and current work that align with these requirements.

4. Use the STAR method in answering questions.

 Prepare to be asked about times in the past when you used a specific skill and use the STAR method to tell stories with a clear Situation, Task, Action, and Result.

5. Recruit a friend to practice answering questions.

Actually practicing your answers out loud is an incredibly effective way to prepare. Say them to yourself or ask a friend to help run through questions and answers. You’ll find you gain confidence as you get used to saying the words.

6. Prepare a list of references. Your interviewers might require you to submit a list of references before or after your interview. Having a list of references prepared ahead of time can help you quickly complete this step to move forward in the hiring process.

7. Be prepared with examples of your work.

 During the interview, you will likely be asked about the specific work you’ve completed in relation to the position. After reviewing the job description, think of work you’ve done in past jobs, clubs or volunteer positions that show you have experience and success doing the work they require.

8. Prepare smart questions for your interviewers.

 Interviews are a two-way street. Employers expect you to ask questions: they want to know that you’re thinking seriously about what it would be like to work there. Here are some questions you may want to consider asking your interviewers:

  • Can you explain some of the day-to-day responsibilities this job entails?
  • How would you describe the characteristics of someone who would succeed in this role?
  • If I were in this position, how would my performance be measured? How often?
  • What departments does this teamwork with regularly?
  • How do these departments typically collaborate?
  • What does that process look like?
  • What are the challenges you’re currently facing in your role?

If you are looking for new opportunities or need hiring assistance, please contact Enhance Recruiting  [email protected] or 512.656.1774. For more information visit our website at www.enhancerecruiting.com