The simple answer? Don’t do it.

• I have seen national studies that claimed about 70% of resumes have “mistruths” in them.
• Other studies state 25-50% of resumes have “embellishments” (an exaggeration but not lie.)

The most common lies:

• Length of employment gaps
• Titles
• Degrees completed
• Salary
• Reason for leaving
• Not mentioning a job from which you were fired
• Taking credit for an idea developed by the team
• When career started (age)
• Size of business or projects managed
• Rank as a sales person or total revenue you represented
• Claiming to be “Consulting” when you were billing zero hours

I could quote more studies, but the point is: Recruiters and Hiring Managers EXPECT there to be many lies in resumes and in the interviews we have with applicants so we look and listen for them. Read the rest of this entry »

Topics: branding + positioning, career strategy, interviews, recruiting, resume + cover letter, salary | No Comments »

Fact: 70% of executives who accept a counteroffer are gone from that employer within 6 months.

Fact: 85% of executives who accept are gone within 18 months.

A counteroffer is an offer made by an employer in order to keep you on after you have given notice.
The most frequent counteroffers strategies include:

1. a promise of a promotion and/or a raise (most frequent response)
2. telling you are a traitor to the team or to your boss
3. confiding to you that the company you are considering is not that well thought of Read the rest of this entry »

Topics: career strategy, interviews, salary | No Comments »

Selling Yourself to Management

As I said in my last post, as a recruiter, I am not actually seeing any evidence of a Recession outside of the financial industry. However, many of the strategies that protect you in a bad market also improve your status with in a good market.

• Network to keep your value, your brand, visible at all times with your present management and clients. Networking builds bridges to get things accomplished on an every day basis. You should be networking at 2 or 3 title levels above you as insurance if your boss leaves the company. Network with other departments. Network with people junior to you as they may have very different philosophies towards work. Read the rest of this entry »

Topics: branding + positioning, career strategy, networking, salary | No Comments »

What are your salary requirements?

It makes many job applicants very uncomfortable when I tell them the best answer is usually not to answer the question as asked.

“But she asked me! She is the Director of HR, I can’t show disrespect!”

Read the rest of this entry »

Topics: interviews, salary | No Comments »