Why You Should Not Lie On Your Resume

Earlier today I was forwarded a resume from someone who worked for a local company that I knew someone at that was looking for a new job after only nie and a half to ten months on the job. I’ll forgive someone who is looking to get out of a bad job situation.

Here are some reasons I would overlook the timing:
-Spouse is relocating.
-Commute is killer.
-Layoffs coming soon (these stories are usually easy to verify in the news or at the reference check stage).
-Bad boss (hey, we’ve all had a bad boss somewhere in life).

But this resume suggested something entirely different was going on. For starters, the resume was eight pages long. The summary alone stretched to 1 and 3/4 pages in length. The first job on it was more than a full page by itself. My theory on resumes like this is that the extra detail serves two purposes. The first is to hide the real experience contained in the resume. The second is to exagerate the real experience for the purpose of increasing the consultant’s earning power. Did I mention that the resume is for a consultant who hops from one job to the next? This consultant’s tenure on the job was 11-12 months.

Since my departure from the big box staffing world I haven’t seen too many resumes like this. I can’t say that I have missed them.

But more importantly, I read the resume not just for what someone’s skills are but the context of the skills. In this case the guy’s most recent job is in industry A, but mid-way through the 1+ page long list of responsibilities the job experience shifted to industry C. The two industries were not even related. I asked him why the discrepency and he could not explain it. He did indicate that the experience was indeed not from his most recent employer despite it being labeled as such.

Game over!

Mixing and matching job experience from two different jobs or projects into one job and project isn’t cool. For those of you who are wondering – “Is this a job with a consulting firm?” the answer is no. The guy is working for a well known organization in the Washington, DC area.

This was the easy part. His previous job description is nearly two pages long. How much of it is fabricated or mixed up to obfuscate his real experience?

Then there is the fact that this guy is a programmer who has a massive number of typos in his resume. I stopped counting after 15. But that is another story entirely.

The bottom line here is that it is just not worth it to lie, manipulate facts, or fabricate your resume. I you get caught, and YOU WILL eventually, you will be locked out of a lot of opportunities.

How Recruiters Get Paid and Why They Deserve It

I find myself on the developer/recruiter fence frequently because I’m an occasional PHP developer who is learning Ruby on Rails while managing a team of Ruby on Rails programmers and serving as a HR and Recruiting Advisor to companies who are hiring developers.  As a result I am a member of both PHP and Ruby on Rails user groups.   The PHP user group that I am a member of has had a lingering discussion lately about recruiters posting jobs on their list.

The initially decided to add an unenforceable policy calling for “[Job]” in the subject line of messages to the list that include a job in them.  Within a week of the new policy a staffing agency recruiter broke the role.  How were they supposed to know?  Most people don’t read the list daily and don’t check posting rules before posting.  This prompted a new discussion flaming that recruiter and recruiters in general.  One of the topics that came up today is how recruiters get paid.
Here is what they said:
” The lower the salary, the more the headhunter can take off the top. Chances are that the original company is willing to pay about $90-$95k and the headhunter is trying to get about 18-20% of that (highway robbery). It’s why I don’t like dealing with headhunters / recruiters. The original company

still ends up paying full price, while the new employee gets a 18-20% “penalty” in his/her salary, and probably isn’t AS satisfied with the company as he/she could have been with a full salary.”

While this may be true in a few cases, it is not how recruiters get paid in the vast majority of cases.   There are four ways recruiters make money:

1. Fee for Placement – the recruiter makes a percentage of the candidate’s first year salary.  When recruiters say that they get more if the candidate gets more this is what they mean.

2. Staff Augmentation – they add a margin (like what was described above) that includes benefits and employee costs on top of what the candidate will be paid as a contractor.  Freelance developers and designers who sub-contract work out to someone else are doing the exact same thing except they are not providing health insurance.  In some cases the “if the candidate makes more the recruiter makes more” story case holds true, but when it does the cost to the employer often goes up.  If the employer doesn’t budge then the recruiter will actually make less.

3. Contract to Hire – things start off with #2, but the company can end things with #1.  The placement fee is usually reduced or the margin for the hourly fee is increased to make up for a shorter contract period.

4. Hourly or Salary – There are a lot of recruiters out there who get paid by the hour. Some as employees and some as contract recruiters.  A few of these may get a tiny bonus for each person that gets hired.

Update:

The discussion continues with a point about the margin or percentage off the top that staffing agencies take.  One member of the user group points out provided the following example:

“Me and my gf recently moved to the DC metro area and she got a job though an agency. Her job so happen to be for a small company and she was the office manager. Part of her duties was payroll. She actually cut the check for her normal salary for 6 months and watched her check come back to her with a 45% cut off the top. So for the first 6 months she had to accept half salary. This agency was not a small shop either they were a large company placing thousands of people. At that rate they are making a killing.”

This is a related, but different problem.  Until now the discussion has been centered around recruiting as it relates to software engineers.  Temp agencies are a different animal.  Seeing a 45-70% margin on a day by day last minute temp is not unheard of.  That said, I’m not an expert on temp staffing.  Further, I am not an advocate of big huge staffing agencies either.  But more importantly, please don’t take my clarification of how recruiters get paid as a defense for or of bad recruiters or bad staffing agencies (small or large).  The same goes for bad people in any category, skill set or industry.

Another objection to how recruiters work was made.  This one involves the level of disclosure made by recruiters when they post a job to a user group list:

“I founded and ran for 3 years the <snip> PHP user group.  My policy on job posts from recruiters was simple. Make an improper post and you will be kicked and your post deleted. Most of the rules surrounded being open and honest.

To me this is not just a PHP list is goes deeper to the fact that PHP is open source which has a different nature all to itself. A posting has to include not only information about the job but information about the company, including specific information like company name, website, etc. Looking for a job is a 2 way street. It is not just a company looking for a good employee but also an employee looking for a good company.

Many recruiters would not provide that on fear that you can go around them. To me that is the first sign of someone I do not want to work with. If the company that hires you doesn’t trust you with their HR then why should I trust you. If the agency was a good business providing a good service at a good cost, no one would want to go around you because they would lose you as a resource. Only someone that has something fear has something to hide.”

Personally, I don’t like to have to go through someone to get what I’m looking for either, but there are people who benefit from it.  This applies to people who outsource development, design, recruiting, real estate deals, accounting, and much more.  If you don’t like the way something works change it.  Personally, I worked in staffing for two years and didn’t like it.  After my two years of it I started hiring myself and my team out on a shared or virtual basis – that way we do exactly what this person is calling for the vast majority of the time.  We post the job as the employer.  In addition to that, there are times when a search is confidential for a reason.  People do shady things on the job and get replaced or fired.  In one case we were required by the employer to sign an agreement prohibiting us from using the company’s name, even in the job description.  Believe it or not, there are quite a few employers that prefer the way staffing agencies work.  Some even create ongoing hiring partnerships with staffing agencies.  A few big ones that you have heard of in the DC market do that.  But to re-focus this back on the main concern which is disclosure I will point out that there are plenty of reasons for not disclosing the name of the employer or key details.  If you have ever posted a job on Craigslist you know why.  There are tons of people – onshore and offshore who will spam and call the employer trying to land a business opportunity with the hiring team.  This just isn’t ok and by itself it is reason enough for not disclosing full details on a public list.

Event: DC ACM Resume Workshop on March 1, 2010

The Washington DC Chapter of the Association of Computer Machinists (DC ACM) is hosting a Resume Workshop for area IT professionals on Monday, March 1, 2010 from 6:30-8:30pm in downtown Washington, DC. The event is open to DC ACM Members and non-members. This is an outstanding opportunity to get a free resume review and advice from someone who reviews resumes for a living.

DC ACM Members and IT Professionals who are not DC ACM Members are invited too.  RSVP today.

Corporate recruiters and HR Professionals interested in volunteering as resume experts should send a note to email@jobmatchbox.com today.

The Best DC Area Video Resume I’ve Seen

You may remember some of the video resume mentions from a few years back. The truth is that there hasn’t been one that stood out that I’ve seen in a while. That is, until now.

A friend from the DC Tech Community passed this one on to me today. It doesn’t start off as a video resume, but by the time it gets to the point you are already hooked.

If anyone needs a programmer, this may be your guy.

A Casual Case of Employer Branding

I’m always impressed with employers who are willing to go the extra mile when it comes to employer branding.  Adding just a few extra bells and whistles can make a big difference.  Today I happened upon one local employer’s DIY (Do It Yourself) employer branding campaign. It isn’t fancy, just a home video with a decent sound track added. Watch it here:

Nice reference to company extracurriculars.  While I would recommend at least hiring a professional video crew to do this over, to remove the part that makes me dizzy while watching it, it does give me the impression that is is a cool place to work.  This goes to show that it doesn’t take an army of consultants to make a stellar employer brand happen for a company.

Here is my favorite employer branding video of all time:

They said they did this in one take, but I don’t buy it for a second.  They have other iterations of it online, along with a host of other random company related videos including some office mate pranks.

Feel free to send in other examples.

A Light At The End of The Social Media Tunnel

For the last few years I’ve constantly been stressed out about how many different Social Media conduits and tools had been popping up.  There is the obvious benefit that comes with having a cool new tool, but for someone from a hiring team or a job seeker this is like throwing gas on fire.  Just when you think you have everything sorted out 5 new tools and a dozen new websites launch.   Forget the resume black hole, the social media and new web are a much greater threat.   For starters, we are all totally entertained by Facebook and Facebook apps and more in tune with each other thanks to Twitter.  That’s the bright side.  The dark side is that we could spend hours, days, weeks and months trawling through all of the content and possible connections.  Everyone seems to be opening new doors except the LinkedIn folks who seem to be closing them faster and faster every day.  In social media speak I think what I am trying to say is that the signal to noise ratio is totally out of line.  That is until today.  I am a long time user of an instant messenger client called Pidgin, and today Pidgin has totally made my day.  I originally switched from Trillian because I wanted to be able to give my IM contacts nicknames.  With Pidgin this was super easy so it was a no-brainer.  Another plus is that when I boot up my Ubuntu (Linux) laptop Pidgin carries works there too so I don’t have to reinvent the wheel where IM is concerned.  A few days ago while I was working with my stealth mode startup team I expressed frustration with the fact that I was getting IM’d on Pidgin and on Facebook.  The solution that was suggested was a plugin for Pidgin that allows me to send and receive messages across Facebook from Pidgin.  Problem #1 solved.  As an added bonus I get notifications in Pidgin when I get new non-IM messages on Facebook too.   Almost as soon as this problem was solved I started wondering whether a similar plugin was available for Twitter.  Fingers crossed, I searched for one and found a plugin that allows me to send and receive messages across Twitter too.  Now don’t get me wrong, it isn’t as nice looking as the interface that I get when I visit Twitter and Facebook, but it works really well.  I feel like I am reeling my time back in by the minute because now I don’t have to log into Facebook, Twitter (I was using Twhirl), AIM, or Yahoo! to send and receive messages.  I haven’t decided what to do with all of my new found free time, but I’m excited to have it.  This is great news for job seekers and hiring team members who are using social media to field important incoming communication and to stay in touch with buddies this is a major reason to be excited.

Wanted: Consultants Who Care

Earlier today I got a call from an East Coast startup founder who is frustrated with their outsourcing experiences.  They raised some Triple F cash and put it towards an offshore developer.  That sucked so they put more of it towards two onshore developers.  They aren’t sure if that is working so they are about to put more of it towards another onshore developer so that they can rest assured that they are getting a good deal.  Last week I got a call from a consulting firm that just took over a major project that another consulting firm was fired from.  A week before that I got a call from a developer doing work for a startup that had just fired a consulting firm for offshoring development work after they agreed not to.  Oh, and on top of that I reached out to a consultant because I thought they might be able to handle a very specific task that I simply don’t have time for.  The quote I got back made me question whether or not the consultant listened to a word that I said.  Did I mention that right now I’m reading a book called ‘How To Build A Successful Consulting Practice’ that coincides nicely with all of these conversations?  I feel like I’m turning into the Better Business Bureau.

I’ve joked about how some in the community are running for Mayor of Techville in the past (the Washington Post has me on the record), but so far I don’t think I’ve brought up that other important character in Techville: the Sheriff.  So who is Sheriff in Techville?  In the consumer economy there is regulation of large companies, doctors, and providers of all sorts of things.  There are consumer advocates who talk about slime in ice machines and dangerous product recalls.  But in the consulting space there is mostly just word of mouth.  While the consulting space isn’t exactly the Wild Wild West, it certainly feels that way sometimes.  In my experience there are good consultants and bad, but the bad ones sure do outnumber the good ones.  The name of the game is money and by the time that consultants figure out how to balance the challenges of providing good service and ROI to their clients with the challenges of being consultants in the first place the damage is often already done and it is too late.

So the quote that I got came with an SOW/Contract that told me what I have to pay, when I to pay, and what happens if I don’t pay.  I checked twice to make sure I wasn’t missing something important.  I wasn’t.  The part that I thought that I might be missing was the part about guaranteed ROI.  The kind of guarantee that spells out that if what I buy doesn’t work or deliver expected results then I don’t have to pay.   At the very minimum it should spell out that i don’t have to pay in full.  I thought about this some and it really made me think of all of these people who have called me about their problems over the last few weeks.  Then I thought about how I do business with my clients as a consultant.

As a consultant I offer a guarantee option.  I don’t completely like offering a guarantee because I know that I could put a lot of work in and get less or nothing at all than my time deserved.  I offer a less expensive option to my clients that doesn’t have a guarantee, but even that provides for the client to get out of the contract if I suck so my success depends on my getting the job done.  I don’t take on every client opportunity that comes along.  Some are bad news, others are just plain uninteresting or things that I don’t have time to do.  Ultimately, when I take on a client I have to care about their success.  I would really like to hear more stories from people about consultants who they have worked with who they felt cared about their business.  I would like to see consultants embrace this more as a part of their core mission.

In the mean time, I leave you with these parting thoughts about business transactions.  A bank won’t finance a loan for a house, car, or boat without insurance attached to the property in the event that it turns out to be worthless or gets damaged.  Consulting engagements typically cost on par with or more than these commodities.  Sellers of houses, cars, boats and consumer goods provide warranties in the event that their product turns out to be worthless or flawed.  Consulting engagements typically cost on par with or more than these commodities.  When I do headhunting, I provide a guarantee that if the person I place turns out to be worthless or flawed then my client gets a refund.  My fee is usually on par with or more than these commodities.  Like bankers and sellers of products, I stand by my work.  Consultants should too.  If they don’t then they should figure out a way to do so.

Mastering Job Description Copy Is Hard Work

Writing a job description can seem like a simple enough task.  You write a summary, list out responsibilities, add in a list of essential qualifications and skills, a blurb about the company, and details about how to apply for the job.  So why is it that some jobs get tons of responses and others get few responses, or none at all?  For that matter, why is it that in this search driven world that we live in some jobs get hundreds or thousands of viewers and others get dozens?  If you start to think about job descriptions as web pages, with keywords in them, then you begin to get to the root of the traffic problem.  Your job description needs to have the right keywords in it so that it will show up on the radar of job seekers.  But just having the right keywords isn’t enough.  You have got to make sure that you have the right keyword combinations and much more.  Where applicants are concerned there are similar opportunities to increase your response rate.  For example, your job description may not be doing a very good job of selling the role or the company or the team or all of the above.  In some cases your job description may be worded in such a way that it sounds like someone is not wanted, even though they might be the ideal candidate.   When you are tasked with writing a job description don’t forget that your copy my be the hardest part of your job in recruiting good people for your opening.

Update:
So I sent a few people who posted their openings here on Jobmatchbox notes offering to re-write their job descriptions to help them get better results.  So far only one taker (see below).  If you would like a job description consultation drop me a note: email@jobmatchbox.com and as long as I’ve got some time I would be happy to help.

BEFORE:

The *snip* is seeking a Senior Visual Designer to be responsible for the overall visual design of the various web and eLearning products. We are looking for a top-notch designer that has a strong design and creative background. Our goal is to create web sites that provide an exceptional user experience and an engaging eLearning environment. A good understanding of user experience and information architecture principles is important. Our platform will make use of various media such as video and flash. At *snip*, we encourage innovative thinking and reward dedication to career and colleagues. We believe our accomplishments are based on the quality of individuals we hire and the positive work. This team member will work closely with front-end and flash/eLearning developers.

A successful candidate will possess:
-We are looking for an experienced Visual Designer. We are looking for some one with 3-10 years of experience (minimum 3 years experience)
-Strong creative and design skills
-Deep knowledge of Photoshop and related products for supporting the production of web optimized graphics. Knowledge of other Adobe products such as Illustrator
-A good understanding of HTML/CSS and working with front-end developers.
-Background in user experience and information architecture
-Experience in developing exceptional web sites
-Knowledge of Flash, Actionscript, Final Cut Pro, Javascript and eLearning is helpful but not mandatory
-Strong conceptual and technical knowledge of layout, user interface design, typography, motion, information/content design, and color theory as it applies to interactive Web products.
-Flexibility to shift priorities quickly within a fast-paced work environment
-Strong conceptual thinking with great attention to detail
-Team player who enjoys working on multi-skilled teams
-Solid organizational and time management skills

AFTER:
Summary:
Apply your user experience and information architecture insights and experience to create exceptional web sites that provide an exceptional user experience and an engaging eLearning environment at *snip*.  We have an opening on our team for a Senior Visual Designer with a strong design and creative background including Flash and Video.

Responsibilities:
-Apply your creative, user experience and information architecture skills to create compelling experiences involving Flash and Video.
-Collaborate with front-end and flash developers on eLearning developers projects.
-Handle multiple projects simultaneously in a fast-paced work environment that requires the ability to shift priorities quickly.

Qualifications:
-3-10 years of visual design experience including a strong design and creative portfolio in addition to practical user experience and information architecture project experience.
-Advanced to Expert skill level with Adobe products including Illustrator and Photoshop.
-Understanding of how to create compelling, web optimized graphics.
-A good understanding of CSS/HTML and working with front-end developers.  Interactive Agency experience desireable.
-Strong conceptual and technical knowledge of layout, user interface design, typography, motion, information/content design, and color theory as it applies to interactive Web products.
-Strong conceptual thinking with great attention to detail
-Solid organizational and time management skills

Desired Skills and Experience:
-Actionscript, Flash, Final Cut Pro, Javascript and eLearning

About *snip*
*this should tell something about the organization, but more importantly it should spell out why someone would want to work in your organization.  You might even want to provide some details on who consumes what you guys produce, i.e. CEO’s of companies, etc.  If it were up to me I would point out some examples of what members of the team have done and what the team culture is all about.  I have personally seen some of the work that this particular team has  done (I think) and it was pretty impressive relative to much of the other motion video work that I’ve seen.

The Price of An Aquisition To A User

Right now I’m reading my signed copy of Chris Anderson’s book ‘Free: The Future of A Radical Price’ which is fairly interesting.  Having been in the startup space for a while I’ve tried to learn as much as possible about how startups monetize free websites.  Interestingly, I had a conversation with a sales guy from a big huge company that recently acquired a startup.  He was selling me something that has gone up $4,000 in the last six months (per user) and trying to warrant the outrageous increase based on the company’s acquisition of a $150 technology.  I know the CEO and Founder of the company his big huge company acquired so this made for an interesting observation.  The big huge company’s $150 million acquisition translates into $4,000 more per user in added cost.  I wonder if this is how acquisitions are justified in other markets.  I wonder what the cost of losing business because of a very obvious price hike is to his company.  I can’t imagine the improved technology being worth that much more, but maybe I’m wrong.

No Brilliant Jerks!