Was talking to a neighbor about work and she mentioned that my job must be easy as they are tons of people out of work. 

My response was that the skill sets that my clients are looking for (right now mostly CPA with Big 4 experience & Chemical Engineers) that most of those candidates are currently working. 

She then said that the recruiters role was to "get candidates jobs". 

What do you think is the recruiters role?

If you are in the job market, most likely you will have at least one phone screen with a recruiter and then a phone interview before being brought in for an in person interview.

 

Here are a few steps for making the most of the recruiter phone screen (so you can make it to the phone or in person interview)

1) If it is a scheduled phone screen, a little research goes a long way. you may not know the company (if it is not listed) but knowing what positions you applied for…

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Once in a while I have seen signs in front of restaurants that state some variety of "eat with us before we starve". Normally it is the type of place that buys a cake from Costco and resells the pieces. 

I am guessing (and hoping) it is a lame attempt at humor but always found it to be a bit unappealing. Their business being slow (and possibly going away) was not my issue. 

This makes me think of high value vs low value use of social networking to get a job.



Your… Continue

A friend of mine lamented on Facebook that it has been difficult to get a job because he has an employment gap (since August) so he (and many others) are stuck in this Catch 22 of not being to get a job because he does not have a job. Was thinking of ways to productively address the gap in a way that would make him more valuable in the job search.

One conventional piece of wisdom that I think needs to be re-addressed is "looking for a job is a full time job".

People hear this and… Continue

You are in the job market. Either you are not working and actively applying for jobs, your working but for whatever reason the writing is on the wall or you got a call from a pro-active recruiter. 

 

You start chatting about the general details of the job and then the question comes up, what are you looking to make....

 

You try to give an answer like negotiable, market rate or "we can come to an agreement" but the conversation is stalled without an actual data…

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