Generalizations are stupid.

There. I just made one. Now doesn’t that sound silly? You’re probably thinking “aww, come on Amy! It’s usually true!” Yeah maybe, but it’s exhausting. I have been diagnosed with Generalization Fatigue. Symptoms range from eye-rolling, head banging, and groaning to slamming laptops closed in order to protect yourself from one more crappy prediction about the fate of recruiting. Here are some of my favorites:

The resume is…

You win, universe. I quit. I hereby resign as career coach helping the wayward un/under-employed. You know I feel a responsibility – a moral obligation, even – to help job seekers. I don’t mean candidates for my company – I mean job seekers who can do no more for me than say thank you. I just think it’s the right thing to do – to offer help and career guidance when and where I can. I've reviewed hundreds of resumes, mock interviewed candidates, edited LinkedIn profiles, made intros…

My kid is home from college for spring break. It’s been an awesome week - when she’s not sleeping she’s actually hanging out with me. Inevitably the conversation turns to work stuff – recruiting for me, school work for her, and what the future holds now that’s she’s a grown up (sort of). I asked her what she thought of Donglegate. Ok, maybe not the best intro, she looked both confused and disturbed until I explained. For those that missed it, two guys at a tech conference made a bad joke and…

As much as I HATE to give this post any more link love than it's already probably getting, I just can't help but call out something I read this morning. Here it is, in all its glory - What Recruiters Won’t Tell You and Why courtesy of Recruiter.com. Don't worry about clicking away dear reader – I'll share with you the highlights and won't hold back what I really think. My only hope is that any frustrated job…

Have you seen HR Nasty's latest blog? My first thought was "oh no he DIDN'T!!" then I thought, ok – maybe he's 

right. But I'm right too. I've been in a mostly remote position for…

What a rough few weeks. You've probably heard a couple of things about me lately – I lost a friend / colleague, and I changed jobs. After nearly two years as a corporate recruiter for Zones, responsible for just about every department outside of sales, I left. Coming on the heels of a death in our department, it was especially hard to say goodbye.

The past month has been full of difficult conversations. I was not actively looking for a new role. Some might even call me a passive…

Last week I introduced you to a job seeker asking for advice on how to handle a “missing” recruiter. This candidate (I interviewed him – he’s good) was frustrated after following instructions and getting zip / zero / nada in response. Check out Part 1 here. My advice to our friend? Here’s a portion of the email response I sent –

“Here's what I would do. I would…

Whenever you walk in on someone crying, you can’t help but think “who died"? Yesterday, tragically, my question was the right one. I learned that a very close co-worker had passed unexpectedly the night before.

This news comes on the heels of a previous loss last week – one of our sales people died. HR had already done what they do in these instances – made sure everyone had the EAP number, worked with leadership to pass along information while retaining privacy for the family, looked…

I’ve been staring at this blank page for weeks. In the past couple of months I’ve heard from two very different contacts that they’ve gotten pretty far in the recruiting process, only to have the recruiter disappear. They don’t call, they don’t write. They certainly don’t pick up the phone when it rings. Why is that?

I received an email from a job seeker I've crossed paths with both as a candidate and professional networking contact. He is smart, educated, and has a great deal of…

I started blogging on RBC back in May of 2011. I was just about to go back into recruiting, this time as a corporate recruiter. I’d played around the edges of social media for a while, but this was my first attempt at garnering an audience. I was terrified.

The wonderful people at RBC were very welcoming, and even the mean comments were worth something. I made some great online friends and worked with AMAZING people like…

I’m not really a New Year’s Resolution kind of girl. I don’t particularly want to give up any of my bad habits, and I work out just enough to fit into my favorite jeans (most of the time).  I have no real desire to do anything that different. I like my life.

Still, a new year does give me a chance to reflect on the year that just past. I really amped up my involvement in RBC and committed (at least to myself) to blog more frequently. I took to Twitter like… never mind, I don’t…

Here’s a newsflash for you – recruiting is a people business. And whenever people are involved, inevitably, something will go wrong. I think most of us are willing to admit this, and frankly I’m happy to have a place like RBC where I can bitch, gripe, complain then call it blogging. A couple of my recent favorite posts (here and…

…and not a damn thing has changed.

Same president, roughly the same breakdown in House and Senate, not a lot of local changes that I can tell. Oh, except the pot thing. My state is apparently legalizing marijuana so we can all just get high and forget about 8% unemployment. I told my good friend Michelle that I personally had been disappointed with the government since voting for Ross Perot 20 years ago (I was SO NAIVE) and she assured me Obamacare would cover my…

…If you respond to your prospect.

Last week I received a LinkedIn message from a niche job board salesperson. I got it several times actually – he sent it to everyone on our recruiting team and they all forwarded it to me. This particular job board focuses on marketing, and the timing couldn’t have been better – our marketing and ecommerce teams are exploding.  

The message referenced a specific job posting (even though I already had a finalist and was ready to…

How important is company culture to recruiters? I’m not talking about so called “discrimination masquerading as cultural fit”. If you’re looking to read up on that check out this post from back in April.

My question is simply this – should recruiters screen candidates for culture fit with our clients?

Like so many things in recruiting –…

There are many reasons I adore my current boss – I was reminded of one just the other day. I was coming off an especially grueling couple of weeks. One particular search, which should have been an easy fill, had become nothing short of a nightmare. Without going into all the gory detail (I’d like to keep my job) let’s just say there had been a communication breakdown between me and my client. As a corporate recruiter, my only option is to keep working with this…

We’ve all done it. Sent off that form letter email to a dozen or more “qualified” candidates. Maybe it’s an InMail, maybe you actually found someone’s personal email address. You’ve drafted what you think is a rather clever pitch and have shot it through cyberspace hoping a fabulous candidate will see the wisdom and value in writing you back. This guy did.

Ted Goas is a Web Developer who gets roughly one email a day from technical recruiters.…

This…

As a die-hard Mariners fan since 1994 and dedicated Yankees hater, this week’s trade of Ichiro Suzuki to the Yankees (the YANKEES) just about killed me. Ichiro has been a much loved member of the Bad News Bears Seattle Mariners for 12 seasons. As if his departure wasn’t painful enough, he actually played his first game as a Yankee at Safeco Field against the Mariners. It was so bad that when a hiring manager stopped by my desk shortly after I heard the news, he…

Here’s an interesting email / follow up I got today thanks to Employee Referrals Gone Wild, which I wrote back in April (hint – nothing on the internet ever dies). This person was searching the web for advice on how to handle being an employee referral, and came across my blog. With the job seeker’s permission I am including the text of her email and my…