Viewing profile — fecak

If writing and film are your true interests, you probably need to find something that gets you from A (where you are now) to B (writing and film) and positions you for that transit…

I write resumes for a living and give career consultations. Maybe 5% of my clients come to me with similar issues - they have accomplishments and work history, but really struggle …

I ran a large Java Users Group for several years when Java was part of Sun Micro and a handful of years after the transition to Oracle. I used to get swag for my members and did gi…

Nice piece. I write resumes and give career advice to a lot of tech professionals, and what you wrote about applying for jobs and "not being sure if a human ever read my resume" hi…

I don't think that is contradictory at all to what I wrote. I agree, many recruiters will try to send you out to every client and every job they have just to maximize their chances…

They may not care about what languages and tools you are using when they hire you, but that's how they find you. They aren't on LinkedIn search for "Software Engineer" in most case…

I said bad "hire", not bad "interview" - this was by design. If a company makes a bad hire, it's not (generally) because the candidate was presented, but rather a flaw in their int…

I'd bet your LinkedIn isn't optimized at all for discovery. Populate a skills section with languages and tools you use, and you'll often see an immediate uptick.

A bad hire isn't on a recruiter unless they are basically lying to the employer about the hire's credentials or background, and even then it's the employer's job to vet what is bei…

The bigger ones, yes. Not boutique/niche firms, but large ones tend to churn.

All of my recruiting work was retained for the last 5-10 years I was in business, and I wasn't recruiting executives. I'm not saying that is the norm (it definitely isn't), and you…

The article's methods are actually quite good. You should ignore most of the recruiter contacts - if the recruiter approaches you for a job that is clearly not a fit for your backg…

Tenure is a good one, but can be misleading. There are a few ways to make money in recruiting. Being really good at it and ethical is one way, but there are also people who are une…

Good question. The bad ones don't go away immediately. They go away eventually, and are quickly replaced with another round of new hires. So you have maybe 10% of the industry that…

The reluctance to work with recruiters is mostly the "time suck" element. If you were to chase every opportunity sent by recruiters you'd waste a ton of time, but you'd also maximi…

I don't think missing out and losing out are synonymous. I'm simply stating that if you decide to ignore any subset of potential opportunities solely due to the source, you are lim…

The OP mentioned doubling salary multiple times. I don't assume everyone is looking to advance to an exec role - in my experience, most actually are not looking for that at all. I …

Former recruiter here. You are spot-on about referrals, and having an insider advocating for you or just their willingness to make the recommendation starts things off at a great s…

Well you're in luck, young bibliophile. Teller has authored or co-authored five books, all published between your 12th and 28th birthdays. I may be more familiar with his work than…

If you are genuinely "old", you'd be more likely to know who Teller is. Penn & Teller were pretty ubiquitous back in the 80s and 90s. Teller is 73. Fun fact - he taught Latin at th…

It's corporate corruption and this type of behavior prevents companies from competing fairly. It's bigger than "corporate policy". That's like saying "theft" is against corporate p…

The recruiter argument against a fixed % is that they should be rewarded for their skill in negotiation. In other words, let's say market rate for your programming skill is 150/hr.…

In my opinion, LinkedIn's most valuable assets are the ability to get discovered by recruiters/hiring managers and as a way to conduct outreach. I would not recommend posting resum…

I am a former recruiter and wrote an article about this years ago. One of the main issues with third-party recruiting and the recruiter/candidate relationship is that their interes…