Resume Digest Blog

It's not very hard to get filtered out of the selection process. Remember that recruiters are trained to spot the negatives in order to reduce a list of applicants to a manageable size.

Just think you went out as a contractor because the place where you worked tried to bypass all the strings attached with regular employment. No more workers compensation insurance, no more superannuation, no more awards you have become a self-employed contractor. Terrific! Now there is a permanent job advertised and you want to apply. Guess what? Those people will shy away from contractors because they think you will get itchy feet and can't stand in a job more than six months! How do they come to that conclusion? Did they give you a chance to say anything about it? No, that is candidate profiling at its best.

Worse than a contractor is the one who claims to be self-employed. For a recruiter self-employed brings bad vibes. It means this person has other business interests that will interfere with the regular employment on offer. Too much of a risk. When it's convenient to them they like to find ways to get rid of you at a moment's notice but when they want you - they want you body and soul - all or nothing - you don't have the right to have your own life - you don't have the right to have a plan B in case their wonderful employment opportunity turns out to be a dud.

They demand total loyalty and submission - they want slaves not employees. Recruitment agencies are notorious to go overboard with this mindset because in order to look good in the eyes of their clients they want to pre-empt any objections that may or may not come up. If a rogue element has infiltrated the shortlist it makes them look bad - hence their treat candidates like a commodity they can onsell to their client.

So how do those corporate consultants get by, swinging from one assignment to the next? My guess is that they don't use recruitment agencies (even though agencies would love to represent them and get a cut of their fees). Over time they have built a network of contacts and they faithfully tap to their grapevine to check-up on any new openings. They also ferret out opportunities for others wherever they go so that when the time comes a good favour in return is to be expected.

If they do too much of that they may work for a recruitment agency or setup their own. For the rest of us we can sharpen our resume with resume digest.

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