LinkedIn | The Recruitment Desk

July 15, 2015

Decoding Job Descriptions

All Job Descriptions are written in a corporate language that can, at first glance, be intimidating. Don’t fret. Part of leaning the Language of Job Descriptions, is learning how to take all of the information offered and make sense of it.

In order to understand what the Job Description is asking for, we have to do a bit of decoding.

Here is the abridged version of a job description from LinkedIn for a Sr. Network Administrator at a Fortune 500 company. It’s long and boring, but I encourage you to read it:

Perform performance trend analysis and manage the server/network capacity. Propose client configuration and implement technical solutions to enhance and/or troubleshoot the system. Work with others to define, coordinate vendor purchase needs. Responsible for support documentation as well.

Responsibilities
• Participate in the installation, monitoring, maintenance, support, and optimization of all production server hardware, software.
• Provides escalated 2nd level technical support for complex technical issues which may include leading problem management cases and providing management status.
• Manages escalated support cases and leads appropriate internal technical resources and/or 3rd party vendors to resolution.
• Managing a storage infrastructure of Oracle 7420 ZFS appliances
• Administration of production Active Directory forest, including group policy objects.
• Oracle Virtual Machine 3.x cluster management.
• Microsoft IIS 7.5 web farm management and troubleshooting.
• Assist with server operating system and application upgrades, bug fixes and patching.
• Working on standardization projects for both hardware and software under the Oracle technology stack; while providing consistent system uptime as expected in a SaaS environment.
• System support for both a MS SQL (Windows) and Oracle (Linux) database environment.
• Experience with Exadata Engineered Database systems considered an asset.

Other Responsibilities
• Must be able to provide after hours on-call support on a rotating basis.
• Light travel required in accordance with business needs.

Requirements
• Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, Information Systems or equivalent work experience.
• 8 years or more of related technical experience may be substituted for degree requirements.
• 8 years of experience in IT Infrastructure support and server administration in a mid-sized environment (200 – 1000+ server systems).
• 8 years of experience supporting and troubleshooting distributed, N-Tier applications, software, and operating systems.
• Experience administering and troubleshooting issues with messaging middleware and message brokers. Oracle AQ experience strongly preferred.
• Advanced knowledge of enterprise Linux OS and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2
• Ability to quickly learn new technologies and keep up with the latest technologies.
• Advanced knowledge of network architecture and protocols.
• Strong experience with enterprise administrative scripting using a major scripting language (Powershell, Bash, Perl, etc.)
• Experience with software deployment.
• Outstanding organizational skills, ability to prioritize effectively, and experience with technical project management.
• Highly service-oriented, reliable, responsible, self-motivated, and enthusiastic.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to interact professionally with a diverse group of customers and staff.
• Experience providing client-facing, direct customer support and service.
• Ability to interact with all levels of an organization in a professional, and tactful manner.
• Ability to work productively in cross-functional teams or resourcefully and independently as an individual.

If you feel like you need a drink after reading that, you are probably not alone.

Which is why I am here to help decode this Job Description.

Begin Decoding Process…

When I look at a Job Description, I see three colours:

Blue

Perform performance trend analysis and manage the server/network capacity. Propose client configuration and implement technical solutions to enhance and/or troubleshoot the system. Work with others to define, coordinate vendor purchase needs. Responsible for support documentation as well.

Blue is the heart of the Job Description. It’s the entire job in one nice little paragraph. That is the person this company is looking for.

Red

• Managing a storage infrastructure of Oracle 7420 ZFS appliances
• Administration of production Active Directory forest, including group policy objects.
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• Microsoft IIS 7.5 web farm management and troubleshooting.
• SaaS environment.
• MS SQL (Windows) and Oracle (Linux) database environment.
• Experience with Exadata Engineered Database systems considered an asset.
Other responsibilities
• N-Tier
• Oracle AQ experience strongly preferred.
• Linux OS and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2

Red is the stuff that’s going to get you noticed.

These are Hard Skills. Whoever wrote this job description went to the Hiring Manager to ask what the Senior Network Administrator would need to qualify for the position and this is the laundry list he or she came back with.

These are the infamous “Buzz Words” so many career gurus speak of. They are the terms I as Recruiter am taking to a search engine in hopes of finding your resume. They are the words that online selection software is ensuring are on your resume before it gets passed to Human Resources.

You don’t need to have all of them, but let’s be realistic, the more the merrier.

Green

• Participate in the installation, monitoring, maintenance, support, and optimization of all production server hardware, software.
• Provides escalated 2nd level technical support for complex technical issues
• Must be able to provide after hours on-call support on a rotating basis.
• Light travel required
• Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, Information Systems or equivalent work experience.
• 8 years or more of related technical experience may be substituted
• mid-sized environment (200 – 1000+ server systems)
• Advanced knowledge of network architecture
• Strong experience with enterprise administrative scripting
• software deployment.
• Experience providing client-facing, direct customer support and service.

While demonstrated knowledge of the Hard Skills is going to be the essential to you getting hired, what is outlined in Green are the things we as Recruiters are keeping an eye out for. They are the basic things we want to have checked off before we agree to send your resume to a Hiring Manager.

Read them again. Select the ones that best apply to your background and elaborate.

For example:

Client Facing: If you’re going to be supporting CEO’s CFO’s CTO’s or any other three letter abbreviations, you need to be able to conduct yourself accordingly. You need to be able to communicate effectively, appear presentable and deliver quality service. Not everyone has what it takes to be put in front of important people and be trusted to deliver. If you’ve been in these scenarios before, make sure they are outlined in your resume.

Mid-Sized Environment: If your claim to fame is being Network Administrator for Joe’s Pizza Emporium, which had you tending to all of two severs, we can’t really trust to throw 198 more at you and expect success. If you have worked in Mid-Sized Environments before, make sure you be specific (# of users?, # of servers, etc.).

On-Call/Travel: I once worked with a Hiring Manager who would not hire anyone who did not have experience working rotating on-call shifts. Why? Because it’s a lifestyle. Not all people or significant others understand getting woken up in the middle of the night. If you show you understand that and are prepared for it, you are one step ahead of the pack.

These are the things that will show you know a little bit about what you will be getting into; That you have a little been there, done that before; That you could have what it takes to be the next Sr. Network Administration at our company.

What was left in black were soft skills. They are generic things. Anyone can say they have them and everyone does. They are of the lowest importance. As you get better at Decoding Resumes you will learn to tune them out entirely.

Read your Resume again. If it is composed largely of soft skills, you have some work to do.

Once you begin to understand what a job description is asking for, you’ll be able to tailor your resume to match it, and the closer your resume matches, the more likely someone will be setting up an appointment to discuss in further detail.

April 1, 2014

The Sixth Commandment: Thou Shalt Know Who They Are Meeting With

LinkedIn is my best friend.

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LinkedIn is my soul mate.

LinkedIn completes me.

For one reason.

It connects me to everyone I’m clever enough to search for.

To all those LinkedIn employees who are reading this because I sent them an InMail with the link to this page, look me up. Let’s talk opportunities.

See how easy it is?

So there is no reason for you to not know as much as you possibly can about the person you are interviewing with before sitting down with them.

When you’re on someone’s LinkedIn page, you’re on a hunt for clues that could give you an upper hand in the conversation.

Some of the things you should be looking to uncover:

Current job title
Length of position
Average length of former positions
Number of promotions within current company
Professional organizations joined
Awards or accolades
Education
Connections in common
Links to publications

Remember, you could be the sixth person this week who the hiring manager has had to go through these questions with. Anything that you can use to help break the ice in an interview will be to your advantage.

See the difference:

Hiring Manager: What makes you want to work for X company?
You: I need a job.

Vs.

Hiring Manager: What makes you want to work for X company?
You: It’s been a dream of mine since my Western days to work for X company.
Hiring Manager: I went to Western.
You: I saw that, you were in Psychology? Did you ever have Bryant?
Hiring Manager: Only failing grade I’ve ever gotten.

Who do you think got the job?

The Moral of This Commandment: In an age where a few clicks and clever search terms can get you connected with the highest levels of management within the largest organizations in the world, there’s no excuse to not know as much as possible about who you are meeting with before sitting down.

March 11, 2014

Meeting a Recruiter

If you’re meeting a Recruiter, it’s for one of three reasons:

1) You applied for a job they posted. They think you look like a good fit on paper. It’s time to see if you deliver the goods.

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2) They found you on a job board or LinkedIn. They thought you looked good on paper. It’s time to see if you deliver the goods.

3) They’ve interviewed four people that they’ve put forward for jobs this week. Alas policy requires them to interview five. They don’t want to get fired. They suppose you’ll do.

No matter what the reason you’re meeting with a recruiter, don’t worry about it. All that matters is that someone is giving you the opportunity to tell your story. Even if you’re no more than quota to the person you’re meeting with, do everything you can to impress them. If they expect nothing of you and you end up making them feel like this:

The chances of them going back to their desk and trying to find you a job are pretty good. If not, that’s their loss. Onto the next one.

When you’re meeting with a Recruiter, know this: It’s not a job interview. Just because we meet with you does not mean we guarantee to find you a job. We make a promise to our clients that we meet with every person we represent before sending them over for review. So that’s what we do.

Some Recruiters will only go as far as the phone screen, submit your resume based on that and wait to book a meeting until seeing if the client schedules an interview. The logic behind this is that there’s no bother in us meeting if the client has no interest.

This is called Paper Pushing.

This is called Throwing Spaghetti At a Wall and Seeing if it Sticks.

This is called Lazy.

Don’t stand for it. Insist on coming in and sitting down with the Recruiter REGARDLESS. You may think that they’re saving you time and effort. I know you don’t want to ride the TTC Downtown in the middle of the day unless there’s going to be something in it for you. I don’t blame you.

But guess what? If you don’t meet the Recruiter before they submit your resume and the client says Thanks, but not a fit for this one, you’ll probably never hear from them again.

Why?

Because in this scenario the Recruiter doesn’t owe you anything. They’ve placed a bet and are hoping for the best. If you end up getting called to an interview, awesome. That makes their numbers look good. Hopefully you’re still available and interested. If not, it’s no skin off their back. They’re already looking for the next batch of people to push onto the next job.

Let’s have a quick word on this:

PAPER PUSHERS MAKE THE RECRUITMENT INDUSTRY WORSE FOR EVERYONE.

Clients pay us good money to find quality talent for them. If all the Recruiter is doing is forwarding anyone who halfway looks like they could be a fit and hoping HR will book an interview, they’re not doing their job and eventually their luck will run out. Avoid them. And PLEASE, whatever you do, DO NOT LET THEM SPAM YOUR RESUME AROUND THE CITY. Know your Recruiter and know where your information is being sent. If someone is responsible for handling the one document that is a clear and accurate representation of you, don’t you think you should at least meet them first?

Besides, a good Recruiter should want to meet you. It’s their job to interview people! If they know their business, their client, their industry, their whatever, then they should have the insight and experience to be able to guide you and get you one step closer to the job. You can submit your resume to any job yourself and hope for the best. I’m paid because I know what it takes to help get your foot in the door. I have to trust that you have what it takes to go all the way and you have to trust in my ability to get your there. For that, we need to meet.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about preparing you for our meeting and what is expected of you during that time.

February 27, 2014

Choosing a Recruiter That’s Right For You

Remember yesterday when I tried to reshape your perception of yourself in relation to the Recruitment market by asking you to think about yourself as a product and your Recruiter as a Salesman?

With that, you want to make sure that you’re finding adequate representation in the form of a Recruiter that can actually get your name out there and your details read. Every Recruiter will promise you a Stairway to Heaven, but only a select few of them have what it takes to riff like Jimmy Page

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There are two schools of doing within the Recruitment business: Proactive and Reactive.

Reactive

This means that a Recruiter is acting as a reaction to something that has been placed in front of them. That call will sound something like this

*Ring**Ring*
Mary: “Hello?”
Mike: “Hey is this Mary?”
Mary: “Speaking.”
Mike: “Hey Mary it’s Mike from XYZ Recruiting calling?”
Mary: “Who?”
Mike: “You sent me your resume yesterday regarding the QA Analyst position.”
Mary: “Right, right, Mike, how are you?”

The reason I called Mary is because one of the Big Five Banks just gave me a call and told me they had an immediate need for a permanent QA Analyst to be working full-time, on-site at their Downtown location. Maybe I posted the job on LinkedIn. Maybe I did an e-blast (more on this latter), maybe I met with Mary last week and liked what she was all about or maybe Mary sent me her resume on spec and the timing just so happened to work out. Timing is everything in this business.

Either way, my call to Mary is a reaction to this open position. I have something right now that I am actively working on and think Mary might be a good fit. I want to chat with her, see where she is at personally and professionally and, if she’s a good fit, get her sent forward for the position.

Reactive Recruiting is essentially sitting around with your head in the sand waiting for something to work on.

Proactive

The best Recruiters are Proactive.

They don’t sit around and wait for job orders to come in. They go out an find opportunities. Their goal is to meet with promising candidates and figure out where to send them. If you come into my office and tell me you’re a Front End Developer with experience in Tridion I know automatically where your information is going because I know the two major companies that use Tridion Web Content Management System in the city.

In fact, if you have this skillset, give me a call and let’s talk.

Not only will a Proactive Recruiter know where to send you, they’ll also know who to send you to. They know Dave in HR or Jeff who heads up the Front-End Development Team. In fact they just played golf this past weekend in Jeff’s annual tournament and he owes them a favour or two.

So, how do you find a good one?

You’ll need to interview them a little once they get done interviewing you. This is a two way relationship after all.

Here are a couple of things to look for in knowing whether you’re meeting with the real deal or someone just passing through the industry.

1) Their main concern will not be with what you can do for them, but rather with what you want. If you’re currently employed full-time at the bank and have a six figure salary plus an extensive benefits package then I’m not going to send you contracts for $50/hr. It’s a waste of both of our time. A good recruiter wants to dig deep and know what their talent wants. They don’t want you to waste their time and don’t want to waste yours. (More on this when we explore Recruiter Interviews in more depth)

2) Check their LinkedIn. Whether we like it or not, LinkedIn is the way of the future. One day I can foresee it becoming more important than your physical resume. So check the background of the Recruiter you’re meeting with. Don’t be overly alarmed if they have jumped around to different companies (more on that in another post). What you do want to look for is their connections and their recommendations. How many people are they connected with? What type of people are they connected with? How many candidates have recommended working with them? How many pleased clients have nothing but praise to sing for them? A Recruiter is only as good as his/her reputation within the industry. If people aren’t talking about them, they may as well not exist.

3) Don’t be afraid to push a Recruiter to talk about themselves. Who’s on their current client list? Are these active or passive client relationships? (I.E. are they on site every couple of weeks or did they place someone there for a one off, once upon a time and who knows if they’ll ever call again.) How many positions have they filled from Proactive Recruitment vs. Reactive Recruitment? Don’t be afraid to put them on the spot and see how they hold up under pressure. Remember, this isn’t a job interview.

4) Don’t limit yourself to just one Recruiter. We know you call more than one person. We know that you’ve applied for a bunch of jobs on your own. We know that our competitor’s may have relationships with clients that we don’t. And we know that, depending on our organizational structure, we may be limited in our ability to help.

And

5) Decide what you’re looking for. If you’re an Architect you’re going to want to call a big box agency that has a Construction or Architectural Division or a boutique firm that focuses only in this niche market. These people deal in this space day in and day out. They know what sets a good candidate apart from a bad one, they know the current and emerging trends, they can speak to the state of their vertical and, best of all, they only deal with clients who look for people like you. So don’t limit yourself. Speak to as many agents as will meet with you and choose to partner closely with the one or two that you trust and feel can best service your needs.

This is, after all, about you.

Decoding Job Descriptions

Begin Decoding Process…

Blue

Red

Green

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The Sixth Commandment: Thou Shalt Know Who They Are Meeting With

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Meeting a Recruiter

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Choosing a Recruiter That’s Right For You

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