4 Things I Wish Recruiters Knew About Me

4 Things I Wish Recruiters Knew About Me

There are so many things I wish recruiters and hiring managers knew when looking at my resume.  I wish they would see the tenacity, the pain, the disappointment and the perseverance.  As I'm proofreading this I'm realizing that everyone has a story, everyone has some thing or some reason why things are the way they are.  And it's up to me to make myself stand out from the crowd.

But I can still wish can't I?

I guess that's what the interview is for, right?  But how do you get to that point?  When there are gaps in your employment history.  You can't exactly put there were two deaths in the family, one was an unexpected tragedy in another state.  You can't put these were temporary positions that didn't work out.  You can't put I took a position that wasn't right for me.

Since I graduated college, like many other millennials you're struggling to not only find a career you're struggling to find and keep a job.  The stress of getting older and searching for that "perfect career" or "perfect job" there are a few things I've learned along the way that I wish I fully understood when I finally finished college.

When I left I thought being a "Jill of all Trades" would serve me well in the workforce but it has made it hard for me to define myself.  If it's hard for you to define yourself then how will anyone else know what you want or what you're about?

Through social media (Facebook and LinkedIn) I've kept up with colleagues and people I've gone to school with who obtained the same degree as I have.  And it just looks like two of us are making the most out of our degrees.  One went into the clergy, another never left the school (he works there, a smart move in the long run), another just got a job outside retail and it only took ten years after graduating to do so.  A lot of others on the list are also in retail.

Three ladies have made pretty good careers after college.  I want to be one of those few.

Another person has told me it's all about who you know.  

I rebelled against that sentiment because I don't know a lot of people.  I also want to be hired for my accomplishments and for who I am and not because of who I know.

So now I'm to the point of reading every book, blog and post I can that I think can help me (now 31 years old) along the way.  There are so many things I wish recruiters knew about me when looking at my resume.

1. Data-Driven Positions: 

I am a C-Style on the DiSC assessment.  And I'm an INTJ on the Myers-Briggs Personality Test.  I do well with data-driven positions, my second favorite job was as billing coordinator for Diebold.  I came in checked the contracts for the rates and billed based on the work the technicians did when they fixed a machine.  The pink slip a tech fills in when they come to install your cable, I got the white slip labeled (for office use only) and billed our clients as needed.

My number one favorite job was working for MRC Global as the Freight Resolution Auditor.  I got to release payments after a certain amount and audit the payments that looked "funky" for lack of a better phrase.  If the truckload charge for stringing or detention is off I would e-mail the appropriate party to discuss the fee or look at the contract and decide based on what the contract says to remit payment.

I liked those jobs the best because I was providing an important service without the direct pressures of what the sales team worked with on a daily basis.

2.  Organization:

 I work well with organized departments, not the other way around.  The tail can't wag the dog and that's what employees are, they're part of a whole.  I wish employers, hiring managers, and recruiters know and realize that if you have a disorganized company or hostile environment that's run by the sales team then I would rather not waste anyone's time.  

Hearing, "you don't have the same standing as a salesperson" is not only morally defeating you are also told you are at the mercy of the sales team's performance, their mood and you're basically at that person's mercy.  The job is no longer about how organized you are it's about working with disorganization as best as you can and how much of a sycophant you can turn into. 

My brother was telling me about how a manager called the entire department to chastise them about calling in late or not coming in at all.  He was so stressed over it.  I asked him, "Why were you called into the meeting with the whole department? You're always on time and you never call off."

How do I know this?  He wasn't sure if he could get off for my wedding.  

Just listening to his story stressed me out. His boss told the good and bad employees if they didn't want to be there they could quit and was cussing at them.  

What I liked about those other two jobs I mentioned earlier was the lack of stress.  I worked with numbers and reporting.  I was trained on what I needed to do and when it needed to be done and I performed those tasks.

Unless I'm hired to solve the issues of a job when it comes to wasting time or organization no person should be expected to come into a new job cold and adapt to disorganization and company politics.  

I ran across a blog post explaining me to a tee.

In the below story the INTJ, which is what I am, ignores that the woman is about to give birth because if it was that serious she would have gone to give birth and not been there to give a report.  OR the sooner she gives me the report the sooner she can go deliver her baby.  I don't think these are aspects I can change about myself.  

If you're at work you're there to work.  I don't go to work to make friends, but if I do that's a bonus.  But you're not at work to play.  It's not my job or business to be in everyone else's business.  

Less Than 1% of the Population

Female INTJs don't flirt or join the crowd. They are more concerned with getting the job done than with

soothing people's feelings. This does not mean that they have no feelings. They can, and often do, have very intense and deep feelings. It just means that they truly don't think that their feelings are relevant or anyone else's business.

Yes, INTJs are very private people, but more about the feelings thingie. Let's say that the president has called a meeting about an end-of-the-world scenario. Each person invited to attend is a specialist in their field. One of the female delegates is pregnant, looks ready to give birth, and appears quite green about the gills. Most people in the room will enquire after her health. The INTJ will completely ignore the personal situation (the pregnancy) and instead ask for the report. This gives an impression of insensitivity. As previously mentioned, the strategist, scientist, and/or system-builder (all names for the INTJ) is concerned with the task at hand. However, as women are often expected to be the nurturers and communicators of the community, the INTJ woman is at odds with the norm.

3. Determination:

I wish hiring managers could just look at my resume and know that the past 4 years I've been working temporary positions.  I wish hiring managers knew that every one of those temp jobs I treated like it was an actual real job that I would stay with for years.

I want to so badly put on my resume that when I was working for J.M Smuckers I had a great experience, even though the drive was nearly an hour from my house at the time. I still made it into work early or on time, my boss had no complaints.  

But...that was the same year they acquired Big Heart Pet Brands.  

The plan was to transfer me to the Communications Department to fill in for an assistant while she was out for a week.  The assistant trained me for two days.  Until I got called into the office and was told that for budget reasons they weren't going to keep me on.  That was the same year my boyfriend's (my now husband) little sister passed away.  I was already going to work devastated.  And then his grandmother passed away.   My body was at work but my mind was with people I cared for but couldn't be there and doing what I could because I just knew the hard work would pay off while he was in West Virginia without me in a time of crisis.

4. Temporary Positions

I also wish recruiters knew the history behind my resume.

I had a similar situation with Diebold.  I had watched person after person was rolled over to full-time status.  Securitas bought part of Diebold, the electronic security I was working in.  Surely I was next, again I had no complaints, I came to work early or on time and it was a perfect job for me.  

Wincor Nixdorf acquired Diebold, so yes, while the divestment was happening an investment was happening and a shakeup with the corporation happened a year before we were to be married

Again another blow, this time I wasn't given a two-week warning.

So by the time I got my first offer to have a full-time job I jumped at it.  Whether the position was right for me or not.  I made the decision to try to make it work.  And now I know you can't force a job.

I had hopes of becoming a Communications Manager by the time I was 30, a goal I haven't done well at all to achieve since I'm 31 and my resume has more operations, logistics and financial positions in it than communications.  I still believe that I will reach that goal one way or the other and maybe I will be making trips to Paris, Germany or Italy.  I've been sacrificing so much that there was a point that I didn't recognize myself.  But I think I've been sacrificing all the wrong things.

It's hard to figure out the path because no two successful person's path is the same.  

I hope that one day I do get that opportunity.  Whether self-made or someone recognizes the potential in me but I just wish that recruiters didn't see my resume and dismiss me for one reason or the other.  I am worth giving a chance to if given the opportunity.  I have overcome a lot and gone through more than the average millennial. I wish I was given that fair shot in a job I like and can do well in.  

I also hope to work for a job that does care and take into consideration that a family emergency is just that, an emergency.  I want to work for a job that just doesn't pretend to value their employees.

I believe I've come into a string of situations that haven't benefited me in the long term but I will create a plan and take the time to go after where I belong.