Recruiter-Hack Your Job Hunt

or, How To Be More Awesome

5 min readMar 5, 2015

Dear Millennial Job Seeker, Dear every-WickedSmart-signup-ever…

You are about to receive a gift of unparalleled fortune: a very candid and behind-the-scenes peek at what most (you need to assume every) recruiter and/or employer does to check you out as a potential candidate BEFORE THEY EVER REACH OUT TO YOU. So tuck in, kiddos.

[Stay tuned for an equally-enlightening article next week on how to maximize your chances of avoiding the résumé/application black hole to begin with. Meanwhile…]

Our story begins as we (the aforementioned recruiter and/or employer) become aware that you are either interested in our industry or our open position, or generally that you are seeking employment opportunities. Here’s what we do next.

STEP 1: We review your résumé.

Here’s the thing…You need to fatten that résumé up. Even if you don’t have “experience,” you have experiences…You’ve taken high school and college courses. You’ve played sports or done community service or had a hobby. No one told you that you couldn’t list those things in your Experience section. (And if they did, they’re wrong. Sorry, Grandma.)

Golden Rule #1: ‘Tis better to have experience than just a list of skills.

Whatever you do, DON’T… over-format your résumé. The plainer the text and format the better, because usually your résumé is going to get fed to/eaten by a robot. (See http://resumebot.io)

STEP 2: We call you.

Here’s the thing…You put your phone number at the top of your résumé (don’t put it at the bottom, darling). So BEFORE you release that puppy into the wild for the first time, how’s about you make sure your (very professional-sounding) voicemail is set up? And how’s about you don’t screen calls from numbers you don’t recognize, as if you’re a celebutante trending on Perez Hilton?

Golden Rule #2: When you’re a-job-huntin’, answer your phone. ‘Cause that’s a good call. (See what we did there?)

Whatever you do, DON’T… leave any contact information out of your résumé. At the very least, you MUST include your city and state, your email address AND your cell phone number (aka, your life line, DUH).

STEP 3: We text and/or email you.

Here’s the thing…We know you screen your calls. We do, too. But to be fair, we like our jobs, which we have in the first place. SINCE we know you do that, we just might give you a pass when you don’t answer our call, if you respond to the text and/or email that we send you shortly thereafter. See, we’ve got a job to do, and that’s to get this position filled.

Golden Rule #3: ABR…Always Be Responsive. Even if you‘re not interested in that particular position or company.

Whatever you do, DON’T…assume that because we texted you (or reached out in any other way), we’re buddies. Don’t get us wrong, we heart you and we’re pulling for you, but in a stern-old-English-teacher kind of way. We need to know (and witness) that you are capable of behaving in a professional manner. So check yo’ self.

STEP 4: We Google you, to find social media accounts (and hopefully nothing else).

Here’s the thing…dating accounts show up. True story, from our very own WickedSmart recruiting expert, Tiffany: “I once had a candidate who, instead of taking the time to talk to me, told me to Google him (which I would have done anyway, but, rude). To my great delight and also horror, the very first link that came up was his dating profile, which was full of derragatory comments and obnoxious photos. Not good for someone who actually asked me to Google him. Either way that should not have been the first and easiest thing to find.”

Golden Rule #4: Thou Shalt Know the Forever-ness of the Internet. And the fact that RECRUITERS ARE VERY VERY GOOD AT THE INTERNETS.

Sub-section Silver Rule #4: Beware of cred damage due to Selfie-Taking-Downward-Spiral-Syndrome. It can happen to anyone.

Whatever you do, DON’T…neglect to clean up every. single. social. account. you. have. (Oh, sorry, was that a hard sentence to read? ‘Cause you blinded us with that Spring Break photo we can’t unsee.)

STEP 5: We call you again to let you know the next steps.

Here’s the thing…if after all of this, we consider you qualified for the position, we need to submit your fabulous self to our boss/client, and this is the same as us formally vouching for you.

So this is the moment where you need to tap in again, and bring your A-game. We’ve (1) Reviewed your résumé, (2) Called you, (3) texted and/or emailed you, (4) Googled you, and now we’re calling you to follow up, meaning we’ve clearly invested a great deal of time in helping you land this job, and we want to see you succeed.

Golden Rule #5: Help us help you.

Whatever you do, DON’T…make us sorry we vouched for you. Because we will hunt you down. (At best, if you go M.I.A. now, you will know exactly what it feels like to be blacklisted when you try to resurface 3 days later.)

In conclusion, let’s review!