The story behind Good Resume Guide

When I first started my career, I took the conventional career path. I landed a job in the technology sector in a big company. After 3 months, I’d seen it, felt like I was not learning anything new anymore and I left after 9 months.

My second job was in insurance, another big corporation. Left after 1 year.

Then I tried a small consultancy firm, but spent my 1 year there mainly at a big bank. Didn’t like that too much either.

Then something surprising happened. I said “no way” to the job that eventually was the first I really enjoyed. I got headhunted for a senior position (5 years of experience required) at a management consultancy firm. I had 3 years of experience, none of them relevant. And I didn’t want to burn-out…

But the headhunter persisted, I gave it a try (why not?) and in the end got the job. I loved it!

Later I realized that there is a lot going wrong in recruiting. I would never have taken the initiative to apply for this job, if I would have found it in the first place.

I am someone who does not accept my fate of a mediocre job. I keep looking until I am satisfied. Unfortunately, a lot of people just remain where they are, because “it pays the bills”.

A global problem

Not enough people love their job (13% globally), many don’t care (63%) or hate it (24%).

This is a huge amount of wasted human capital. Just imagine if more people would be happy at work. They would feel more creative, work more efficient and contribute more.

More happy employees mean more productive and creative employees. Innovation depends on people that do more than their job.

I believe that a big part of the problem originates at the start, with recruitment. Ultimately, it is a communications problem: bad decisions are being made, because current processes are outdated and focus on the easy, but wrong aspects of talent. Wrong expectations are set, which leads to disappointments. There is a huge information overload and information dilution. On top of that, the whole process of finding work is a horrible experience…

In all fairness, I admit that I do not have all the answers. We are actually still trying to understand what the good questions are. But we have a clear goal: more people that enjoy their job. We have a few guidelines as well.

Our approach

First of all, we want to improve communication and information during the recruitment process. Networking is crucial. We look for ways to facilitate and enable networking moments to happen. This will build trust and leads to better communication.

Building a network of trust is important for both companies and talent. It requires a considerable investment in time and effort. Once a company accomplishes a strong network of talent, timing will be less of an issue.

Secondly, we have to look at talent in a more broad perspective than just a series of skills and past job titles. Companies should hire for potential and consider motivation a lot more. In this fast moving world, your current skills do matter, but equally important is your ability to learn new things. Learning happens a lot easier when you are motivated. A clear purpose of the company can do a lot to motivate it’s employees. Think of Tesla, a company with a clear and noble purpose.

Fitting in is also important, so that a new employee has the correct attitude that fits within the company and the new team. All work is done within a team, in interaction with people. If you do not get along, no-one wins. Your boss especially is someone you should get along with.

Selection procedures in the hiring process should reflect this, but the trend today is towards algorythms and automatic scoring. I have my doubts this will lead to the best results.

Lastly, we believe that both companies and talent should invest continously in recruitment.

Companies need to work on employer branding and create a talent pool of people interested to work for the company. Companies should then keep these talents engaged, so that when the time is right, a good hire can be done from people you already (somewhat) know.

For talents it is important to continously “keep looking”. Even if you have a dream job at the moment, anything can happen: your company get acquired and restructured, you get a new boss and don’t get along, you worked for a smartphone giant that moved to slow,… Keep in touch with company representatives and be genuinly interested in what is happening in your business.

These guidelines are what drive the services we develop. Our goal is to keep innovating, experimenting and building a business around the experiments that stick. We’d love to partner and discuss with anyone who also cares about getting more people to love their job.

We would really love to learn your perspective. Leave a comment and follow us for more upcoming posts on recruitment!