What is your talent?

Recruiters, head hunters, talent acquisition specialists. Depending on which recruiting firm you are speaking to their recruiters will be called one of the above-aforementioned titles. I talk to a LOT of recruiters because I am searching for a new role.

Currently I am working as a security officer for a nationwide company. I will not mention the company name so as to not come up on a keyword search on the interwebs. I do not have many nice things to say about my employer but that will be reserved for my next story.

I think that recruiters read so many resumes that they just skim over the content and search for keywords. For Information Technology the following key words are Azure, Cloud-based, Engineer, stuff like that. If they find a keyword that matches the job requisition they are working on then they are like a dog on a hunt.

One of the things that would be most helpful is if the recruiter actually knows about Information Technology and the different roles. What does an IT Specialist do exactly? What does a helpdesk analyst do or a network engineer. The more you know about a job role in IT and what the person actually does will make it easier for the recruiter to be your advocate with an employer.

If you are matching talent or skillsets for a specific candidate to an employer then knowing what you are talking about will give you better success than just throwing a resume up against the wall and hoping it sticks. Having good interview skills helps too. I love it when I am talking to someone…