(Note: This is a personal post.)
As you might know, I am looking for my next career opportunity.
What you may not know is that I have been looking for over 3.5 months with barely a nibble from potential employers. And I am not alone; there are a lot of exceptional marketing and PR professionals who have been unemployed for years.
Recently, a recruiter helped me to understand today's job market with this advice:
"Remove all of your personal speaking, writing, blogging, and social media (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, SlideShare links, etc.) items from your resume. Companies don't give a crap about that, they only care what you will do for them. Those items are red flags letting them know that you'll request to be out of the office speaking or on Twitter all day and that you will not be helping to solve their day-to-day problems (i.e. tactical work).
There it is. A dose of reality.
While most of us may not agree with this advice, I have a feeling this recruiter knows exactly what is going on inside companies and agencies. Surely, we can agree that companies and agencies are years behind the level of conversations that we have had, right?
I am now wondering if I have blogged, spoken, written and tweeted myself out of any potential for being hired.
I will definitely be A/B testing this advice with my resume to see which one opens up more doors. It should prove to be interesting.
What's Reality?
I am curious. If you are a job seeker, what has been your experience? If you are an HR professional or a hiring manager seeking marketing and PR professionals, what are you looking for?
[Image source: dailybeeswax.com]