Profile Tips: Advice from an Employer

Matt is the General Manager of eComplete.
He wrote a quick blog post to illustrate how important it is to complete your profile as well as you can. He’s listed the things that he looks out for when he hires people. 
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Executives, management, HODs and hiring personnel are usually pressed for time. 

Our days are super busy with business operations, clients, internal meetings, staff meetings, project deadlines, and the list goes on. 

That is why we are hiring in the first place; to get HELP. 

When hiring for a position that is entry-level, we tend to make very quick, superficial decisions because once budgets are in place and green light is a go, our mindset is HIRE, HIRE, HIRE. 

So with limited time, we do what we as humans do best and become scanners for candidates. 

Let me give you an example: 

I recently posted an ad for a front-of-house office administrator to be the face of the company as my clients walk in to have meetings and co-ordinate our lives and boardrooms. 

In 3 days, I had over 150 candidates apply for the position and had only allocated 30 minutes for candidate reviews in my schedule. 

I work from 7am to 6pm in a fast-paced company and sometimes get to spend time with my wife and kids. Here is how I scanned to shortlist in the time I had allocated: 

• No photo: reject
• Badly orientated photo (sideways): reject (take 5 seconds to get it right, guys)
• No name: reject
• No capital letter in your name: reject (It’s your name, be proud)

Candidate list gets cut in half just from those factors. 

• Smiling people go to the top of the list – what company doesn’t want happy people for their culture?
• No party photos and try to avoid the selfie photos and pouts as well – let’s keep it professional 🙂 
• Do you live in the same city? – I’m not going to relocate you for an internship or low salary job (please read the job spec).

Great – 150 candidates down to 25 shortlisted.

I then read the summary section – make them impactful to get you in the door. 

How you write and convey yourself in your summary is how you are going to compose emails which will end up with my clients, partners, and vendors. 

Spend some time writing this a couple of times and read it to yourself at least 10 times before you are happy. 

From there, it’s cut down to 10 candidates and that was done all within 12 minutes.

10 CVs opened and now I have 18 minutes to read before selecting candidates for first-round interviews. 

The above might sound harsh, but I need you all to understand that we are humans too and we don’t have the time so you need to get ahead of your competition. There may be some gems that I have overlooked in my selection process, but I’m sure that out of the 10 CVs I read from the 150 candidates that applied, I will find a good candidate that can fill the role, fit in with the culture and be nurtured and trained for our future growth. 

Other tips: 

1) Answer your emails quickly, you don’t know when the interview slot will be filled.

2) Be on time. 

3) Do some basic research on the company that you are interviewing with – we like to see people who care.

4) Prepare some questions – shows you care about yourself and your own interests.

I know it’s tough out there, I hope you all find the perfect family to call home in your careers! 

Over and out

– Matt