It has recently come to my attention that there are individuals attempting to scam unsuspecting job seekers acting as Hamilton Recruiting, or more often “Hamilton Recruitment” recruiters on Facebook and Instagram, and possibly texts. THESE ARE NOT REAL OPPORTUNITIES. Please do not engage with these individuals. In today’s increasingly competitive job market, scammers take advantage of vulnerable job seekers, creating fake job postings and preying on unsuspecting candidates. To help you navigate through potential pitfalls, we’ve put together a guide on how to avoid HR scams and ensure that the job opportunities you’re pursuing are legitimate.

1. Thoroughly Research the Company

Before applying for any job, take the time to research the company. Legitimate companies will have a professional online presence, including a well-maintained website, active social media profiles, and positive reviews. Be wary of companies with no online presence or those with inconsistent information across platforms.

2. Validate Contact Information

Legitimate job opportunities will provide clear and valid contact information. Verify the email address, phone number, and physical address provided in the job posting. Use official company websites or directories to cross-check this information. Scammers often use generic email addresses and phone numbers, so pay attention to these details.

3. Look for Warning Signs in the Job Posting

Scam job postings often have red flags. Watch out for excessive use of buzzwords, promises of high salaries for minimal work, and vague job descriptions. Legitimate job postings are specific about the responsibilities and requirements for the position.

4. Be Skeptical of Immediate Job Offers

Scammers often rush the hiring process to trap unsuspecting candidates. If you receive an immediate job offer without a formal interview or detailed discussion about your qualifications, it is likely a scam. Legitimate employers take the time to assess candidates’ skills and experience.

5. Never Pay for a Job Opportunity

A genuine employer will never ask you to pay upfront for a job opportunity. Be cautious if the employer requests payment for training materials, background checks, or any other reason. Legitimate employers cover the costs associated with the hiring process. Do not provide personal information until the proposed company and job opportunity are clearly defined.

6. Conduct a Reverse Image Search

Scammers often use stock photos or steal images from other websites to create fake profiles and job postings. Use a reverse image search tool to verify the authenticity of the photos associated with the job posting or the recruiter’s profile.

7. Trust Your Instincts

If something feels off during the application process or communication with the employer, trust your instincts. Scammers often use high-pressure tactics to make you act quickly. Take the time you need to verify the legitimacy of the opportunity. Several individuals reached out to us directly to confirm the veracity of these jobs before proceeding.

8. Reach out

If you are ever unsure about a job posting or someone who has reached out to you, feel free to contact us directly at in**@****************ng.com. This will ensure that you are talking to the right people and set you up for real opportunities.

In the ever-evolving job market, being vigilant and informed is crucial to avoid falling victim to HR scams. By researching companies, validating contact information, paying attention to warning signs, and trusting your instincts, you can safeguard yourself against potential scams and focus on pursuing genuine and rewarding career opportunities. Remember, a little caution goes a long way in ensuring a secure and successful job search.

Kristina

The post Avoiding HR Scams and Ensuring Opportunities Are Legitimate: A Basic Guide appeared first on Hamilton Recruiting.

In our last post, we looked at what a functional resume is. Now we will explore when to use such a format.

Changing up your entire resume format can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Consider the risk/reward outcomes when doing this and you will see the benefit in a full overhaul of your resume. There is a time and place for everything, and the use of a functional resume abides by this rule. The main reason to use this format is when you lack specific experience. The functional resume allows you to merge all jobs and life experience into your skills section, typically highlighting specific required skills.

Maybe you were a student-athlete in school and were unable to hold a job while at school due to time commitments. You can take the skills you gained and highlight them here. Your headings could be: “Teamwork,” “Time-management” “Strong work ethic” “Leadership” and “Communication”. Now you can expand on each of these skills using examples from athletics, school and/or part-time summer jobs.

Keep in mind, you don’t reference specifics of where or when you demonstrated these skills, just that it happened. Having less traditional jobs such as an athlete, military member, gig worker, or entrepreneur, you have to complete the puzzle for the recruiter and fill in the gaps and objections that they would have about you.

There are of course pros and cons to this format, so let’s look at them now.

The Pros and Cons of a Functional Resume

Pros:

It can help accentuate the positives and point out non-traditional experiences. The functional resume allows you to talk more directly about your qualities and skills in further depth than a traditional resume. In addition, it can help certain candidates get a fair assessment from a hiring manager or recruiter who typically spends less than 10 seconds assessing certain applicants’ fit for a position (See When to use below).

A functional resume can hack Applicant Tracking Software (ATS). The job posting says exactly what the employer is looking for in an applicant. If you take all the keywords and work them into your skills, more often than not, the ATS will approve the resume which passes you through the initial screening process filter.

Screening out candidates at the resume reviewing stage is the easiest way to eliminate candidates. There is no personal connection at this point, the hiring manager feels nothing for you as the candidate. When you do not possess the experience, you make the decision-making process easier for them. The functional resume is a way to bring pause to this selection process and get the hiring manager to, hopefully, give you a chance and bring you in for the interview. What you want to do is highlight how you will bring value to the company.

It also helps you zero in on the job you want. You can examine a bunch of job postings from a variety of sources and find out what commonalities they all share in terms of what they are looking for. You can then customize your resume to hone in on these skills to increase your chances of being hired.

When To Use:

Career switch – Any of us who have changed careers knows what a daunting task this can be. Employers may read your resume and think you are either overqualified, underqualified or not serious about the role and looking for a transitionary job.

A gap in employment – As the functional resume focuses more on your skills than employment history you are highlighting your varied skills including life, educational, volunteer and career experiences more than your progressive career timeline. This can be particularly fitting for candidates who have taken time off to be caregivers, return to school, travel or deal with physical or mental health issues or difficult personal circumstances. More on this later.

Recent grad – You are yet to obtain the work experience required for even an entry-level job but by using other part-time jobs, volunteering and school projects you can better explain your value to the company.

Dissimilar job titles – Some companies like to give their employees different (and at times, flat-out strange) job titles that are not indicative of what your job is. The functional resume blasts through this barrier and gives the employer tangible examples of what you have done.

Also, you might want to use a functional resume if you have held less traditional employment. Saying you drove for Uber may not sound as relevant as the skills you developed there such as customer service, attention to detail, safety, and flexibility that you utilized while on the job, for example.

Ultimately, the functional resume allows you to highlight relevant skills and experience while showcasing how you can add value to the company.

Cons:

Many hiring managers don’t like functional resumes because they can be seen as a sneaky way to hide the truth. The pros and reasons that a candidate might use a functional resume are exactly why employers see this format as a con. This can be a red flag for many recruiters. They know that a functional resume can be a sly tactic by some candidates to hide gaps in employment. either fired or unexpectedly quit.

This knock against functional resumes though is more of a misconception rather than a fact. The functional resume should still include previous places of work and dates, it is just positioned towards the end of the resume and not listed throughout. An argument could be made that the functional resume actually does the opposite of hiding employment gaps as this format actually positions the previous employment and dates closer together than on a standard resume.

What the functional resume does not include, however, is specifically when you developed certain skills. Hiring managers generally like to see career progression on a resume. It shows that the candidate is improving and growing as an employee. Sometimes job titles alone do not tell the full story. In your last job, you might have worn way more hats than the title alone suggests.

Having recent experience in a core competency that the hiring manager is looking for is more valuable than having done this many years ago in a previous role. To that point, you may have many consecutive years of this experience but it is seen as generally outside the scope of your title’s typical role. An example of this may be if you were an administrative assistant in your previous role but were given the responsibility by your boss of being the unofficial human resources manager as well. This was given to you because you had HR experience in a previous job that your manager was aware of. In a functional resume, you would say HR is a skill you possess but under past work experience it may look like you had not worked in HR in 10 years if work experience is listed below:

Administrative Assistant, ABC company 2012-Present

Administrative Assistant, XYZ company 2009-2012

HR Assistant, ACME company, 2007-2009

The hiring manager may look at your resume and assume that you only have 2 years of HR experience while you have 12. In a more standard resume, you could further elaborate on your experience in HR at ABC company.

Using this format also makes it more difficult for recruiters to score against other applicants. Effectively, it forces the recruiter to compare a resume that has no comparables.

Ultimately, the choice of when to use a functional resume is up to you, and whether the hiring manager does or does not like this format is up to them. At the end of the day though, you need to put yourself in a position for success and that means taking a chance on a functional resume, so, try it out!

If you would like feedback on your resume or have specific questions about the functional resume, please do not hesitate to reach out via in**@****************ng.com.

The post When To Use a Functional Resume? appeared first on Hamilton Recruiting.

Are you struggling to get noticed by employers who place ads with long lists of job requirements? Sure, you might lack the relevant industry experience requested but you may have all the skills and attitude that would make you a great candidate. Not only do you not get the job you know you would be great at, but you don’t even have a chance to interview! This can be extremely frustrating and demoralizing.

You know that, given the opportunity, you would excel but you keep getting overlooked because employers do not understand your previous experiences and cannot see how the skills you have acquired will transfer over to this new position. Let’s look at how adjusting your resume format can increase your chances of getting that interview opportunity. In our next post, we will look at when to use the functional resume.

Let’s look at it from the employer’s perspective. Every hire that they make is a gamble and the hiring process is typically equally stressful for both candidate and employer. At every stage, the employer is looking to solve an internal requirement and also mitigate risk. Hiring employees is an expensive and time-consuming process and hiring managers are tasked with filling gaps that are typically long overdue with limited training available – particularly in the current labour market. Pressure is heightened to make the right decision. They are looking to progress as a company and taking unwarranted risks on candidates will not only hurt the company but could land the hiring manager in some legal hot water.

From the employer’s perspective then, weeding out resumes of candidates who, on paper, do not align with their needs is the easiest way to mitigate risk and save time.

Now, let’s look at it from your perspective as the candidate. It’s the classic conundrum of “how do I get experience when every company requires experience?” Instead of focusing on experience, focus instead on your skills and thus, what value you can bring to the company. This is where the functional resume can help.

A functional resume focuses more on your skills than specific job-related experience. The jobs listed in chronological order with a synopsis on a traditional resume are instead replaced with specific skills as headers and then dive into examples that prove you have that skill. This is typically followed by a listing of your jobs and then your educational background.

There are many examples of the structure and format of the functional resume online. You can even download a template from Microsoft to build one yourself in Word. Here is the general framework:

Your Name

Your Contact Info

Summary

This is a short paragraph that is a quick synopsis of you. This is your chance to capture the readers’ attention with a quick elevator pitch. Note that this is an optional section in this type of format but does allow you to add further details on yourself that you feel might be neglected in the rest of this resume.

Professional Skills

List 3-5 skills as subheaders with 2-5 bullet points each that show proof that you possess these skills. It is important to include those that are ideally sought after in the type of roles you are ideally seeking, wherever possible.

Pro tip: Create a document with as many skills as you can think of that you have. Use this as a database that you can pull from to customize your resume to each job posting quickly and easily.

Work Experience

Company Name, Job Title, Location and Dates worked there. No additional details are included within this section in this type of resume.

Education

School Name, Degree/Diploma Acquired, Location and Dates you attended and ideally completed each program.

And that is it!  This is the basic structure of this type of format. Of course, you can play around with the format a little bit and add other relevant headings if you wish but this is the meat of this resume format. Always remember, your resume is generally your first impression for the hiring manager. Treat it like you are an advertising agency and are looking for a way to promote a product (you) to a very specific consumer (the employer). In this case, the consumer has provided you with exactly what they are looking for in a new product, through the job posting, and now all you have to do is meet their needs.

The post What is a Functional Resume? appeared first on Hamilton Recruiting.