Ever asked yourself if and how you should focus on your job search?

Why should you NOT list absolutely everything you have been doing in the last 20 years?

In this Blog Post, I will explain clearly, what are the benefits of being able to quickly express what are your main talents, experiences, and virtues. Yes, stress on the word: quickly.

Because of my experience in the Recruitment world and my position, I receive an insanely large amount of messages from people who are looking for new professional stimuli and challenges. Very often in these messages, a person tries to tell as broadly as possible what he has done in the past, that is, everything she/he possibly has experience.

At the same time, messages often lack that red thread, meaning I can’t easily catch where a person is good or what types of jobs he or she is applying for, at all! At the first glance, one might think that this is exactly the right approach and thus a person will have a better chance of getting into some of the ongoing direct application or recruitment processes.

Unfortunately, the opposite is true. When a person does this, the message becomes confusing and often lacks the unique capacities that make you special, everything equals nothing. There is nothing in a message that would arouse the interest of the recipient of the message when it lacks details and concrete focus.

The person cannot even emphasize where he or she is really good at, not interesting, discarded. Focus… Most of the times companies have a very specific need and therefore they are not looking for a person who can provide a bit of knowledge here and there.

They want an expert who is really really good at a particular topic/sector and able to solve any given problem placed in their hands, quickly, again. The exceptions to this are small businesses or startups. However, they are less likely to recruit outsiders and tend to find people in their inner circle and networks.

This is why, I often advise job seekers to focus on their own job search process and think first about what they would like to do and then how good they are at it, before approaching any decision-maker from HR of that company, any direct search agency, or recruitment industry like ourself.

Teemu Ruuska

CEO

InHunt World

Arash PalizbanI have also often encountered the fact that a person gets quite angry when I kindly try to steer him in another direction.“How can companies possibly not value my extensive expertise and experience over the years?!?” is a very common phrase I get to hear.This is by no means the case and it will actually be surely appreciated, but not necessarily during the recruitment process.Once you enter a job, you will surely be able to apply many peripheral valuable skills you acquiredpreviously.Certainly,there will be situations where it is possible to show all that you know and where you will help and produce much added value.The questionis not what are you a good at, it is why are you unique?However, when you are looking for work at the beginningit is not yet time.You will have time to show your biceps, don’t worry. Another reason for a negative outcome is often uploading everything on your CV, the receiver won’t be able to focus on what your skills are and how you can help with the needsthat the company has at that very moment.When someone understands why exactly you are really good at something, it is very easy for the company to make a decision about who to hire.Then you find a job, quickly….

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