Customer Reviews

Confessions of a Recruiting Director: The Insider's Guide to Landing Your First Job

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've always hated reading those over stuffy research books written by doctors who throw out big words just to sound impressive. I love "Confessions" because I feel like Brad Karsh wrote it for me. He knows he's advising college students, so he uses a conversational and real tone. AND his book isn't a compilation of research, interviews, and hearsay. All of the outstanding advice on resumes, interviews, and cover letters comes from Brad's personal experience as a Recruiting Director. A Recruiting Director is going to be the actual person who decides if I get the job - not my friends, parents, or professors. I needed the "inside guide" to get my first job, and "Confessions of a Recruiting Director" delivered. I highly recommend this book!

The resume section of this book is amazing! It's direct and easy to understand, and it gave me the specific steps to dramatically improve my resume.

As a perfectionist and inquisitive college student, I was constantly bugging my professors and career center with questions on my job search. What should I include in my cover letter? Will my posted, online resume get noticed? Do I have to send all of the interviewers a thank-you note? How long should I wait before following up after an interview?

This book answers all of those questions and more - and my busy professors are very thankful!

Brad Karsh uses wit and personal anecdotes to add some spice to the typical dry and humdrum career book. Brad gives the cold truth about the do's and don'ts of the hiring process with an enlightening insight that makes this book an enjoyable read.

I have just graduated college. Like many of my class I was thrilled at the graduation ceremony and celebrated the end of 16 year confinement callled "education." This joy was quickly replaced by my daily exercise of hair pulling about 2 weeks into my job hunting. I thought with a diploma from one of the top 5% college in the nation and skills such as trilingual should have no problem getting a job or catch the eye of the recruiter. Well I was wrong no recruiter probbaly even saw my resume.

About a month into the job hunting I really started to worry. I did what I always do when I run into a dead end. Went to the book store and started to do a little research to find out what I was doing wrong. Out of the entire section dedicated for "careers" this was the book that caught my eye. Instead of giving myself more headache going through thousands of resume samples or cover letter samples I wanted to know what exactly did the HR department do. I felt like at this point that they were just too lazy to look at any resume and just sit around did nothing. I was half right.

So instead of picking resumes that i could sample from a huge book that reminded me of the days of SAT, this book was able to give me ideas and explained some of the frustrating "WHY!!!!". About two weeks after I read it I manage to land a interview with the company of my choice and the position of my choice.

The book answers alot of the "myth" about the function of HR departments that I can finally lay it down.

As an employer, I found Mr. Karsh's book full of valuable advice for job candidates. Kids coming out of college are usually ill-prepared for the interview process, and this book contains lots of helpful hints on how to get your foot in the door, and how to get that job. This should be required reading for all college seniors!

In early March, when most of my friends were just starting to look for jobs, I had secured a great job with a great firm.

From start to finish, my job search took two weeks. With Karsh's help, I rewrote my resume and cover letter, landed an interview and was offered the job two days later.

His book is well-written, smart and absolutely the best for helping college graduates. I even handed the book to several of my friends, who later found jobs by following his advice.

You aren't meant to just copy and past the resumes and cover letters. Those should be original and from you, but the book gives you a few ideas.

This was a great book with a lot of really helpful information. The author pointed out many things that I had never really thought about before in regards to my resume and interviewing skills. He also added a bit of humor into his writing. A great find at a reasonable price.

This book is great! I went to hear the author speak and right after bought this book. It has helped me a great deal with my interview process. It also gave me a great guide for my resume to get those interviews. I would highly recommend this book to anyone in college or out who is in the process of looking for a job/internship. This is a great resource!

The most valuable part of this book was the before and after resumes toward the back. I purchased about twenty books through the course of looking for a job post graduation and this definitely had the best suggestions for how to make yourself stand out.

Brad Karsh's book is a good place. It's practical, straight-forward - often funny - and it works!

As a former recruiting director, Karsh has read 10,000+ resumes and knows the differences between what takes your resume to the next step and what sends it to the blue recycle bin.

- Write or re-write your resume so it gets attention? Check.

- Ditto your cover letter? Check.

- Networking tips? Check.

- How to impress at the interview? Oh, yeah.

How to recognize the line between persistent follow-up and stalking? Yes, that too (could be pretty important).

Plus more, including "before and after" resume examples and sample resumes for specific industries.

As someone who used to do hiring and firing (in advertising) I find this book spot on. I use it as the text for my Communication Studies internship class at the University of San Francisco - and suggest to students that this book, if read and taken seriously, can be the fuse that ignites their careers.

Nobody's contradicted me yet.
GP