Hiring fraud is the worst.

Seeing your own headshot as a part of a scam is creepy.

Recently I learned that some fraudster out there, using a Gmail address, was impersonating me. Supposedly I was recruiting for a “VP AI & Sovereign Cloud Architecture” role. This person DMed me on LinkedIn to verify that the person sending them the email and my LinkedIn profile were one and the same.

This also happened a few months ago. A job seeker DMed me on LinkedIn, and even included a screenshot of the email they received. That email had a relatively convincing, although heavily AI-ed, long email body. But what was most disturbing in that email was the email signature:

Yes, that’s my photo. Yikes. Creepy. Do not like at all.

Look, hiring fraud sucks, and it impacts everyone: me, for being skeeved out that someone out there is using my likeness to try and fraud people. The job seeker, for earnestly seeking a new role, but being met with risky proposals. And as a recruiter, I can tell you: the companies.

I’ve spotted fraudulent candidates when I’m recruiting. I’ve spoken with recruiters who have said the same. I’ve been keeping an eye on news cases around fraud in hiring. One interesting fraud candidate scheme, which has fleeced HUNDREDS of US companies: laptop farms.

If you’re in for a big deep dive, read about this, the 7th and 8th sentences of U.S.-based “Laptop Farmers” secured in last 5 months, as part of ongoing efforts to disrupt a revenue-scheme by North Korea. (Yes, that is a mouthful, and yes… you read that correctly.)

As you can see, as a recruiter and career coach, I have a lot to say about fraud in hiring. Tech evolving has amazing upsides, and downsides. One of the downsides of easily accessible and high powered AI and automation tools is that it can be quite easy to scheme either side of the process: as a “candidate” seeking a role, or as a “company,” seeking to engage with job seekers.

Fortunately, most job scams are pretty obvious, or become obvious relatively quickly. Here are a few ways to identify you might be seeing a scam:

• You receive an email message from a Gmail or Yahoo address. Recruiters will only contact you from a company domain. This is how the job seekers who DMed me became suspicious about the emails.

• You receive a message that sounds unusually lucrative or easy. I get texts ALL THE TIME asking me if I want to make between $15 - $700 / hour for remote-based work. What kind of range is that??

• You receive a message from a recruiter and they quickly ask for personal information, such as your home address or Social Security Number. You'll never need to provide a SSN to a recruiter. You'll only provide a SSN on an I9 form after you've accepted a job and you're onboarding.

• You receive a message on LinkedIn who claims to be a recruiter, but their profile is unusually sparse.

• You are contacted about a company, Google that company, but there isn't a very substantial web presence.
  
  Have you seen any weird, fraudulent activity in hiring? Leave a comment and let me know. Stay safe out there!
  
  Talk soon,
  Nicole

My favorite thing about career coaching: big results.

When I first started working with Client F, they had been job searching for months, under the threat of an impending layoff.

With 60 job applications submitted, they had been invited to 2 interviews total. Both of those interviews were landed through referrals, and not specifically because their resume was standing out in a job search. Interviews were not coming in on their own.

The truth was that their resume was pretty good. It did not need a dramatic overhaul (although I have definitely helped clients with that before). It just needed some strategic shifts. Together we completed a ​Candidate Brand Audit​, making small, but important changes to their resume and cover letter.

The results:
🔥 12 interviews across 5 companies
🔥 Recruiters reaching out to them to schedule interviews, without referrals
🔥 Progressing to late stages at multiple companies, even dropping out of several by choice
🔥 Accepted an offer from the top choice company
🔥 Negotiated a $5k signing bonus
🔥 And: landing a job offer before their layoff occurred

Here’s what you should know:
Yes, the job market is difficult. But most of the time, when a job search is slow moving or slowed to a halt, it is not a market problem; it is a positioning problem.

The good news: there are strategic shifts that you can make to get the attention of hiring teams.

The better news: And I know how to help you make those changes.

Clients love booking the ​Candidate Brand Audit​ to tell a more compelling story to hiring teams, with a goal of landing interviews, just like Client F did.

They also love booking the ​Career Strategy Call,​ where we can discuss your current roadblocks, either in your career or job search, in a 60 or 90 minute call.

Other clients love sustained support: ​The Career Transformation Program​ is a 3-month program that offers you all of the above, mock interviews, Slack support, and more.

No matter where you are in your career journey or job search, I’m here to support. Excited to be relaunching this blog. Let’s make big things!!!

Talk soon,

Nicole

Here's something I see constantly as a recruiter

Have you heard the rumor that recruiters spend, maybe, 10 seconds reviewing a single resume?

(Me, raising my hand): yes, that’s me, the recruiter who reads quickly.

In a hiring process, most hiring managers want the role filled very quickly. The recruiter does too, and the recruiter is probably are hiring for multiple roles at the same time.

No hiring team is evil, rooting against job seekers, or naive. But most hiring teams are short on time, and looking for direct connections on resumes, compared to what they are hiring for. Because of that, it’s very important to make sure you are using the right language in your resume.

Here are a few ways to make your resume stand out in a job search:

- Bulletpoints are usually the #1 place where job seekers undersell their experience. Your bulletpoints should not only say what you did, but they should also convey what the results of what your work were. Writing hundreds of Instagram postings in your recent marketing role? That’s great. Writing hundreds of Instagram postings that resulted in a 45% follower increase and 8% YOY revenue increase? That’s major.

- Showcase the context. When I work with my career coaching clients, I recommend describing the business, the department, and even the scale of your team and projects. This is a great place to utilize numebrs.

- Make the keywords count. Most people are worried about how ATS systems will review their resume. Here’s your biggest tip there: the industry keywords and technical skills from your job postings should be showing up consistently through your resume.

There’s so much more where that came from, and that’s why I’m glad you’re here with me in this newly created blog. These are real factors I watch play out in hiring decisions every week that impact real people getting in or out of interview processes. I’m here to help you succeed!

Talk soon,
Nicole

Meet Career Coach Nicole

It’s been a while since I had a blog on my career coaching website. I thought it was time to reintroduce myself. :)

My name is Nicole. In addition to being Career Coach Nicole, I'm also a Director of Recruiting, ​founder of a boutique recruiting firm​, and a person who cares deeply about making hiring accessible. I've spent 14+ years inside hiring systems: deciding who gets hired, how they get hired, and why. This Substack is designed to let you in on the process.

I didn't start my career here - certainly, no one graduates from college with a B.S. in Hiring! (No, that irony is not lost on me)

I graduated from college as a first generation college graduate, during an economic recession, with a Painting degree (which I deeply cherish, no shade ever on the arts). I figured out how to build a corporate career in a system that no one explained to me, and my mission is helping others make their own strategic career moves.

Most people aren't struggling in their careers because they're unqualified. They're struggling because the system is complex and ever-changing, and because no one taught them how hiring, promotions, and compensation decisions actually work. I know how these decisions work, and my clients now do too (​regularly landing $10k - $50k pay increases​).

In this blog, you’ll get...

• What hiring teams are thinking behind the scenes

• Job search strategy that really works for today’s AI, ATS-filled job market

• Real client success stories, and how we moved the needle working together

• Honest observations about the hiring and career system most people

You won’t find generic fluff here. Your time and attention is valuable. You’ll only find career strategy from someone who sits on both sides of the table, having participated in thousands of hiring decisions, and ready to share some important insights.

I’m so glad you’re here!

Talk soon,

Nicole

SEA Summit: Graduating with an Arts Degree During a Pandemic, Now What?

Hey everyone! I’m so excited to announce that I’ll be presenting soon at a virtual summit hosted by Self-Employment in the Arts on the topic of Graduating with an Arts Degree During a Pandemic, Now What? …!

Register for the summit here!

This is a topic I’m SUPER passionate about through my own experiences as a fine arts graduate navigating post-grad life, through my work in education working with students to access opportunities, and, of course, through my role here as a career coach!

Please join me in the following sessions! Hint hint: if you’ve got only an hour or so to tune in, please check out my solo talk :).

Pre-Recorded Sessions

Navigating Your First Year Out of College, solo presentation !!!

In this workshop, we will bust the myth that your first year out of college is critical to have career success. Let's start here: your first year out of college can take ANY form, and still unfold into a rich, rewarding, and successful career! We will look at real people's careers as case studies of diverse, winding career pathways; cover strategies for identifying and showcasing transferable skills learned from an art degree to roles both in and outside of the arts; and talk about how to be nimble and keep your head above water while you build your career post-grad.

Advice for 2021 Grads Panel, featuring Molly Miklosz, Jennifer Barrett, Nicole Anderson, and Elizabeth Kilpatrick

Graduation and starting off on your career journey can seem overwhelming under normal circumstances. Throw in a pandemic, and well….here we are. During this panel we’ll discuss: Mentally preparing for the shift from student to professional Mentally preparing for the vision you had vs. the reality Strategies for managing the first year of post college life

Live Q&A Sessions

Friday March 19, 6 PM CST

Q&A Follow-Up Session: Navigating the 1st Year Out of College with Nicole Anderson (40 min)

Saturday March 20, 10 AM CST

Q&A Follow-Up Session: Panel - Advice for 2021 Grads (40 min)

The entire summit is FREE!, packed with amazing presenters with diverse expertise, and has great real world advice - whether you’re a recent arts graduate or not!

Here’s a link where you can learn more about the virtual summit, and most importantly: here’s a link where you can register! I’ll see you soon in the live Q&A sessions! :)