Public Finance Blog

Time to address the age-old question, “Do I need a resume to begin the process of interviewing and seeking out new opportunities?”  The short answer is when you are working with a recruiter: no.  However, you should still have one and I’ll explain why we highly recommend that you do.  You should know that it’s not for the obvious reason to present to a potential hiring manager.

Filling The HR Purpose

The resume or CV utilized by some professionals instead is just a tool for you on paper to present yourself to a hiring manager.  It’s a piece of paper that is glossed over quickly by the HR department.  It’s for them to acknowledge that you are either qualified or not for a certain position that they are trying to fill with an extremely specific job requisition that has been approved to be filled.  HR has been given the authority to advertise and find a niche person to meet an identified need.  Therefore, they are going to want to see a resume for them to collect and show them to the hiring manager.  With a recruiter, such as ourselves, we rarely fill open positions but rather create them.  In this case, a resume is not needed for us to introduce a candidate to a firm.  They hired us to find candidates for them to build their firm, not necessarily to fill open positions.

Your Personal Organizer & Tool

We recommend the use of a resume for you to help yourself organize your business and professional experiences, which will in turn keep you in order when you chat with a recruiter or the hiring manager.  Seeing yourself on paper is eye-opening for a candidate as to how you want to present yourself during your interview.  What you stress in writing is what you should emphasize in the actual interview.  With a recruiter, interviews can definitely be arranged without a resume, so this becomes a tool for yourself rather than for anyone else.

From Junior To Senior Level…

A resume will be needed at some point before you are hired for your files but not before that.  A recruiter should be able to prepare a thorough presentation of your candidacy, enough to be able to secure an interview and move you far in the process.  This especially holds true for a senior individual – one who is well-known in the industry and among your peers.  For a junior person, a resume will be required much earlier in the process.  Either junior or senior, utilizing a resume to organize yourself is a tool we highly recommend you use, especially as you begin to contemplate talking to firms about your future.

Conclusion

You don’t need a resume to chat with us! If you would like to discuss your options, please reach out for a confidential conversation at 760-477-1284 or email at harlan@hfriedmansearch.com. He can also be reached on LinkedIn. Harlan publishes a blog every Thursday here. Subscribe to our monthly newsletter here, which is a compilation of our weekly blogs, so you never miss one. 

About Harlan Friedman, JD & Founding Member, H. Friedman Search LLC. Harlan is a thirty-year veteran Public Finance Banker turned recruiter who specializes in the placement of all levels Public Finance Bankers, Healthcare Bankers, Municipal Advisors, Compliance Officers, Issuers, and Bond Counsels.