Are you are on the job market and need to find a new job? Maybe you have recently been let go, a contract ended, or you are ready to move onto bigger and better things. One of the first things that you may do is to update your resume. Consider your resume as your ticket to your next interview. Before you get that request for an interview, though, your resume is likely going to go through the hands of a recruiter. Most recruiters will tell you that they spend about 15 to 30 seconds reviewing a resume. This means you really need to make sure that your resume is well-organized and easy to read. As a recruiter, if I find myself spending too much time trying to decipher a resume, I will probably just move on to the next resume.

A question I have been asked by business owners and executives of rapidly growing contractors is, “who do you turn to when you need to respond quickly to a proposal?” What are the options available to GovCons who need support in recruiting for proposals? Proposal recruiting has a unique set of challenges. There are direct costs associated with responding to an RFP and if done properly the payoff for an organization can be high.

Recently, a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Regional Director ruled that an employer failed to comply with a requirement to provide available employee contact information to the union prior to an election, thereby resulting in an order to hold a second election (Danbury Hospital, 01-RC-153086). Although the ruling in such a pro-union political climate was not entirely unexpected, the result is still a cause of concern for employers, in part because of the “quickie” election rule implemented this past April.

Frequently, we receive calls from government contracting leaders who are frustrated with the process of recruiting for proposals and are looking for a better solution. Often recruiters have been spending weeks building candidate pipelines for funded roles, and it can be challenging to suddenly shift priorities and focus on proposal recruiting. In addition, with a shorter time frame, leaders depend on recruiters to produce results quickly and rarely feel that they are receiving the results they expect. As a Practice Director of Talent Acquisition leading responses to federal RFPs at Helios and former employers, I understand how dissatisfying this can be to both recruiters and leaders. Here are the five most common problems we see during these scenarios and how to avoid them to successfully recruit for your next big proposal.