In these difficult economic times, the guidelines below indicate the paths unconventional applicants might follow to find their next job and proactively manage the career they want to build or extend:

First, candidates are advised "don't invest too much time to conventional career wisdom. This is the time to blaze their own path, not merely to follow others' trails."

Second, smart candidates don't give in to feeling sorry for their current situation, whether searching for work or mired in a role that doesn't fulfill. Previous success was a result of PROFESSIONAL ABILITY and EFFORT, attributes that will serve them even better in a downturn.

At Gemini we receive and screen hundreds of resumes every week. Reading and qualifying them takes up hours of not very productive activity.

Using the resume as the basis for screening, assumes that the experiences listed are the predictors of the best candidates.

In fact, experience is used as a proxy for underlying skills, abilities, and competencies. However as many in-company recruiters will confirm: experiences listed on resumes are subjective and not very consistent as they fall prey to word polishing - with "advisors" enhancing the quality of the English.

We turn gradually to a phased approach, using a combination of screening and assessment to create an objective and efficient path for candidate flow and decision making.

Screening can be accomplished with standardized questionnaires - on line or in mail format - on work experience, minimum qualifications, specialist knowledge, and bio-data. It also gives a quick insight in the quality of the candidate's English.

Knock out factors then help quickly remove those candidates without key qualifications.

Moving on to the next step for the retained candidates: assessments.

These have evolved into simulated work samples, assessing situational judgment, reasoning skills, and work style preferences.

The goal obviously is to yield a person-job fit insight.

When we go through this approach, candidates find it more engaging and more job relevant than just submitting resumes into the black hole of the job posting, without any real response or interaction.

Based upon assessment results, we can then invite best-fit candidates for an interview. It is at this point that the resume becomes useful to guide the interview.

We probably run fewer interviews than before but with better candidates!

If you would like to know more about Gemini in Thailand please contact your Gemini consultant or see our website www.gemini.com.hk

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