Comments on: Why HR Doesn’t Answer When You Apply

By: Step Away from the Resume « CEO without A Company

Step Away from the Resume « CEO without A Company — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:58:09 +0000

[...] Search, Resume If you are looking for a job and sending out resumes, you need to read this post by G.L. Hoffman on the blog “What Would Dad Say.” You have heard it before – [...]

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:49:03 +0000

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by CeLesTaJoAnN: Someones HR please reply! I need a job! http://bit.ly/66PYbI…

By: GitrDunne

GitrDunne — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:19:20 +0000

It sounds like the job seeker has the burden of figuring out how to infiltrate a company in order to present themselves for an open position. This process faces the challenge that companies work very hard to protect all but the most generic information about themselves. Job seekers need to learn tactics to evade gate keepers and gain this knowledge to win in the hiring game. However, an open position is not a game but represents a need to be filled the same as if one was purchasing equipment or contracting a service. This means that the company is obliged to know what they want, properly specify it and send the specifications to the right audience. A tight job market is not proper justification for transferring more responsibilities to the candidate. A hire is a business transaction meant to improve the bottom line of the company, not a trophy awarded to the most gifted player in the hiring game.

By: Chris Walker

Chris Walker — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:33:08 +0000

GL–The ‘hiring process’ is really an elimination process. 500 resumes + 1 job = 499 times more eliminating than hiring. We get good at the things we do a lot of, so HR is really good at eliminating people. They often complain about too many applicants and too many unqualified applicants, yet they are complicit in the creation of a system that produces precisely those results.

We advise our clients to spend at least as much time pursuing companies they would like to work for as they do posted jobs. According to the annual Sources of Hire survey from careerxroads.com, you are more than 3 times as likely to find a job through personal contacts as you are through hotmonsterbuilder.com. And I love this nugget from Top 10 Ways to NOT Get a Job in IT, ‘Sending in a aresume and sitting back waiting for the phone to ring is a great way to avoid employment’.

By: Tweets that mention What Would Dad Say » Why HR Doesn’t Answer When You Apply -- Topsy.com

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:50:02 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Alexandra Levit and 360JobInterview.Com, Celesta Joann Forgy. Celesta Joann Forgy said: Someones HR please reply! I need a job! http://bit.ly/66PYbI [...]

By: DC Jobs

DC Jobs — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 05:09:12 +0000

This strategy definitely seems to have a lot of merit. It would probably be difficult thought to pull off with a target list of 300 companies.

I could see this working by targeting only those openings on job boards that seem especially appealing to you, or to try to network your way into target companies that seem to be a particularly good fit.

By: wwds

wwds — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:32:00 +0000

Not all HR people are like this, of course, but most are underpaid and over worked, and really lack the time or energy to get out the recruiting rut they are in. Yet, so many wonder how to make themselves more relevant and more respected. I am thinking they already know the answer.

By: Conrad

Conrad — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:28:48 +0000

That is excellent advice! And it also fits very nicely with what Seth Godin had to say the other day about Career Fairs. HR has an open piece in the puzzle and if you aren’t shaped exactly like the hole, you get sorted out without any real thought.

Of course, it is part of the reason that corporations can be so moribund sometimes. They don’t have visionaries looking at talent, they have functionaries.