I have had frequent discussions with job seekers who are frustrated with the impersonal feeling they are experiencing in the early stages of recruiting process. They apply online, may get an automated thank you and then never hear anything again. The proverbial black hole. As an HR insider, I have tried to share with job seekers that companies get buried with resumes when they post jobs online. A few months back I posted a part-time reception job for my company on Craig’s List and received 200 resumes in the first four hours. If I had spent just one minute to open and review each of those 200 resumes I would have spent over 3 1/3 hours. Forget about the total number of resumes I received in the first 24 hours!
Believe it or not, a majority of companies don’t have applicant tracking system (ATS) database software to handle this workload. Most companies have the resumes dropping into an email folder. It is the worst nightmare for the candidate and the company’s recruiting/HR professional. But those are the cold hard facts. As both an HR professional and a job candidate I came to terms with this fact several years ago. I am not going to get any personal or human touch when applying online. Get over it. I don’t expect and neither should you. Besides, as a candidate, you should be looking to get that human connection through the backdoor with your networking efforts into the company.
If you can get past the impersonal first stage of the process, you can gain tremendous insight into the company based on how you are handled as a candidate through the rest of their recruiting selection process. These later stages of the hiring process are where the personal and human factor should be obvious and very apparent. Is the process rigid and impersonal? Is it friendly but disorganized? Do you get to meet with your potential co-workers? How transparent do they seem? These signs can be early indicators on how they may treat their employees and how you may be treated if you are hired.
A friend of mine who is an expert in employee engagement and candidate assessment recently co-wrote an article about companies disengaging the employee even before they become an employee. The article is oriented towards companies, but it is also very applicable to job seekers as well.
http://www.recruitingtrends.com/online/thoughtleadership/1349-1.html .
As a candidate I have been through some hiring processes that have left me scratching my head. Others have completely turned me off as a candidate and I chose to excuse myself from the process. I recently completed a hiring process for a VP of HR with a company that had me take a personality assessment. I asked the recruiter how my assessment profile compared with the leadership’s team. The recruiter didn’t even know because team hadn’t taken it. Not only was it useless, but the assessment is not even validated for the hiring process. This means they should never have been using it as part of their hiring process. It definitely gave me some pause about that company.
The human factor should and needs to be there in the recruiting process. Just don’t expect it at the online stage. Like I said at the start, you should be networking into the company through the backdoor to get that human connection. Basically, take control and stop playing the victim card.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Are You Really Plugged-in to Your Network?
Man-oh-man did I get schooled on networking this week. Wednesday I had three networking meetings scheduled consecutively throughout the morning. While it was a bit of a scramble to get to the different networking meetings, it is not what I got schooled on. It was what I heard from one of the people I met with. Jobs that never hit the public street are out there and are being filled every day even in this economy.
The first networking meeting of the morning was with a senior Hi-Tech HR colleague that I have been acquainted with for a few years now. We occasionally run into each other at HR events. During our meeting we covered several topics and had a really good discussion. In our conversation I learned that she was considering hiring a friend and former co-worker of mine to help with a recruiting project. I gave an endorsement of my friend for the project. It was project work, which was no big deal to me. I frequently hear about project opportunities. Near the end of our meeting the conversation turned in a different direction. She shared with me that she had been quietly looking for someone to fill a particular HR specialist role in her organization. She had already identified her candidate. I was surprised that I hadn’t heard that she was looking to fill the role. It was never advertised or posted anywhere. I tried to keep my facial expression the same, but inside I was feeling shock at what I had just learned. We talked about what precipitated the search and what connections she used to find her candidate. I learned quite a bit about the opportunity with just a few probing questions. I finished up our meeting and went on to the other two networking meetings for the morning.
Wow, I could not believe what I had learned in that networking meeting. A job in my space had circulated in the community that I thought I was well plugged-in to. Well come to find out, I am not quite as plugged-in to it as I thought. While the role would not have been a match for me, it was the fact that it was in my backyard and I should have known about it that surprised me so much. I sat back and thought about what I had missed and how I could plug the holes to insure that I would be connected for the next time. I reexamined my industry connections, the frequency of my following up with my connections, and what I need to do to open new connections.
That evening I received an email on a similar situation through the metro area HR Network group that I belong to. The HR Network is a Yahoo group for area HR professionals to post questions to the HR community. This particular HR practitioner was looking for suggestions and tips on how to quietly search for candidates for a position. I don’t know what the position was that she was looking for but I passed along some suggestions to her on how to recruit for a position on the QT. What do you think was my number one suggestion? You got it, put out the word through her and the hiring manager’s network.
So ask yourself, how plugged-in to your network are you?
The first networking meeting of the morning was with a senior Hi-Tech HR colleague that I have been acquainted with for a few years now. We occasionally run into each other at HR events. During our meeting we covered several topics and had a really good discussion. In our conversation I learned that she was considering hiring a friend and former co-worker of mine to help with a recruiting project. I gave an endorsement of my friend for the project. It was project work, which was no big deal to me. I frequently hear about project opportunities. Near the end of our meeting the conversation turned in a different direction. She shared with me that she had been quietly looking for someone to fill a particular HR specialist role in her organization. She had already identified her candidate. I was surprised that I hadn’t heard that she was looking to fill the role. It was never advertised or posted anywhere. I tried to keep my facial expression the same, but inside I was feeling shock at what I had just learned. We talked about what precipitated the search and what connections she used to find her candidate. I learned quite a bit about the opportunity with just a few probing questions. I finished up our meeting and went on to the other two networking meetings for the morning.
Wow, I could not believe what I had learned in that networking meeting. A job in my space had circulated in the community that I thought I was well plugged-in to. Well come to find out, I am not quite as plugged-in to it as I thought. While the role would not have been a match for me, it was the fact that it was in my backyard and I should have known about it that surprised me so much. I sat back and thought about what I had missed and how I could plug the holes to insure that I would be connected for the next time. I reexamined my industry connections, the frequency of my following up with my connections, and what I need to do to open new connections.
That evening I received an email on a similar situation through the metro area HR Network group that I belong to. The HR Network is a Yahoo group for area HR professionals to post questions to the HR community. This particular HR practitioner was looking for suggestions and tips on how to quietly search for candidates for a position. I don’t know what the position was that she was looking for but I passed along some suggestions to her on how to recruit for a position on the QT. What do you think was my number one suggestion? You got it, put out the word through her and the hiring manager’s network.
So ask yourself, how plugged-in to your network are you?
Monday, April 20, 2009
Getting Your Resume to the Top of the Pile
Last week I heard from an HR colleague that she had landed a new job. She had been looking for about four months and landed it with a company leveraging her network. We had met for coffee shortly after the position had been posted about a month and half ago and she indicated that she submitted her resume for the position.
I know what you are thinking; I thought you said she got the job through her networking not from applying online. When we met for coffee she had already applied online and had researched some information about the company but wasn’t having much luck getting a connection into the company. My colleague is very active and connected in the HR community and sat on the HR special interest group (SIG) for one of the area trade associations. Well, her luck changed as she found that one of her colleagues from the HR SIG had a connection into the company’s HR organization. After some calls, she was able to get her resume moved to the top of the pile. While the connections didn’t land her the job (she still had to interview and sell herself through the selection process) they did get her the attention of the hiring manager and past the noise of the hundreds of other applicants that came through the internet posting.
Over the past couple of months we have been talking about the power of networking. We review our networking efforts every week to keep us focused on this important element of job search. I have visited other search groups and reinforced the same message of networking. Networking is the path for finding the jobs that are never advertised. They represent approximately 85% of all open positions. Job seekers regularly question why they should network with people who don’t have open positions, or why they should meeting with people who don’t seem to be directly related to the jobs or companies they are targeting. I always respond that you never know who might be the one that becomes the connection to the next job opportunity. In some cases they may be the one who can get your resume moved to the top of the pile. For the 15% of jobs that do get posted, you want to network your way through the back door to that one connection that will help move your resume to the top of the stack.
Keep networking. It is the power to your job search.
I know what you are thinking; I thought you said she got the job through her networking not from applying online. When we met for coffee she had already applied online and had researched some information about the company but wasn’t having much luck getting a connection into the company. My colleague is very active and connected in the HR community and sat on the HR special interest group (SIG) for one of the area trade associations. Well, her luck changed as she found that one of her colleagues from the HR SIG had a connection into the company’s HR organization. After some calls, she was able to get her resume moved to the top of the pile. While the connections didn’t land her the job (she still had to interview and sell herself through the selection process) they did get her the attention of the hiring manager and past the noise of the hundreds of other applicants that came through the internet posting.
Over the past couple of months we have been talking about the power of networking. We review our networking efforts every week to keep us focused on this important element of job search. I have visited other search groups and reinforced the same message of networking. Networking is the path for finding the jobs that are never advertised. They represent approximately 85% of all open positions. Job seekers regularly question why they should network with people who don’t have open positions, or why they should meeting with people who don’t seem to be directly related to the jobs or companies they are targeting. I always respond that you never know who might be the one that becomes the connection to the next job opportunity. In some cases they may be the one who can get your resume moved to the top of the pile. For the 15% of jobs that do get posted, you want to network your way through the back door to that one connection that will help move your resume to the top of the stack.
Keep networking. It is the power to your job search.
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