Resumes Being Ignored By HR?
Don’t take it personally if you have been out of work a while and your job search is going nowhere except to silent rejections. Most human resource departments have changed: the days are gone when resumes are responded to by employees. Even form letters saying “no thanks” are a thing of the past.
Departments in HR are busy
HR people who don’t respond aren’t unsympathetic to your situation, they are just overwhelmed with theirs, as stated in a poll done by the Human Resource Management. These past few years, HR departments have been downsizing and having layoffs of their own. On average, HR departments have been decreasing from 13 to 9.2 employees according to SHRM. That means the average workload for the average HR worker has increased by 30 percent from the days when a written response to a solicited resumé was the norm.
Workers for HR know what it’s like
HR workers understand what unemployed job-hunters are going through right now. In another survey by SHRM, it was found that of the HR professionals who didn’t have work in 2009, 47 percent of workers looked for work for six to twelve months and 27 percent had been looking more than a year of the 85 percent of job losses from layoffs. Among the HR workers who found positions in 2009, 49 percent said they liked their new jobs less than their old ones. When pay cuts are added into the mix is makes HR employees much better candidates for payday loans than before.
HR departments are ‘black holes’ for resumes.
It is safe to say many HR personnel are overworked considering the high level of job dissatisfaction. The 14 million unemployed people looking for jobs is making businesses become inundated with resumes and applications. However carefully you craft your submission and whether or not it is solicited by the company, it will be buried in a pile somewhere and HR employees are hard-pressed to give it individual consideration. This can also be said for interview follow-ups. Most job candidates will get to the interview stage, think the interview went great, but never hear from the company again. It’s discouraging — it may even border on inexcusable — but it’s not personal.
Getting past the HR department
When it comes to job-hunting with record-high unemployment rates looming in the distance, there’s nothing wrong with knocking on every door. Try the back door after a little bit of research. Check web sites or call the company to get names and contact information of the department head and hiring manager for the job you’re interested in. Next, even if you have already sent your resume to the HR department, send it also to those people directly.
For HR purposes your resume is just a checklist
Hundreds of applications are sorted through by HR personnel who compare qualifications of candidates to a checklist of job requirements. After about 10 seconds, if all the boxes on the list aren’t checked, your resumé disappears forever. Doubtless, department heads and hiring managers are busy people, too, but they aren’t looking at stacks of resumés every day, and they may see things in your application that an HR person does not. Usually companies are looking for something in someone that can’t be found in a list of job requirements.
Your resume needs to get into the right hands
- Be patient while waiting a few days after sending your resume.
- You need to be brave and call the people you sent the resume to.
- Be confident when asking to schedule a meeting.
Aren’t you looking for a job? You can’t even get low interest loans without one. Get your resume into the right hands to give your job experience and hard-earned qualifications the recognition they deserve.
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