Ann told me about an article that appeared in today's issue of the KC Star. It reminded me of why so few people ever get a response from potential employer. The article, titled "Fake resume for ‘Noah Z. Ark’ draws interview offers but is mostly ignored" chronicles a fake job hunter and how companies responded to him. Here is an excerpt:
My experience in looking for work in the early 2000s bears this out. I was applying for work all of time and very rarely ever got a response. It is a sad testament to the robotic ways that Corporate America interacts with potential employees.When Gerry Crispin and Mark Mehler founded a consulting company to help employers improve their employee recruiting processes, they decided to first find out what employers were doing wrong. So, for 10 years, their CareerXroads company has engaged volunteers to help a fictional job hunter apply online for jobs, posting resumes directly on the websites of “best places to work” companies.
This year, “Noah Ark” was the job hunter, presenting a resume that had great experience and buzzwords at the top but wound down into absurdity the longer one read it. Sadly, only a tiny fraction of the companies each year have recognized the obvious job hunter ruse, which would have been apparent had their resume screeners — computerized or human — read the entire resume. [read more]
Yep. Few things make me more miserable than the resume/application process. And this from someone who worked for a State-funded, resume development agency! I find silence harder than "no", and that is the primary response in today's job market. In the past, employers at least had the courtesy to send a "no, but we'll keep your resume on file" note, but in our harried, marginless society, the time for those niceties seems to be over.
ReplyDeleteGood point Kelli. One of the down sides of the information age. :(
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