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To: Gingersnap

While I agree that a good deal of this author's points make him sound like a whiner, I will interject my last two years of experience.

I am currently employed as an independent contractor and as such have been looking for a real full time job for the two years since I got laid off. I have applied for no less than 200 jobs, all of which I was qualified to hold.

Of those 200 applications I have recieved perhaps 30 responses, and 2 interviews. One of the interviews required that I take a day off of work (lost pay), and drive 150 miles each way for a 30 minute interview. I did everything right, dressed correctly, provided a printed copy of my resume, sent a letter to the interviewer thanking him for his time, etc. Three months later I got a thanks but no thanks letter.

Now this might seem trivial to some, but the fact is that a good deal of professional courtesy has been thrown out the window. Say what you want, but taking three months to send a thanks but no thanks letter to one of three people interviewed for a postion is rude. Sending no response at all to an online application is just as rude, even if it's a cookie cutter rubber stamp form letter. I took the time to apply, you can take the time to tell me I didn't get the job.

Then there is the HR hellbot. This little gem is used to scan through resumes looking for keywords and ranks applicants accordingly. Sounds like a real timesaver to me, except there is a flaw. Say you are looking for a "Technical Sales Engineer" and the hellbot is looking for that as a key word. All well and good except my past employer called the same position "Systems Engineer". All the education and experience to do the job is there, but because a hellbot is looking through the resumes not a real live body it's the bottom of the stack for me. I could modify my resume to say what I think they are looking for, but then should they call my past employer to verify my employment history it's not going to jive with my resume. That in turn makes my resume look suspect.

Last but not least my biggest pet peeve is the opening that's posted, but already filled. If you have an internal candidate who is a shoe in for an opening then me taking the time to apply is a royal waste of time. I know there are legal reasons for doing this, but that doesn't change the fact that it's royal waste of time.

The bottom line is that looking for a job is nothing like it used to be. Not for me anyway.


39 posted on 07/20/2004 11:00:16 AM PDT by Groganeer
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To: Groganeer

Three months later I got a thanks but no thanks letter.
-----

My favorite rejection letter I have received was a postcard with a photograph of a toilet on it with a caption that read, "We will keep your resume on file"

This was from the software company Novell. Unprofessional but funny. I had a good job a week later.


52 posted on 07/20/2004 11:57:52 AM PDT by Rad_J
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