Posted on 12/28/2002 1:15:10 PM PST by Rodney King
Resume black hole
BY ADAM GELLER Associated Press
Doug Ecklund totes up 11 months of job searching with these figures: about 1,000 resumes sent out via e-mail, just two interviews in person, one over the telephone, and zero offers.
But if the lack of success is discouraging, what irritates the systems analyst is the overall dearth of return communication. Only about 50 of his resumes drew a response, the rest netted nothing at all.
"We grew up in that era of where a courtesy was nice," said Ecklund, of Huntley, Ill. "Most (recruiters and employers), if they do respond will send you back an automated response. 'We got your resume, thank you for your letter, by the way, check out our Web site.' That's it."
Ecklund's frustration is all too familiar to the ranks of job hunters, now swollen by the recent economic downturn and waves of layoffs. More employers, deluged with resumes and increasingly leaving it to computers to sort through them all, are abandoning the courtesy letter and the polite callback as quaint, but outdated customs.
Who's to blame?
When the obituary is written for the courtesy note, technology will be listed as the cause of death. Many companies now use computerized resume management systems to scan, store and auto-respond to inquiries. Internet job boards like Monster.com and Hotjobs.com lets jobseekers spot and instantaneously reply to dozens of listings in just a few minutes.
But the decline of the courtesy note is about people as well as machines. The economic downturn has left many more people searching for work, and corporate cutbacks have included reductions in the very personnel and recruiting departments charged with handling the tide of resumes and cover letters.
"This is how rude the workplace has gotten," said Robin Ryan, a Seattle-based career counselor, who blames the lack of responses on corporate cost-cutting and the tide of applicants.
"You come in for an interview and they ... just leave you hanging. You usually have to call them back," she said. For many companies, "I really think it's the 37 cents. It's gotten so expensive that they choose not to do it."
Too many resumes
But some employers, who note that they do try to respond to all inquiries, point out that they're swimming in resumes.
Abbott Laboratories, for example, says its personnel department has received about 200,000 resumes so far this year, roughly double the number for all of 2001. Microsoft Corp. says it is getting 45,000 resumes each month, up from about 20,000 a month two years ago and 30,000 a month last year.
Both companies say they have policies of replying to all resumes with at least an automated response sent by a computer via e-mail.
The sea of applications has deepened because many job seekers have turned into what Peter Weddle, author "Weddle's Job Seeker's Guide to Employment Web Sites," of calls "graffiti applicants," sending out multiple electronic cover letters and resumes to employers, frequently for jobs they're not qualified to do.
"Everybody can just press 'send,' 'send,' 'send,'" said Kate Wendleton, president of The Five O'Clock Club, a New York career counseling firm. "You have to assume you're not going to get called in. You have to find some other way in."
That advice is repeated as gospel by career counselors and the people they advise. Jobseekers increasingly assume that, without a personal connection, they're not going to hear anything from many employers, even in the form of computer- generated "thank you" notes, said Kathy Andre of The Career Place, a publicly funded employment office in Woburn, Mass.
Working contacts
Many jobseekers, frustrated that their resumes are being swallowed in a black hole, are flocking to networking sessions, looking for someone who has a friend who knows a manager who might be hiring.
At the Barrington, Ill. Career Center, a single Tuesday morning networking meeting used to draw about 15 people. But on a recent Tuesday, back-to-back sessions drew a combined 104 jobseekers.
Networking has its own frustrations. Ecklund says when he's called people inside his former company on behalf of friends looking for work, he's been told five times that they should just send their resumes to the company Web site.
In an environment where employers can afford to be picky and take their time, even an interview doesn't guarantee communication.
Bob Creech, an unemployed credit manager from Arlington Heights, Ill., said after an interview six weeks ago, he immediately sent "thank you" notes off to the people he met with.
"I never heard 'boo' back from them, not even on e-mail," Creech said. "I think the trail's gone cold by now."
Therefore, since I put off finishing college and beginning a career until my children were all in school, recruiters believe that I am 15 years YOUNGER than I really am??
Righto. Someone else should PAY YOUR FRIGGIN PARKING.
I'm certain you are an enormous success in life.
< / sarcasm >
Damn, I thought this thread was about The Oakland Raidahs and their Black Hole, The Network Coliseum....
You misunderstood. They can't do the same job, but it doesn't matter, because, as I did state, quality is not a consideration.
Depending on which IT industry news you read, and their measurement criteria, the failure rate of large IT projects over the last decade+ has ranged between 75% and 90%.
I've been in IT for over eighteen years, and I've never had a manager or project manager whose academic credentials included Management, Business, Engineering, or Computer Science, or any such field requiring quantitative skills. The PC crowd invaded the IT field early on, and has held it in a death grip, literally. I'm sure others have experienced competent IT management, but I'm still waiting to read of those stories.
This aproach is what is suggested by counselors, "placement firrms" and other unknowlegable nerds.
Personal contact or "knowing someone" is the only way!
Maybe that's why my resume didn'y work! <:)
Maybe they couldn't wait for the "Human Resources" jerks to screen them for a job which was only understood by the supervisor of the department with the employment need.
One could starve to death waiting for that process!
Exactly correct. That's why I don't use the HR dept. They could not spot a decent applicant if it bite them on the ass.
Thought you had me huh?
Not at all, kind one. just sensed an opportunity to voice my opinion!
HR departments screen out most of those who don't have a department supervisor who can check in the HR & keep watch for the applications of their friends, etc.
Imagine...a whole department dedicated to keeping away prospective employees who might better the company.
I once had two interviews over a two month period for an open position. Six months later, I was called to interview a third time.
I indicated that they had helped me decide never again to work for someone!
What? People now expect responses to junk mail? These letters are cranked out by computer, all following a standard format..How I can save your company millions etc. Only the services cranking out these annoying letters are benefiting from this scam.
Thank you so much, Bilbo.
So I go over to the Arab Emirates a couple years ago to start up some equipment at a military base. The Arabs had mostly Indian help to install piping and wiring. I expected same level of expertise that I was accustomed to in this country. Wrong. They were all morons. It was like supervising 1st Graders. The Arabs would call them stupid people and then go into an Arabic triade. I just laughed and enjoyed the show.
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