Ouch…stuck in the Net for my job search!
What’s your internet strategy for getting a job?
DEAR READERS: The e-mail below is typical of what I’m hearing from frustrated job seekers today. Do you agree with the writer that the Internet should be a small part of a search, or do you he’s overlooking a great tool? (I’d be glad to run a “pro” Internet column, if someone wants to argue the other side.)
DEAR 911: I just had my fifth interview in which a manager half my age wound up a 45 minute conversation by saying, “It’s OK, KID, you’re not ‘our kind of guy,’ but take it as a compliment that you got as high up as me for an interview.”
Such has been my life after six months of job hunting on the Internet, after being dumped on the street from one of Oregon’s high-profile resort casinos. I’m marketing and sales manager, have been all my life, since I carried Jack Kennedy’s bags to his room. One year short of my retirement, I got to experience the joys of job-hunting in the 21st century — so, this old dog thought, how about a new trick — the Internet??
Fuhgettaboudit. The good news about the Internet: there are hundreds of jobs out there, all easy to get to. The bad news: all those jobs are easy for EVERYONE to get to. Every shoe salesman, ax murderer and runaway teenager with a good golf swing can access it and send a resume, clogging MY chances of getting through. My racket is hospitality, this is my reality. Under-funded, under-trained, over-worked and bored HR departments in the hotel business are swamped by resumes and drenched with three, often four hundred resumes for the kinds of jobs I seek: Director of Sales and Marketing. Six resumes a day, five days a week, for six months — do the math.
Frustrated, I called three top hotel HR departments and asked about my resume. None of the three could even find it. Two of the three admitted they got so many, it was probably still in the server with the “other hundred still left unread.”
Technology, don’t you just love it? Send your CV and within 120 seconds, most of those HR departments computers are trained to kick out a programmed, “thanks, we’re busy, swamped, overworked, got more than we need, don’t call us,” (I’ve got copies of all the above ).
The point of all this? Look, don’t depend on the Net, and certainly don’t depend on headhunters. (didn’t mean to break your heart.) In 25 years, there are only three I would let baby sit my children: Harry in Texas, Tom in Seattle and Mitch in Phoenix.
Finding a job? Don’t rely on the Internet. Press the flesh, call your friends, check out Chamber meetings, business associates, its back-to-the-future folks. With all the babble about 21st-century flash-n-dash, it’s still who-knows-you.
My best advice? Be faithful to only two things: You, Inc. and your Rolodex, nothing else. Remember, you heard it here-from the front lines. Keep your rifle oiled.
Bob Rosner and Sherrie Campbell author the nationally syndicated workplace911 column weekly. Bob’s a best-selling author and award-winning journalist who has responded to over 50,000 emails from employees, bosses and entrepreneurs. Sherrie’s a relationship expert and award-winning comedian who has offered quick, intuitive and humorous responses to over 30,000 people. He’s been called “Dilbert, with a solution.” She’s the counselor with a kick. Together they’ve turned rants into raves via TV, radio, print and live on their website at workplace911.com.
Filed under: Job Search Strategies & Skills (F), Networking for Jobs & Insight (F) | Tagged: how to get a job online, Internet job search, Job search, Networking
I can understand how frustrating it must be for WOUNDED to have sent out over 750 resumes without tangible results. Get that many rejections (or even worse, being ignored) is difficult to endure.
The advice I have is:
1) If something isn’t working, change what you are doing. Sending resumes to Internet ads might work for some people (I have friends with technical skills in strong demand who have had great success with this). Apparently, for a Director of Sales and Marketing, it is not a good approach.
2) Networking has always been one of the most reliable ways to find a job, especially when you can hear of a company’s need before they realize they need someone.
3) In hiring, the HR department has always had a role of gatekeeper — their job is to keep people out. With the flood of electronic resumes that come from Internet listings, they employ computers to do the first pass for them. They are not worried that they have turned away good candidates. They just want to ensure that everyone they bring in is a good candidate.
4) To get to the hiring manager requires good research (which the Internet helps), good sales skills (which a Director of Sales and Marketing should have in spades), and perseverence. But once you are talking to the hiring manager, it does not matter how many resumes are sitting unread on the server.
Good luck with your search!
Steve