Increasing the odds of getting your resume in front of the hiring manager

re: Increasing the odds of getting your resume in front of the hiring manager

HeatherLeigh — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 00:27:18 GMT

I'm not much for betting. If I were in your situation, I'd apply to both companies and see how that goes. Lack of communication from career sites isn't just an annoyance reserved for people applying on our career sites. Very few companies do that well, us included. It has something to do with the many thousands of resumes we receive weekly. We could do better, that's for sure. You should have received an e-mail when you submitted your resume.

Having said that, recruiters here actively search our database for resumes that match the qualifications of their open positions. There would be nothing keeping them from contacting you if any one of them felt they had a position that matched your background. So your point about your resume not being a fit is a good one. Recruiters here actually want to hire people...no big conspiracy keeping us from calling people that match our open positions. No calls means we have not found a match for your background. I suspect that if we sent a weekly e-mail telling people that, it may help with the transparency, but it wouldn't have any impact on them receiveing a call from a recruiter.

If you have specific feedback for the folks here that manage our career site, I'm sure they would love to have it. You can either leave it here or use the "contact us" link on the page.

I also know some of the recruiters over at Google, so if you would like, I would be happy to forward your resume to them so it doesn't fall into their "black hole".

I'd offer to help circulate your resume here but you sound angry. It's all in the phrasing so I'm going to assume that you don't want my assistance. But if you asked politely, I'm always happy to assist with getting a resume into the right hands. I don't see anyone from Google making that offer, do you?

re: Increasing the odds of getting your resume in front of the hiring manager

Anon, Seattle — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 23:40:14 GMT

Hmmm. I've been through the MS recruiting process once before, got offered the job though I decided to decline (the package offered really wasn't that great).

I'm now living in Seattle (it was a long-term plan to move, my wife is from here). I've applied thru' MS's career site, and have even had a employee referral, and . . . nothing. One email, 7 weeks ago. So, the premise of "getting your resume in front of a hiring manager" is a joke.

Now, it's quite possible that my resume/CV isn't a fit -- that's fine. What I find extremely distateful, is a complete lack of communication from MS. I honestly feel as though I got thrown into a cosmic black-hole.

Luckily, Google's Fremont office is 20 minute walk away -- and is becoming a far more appealing option.

What's the betting that if I get accepted to a Masters programme @ UW, that MS would be getting in contact?

Anon.

re: Increasing the odds of getting your resume in front of the hiring manager

HeatherLeigh — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 21:30:54 GMT

Sure, Jared, go ahead and point us to those companies. In the interest of educating my readers, feel free to do that here.

Legal issues are boring but that doens't mean they don't exist. But next time I get any kind of communication from my legal department, I'll let them know that I am not going to comply bedcause legal issues are boring. How do you think that will go over?

Sorry if you don't like that I disagree with your position. It's not a matter of me doing due diligence, it's a matter of me not agreeing with your statements and you using my blog to advertise for your own business. If I let you do that and did not say that I disagreed, it would be tacit endorsement. You won't get that here. Other companies can do what they want; that doens't mean that we should be doing it. Sorry, I am not going to be taken to task for not researching your product more. The opinions I stated were on the concept of certified resumes and the fact that you are planting a comment here to advertise somehting you are selling.

One of the reasons that people come here is to get career advice. I give it. If I don't agree with something someone has said, I say it. I feel that is my responsibility. I suppose that you HAVE to believe that you are selling something of value. If other people find value in it, that's great. But I stand by what I said. Right now, it's a non-issue here and I still don't know anyone that is using certified resumes. And I know a lot of people.

re: Increasing the odds of getting your resume in front of the hiring manager

Jared Fletcher — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 21:05:27 GMT

Heather,

With all due respect, you should conduct some due diligence before responding to a post. Seems like John and I are trying to help your readers potentially gain an edge and/or educate them on trends happening in your industry – a concept that you are obviously very unfamiliar with which is understandably as it’s a relatively new concept.

To you point regarding that you don’t know of any companies out there. I would be happy to point you to a number of them…..

Legal issues????-I don't want to bore your readers by responding to this point, the below substantiates the inaccuracy of this comment.

I would be more than happy to direct you to the many individuals that have obtained jobs using a certified resume....some have been cited in newspaper articles...articles that were independently written.

We have never advocated that you "require" anyone to do anything...although again, there are smaller companies out there that are requiring candidates to submit certified resumes. Teachers are required to pay for their own background checks...and no different than paying an application fee to rent an apartment- the fee is for a background check. Sounds like true pre-screening is not an uncommon practice...........

Just my $.03

re: Increasing the odds of getting your resume in front of the hiring manager

HeatherLeigh — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 22:40:33 GMT

Jared - I could see all kinds of legal issues with that. We have to treat all of our prospects/candidates in the same way. We can't require that everyone have a certified resume. I honestly don't care if someone's resume is certified. I don't know of any companied requiring it.

Hey-let me guess....Jared and John work for a resume certification company.

re: Increasing the odds of getting your resume in front of the hiring manager

John Leonard — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 18:07:24 GMT

Interesting topic, Heather and thanks for all the terrific info… In a perfect world, you’re 100% correct when you stated in replied to Jared on June 22 “The resume should be accurate and without typos, but I don't think people need to have their resume "certified".” Unfortunately, it’s not a perfect world… in fact it’s quite the opposite and increasingly, candidates are willing to stretch the truth on their resumes just to get an edge.

The certification process weeds out those instances in advance, providing the hiring company with a “clean” pool of resumes from which to select candidates to interview. A simple concept that I find intriguing... and one that goes against most current companies’ processes in place to be sure, but one that I feel over time will be changing as termination, re-hire and re-training costs climb due to increased cases of resume misrepresentation discovered after the fact (whew!!).

Just my $.02.

re: Increasing the odds of getting your resume in front of the hiring manager

Jared Fletcher — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 17:23:49 GMT

Heather-

In response to your comment regarding certified resumes. Would you rather look at a certified resume or uncertified resume? You may perform background checks once you guys have interviewed the candidate and negotiated their salary- only to find out that there was fraud on their resumes. Unfortunately, you then have start the process all over.

We have had a number of individuals submit certified resume to employers. More and more employers are asking for certified resumes as they don't have to worry about whether that candidate is telling the truth regarding their education or employment.

Certified resumes are a true pre-screening tool. Checking the background after you allow them inside your company hardly can be considered pre-screening. An extreme case is the person that places an employer on their resume...only issue is that they were really sitting in jail during that time....just think you that person was in your office..and your bosses office..........

re: Increasing the odds of getting your resume in front of the hiring manager

HeatherLeigh — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 21:40:15 GMT

Mark- fantastic question. I'd do both but you are wise to think about the key words. It goes into our database and recruiters are actively searching it. If you search some job descriptions onour career site you will get a good idea of some keywords to use. In fact. I'm going to blog about that....great idea.

re: Increasing the odds of getting your resume in front of the hiring manager

Mark McGoldrick — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 23:23:13 GMT

When you apply for a job on the careers site, what exactly happens to your resume. Does it go to a recruiter or does it just go into a database that's searchable by keywords. I haven't got a whole lot of response so I am curious whether I should be concentrating on writing for keywords or just describing my experiences. Thanks for the information!

Mark

re: Increasing the odds of getting your resume in front of the hiring manager

HeatherLeigh — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 20:40:13 GMT

Robert - I'm glad!

Chad- good luck!