The biggest temptation in job search is to reply to as many online job postings as possible. It is relatively easy to do and it makes you feel productive. Please take this advice from an experienced career coach - proceed with caution!
It is reported that over 70% of resumes received for an online job posting are from candidates that are not qualified. What beleaguered organizations then do is create a wall of defense in the form of applicant tracking software designed to screen out all of the unqualified candidates that are wasting their internal recruiters and hiring managers time.
At The Frontier Group we provide career coaching and outplacement to individuals who either hire us directly or come to us as outplacement candidates. We tackle this challenge constantly because it is hard for someone to walk away from the immediate attraction of sending in resumes.
What then happens is all too familiar. The candidate will express their frustration at not getting any replies.
Lisa Rowan, a Program Director of HR, Learning and Talent Strategies for IDC was quoted in a TheLadders.com article,as saying:
“It goes much further with the technology looking at descriptive materials and parsing things out like a human when reading it.”
Here is some advice that Lisa Rowan provides to better the odds of someone actually reading your resume.
- Use a targeted approach. You’ll get much better results if you apply for jobs for which your skills and experience is a close match.
- Rather than sending in your resume via a job board, use your network and ask a current employee to submit it on your behalf. It may influence human screeners who have to handle it, but will definitely affect the computer, which will track it differently and apply higher values.Remember that if your resume gets through the initial screening process, it’s then turned over to the human element, when you’ll have a better chance to impress a real, live hiring manager.
At The Frontier Group we meet many highly qualified professionals who get caught in the nonproductive cycle of endless resume submissions with no calls - no interviews - no success. This is why we work with our clients to break away from this approach and take control of their search process by developing a proactive strategy that makes direct contact or referral to the key decision makers within their target list.
