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Peter Neilson reports: <<Over the years I've used a resume format in MS
Word or in vanilla text that I thought looked pretty good. About eight
years ago I began to feel that HR departments at possible employers
weren't exactly reading it, but instead were stupidly scanning it for
buzzwords. So I raised that question with a recruiter... He said that
yes, they used that method to select which ones to read.>>
I've heard tons of anecdotal evidence that this is true, and it's nice
(in the Orwellian anti-sense of the word) to hear confirmation from a
reputable source. In my dealings with HR/Personnel departments over the
years, I've learned not to be surprised by _any_
<euphemism>wacky</euphemism> policies and practices.
<overgeneralisation>For every conscientious, hardworking, humane person
I've met in HR, there's been at least one manager who made Dilbert's
boss look good.</overgeneralisation>
In their defense, the problem isn't entirely on their side. A typical
hiring practice goes like this: Engineering Manager A, who doesn't
really know anything about technical writing but who does know a few
buzzwords, passes these buzzwords to HR Manager B, who further dilutes
the qualifications by editing them to fit company style. Something
poorly phrased and defined to begin with becomes even worse. Alternate
scenario: Manager C, who does understand the job, creates a carefully
thought-out list of requirements, passes them to HR Manager B, and B
then runs them through the sausage grinder to produce crap.
Also in their defence, it pays to remember that in a buyer's
(employer's) market, a job ad may attract 500 resumes, most of which
are irrelevant to the position or produced by people who will clearly
be inferior candidates. Few HR groups have the resources to read these,
particulary in large companies that may have several jobs open
simultaneously, so they need some way to survive the influx of paper.
Automation is one such solution.
<<So for years, I guess, NOBODY has been reading resumes that I've
submitted... I think the only way to get in the door now is to know
somebody inside.>>
It's not necessarily true that "nobody" reads them. I got my first job
(with IBM) many years ago after my resume passed through the
grinder--and annoyingly, was separated from the cover letter that
explained the relevance of each key item on the resume--but was
unaccountably not filtered out, even though I was a B.Sc. in biology. A
bored manager looking for help spotted it in the pile of scanned
documents and called to ask whether I was just plain nuts or whether a
biologist might really have something to offer IBM. I explained myself,
had an interview an hour later, and a job by the end of the day. So you
can escape the grinder with a little luck.
But it's better to avoid reliance on luck. This anecdote supports your
suspicion that you need to know somebody to get in. The most effective
way to get past the grinder is to make a human contact--whether by
meeting an insider at an STC meeting or by researching a company until
you find a real human to contact. If you can make your sales pitch to
that person, you can bypass the resume grinder; managers who are hiring
for a position still generally have the right to insist that HR include
a given resume in the pile of final candidates.
An even better way to get your foot in the door is to do a bit of
freelancing for a company before they even begin the hiring process.
Some organization (particularly governments) require a formal ad in the
newspaper plus competition before they hire, but others are happy to
work with someone under a short contract until they're comfortable that
the person is working out, then offer them a job at the end of the
contract. My former employer worked this way--probably still does.
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