If your job search is has resulted in nothing but silent rejections and you’ve been out of work a when, don’t take it too personally. Human resources departments have changed: Gone are the days when employers responded to resumés. In the past are the days of even giving a polite “no thank you”.
Departments in HR are busy
HR people who don’t respond aren’t unsympathetic to your situation, they’re just overwhelmed with theirs, as stated in a poll done by the Human Resource Management. In the past few years, HR departments have had plenty of layoffs and downsizings of their own. SHRM says that since 2007 most HR departments have decreased from 13 to 9.2 employees on average. That means the average workload for the typical HR worker has increased by 30 percent from the days when a written response to a solicited resumé was the norm.
HR workers know what it’s like
HR workers know firsthand what unemployed job-hunters are going through. In another survey by SHRM, it was found that of the HR professionals who didn’t have work in 2009, 47 percent of workers looked for work for six to twelve months and 27 percent had been looking more than a year of the 85 percent of job losses from layoffs. Among the HR workers who secured positions in 2009, 49 percent said they liked their new jobs less than their old ones. Add pay cuts to the mix, and chances are good that HR personnel are better candidates for pay day loans than ever before.
HR departments are ‘black holes’ for resumes.
Given such a high level of job dissatisfaction, it’s safe to say that many HR personnel are strained. Businesses are inundated with resumes and applications considering there are more than 14 million unemployed people looking for jobs. HR employees are hard pressed to give individual consideration to your resume which is buried in a pile somewhere regardless how carefully it is crafted and if or not the company solicited it. . Many candidates get to the interview stage, think everything went well, but never find out from the company again. It’s not personal despite that it may be discouraging and inexcusable.
Bypass the HR department
There is nothing wrong with knocking on the door in job hunting considering the record high unemployment rate. It can be good to do research and try the back door. Call the company to get names and contact information of the hiring manager and department head or check websites for the job you want. Next you should send your resume directly to those people, whether or not you’ve already sent it to the HR department.
Your resumé is just a checklist for HR purposes
HR personnel sort through hundreds of applications and check candidate qualifications to a checklist of job requirements. If all the boxes aren’t checked in about 10 seconds, your resume vanishes forever. Department heads and managers are busy people however they don’t look at stacks of resumes each day which means they might see things on your application the HR people don’t. Usually companies are searching for something in someone that can’t be found in a list of job requirements.
Make certain your resume gets into the right hands
Have patience while waiting a few days after sending your resume.
Be brave and call those who have your resume.
Be confident when requesting to schedule a meeting.
You need a job, right? Without one, you can’t even get low interest loans. Give your hard-earned qualifications and job experience the recognition they deserve by getting your resumé to the right hands.
