Some thoughts and tips on applying for a career posted on a job board or in the newspaper. It’s frustrating. You’re knocking and no one’s answering. Are they really looking for new blood for their team or is HR just making it look like they’re doing something?

Ever been in that situation where you saw a great career posting on an online job board or advertised in the paper and you applied? You carefully crafted your cover letter tailoring it to address some of the concerns and/or benefits hiring you would bring to your new prospective employer. You polished your resume file - made sure all the relevant positions you’ve had over the years are listed, used action words, composed everything using a readable font, checked endlessly for spelling errors and checked that everything lined up looking presentable. The deadline for submissions is stated in the ad and you’re well within that time as you assemble the files in an email. Addressed to the recipient specified in the job posting (or, merely posted on job boards like Monster or Workopolis, etc.) you eagerly click the send (or update) button, smile as the file is sent and then wait for the return email. ‘Everyone stay off the phone - I’m expecting a call soon from my new prospective employer now that they have my application’, you tell your family members.  These guys really need people - that’s what the guys on the talkshows and in the newpapers are continually saying. Can’t find the skilled workers they need. Better relax our immigration policies to let more of those trained overseas get a better job here instead of driving cabs. Everyone needs them!

Everyone stay off the phone - I’m expecting a call soon from my new prospective employer now that they have my application

Hmm. It’s been several days now since you submitted or updated your position application and still you haven’t heard anything from your new prospective employer. Why? They’re busy? Received billions of applications they’re pouring over? On vacation? Oh well! Actually, when you think about it, it’s been over a week now - going on two weeks and you still haven’t heard anything. What gives?

I’ll tell you what gives. Most of the HR people charged with recruiting new talent to their organization’s team are ill-equipped to do it. What do I mean?

I mean they aren’t motivated to produce quick, effective results. They have never spent a day let alone anytime at all in a customer service capacity where they would have gained a perspective on how to treat new potential customers (read: employees). They don’t understand that marketing without responding quickly to customer/employee responses tarnishes their organization’s brand, it’s image. These HR people - generally clerks and or socalled “people-learned” professionals are so busy trying to preserve their own jobs that they have created all kinds of programs within their organizations to keep themselves busy in the eyes of their Masters. Hey, we don’t need to reply quickly to an applicant, we’re in charge and they don’t know who we are anyway. Besides we’ve got campus recruiting fairs to attend to, benefits and compensation conferences to go to, Application Tracking Systems (ATS’s) to implement or learn and boy, we have so many applications to wade through. Besides we haven’t really defined all the responsibilities and reporting that this position will have. SO WE HAVE TIME!

But you don’t have time! You’ve made the decision to seek employment elsewhere and you want to get going!

Does any of the above discussion seem familiar to you? It should if you’ve done any kind of applying online or to the paper these days. Working inside a large organization as a Contractor recently I witnessed firsthand how within a few weeks I became the “GOTO GUY” for recruitment/hr functions within the department I was in. My edict is to deliver results, simply and effectively. The HR folks could have done the same thing if they wanted to but chose not to because of all the other things that they placed in front of what they said was crucial to their business - that is, hiring more skilled people. Hundreds of them that they couldn’t seem to find. But guess what? I could find them. And they found me. Some even stay in touch with me now that my contract term has ended. I still respond to them - one never knows where they’ll end up next or what they’ll be in charge of. It’s a small world.

So, how do you deal with the ineffectiveness of the career “black holes” of the internet?

GO DIRECT TO THE HIRING MANAGER

You see a position posting you’re interested in - do some homework. Find out who the hiring Manager is. If it isn’t apparent, figure out what department the role is in and phone the organization to find out the name of the department’s Manager. Ask them if they are the ones looking after the hiring for the position of interest. Can you submit your resume to them? I’m telling you folks, inside the client I was in, the people that got most of the new jobs were those who contacted the Senior Department Manager and were referred to the individual doing the hiring that reported to them.

Check with your friends, acquaintances or friendly competitors who you should speak with at a particular company you’re interested in if they are in the same field. Contact that person directly. Forget HR. Well, at least don’t let them be the only route you use to get your application in.

More ideas to be added soon.