The Resume
When people decide to seriously look for a job, they immediately begin working on their resume. Usually they pull out the old resume and simply add their latest job description, with little thought given to whether the entire, overall effect of the resume will help sell them into the types of positions they are now seeking.
Everyone should have a resume. Creating a strong resume will require you to spend 5-10 hours writing and rewriting. A resume is important for a number of reasons. It forces you to focus on what you want, it can open doors for interviews, it can help guide an interview by causing employers to ask questions about your results, and it can help employers remember you weeks after meeting you.
The major advantage to using resumes is that once the resume is completed, it can be put to use quickly and inexpensively. People use resumes primarily to respond to want ads and to mail to employers unsolicited.
The major drawback of resumes is that most people must send out lots of them to get an interview or two, and many people fail to get any interviews, even for jobs that they thought their background matched perfectly. Very few resumes make employers eager to meet the sender. In fact, a well-documented study indicated that companies received 245 resumes for every interview offered. When you figure an average of six people interviewed for each position, it takes approximately 1,470 resumes to land a position. These are not good odds. Despite this poor success rate, people continue to mail out masses of resumes and, in turn, receive masses of rejections.
What makes the marketing letter distinct is that it is generally sent to a specific person, and it closes with a statement that the employer will be called in a few days in order to set up a brief, face-to-face appointment. If that fails, then the resume is sent with a combination cover letter/thank-you note. Because the thank-you portion makes the cover letter much more personal, and because you've gained valuable information from the call, you will be able to specify various skills and strengths that are needed and valued by that employer, Thus you will have greater impact, and are more likely to be remembered when you follow up five weeks later, or when a position becomes available any time in the next six months.
Personnel Departments
Many people send out hundreds of resumes addressed to the personnel or human resources departments of organizations, typically with little success. It is not surprising since personnel can respond to a resume only if a suitable opening exists. If a position is not open when the resume is received, the resume will be filed either alphabetically or by job category. And once your resume makes it to the file cabinet, the likelihood of it seeing the light of day again are about as great as winning the lottery. We can't say that resumes and applications are never sifted through, but it is rare.
With these points in mind, when conducting a systematic job search, avoid personnel as much as possible. Personnel almost never hires people; it screens in or screens out applicants-usually out, When a position is advertised, it is usually a personnel clerk who screens out the 50-250 resumes that pour in. The personnel clerk has the job description in one hand and your resume in the other. If the job description calls for five years of experience and you have three, you end up in the reject pile even though you may be ideally suited for the job. Personnel clerks are murder on career changers who have tons of related experience but no direct experience.
Deal directly with department managers and other hiring authorities whenever possible. Nevertheless, when you must deal with personnel, always be friendly and tactful. Do everything you can to make all those you deal with want to help you. If you must go through a screening interview, make the screener your ally. Demonstrate that you have all of the energy, personality, and potential to succeed in the position.
College Placement Offices
Virtually all of the institutions of higher education have placement offices. They are often known as career planning and placement offices, but the names vary widely from school to school. About 21% of those who use their placement office find a job through that resource.
If the title contains "career planning," it indicates that at least part of their effort is devoted to helping students determine what they really want to do. Since a college of 10,000 students may have only five career counselors, you can see that their ability to spend much time with you on your career decision making will be limited. You may want to take advantage of the career planning and job finding courses many schools offer. In some cases, you can even receive college credit for taking them. As with anything, some instructors are better than others. Make sure you take your class from the best.
The placement function of career planning and placement offices often entails obtaining part-time and temporary job listings for students to look at. The major effort, however, is devoted to obtaining job listings for college seniors and to arrange for company recruiters to visit the campus to interview those seniors. Alumni will usually not be allowed to interview with campus recruiters, but they are allowed to examine the posted job listings.
Make use of the opportunity to interview with campus recruiters. Be prepared for all of the common interview questions, and by all means read the company literature which is always sent in advance of a recruiter's visit to the campus. Particularly be prepared to answer the question, "Why do you want to work for us?" and "What do you know about us?"
