Straight from the Job Seeker’s Mouth

(http://www NULL.flickr NULL.com/photos/22801437 null@null N03/2246893885/)A couple weeks back, the Career Management Alliance Blog (http://www NULL.careermanagementalliance NULL.com/) wrote an article called “Straight From the Recruiter’s Mouth (http://www NULL.careermanagementalliance NULL.com/blog/straight-from-the-recruiters-mouth/).” The basic premise of the article is straight-forward: “You must follow-up on Internet job applications whenever possible.”

I agree with that premise. I just don’t know how it is possible.

In the United States (and this is NOT true of all countries), postings for jobs do not include the recruiter’s name, much less a phone number or e-mail address, with the job posting.

Having both my wife and I laid off at the same time (and still doing well, by the way), we’ve applied for, perhaps, hundreds of positions — with 99.9% of them giving you the standard e-mail reply thanking us for our application. This includes positions in our own large company while we were still employed.

What does the e-mail response say? They all tell us to not reply to the e-mail because it’s not monitored; you automatically know that this means not monitored by human beings. Oh, I love you too, non-human responder. I’m sure it will be a breeze to follow-up with a live recruiter since the e-mail address isn’t monitored.

Piece of cake.

Now, if there is a call from a recruiter interested in our skills and work, of course, it is good to follow-up. You know, because you actually can.

But off an Internet application where no recruiter is listed? How am I supposed to follow-up on that?

Corporations have hidden their open jobs behind automated e-mail responses not monitored by people, with software that automates the reading of resume’s in standard formats looking for key words that could be flagged as a possibility, that will then send you possible job openings based upon what some software program thinks you are qualified for — and getting accounting positions when you’ve never held a finance position in your life but you mentioned processes “to financial interfaces” one time in your resume.

You are supposed to try and follow up with that nonsense? Why bother.

We’re all driven to find the right position for us. And, with apologies to Volkswagen…People Wanted. Not machines and software and automated everything. Instead, people.

Scot