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One of my friends has been laid off for just about a year now, and she asked me for some tips on preparing for a face to face interview since she hasn’t done it in over four years. Here are my suggestions:

There are a couple of things I see a lot of when I’m interviewing a candidate or get feedback from a team member that has interviewed.

1) Make sure you have read the job description and if you have questions about the job or environment ask the recruiter before you go in. (Things like core business hours, size of the team, work environment, company culture). These would be considered company questions. As a candidate, I always ask the recruiter if there are press releases or marketing materials or external websites I can look at to help prepare for the interview. Then come with some questions about the product/service that you can ask specific team members. (See #3 😉

2) Often an interviewer will describe a project, or the potential role, and a candidate gets fired up and interrupts the interviewer before they have finished what they are going to say. Always let the interviewer complete their thought/question.

3) ASK QUESTIONS. Most interviewers leave you about 10 minutes for questions of your own at the end. You want to seem interested. Some questions I ask interviewers is "tell me about a typical day", and "why did you decide to work here" and "are there any team dynamics that make this a particularly enjoyable/challenging environment?"

Request clarification if needed. For example, I had a phone screen last year and the manager asked me "tell me about your experience with compensation." I lobbed back at her "Do you mean compensation surveys and benchmarking or negotiation or understanding total comp versus base salary?" My response actually told her the answer to the question. My point is, you might get something that is not only "open ended" but has more than one possible way it can be answered. Ask for clarification. This sort of question is actually less about the answer than it is about the thought process and how you approach problem solving.

4) If you haven’t done so, read up on behavioral based interviewing. This is how most businesses conduct interviews. The premise is that what you have done in the past is predictive of how you will re/act in the future. So you are going to be asked a ton of "tell me about a time when" sort of questions. You need to think about some situations that demonstrate your core business skills.

5) KNOW YOUR RESUME. EVERYTHING on it is fair game in an interview.

6) One of the biggest problems I see is candidates that talk about their teamwork or projects as part of a team. You need to focus on your individual contributions. People forget about that sometimes. The company is interviewing *you* the individual, not you, member of "The Team".

A few weeks ago I received a phone call from a woman wanting some information about her daughter’s application for a job she had applied for. I asked the woman if her daughter was over eighteen and she assured me that her daughter was.

She was quite unhappy when I informed her that I could not divulge that information to her, as legally it is restricted information. I did tell her how her daughter could access the information by logging into her profile on our website.

This was my first actual experience with a Generation Y Helicopter Parent, named for their tendency to hover and dart in to "help" their grown children along the road of their lives. This can refer to everything from helping them fill out applications, to giving them advice on who to date, what school to attend or employers to apply to and scheduling their interviews for them.

I have been reading about the Millenials for an upcoming presentation I’m preparing for about using social media for recruiting and retaining this up and coming generation. Among the very real attributes of Generation Y is that they are very tied to their parents, they are maturing emotionally at a slower rate than previous generations, and they need a very high level of feedback and communication from those around them.

Today I had my first live interaction with a Helicopter parent. I was at job fair, and a young man and older man walked up to our table with the fairly standard "what sort of jobs have you got?" I gave my reply, "well, what is your background?" I addressed my comment to the older gentleman as he had asked the question.

"He’s looking for something in IT." I turned my attention to the young man and started asking some questions (pointedly ignoring his father). He started writing some notes down, and I turned back to his father and said, "and what sort of a position are you looking for?" He got flustered for a moment and then said that he had a job. I put on my best puzzled face for a few seconds and he had the grace to blush, mumble something to his son, and step back a few paces.

Most of the documentation I have been reading about these helicopter parents has to do with how they are handling their children’s career decisions and the impact it is having on employers.

But while I absolutely applaud a young professional for wanting feedback from their family and valuing that feedback, when it comes to recruiting the public at large needs to understand something vital: we are an industry that has very tight legal strictures on what information we can and cannot share with anyone other than a candidate. On top of that, a candidate that chooses to involve his or her parent in every phase of the job seeking process stands a very good chance of coming across as incapable of making their own decisions which does not set a good tone with either a recruiter or a hiring manager.

Millenials and their families need to understand that any part of the interviewing and negotiation phase of job seeking is an individual activity. Candidates can absolutely rely on their parents to help them ask questions that are pertinent to the job or organization, and there is no question that their world experience and opinions can help a candidate make a solid decision on their best options and opportunities, but the candidate needs to be confident and assertive enough to ask those questions on their own, and be able to do so in a one-to-one situation. This means no having Mom or Dad sit in on an interview, no conference calling to discuss an offer with salary negotiation. Part of the process includes taking time to *negotiate*, so there is nothing wrong with saying "I have to think about your offer" and coming back with more questions, clarification, and even a counter-offer. But the bottom line is that in this very highly competitive market, we are only interested in hiring Jen or Joe, not Jen, Joe, their Mom and Dad.

Parents want the best for their children, and "hovering" is obviously a sign of love and caring. But part of the parenting process is learning to trust your child and the wonderful set of values you have instilled within them. Trust them, and trust yourselves to have done the right thing. Let them stand up straight and be the person you have always wanted them to be.

I’ve been attending a series of job fairs recently with my job. I don’t mind them that much; gets me out of the office and I get to meet new people and put a face on the organization.

Most of the candidates I meet have their "elevator pitch" down, which is good. It helps me zero in on what sorts of positions to discuss with them. But here’s the part where almost everyone is losing ground. When I ask them what they are looking for and get one of these answers:

1) Anything

2) Well, what have you got?

My organization is quite large, and we have a number of recruiters. I don’t know every job open for every department. So these two responses are really wasting my time, especially when there is a line behind the candidate to talk to us.

All job fairs have a list of employers posted before the fair. Candidates should take the time to look at the websites of these employers and bring *specific job descriptions* with them to ask recruiters about, including job codes that can usually be found on the website with the job description. It would also behoove them to bring a targeted resume along with that job description to submit to the recruiters in attendance. If the candidate is prepared in this manner, I can pair his/her resume with the job description and then route their resume to the recruiter that is handling that specific job.

If you find yourself attending job fairs in the future, please do yourself and potential employers a favor and come prepared.

Today is international Blog Awareness Day, and the subject is climate change. I’m going to tie this into recruiting by talking first about how the moon affects tides, and how if we continue to send *bombs* to the moon, we very well may change the oceans’ tides.

But beyond that, I wonder what would happen to all the "crazy" people that really do seem to emerge when there is a full moon? I know it seems like an old wives’ tale, but I have seen an increase in inexplicable behavior when the moon is full. Honest.

What makes us do things that seem to make little or no sense? For example, today I was at a job fair at a local community college. Signs everywhere that this was a *job* fair. I was there recruiting for the University. And we had several people come up to our table asking how they can transfer. (Come again? I have no idea, I work in *recruiting*. For *jobs*.) But I think the one that really threw me for a loop more than anything was the question "what kind of jobs do you have open?" My response is, "well, what are you looking for, what is your background?"\

"Anything."

OK, that really doesn’t help me. If you are talking to employers, you should have a basic idea of what you are either interested in (you *are* in school, right? You must be studying *something*. Try using that for a guideline…) or what you have done in the past.

So please at least come a bit prepared when you are going to talk to me about jobs. Do us both a favor and try and make a good impression. Don’t let NASA’s experiments with blowing up the moon and changing the tides affect you like a maniac.

Networking, meeting other people and leveraging each others’ resources and providing support, is vital in today’s economy. It is a way to maximize your own opportunities and to uncover those that may or may not be "advertised." But beyond the usefulness of Social Networking as a tool it is also a great way to generate "good karma". Helping others is always a good thing, and I’ve found over the years that there is some truth to the old adage "what goes around comes around". Believing and practicing this sort of business ethic also greatly enhances your reputation and your professional brand.

Forming support groups for the unemployed is a great way to meet new people, hear about new trends, who’s hiring, what methods seem to work and which don’t. It is also a way to gain secondary contacts which may help you in your future endeavors. But it is a give and take. It is a *sharing* model. "You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours" mentality. People who only take and take and take without giving are going to be the people that are left standing by the side of the road when the economy picks up. And believe me, when times are tough, people remember the bad much more readily than they do the good.

That being said, there are some times when "social" is not appropriate. My current employer attends a lot of job fairs, both from a candidate generation (getting resumes) standpoint and from a basic community outreach position. We are a very well known employer and associated with a large organization (university). A couple of weeks ago, I was at an industry job fair, and there was a long line at our table. I repeated a lot of the same information, handed out the same brochures, and explained the process often. I noticed two things about the candidates that approached in particular. One was that many of them came in pairs. This isn’t that unusual in economic times like ours. However, as a candidate, you need to be aware of the fact that there are people behind you and that I am very busy trying to help as many people as I can. So when you are chatting with your friend to the exclusion of all else, you give me the impression that you aren’t really serious about finding a position. You have the opportunity to talk to me, ask me questions, get my contact information, and make a lasting impression. But if you act as if speaking to me is cutting into your social life, I guarantee I’m not going to even look at your resume let alone contact you for a job.

And speaking of impressions, I was appalled at the number of people that showed up in jeans and t-shirts, wearing tennis shoes or flip flops or other casual attire. I don’t expect unemployed professionals to come to a job fair necessarily wearing a suit, but at least go to the trouble to put on a nice pair of pants/skirt and a collared shirt with appropriate shoes. You can find a lot of decent clothing at thrift stores or discount retail outlets that don’t cost an arm and a leg. Or borrow something from a friend or family member. I’d rather see something stylistically outdated but still professional over the latest Juicy Couture t-shirt. You don’t need to go out and get your hair dyed and your nails manicured, but take the time to run a brush through it and file your nails so that they look neat.

Remember that you only have one chance to make that vital first impression. Do your best to be perceived as professional, whether you are going to a job seekers networking lunch or a construction worker’s job fair. I guarantee you it makes a difference.

Earlier today one of my listservs had a tirade from a bunch of frustrated IT candidates about how recruiters aren’t doing their jobs. The following is my response to them.

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OK, last night one of my coworkers and I went to the Seattle Job Social. And by coworker I mean someone on my team. We work recruiting for the UW *Medical Centers*. I spent about 3 hours yesterday afternoon finding, formatting and printing as many IT, marketing, and training-related jobs as I could from our database that I could find, as I know that these seem to be the populations most represented at the SJS. We went as the face of UW, because we certainly didn’t expect to find any nurses, phlebotomists, or surgery technicians at a primarily IT-industry population event.

As of last May, I was unemployed. I worked my network to try and drum up some freelance business, and some of my colleagues that were still employed sent me some work, but I never made a dime off of that work. I met with a lot of unemployed friends, acquaintances, referrals, etc. Last night on my way to the job social I made a call to someone looking for some career transition advice. I’ve met with or spoken to many of you on this list to try and help out, and I am happy to do so. And I know for a fact that I’m not alone. *Every* employed recruiter is spending time above and beyond their "work hours" trying to help people both singularly and in general. I know that I am one of the more accessible recruiters in Seattle, and I made that choice consciously.

I empathize and feel for those of you that are having trouble getting calls back from recruiters, both internally and in the agencies. Due to my extensive contracting history, I’m much more cognizant of the candidate experience than a lot of recruiters, and I have *withdrawn* my candidacy from companies that have treated me badly as a recruiting job candidate.

But please, do *NOT* generalize that recruiters don’t care, are lazy, only hire their friends/family, ignore qualified candidates, don’t give you the things you need to make your job hunt more successful etc ad nauseam. Unless you’ve *been* a recruiter, you have no idea of the intricate legal restrictions we have to follow in everything from how we post jobs, to consider candidates, to communicate with the disabled, to counsel and mentor our hiring managers. Each job (requisition in our parlance) is a *separate* repeated process with a wide variety of variance. Often, yes, a good recruiter will cross-market candidates to hiring managers, but when you have 25+ *different* skill sets you are recruiting for, that doesn’t always work real well.

But the bottom line is that the final decision on who to interview and who to hire resides with the *hiring manager*. You want to know what is the *most* frustrating part of our job? Forming a relationship with a candidate, working to get them in front of a hiring manager and then having that manager *not get back to us* for days, weeks or even months on end. Or tell us after we have vetted candidates and presented them that "I need to revise the job description. I’m not seeing the right kind of candidate." Or put the job "on hold" because of budget issues, or a reorg, or any of another half dozen relatively common reasons. On top of that, just like every other profession in America, we are doing extra work to keep our organizations afloat. I’m writing training materials, working with our internal marketing team on employment branding strategies, helping my Director on getting our processes documented and best practices in place, and recruiting on

positions I was not *hired* to do but that my team needs help on. A 40-hour work week in corporate America right now? Dream on. When I was at Microsoft my workload and "extra" project load was even crazier.

Judge recruiters you have *spoken to* on an individual basis. But I’m telling you, from where I am sitting, every single negative comment that is made about recruiting and recruiters frustrates me, because you do *not* know what we, as a profession, are going through on a daily basis.

Most women have a friend, relative, or other acquaintance that they know that either sells Mary Kay, Avon, Tupperware, or another direct marketing product that has a decent reputation. Knowing these individuals, we are happy to invite them into our homes for "low pressure" sales appointments.

I’ve been receiving a lot of requests from frustrated Seattleites who know that I am connected and are floundering in the morass of job boards, networking events, social networking and resume workshops, WorkSource appointments, etc.

One of the most frustrating things in this area is that we have a huge number of employment agencies. Microsoft literally changed the way the contingent staffing (hiring agency contractors) and temporary staffing business model looks, and their example has spread throughout not only Seattle, but the tech market in general.

When the "Dot Bomb" (as I lovingly refer to the 1998-2001 employment downturn) hit, many of us fled to the agencies for jobs to keep ourselves afloat. I ended up backat Microsoft (after being positive I would never go back in 1998) after being laid off from Amazon.com. The agencies have always been a refuge in times of employment turmoil for many of us.

But now, agencies are feeling the recession (or depression, depending on your economic outlook) even more than ever. But they cannot afford to show that they are floundering, less their reputation suffer and they lose clients. So they are putting up job openings that may or may not be legitimate while their business development/account managers work incredibly hard to drum up business (I wrote a whole blog on that on my ERE page, the largest portal for recruiters. Just google my name+ERE).

I mentioned the "resume black hole" a couple of posts ago. So here is where we go back to old fashioned basics. If you have applied for a number of positions that an agency has open and you haven’t heard anything or your recruiter seems to have fallen off the face of the earth, I have a suggestion: go through the front door during business hours. Yes, put on a suit or other suitable business attire, take a hard copy of your resume and two-three of the open jobs that you have applied for *and are qualified for based on the job description* and just go to their offices. Ask to speak to a recruiter that handles the types of positions you are applying to.

This doesn’t work for corporate recruiters, because of the sort of process we have, but when I worked at Volt, this happened at least once a week or so. It seems so antithetical to all the information out there ab out emailing and networking, but honestly, sometimes you just need to remember that a face to face meeting is the best way to make an impression.

Do you know what I’m referencing? In email etiquette, using all capital letters is the equivalent of shouting. Depending on the context of the message it can be aggressive or argumentative; overbearing or rude; or just come across as someone annoying.

I was recently involved in an online discussion that developed into a contentious debate. One of the participants in the email discussion (of about five people) used bolded 15 point text and capitalized every other word to try and make her point. She was defensive and accusatory to people that differed in opinion with her, and took her dialogue in the "flame" category.

I have no idea what her age, but her style of communication came across as juvenile and annoying. It is sad that she probably does not realize how incredibly bad an impression she was making on the recruiting community she was addressing. Part of the discussion had to do with networking and job seeking techniques and strategies, and she either forgot or didn’t understand one of the cardinal rules: always keep it professional.

Email and other written forms of communication can be tricky. We lose so much of the meaning and context that can be imbued in the spoken word, even the tone of voice over the phone. By using ALL CAPS TO MAKE YOUR POINT, and combining it with nothing but negative observations, it really leaves a bad impression on the reader.

So please, leave the SHOUT in the laundry room.

So this week on my Washington Recruiters discussion list, someone posted a question about HR/Recruiting’s feelings on a direct-marketing method for getting a "foot in the door" to go around HR and recruiting.

Basically, after researching companies via Dunn and Bradstreet, the candidate writes a "proposition letter" based on an open position or perceived value-add that the candidate could bring to the company. After this letter is written, it is put in an odd-sized envelope and sent to the decision maker/s. Preferably a hiring manager or C-level executive.

My feeling, as was almost unanimously agreed with from the recruiting community, is that this method is outdated and out of touch with today’s methodology for contacting *anyone*. We suggested using LinkedIn and networking through mutual business contacts. There was a member of our community that attended the seminar where this idea was first presented who stated that it does work, that there were people at the seminar that had tried it and actually gotten a response.

That being said, I decided to post the idea (as originally stated, looking for opinions outside of the HR world) on a couple of social media sites (LinkedIn Answers and Facebook). I got a couple of interesting responses from outside the HR/recruiting population (and some of the HR folks did chime in.) Below are the responses. So, this may be an alternative method to try when all else fails. It certainly can’t hurt, although the cost is a bit more than using electronic means.

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Anything you do to keep on get on someone’s mind and keep there attention there is good. For the people who say content is the most important look at any marketing you have ever seen. Most of the stuff isn’t the greatest but people buy it anyway because its on there mind.

On the oddsized envelope it will probably work because I know I am more inclined to open odd sized pieces. Also with your note about D and B you should look at that and identify strong companies and mention that you did research on them.

Anything you do will put you farther ahead than doing nothing.

(Account Executive for a printing biz)

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And what is a proposition letter? What and who are you propositioning? A one night stand with someone you don’t even know? Sure, an interesting or odd size envelope will catch someone’s attention, they might even open it, but what will make them read what’s inside? One glance at a ‘proposition’ and into the trash it goes. A good resume, well designed, thought out and well written that gives the reader, at a glance, who you are, what you do, what your skills and talents are, and work history succinctly, is worth all the contrivances in the world. A directed resume to companies in your sphere of expertise and the hiring manager of your particular department is even better. Don’t listen to all this nonsense you’ve been listening too. Who knows if these companies have openings or need someone with your background. Doing selective research on companies that need your experience and background is far more worthwhile. Otherwise, you might as well go and apply at Home Depot. What sort of position are you truly looking for? That is the key question you should ask yourself. Good luck in your search. I hope this helps. (Recruiter)

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I haven’t answered this via the Yahoo group, but my thinking is this would only be potentially workable IF the person had a solid networking contact to whom they could send the ‘proposition letter’ within the company…and if that was the case, it would be better to try and make a connection with that person rather than just sending them this letter.

I can’t see any corporate recruiter reading this. Matthew Charney’s ERE post today (linked) gives a pretty clear overview of how most recruiters ‘triage’ resumes. I think this letter would likely be treated much like a cover letter in 99% of cases by a recruiter–especially if it doesn’t fit with their current req load.

(Recruiter)

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Dear Kristen, I think it would certainly attract attention but I also believe ultimately it will be substance over style. The proposition letter would need to be personally tailored to get my attention enough to follow up. (University Career counselor )

I just finished a book that was proposing a similar approach. It proposes that we are leaving the age of traditional jobs and are shifting into a time of project like work. If true, then this is a fabulous way to attract attention to your skills.

I personally have had success in the off sized and colored envelope. It looks more like a birthday card or invitation. You see? It is to get them to open it, then if you have teasers that grab their attention to a particular need. (watch the industry publications for problems and assess your skills for solutions-offer them up.)

Try this one- Sympathy card: with hope attached.

Is your business suffering along with the economy right now?

Let’s check your "essential systems" and see what we can tuneup.

If you are hearing the thump of a business slump hitting your door, ask yourself: Is it time for a visit from a specialist? I work on a success only basis, after we visit if I don’t think I can help I will recommend someone who can. I’m in the solution business. (Trainer for eCommerce company)

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Sounds a bit desperate to me – and being in an odd sized envelope would indicate carelessness to me.

Perhaps use of a coloured but right size envelope would draw attention to it – but so what? Regardless of how much attention the packaging gets, it’s still all about the content. (Director of Accounts Financial Sector)

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One of the things we’ve tried before when hiring for Consultants to work for us is to write a letter to people we’ve identified (and whose addresses we have) telling them about us and the position we want to talk to them about and asking them to get in touch.

The response rate was WAY higher than it would have been had we done the same thing via e-mail, so based on that alone I’d suggest that it’s not a bad idea at all.

In amongst a sea of technology, the letter has become forgotten. (CEO boutique staffing firm)

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I think it’s crass. It ought to be the contents of the envelope that are interesting but we live in such a ludicrous world it wouldn’t surprise me if such a pointless stunt actually paid off.

What with "Keyword Bingo" and the "20-30 Second Scan" we are already giving preference to style over substance, so does it matter if we use just a bit more as we slip slowly into the abyss of idiocy? Probably not.

Why not single out a selection of prospective employers and stand outside their offices pelting the windows with rocks wrapped in copies of your CV? (Freelance copy editor/author)

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Personally, I like the idea. Considering the economy and competition, whatever one has to do to pull themselves ahead of the pack, good for them. Either it’ll work or it won’t but (what’s the saying?) "nothing beats a try but a something"…someone help me out…. (Office manager for a consulting company)

Any form of "direct" marketing – direct mail, email, etc. – has both advantages and challenges. The figures I’m about to quote come from my own decades of experience, but I offer these "penetration rates" as examples. (Back in the days when we could follow up by telephone, we phoned after each wave.)

1. Single ink-on-paper piece sent USPS bulk rate or first class: 2% penetration (if we were lucky).

2. Multiple ink-on-paper pieces (a series, in a campaign) sent the same way: 35% penetration.

3. Multiple three-dimensional pieces (boxes, tubes, in a series) sent via UPS: 85-95% penetration.

To directly answer your theory, Kristen: Any time you can arrest a recipient’s attention, it is a "good thing." A personalized letter in an oddly-sized or colored (or both) envelope will tend to get through more frequently. HOWEVER, there’s no guarantee that the proposition will appeal.

To increase penetration and generate an appointment, try following up each mailed letter with a telephone call. This actually works far better if you send the letter three-day FedEx or similar – another well-learned lesson.

I’d be fascinated to learn how this comes out – but I do urge you to consider putting this question to direct-response professionals – more light, less heat. (Marketing professional)

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We get those all the time here. I throw them away. There are services that are doing this for people. The letters are almost all the same and are normally addressed to our company owner in a very familiar fashion as though they are writing a note to an old friend. Something like "Dear Bob, I just wanted to drop you a note and let you know that I’m willing to take on that challenge that we discussed".

(Office manager for a custom manufacturing business)

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If there is no employment opening, this is a waste for both (non) "applicant" and HR…. And in HR, I want to know *exactly* what position he’s applying for, stated clearly in his formal cover letter – don’t make me guess. I’m okay with differentiating color/texture of paper, or sending flat vs folded, but I need to be able to put that non-standard piece of paper in a standard file folder at some point.

(Event Manager at a Non-profit)

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I’ve seen it work, but only for candidates for whom traditional approaches would have worked as well. In every case, the candidate was a great match for something the organization needed. (Career Counselor/Organizational Development Consultant)

<p>Over on one of my listserv communities, the discussion turned to resumes, jobs, and the common complaint that a candidate never hears back from a company after submitting their resume. Then a sarcastic comment (below) came across and I felt the need to step in and share some of my own observations..</p>

<p>"Wow, you’ve found HR people who actually read resumes? That’s a shock."<br />

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Regarding resumes being read: remember that recruiters are pulling keyword searches and the resumes that match the searches are the only ones they are considering.<br />

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Many of the companies in this area including MSFT and *all it’s vendors/agencies* are required to be compliant with a Federal EEO mandate that basically states that *all qualified candidates must be considered* for any/all <span id="lw_1247619829_2" class="yshortcuts" style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">open positions</span>.<br />

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What this means is that if your resume doesn’t match the job description, no one is going to look at it. There are two levels for considering a resume from a recruiting perspective.<br />

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1) Keyword pull. As I’ve posted several times in the past, <span id="lw_1247619829_3" class="yshortcuts" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;">Applicant Tracking Systems</span> pull Boolean Searches based on two things. First, the words themselves. Second, the results are STACK RANKED based on the number of times the term/s are repeated in the resume. This includes experience and education, location (ie out of state), etc.<br />

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2) Once a recruiter has pulled a stack of loosely qualified resumes, s/he eyeballs them to see if the candidate meets the quantifiables, ie years of experience. Applicant Tracking Systems cannot determine if a candidate has over five years of experience. That is where the "eyeballing" human action comes in.<br />

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3) AFTER the candidates have been identified, they have to be moved along in the system. Often that is a manual process, which means that *each profile* has to be assigned some sort of a status.<br />

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Now please imagine the number of resumes each of us have to look through for *one* position. Yesterday, I spent six hours looking through over 250 resumes for an entry level office position. We are completely inundated with people applying for each position, many of them unqualified or just grasping at whatever seems remotely like a job they are qualified for.<br />

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So what does this say to you? *Your resume needs to be TARGETED* to each position. And it also should tell you that most recruiters are ignoring cover letters. On top of all the resumes, we are still setting up interviews, scheduling phone screens, conducting reference checks, managing live interview loops, negotiating offers with candidates, and working with our hiring managers on both current and upcoming positions. Recruiting is a complex profession, it is heavily regulated by legal strictures, and a recruiter isn’t the only person in the process. Our main clients are our hiring managers, and recruiting, while important to them, is *not* always their highest priority. Recruiters have really had a heavy hit with this economy. Fewer jobs open mean fewer resources needed and assigned to fill them. Most of us are carrying double or triple our "normal" workload because of downsized colleagues. And if a company doesn’t have dedicated recruiters, but has&nbsp; their <span id="lw_1247619829_4" class="yshortcuts" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;">HR Generalists</span> function in this capacity as well as their generalist duties, this is in addition to dealing with things like employee issues, changes in federal laws and compliance, etc.<br />

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So please, keep this in mind when getting frustrated with the "black hole" you feel your resume has entered. </p>

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