E-mail resumes… “wastebasket” business practice
Where do we go from here: unemployment, foreclosures, benefits lost and few jobs available? How will this situation lead to a future for all those individuals who have lost their employment and their families futures are in limbo?
To better understand the situation, I recently spoke to several unemployed individuals. I was astonished at the results of their attempts to find employment. With resumes in hand, many individuals attempted to hand their resumes off to several businesses. There was nobody available to take them! Business staffing in the foyers, when there is someone, stated that applications and resumes had to be filed on line…via the net. They were not accepting resumes!
Furthermore, one business employee stated that, “even if the resume was put on line, they had no idea where the resumes were sent, or who would read them.” This is a business?
This is the norm of today’s employment situation. There are no face-to-face meetings with anyone. A phone call now to most business gets you a fifteen minute recorded message and little is gained from the call. You can push a few buttons, you may even say a few key-words into the phone, but when the call is finally answered, the recorded voice message gives you nothing of value.
When a rare person responds, the individual identifies them self as employee code number WXY, and a name is perhaps Yolanda; the voice is not your typical usual American voice and the conversation again goes nowhere.
Once it was asked if the WXY associate could call back, as the phone connection was poor; the request was denied; the return call would be an “outbound call” and could not be done. Have a nice day.
The local newspapers now give advice and promote the writing of the short-excited- resume! You know: I have a degree, I have a great attitude, I am young, and you will love me. Moreover, I have a great work ethic! I only have been arrested two-times for minor infractions of the law, namely DUILs. Nevertheless, “I am proficaient in competers. I can right good leters!” Here are my references: Dr. Doolittle, Psychiatric Hospital, etc…Probation officer, Sgt. Nome, Detroit 6th precinct. Pastor Evergreen, Hopeful Faithful Church, etc.
As a VP of a business corporation, I have received and read thousands of resumes during my business years. There is nothing that can replace a face to face interview, anything less is ludicrous in terms of hiring any individual.
Corporations that have a central clearing house for sorting out candidates by reading e-mail resumes is nothing more than a network wastebasket disguised as a human resource department.
Reading a resume directed at a specific job takes a lot of effort, experience and an ability to read between the lines. Key words may help, and many factors enter the equations. I usually like to write notes in the margins of a hard copy. The candidates education and experience and the job wanted is a consideration; key words within the resume may lead one to consider other jobs that the candidate may not have considered.
The ability to match people to technical employment is not accomplished by feeding a network with e-mail resumes with attached cover letters that are eventually stacked in a pile and never read by an individual having an overview of the business knowing what is wanted and what is needed for their business to prosper.
Businesses are doing themselves an injustice when job seekers have nobody to talk to or show an interest in a candidate that takes the time to enter the business looking for employment.
If those searching for work send a resume to and unknown individual at a business, they are wasting their talents and their time. Those businesses that need educated individuals need to stop the e-mail charade and set up a human resources desk staffed by individuals that can discuss employment opportunities to employment candidates. They too may recommend present business situation that are developing and lead the candidates through the process with a positive attitude and direction that is both valuable to the individual and the company seeking employees.
The bottom line for this short diatribe on the present state of the business sector hiring practices is to encourage businesses to get real with the business of hiring individuals! Candidates are educated, talented, experienced and ready for work. Businesses need new employee resources, and they are not going to get them if they do not talk to the candidates.
A wonderful written resume does not lead to a well-trained, experienced, motivated person.
The inability of many human resources individuals to read and comprehend a resume is a difficult undertaking; the company seeks technical qualified employees, and there is much for businesses to do to get their business back on track. That can only be accomplished with well-qualified human resources staffing…staffing that can assess candidates who come with resumes in hand and can get a face to face meeting to discuss mutual objectives.
Businesses will not find their ideal candidates in their present network of wastebasket-E-mails. Wastebaskets or Cd’s stacked full of unread resumes addressed to unknown individuals is the latest fad of businesses. Obviously they have little interest in hiring a qualified person; actually there may be a non-existing job, but the company‘s name is in the papers.
E-mailing resumes has now become the latest fabrication of non-productivity discussed as a Human Resources Department. This creation is comparable to the money saving business technique of using the beloved computer answering services: where a real person with a real issue is talking to…what else, a preprogrammed computer.
Then again, it ‘is now the “American Way,” and it is not getting better.
