I find that a lot of people in the job market don’t understand the HR process. So I want to start by exploring some myths.
As a Recruiter, when I post a job on the company’s website or a job board like Monster, HotJobs, or Dice, I receive TONS of resumes. There is typically one recruiter working on a particular position (and that may not not be their only position). For one telecom client I supported, I had 40 open sales positions across the country on any given day. Multiply that by 50 applicants per job (a very conservative estimate with the current unemployment rate in the US) and I’m left with 2000 resumes to read. Not gonna happen folks. There aren’t that many Latte’s in the world. So the feasibility of reading TONS of resumes is often logistically impossible.
So, over time recruiters develop different strategies for getting through the pile. Some take a first in first served approach. Some borrow accounting’s LIFO or last in first out technique. Some flip through looking for who took the time to send a cover letter and start with those folks. Some screen out all the cover letters and just quickly scan the resumes. These are just a few styles. There are as many strategies as there are recruiters. So what’s a job seeker to do? How do you get through the gauntlet and land an interview?
