You've probably already discovered that it's pointless to lob your resume into the Black Hole. That system is designed to screen people out of the running for a job, not in. There is no guarantee that your resume in the Black Hole gets read by anyone, human or robot, ever. There's another problem associated with the Black Hole: the receiving end of it is not staffed by a person like you or me.
It is useful to think of the creature who reviews Black Hole resumes as an amoeba -- you know, a single-celled animal. An amoeba isn't known for high-level thought. Amoebae make very simple decisions, like "is this thing floating near me predator, or prey?" They don't have the capacity to make sophisticated determinations, including determinations about the resumes that float in front of them. They look at the list of required experiences, certifications and skills, and the amoeba brain says "Yes" or "No."
Before I get deluged with hate mail from HR departments across the U.S., let me say that the amoeba mental mode is not a characteristic of the screener, him- or herself -- it's a state of being, in a job like that. No doubt all the amoeba screeners get together after work and have sparkling conversations about the Huffington Post and global warming and London Times book reviews and scads of other topics. At work, on the clock, and particularly while screening resumes, they're not thinking lofty thoughts. They're not even thinking
"Hmmm, now here is Chris Taylor's resume. Looks like Chris is a broad-minded person with a pretty big appetite for risk. Chris has done some pretty interesting things over the years - and look, here's an entrepreneurial stint -- plus, my goodness, look at Chris's clever writing, and the facile way s/he's summarized his or her background in this resume Summary. Yes, we need people like Chris in here to shake up the culture and keep us competitive. I'm calling Chris tomorrow morning."
No way! This train of thought is ten thousand feet above the amoeba's mental landscape. The resume-screening amoeba is looking at our resumes through a teeny, tiny amoeba lens that can only see the candidate's match to the many (and often ridiculous) requirements listed on the job ad. "Fourteen years of CAD/CAM experience? Nope, this guy has twelve. Out. Certifications in ABC, XYZ and FML? Too bad, this gal has only the first two. She's out."
Wherever you find a Black Hole, look for the amoeba (or a petri dish full of them) -- they go together like Chicago dogs and celery salt.
We need to avoid amoebae and Black Holes, both. We need to reach the hiring manager directly, and we need to open a non-amoeba-type conversation with him or her by composing a Pain Letter and a resume that speak to the hiring manager's business needs, rather than to the endless list of nitpicky job-ad qualifications.
How do we find 'our' hiring manager? If the employer is not an enormous organization like IBM, we can usually do it in one of four ways:
- We can start at the employer's own website. The top brass in each function will be listed (and profiled) there. If 'our' job is a direct report to one of these people or even to one of his or her direct reports, writing directly to the function head is a good way to go. We'll send a snail mail packet to this person (our resume plus a Pain Letter) -- not an email message.
- If the company is so large that 'our' hiring manager is likely to be several levels below the function VP, let's look for our next boss on LinkedIn. We can perform a LinkedIn search on the company name and location, or we can narrow the search by plugging in the company and location plus the manager's most likely title. If we're a second- or third-degree connection of this manager when we find him or her, we can use the Get Introduced Through a Connection link to make a LinkedIn overture - a great way to go because it allows us to be introduced to our next boss through a trusted colleague or his or hers.
- If LinkedIn leaves us hanging, our next stop is ZoomInfo.com, a great research site (and free) that lists managers at zillions of employers. (LinkedIn has a company lookup too, handy if your hiring manager isn't in your own network).
- Google is a great way to find a hiring manager's name. Just type the company name plus the manager's most likely title into the Google search box. It's amazing how often your next boss's name will pop up, either because s/he's given a presentation somewhere, or because s/he's been interviewed somewhere, or has written an article or done something or other on some task force.
Once we know the target manager's name, we'll send our resume (tailored for this job, of course) plus a super-targeted Pain Letter right to the manager's desk, via snail mail. That's the approach we'll take if we can't find anyone on LinkedIn or in the 3D world to introduce us. If we can get that trusted-colleague introduction, we'll use that avenue first, of course.
Now, what about that Pain Letter? That's the topic of my next blog post. If you can't wait, join the Ask Liz Ryan online community to see some Pain Letter examples.