Any Oppos in HR/Hiring Mgmt?

"boredalways" (boredalway666) 07/24/2020 at 14:14 • Filed to: Joblopnik, Job hunting, Ask Oppo, Working with a disability, Oppo Human Resources

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I sent my resume out to several companies Wednesday afternoon. At some point before Noon Thursday, I had already received two rejection emails . Normally I wouldn’t be concerned about this.

But... I’ve decided to acknowledge that I have a disability this year. So since March, I’ve added that to my applications.

So Oppo, should I be concerned that rejections came so quickly? And if so, what would you suggest?

Roadkilled > boredalways 07/24/2020 at 14:26

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Come up with a fake name and create a burner email account with that name. Copy your resume to that name. Have it identical to your current resume except with the disability removed. Submit it and see if it gets a call-back or a rejection. If the same two companies reject it just as quickly, you probably don’t have a case. If it gets a call back, contact an attorney.

ranwhenparked > boredalways 07/24/2020 at 14:30

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Not currently, but I have been in prior positions. My take is that that is completely normal and expected, its how most applicant tracking systems work.

The job I have right now is one I did successfully for the same company for 4 years, before leaving to take a management role in another company that I ended up hating and so came back here. I called my old boss, he told me to apply for the opening online, my resume was rejected in 24 hours. The form response was that I was determined to not have enough experience for the role, but was welcome to apply again in the future if my experience should change.

So, I called my old bos s’ boss , who had since been promoted to a VP position at headquarters, and he told me that he had done the paperwork to make me eligible for reemployment, and he’d check with HR. A day later, I had a phone interview, a week later, a job offer to come back.

Basically, that’s just what they do. A huge amount of perfectly qualified candidates get automatically rejected for no reason, but it doesn’t matter as long as the applicant pool is large enough, since a few qualified resumes will still make it through to the hiring manager.

In my experience, you get maybe 1 response for every 20 or so applications, and that’s in a decent economy.

When I was hiring for a position on my team last year, HR only sent me 3 resumes. It was an entry level position with a good work environment, good hours, benefits, paying well above minimum wage, with no major educational requirements. I really doubt those were the only 3 people who applied, and would have liked more to choose from, but those are the only 3 that made it through the system. Two  flaked out on their interviews, so I hired the one who showed up, rather than start all over again, because it needed filled fast. 

nermal > boredalways 07/24/2020 at 14:45

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The race / disability sections of an application are for tracking purposes only. It doesn’t matter what you put there, or if you decline to answer. If it turns out that a company is discriminating, they are mega-fuct, especially in the current environment.

More than likely you are getting auto rejected by the computer and that’s it. A good resume needs to be a collection of Buzzword Bingo to get thru the computer, while still impressing a person just enough for them to contact you for an interview . So, read the job description , and make sure that you have all of the buzzwords from the description sprinkled throughout your resume.

For the person, focus on accomplishments and results, not responsibilities. For example, instead of “Responsible for selling a buncha shit to complete morons while acting like I cared about it. ”, put “Increased sales by 69% year-over-year” “Raised Customer Service Index scores by 42%” “Deployed new customer onboarding thingy that cut down on phone calls by 23%” or things to that effect . What you actually did is more important than what you were supposed to do.

Remember that people are selfish. Hiring managers especially so. It’s not about you as much as it is about what you can do for them. Think from that perspective throughout the process. What would somebody in the position of the hiring manager think while reading through your stuff? 

SiennaMan > boredalways 07/24/2020 at 15:02

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I have hiring responsibilities in a small organization and we are in an unofficial hiring freeze and have been since March. That said, if I got an application right now I’d probably just file it and not respond so I can call that person in a few months if I need to hire someone all of a sudden , so very different from a rejection response..

ranwhenparked > nermal 07/24/2020 at 15:03

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Also - sometimes it helps to pick key words out of the job posting and add them in the footer of your resume in small white letters, so the software catches them but they don't show when it gets printed out.

dogisbadob > boredalways 07/24/2020 at 15:12

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Immoral Minority is an employment lawyer, which should be close enough :p

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > ranwhenparked 07/24/2020 at 15:14

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That this is a recommendation shows how fucked our system for hiring people is.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > ranwhenparked 07/24/2020 at 15:15

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I got my first job because I was the only one who showed up.  I had no experiance or anything 

Cash Rewards > boredalways 07/24/2020 at 15:20

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Textured Soy Protein is in HR, I believe

boredalways > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 07/24/2020 at 15:21

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I not looking for a first job.  Have been working professionally since 1998.

boredalways > dogisbadob 07/24/2020 at 15:25

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IM isn't here any longer.  Besides I moved on from him over a year ago.  I do respect that he had healthy bonds among other Oppos.

boredalways > Roadkilled 07/24/2020 at 15:26

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Tempting

Cash Rewards > boredalways 07/24/2020 at 15:30

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If it's government related, a lot of times the position is filled by an internal candidate (essentially a promotion) but federal requirements say that it has to be posted publicly. Anything that's open for a very short period of time is usually filled and is just there for the internal candidate to fill out. 

ranwhenparked > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 07/24/2020 at 15:32

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Yep, the Internet is a great thing, but it also e ffed a lot of things up. Its so easy to search for and apply to jobs from the comfort of your home now, and every job posted is accessible to everyone in the world with an Internet connection, so it isn’t unheard of to get thousands - sometimes many thousands - of applications for even a pretty mundane opening, more than a person can reasonably sort through, so most of the process gets automated and the software is only as good as the people who program it. And a lot of them program it to be way too specific to weed applicants down to the most manageable number possible, giving the hiring people the smallest workload possible in the process.

My job, the first time around that I had it, I got because I applied on LinkedIn, and my resume was emailed straight to the local manager, no screening, no applicant tracking software, no HR in the middle at all. He must have liked me on the phone, because he came into the office on a company holiday so I didn’t have to take time off from the job I already had in order to properly interview me. We were a much lower tech company back then, still using loads of  carbon forms, carrying envelopes of cash for business expenses, and were the last in the industry to switch to a business casual dress code, but some of that had advantages. 

boredalways > nermal 07/24/2020 at 15:33

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That is by far the most unexpected “nermal” reply ever , n ermal.

Even moreso than The Spanish Inquisition!

Thank you very for much for the suggestions. I will reasse ss my resume over the weekend.

ranwhenparked > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 07/24/2020 at 15:34

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My first full-time job out of college I got just because I was already there, working part time in another role. Wasn’t exactly qualified, but the executive director was very lazy and didn’t like interviewing people and reading resumes, so when I said I wanted it, I got it.

He was involuntarily retired a few years later after several decades’ worth of embezzlement came to light.

Jarrett - [BRZ Boi] > ranwhenparked 07/24/2020 at 15:36

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This is brilliant. Keeping that in mind for when the time comes. 

Future next gen S2000 owner > ranwhenparked 07/24/2020 at 16:00

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That’s sneaky. I love it.

dogisbadob > boredalways 07/24/2020 at 16:09

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oops didn’t know that sorry! :(

I just looked him up and saw his last post. I didn’t see it before

smobgirl > ranwhenparked 07/24/2020 at 16:11

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On the flip side, if your resume goes into a scanning system those words aren’t white anymore and it’s really obvious what you did (and you won’t get called for an interview) . Better to just find a way to use the important words in the resume.

Thomas Donohue > ranwhenparked 07/24/2020 at 16:13

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Except when someone brings up the resume in Word, and sees your search terms at the bottom.

Unless the job was for some kind of data-mining/software search development, I’d immediately flag and dismiss it.

While it sounds like a good idea, i f you’re using craigslist methods to get your resume noticed, something’s wrong.

(i.e. you don’t have any experience with Cisco routers that you can put on your resume, but you hide the word Cisco in the small print at the bottom?  Red Flag!)

Svend > nermal 07/24/2020 at 16:25

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Lol.

“Responsible for selling a buncha shit to complete morons while acting like I cared about it.”

You reminded me of David Mitchell on Qi.

nermal > boredalways 07/24/2020 at 16:31

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The current state of job hunting is clearly Obama’s fault!

Also, consider the math. F or a moderately desirable position there will be well over 100 applicants. There are some jobs that you think that you are a perfect fit for that you have zero chance of getting because they already have somebody internal picked out. Don’t take any of it personally, just keep at it.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > boredalways 07/24/2020 at 16:47

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The new online software used for hiring enables one to weed out applicants really easily. If you are really interested in a job, gulp... call the office and talk to someone or physically go there and drop a resume if allowed. It’s the personal contact that makes the applicant much more relevant to the hiring manager. I had 15 applications for one position and 10 were Hail Marys from out of state. I called three local people and had one in person interview with the person I thought would be the best fit.

Just my 2 cents, good luck with your job search.

glemon > boredalways 07/24/2020 at 17:39

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Cold calling for jobs is pretty much a low rate of return crapshoot. I have gotten a few interviews from it, but never a job. Always gotten my jobs through relationships/connections, generally from prior jobs (family is all teachers, and not much help)  the part time work as a student through my professional career.

ranwhenparked > smobgirl 07/24/2020 at 17:42

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Its a crapshoot, I’ll give you that, but probably less than normal. I know it’s worked for me at least once, applied to the same company for the same job a few months apart with the same resume, rejected immediately the first time, hired the second time. The second time had the keywords (they used Taleo, if that matters).

You've got maybe a 1 in 20 chance of getting a call from a recruiter, if the keyword trick improves that to 2 in 20, it's worth it.

smobgirl > ranwhenparked 07/24/2020 at 18:14

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I’m just speaking up as someone who has hired people. Anything that came through our system like that got tossed. Maybe some industries are different.

SmugAardvark > nermal 07/24/2020 at 18:32

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I would even say that 100 applicants is an understatement in a lot of fields.

Last time we accepted resumes for the job class that reports to me, we had about 75 0 applicants, with just over a third of whom actually met the minimum requirements.

boredalways > nermal 07/24/2020 at 18:36

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“ The current state of job hunting is clearly Obama’s fault!”

There's my nermal!!!

boredalways > dogisbadob 07/24/2020 at 18:41

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No worries 

Stef Schrader > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 07/25/2020 at 04:00

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it’s like yeeting resumes into a void