I’m thinking of doing a few blog entries on networking because this is such a big and seemingly amorphous topic that I hope that I can bring a little shape to the subject.
First, what has happened in the last few years that makes networking so important?
It has always been the case that knowing people helped in getting a job. The son of the owner, a friend of a manager, or just friend putting in the word that you are a normal person and not some whacko off the street has always made a difference; maybe not if you are that whacko off the street, but otherwise it has.
But what they are talking about now is a change has taken place where knowing someone makes a crucial difference 30 % to 40% of the time. The internet has made deep changes in how people look for a job and how companies screen and this has caused a overwhelming job for hiring managers.
According to the Prolango class I attended the average position receives 900 resumes. Microsoft receives 50 in the first hour that a job requisition is placed.
As a job applicant, with the use of tools like Simply Hired and Indeed, I am able to review hundreds of job requisitions per day and I am only looking in the Seattle area. I could if I was so inclined blanket the market with hundreds of applications everyday. Many people must be doing this, but this is the wrong approach.
The shear numbers are causing companies to make changes in order to find the best candidates without totally overburdening the hiring managers. Throwing out a resume because of a typo, why put up with it if you have 899 others to look at. Amazon apparently places you in a black list if you are applying for too many jobs, this removes the burden of high volume job seekers especially the 20% that may be causing a disproportionate amount of the traffic. They are also cutting down on the number of times they will consider someone for a position. These and other rules are attempts to reduce burden of too many applicants.
Another big change is the use of automated resume screening software. This takes the 900 job applicants and compares what is written on their resume with the job is looking for. Your resume is graded based on the number hits you have. Matching a word gives you a point, matching a phrase gives you even more points. More important stuff scores higher than the less important requirements. This reduces the number considerably but there are still plenty to choose from.
At this point an HR representative checks over the remaining resumes. This HR person is very limited in what they know about the position and at best knows a little bit about the position, but usually will only know what the words written on the requisition and in most cases will not know what the job specific words mean. One of the main things they are checking for is frauds, people gaming the system in order to get through the automated checker. Stories abound of people putting words in white font on their resume that can’t be seen but that the checker sees and grades. If you are caught gaming the system then you are put on the black list. This stops you from being considered ever again in the future.
The HR rep is also trying to reduce the number of resumes. Here typos and extremely lengthy resumes might get tossed out; though not much time is spent in this analysis—on average only 7 seconds per resume.
Here is a great exercise to perform with your resume. Hand your resume to someone with the instructions to read through it as quickly as they can. Time them, and stop them at 7 seconds. How far did they get? What information did they get through? Is this the information you wanted the HR representative to see?
There are three audiences for your resume. The first is the automated resume checker. The second is this previous check by the HR representative. And the last is finally when someone who knows what they are looking for reads through and evaluates you true fit for the job from knowledgeable technical standpoint. You have to make it through each one, or no cigar.
Even with all this, the hiring manager is left with an inch of resumes to consider to determine who should be interviewed.
So that is the current situation. This is what has set up the importance of networking. I hope in future blogs to get into what all gets covered by this term networking and go into some techniques for becoming a better networked.
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