When you see ads in newspapers or on the web, often the ad will direct you to email your resume to an address like hrmgr@nameofthecompany.com. There, it sits waiting to be evaluated by the person who is probably the least experienced in the department.
Even if you are interviewed by the company, you will probably start by meeting a human resources person who is charged with interviewing everyone from receptionists to accountants to technology professionals to security guards. Larger firms will compartmentalize the recruiting function because they have more jobs available.
What if your resume is buried and never called on? What if you are interviewed by human resources and nothing else happens? What can you do?
If you have a friend, contact them and see if they will dig to find out who the manager is who is hiring for the job. Although the likelihood is small that you know someone, never skip the step.
Your second choice is to call the company and ask for the person who heads up the function that the job is in and work your way down. For example, call and ask for the head of security and ask if they or someone reporting to them is hiring for the _________ position.
You can also check your local library for whether it has access to www.hoovers.com or other services.If that doesn’t work, see if your contacts on www.linkedin.com, www.ryze.com, www.openbc.com, www.soflow.com, www.myspace.com or others can point you in the tight direction.
Lastly, if those don’t work, try www.jigsaw.com. Jigsaw carries more than 3.5 million names at more than 370000 companies. The service is free if you input 25 email contacts per month (a contact is name, title, email address, phone number and address) or costs $25 per month to access 25 contacts.
I’m also going to take a demo of www.spoke.com; Spoke claims information about more than 30 million people and costs $60 per month for unlimited access. Again, I’m going to do a demo of the product but it seems interesting.
Any way you look at it, sometimes, it is far better to go through the back door.
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com
© 2006 all rights reserved.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.
To subscribe to Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to www.headhuntyournextjob.com. To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you or search for openings, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. For information about personal search services, go to www.vippersonalsearch.com.
If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).
