Usually, It Makes More Sense to Avoid The Front Door
By Jeff Altman The Big Game Hunter
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 you are a Salesforce user, try accessing what used to be called Jigsaw and was acquired and became data.com/
If that doesn’t work, see if your contacts on Linkedin, Facebook or twitter or others can point you in the right direction.
Any way you look at it, sometimes, it is far better to go through the back door to get stuck in the blackhole.
Ⓒ The Big Game Hunter, Inc., Asheville, NC 2006, 2013, 2021
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves career coaching, all as well as executive job search coaching, job coaching, and interview coaching. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 1900 episodes, and is a member of The Forbes Coaches Council.
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