Jeff Altman The Big Game Hunter explains why giving your resume to someone who works for a company you want to target may not be the best way to get an interview.
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Let’s talk today about approaching the furniture interested in working for. Conventional wisdom says to give your resume to someone who works there and have them bring it to the hiring manager as though this is the magic bullet that can get you the interview and advantage you are getting hired.
It can, but the thing that most people don’t do is find out how close this person is to the hiring manager. I give you an example. Someone contact me and says, “I know this terrific individual. They are phenomenal. They are swell. They are terrific.” The person approaches me as someone I barely had contact with if. As a matter of fact, the last time I heard from them was only asked to connect with me on LinkedIn. How much do I really trust this individual? The same might also be true with the people you’re giving your resume to.
The goal is and just to give it to someone who works for the firm, but to find someone within the firm who is well connected with the hiring manager.
Barring that, you are sending your resume to the black hole because the hiring manager has no reason to trust this individual anymore then I have to trust that person who says, “this person going to refer to you is terrific, colossal and swell,” and they had nothing to do with anything I do recruiting for plus I don’t know this person who was telling me how wonderful their friendliness.
There are times where it is better to work with a friend to send a cover letter that addresses that addresses some of the pain points a firm has in hiring someone for this job. It can also be better to use a third-party recruiter who has had a good relationship with his hiring manager to introduce you. Otherwise, you are giving your resume to a different version of the black hole.
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Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.
The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
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