A friend and I were chatting over beers this week about the frustrations of our internship hunt this summer. We heard a whole lot of nothing back from the 10+ internships we each applied to, with the exception of my mass BCC email I received saying that I didn't get it (not even a first-round interview). The whole experience was a little demoralizing because we had no idea what criteria we didn't fulfill for the employers and what distinguished our friends who did receive interviews from us (because on paper, we have more professional work experience). I understand that hiring is a very subjective process and there are a lot of factors that go into it, but not receiving any contact or feedback had our minds running wild about all the reasons we didn't land those internships.
In today's economy, we've all heard the stories of people who send out hundreds of resumes and cover letters and hear nothing back. Just crickets. These people are conceivably qualified, good writers, and suitable candidates for the position, but for one reason or another, they're turned down. Not even turned down, but hear absolutely nothing back, not even a "We've received your application and will be in touch" or "We regret to inform you that we've hired another candidate." And these candidates are being lumped in with the unqualified candidates who don't have enough years of experience or expertise in a given field/industry. There are no distinctions, no ranks to see how close you were to getting hired, and no one to tell you to quit wasting your time if you're applying to jobs that are all wrong for your skillset.
A lot of companies use screening tools to weed out qualified and unqualified candidates, and I wish the results of that screening process could be divulged to the jobseeker. It would be immensely helpful to applicants for those tools or some type of auto-report to give an analysis of your resume and cover letter so that you had an indication of the reasons why you were not chosen, i.e. "Your resume was too long" or "We're looking for someone with demonstrated success making money via social media." It could also help if you knew who you were up against in terms of competition, e.g. "75% of applicants had 15+ years of experience in public relations compared to your >5" or "50% of applicants had work experience leading management teams at Fortune 500 companies."
But I learned from a colleague of mine who hires people frequently that you are not allowed to tell a candidate why they were not hired because of the potential to get into legal hot water over discrimination issues. This makes sense, especially for gender, age, sexual orientation, and race issues, but I also feel like it holds potential employers back from offering some honest, real-world advice to candidates. I had an applicant for an internship that I was hiring for use several party anecdotes as examples of his leadership and prioritization skills, and used terms like "ya know" and "dude" when telling me about his experience. He would have been a great addition to our office and a fun personality, but there was no way I could put him on the phone with a reporter or a donor, and I had to look at other candidates. I wanted to give him some advice about his interviewing and public speaking skills so that he didn't get passed over again in spite of his qualifications, but I didn't for fear of offending him or allegations of discrimination.
How would you improve potential employer relations with jobseekers in today's job market? What tools or advice are out there for jobseekers to get feedback, and what tools are out there for swamped HR departments to better manage contact with applicants?
In today's economy, we've all heard the stories of people who send out hundreds of resumes and cover letters and hear nothing back. Just crickets. These people are conceivably qualified, good writers, and suitable candidates for the position, but for one reason or another, they're turned down. Not even turned down, but hear absolutely nothing back, not even a "We've received your application and will be in touch" or "We regret to inform you that we've hired another candidate." And these candidates are being lumped in with the unqualified candidates who don't have enough years of experience or expertise in a given field/industry. There are no distinctions, no ranks to see how close you were to getting hired, and no one to tell you to quit wasting your time if you're applying to jobs that are all wrong for your skillset.
A lot of companies use screening tools to weed out qualified and unqualified candidates, and I wish the results of that screening process could be divulged to the jobseeker. It would be immensely helpful to applicants for those tools or some type of auto-report to give an analysis of your resume and cover letter so that you had an indication of the reasons why you were not chosen, i.e. "Your resume was too long" or "We're looking for someone with demonstrated success making money via social media." It could also help if you knew who you were up against in terms of competition, e.g. "75% of applicants had 15+ years of experience in public relations compared to your >5" or "50% of applicants had work experience leading management teams at Fortune 500 companies."
But I learned from a colleague of mine who hires people frequently that you are not allowed to tell a candidate why they were not hired because of the potential to get into legal hot water over discrimination issues. This makes sense, especially for gender, age, sexual orientation, and race issues, but I also feel like it holds potential employers back from offering some honest, real-world advice to candidates. I had an applicant for an internship that I was hiring for use several party anecdotes as examples of his leadership and prioritization skills, and used terms like "ya know" and "dude" when telling me about his experience. He would have been a great addition to our office and a fun personality, but there was no way I could put him on the phone with a reporter or a donor, and I had to look at other candidates. I wanted to give him some advice about his interviewing and public speaking skills so that he didn't get passed over again in spite of his qualifications, but I didn't for fear of offending him or allegations of discrimination.
How would you improve potential employer relations with jobseekers in today's job market? What tools or advice are out there for jobseekers to get feedback, and what tools are out there for swamped HR departments to better manage contact with applicants?
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