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[ibid32]

So, in the job application process -- do places usually tell you if they're not considering you? Like, do you ever find out conclusively that you're *not* getting the job? Or do your coverletter and resume just drift pleasantly into the ether while you graduate from college, still feeling pathetically hopeful?

Comments

[shmike95]

Margho is correct. It's about networking. Resumes and cover letters are so useless for lots of reasons. Usually there's a recruiter who will be the one to receive it. She'll get hundreds of resumes and screen them according to buzzwords and will have little or no understanding whatsoever of the position she's trying to fill. She'll send over the resumes with the correct buzzwords and the hiring manager will ignore most of them because she's too busy. She certainly won't bother with your cover letter. If your resume happens to be a perfect match for the position, you will probably get a call for a phone screen. At the end of the day though, the hiring manager will be risk averse and hire the person she feels she can most trust which will be the person who came with a recommendation from someone she knows. That recommended person will not have had to bother with the whole screening process in the first place.

Most people get very angry at this because American schools and work ethic suggests that the system should be egalitarian and fair and other good and happy things. It's not. It never has been and it never will be. What matters is what you accomplish through networking.

When I offer people help on the job front, I have no jobs to offer (well, rarely anyway). What I can consistently offer is help understanding and executing networking. Would that career services, headhunters and everyone else ever bother to mention much less educate people on it.

BTW, don't get me wrong. You need a decent cover letter and resume. They are necessary, but so very, very, very far from sufficient.