Have robots overtaken the job search world?

Author Byline: Tim Tyrell-Smith @ Spin Strategy - Tools for Intelligent Job Search
Author Website: http://blog.spinstrategy.com

I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news. I know there has been a lot of it lately and it may get worse.

But there is a robot out there (think of the silver guy in Terminator) who may not like you. Don’t take it personally, but if you are looking for work he is likely to make your life painful over the next 3-6 months.

He doesn’t have a name. He doesn’t have metallic body parts. No xray vision or automatic revolver at his hip.

His weapon of choice?

Programming.

Not scary enough for you? This silent killer has destroyed the chances of many fine people looking for something of value. In this case? A job.

Who does he work for and how did he get his job? Well, it started “way back when” as people without a job search strategy began flooding companies with resumes. Resumes that did not include the proper qualifications for the job (often not even close). Based on a poor hit rate and a huge cost of reading through thousands of resumes, HR departments got smart and began planning for the day when “silver guy” here would rule the day.

So even though “silver guy” does not exist, I thought it would be easier to have him as a more tangible evil doer. Someone to hate and to sling things toward (foul words and the like).

The typical day for “silver guy” as I see it . . .

1. He arrives at the corporate parking lot in a huff. After getting into a fight with the machine that hands out parking slips, he enters the building’s foyer and promptly destroys the company’s travertine flooring.

2. After a somewhat uneventful elevator ride (the other passengers fainted with fear), he marches down to his cubicle, turns on his computer and heads to the lunchroom for a cup of coffee.

3. Well, the coffee wasn’t ready and someone had already eaten the morning’s donuts. You can imagine that “silver guy” has started to come unglued.

4. Back at his cubicle, he hears “yackity yack” coming from the cube next door and, because robots have highly sensitive hearing (100 times that of dogs), he decides to pull a few wires out of his skull.

5. Now no longer reeling from the noise, he opens up the first file on his desk to review its qualifications for the job that has been pre-programmed into his system. That file?

Yes, it’s your resume.

And what do you think his first action will be - regardless of your qualifications?

“DENIED”

“But that’s not fair! I was a 90% fit for that job”, you say. “If only I could have met someone at that company, they would love me!”

And, you know what, you may be right. But you’ll never know if you leave it to a robot or a human screener. Because a resume is a very tough place to make your case vs. other candidates. It is all you’ve got in some cases, I understand that. And so you have to make your abilities and accomplishments as big and tall as possible. Oh, and they should be a pretty tight fit with the job description.

What to do in this world of robots and screeners? My advice hasn’t changed on this subject. Find an avenue into the company that bypasses “silver guy”. Be the person the company needs to meet because a human learned something unique about you on Twitter or liked your respectful persistence in trying to reach them via LinkedIn. Before “silver guy” knows it, your resume will be e-mailed in the air space right above his head, past him and into the arms of the hiring manager.

Only problem?

Don’t be surprised to get a visit at your cube or office first thing Monday morning. Yes, it’s “silver guy” who just found out they hired someone without his approval.

Just stick your tongue out at him and then smile. He’s not real.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

Tags: entervista, free, human, interview, interviews, job, jobsearch, recruiter, recruiting, resources, robot, video, web, webcam

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 at 7:47 am and is filed under Entervista Team. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.