The phrase “down the memory hole” comes from George Orwell’s book “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” It’s where inconvenient or unwelcomed memories go to be forgotten, and it is likely where many job-applicants feel their resumes go right after completing an online application.
The sequence goes like this: you receive a call about another opportunity that sounds interesting enough that you’re open to the possibility of a change.
You conduct a phone interview with someone at the employer who ends the call by asking you to complete their online employment application. You log on to their career page and suddenly it occurs to you that you just committed yourself for at least the next 30 minutes answering questions about dates of employment, income and a few dozen other things that the employer deems necessary. One minute, you’re on a career exploration (burning up a precious vacation day) and then next thing you know, you’re bearing all of your professional secrets to someone you’ve never met. It’s a little off-balanced, in my opinon.
There are two basic avenues by which someone can electronically apply for a job. In smaller (and younger) companies, you will likely find a career page with some jobs listed and there will be a contact email address that is designated for job applicants. You create a message to that address and you attach a resume and cover letter, hit send, and you pray (or maybe just wait). The second application avenue is an “applicant tracking system” otherwise known as an “ATS.” This will generally require you to create a user name, log on and answer a lot of questions. These are a hallmark of more established employers; an ATS cost a bunch of money and there is a lot of behind the scenes work to keep them updated and functioning. Regardless of which avenue brings you into an employer’s consideration, you will be transmitting information which will be directly involved in your job pursuits. This electronic procedure has some pitfalls and dead ends. This column will assist you with getting to the application finish line.
The first point is a reminder: there is an economy of scale in job applications. With the advent of email and the Internet, where someone would mail off a resume and wait weeks to hear a response, people can now send dozens of resumes out each day. The person on the receiving end can process them no quicker than time will allow. You can send out lots, but it doesn’t mean that you’re deserving of a response from each one!
The second point is that you should create and maintain an Excel spreadsheet that contains a running history of your applications. Every time you apply for a job, you add it to your spreadsheet. You include the company name, the date, the job title, the version of your resume, the cover letter that you used, your username/password for their career site, and any other important information that you can think of that will aid you in tracking your job search. This should become a habit. The reasons are extensive. Just know that in 2-5 weeks when the employer calls you back for an interview, you would rather sound like an informed job seeker than someone who says, “Yeah … I … I … think that I applied to … ahhh … that one job on your website.” Don’t be that guy. Create a spreadsheet to track your job applications and stay on top of it.
The next point I would like to address relates to the pre-screening mechanisms used by employers to reduce the candidate pool. These are most frequently found during the completion of the online application. These are questions about general things such as employment status or the willingness to relocate, and these questions are sometimes specific about a job. There is a tendency to bend the truth in answering these questions. The hope is that you won’t get caught in an outright lie and even if you do, you have plausible deniability, stating, “Oh, I think that I may have misunderstood the question.” From the other side of the applicant tracking system, we tend to only use those questions when the hiring manager specifically indicates a very strict requirement, i.e. no substitutions allowed. If you find that you just don’t measure up to the requirement, you need to say so, but you should also give thought to maneuvering around that screening barrier. Nevertheless, the point is that those questions are usually meant to be the low bar and there isn’t really a way around them.
The last point is the follow up email. You can bet that almost every career site has an email address for general delivery purposes. This email probably goes to someone who will A) respond personally, B) forward it to another person, or C) do nothing at all and leave you out in the cold (see memory hole above). To increase the odds that your application will be viewed send an email like this: “I completed your online application for (position name). To assure that I don’t get lost in the mix of candidates, I’ve attached a resume to this email. I’ve also included a cover letter that speaks to the job and my qualifications. Thank you.”
The person on the receiving end of that email gets more new applications each day than time allows for them to digest them all. In order to do his or her job, that person has to screen through a lot of applicants. Your one simple email provides a shortcut that time-stretched people habitually seek out. It won’t guarantee that you get the interview. It will increase the odds and that makes all the difference. It will keep you one step away from sliding down the candidate memory hole.
There you have it: a few simple steps that will keep your ones and zeros from getting too mixed up with someone else’s. The workforce mechanism is always looking for fast ways to dispose of applicants. Candidates apply at a rate equal to how easy it gets for candidates to apply. This means, even though it will get easier, there will be more applicants, thus, no net change. Keep track of your applications and stay away from the memory hole.
