Hire Me!

June 8, 2004 10:08 AM

Just applied last week for a job I'd really like that I believe I'm well-qualified for. It is in Phoenix AZ (with America West Airlines, if that info helps) and I am in Orem UT. What kind of follow up can I do to make sure that HR and whoever is really making hiring decisions at least notices me and knows I'm genuinely interested, without being annoying?
posted by weston to work & money (11 comments total)

If you haven't been called for an interview, it's hard....I'd try to find someone who works for them in any capacity anywhere (that's not a complete ass), and have them send an email/referral note about you. Companies value employee referrals a lot, and it will get you noticed.
posted by amberglow at 10:24 AM on June 8, 2004

I recommend some "phone snooping" to meet and then discuss the position with someone on the hiring team. This advice was gleaned from a poorly written but intriguing job search book with offbeat strategies called Ask the Headhunter. You can find it for more info on this strategy and why it works in the book, but it's really simple:

Forget HR.

HR sucks. They often don't know the job, the actual requirements that are needed to succeed at the job, and whether you, or any other candidate, has the qualifications to do the job.

So, the recommendation is to call the companies main phone number and then ask to speak to someone on the actual team where you'd like to work. Ask for the head of engineering, or the head of sales, or the head of IT. If you can google up the name of somebody in the department, all the better. Just don't mention to the receptionist that you're a job seeker, and don't get transfered to HR.

If you get transferred, hang up and try again the next day.

Leave voicemails with (or send emails to) individuals on the team. Tell them that you're very interested in the position and want to find out more. But don't let them just transfer you to HR -- ask them to take a minute to go past what the job description says. Find out about the project. Find out why they're adding to the team. Find out what's going wrong, etc. Doing so will immediately gain you a friend on the inside. Ask to get connected with others at the company, especially managers. Often, people will oblige -- if they think you're a good fit, why wouldn't they recommend that you email the hiring manager.

This way, you can have the hiring manager walk down to HR and say "I just got a call today from Weston. He said that he turned in a resume to you. Where is it?" You can get him to lift your resume out of the enormous stack.

[note: I've used this technique to get jobs where HR thought me underqualified / underexperienced. The person who wound up hiring me went over the head of HR -- she recoded the job just so that she could give it to me. This can really work, is all I'm sayin'.]


On preview: This is what Amberglow suggests, only more focused.
posted by zpousman at 10:31 AM on June 8, 2004

Here in the UK, it's expected (but not a written rule) that they give you an acknowlegement that they've received your CV within a week.

Wait till then, phone up, ask to speak to HR and inquire that since you haven't received a confirmation you were wondering if they have received it. A quick rustle of papers later they'll say "yes" and by the next day you'll have that confirmation.

Afterwards it's a case of phoning HR once a week inquiring about the status of the job until something happens. After that something has happened, wait a week, and bug them again.

With regards to zpousman's suggestions, be very careful how this will work. There is a fine line between sounding like you're interested and sounding like you're a obsessive freak. You don't want to be in the latter category.
posted by ralawrence at 10:45 AM on June 8, 2004

pomegranate has been helpful to some Mefiers in the past who had these sorts of questions....
posted by anastasiav at 11:35 AM on June 8, 2004

"Forget HR.

HR sucks. They often don't know the job, the actual requirements that are needed to succeed at the job, and whether you, or any other candidate, has the qualifications to do the job."

You know what? A lot of times, that's true. But most of the time there's a really good reason to go through HR - the main ones that come up are that you might irritate the hiring manager by wasting his or her time, or you might just get your resume sent to the recruiter's shredder.
There's a very fine line between getting noticed and being an ass, and it all depends on the mood of the person on the other end of the letter or phone call.

For every job out there right now, the average employer receives over 200 resumes. By the time your resume gets a glance, it better have the minimum requirements or it's out. The best thing to do is to create a cover letter that very clearly outlines how you fill the minimum requirements stated on the job - literally a table with the requirement on one side and your experience on the other. That makes it easy for the recruiter to put your resume in the "keep" file. Then, follow up with an e-mail a week or two later, adding another success story or showing that you've done good research on the company. Act like a consultant - make every communication valuable to the company.

And if you DO want to go ahead and do a workaround, you'd better be able to sell quick and hard. Don't get the hiring manager on the phone and get all mushmouthed - make him or her interested in talking to you. Make the conversation quick, dynamic, and positive, and ask if you can follow up with an e-mail. Send your resume and the same type of cover letter to the hiring manager, and CC: whoever it was that you were supposed to send the resume to in the first place - HR or the recruiter or whoever.

Good luck!
posted by pomegranate at 11:55 AM on June 8, 2004

Get inside the company, past HR. Find a friend of a friend of a friend; someone in the organization who can send an inter-office e-mail with your resume attached. Unless the company has a very specific hiring plan and is soliciting resumes from the general public, it's hard to make this happen otherwise.
posted by PrinceValium at 12:33 PM on June 8, 2004

it could be that they don't want to bother with relocation, etc, so dumped all the resumes that weren't within commuting distance already, unfortunately.

I'd still find a current employee tho, to send an email on your behalf.
posted by amberglow at 2:28 PM on June 8, 2004

In corporate recruiting world, one week is ten minutes. (Again, go back to those 200 resumes, and the fact that each recruiter typically juggles filling a dozen jobs.)

Don't give up hope until it's been two months, or until you get the little postcard saying they've chosen another candidate.

So - A) Don't put all your eggs in any one job basket if you need a job soon, and B) DON'T take it personally if you don't get it. As everyone here indirectly points out, it's not necessarily the best qualified person who gets the job.
posted by pomegranate at 3:01 PM on June 8, 2004

amberglow, yeah, I've worried about that. I mentioned in my cover letter that I'd be happy to arrange a visit for an interview, and that relocation wasn't a problem for me... but I have had companies tell me in the past that they simply didn't even consider anyone who wasn't local already.

Does anyone have any feelings about the impact of actually going to their offices? I nearly did that while in Phoenix 2-3 weeks ago, but ran out of time before I had to be back. Arranging to visit Phoenix again would not be a big problem.

And thanks everyone! I don't need the job from a financial standpoint -- I've got a bit of savings and have a decent full-time job plus some freelance income, so the only real motivation here is interest... but maybe I appreciate all the comments more for that!
posted by weston at 4:44 PM on June 8, 2004

Another option would be to apply to several different but similar jobs and try varying degrees of this tactic, and see which one lands you the better job.
posted by woil at 6:13 PM on June 8, 2004

>There's a very fine line between getting noticed and being an ass,

For the record, I don't recommend being an ass. I recommend talking informally to people at the company and finding out from them about the job. Worked for me. Might work for you.

I think that this technique takes a certain kind of personality, and yes, probably a big dollop of luck, so that you don't catch somebody, especially not the hiring manager, at just the wrong moment and thereby royally fuck your chances. YMMV.
posted by zpousman at 6:39 PM on June 8, 2004