1. In these companies, when a job is posted, the applications are first screened by HR departments. They have no idea what science really is. They can not guess that if you did -say-"bioinformatics" it means you are good at data mining. Unless you explicitely write "skills: data mining" in your CV.
2. If you leave your CV on their website's online database, it will be screened by computers. They search for keywords. So a good way to pass this filter is to first google the website of the company to find out what are the keywords they love. And then include them in your resume.
3. When you send an unsollicited application, email again and again. Or call. Some people never reply before your third attempt, just to see if you're really motivated. Some others are just busy and your application rapidly disappears from their list of most recent emails.
Does any of you dis/approve these advices?
9 comments:
1) True. Partly for the reason you gave, but also because industry hiring (unwisely, IMHO) frequently looks to match experience with very specific tasks with the requirements for the job, in contrast to the way academic labs just look for the strongest scientists and figure they can learn when they get there.
2) I have no idea how often HR actively goes looking for CVs instead of just reading what you send. Your plan seems too-clever, though. Even if you could get useful keywords from the vague platitudes on company's websites, why not target your CV to the jobs you want and would be competitive for?
3) If you're talking about applications for an advertised job, most large companies outsource those to specialized websites like BrassRing, so there's nobody for you to pester. If you're talking about random contacts: within the limits of basic courtesy, why not? I doubt if anyone consciously tests you, but you're lowest on their long list of priorities. Unless you do something really obnoxious, annoying someone who wasn't helping you anyway doesn't hurt you as much as getting someone's attention can help you. (This is a good Science Career Forums Question, though.)
"Unless you do something really obnoxious, annoying someone who wasn't helping you anyway doesn't hurt you as much as getting someone's attention can help you."
Okay, I haven't worked for a big company and have certainly not been an HR person, so I'm speaking based solely on my experiences as the "hiring manager" for my lab.
I really hate being pestered by random people who submit unsolicited applications. An email with CV attached asking to be considered for a position is fine, as is a polite follow-up after about a week. Anything more is pestering, and carries the implication that the applicant believes his/her job hunt should be more important than anything else I have to do. Self-absorbed + inconsiderate = no job offer.
Whether it's worth it to annoy a bunch of people for the chance of getting one person's attention is hard to say. If I get an email application that impresses me, but doesn't fit what I'm currently looking for, I'll hang onto it for future positions and/or forward it to other people who I know are hiring. But if the applicant annoys me, then I delete the email.
Even if you could get useful keywords from the vague platitudes on company's websites, why not target your CV to the jobs you want and would be competitive for?
My point was the following: there are probably 10 different ways to say that you're doing "data mining" (to continue on the same example). So finding the one that they use is a good way to target your CV.
If I get an email application that impresses me, but doesn't fit what I'm currently looking for, I'll hang onto it for future positions and/or forward it to other people who I know are hiring.
But do you send a short reply then? If so, I agree that the candidate should not annoy you anymore (for the next 6 months). But if you don't, how can she know that you've read her resume?
But do you send a short reply then?
This may sound rude, but I don't reply to unsolicited applications the same way I don't reply to spam, and I'm not particularly concerned about whether a spammer knows I've read his/her email.
The situation would be different if the application came from someone I know or was specifically referred to me by a friend/colleague. In those cases, yes, I do typically send a short reply, hence the power of networking.
well, if you consider them as spammers, don't be upset if they act as such!
The question isn't about whether I am upset by it, but whether emailing a random person over and over again is an effective way to get a job. For me personally, that method does not endear an applicant to me, and may actually "hurt" the applicant if it makes me less likely to forward his/her resume to other people.
But other people may be different, particularly HR people or headhunters whose specific job it is to field applications.
Honestly, many of the unsolicited applications I get are indiscriminately sent to every faculty member the applicant found on the department's website. What would you consider that if not spam?
A spammer sends email to ANY email address he can find. A candidate makes a selection. This selection can be gross, I admit. But you wouldn't advice a candidate to apply to a single position at a time, would you?
A reply such as "Sorry I have no position for you. Good luck in your search." takes about 10 seconds to write and is, IMHO, better than nothing. That said, I never received hundreds of unsollicited applications.
But you're right: the point was to know whether it is effective to email/call several times. I am "naturally" (meaning, from my education) on the side of "don't bother people". So this advice was kind of counter-intuitive for me. But I think silas is right " Unless you do something really obnoxious, annoying someone who wasn't helping you anyway doesn't hurt you as much as getting someone's attention can help you."
On the other hand (and this is something we tell all our employees, given the nature of our business): you never know when the freelancer, job applicant, or potential client you ticked off today might become your boss. Especially in relatively limited fields, it's a small, small world. I'd be tempted to not pester someone about a job more than the initial email and a follow-up (at least for a few months), especially if that person does something I'm really interested in, because then what happens if I get a job and have to work with that person, and they remember me as an obnoxious spammer? First impressions, and all that.
Maddox22--I'm guessing you would have to be really obnoxious for the other person to remember and hold a grudge! The only person I specifically remember from a previous hiring process was one guy who managed to get my phone number and called me 3-4 times a week for a few weeks to "discuss his application". But you're right--first impressions do make a difference.
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