Getting the right name can get your foot in the door -- Career Center Blog

February 20, 2012

Getting the right name can get your foot in the door

Post a comment |
E-mail |
Print
- Share:

By Randy Woods
NWjobs

We've all seen various versions of the same statements in most job listings: "Send cover letter and resume to the following e-mail" or "Upload your resume to our jobs page."

It all seems like a well-oiled machine, and it is -- resume databases have vastly improved the immense human resources workload that many large companies endure during periods of high unemployment. But for you, the weary job seeker, the nameless, faceless, effortless resume/cover letter upload is perhaps the biggest obstacle you'll ever face in landing a job.

It's not that companies don't like you or want you; it's more an issue of statistics. With potentially hundreds or thousands of candidates vying for a handful of jobs, sending all resumes into the same database blender is the easiest and fastest way to thin the herd to a few predetermined keywords and skill sets. What you need, therefore, is an edge on this numbers game.

One way is to uncover a name behind the digital smokescreen, such as the hiring manager or at least the relevant department head. The problem is that the names of these key decision-makers are about as hard to find as pay phones these days. Most companies go out of their way to be as obtuse as possible about who will make the final hiring decisions, but there are some methods savvy job-seekers and networkers can use to sniff them out.

Don't go the HR route -- While it may seem as if HR departments exist solely to find the right candidates for each position, the hard truth is that they are mostly there to find reasons to not hire people, thus giving hiring managers a more manageable list of finalists. As soon as they know about your interest, you will be on their radar screen and subject to more scrutiny for potential flaws. Avoid contacting them, if possible.

Dig around on LinkedIn -- To fly under the HR radar, work your network as much as possible. Go through your list of contacts on LinkedIn and any various networking groups to which you belong. You might be surprised to see how many people you already know who have an inside connection and who can introduce you. If you don't have any immediate connections, use the "Advanced" search function on LinkedIn's home page (upper right corner by the search box) and try out a few likely job titles and key words that relate to the position you're seeking.

Read up on the company -- Thoroughly scour the "About Us" page on the company's Web site to find any contact information on senior and middle management. If the company is small, with 30 or fewer people on its staff, there's a stronger likelihood of finding an actual name of a hiring manager. Also, read through the trade publications and Twitter feeds. Sometimes the Twitter hashtags about personnel changes can lead you to the latest names of hiring managers or other people to contact for more information.

If all else fails, try calling -- I offer this only as a last resort, mostly because the boilerplate "no calls please" notices in virtually every job listing are there for a reason. Hiring managers and recruiters don't want to be swamped with cold calls from desperate job seekers. However, this should not dissuade you from calling the general number and simply asking the receptionist for the name of the hiring manager. Odds are, you will get sent to the person's voicemail, where you can at least get the name and title of the person. In the worst case, they will just say no, but every now and then you may get a name that can be your foot in the door.

Randy Woods writes about job-search tools, networking techniques and other tips to help you land your dream job.