Faulty Job-Seeking Strategies

[pisces]

All job-seekers need to make sure that their resume/applications get seen by the specific individuals that have the actual power to hire---and that's not me!

So, can someone tell me why I have a regular pile of about 40 resumes/cover letters/and applications addressed to me, per week, on my desk?

I admit that I am very lucky. I've been a department manager for a large entertainment lending company for the past five years. But, I've repeatedly told everyone (and that includes close friends who continually badger me to "get" them in) that I have no power to hire or fire, nor do I know, nor have I ever met, any of the hiring managers or CEOs.

My company has changed hands several times; the ones that hired me are no longer there, and the departments that I have regular contact with are not the same ones that would be able to influence or make hiring decisions.

I don't even hire or fire the employees I manage. I have no involvement in the interviewing process, for my own department even. That's all done by a different department who sets staffing levels, not me. I simply train any new employees that come to us, coordinate existing workflow, coaching/answer questions, set productivity goals, and do lite and totally benign performance reviews that do not influence hiring or firing decisions. I've had employees that have been in my department for years, and I've had some that have only been here days. I have nothing to do with it, though. They come and go and I don't ask questions or ask why--as I intend to keep my job!


And yet, I regularly receive numerous phone calls, resumes, and other inquiries about people wishing to work in my department. I cannot put in a good word for anyone, as I wouldn't know who to approach with respect to hiring, and I cannot spend the time trying to find out who has the power to make a hiring decision for my department; I would never get my own overflow work done, not to mention that this would be very imappropriate spending company time trying to get everyone and anyone through to the proper channels.

Again, just because I am a department manager, doesn't mean that I am a HIRING manager. I don't know why job-seekers can't understand this.

I have nothing to do with Human Resources, thank goodness. And, I haven't made the effort to ingratiate myself with our CEO's, Board of Directors, etc...which may or may not prove to be a mistake on my part.

I understand that, here in Southern California, everybody and anybody wants to be in the entertainment business, or somehow connected in any way with entertainment. Still, I am a major NOBODY in here, just a cog in the wheel, trying with quiet desperation to get through an 8-hour day, amidst continuing threats that our own department is, even, going to be eliminated.

I think that job-seeker's time would be better spent finding out who has the actual power to hire and fire, and putting their resumes in front of that person (not me) and calling that person, (which I know is difficult), but it ain't me! I have no power whatsoever!

[quasar]

I have two thoughts:

1) Most people do at least have some control over hiring their underlings, so it's not unreasonable to expect anyone with manager next to their name probably to have some say in the hiring process

2) People are desperate right now and will try just about anything.

I'm not disagreeing with you - people should apply for advertised jobs through regular channels. But your situation of having no control over who's hired is rather unusual in my experience.

Janice

[pisces]

1) Well that's the same argument that family and friends, not to mention people coming in off the street, use: They insist that there must be something I can do to get them hired or get them in.

There isn't. There is nothing I can do. And, nobody wants to hear that. I work for a very large multi-state lender that has layers and layers of chain of command. They have taken managers out of the hiring, firing, and promotion process, brought in independent auditor/analysts to handle those kinds of staffing issues to try to make it more objective.

I am not about to circumvent the chain of command, or go over someone else's head. Even the suggestion of it would be seen as insubordination as I am considered a middle manager and simply there to utilize and implement policy, not change or create it. Again, I like my job and I've seen to many mid-level employees let go because they were too pushy in trying to get their friends and family hired.

Quasar, I'm not saying that this is correct or that this is the idea situation. I don't create policy, I just follow it, as I like getting a paycheck!

2) Extremely desperate! Especially, in the entertainment world where it is very cutthroat and competitive anyway. And, I'm not unsympathetic. After all, I've been told for months now to plan for an eventual department elimination, and I will probably be in the same boat, frantically looking for a job, at some time in the future.

All I am saying is that some job seekers could be a bit more creative in figuring out how to make contact with the REAL Powers-That-Be. I am simply trying to stay afloat and not make waves in my own little world. Asking me to do otherwise isn't fair to me.

[quasar]

I agree with you. If you don't have any role in the hiring process then all you can do is say so. And once you've said so to a person they should listen.

All I was saying is that I can understand folks believing you might have some hiring power before they talk to you, given the word manager in your title.

Just encourage them to go through normal processes (hr or whatever) and move on.

Janice

[magenta321]

I guess all you can do is point them in the right direction.

[kurt_messick]

In most companies, a 'manager' has at least some say in the hiring process, at least for a 'foot-in-the-door' kind of way.

I've actually recently encountered exactly the opposite situation. I sent the resume to human resources for an advertised job.

'Thank you for applying with XYZ company. At the moment, we have no openings in human resources.'



In XYZ company, apparently (yes, I did check it out) human resources only hires other human resources people. Each department is completely independent in hiring new people. Human resources cuts cheques and administers paperwork, admin. support, benefits, etc. for other departments, but does not do recruiting, interviewing or hiring.

[quasar]

That's not so uncommon Kurt. I've run into quite a few companies that work that way. It's certainly a lot more common than the hiring manager having no say.

Janice

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

I had a position open in my department and so a job posting went up with my name on it. 6 months later I'm still getting resumes directed to me, although the position is filled and I don't need another person right now. I don't stress over it though, I just send it on to HR who will forward the appropriate resumes to the departments that do need people. It ain't no big thing.

[jenninca]

Resumes must hang around a long time. At least once a month I get a call for a job interview for the person who used to have this number. I've had this number for more than a year....

Cindy

[CurtisEdmonds]

This is how people are taught to do job searches; network, network, network.

[phoenixx]

That used to happen to a friend of mine in a similar situation as yours pisces, working for a movie exec's company. What she realized eventually was that she was pretty good at recognizing a resume envelope before she even opend it after a while, so she'd just black out her name on the outside, leave it unopened, and at the end of each week put that week's worth in a department interoffice manilla envelope and drop it off anonymously at human resources with a note saying "These continue to arrive addressed mistakenly to me or my department, so I am forwarding them to the proper department". That seemed to work for her without getting her in trouble.

Leslie