Ever wonder what happens after you send your resume? I'm not talking about the time in the postal system or how it travels through the electronic labyrinth of the internet, but what happens after it gets to the company you sent it to?
Thousands of Openings, But Even More Prospective Employees
Seimens, the global electrical engineering technological powerhouse, recently had 3,000 openings in the U.S. and is planning to fill over 10,000 positions this year. Since finding a job seems to be the universal issue of the day, CNN performed a study at Seimens to see just exactly what happened to a resume once it arrived. Seimens was looking for a Civil Engineer.
As background, Seimens has 80 recruiters who sift through over 65,000 resumes a month, which comes to around 40 resumes per recruiter per month. Could you look at 40 resumes each and every day? Be honest. Seimens also pays LinkedIn for the priviledge to poach on the LinkedIn site.
Resumes DOA
I know that's what you're thinking: the resumes are just dead on arrival. In the first 12 days after the posting of the job, 44 resumes arrived. Of those 44, two fit the criteria. (Receiving a resume that you have to look at and isn't a fit has got to be frustrating on its own to a recruiter.) The recruiter called both candidates to:
- Confirm the veracity of the information on the resume
- See if there was a good personality fit
- See if the prospect was up for relocation, travel and was okay with the salary. (These days, who wouldn't be, especially to be able to work for a global company like Seimens.)
Each call took about 45 minutes.
The other 42 applicants were sent an acknowlegement email and their resume was put in Seimens data base for future openings.
Waiting Game: The Next Five Weeks
Seimens shut down the resume acceptances after about a month from the initial posting. After the first 44 resumes were received, another 107 applied. From those four were sent to the hiring manager for review. Of the total of six that went to the hiring manager, three were interviewed in person, and of course one was selected.
How long did all this take? From the posting of the job to the hiring of the candidate, it was around six weeks. Obviously, some positions take longer to fill, while others will be shorter. Another variable is the company and its culture and how fast it can move.
Many companies these days don't even respond to a resume unless they want to talk to that person for the position, so you may not know if your resume made it or not.
If you sent out a resume lately, did the company respond even if they didn't want to hire you?