Dear Hiring Manager: Did you get my resume ?

If you get called for an interview after submitting your resume, congratulations.  Your resume obviously contained some or all of some of the target skills, education, and experience that the company is seeking. Most job candidates won’t get the opportunity that you’ve been given. Hopefully, you’ve brushed up on your interview skills by knowing what to wear, how to act, and how to respond to unusual interview questions.

If you haven’t gotten called in for an interview, you may or may not be notified that company received your resume. Some companies list that job applicants will not be notified unless they meet the qualifications for the job. Other companies don’t list their application policy in their job listing, so a candidate doesn’t know what happens to their resume once they send it to them. Unless a company emails you or sends you snail-mail to let you know the status of your resume submission, there is little left to do but wonder about it. Did the mail carrier get abducted by aliens?

What can you do to find out if a company received your resume? 

A week after you’ve sent them your resume, give the hiring department a phone call. Ask them if they received your resume and if you will be notified whether you get the job or not. Some companies do and some companies don’t. Those that do, get an A+ in my book. Job applicants don’t expect a personal phone call but an email or snail-mail is definitely appreciated. Getting some kind of notification from a company about the status of your resume says good things about what a company values most. Notifications say “we value people”.  No notification says “we value money”.

I have gotten both kinds of responses from companies. Some companies that I’ve applied to never let me know that they received my resume. I understand that they may be swamped with job candidate resumes, but it still makes me feel that they are more interested in money than in people. If the company’s job listing stated that I wouldn’t be contacted unless they were interested in speaking with me further, that’s ok with me. At least, I know that from the start. If a company doesn’t list anything in their job listing about their resume submission follow-up, then they should let job applicants know that after they receive their resume with some kind of follow-up.

What happens after I submit my resume to the SearchLogix Group?

 

Once we receive your resume, it is immediately entered in to our database. If you meet the qualifications of a position that we are currently working on, you can expect a call from us right away! If you don’t match the qualifications of our current positions, we will call you when a new position becomes available to discuss it with you!

Here are two companies that made a good impression on me, even though I didn’t get the job:

• Meditech sent me a personalized email to let me know that they selected another applicant for their software trainer position. I immediately sent them a reply mail to thank them for letting me know and for wishing me good luck with my career goals.  All it took was one email from them to give me a good impression of their company.
  

• The Providence Journal Bulletin newspaper sent me a postcard to acknowledge the receipt of my resume and what the future status of my resume is with their company. Projo also earned my respect for respecting the time and effort that is made by their job applicants. I don’t even mind the “Dear Applicant” salutation. At least they contacted me! Hmmm… there’s only one problem with it. Did you spot it?