How to Know You Contacted SomeoneHow to Know You Contacted Someone? This is 2007, and now most large companies outsource their HR functions. They present a policy of "INTERNET APPLICATIONS ONLY". Do not call. Do not send letters. Do not visit the office or ask for names or phone numbers. Job hunters are faced with a wall of silence. Other than sneaking into the building and reading names on desks and doors, how can a person get information on who to contact or contact anyone at the company? That is, IF there is someone local and not just in India??? A dilemma with INTERNET ONLY applications is that there are automated mail filters on both sides of the exchange that are doing their best to interfere with your attempts to get noticed. The filters might drop you if you have an attachment; if you' re not going to the right inbox; if the subject line is missing a job code; if your resume doesn' t include the right buzzwords, or if the filters fail to recognize the words due to a program bug or formatting snafu anywhere in the chain. Then....if a company wants to contact you via email....YOUR OWN EMAIL SORTER could toss that very critical email in the junk folder!!! Catch-22! It' s beginning to look like we' ve got a better chance of hitting a jackpot on a progressive slot machine than get out email through to the right people!! I would like to hear suggestions for getting around this very MODERN conundrum. • How do you know that HR has received/reviewed your letter and resume? • How can you tell if they' ve tried to contact you via email? This is an excellent thread!!!! Here is what I did. I went to the business that I wanted to work for. I asked the PBX operator what was the name of the sales manager or director (or whoever you wish to contact). I also asked employees of that company who was the contact person. Although companies are pushing customer service, Human Resources is exempt from this policy. It seems like they are protected from returning or even acknowledging resumes. If a customer service failed to read or respond to customers complaints or inquiries, you can be assured that customer service representative will be in big trouble. Sorry, Human Resource folks, but you and I know it is true. Sure, you may be overworked or fooling around with HR paperwork BUT I have worked in Corporations as well as small firms. I see a lot of Generalists just sitting there reading magazines or chit chatting. That Generalist could be contacting candidates with letters or phone calls explaining the process of that candidate' s resume. Email is the tricky part. Most companies have their names incorporated into the email. If your email does not come back with a Mailer Daemon, then you can be assured it reached someone. I agree...good topic!!! I know with some online applications, you get an e-mail acknowledging receipt of the application. Granted, it is automated, so that doesn' t help matter much. In regards to e-mail, it' s a good idea to tweak your junk filter so that certain e-mails can get through. I' ve seen some online stores (who send an automated e-mail when you order something) actually provide the e-mail address to add to your "accepted" e-mail list. Employers who only allow online applications would be wise to use that technique as well. I' m interested to hear other ideas! The simple answer is to check your Junk Folder every day. Really, how tough is that? I do it. It takes all of a minute even when the folder is full of Viagra and Enhancement ads. Color me stupid but what difference does it make? Either you get called or you don' t! Perhaps I' m missing something....:)? I have actually had people trying to contact me by email and they cant get the email to go through - I purposely dont have a spam filter set up for just that reason and one temp place in particular really ticked me off when the gall said she had sent the link to the application site etc and then HER boss mouthed off to me that it must have gone into my spam or junk folder and I said uh no I dont have junk folders and she said well everyone does - and I said NOPE sorry - but I DONT - then I finally asked the gal to show me the email that she had sent me and yeppers, sure enough - she had apparently copied and pasted my email from the job board and so many times the job boards add spaces in between the ampersand and the att.net and that is exactly what she had done. For emails sent out I have my tracking set up to show confirmation of delivery and read reciepts and I have even see on the monster site or other job boards for exampl the use of suntateequip.com and the name of the company is actually sunstateequip.com - so whoever sets the link up really needs to update it but I pay attention to that more than most would
I just dont have junk mail filters set up - would rather get too much than miss the one I am waiting on and I also have my tracking set up to show me both delivery confirmation and read receipts. That is invaluable especially when you are waiting to hear back from an interview and you werent told the person would be on vacation but when you get an out of office reply then you can know whats going on at least a little | |
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