Job search tips : Help, Im being ignored!

Hello all! I have enjoyed reading all the good advice on these message boards and have taken much to heart. But my question is: how do you get prospective employers to even acknowledge you? For the past month I have applied for jobs online, in person, by blind emails, and just about any way I can think of. So far I have applied for about 100 jobs, and have received NO replies! My follow-up experience has been rather dismal as well: "The position has been filled", "We did not receive your resume" (I even heard that from companies I personally delivered a copy to!!), "We aren't hiring right now" (after applying for specific openings), and so on. I'm sure many of you know the feeling and I wonder what I can do to change the odds to my favor?

P.S. There is a job fair coming up in a couple of days and I WILL be there! Any tips on how to make myself stand out from the crowd?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

EJK,

I'll be interested to see any responses to this. You and I are in the same boat. I've tried resume, cover letter tweaks. I've had my resume and letter professionally and personally reviewed and stil NOTHING.

I had one phone interview which I thought went very well and then I never received a yes or no. just silence. The only bites that I have been getting are from other recruiters that want to build their own databases. What are you looking for? To quote the Johnny Cash song, "I've been everywhere man...I've been everywhere..." I'll help in anyway if I can.

All best!

I know EXACTLY what you are feeling and going through. I left my retail managment job 3 months ago to seek a change of career. And I have sent my resume out to 200+ employers..and nothing. I am at my wits end and not only running out of money but of sanity to.

I have gone a handful of interviews but so far nothing has panned out.

I dont know what to do anymore.

Well, it does help to know I'm not in this boat alone!

Ileft an Operations Manager position primarily because upper managementwas asking me to do some things that were, shall we say, not quiteabove board. The day I resigned I was told to leave immediately,without even the chance to clean out my desk! (I did later go back andget my things.) Makes you wonder what's really going on...

I'dlike to find a similar position, maybe office or warehouse management(I have experience in both) or Technical Writing (which I took incollege), but would still consider a non-management position, as longas it pays a livable wage. (Why are there so many jobs listed requiringa bachelor's degree and years of specific experience, and paying tenbucks an hour? Are they serious?? But I digress...)

With thenumber of people who are getting no response from the listings on jobposting websites, it makes one wonder if most of the ads posted arenothing more than EEO fulfillments?

"it makes one wonder if most of the ads posted are nothing more than EEO fulfillments? "

This line made me pause to consider this. That is an interesting observation. As a white male, I wonder what happens when I decline to give this info when applying here on Monster. Does this automatically shuffle my resume into the delete bin because my application is now worthless by EEO standards? The other question is the validity of the info. If I say I am Hispanic. Who is to say that I am not Hispanic or other? How can that be confirmed or denied? just some thoughts to consider. I've seen some extremely dubious hires in the last few months, which I know have ZERO to do with the persons abilities or expertise. It"s damn shameful.

While I am sure that you are already doing this, be sure to address your email or letter to the appropriate person. If it is just a general address, your information could go anywhere and the person it ultimately is delivered to may have no idea about a job opening. They may be in a different department or may have the responsibilities of hiring for a different department, which means they don't know about the opening yo are applying for.

Which is true, also, for whenever you hand deliver your resume. Ask the receptionist who the appropriate person is and put that person's name on the envelope.

You stated that you were beginning to think that advertisements were just to fulfill an EEO requirement. In some instances, you are right. Many companies are already thinking of hiring from inside or know who the person is that they are going to hire, but they need to advertise the job due to company policies or industry regulations. There are some companies who need to interview a minimum of three to five people regardless of how many resumes they recieve or who they plan to hire.

What I found out was that appropriate jobs and interviews come in spurts. I once went an entire month sending information to at least 100 companies with only one response and the next month I only sent out about 25 resumes and received responses from 20 of them.

Oh, by the way, you probably have already gone to the job fair and I hope that you found some connections, but I have never found job fairs to be anything but a major waste of time. The representatives generally only want you to go to their website to apply for a job and very few, if any, actually talk to you or take your resume.

It's really hard to determine what happens to your resume once it gets sent into the black hole of cyberspace. I suppose part of whether it hits File 13 or not is how (or whether) you answer the EEO questions. After all, the numbers have to look good and it's really easy to dump a resume with the click of the delete key (or a quick trip to the shredder for a paper resume.)

I'm not sure what field you're interested in, but most have some sort of local, regional or national convention. It might be pricy to attend, but it also could be a great place to do some networking.

Yes, as I mentioned to someone else, it is pretty easy to get the name of the person who your resume should be directed to. If a Google search doesn't turn anything up a phone call usually will do the trick.

One thing that a local employment agency told me is that many companies are waiting until the start of the new fiscal year before they do any more hiring. So hopefully things will start to open up next month.

Speaking of the job fair; yes, it was a colossal waste of time and money. Nearly every company represented did not accept paper resumes, and had no answers to questions. All they did was refer you to their websites.

i appley to many jobs and got no replays back that is not right is it or not

I don't know where you are applying for jobs, but where I am most companies are big, big: IBM, Cisco, McKesson, GSK. I just can't see how calling a 1-800 number or doing a google search (using what criteria??) is going to land you the name of the correct hiring manager. Please share an example of how you tracked down the contact info of someone. It would really help.

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Help, Im being ignored!