The Big Black Hole

Paul Sanderson

CMO YourElevatorPitch

“Scotty I need more power to the email server, we have 100 more job postings to apply for online.” “I’m givin it all she’s got Captain” but no one seems to be responding. We’ve sent out 300 emails, re written 50 resumes and 25 cover letters and I’m gettin’ nothing.”

The Applyonlineship “Enterprise” is heading for a huge black hole and there is nothing you can do to stop it.

I was looking at a post the other day on a career services users group. The author went into excruciating detail on how to make sure that you were an EXACT fit for the “apply online” position you were applying for. The information he provided filled four web pages and there were not a lot of pictures, so,,, you can imagine how much fun it was to read. I thought to myself, “All this work for a chance at getting an interview that was a little more likely bet than winning the lottery”.

Applying online is LOSING proposition. You will not hear that from the corporate recruiters or policy makers that have put this system in place however. This is their moat, their gatekeeper, their “process de jour” at keeping out all candidates that don’t fit exactly what they are looking for. The problem is, it does not work for them either. Candidates that understand how to stuff their resumes with the key words that the applicant tracking system has been set for are mucking up the soup. And don’t forget the companies that have job postings that they don’t intend to fill anyway. “What? You mean to say that a company could post a position that it does not intend to fill?”

A black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing can escape its pull. It has a one-way surface, called an event horizon, into which objects can fall, but out of which nothing can come.

Nothing can come from the big Black “apply online” Hole that candidates are wasting their time submitting their resumes to

But why are you applying to a posting anyway? Why not decide who you want to work for and make a case to the right person for why they should hire you?

We will talk about that in my next blog, “Are you stuffed in a bus or driving a Porsche?”