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The Gatekeepers
Anil Mahajan
The head of HRD of a company, who happened to be a client of mine,
read the closing lines in my article printed in Jobnet’s last issue.
He was pleasantly furious. “Anil, You are antagonising HRD people by
calling HRD people GateKeepers to the companies. What do you think I
am — Head- HRD or Head- GateKeeper?.” I told him that I would call him
Head- HRD in my next write-up.
Headhunters and Placement consultants are GateKeepers to the
companies.
“Thanx Anil.’ He was relieved.
“Man, you are Head- HRD i.e., Head- Human Rejection Department in
expanded form” I quipped.
Readers, you know your days are numbered at your current job, but
flooding free jobsites with resumes has yielded zilch. It may be time
to take your job search in a different direction and figure out how to
get around the main obstacle in your way—the GateKeeper.
Who are the GATEKEEPERS?
What’s a GateKeeper? It is anyone who stands between you and the
person who might want to hire you. GateKeepers come in many forms,
including receptionists, HR executives, and even placement consultants
and Headhunters who are doubling up as resume screeners. Surprisingly,
GateKeepers are hired or paid by the company to reject as many resumes
as possible. They are also paid by the company to reject you in an
interview. This interview issue will be discussed in the subsequent
issues.
Resume & GateKeepers- the profile and connexion
Do you know what happens to your resume after you send it to an
employer/ placement consultant/ headhunters? Some resumes produce
immediate results—others disappear without a trace. Why?
Just try to put yourself in the shoes of a GateKeeper, in this case
the HRD Manager.
Your company releases an ad in the newspaper for the position of a
Brand Manager.
You receive around 10000
applications.
Now, nobody can interview all 100000 applicants. You check up with the
profile given to you by the Hiring Department and tell your
subordinate to shortlist resumes. You give him broad guidelines. Your
Subordinate is a qualified professional in HRD with, say, 3 years
experience in HRD. He successfully shortlists and flags 100 resumes
out of 10000.
You are ga ga over his efficiency.
You work on the flagged
100 and finally shortlist 50 to be given to The marketing head for
further shortlisting.
You & your subordinate
have removed 9950 people from the live list. Maybe the real, capable
person is one among those 9950 destined to die unceremoniously. This
is bad for the right person and equally bad for the company.
But this
is a cold reality
Neither you nor your
subordinate or even your company’s headhunters are technically
qualified to reject a person as you are an HRD man & not a Marketing
man (the post is for Brand Manager). Even HR persons, nay GateKeepers
admit that the job seekers who get interviews and offers of employment
are not necessarily the best qualified. Often, they are simply the
best prepared.
Anyone who has scanned, reviewed, and discarded tens of thousands of
resumes knows that most resumes have serious defects; in fact many
resumes have flaws that guarantee failure. Intelligent, highly
qualified candidates often write mediocre resumes because they are
unaware of the cold realities of resume writing—realities that can
prevent even the most qualified candidate from getting hired.
Bypasing the GateKeepers-Smart work vs. Hard work
No one enjoys searching for employment. If you are like most job
seekers, you spend a considerable amount of time and effort searching
job ads, networking, and writing your resume and cover letter. These
simple activities can take as much effort as a full-time job. If you
would like to work smarter not harder, you must work smartly to
develop your resume to appeal to the psyche of the GateKeepers.
GateKeepers are paid to reject majority of resumes
The target and job profile of GateKeepers is to eliminate majority of
resumes. Your resume must get you past an employer’s GateKeepers ( HRD
& / headhunters ) and into an interview with the Hiring Functional
Head. Needless to say, if your resume cannot pass the scrutiny of
these GateKeepers, you will not get many / any interviews.
GateKeepers are paid to be conservative and suspicious
If GateKeepers have any questions or concerns about a resume, they
rarely try to contact the applicant for clarification; they simply
discard the resume and pull up the next one. Most employers receive
resumes from applicants who are obviously qualified; they do not have
time to contact applicants who may be qualified.
GateKeepers go for 10 second scan
Most GateKeepers scan and discard each resume in 10 to 15 seconds
unless the resume provides them with a compelling reason to flag it
for an in-depth review. GateKeepers do not enjoy reading resumes. In
order to process hundreds of printed and electronic resumes a week,
busy GateKeepers look for excuses to reject most resumes quickly. In
order to survive a ten second scan, it must stand out and present a
good snapshot of your skills
GateKeepers look for an excuse to remove flagged resume from
consideration
After surviving 10 seconds scan, your flagged resume must survive a
thorough examination by a gatekeeper looking for an excuse to remove
it from consideration. It should provide enough rich and compelling
detail to sell you to the reviewer and answer important questions that
arise during the in-depth review. These competing imperatives are very
difficult to fathom.
In a nutshell- Strong Candidate + Weak Resume = No Interview
In resume writing, mediocrity equals failure. Many discarded resumes
belong to qualified candidates who are not aware that they are doing
substantial damage to their career prospects by using resumes that do
not adequately sell their experience, skills, and qualifications.
Resume screening is ruthless, cold, impersonal and unforgiving.
If only 10000 people apply for a desirable position, your resume must
tell the GateKeeper in no uncertain terms that you are better
qualified than at least 9950 of the other applicants. If your resume
cannot beat over 95% of the competition, you will not get interviews.
Your resume is much more important than your actual qualifications at
this stage.
Your resume must sell to two audiences. You must write and format your
resume to appeal to two audiences: GateKeepers and Hiring Functional
Head. These audiences often have different agendas. Corporate
recruiters may be in no hurry to fill all open positions because open
positions mean job security. GateKeepers guard their turf jealously,
so you can be certain that the Hiring Functional Head will not see any
resume that has not been blessed by the GateKeeping crew. You must
present a resume that can satisfy GateKeepers as well as seasoned
Hiring Functional Heads. If your resume makes it clear that you meet
all job requirements, the GateKeeper will be compelled to forward it
to the Hiring Functional Head.
There are ways and means of developing the resume keeping the
pchychographic & other factors that govern the working pattern and
beliefs of GateKeepers. All these factors will be discussed in the
forthcoming issue.
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