Getting your player ready...
Dear J.T. & DALE: I’m a registered nurse with 20 years’ experience. I recently applied for a job as a nurse recruiter. The same day I got the email telling me I was not chosen for an interview, the organization reposted the same job. Should I reformat my résumé and try again, or give up? I think I would do well, but I don’t know how to get the skills or experience they obviously want without actually being in the job. – Lynnette
J.T.: The solution isn’t more education or a reformatted résumé. Neither will increase your chances. It’s the applicant tracking system that’s tossing you out. These systems use keywords and years of experience to determine if you are a fit, and since you can’t lie about the recruiting experience, you won’t make it through the online system. DALE: Well … while you can’t lie, you can spin. If, for instance, in one or more of your jobs you helped recruit nurses, you can list it as a skill/achievement, and perhaps you will slip through the automated system. However, that’s likely to be a false victory – you might get an interview, but probably not the job. It isn’t as though a company is throwing up artificial experience requirements merely to be exasperating. Rather, odds are that they need someone who knows exactly what to do in the job because they are not in a position to offer training/support to a rookie. J.T.: So here’s what you do: Find several nurse recruiters and contact them to learn more about how they broke into the field. This should give you inside information on what you can do to better your chances. If you include people who work at the company you’ve applied to, you might even find someone who’s willing to help train you. In short, you need to connect with people and share your enthusiasm if you want to persuade them to give you a shot. You can’t do that via a computer. DALE: You might be wondering why these busy recruiting professionals would bother to meet with you. But with your 20 years of experience, you have a large network to call upon and to share with them. If you offer to help them make new contacts, they should be delighted to sit down with you. If it goes well, you might offer to help them as a paid intern or a part-time employee. You’ll quickly gain the experience and skills to scoff at the robo-gatekeepers blocking your applications. Dear J.T. & Dale: I recently applied for a job working for the county government. It is basically the same job I did for 15 years at the state level. However, I was still told I that I had to take not one but two tests, both of which are beneath me. It seems to me there should be a way to credit people for knowledge and experience without requiring basic tests. I could do the job with my eyes closed, but I am at the point where I don’t want to take any more asinine tests. I just want a job long enough to max out my Social Security benefits. – Gil J.T.: Hiring processes are standardized, requiring HR departments to administer testing in a way that ensures they are being fair in their assessment and selection process. DALE: Put yourself in the mind of an HR person for a moment, and ask yourself: “Which would be scarier – risking a lawsuit because your department failed to follow its hiring procedures, or having a job applicant whining about having to take two tests?” You’re not going to win that one, Gil. And you’re not going to win the job, either, with a “my eyes closed” mentality. Hiring managers want to hire someone who’s delighted to get the job, not a know-it-all who will lecture them on how to run the department.
