Why getting a job by sending résumé’s has such poor results

CBS 60 minutes reported that a laid off executive had sent out over 600 résumé’s in a 2 year period without any success. Why do so many people still use this method of getting a job if it has such poor results? Because it is an extension of the most widely used work selection process that also has a very poor success rate. Sending out résumé’s to numerous job openings is part of the “Trial and Error” work selection process, emphasis on error.

But why does sending out résumé’s as a shotgun approach to the “Trial and Error” method have such a low success rate? (Less than 5%) When a people send out numerous resumes the real messages they are conveying to the prospective employers are: I have no idea what kind of job I want. What type of job do you have? Will I want the job? Will I be good at the job? Can I produce the results you want? Will you want me? I’m shopping for jobs, what do you have to offer me? Please give me an interview to take up your time so I can answer these questions.

In truth hiring managers try to avoid letting job openings become public knowledge, for fear that they will be overwhelmed with countless résumé’s from people who have no idea what they want to do. Even when jobs openings become public and attract so many résumé’s, hiring managers rarely look at them, let alone read them. They do not want to deal with countless people who are confused about what they want and are shopping jobs. This confusion also leads to less trustworthy and less reliable employees.

Hiring managers want to focus on finding the prospective employees who know they really want to work in the jobs the have open, who are motivated and capable to produce the desired results, and are trustworthy and reliable enough to be counted on. They prefer the rifle approach, versus the Trial and Error” shot gun approach.

If the resume process generates a less than 5% success rate, what method produces the other 95% success rate? When prospective employees only recruit the jobs they KNOW they really love performing where they will produce very good results and that they are motivated to get hired and stay hired, they will rise to the 95% success rate. Thus, prospective employees will want to know far more about themselves, their passions, their dislikes, their talents, their priorities and their integrity points before they embark on seeking employment. This way they can concentrate on getting the jobs that would create the best matching scenarios for their employers and themselves. When prospective employees have the genuine confidence and passion for the jobs they recruit, hiring managers would be foolish not to hire them on the spot. If hiring managers do hire the best matching employees who risked revealing their genuine passions and desires to recruit their jobs, then these prospective employees will not want to work for these managers, and will want to find the managers who want to win by hiring them.