Make databases drool over your resume

Baffled because you nailed the qualifications for a job and never heard a word? Peeved because you blew an entire weekend polishing your resume? Here's the likely truth: No one ever saw it.

"The first thing that job seekers have to get over is that it's not personal," says Gerry Crispin, a recruiting technology expert. "The chance when you apply for a job that someone actually sees your resume is probably less than 5 percent."

Less than a decade ago, job applicants obsessed over whether to craft their curriculum vitae on white or ivory paper and which font would project authority without pretense. Then there was the question of whether to let it spill onto a second page.

The idea was to impress someone in a suit at a desk.

Now, you must "impress" a com-puter programmed to eliminate you.

The goal is to lighten the load on humans in human resources, but executive recruiter Susan Smith says today"s hiring hoops frustrate firms as much as applicants.

"The Internet is wonderful, but it's this giant blob of information that corporate recruiters have to deal with. The whole process has become overwhelming. They have to weed through e-mails and attachments and online resumes and paper resumes and job boards on the Web.

"There are too many people applying for too many jobs in too many ways."

That being said, networking (as in talking to folks, not linking computer systems) is the best strategy for boosting your rank.

"Never, ever apply without first getting someone in the company to refer you," says Crispin, who analyzes how businesses recruit online. "One out of every three hires has been referred by an employee.

"If you don't know someone in the company, stand outside the door at 5 o"clock and accost people as they come out," he says, only half joking.

"We live in a networked world, and if you haven"t heard of MySpace or an alumni directory or a professional association, then you"ve obviously been living in a cave. And there's not a big market for cave men."

At most large companies, resumes land in a database after being received via e-mail; through the firm"s Web site; from an Internet job board (such as Monster or CareerBuilder); or, in the case of a paper resume, after being scanned.

Hiring managers set up a search request to sniff out keywords, such as those used in the job description, along with other identifying factors. For example, the desired accounting candidate must be a Vanderbilt grad with a grade-point average above 3.5 who now lives in ZIP code 27858.

So although you may be the brightest CPA in your firm, your resume will plummet to the bottom of the virtual pile if you"re not a dead-on match " or close to it. And, in most instances, you"ll never know why.

Kathryn Troutman has made a career out of coaching applicants through Resumix, a keyword database used by the federal government and other businesses, such as Florida Power & Light, which employs 10,000 in Florida.

"I work with people who've submitted resumes but aren't getting referred to hiring managers," says Troutman, who runs The resume Place in Baltimore and wrote The Federal resume Guidebook.

"I analyze the target announcement and look for the top five to seven skills: Adviser, briefing manager, project manager, PowerPoint developer and so forth.

"Then I look at the resume. I make a game out of it, actually. If the resume doesn't hit the top skills, the applicant basically missed the point because they didn"t read the announcement close enough. I teach people how to integrate the skills into their resume so it will come up in the system."

FPL, based in Juno Beach, Fla., received more than 12,000 resumes in 2006. Deciphering the deluge by hand would be impractical.

"We try to send everybody who is applying to the Web," says spokesman Jim Davison. "We want people to apply to specific jobs and not blindly shoot a resume here."

But Michael Goodboe, vice president of human resources at Florida-based Wackenhut, isn"t sold on recruiting technology, opting instead to have his staff review each submission.

Wackenhut employs 40,000 across the country and is the largest provider of security guards at U.S. nuclear plants.

"In my business, we marvel at technology," Goodboe says. "But it has created a frustrating administrative burden on the hiring end."

National giants such as Johnson & Johnson and Google each receive about 2,000 resumes a day and have no choice but to rely on keyword databases, artificial intelligence systems and pop-up boxes that ask job seekers how they learned about an opening.

A computer"s inability to gauge X factors, such as drive and enthusiasm, is why some businesses say they"re seeing a plunge in resume submissions. Applicants are fed up.

"They tell me they"d rather just come to a job fair or try to drop by human resources for a face-to-face meeting," says a hiring manager in West Palm Beach, Fla. "They feel sending in a resume is a huge waste of time"

Smith, founder of Smith Professional Search in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., cites another drawback to the "you"ve got to be wired to get hired" era.

"Entry-level candidates don't have many keywords in their background, and it's a huge frustration for them. They apply and apply and apply and nothing. Companies don't even respond with a Dear John-level form letter.

"We"re entering into a labor shortage, and everyone"s scrambling to brand their company in the most positive way, yet they leave prospective employees with a bad taste in their mouth."

Staffing strategist Crispin agrees that the process has become very impersonal.

"Very few companies treat prospective employees with any degree of respect," he says. "Technology doesn't replace the responsibility of the recruiter to manage the relationship with job candidates. Among the best 100 companies, only about two-thirds even acknowledge that they"ve received a resume. They most likely never knew you existed."

The best way to emerge in a newfangled world, he says, is with an old-fashioned tactic: water-cooler word of mouth.

The heaviest-weighted factor when a computer sorts resumes is employee referral, Crispin says. If you click that this is how you heard about the opening - as opposed to through HotJobs or Jobster, for instance - a box will pop up asking you the person"s name. Otherwise, include this detail in your cover letter.

Bottom line: Use your resume to knock on the door of your dream job. But take someone to lunch to get invited inside.