Biggest mistake by job-seekers

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(MoneyWatch) COMMENTARY Whether you've been unemployed for six weeks, six months, or even longer, the impact on your mental health and well-being may have you at the end of your rope. You've bought the suit, polished your resume, and printed out business cards branding you as an expert in your field. You've applied to dozens of open positions, presenting your professional skills and achievements. You carry your cell phone with you wherever you go, eagerly anticipating the moment your dream employer will call you in for an interview.

But as the weeks go by, no one calls. You start to despair and feel hopeless. You wonder, why hasn't anyone responded? What am I doing wrong? How long do I have to go on being unemployed? You can blame the bad economy. You can blame the lousy job market. You can blame employers for being ignorant and overlooking your resume. You can blame yourself. Or you do something more constructive -- learn what you may be doing wrong from an expert job recruiter, change your tactics, and figure out what it takes to get hired.

To that end, I recently asked Tony Beshara, arguably America's top job recruiter and author of the new book "Unbeatable Resumes," what is the single biggest mistake people make in looking for a job. Here's what he said (You can listen to the full interview at my personal site, RicherLife.com.)

Tony Beshara: The biggest mistake people make is they keep hitting that send button, confusing activity with pro-activity. Employers are getting 120 resumes for every opportunity. A full 60 percent of the time, that resume isn't even read by the person who's going to do the hiring. It's read by somebody in HR or some third-party person who's hired to look through resumes for buzzwords and specific qualities or characteristics.

Sending a resume is not getting a job. It's one activity that might be involved in getting a job, but you've got to find a hiring authority who intends to hire somebody. You've got to call them up, explain who you are, why you are a good employee, and try to get an interview with them. Now, if you have to send a resume, then I guess you have to send a resume, but you call them before you send the resume. Then once you send the resume, call them again after you send it.

Now people come back and say, "Well. they don't even look at all of these. They've got these websites that I've got to send my resume to, and I never get any response to it." You're right! That's because you're using that silly website.

There are 7.5 million businesses in the U.S. You know what the average-size business is? Sixteen employees. Usually, people say, "Oh, it's 110." No, no, no. Sixteen people. You think those people are sitting there at the website waiting for somebody to send their resume in? No. They're doing whatever they do. They're working at an engineering firm, or design firm, or grafting firm, or manufacturing firm, or distribution firm, or whatever. They're not sitting there, waiting for you to send your resume. They just don't do that.

So you've got to pick up the phone, you've got to give them a call and say, "Robert, this is Tony. I'm a good employee. I'd like to come by and talk to you about it."

[gigihr]

I can only partially agree with Mr. Beshara. While I don't at all mind hearing from VERY WELL-QUALIFIED job seekers by phone once in awhile, every job is not necessarily for an "out-of-the-box thinker" and not every company appreciates job seekers who purposely circumvent their established hiring processes. Unfortunately many UNqualified ones take this popular advice to call up a company too...and they only wind up making royal nuisances of themselves.

Job seekers, please don't call a hiring manager unless you truly do satisfy EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. of the qualifications the company is looking for. And if you're lucky enough to get through to a manager, please don't expect them to drop everything they're doing right at that moment to give you their full attention. Many of us have a lot of other responsibilities besides hiring. Be respectful and do not pressure for an interview. After giving a very short synopsis of your qualifications (limit it to a minute or so) ask them the best way to get your resume in front of the decision-maker. If the answer is, "the instructions were in the job posting" respect that, thank them, and end the call. Bottom line: if you annoy the company, you won't have a chance.

Be especially careful if that company has requested "please no phone calls" in their job posting because this is often a test. People who can't respect simple directives won't be hired there. Period.