Why Employer's Do Not Respond to a Resume
Many people send out resume after resume and wonder why they never hear back. There are many good reasons for this and some of them are:
Your resume is not good enough. You need to make sure you have a strong resume that clearly shows off your skills and abilities. Make sure your resume doesn’t have spelling or grammatical mistakes. A high percentage of resumes recruiters receive have those, and many recruiters and hiring managers see these minor errors as a major turnoff. Even if you are the most skilled for the job, an error will either remove you from the selection or at lower levels.
Are you qualified for the job you applied for?
The recruiters are swamped and don’t have enough time in a day to get back to everyone. Consider that one job alone can received hundreds of responses within the first few days. This includes very professional white collar positions.
Where you live is also a real factor. If you live outside what the employer or recruiter considers to be a "commuting distance", your resume, even if you are the best, may be bypassed. Why? Economics. Hiring the ideal candidate that has to commute one hour one way or more may indicate trouble as time goes on. Many employers simply can find more local candidates for the job and not have to deal with someone who maybe needs to spend a night or two in a hotel a week ease his commute. It also works against productivity. For instance, if you have an ideal job that you are qualified for but are 80 miles away one way, odds are that both the employer and recruiter may pass on you, reluctantly, even if you assure them than this commute is NOT an issue. They know from past experience problems will come. Either the person finds a job closer to home or job performance due to fatigue. For the applicant, the only way around it is to have a local address and phone so the employer thinks they are local. Commuting should NOT be an issue if the applicant states so, yet, usually it means no response.
If you send in a resume and there is no response, translate this as, they are not interested. I have found that if there is no response, that is why. I have followed up on some submissions in the past, all of them will confirm they have it and being given consideration, yet, nothing is heard again. Other submissions, the recruiter will call within an hour and actually talk about it, the pay etc. They will then say, "I am sending it in". Not interested can anything, maybe you lack one key skill they really want, yet have all the others. Maybe it is any of the other reasons addressed here. Just move on, don't even let it bother you, there is nothing more you can do.
Recruiters are inundated with spam AND resumes. Most have an automated email system that thank you for your application and give you an application number with a promise to follow up in the future if they are interested. Many don't, though, so if you really are keen about a job give them a buzz and see what is up.
The position that you applied for may not exist. Sometimes a job is posted to test the water or to see what type of talent is out there. Sometimes they are posted in anticipation of budget money for a position to be approved. If the budget isn’t approved and the hiring doesn’t go ahead.
A company is looking to hire internally for a position but has to follow its procedures because unions. Therefore, the job is posted, the pre-selected person applies, and the company doesn’t need to look at any other applicants. Again, another frequent event especially with large companies. I have seen this time and time again. They post it for the public, never interview anyone because they have already chosen another within the same firm. Just going through the hoops and legalities.
A recruiter has a friend they want in the company and have to go through the same protocol as for all positions. In this case, the friend can apply and the recruiter may or may not look at any other applicants. Yep, it's called favoritism.
Sometimes, the job position lists skills that are unrealistic. There is usually a ‘wish’ list of skills that any hiring manager would love his new employer to have. They want senior level skills for junior level salaries. Many times these jobs go unfilled and will be reposted several times. This happens many times, all the time. The company will call a recruiter and provide a bare bones of skills and duties or excessive "dream" qualities for poor pay.
The employer provides the recruiter with mistaken task duties and requirements for a position. Happens frequently. The recruiter does not really know what the job's tasks are or requirements. They have difficulty in getting clarification from their client. The applicant only has a vague idea. During the interview, the applicant realises that what the client told the recruiter as far as what the job entails is nowhere correct and either the applicant is overqualified or not.
Age discrimination. Sure, its against the law, lots of things are, but it still happens. The company tries to estimate your age from dates on your resume. If they suspect you are too old or too young for the "job fit" , the company passes on you. Of course, they will claim it had nothing to do with age but qualifications. It is CYA (cover your ass). If they cannot discern age, the interview will. If your interviewers ar 20s-30s, and you are 45 or more, odds are it may happen because of the "image" or "fit" with a company, even when you are qualified. If you inquire, they will say, "you are are well qualified, but, it just didn't seem like a good fit". Translation: You are too old for our age. Age discrimination is almost impossible to prosecute unless there is written or verbal evidence or witnesses.
