Subject: zzzzzzzzzz Allow me to paint you a word picture

For those jobseekers who send resumes and never hear from their
recruiters, this info might be of some value and interest..

1. Recruiters although willing to take calls from seekers with questions,
seldom make calls to anyone..

2. Its an email world. The reasons are simple. with a document which is
archived, the recruiter a. doesn’t have to take notes, shorthand, b. remember anything, c. can parse, search, cut/ paste and forward a resume or any portion thereof to a waiting client.

3. 5 minutes after any phone call, its out of sight and probably
out of mind, given the sheer volume. (I get over 150 emails per day and answer about 60 in detail if I have the time and energy..

4. Most jobseekers don’t have filenames which reflect their names, and recruiters just do not have time to spend searching for some specific resume of someone who sent his resume as resume.doc. Resume filename standard is lastname.firstname.middleinitial.doc

5. Unless a cover letter as lastname.firstname.cov.doc elaborates on
WHEN the person is available, Where they want to be living (at least what part of the country) and where NOT Their Salary objective or target (no matter how out of sync with reality) The principal role or function, as well as some characterization of what type, size firm which they believe describes their optimum employer,

6. The recruiters will probably not pay much attention to that candidate.

7. ALL info has to be in the same doc at the same time. not piecemeal in a terse 3 line doc with some more somewhere in an email. It has to be sufficient for the recruiter to send to a hiring employers decision maker, and motivate that person to pick up the phone and speak with the jobseeker. There are no shortcuts.. No other options. Cover letter filename standard is lastname.firstname.middleinitial.cov.doc

You cannot get an offer unless you can get an interview, right? Have you ever heard of anyone getting an offer to report to work never having had an interview ??

You might have two possible chances to get that interview, but most job seekers only give themselves ONE chance, because they do not HAVE or USE a cover letter.

Someone called me today to say that they don't like putting salary
information in a cover letter.. Consider this. You are a merchant who sells puzzles. You cannot sell a puzzle to a customer unless it is complete.
The puzzles come from your supplier every day by the dozens. Before you put them on the shelf for sale you open the boxes and very often you find several corners missing, several key pieces missing including some very obvious ones right in the center. Do you continue to try to put those pieces together and hope that a prospective buyer will overlook the missing pieces?

In my case, those pieces are information, and the puzzles are resumes without cover letters. The missing pieces are: characterizations of what type and size firms the jobseeker believes can offer him the challenge he seeks and most closely relate to his skills. Another piece is location... What part of the country? Where NOT? Timing. Is he employed and casually looking, or unemployed
for the last 3 years and ready to flip burgers to preclude foreclosure, divorce, bankruptcy? Another is current/ final or expected Salary. There are others which are even more subjective, such as industry, role, management level, specific process, product, applications, sales, territory, type of customers, and sales volume considerations.

` What can the merchant to do? One solution: write the supplier and
let him know that the puzzle is missing pieces and precisely which ones, and offer the merchant the opportunity to provide the missing pieces.

For those who think somehow I get my jollies getting into
altercations with jobseekers because I enjoy the stress and the confrontation, the answer is NO! The truth is, I generally always provide the jobseeker with the opportunity to know what I'm missing and what I think I need based on 38 (plus) years experience, and speaking with half a dozen hiring employers on the phone five days per week.

If he doesn't provide the pieces in the form which match the rest of the pieces and completes the puzzle. Do I call the goon squad and have him beaten? Thankfully, I do not have to do that. I simply GO ELSEWHERE and spend my time working on a puzzle which SEEMS to have all the pieces.

With only so many (12-15) hours in my work day I spend the time
working on the puzzles I can complete so that I can make presentations to my buying customers and (recruiter) dealers. The instant I find a major piece missing, I begin working on another totally different
puzzle. Hope this enlightens some as to what standards and logic recruiters must use to survive in this economy and with the subjective parameters given us by hiring employers, most of whom prefer to deny that anyone over the age or 30 can walk and think at the same time without a masters degree and ten years experience.

I generally do not even look at a resume until I have seen the
cover letter with indication of $alary objective, industry and location preferences, restrictions, and all the other items mentioned above, because the intrinsic technical qualifications are always subject to the preferences and $alary of the candidate.

When I know those, then I'll know, based on my awareness of all
the jobs and all the affiliates and their clients and their open jobs whether I am justified in spending time on that particular puzzle.

Market demand has increased to the point that I no longer
consider marketing candidates, as I have too many current active assignments for which I will not get paid unless and until I make a placement. My efforts are almost always in behalf of those for whom I have the most complete information.

Lastly, an EMAIL message which transmits the resume is NOT a
cover letter. A cover letter is a DOC FILE as lastname.firstname.middleinitial.cov.doc which is sent as an attachment which can be placed in a archive with the accompanying
resume, parsed, freshened, or overwritten, and sent to an employer as an attachment and who will be looking for a filename which approximates its owners resume filename.

Bill Griffin
William Griffin, Pres. wgriffin@adelphia.net
ALPHA SYSTEMS, Inc
3325 Sweetwater Drive
Cumming, GA 30041-6641 678 889-6059
Web - http://www.jobbs.com