Something to think about. This Mitch Fortner guy has it pegged.
Quoted from a blog some place:
Recently, I was told by a commenter on my blog that we are in the worst economic crisis this country has EVER seen. Whether or not this is true, it has made it extremely difficult to find a job. You have all read the stories; people with degrees working jobs well below their pay grade just to survive. With so many unemployed, searching for a job has become almost impossible. But there is something else that is causing a major problem in the job hunt as well…
THE INTERNET.
What? You say. How could the internet, the greatest invention in the history of inventions, be the problem? The internet makes it so easy to go online and fill out an application. I can send my resume to so many different places, all from the comfort of my own computer chair.
Exactly.
Companies these days are flooded with resumes. People send out there resume to every company they can, qualified or not. It takes no effort, other than the ability to repeatedly fill out personal information, and possibly create a login and password. It gives companies the opportunity to hand pick whoever they want out of a virtual stack of resumes. Even worse, it causes companies to get so frustrated with the amount of applicants, that they ignore it all together and go with someone in-house or someone they know on a personal level. To land a job with a respectable company you have to know someone, now more than ever.
Recently I printed out 58 resumes on nice resume paper and set out on foot to a local area filled with top notch businesses determined to give my resume to someone important, and to put a face ( a pretty nice face if I do say so myself) with the resume as well.
I could barely get in the front door. By business number five I was finished. All I was getting were locked doors with access codes, and security guards staring at me with puzzled looks on their faces telling me to apply online. I wasted my time and I blame the internet.
Don’t get me wrong I freaking love the internet, more than you probably. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a downside, and that downside is getting a job I can wake up to every morning and enjoy going to without knowing half the people that work at a place before I get an interview.
The information overload has caused people to become one huddled mass, there is no personal feel to the job
search, and it destroys the chances of those of us who feel they stand out because of not just their qualifications, but their ability to make a good first impression.
Mitch Fortner is a graduate of Florida State University with a Bachelor’s in English Literature.
END QUOTE
Steve