The Infuriating Truth About Getting Hired

The other day I sent a friend a job posting to a pretty prestigious international organization.  She took a little time to spruce up her resume, polished her cover letter and sent it back to me asking for my opinion.

I had to send her back some bad news- “In my opinion you should, scrap what you have and start over.”

I think this must have been a rough pill to swallow.  Her resume was beautiful; cleanly organized, descriptive of her previous experience, and easy to follow.  She graduated Summa Cum Laude from her undergraduate and holds an MBA from Seton Hall University.  She has loads of work experience and is even applying for this job while she still has her current job. In short she has a top-notch resume.

Why then would I bluntly tell her to scrap what she has?  Because the infuriating truth is that HR Officers are not trying to hire the best candidates.

Now before I get loads of hate mail from good people in HR Departments who are doing their best in their jobs, I should say that it is completely reasonable why they aren’t looking for the best candidate- they have a strong incentive not to.  And this HR advice is only generally applicable to huge bureaucracies, not quick and agile firms with updated ideas and policies.

In most bureaucracies there is a razor thin margin for raises.   Usually there is an across the board raise everyone gets (say 3%) and then management is given some discretion as to who deserves an addition 1-2% raise (totaling at most 5%).  Since most bureaucracies (especially HR departments within those organizations) are not profit driven the discretion of the management can’t be focused on sales, instead raises are based on performance evaluations.

A big problem arises when you consider who evaluates an HR officer.  The biggest portion of the evaluation comes from their “clients,” who are managers looking to hire new workers.  They have virtually no other interaction with these evaluators than the selection of candidates for interviews.

To make a long story short- the annual raises an HR Officers will receive are based almost exclusively on their ability to consistently find interview candidates that the hiring manager will like.

Which brings me to my point, when you are drafting a resume for use with a large bureaucracy- you are not trying to be the “best” candidate as defined by your abilities- and education pedigree.  The best candidate is not necessarily the best writer, or hardest worker- remember the HR Officer will likely never work with you.  To the HR Officer, your resume matters only matters if it meets their needs.

To be clear, when you are applying for a job don’t think too hard about what the hiring manager wants because your resume will never even get to their desk if you don’t meet the HR Officer’s (infuriating) needs: 

HR Officer Need #1: Will this person provide me cover if I get audited?
In large bureaucracies HR Officers often have to be hyper sensitive to accusations of favoritism, nepotism, or other unfair practices.  Even if you are a great candidate, they need you to match the check boxes- so that way if an internal auditor comes looking through their hiring practices- they have evidence that your resume matched the selection criteria better than people that weren’t selected.

Auditors are not well known for smiling and being understanding about the HR Officer that cut a qualified applicant for the one that had a really well designed resume.  Instead, they follow very strictly enforced protocol on the percentage your resume matches the job description (occasionally there is about 5% lee-way given for some X-factor like design but don’t bank on it.)

HR Officer Need #2:  Am I 100% sure this person won’t make me look like an idiot in the interview.
Nothing leaves a black mark in a hiring managers mind more than having to conduct an interview with a candidate that is out of their depth- they will remember the HR Officer that messed up, and that will hurt them come annual review time.

Considering that an HR Officer may be serving over a hundred (or more managers) in a given year, HR Officers are almost always trying to hire for radically different fields at the same time.  Different fields often require completely different skill sets.  The HR Officer can’t possibly understand the inner workings of the job, or the technical expertise needed to fill that job, so they use the job description- verbatim.

This means you may even have to cut out actual information that is relevant.  I know it sounds crazy but again the advice is always match your resume to the job description using the exact same words. If the job description asks for familiarity with Microsoft Office Suite- even though it should be obvious, you need to write it down.

HR Officer Need #3: How does this person impact my diversity numbers.
One dirty little secret that is all but obvious to insiders- hiring managers often get “diversity scores” that account for gender balance and encourage the hiring of minorities.  If a hiring manager feels like they are getting flagged for poor diversity in their department- the first place they are going to blame is the HR Officer for not bringing them diverse candidates that can fill the job description.

Since hiring can happen slowly (only one or two people per year in some departments) the HR Officer is always keeping that score in mind, getting off by just a little bit can take years to recover from.  Therefore if you are a minority, or from an under represented gender it will work to your advantage to signal that to the HR Officer, be subtle though.

HR Officer Need #4: Diversity aside, does this person look/sound/act like my perception of our work culture.
Not many people will admit it, but looking like the HR Officer will help you get hired. Human nature is probably the biggest driver of all when it comes to hiring.  We naturally like people that we perceive are similar to us.  Diversity numbers aside, if the HR Officer perceives that you are going to “fit in” because they see you as similar to them- or emulating their perception of the organization- you are a lot more likely to make it in the door.

It is really hard to know what an HR Officer’s perception of the culture is- the only idea I have for that- is finding a confederate from the organization that is willing to review your resume and cover letter to make sure you haven’t said anything that will ruffle feathers- or indicate that you might not fit in.

I know I took the long way to getting to the 4 points about HR Officers’ (infuriating) needs.  But, it is very important to recognize that HR Officers are not looking for the best candidate- they are looking for the candidate that will meet their needs. Be sure that you are responding to that in your resume.

There are no points for creativity in bureaucracies, so focus on what you see in the job description.  And if you need some help feel free to give Articulate Ventures a call.  We have helped candidates get into bureaucracies as big a The World Bank Group, The United States Peace Corps, Boeing, NPR, PBS, and even the shipping industry.

Feel free to tell us about your adventures with HR Departments in the comments below- and don’t forget to subscribe to our blog at the top right hand side of the page.