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The signs that the US economy might not have recovered well

In an application for an administrative job, the recruiter received 500 entries:

500 applicants came in a day. To have had any chance one needed to be at the top of the stack.

In that regard, those looking for a job should note how it can help to go straight to the company website rather than fax or email a résumé.

The job in question was simply for an administrative assistant. Responsibilities included data entry, assembling paperwork and making copies. Yet look at what the pool of applicants contained.

Applicant Pool

  • I.B.M. business analyst with 18 years experience.
  • A former director of human resources.
  • Someone with a master’s degree and 12 years at Deloitte & Touche, the accounting firm.
  • A former bank branch manager.
  • A woman who once owned a trucking company.

All of the above were immediately disqualified as being overqualified.

To land a job you have to be the perfect candidate, near the top of the stack of résumés, neither underqualified nor the slightest bit overqualified and you have to be willing to grab at a fly ball (show eagerness to jump at passing opportunities).

It does not get much harder than that, and there will be no feedback to applicants turned away. Indeed they may have received so many résumés they did not even get to yours.

Kyith

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