What Does It Mean When An Employer Says They'll "Keep My Resume On File?"

You may think this is what happens, but trust me. It isn't. (iStockphoto.com / XiXinXing)

You just submitted your resume for a job opening on a company's website. Shortly after clicking "send," you receive an email that looks something like this:

"Thank you for your interest in the position with our company. We appreciate you taking out the time to send us your resume, and we want to assure you that it will be reviewed and carefully considered. Should your credentials match our current requirements, we will be in touch with you. If there is not a match, we will retain your information for future reference."

It's a generic letter that tells you, in essence, four things:

1. We have received your resume.
2. We are going to look at your resume.
3. If we like your resume for the job, we'll contact you.
4. If we don't like your resume for the job, we'll keep the resume on file.

The unspoken message here is, "Don't call us, we'll call you."

Let's look at the numbers for a moment. Recruiters often receive hundreds – or even thousands – of resumes for each job opening they post. The odds are against receiving a call, so the company is trying to set your expectations as a job seeker.

So – the company told you they're going to keep your resume on file for future opportunities. Will they, really?

The answer is yes. Companies do keep resumes on file after you've submitted them. At least for a period of time. Here's why:

1. Resumes received now may be a fit for future opportunities. Only a small percentage of the resumes a recruiter receives for a job posting are actually a potential fit for the the job. So, the recruiter may mine the database in the future, when they get a new job opening; if there's plenty of qualified applicants in there, they may not post the job

An Aside: Most of the resumes received for any particular job (my guess: 70%) are sent by people who are on their way to being qualified for the job but are currently too junior for the role; they're applying in the hope that somebody will take a chance on them –OR– by applicants who have minimal or no qualifications for the position but really want a job with the company. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained," seems to apply to the overwhelming majority of job applicants.

2. Document retention policies require that the employer keep resumes on file. First, a short lesson on what document retention means; companies are often required by their legal department to hold onto resumes (as official documents) for a designated period of time due to internal organizational need, regulatory requirements for inspection or audit, legal statutes of limitation, or other legal or nonlegal reasons. Let's say somebody applies for a job at a company and isn't selected for the position, and he or she decides to sue a company for employment discrimination; the company receives subpoenas for its employment records, and the resumes they received are part of the mix. A company would be in deep you-know-what if they weren't able to retrieve the resumes received for that particular job for their attorney to build a case.

So, what are the chances of your resume actually getting another look down the road? In truth, it varies. Corporate recruiters, as a general rule, are heavily bogged down in managing recruitment of their open positions. It's not unusual for a corporate recruiter to be working on 20 or more jobs at a time.

Do the recruiter's math: (20 jobs x 1,000 applicants) + all the interviews and other work they have on their desk = 20,000 resumes to filter plus a whole lot more stuff to do. The inclination may be to just slap the job up on LinkedIn or Indeed, see who applies, and look at the resumes the applicant tracking system (the recruiter's database) ranks highest.

That said, there are recruiters who do deep mining into their databases to find the gems. So, how can you increase your chances of getting another look down the road by an employer?

• Submit a really good resume. A strong resume will show up in the recruiter's searches because it contains a lot of great keywords and is loaded with a ton of accomplishments. Want to learn more about how to strengthen your resume? Follow this link for my article, "6 Things You Can Do To Strengthen Your Resume Today."
• Read the email that you got from the company to learn how long they're going to keep your resume on file. It's a decent bet that if the company follows its own retention policy, your resume will be dumped from the system after that time. Resubmit after that time expires.
• Don't give up on applying to new jobs. Keep an eye on the company's job postings. If you see another job that is a particular fit for your talents, reapply to the new position.

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

Can I Ask an Employer For Interview Feedback?

Well, that explains it... (iStockphoto.com/kasahasa)

A week ago you interviewed for a job with a local technology company. You spent three hours answering and asking questions with interviewer after interviewer. You figure you did pretty well, so you're surprised to find the following message from the company's recruiter in your email inbox the next day:

"We appreciate your interest in our company and thank you for the time you spent interviewing with us, and giving us the opportunity to learn about your skills and accomplishments. However, we have identified a more highly qualified individual for the role. We wish you the best of luck on your job search and your future endeavors."

You thought you nailed the interview. And, there's nothing of value in that rejection letter that provides you any insight into the company's decision to cut you loose. Is it okay to reach out to the recruiter or the hiring manager to ask why they took a pass on you?

Absolutely, you can ask for feedback. Just don't expect a meaningful answer.

Or for that matter, any answer at all.

Why don't companies usually share useful information about the interview with you? There are several reasons:

• Potential liability: Employers wish to avoid providing job seekers with anything that could be used against them in a discrimination lawsuit. Even interview feedback provided with the best of intentions could turn out to be damaging, so it's not unheard of for companies' legal departments to implement and enforce a "no-feedback" policy for this reason.

• Goodwill: Yes, it hurts not to know where you went wrong in the process. A saccharine reason like, "we have identified a more highly qualified individual," can be puzzling, but also reassuring, planting the belief that you were this close to getting the role and that a more qualified candidate showed up. Many companies are very conscious of their image as both an employer and as a brand owner. If they hurt your feelings by telling you that your interview skills were terrible and you weren't qualified for the job, would you want go back for another round of interviews should you be called for another job there? And would you keep buying their product?

• Time: Let's say a recruiter is working on 25 open jobs. They've interviewed 5 people for each open position. Doing the back-of-the-napkin math, that would be 125 interviewees with whom the recruiter would need to spend time providing - and explaining - interview feedback. At an estimated ten minutes per conversation with each interviewee, it would take more than 20 hours to communicate feedback to everybody. Add this to the recruiter's other job responsibilities, such as sourcing and screening candidates, producing reports, and attending meetings, and it's easy to see why the recruiter would opt to send you a form letter generated by their candidate tracking system. Such conversations take a great deal of time; think back to your last performance appraisal - do you remember how much time and discussion you had with your manager around each little detail?

• They've made up their mind, and you can't change it: Employers have a great deal of latitude in terms of their hiring decisions, and they don't appreciate being second-guessed. By taking your call, and by having a conversation about the interview, company representatives are opening themselves to a potential disagreement over how things went or were perceived. The recruiter may tell you that you were too light in a key skill for the role, but you points out that you have over 10 years experience and clearly meet the job requirement. It puts the employer in the position of having to defend their position to support their decision. And oh, by the way, the other candidate who interviewed already accepted the offer and is scheduled to start on Monday.

So what do you do if you would still like to get feedback on your interview?

Ask for feedback. Nicely. Email the company recruiter or hiring manager thanking them for their time, indicating that while you were disappointed that you didn't get the job and that you hope they'll keep you in mind for future opportunities. At the end of your message, tell them you'd like to continue to develop, and that any feedback they could provide would be very much appreciated. Don't push it, and don't ask multiple interviewees for their input. If they want to share anything with you, they will. Be gracious in accepting any feedback they provide you (or be equally gracious if they tell you they can't provide you any feedback), without argument. Then let it go. You'll come across as professional and mature.

Polish your interviewing skills. Work under the assumption that you could use some more polish in your presentation. Conduct mock interviews with a coach or a friend. Pinpoint your areas for development, and work on those. Then you'll be ready the next time an employer calls.

The lack of feedback may leave you feeling unfulfilled and disappointed, but it's important to preserve your professional brand to an employer, so don't push the issue.

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

Tagged: interviewing, interviews, career, background checks

I Just Started A Horrible Job! Now What?

We need this completed in the next ten minutes! (iStockphoto.com/shironosov)

Great news! You know that company you've been interviewing with? The recruiter just called and extended you the offer!

The pay they're offering is great – in fact, the salary is 20% higher than what you're currently making. The job title's better, too - you were a manager in your last job, this company's going to make you a director, and with an even bigger team and more responsibility. And they really seem to want you - the company's even offering a $10,000 signing bonus to send you the message that they value you. It's a dream come true!

Or is it? You've spoken with a headhunter who is intimately familiar with the company, and she tells you to run the other way - the company's a madhouse. There was an exposé in the newspaper recently about the gaping deficiencies in the company culture, which detailed massive amounts of unpaid overtime, endless piles of work, and a backstabbing culture compounded by massive turnover and attrition. Oh – by the way, the employer reviews on Glassdoor are overwhelmingly negative.

But how bad can the company be? The people who interviewed you all seemed engaged and happy. You ask the recruiter about the article in the paper and the Glassdoor reviews, and she tells you things have improved substantially since then.

You accept the job. The money's just too good to pass up, and besides – when are you going to get this opportunity again anytime soon?

Day one arrives. You show up to work, and you realize all that negative feedback you heard about the company is true. Absolutely true.

Those people you interviewed with who seemed really happy at the time? They bark at you. Your boss dumps you off in your cubicle, and you find a gigantic pile of work with your name on it. It needs to be dealt with. Now. And that team of people they told you you would have to help you deal with this workload? Only one of those employees still works in the department, there are five open positions, and there's enough work to keep more than twenty people busy for six months. You're expected to make a serious dent in the pile within two weeks – it's all labeled top priority, and the situation is completely unrealistic. Your stomach sinks. You've never been on blood pressure or ulcer medications before, but now seems like a good time to start.

Now what?

Although you may not have much time to think about yourself while facing this insurmountable work situation, you need to make some decisions, and prepare for the future.

Meet With Your Manager To Gain Alignment. It may be beneficial to speak with your manager about the job that was presented to you during the interviews, the actual conditions you walked into, and what can be done to remedy the situation so that you can determine if things are fixable. This isn't without risk, however; your manager may quickly decide that you're a discontent and it would be easier to part ways with you, effective now. Decide whether such a conversation would make sense, or if the risk outweighs the reward.

Decide Whether Stay Or Split. Take a deep breath, then consider the consequences of staying or cutting your losses. The old rule of thumb used to be that it's best to tough it out for two years into a job before heading for the door. Truthfully, people aren't staying in jobs as long as they used to. Likewise, volatile organizations can spit people out who don't meet their perceived performance criteria increasingly quickly. Make a decision about what you want to do. Potential employers are often willing to hire somebody who decides to leave a job quickly shortly after starting if it's clearly not a match, with little ill effect – so long as it's not a pattern in their work history. Then again, you may decide you have too much invested in the situation and you need to make it work. If you're a specialist in a specific industry and the company made you sign a non-competition agreement, your options outside the company may be limited.

If You Decide To Leave, Get Your Financial House In Order. Bank that sign-on bonus and forget about it – under your employment agreement you may be required to pay it back if you leave within a year or two; ditto for any sort of relocation expenses. Consider delaying any major purchases including that tempting move up to a larger house paid for with that increased salary. Leverage your financial freedom - if your finances allow you to take a step back to your prior pay level, you'll have much more flexibility in the job opportunities you consider.

Get Your Resume And LinkedIn Profile Ready, and Work Your Network. These are your best marketing tools, ensure that they are current and properly show your the value you've demonstrated throughout your career. And make sure they're modulated for the appropriate level you're seeking. In order to make a quick exit, it may be required that you step back to your previous job title and level.

Maybe You CAN Go Home Again. It's highly likely that the job you left hasn't been filled yet. Presuming you left your last employer on pleasant terms, it's possible that they may be willing to consider taking you back into your old job. It's not unheard of. Reach out to your old manager, and ask if the door might still be open for your return. Just don't expect them to meet your current salary and title. If the door is in fact still open, you'll likely come back at your old rank and salary – and it's possible, depending upon company policy, that you'll miss the next raise or bonus cycle due to the fact that you weren't there the full year and would be treated like a new employee.

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.