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Don’t Trust the Official “System”: It’s Not Working in Your Favor

Depending on who you are and what your particular dreams are, you probably have a list of companies that you would love to work for. Perhaps any one of the 100 companies on Fortune’s annual Best Companies to Work For list? Or even the runners-up would be nice. Or maybe any one of the Working Mother-endorsed companies? Or AARP-endorsed companies? Or maybe your tastes run toward the more adventurous: Wouldn’t it be great to work for one of those luxury cruise lines that take passengers on eco-aware journeys to the Galapagos?

It’s probably not hard to create a list of your ideal companies. The trouble is, how do people get inside? Surely there has to be a system. Some of these companies employ tens of thousands of very lucky people. If you happen to live near their headquarters, you know this for a personal fact. You’ve seen their parking lots full of cars. All those lucky cars, with their lucky drivers happily working away in a collegial spirit of focusing their time, energy, smarts, and skills on a shared goal. For a company that is magnificently managed and is the leader in its field.

How do you get your foot in the door? Which door, for that matter? What is that one door that is set up for stone-cold outsiders, such as yourself, who only ask for a chance to be noticed and considered? And then perhaps invited in for an interview. Followed by, of course, the offer of a great job because you are just as capable as the people they have. With all those thousands of employees already on the payroll, the company must have an elegant system, a process by which to find people just like you, who are at the right place at the right time with just the right skill sets. Surely. Right?

Nope. Well… let’s rephrase that a little bit. The company of your dreams may have a process, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s working. And that certainly doesn’t mean it’s working for you. In fact, it could be working against you. Not intentionally, of course. But the results are still the same.
The idea of a company having a sophisticated, smoothly run, imminently fair process for seeking, finding, and recruiting ideal talent (that would be you) is a modern myth supported by the whiz-bang of technology. In fact, the employers’ pursuit of mass-efficiency over the last couple of decades has resulted in bringing in more resumés rather than welcoming any individual superior candidate who especially wants to work for a particular company for specific reasons (that would be you).

From the perspective of individual applicants who really, really, really want to work for a specific company, getting a job is a messy, disorganized, haphazard process. True, people do get hired in the conventional job search process, using companies’ established recruiting systems. However, the conventional job search process is still too much a matter of dumb luck and timing. And isn’t your career too important to rely on dumb luck and timing?

Here are some of the ways the “system” (assuming there is one) can fail you:

• Even companies with sophisticated recruitment processes have haphazard ways of finding the best talent.

Individual internal recruiters deal in volume. They tend to be used when there is a shortage of applicants, and they are often entry-level HR people. For many positions, particularly higher-level positions, they are simply bypassed. They set up database systems into which they dump unsolicited resumés and create automated responses: “Thank you for your interest in our company….” When recruiting slows, internal recruiters are often among the first employees to lose their jobs. Managers are left on their own to find people, and they often outsource searches for candidates when they do need to hire. External recruiters may struggle under the disadvantage of not having a deep understanding of the company culture or that extra special something that will make the candidate the best fit for the hiring manager. The hiring managers themselves might not know exactly what they want. And if you rely on the conventional ways of getting in the door, you drastically reduce your chances of brainstorming the future with the person who could be your fantastic next boss.

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