The Pre-Interview Test Most Miss…and How to Pass it Every Time (guest blogger Lorena Stanley)

Does this describe you? 

• - You are Employable but not currently Employed. 
• - You know you’ve been perfect for the jobs you’ve applied for but never heard back from them. 
• - Or, you may hear back but after either a short email exchange, you don’t hear back again.  Why?  What happened? 

These are common scenarios I see daily.  The problem may stem from a very simple process that I’ll call the Pre-Interview Test.  So let’s talk a little bit about what makes up the Pre-Interview Test that most candidates miss! 

Pre-Interview tests are becoming common place for companies to use as another tool to screen applicants.  Why?  Let me take you through some real life numbers that will shock you.

When a Recruiting Firm places an ad for a Company, specifically in today’s market, regardless of the position, geography, or market niche, they typically get 500 resumes that first day for that one position.  By the end of 5 days on average they receive 1,000 to 1,500 resumes for one position.  1,000 to 1,500, for one position!  That’s a lot.  Now you have some more insight as to the competition you’re up against.  Don’t worry; read on, I’m also going to give you some information that if applied, will shatter that competition.  But, first I want to really give you some good insider perspective.

Let’s do some quick math.  If the person who is screening resumes only spends 2 minutes per resume to quickly scan it, that’s about 33 to 50 hours just looking at resumes.  Do you think the person doing this task only has one responsibility?  No!  They are probably only allotted 4 hours/day at most, to do this task. 

After the quick 2 minute scan to decide who is in the “move forward” pile and who’s in the “not a fit”  pile, they now need to re-scan the “move forward” pile and dig a little deeper into specifics.  This could easily be another 30 plus hours.  Calculating to this point, we are 2 weeks in and we are only talking about the 1^st week’s worth of resumes.  This is pretty enlightening information that I bet you didn’t think about before. 

So when you are on some of the social networking sites, or reading articles about submitting your resume, and you see “quote” experts telling you that after 3 or 4 days of you submitting your information, if you haven’t heard back, something must be wrong.  Well, I’m here to tell you nothing may be wrong at all, other than they are inundated with responses.  That’s the simple truth and the reality of what’s happening in today’s market.

So now you have a better understanding of the sheer volume Recruiters and Companies are getting, you can understand Companies have to find a way to screen OUT applicants. 

What’s happening to the “not a fit” pile?  Trust me, the last thing on their mind is to put them in some sort of a system to start processing the standard, “thank you for applying, but we are moving forward with other candidate’s” letter.  That would require conservatively another 30 to 40 hours of someone’s time.  They should (and most do) eventually follow up, but it’s not going to be their first priority. 

One more thing to consider, all this work I’ve described is only for one position that they may have open.  Most Companies (and Recruiting Firms) are Hiring for multiple positions at a time.  Not hearing back from a Company right away doesn’t necessarily mean you’re “not a fit”. 

Stay tuned for part 2 of this article where I walk you through what I’ve labeled as the Pre-Interview Test and how to make sure you pass it every time.

Lorena is not only this week’s guest blogger, but our Subject Matter Expert (SME) Webinar for the Career Mastermind Group on December 15th.  Her topic – “You’ve Got the Interview – Now What?”  Read more about how you can join this call and the Mastermind Group for free.

Lorena Stanley founded Lorena’s List in 2008 to help Six Figure Corporate Career Seekers Get Back to Work Faster.  She has been In the Executive Recruiting business for over 15 years both as an Executive Recruiter and as an Owner of a World Wide Executive Search firm; which is part of an organization that has 600 Offices and 6,000 plus Executive Recruiters. This allows her access to real life, real time information. This network places 3,000+ candidates a month and connects with conservatively 100,000 Hiring Managers and HR Professionals a month.  Lorena’s List information has been time tested and proven to work thousands of times over.