An Open Letter to Human Resources

Dear Human Resources Manager,



I would like to first off apologize for the generic introduction, as this letter is directed to a wide audience of Human Resource Managers and Representatives that I may or may not have been interacting with over the last few months. However, I would like to point out that this letter is more substantial than your generic two-to-three sentence (link not related) reply that probably took you more time in which to copy-and-paste my name into the e-mail.

I have tried to follow up with many of you regarding how the jobs that I applied to, ranging from skill aptitudes of entry-level to fitting my skill-sets perfectly, that has failed to garner me more than what I can only assume is a passing glance of less than six seconds. Considering that I usually spend over four hours crafting my online résumé on your website (assuming you even read it, website submission parsing being what it is), I have tried to garner more information in regards to my rejections. Unfortunately, the few responses that I get from you--if indeed I even get a response, as I usually do not--is, again, fairly generic, and the only genuine piece of information that garners attention is you recommending for me to look elsewhere. While I do appreciate the sincerity of your disinterest in placing me within your ranks, I would imagine this type of behavior should be merited towards one of your potential prospects that did not work out after a few trial placements. However, considering that I have yet to even enter upon the interview stage, I feel that I should be exempt from this clause of job placement. Additionally, I have registered with your competition as well, with much of the same success. While there is the risk that I may have been put on a company blacklist, I have not falsified any of my information which tends to lead one to be put on the list to begin with. This leads me to believe that I may have offended you in some other fashion. Might I inquire as to what I may have done wrong? Were my shoes not shined enough? Was I experiencing a bad case of halitosis? Was I wearing white after Labor Day?

Normally, I would consider these as mitigating factors, but considering that none of your representatives actually have taken the time to meet with me in-person when I have stopped by your offices, I would have to say that this scenario is unlikely. Perhaps it is my dictation and tone in my cover letter and resume? Maybe in this day and age, I should accent my paragraphs with emoticons and use less punctuation and grammar, in order for my messages to carry a less-formal introduction? If this is not the case, please feel free to inform me on my mistrials of seeking gainful employment with you or your representatives. Again, I do have to apologize, but I will not take my merely existing the quandary as to your lack of a viable candidacy, as I would imagine that would make your employment situation even worse.

The only viable conclusion that I can come up with, is that while you do have job openings that you are listing, you are not able to fill them, either by chance or by design. Considering the experiences (or lack of) that I have been involved with with the jobs that I have been applying to, I would have to say the case is the latter rather than the former scenario. Sadly, I am also not the only person is experiencing this. I, as well as many others, are more than willing to work given the chance, but therein lies the problem: many of you are not giving the chance to prove ourselves. Yes, you are limiting your risk of a bad investment if one of us, such as myself, turns out to be a lemon, but it reality, you are effectively hurting everyone, including yourself.

Some of us may not have the vested interest in succeeding in what we do, but many of us are exceptions: many of us worked hard, put ourselves through college (of which many of us worked two or three part-time jobs during the semester to do so), moved across multiple state lines to be more centralized in a job market with our chosen profession, abandoning the networks they have spent building over the last four or more years in order to search for that job, only to be blocked by someone whom is not capable of taking a calculated risk. By doing so, you are hurting the economy by allowing prime talent to be over-worked and under-payed by flipping burgers (if they're lucky), the employers you are recruiting for are getting short-changed by you placing an employee that doesn't have the technical know-how as one of his or her counterparts that applied for the job because you knew that is was a safe bet, and you are denying yourself a higher bonus and referrals to your placement, thereby increasing your income potential. That is all well and good if you are comfortable with your salary, but if I were in your position, I would most likely work a little harder to reap the benefits of a position such as yours, rather than being in the stagnant decline that your career will most likely wander into. That being said, please forward this to your superiors, as I will most likely be happy to accept your position when your services are no longer needed.

Sincerely yours,

Rick