I’m just going to warn you right off the bat that I’m going to vent a bit in this post. Ok, so you’ve been warned. 
Well, I’ve been trying to round up a couple of freelance or contracting projects lately, and to say that my efforts have been less than successful would be a slight understatement. It seems that my submissions are getting absorbed into some huge black hole of oblivion.
And you know what? This really rather “peeves” me off! Especially when the posting is made by a recruiter working for a major head hunter, who can afford to pay $200 per ad he/she places on these major job boards. And don’t give me the old, “we get so many responses we can’t possibly respond to them all” response… I don’t buy it, never have, and never will. If people take the time to respond to a job posting, they at least deserve the standard old “dear john, although you have impressive qualifications…. blah, blah, blah” letter of the past. Or if you want to be truly mean, “Dear John, You Suck. Good Luck”
We all know those were form letters, that were mail merged and sent out as quickly as the unqualified resumes poured in. So here’s a tip to all your recruiters… set up an email template and do the same thing! At least people feel like you at least got their resume, and it didn’t just get sucked up by the black hole!
I’m guessing, and I actually know this is the case from past experience, that many of these postings are for “jobs” that the recruiter hasn’t actually gotten yet, but is hoping to land, and he/she wants to have a list of ready to go qualified resumes, if and when they do land it. That also really ticks me off! Get a clue recruiters, you are dealing with real people here, who are looking for REAL jobs. Not “maybe it will get approved” or “maybe we will get the contract” jobs. If it isn’t real, don’t post it!
Recently I’ve broken one of my own rules and actually joined a couple of smaller membership job boards that specialize in virtual/remote projects. The fee wasn’t all that bad, and I figured I’d give it a shot. Well, again this has been less than effective as well. I’ve submitted several applications and not a single response. Not a “sorry we’ve already found someone we will be working with”, not a “sorry, but your skills suck, and we laughed so hard while reading through your cover letter and resume that we though we were going to wet ourselves”, not even just a plain old “sorry, bugger off”. Nothing… notta…
Now I realize when dealing with these smaller boards, they are smaller companies/individuals, but again at least set up an email template with an “I’m sorry” type response so people at least know you got their submission. If the job board is smaller, and fee-based, my guess is that the number of submissions to any given posting is going to be smaller as well.
Ok, so what gives? Is there a big black hole out there with my name on it that is just sucking up all my contracting project submissions and laughing at me? I’m starting to think so… just like the little gremlins in my house that go around and move things or hide things on me all the time. Darn vermin, when I catch those little bastards, they are soooo dead!
Ok, like I said… I was venting a bit. Whew… don’t know that I feel any better… but at least I shared.
Take care… and I wish you better luck than I’ve had lately.
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