You’re probably wondering, what Anne Hathaway(pic) has to do with applying for the same job twice. Well more than you might think. Read on for more.
Should you apply for the same job….twice!!
Seems like a rather silly question, why would you apply for the same job. However, someone over at the evil HR lady’s blog asked that very question. However she did have her reasons, her initial application was sent 3 weeks ago and no one responded. Now she’s looking at sending another application with a lower number in the hopes of getting an opportunity for a job that she would gladly do for less (yet another reason you shouldn’t put salary information on your resume).
The Evil HR Lady is one of my favorite blogs, and I absolutely love her down-to-earth responses and I’d invite you visit her blog to learn more. The one important thing that stuck out for me was:
- It’s possible that no one has seen your original resume. If you submitted the resume/cover letter through the company’s website and your salary was too high, there is a good chance that no one has even so much as glanced at your resume. The computer will only spit out people whose qualifications meet certain criteria. If your suggested salary is too high, you are eliminated before anyone’s seen your resume.…
- …..
- The bigger the company, the more likely this strategy will work. Larger companies tend to rely more on the recruiting software in the screening stages than smaller companies
This stuff really annoys me, that we’re now relying on information processing by computers rather than decision making by actual human beings. Granted those are what computers are for, but there is a fine line between computer processing and human ingenuity. Computers process information based on certain pre-set rules and algorithms that are designed by humans. These rules rarely (if ever) take into account outliers, they never take into account that certain applicants may be SO good and SO perfect, that the company would be willing to ‘break the bank’ to get them. It doesn’t. All it does is filter out stuff,
1) Filters the salary information to a salary range matching the budget…AND LOWER!
2) Filters applicants without the correct/relevant paper qualification
3) Filters applicants from certain industries or companies
4) Filters applicants by age/sex/religious affiliations (if they’re asking for it, and you’re providing it….)
And if you’re looking for a person that fits your criteria based on some information processing computer, you’ll get a mediocre fit every time, but that’s the future and there’s a reason it’s the future. We live in an age where information processing is absolutely necessary. Consider the best tech companies around Google, Apple and Amazon. They are the great aggregators of information, the search through the web, the app store, or the Amazon store and give you related information to your search. If they didn’t you’d be overwhelmed with data.
So overwhelmed you’d probably be unable to make a decision.
Picture trying to browse the 100,000 books on Amazon, without categories and user reviews and search functionality you’d be paralyzed by choice. Imagine trying to troll to the millions of apps on the Apple AppStore, without a search and user reviews to rank the apps, you’d be stuck downloading crappy software every time, instead of Angry Birds.
The same is true for Investing. Consider this article from another great blog called seekingAlpha. It describes something called the Hathaway index. For the financial gurus among us you probably know Berkshire Hathaway, that great multi-billion company owned by Warren Buffet. You probably don’t know Anne Hathaway who’d just been shortlisted to star as Catwoman in the next installment of Batman and pictured in this post. What you’re even less likely to know is that if Anne Hathaway is in the News, Berkshire stocks RISE!!
Berkshire shares rose 2.02% the night before Ms. Hathaway hosted the Oscars, and a whopping 2.94% the day after. The opening day of her 2009 comedy Bride Wars was also a good day for Berkshire stock—up 2.60%.
Why?
SeekingAlpha answers it on the very next paragraph
…Mirvish suggests that “robotraders” are scanning the headlines looking for trends, and upon seeing multiple mentions of “Hathaway,” are automatically buying Berkshire Hathaway stock. Given that algorithmic trading now accounts for 70% of all trading, it’s not implausible.
So if you think that recruiters using algorithms to choose a recruit was bad, imagine that the mutual funds or investment funds you’re putting your hard earned cash is choosing stocks based on algorithms not much different from the recruiters.
Makes you crave the good ole days now doesn’t it?
Back to the topic though, If I were you, I’d never apply for the same job twice. If the company requires salary information , don’t provide it. If the system forces you to enter one, enter ‘n/a’ ,if it forces to pick from a bunch of radio buttons, pick 0 or infinity. Companies that don’t share budgets for recruitment shouldn’t be asking for salary information, it’s a asymmetry of information biased to the recruiter.
For more info, go to these 2 absolutely amazing blogs,Evil HR Lady and SeekingAlpha.