Planning a Job Search? Chart a Direct Course : Your Resume Won’t Matter if It Doesn’t Get to the Right Desk

Job-seekers who dutifully go through the personnel departments of large companies may find that that is as far as they get, according to executive recruiters who say that making high-level personal contacts is critical in Southern California’s fast-paced job market.

Right now, for example, there are thousands of job openings for all kinds of engineers throughout the Southland. But the lag time between making contact with a company and being presented as a possible job candidate can run a month or more at a major employer like Hughes Aircraft.

Landing your resume on the right desk can make the difference between being hired or waiting for someone to wade through a pile of resumes in the personnel department.

Waiting a month may seem like an eternity to an anxious job candidate. So in many cases, executive recruiters suggest that it is quicker and more productive to go right to the manager doing the hiring.

“Go to the hiring executive. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200,” said Dave Hart, a recruiter who specializes in investment banking. “The executive is the only one to judge the chemistry.”

Hart, a partner at Hadley Lockwood in New York who places candidates in Southern California and elsewhere, said, “Chemistry can discount the technical proficiency (of the job candidate) by 50%”--meaning that if the boss likes you, it counts for more than all your degrees and experience.

However, sending your resume out cold may not be the best way to be hired by a company like Hughes Aircraft. Hughes, with its 74,000 employees, is Southern California’s largest private employer.

“It doesn’t do much good to write to someone you don’t know,” said Bob Parke, human resources manager for Hughes’ Radar Systems Group in El Segundo. But, Parke said, “about a third of our hires come from referrals--people who know somebody working here.” Parke urges job-seekers to join professional groups and trade associations to make those critical high-level contacts. “When resumes are sent cold, it may show the person has done some research, but the manager doesn’t have time to read it unless something sparks his interest,” he said.

Parke said he can see why job-seekers might circumvent his department, because it takes his department about a month to respond to job applicants. Why so long? Because the radar systems division and other Hughes units each receive about 500 resumes a week.

It still may be worth the wait. Right now, there are about 1,300 openings in the radar systems division and an equal number of jobs available at Hughes’ Electro Optical and Data Systems Group, Parke said.

“There are very few engineers out of work,” Parke said. “The majority of resumes are coming from experienced, working engineers.”

Several recruiters and personnel managers interviewed are divided on how to make direct contact with hiring executives. Some recruiters and career counselors warn that angering or alienating a personnel manager by skirting his or her department can be disastrous.

“You can get yourself into a world of trouble by trying to circumvent the personnel department,” said Jack Groban, senior vice president and manager of Boyden Associates’ Los Angeles office. “I don’t think that candidates should bypass the personnel department, but I agree that it’s always best, whenever possible, to gain entry at the highest appropriate level,” he said.

A good personnel manager not only provides job seekers insight into corporate culture, but he or she can expedite the hiring process, he said. “If the line manager has confidence in the personnel department, a referral by the department carries weight.

“As a rule, managers are not as adroit in evaluating prospective employees as someone who does that for a living,” Groban said.

Another Los Angeles recruiter suggests a compromise: Send a letter of introduction and resume to both the manager you want to work for and the personnel department.

“The best thing you can do is develop positive relationships with both,” said Caroline Nahas, vice president and partner at Korn/Ferry International, the large executive recruitment firm in Los Angeles. Sending “your background to both . . . enhances your opportunities.”

But how does a job-seeker determine whether a personnel department is working for, or against, him?

Virginia McDermott, former head of corporate human resources for Denny’s Inc., said a good personnel department responds quickly to inquiries, sets up interviews promptly and follows up by keeping job candidates informed of their progress.

McDermott, now director of operations for Allergan Pharmaceuticals in Irvine, recommends that “if you can’t reach the (personnel) person handling the interviews for a particular job you feel qualified for, go around them.”

“If you have a contact in the company, use it,” McDermott advises. She said one of the best people Allergan hired was a 26-year-old Harvard graduate introduced to her by a friend. Fluent in Japanese, he was hired by Allergan’s international division within two weeks. She said that if he had applied to the personnel department, he might not have been noticed or hired as quickly.

“About half of the personnel departments I’ve been in contact with are not very effective, but the other half are,” said McDermott, who has 15 years’ experience in the human resources field.

McDermott and others said job-seekers who send messy letters or resumes, mispronounce or misspell names of executives and “murder their titles,” drastically reduce their chances to be considered for any job, no matter how qualified they might be.

In general, the higher level the position, the more likely it is to be filled by direct, executive-to-executive contact. A personnel manager for a subsidiary of Irvine-based Fluor Corp. said she rarely meets a new executive until an offer has been made and she is asked to complete the paper work.

“Very informal things get a person in the back door,” the manager said. Fluor encourages its employees to recommend any qualified person, even if it is a friend or relative.

Recruiters and overworked personnel administrators advise against blindly sending resumes to companies. They recommend doing your homework to determine what you can offer the company. And find out exactly whom to contact to be noticed.

“Shotgunning in a very, very hot economy results in a lot of wasted time,” said Bill Mangum, president of Thomas Mangum Co., a Los Angeles executive recruitment firm. He suggests finding out who manages the department you want to work for and direct material to that person. “The direct-hiring manager has a much better feel for the short- and long-term needs of his department.”