In the beginning stages of a job search, candidates are often frustrated by the lack of response they receive from blindly sending resumes to the published markets, amazed and confused that a professional with their impressive background and qualifications could be consistently ignored or overlooked. To better understand why this too often happens, let’s follow the typical path of a restaurant manager job opening at a given restaurant concept.

A job opening is available, the restaurant’s Human Resources department has prepared the job order and candidate specs. Both corporate and independent recruiters are searching for the right candidate. The internal recruiters are provided a detailed list of position prerequisites and they will (depending upon the sensitivity of the position) post the opening on an internal job board, in the public “Careers” section of their website and also work with confidential executive restaurant recruiters.

Many times the company will post career opportunities on the large public boards such as Monster, Career Builder, Hot Jobs, etc. Due to the efficiency of internet job search engines, major restaurant companies usually receive up to 20,000 resumes for a single job opening. Statistically, only 10% of those resumes will be read by a person. If it is an executive restaurant recruiter posting the job, around 500 resumes will be received and read.

Why Your Job Search Can Be Ineffective If You Lack the Proper Help:

The first filters used by the restaurant concept’s HR department are typically:

1) Preferred Background vs Non-Preferred Background (two stacks are made).

2) Employed vs Unemployed. All the candidates with the right experience from the first stack are now separated into two new stacks. Candidates who are both Unemployed and have a Non-Preferred Background are completely ignored. It is unfortunate that when a job search leads restaurant managers to apply for opportunities on the internet, years of career expertise, professional accomplishments and positive impact on employer profits are largely ignored.

Rather than marketing your value and service directly to the company by chasing publicly posted jobs and ending up in the wrong “stack”, like 99% of the workforce does, mindlessly pointing and clicking on the internet, an executive restaurant recruiter will market you directly to the key decision makers in each targeted company. When dealing with opportunities from their client restaurant companies, a good recruiter will always perform both written and verbal introductions to assist you in getting both feet in the door. The hiring managers already have a sense they know something about you even before contacting you for the first time.