Since everything is now digital is it still ok to walk into a company and personally give them your resumes?

Best idea you could have. Even when I wasn't hiring I would really consider someone that walked in cold off the street and would always make time to speak to them.
Shows commitment which is a rare thing in an employee today.

You'll get someone to talk to in the service industry and small companies.
Those you get to meet may or may not be useful.

Won't work for tech, corp jobs, telco, etc.

gotta agree with Gizmo, under no circumstances would we accept anyone willing to do work experience - legally in order to claim workers comp, you need to be employed & recieving wages from the company you 'work' for; if a work experience person sustained an injury in our work place the lawyers would have a field day. Of course as always their are exceptions to the rule - one of the training providers I use includes training at (well leave this nameless) but one of the biggest expenses with this particular course is indemnity(sp?) insurance (course is 11K+) which from what I've been told is roughly 45% of course cost, & thats for only two weeks on the job training.

From what you guys are saying I wil drop it in personally.
I am a Electrician trying to get into the offshore industry, Which is near impossible without offshore experience

nebbian said...
Another idea is to do a week's unpaid "work experience" there, which can show the employer exactly how good you are.

That's exactly how I got my start driving road trains. Whilst cold canvassing I suggested I do 2 weeks, unpaid with one of their trusted drivers. Was hired on the 15th day.

FlySurfer said...

brianwake said...

Since everything is now digital is it still ok to walk into a company and personally give them your resumes?

Wait a second, what kind of company and job??? You walk in to my company and hand me a printed CV I'm using it as a plate for my croissant.

I was a bit p%ssed at that comment at first Fly, but then it got me thinking....

If it's a small company I reckon its well worth the effort, I know it'd go a long way towards getting a probationary job with my boss, because you've shown you're keen, he'll go back to your resume if he's ever hiring. Its a small company though, and you'd get to speak directly to the boss.

If it's any bigger a company though and you're handing the resume to the receptionist who'll "put it in the file for you" its probably not worth the effort. It may even get overlooked if they ever are hiring since its not part of the email system.

If a potential boss took my hand delivered resume and proceeded to use it as a plate for his croissant, I'd rip his/her "plate" back off him/her and probably steal his/her croissant for good measure. (all that wasted effort will have made me hungry)[}:)][}:)][}:)]

^^^
Really I've read some shockers - poor spelling and formatting all over the place.

If they spell my name wrong - start Dear Sir / Madam, or get the company name wrong they go straight in the bin (no attention to detail).

GPA said...

^^^
Really I've read some shockers - poor spelling and formatting all over the place.
... go straight in the bin (no attention to detail).

I guess loose vs lose would dodge the bin?

Subsonic said...

FlySurfer said...

brianwake said...

Since everything is now digital is it still ok to walk into a company and personally give them your resumes?

Wait a second, what kind of company and job??? You walk in to my company and hand me a printed CV I'm using it as a plate for my croissant.

I was a bit p%ssed at that comment at first Fly, but then it got me thinking....

If it's a small company I reckon its well worth the effort, I know it'd go a long way towards getting a probationary job with my boss, because you've shown you're keen, he'll go back to your resume if he's ever hiring. Its a small company though, and you'd get to speak directly to the boss.

If it's any bigger a company though and you're handing the resume to the receptionist who'll "put it in the file for you" its probably not worth the effort. It may even get overlooked if they ever are hiring since its not part of the email system.

If a potential boss took my hand delivered resume and proceeded to use it as a plate for his croissant, I'd rip his/her "plate" back off him/her and probably steal his/her croissant for good measure. (all that wasted effort will have made me hungry)[}:)][}:)][}:)]

We have workflow around CV's > HR <> Legal <> Managers <> Div Heads... If somebody handed me a printed CV, I would need to scan/OCR then add the metadata then save it to the right place (url only accessible from outside our network)... you get my drift.
I believe in the paperless office, and home... and yes, I use printed out meeting minutes as plates [}:)]

Old school places, sure print the CV and it to the MD, show some drive.

Stitch said...
Of course, if the printed CV looked good, you could always just ask them to forward you an electronic copy... could save you some time and effort...

Reminds me of a story...
Bloke applies for a job. HR bumps CV - he doesn't even get an interview. One year later bloke meets manager in that company. They get talking - manager asks if bloke would consider working for them, because they have been looking for someone with his exact skill set for a year.... Guess what happened to HR person who bumped CV???
Some people will behave like asses, because they think they have power. Sad really.

No... he's already failed.
1.- Wasted paper and ink for no reason
2.- Made me ask for an electronic copy

I want smart workers, not hard workers.
In an industry that values hard work, go for it print your CV.

If the guy wants to impress me, get my email, send me a tracked link to your CV.
Last year a potential intern posted on my blog... it was more a hello than a give me a job.

Stitch said...

FlySurfer said...

Stitch said...
Of course, if the printed CV looked good, you could always just ask them to forward you an electronic copy... could save you some time and effort...

Reminds me of a story...
Bloke applies for a job. HR bumps CV - he doesn't even get an interview. One year later bloke meets manager in that company. They get talking - manager asks if bloke would consider working for them, because they have been looking for someone with his exact skill set for a year.... Guess what happened to HR person who bumped CV???
Some people will behave like asses, because they think they have power. Sad really.

No... he's already failed.
1.- Wasted paper and ink for no reason
2.- Made me ask for an electronic copy

I want smart workers, not hard workers.
In an industry that values hard work, go for it print your CV.

If the guy wants to impress me, get my email, send me a tracked link to your CV.
Last year a potential intern posted on my blog... it was more a hello than a give me a job.

If its your job to review CV's and you bump someone for such petty reasoning, either you are not doing your job properly or you are too lazy to do it properly. Either way, if you were part of my team, you would get disciplinary action against you. Good employees are hard enough to come by, but bumping because you don't like the fact they printed their CV, rather than looking at their ability to do the job is beyond ridiculous.

Maybe the prospective employee who walks in with his/her CV is the smarter player? He/she tried to give you a face and voice to go with the resume, and a chance to talk and case each other out before things go too much further, rather than send you a faceless email and some strategic prompting by dropping you an electronic "hi" every now and again.

If an electronic copy is a necessity get them to forward you one afterwards, but I reckon a quick talk to someone standing right there will tell you a lot more about their interest in the job than an email.

I bit scary that a HR girl has pretty much a strangle hold on your future. Ya better put out.

^^^^geez your lucky noodles grow on trees

Stitch said...
If its your job to review CV's and you bump someone for such petty reasoning, either you are not doing your job properly or you are too lazy to do it properly. Either way, if you were part of my team, you would get disciplinary action against you. Good employees are hard enough to come by, but bumping because you don't like the fact they printed their CV, rather than looking at their ability to do the job is beyond ridiculous.

Let's not get carried away... working with printed CV is already counting against their ability... the simple truth is nobody would hand in a printed CV to my company.
It would be like me going to a 2 man plumbing workshop and handing over a QR code... on the other hand, QR code on a card would be a completely acceptable way to present a CV in my company.

If you're keen to get into a closed industry, then definitely hit the streets with printed CVs.

It's worked for me and my other half before.

Now I sit on the other side of the fence and get ten CVs a week via email.

The printed one that sits on my desk is much more difficult to ignore.

An absolutely essential thing though - Check, check and check it again, then get someone educated to proof-read it. You'd be astonished at how many CVs I get from graduates that are badly spelled or inconsistently laid-out. It automatically puts them to the bottom of the pile.

Go for it.