I fully agree, though I will caveat that many companies, mostly larger ones, have the vast majority of resumes funnelled through HR. HR may be much more inclined to just toss a resume that doesn't check every box that was listed as a "requirement" for the job than a hiring manager actually would. Of course, that may fall under the "it's probably not a company that you want" category, but it is well worth noting.
Which is why you don't go through HR. Every piece of hiring advice from a reputable source will tell you to find out who the person is making the decision and go to them rather than firing a resume to jobs@example.com. As patio11 said, "resumes are an institution created to mean that no one has to read resumes." [1]
I've had experience in the past being referred for a job by someone on the inside, and still getting turned away by HR for undisclosed reasons. In some companies, even if someone wants to hire you specifically, HR still gets in the way.
Most large companies have a side channel where managers can say to HR, this is a viable candidate. HR still does the background check etc but they are verifying the resume not evaluating it.
That is how all of our resumes work; HR just verifies the information and has no role in determining whether someone is appropriate...unless it is for an HR job. Someone in our department must review every resume for the initial pass before HR begins the background checks or schedules interviews. It takes longer to hire someone but we know that nobody is making decisions for our department.
Every job I've had in the last 7 years has been from an employer or recruiter coming to me. Shooting off a resume through the typical HR stack is almost always a crap shoot.
If only. I wouldn't say I have companies beating down my door, I have to put my resume on monster just like anyone else. But in my experience the best job prospects come from someone finding my resume or from someone I know referring me.
If you write code and you don't have recruiters contacting you through LinkedIn, then you probably live in a city with a bad market (and you should move) or you don't have a thorough LinkedIn account.
I'd take that with a grain of salt if you (personally) only have worked in the Valley, where the job market is probably overflowing with developer positions, or NYC.
I've had one recruiter call me (at work no less!) and:
- He told me that he knows my company is a PHP shop, which it's not. We are almost 100% Perl and have never worked in PHP.
- He tried to entice me to pass the offer along to other people in the company, which I find very tactless.
