This is the story I heard today:

“Last week I talked with lots of my neighbors.  10 of them asked me for a copy of my resume.  One even asked for 3 copies.  They all said they would be happy to give copies of my resume to the hiring managers or HR Departments of their companies.”  He was excited about this, “Man this is great, don’t you think?” He was beaming with excitement.

Of course, I’m a black and white kind of guy, so I told him exactly what I thought, “Sure, this is good if your plan is to spread your resume around in lots of different trash cans in the city.”

He immediately lost his excitement, “What do you mean? They all said they want to help me.”

Yes, I agreed with him that his neighbors are good people with all the right intentions, however, I had to explain to him that normally it does not work this way.  Unless the hiring manager has a position that has a title, exactly like your previous title, it’s unlikely that you’ll get a conversation.

Therefore, your resume will just end up in the Round File or if you’re lucky, in a pile with the other 100+ resumes that has been handed to them in the past year.

However, I went on to explain to the person who told me this story, there is something that your helpful neighbors can do to help you that may actually make something happen.

When anyone says to you, “I want to help you, give me a copy of your resume.” Ask them if they would consider inviting you to their office or plant and giving you a tour of the business they work for. Try to turn the offer of help into some form of an informational interview.

Ask them to take you on a tour and while you are talking with them about the business and what they do, it is possible that they will be able to introduce you to the Hiring Manager, Division Manager or another person of authority who may have a need for hiring. Maybe not today, but in the future.  This way you can make a face to face connection that you can turn into a follow up email, LinkedIn connection and possibly another informational interview where you learn more about that person and the job they have to do.

Turn “Give my a copy of your resume,” into “Let me take you on a tour of our business and introduce you to some of my fellow employees.”

This is much better than letting them throw away your resume.