For many job seekers, the Human Resources department of your potential new employer is viewed as the enemy. The thought is that if you could just get past the evil gatekeepers, you are certain that you could convince your new manager that you are perfect for their open position.

The reality of the Human Resources department is completely different. For just a few minutes, consider the process of finding the top potential candidates from the HR point of view.

First, the hiring manager determines that there is a need for a new employee. This hiring manager knows the exact qualifications, job duties, and qualities that he or she wants the perfect new hire to have. This information is then passed to the HR department.

Second, the HR people do their best to construct an advertisement for that position, whether that ad is placed on the internet, the internal job postings, the newspapers, or other communication channels to reach prospective employees.

Third, the potential candidate (you) reads the ad and determines there is a good fit for the job. Thus, you decide you want to apply for it, and so you write up a sure-fire cover letter and resume to submit to HR for their review.

Fourth, HR reviews your submission and determines whether or not you are a good candidate. Your submission, depending upon the open position and company, may be one of several hundred, if not more than a thousand, for that opening. Depending on the company, there may be ten, twenty, or two hundred open positions, which means that the HR person has to go through several hundred resumes every day. Your resume will get five to ten seconds of review, so you have to make a good quick impression.

Fifth, the small pile of five to ten resumes selected by HR is forwarded to the hiring manager, and he or she makes the decision as to which people get an invitation to a first interview.

This entire process involves at least seven filters. The hiring manager knows exactly what he or she wants, but the words to describe those features to HR are the first filter. The HR perception of what the hiring manager said is the second filter. The wording of the advertisement is third. The reading of the ad is colored by the perceptions of the reader, which is the fourth filter. The fifth filter is the wording of your cover letter, resume, or both. Sixth is the reading of your resume and cover letter by the HR person, and seventh is the reading of your resume and cover letter by the hiring manager.

In some cases, there may be a computer included in the mix, looking at online submissions for key words. There may also be multiple HR personnel involved in the process, not just the one who is dealing directly with the hiring manager. However, the one person who gets the "bad press" for why you did not get an interview is the HR person because that is the person you are dealing with directly. You may be thinking that they must hate you. However, there are virtually no HR people who are purposely trying to hire bad employees. Every HR person is doing the best he or she can to identify the best candidates for the job. The HR person realizes that his or her success at hiring the best people will ultimately determine the success of the company. He or she constantly bears the blame for the seven (or more) filters, but there should be no such blame. Human Resources is not your enemy.