Recently, Caliber8 did a survey and came across these shocking responses from most of the struggling job hunters: “I’ve sent dozens of applications and still haven’t gotten any interviews.”
Job hunting and securing that desired interview are always difficult especially during the turbulent time of COVID-19. We know the drill: You have to compete with thousands of applicants and swim in a sea of unanswered applications. It’s frustrating and it’s time-consuming. Thankfully, this draining routine is not the only way to land a job.
Our recruiting experts state these four strategies that work extremely well when you are looking for jobs.
1. Commit To Putting In The Work
It’s easy to mindlessly fill out dozens of applications. We all have done it at some point in our lives! You know how it goes: Typing in your name, job experience, and education for hours on end, etc. The worst part is, it usually would get us nowhere.
To secure an interview it’s important to put your brainpower to use and think first about how you can stand out from other applicants. From creating entire websites to recommendation-filled decks, always create collateral material filled with your ideas when you are applying for a job. It takes time, but the results will give you much more success than an application ever would.
According to our recruitment experts - the bar to stand out is set extremely low. They say that very rarely anyone had step outside the box to deliver above and beyond what was required in the job application.
If you’re a coder, code a plugin that could be useful to the company. Are you a designer? Take the brand’s logo and revamp it. On the hunt for a marketing job? Give your target company an audit of its digital platforms. You will be quickly surprised how easy it is to stand out in a pile of lackluster applications.
Some individuals might advocate against doing free work, but I believe this initial work can help prove your value and help you negotiate a higher salary than if you hadn’t put in the extra effort.
2. Circumvent The System And Email The Decision-Maker Directly
How can you stand out in a system when there are dozens of applicants?
Simple answer: Go past the system. Whenever you apply for a job, take a look through the LinkedIn profiles of the hiring managers to see who will be your potential future boss. Afterward, create a deck of recommendations of what would you do in your first months if you were to secure the job. Not only will this get you an interview, but it also showed the interviewer that you have you’re your research and knew what the position would entail.
Recruiters get alarmed by how many applicants don’t even read the website. It is not hard to stand out if you put in minimal effort. Chances are, most of your competition is just blindly applying on applications. Sometimes, you can reach out to the top management as well. A good company should welcome hard work and insight from a seasoned professional. If they don’t, you probably don’t want to work for that company anyway.
Overall, this strategy results in great success. Our recruitment experts say, if they receive a bunch of ideas on how a candidate can help in there business, increase sales with a specific plan of action, they would welcome them with open arms.
3. Ask For Introductions From Your Connections
Experts say that LinkedIn is the best tool on the internet for job hunting—and it doesn’t mean just the job listings page. It is also a great resource for possible points of connection.
When approaching the platform, start off by making a list of your top 10 dream companies you’d like to work at. From there, visit each of your companies’ LinkedIn pages and take a look at the employees who work at that company. You will easily be able to see if you know anyone at the company; if you do, you can reach out directly to ask them about their experience working at that company.
Depending on how they respond to your email, you can then mention that you are looking to apply there and politely ask if they have any tips. Nine times out of 10 they will recommend you, as many companies offer hiring bonuses to referrals. If you don’t know someone at that company, you can see how many degrees of separation you are away and ask someone you do know for an introduction to someone at that company.
4. Once You’ve Had An Interview Go Above And Beyond
It’s easy to crush the competition when most people don’t think outside the box with their job hunting. Got the extra way to prove yourself. For example, when applying for a finance role, show that you have knowledge of the current trends in the Finance Industry, how the market is going to look like in the future, what possible changes you could bring in the company, etc. This will surely take an extra few hours and days but will also land you the dream job. This is to say, job hunting is far from easy, but by putting in the hard work, you will see the dividends.