Are you applying for jobs but not getting noticed?
Back before the internet people would walk into a company, ask to speak to the manager, and hand in their resume. This would show motivation, drive, and show the characteristics of the person behind the resume. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately depending on how you look at it, this isn’t how things work today.
Today, people often scour the internet for job postings to see what’s available, but the important thing to remember is that if you are seeing a job posting, so are thousands of other people. This means that for every application you submit, you’re likely to be one of hundreds or thousands of applicants for that one position. This isn’t to say that it is impossible to apply for a job online and get it, because this happens to people every day. What is important to realize however, is that when applying to a job online, your resume and cover letter need to stand out from the crowd and directly align with the requirements listed in the job description.
I know that this sounds extremely daunting and pessimistic, however there are some ways to get around the large applicant pool, and I’m going to share them with you!
Post your resume online and across job boards. The most common job sites include indeed.com, monster.com, recruiter.com, simplyhired.com, and LinkedIn, but there are many others, and a lot of websites which are industry specific as well.
The benefit of posting your resume is that you gain access to a whole new realm of opportunities. Due to the high influx of applicants, recruiters may not actually post an available job, but instead search through the candidates with resumes posted online. This enables them to search by keyword, giving them a more specialized group of candidates that may be directly qualified for the given position. Think about it this way, if you don’t have your resume posted, you are missing out on all sorts of opportunities for jobs and networking.
Networking with recruiters and hiring managers is also a great way to bypass that large applicant pool because if you are recommended by a recruiter or hiring manager that already has your resume, you are more likely to get noticed than if your document was one in a thousand waiting to be read over. This leads me into my next tip.
Don’t be afraid to use the connections you have. I often notice people who don’t want to reach out to connections because they want to do everything on their own and by their own merit. I completely understand and respect that point of view, however it’s important to realize that there is a difference between reaching out to your connections asking about new opportunities to let them know you are interested if something does come up, and asking someone to get you a job.
The truth of the matter is that if you don’t reach out to your connections about new opportunities and to let them know that you’re interested if something comes up, someone else will make that move and reach out, potentially causing them to get a job instead of you. Think about it this way: If you don’t make your intentions known to the outside world, no one knows about them but you. If you don’t reach out to connections to tell them you’re interested, they won’t think about you when a position becomes available.
Getting noticed within a large pool of applicants can be hard, but if you put the time and effort in to make sure your resume and cover letter aligns with the job specific requirements, your hard work will pay off. Similarly, if you take advantage of other resources such as posting your resume online and reaching out to contacts within your industry, you may just be able to bypass the large applicant pool all together.
Good luck, and happy hunting!