Standing Out in your Job Search

Introduction

Hardly a week goes by when I don’t hear someone express their frustration with the lack of progress on their job search.  Typical complaints usually centre around three things:

• • Applicants never receive feedback on the status of their application;
• • Recruiters, when contacted, never return phone calls or e-mail messages;
• • Applicants experience no success in securing interviews.

However, most applicants are of the opinion that if they just send out more and more job applications, and keep doing the same thing over and over, eventually, they will encounter success.  The truth is practice makes permanent, but it doesn’t necessarily make perfect.  Or, as Albert Einstein once so adroitly noted “The definition of insanity is keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result”.

Some Hard Truths

I’ve said many times that Recruitment is the most important function in the Human Resources department, and the single most mismanaged activity.  For many HR grads, Recruitment is an entry-level activity.  Most who occupy the role are not properly trained or oriented in their organization’s culture or proper recruitment techniques.  Training in how to screen and interview candidates is minimal, and most who assume the Recruitment role are “flying by the seat of their pants”.

The other hard truth is that Recruiters rarely make the hiring decisions.  That decision is usually made by a line manager.  The Recruiter is merely an agent, or, as some might imply, a conduit.  Recruiters implement the decisions of Hiring Managers.

Many Recruiters never actually interview applicants. In fact, some Recruiters don’t even see applicants’ resumes.  Most organizations today use Applicant Screening Tools which vet resumes on the basis of an algorithm based on a combination of key words. Simply, if you have the right combination of words in your resume you are screened in.  If you miss the threshold you’re out!

Contacting Recruiters who don’t actually see applicants’ resumes, and who don’t actually make the decision of who to interview, or who to hire, is a waste of time.  Given this scenario, how is anyone expected to ever get hired?

 

Standing Out from the Competition

Here are some ideas that can help differentiate you from the competition in your job search:

1) Don’t Just Focus on Online Applications

I am not suggesting that people abandon applying online.  However, if you think that this one activity alone will yield success I would submit you are probably a bit naive.

Applicants need to balance applying online with other forms of job search.  These other forms may entail contacting search firms and employment agencies.  It could involve following up with school alumni offices.  It may entail contacting professional associations.  It might require attendance at professional trade associations, Chamber of Commerce events, or business associations.

It has often been said that 70% of job openings are never advertised.  The other aspect to this statistic is that employers don’t hire paper. They hire people.  Most people are risk averse.  Networking provides a form of personal contact, and while no guarantee of success, it stands to reason that Hiring Managers are more likely to hire someone with whom they have had a previous connection than someone they don’t.

2) Shift Your Focus to Networking

Mistake #2 is connected to Mistake #1.  Familiarity is an important component in life.  Human beings are more comfortable with what we are familiar with rather than uncertainty.  If a prospective employer knows someone in a particular field that person has a better chance of being hired than does someone with whom they have no association.

It is no wonder that most organizations have adopted employee referral programs, and that these are considered by many HR professionals to be the best source of quality candidates.  A stellar employee who refers someone they know is considered the best endorsement.

Networking is an important business skill, but it is astounding to me how few practice it anymore. Since the pandemic people seem unwilling or unable to make meaningful connections.  I suspect everyone nowadays is so comfortable working from home that they are reluctant to leave their home office.

In my own experience, and certainly through my coaching, many of my clients have had amazing success through networking.  Networking takes time, and it requires a mix of persistence, follow up, tact and a long-range focus.  However, it does work.

3) Follow up Meaningfully

Many feel that once they apply for a position that is it. They assume the company or hiring manager will make a decision one way or the other.  However, following up on the status of your application sets you apart.  From experience, very few applicants do this.  Again, it’s about making a personal contact, showing an interest in the job, and demonstrating a highly motivated nature.

Truth is, you don’t actually need to speak with someone.  You can leave a message.  And a carefully crafted voice mail message that shows interest, motivation and energy is one small thing you can use to stand out from the crowd. 

4) Tell Them How You Would Actually Approach the Job

Try this tactic.  Pull together a 5 to 6 pages long PowerPoint Presentation that explains how you would approach the position for which you are applying.  Highlight your 30-, 60- and 90-day priorities.  Devote one page near the end to a summary of your key competencies, education and work experience.  Ensure your contact information is listed. Send it to the Hiring Manager after you have submitted your application.

I have seen this technique used by a lot of my clients, and it works well.  It won’t work in every instance, but in truth is, it only needs to work once.

A Final Thought….

Despite the advent of technology recruitment and job search today is much harder than it was twenty or thirty years ago.  Technological improvements have really only benefitted employers.  It has done nothing to minimize the stress of job-seekers, and I even question whether it has expedited, let alone improved, hiring decisions. Call me a Luddite but I think I could make a plausible argument to suggest that recruitment is less efficient and more problematic now than at any time in our history.

In a system that promotes sterility and uniformity job applicants need to find a way to stand out.  Doing what everyone else does, regardless of how good your qualifications or experience, won’t necessarily improve the result.  You have to find a way to stand out and differentiate yourself from the masses.

Near where I live is a public school.  The other day while walking my dog I noticed this sign posted on a billboard outside:

“Why bother to try and fit in when you were born to stand out”.

If you want to stand out, try doing things differently.  That includes your job search.