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#JobSearch : How To Get Noticed By A Competitive Company When You Don’t Know Anyone. Avoid Application Portals & Bypass the Competition

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I’ve never been one of those super-connected people with a Rolodex of contacts on speed dial. So, it has always bothered me when people would say getting a new job is all about who you know. 

As a career coach who’s helped corporate professionals land interviews and roles at competitive companies like Google, Vogue, Deloitte, iHeartMedia, and an array of other companies in dozens of industries without any secret connections, I know that not having a huge network doesn’t have to exclude you from landing a great role at a competitive company.

But, when you don’t know anyone, you have to know how to approach your job search in a way that helps you skip the line and get ahead of the competition. Here are a few tips to help you get noticed by a competitive company, even when you don’t have a huge network.

Avoid Application Portals & Bypass the Competition

In 2019 alone, before unemployment surged last year, Amazon received more than 18 job applications per minute and more than 200,000 online applications for 30,000 open spots. That’s just one example of the number of applications rolling into competitive companies on any given day.

If your only strategy for getting noticed by a competitive company is applying online, then you are not giving yourself every opportunity to get noticed. Instead of sentencing yourself to the black hole of rejection, as I call it, you need to bypass the competition by reaching out to hiring managers directly. This will help you ensure that your application doesn’t get lost in the application portal and will help you get in front of other job candidates.

 

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What Skill Sets Do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Article continued …

Get Good at Knowing Why You’re Good 

It’s not enough to reach out to hiring managers directly, you also have to know exactly why you believe you’re the right person for the role you’re pursuing. Reaching out to the hiring manager without a clear pitch on why you’re the top candidate for the job can still cause your outreach to get tossed to the side.

To get good at knowing why you’re good, you need to take a step back to evaluate how your previous positions have prepared you for the next role you desire. You need to know the stories, accomplishments, results, and examples that showcase the value you can bring to the position. And, you need to be able to communicate those things as easily as you can tell someone your phone number. Some of my clients have even gotten responses in less than 24 hours after reaching out directly to hiring managers because they mastered this, without any secret connections. When you study yourself just as much as you would study the job description, you’ll increase your chances of getting a response from hiring managers, without a referral.

Create the Connections

Lastly, just because you don’t currently have connections doesn’t mean you can’t create them. But, rather than feeling like you have to hit the connect button on LinkedIn 15 times a day or awkwardly send people your resume when they didn’t ask for it, you can do things a different way. Focus on building authentic relationships by thoughtfully reaching out to people you would genuinely like to get to know, simply because they’re like-minded professionals you find interesting.

Don’t focus on how they can help you when you’re establishing these relationships. Pay attention to how you can help them and learn from them instead. Recently, one of my clients followed this approach, and she found out about a position at a competitive company that wasn’t even available online yet. And the best part? She didn’t have to ask or beg for the person to put in a good word for her, the person offered on their own.

Getting noticed by a competitive company and landing a new role doesn’t have to be an uphill battle. When you’re willing to approach your job search strategically and thoughtfully, you can increase your chances of getting noticed and hired at a top company you love.

Author:  Adunola Adeshola coaches high-achievers on how to take their careers to the next level and secure the positions they’ve been chasing. Grab her free guide.

 

Forbes.com – January 27, 2021

#CareerAdvice : Take These Steps if you’re Looking to Make a #CareerChange …Time & Money can Get in the Way of a #CareerMove, But by Taking some Small Actions, You can Make it Happen.

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While the popular adage is true, sometimes the time spend and money send can get in the way of truly following a new path. With technology, making a career change (within reason) has never been easier. Using tools like LinkedIn, Udemy, and, yes, even YouTube, you can learn the skills of a trade and connect with the masters within it.

Use these steps to learn how to gather the skills, resources, and connections to make a meaningful career move within months (without incurring another wave of student debt!).

ASSESS YOUR CURRENT JOB AND YOUR SKILL

Maybe you hate your current job. Maybe you’re simply nonplussed with the day-to-day work and you want something more. Maybe you actually like the function of your job, but dislike your current company. Whatever it is, make sure to identify the why of your desired career move before you take action.

From there, asses your best skills along with your passions. Perhaps you’ve been drafting press releases or doing ad hoc social media work for your current company. Maybe you’ve done a little graphic work as needed outside of your otherwise administrative roles. Assess your interests and relative experience in order to determine your desired career direction.

Related: I used design thinking to reinvent my career–here’s why it worked 

 

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What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Continue of article:

ACTIVATE YOUR CONNECTIONS

So you want to be a graphic designer? Awesome! You know those LinkedIn connections you made in college; the friend of a friend of a former coworker?

Rifle through these connections. You might be surprised what you find hiding in your own LinkedIn connections or Facebook friends. Speaking of friends, speak to them, too. More often than not, someone will know someone who is open to talk to you. Reach out to see if they’d be willing to meet with you. While they might not have a job hot and ready, it’s a perfect opportunity to ask a few questions over a coffee.

Related: 7 steps to rebrand yourself for a career change 

TAKE A CLASS

Unless you’re looking to become an anesthesiologist or a trial attorney, you can likely build your skill set without applying to graduate school.

There are boundless opportunities to learn things on the internet (we rounded a ton of them up here). Resources like Udemy, Coursera, and Alison offer hundreds of free classes–you can learn anything from project management to web design.

Even if you’re not looking to change your career (why are you reading this?) you should take advantage of these free classes. Heck, we all should learn about probabilistic graphical models because, why not?

Related: 5 books to read when you’re considering making a big change 

SEND SOME COLD EMAILS

This is my personal favorite thing to do, so approach with wary pessimism if you must. Once you have a clear idea of the position you want and type of company you’d like to work for, considering reaching out to the employees there. A personalized, well-researched cold emailcan be the perfect way to garner a new relationship.

You don’t have to come in too hot, revealing that you went 80 weeks deep into a CEO’s Instagram, but you can express a knowledgeable, thoughtful sentence or two. In addition, lay out your interest in the company and inquire as to whether they will be hiring for *your role* in the near future. If you see a gap in the team roster, you might even suggest the need for *your role* and why.

Consider sending out a few cold emails to your dream companies that might hold your dream future job. You can even reach out to employees at your dream company using LinkedIn. At best, you will manifest a miraculous job opening in your field. At worst, you will receive no reply.

 

FastCompany.com | August 25, 2018 | BY CAILEEN KEHAYAS—CAREER CONTESSA 3 MINUTE READ