Real World Advice for Finding a Job

Members of my career mentoring site know that you don’t find a job by scrolling through job boards and sending your resume to all of the jobs in which you’re interested or for which you think you’re qualified.

Yesterday, I had a conversation that reinforced this point.  I was chatting with one of my colleagues at the University of Denver.  She was telling me that on of our recent graduates just landed a great job.  She said that the student called her about a month ago upset over the fact that she had received a rejection letter for a job with a local company.  She thought that she was more than qualified for the job.

My colleague asked her “which company?”  When the student told her, my colleague said, “I know the head of HR at that company, let me call her.”

Two days later, the student received a call from a recruiter from the company that had originally rejected her asking her to come in for an interview. She went through the interview process and was offered the job for which she had originally applied and been rejected.

That’s why responding to ads you find on job boards and leaving it at that is not a god idea.

Here’s how you do it.

  1. Search the boards for jobs in which you are interested.
  2. Find someone you know in the company that has the job.  Or, find someone who can introduce you to someone in the company that has the job.
  3. Meet with the person you’ve identified.  Ask him or her to introduce you and your resume to the hiring manager.
  4. Follow up with the hiring manager.  Ask for an interview.

You should submit your resume via the job board.  Many companies require that you be in their system before they’ll invite you in for an interview.  But remember that more than likely a robot — not a human being — will be reviewing your resume.  The robot may reject you for any number or reasons.  The good news is that human beings can override robots.  If you’ve impressed your contact at the company, and he or she becomes your advocate, there is a very good chance that, like our student, you will be invited in for an interview, robot be damned.

You get jobs through human connections.

Follow the four steps above and you will be able to generate interviews that will lead to a great job.

Your career mentor,

Bud

PS: I write this blog to help people create the life and career success they want and deserve. Now I’m going one step further. I’ve created a membership site in which I’ve pulled together my best thoughts on success. And, as a reader of this blog, you can become a member for free. Just go to https://budbilanich.com/join to claim your free membership. You’ll be joining a vibrant and growing community of success minded professionals. I hope to see you there.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
FREE CAREER SUCCESS BOOKS FOR VISITORSDOWNLOAD

Speak Your Mind

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.