When looking for work most people treat advertised vacancies as the holy grail of job hunting, often dedicating all of their time looking for and responding to them. Having mentored many people through the job search process I know how frustrating it can be receiving ‘thanks but no thanks’ letters or no letter at all in response to your applications. Bearing in mind that only 20% of job seekers find work this way it is arguably a most depressing and unproductive use of your time. However, despite the low success rates this is still an important element for any job hunter to get right. So what do you need to do?
Research, Research and Research
We have spoken about this already in 2.0 but it is a critical element of any application process if you are serious about separating yourself from your competitors.
This process is about gathering enough information to impress potential employers and dare them not to see you by demonstrating that you are better researched than other candidates. Research provides you with crucial information that others may not possess which will further help differentiate your application. But to gain this information you need to do a couple of things:
· Desk based research
· Call people you know who know the organisation
· Call people you know who work for the organisation or have done so in the past
· Call the organisation and do some ‘mystery shopping’
· Visit the site or office or use facilities/services of the organisation
· Speak to competitors, clients or stakeholders
Remember you want to dare them not to see you so you should always treat your research and the subsequent calls you make with the same gravity you would if you were speaking directly to the employer because those you speak to may very well represent you to the employer in the future. Think of it this way: if you are impressed by someone then you are likely to speak highly of that person and recommend them for a particular role– through a personal recommendation or informal word. Think of it as an interview before the interview.
This level of research can also result in you making yourself known to the employer prior to your application being received via the formal process. This can make some people nervous, but being known before your application is received or before you attend an interview, is exactly what you are trying to do; it is what I call ‘setting the mood music’. Setting the mood music effectively makes you a known quantity and therefore more likely to be considered employable (more on this in later blogs).
Whilst personal recommendations can work for you, you do need to be aware that undertaking this level of research can also work against you. If you fail to impress or are not ready for your initial research conversations then your lack of preparedness may be reflected in a negative referral. This can all but ruin your chance of a successful placement and fear of this is, I suspect, one of the reasons many poor candidates do not do this level of research.
The First Call
Almost all adverts have a contact name and number on the bottom and offer you the opportunity to call ‘for further information’. Despite this offer, in my experience less than 50% of candidates make that call. Even fewer do it well.
You should treat that call to a recruiter/employer as the first, and arguably most powerful, step in your application process. If you can impress them at this stage then you will stand out and this will work in your favour in the next stage of the process. The information available straight from an employer is invaluable and cannot be gathered from other sources so you must make this call before submitting an application but only after you have done your research.
Your call to the person handling the application (usually the decision maker but it could be a recruiter) is the first step to your potential application. I say potential because you should treat it as a fact finding mission. The employer has spent a good deal of time and money advertising the role and they will likely have a clear understanding of what they are looking for. So, on the basis of the information gathered you need to be prepared to accept that the role is not for you and therefore not apply. For this reason you need to ensure that you go into any conversation with an open mind but also armed with the research you have done.
What should you say? I cannot tell you how many times a potential applicant has called me and said ‘I saw the advert for X, can you tell me about the role?’ without doing any research or giving any thought to the role. My automatic response is ‘Have you read the job description on the website?’ or ‘Have you looked at our website?’ Most haven’t and it is embarrassing for them. Worse still, on the basis of that poor conversation, it puts them behind those who, instead of ringing me immediately, did some research first.
Instead try something like this... ‘Hello my name is Jane Doe. I saw the advert for X recently. I have had a look at their website and have spoken to some of their stakeholders including X Y & Z. I even managed to speak with your Chief Executive at a recent conference. I understand that one of the issues you might be facing is X. If I tell you a little about myself could you tell me a little more about the role and whether you think my skill set matches what you are looking for?’
If you do your research and you get this right then you are likely to be in the top 5% of applicants.
What else should you ask? I will address this in detail in later blogs. However some of the better questions I have received include:
· Is this a newly created role? If not, why did the previous incumbent leave?
· What is the culture of the organisation like?
· What are the aspirations of the company?
· Is there an internal candidate?
And importantly...‘How should I apply and what would you like from me by way of an application?’
Once you have done your research and spoken to the employer it is then time for your application to be written. This means rewriting your cover letter and CV to reflect the information gathered. See 1.0 & 3.0 for details on CVs and Cover Letters.
Next: Applying via a recruiter
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