From the course: Writing a Resume

Finding a contact

From the course: Writing a Resume

Finding a contact

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- If you've spent hours crafting your resume only to have no response at all to an online application, chances are a real person never saw that application. Less than 30% of people applying for jobs using online applications ever received a real response. This is because up to 50% of applications are screened out by the applicant tracking software used by the company. You will probably receive an auto-response that acknowledges receipt, and then if you're lucky, you may receive a notification that the job was filled months after you initially applied. If you are certain you are not only qualified, but you are the best person for the job to which you have applied, there are steps beyond the submission of an application that you will need to take. Conducting a proactive job search requires you to make contact with at least one person within the company where you want to work. So how do you ensure an actual person sees your resume? Begin by identifying the person or people that you want to see your resume. This isn't about finding any person who works for the company. It's about finding a person who would care that you are contacting them. You want to find someone in the human resources department or the head of the department in which you would probably be working. So assuming we're talking about a large company with several offices, the HR department is going to be large. But for your part, the only group of people you'll be looking for are the recruiters. Anyone else with a different title is not going to be very helpful to you. A recruiter has a role to fill, and if you meet their requirements, they actually want to find you. Use a combination of LinkedIn and internet searches, you can also search the company's Twitter handle and see which employees follow them. Determine if the company has a Facebook page and look there for contacts. The other group of people you need to identify is the hiring authority in the department where you assume you might work. This will be more difficult depending upon the size of the company. But again, using our assumptions, if you're in marketing, it would be a good idea to start with identifying the VP of marketing or a marketing manager. An an open position means everyone else is doing more work. Things are falling through the cracks and no one's particularly happy. In most cases, it's in the best interest of everyone to fill the vacancy as quickly as possible. Once you have found a name, find the business phone number or email address of this contact. You can use Google, LinkedIn and your own network to get this information. You'll be amazed at just how much information is at your fingertips with just a little effort. With this information in hand, a simple phone call or email is all you need to do to ensure your resume gets seen. If you're not sure what to say in a voicemail or in an email, remember, the goal is to prompt someone to actually read your resume. So it's a good idea to make the call after hours so that you will get someone's voicemail. This works for a couple of reasons. First, you leave your name, phone number and the position you apply to so that they can write it down at a time that is convenient to them. Second, you're not catching them off guard and making them feel that they have to give you a positive response. And third, you're not catching them when they're probably busy. And the last thing they want to do is talk to a candidate whose resume they haven't even seen yet. In your message, don't ask for a return phone call. You don't ask for them to email you information and don't ask the status of the job. You simply want them to look at your resume. By increasing the chances of getting your resume into the hands of an actual person and out of the applicant tracking system, you increase your odds of being called for an interview.

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