Search advice
One of the first things I usually tell people in the job search strategy consulting sessions is “I hope you
never use that cover letter I wrote for you”, because if you are using it, that means you’re probably
applying to jobs through the primary channels. Those channels are overcrowded with mostly
unqualified candidates.
When I was a recruiter, if I posted a job to Indeed or some other jobs site, I might get 100 responses.
In most cases, about 80+ of those responses were from people who had no experience at all in the
industry. None. So I might post for a “Senior Python Developer” and get 80 resumes from people who
have never written a line of code in their lives. Why does this happen?
We’ve made it easy for people to apply for jobs. “One-click apply” is pretty common. So what has that
led to? People apply for almost any jobs that they see, and it puts a huge burden on recruiters who
have to review those applications. They didn’t apply with any ‘intent’ - they applied because it was
easy. Someone with no industry experience doesn’t apply for a job and tell their partner “Gee, I hope I
get this job”.
Recruiters also know that those channels are mostly clogged with unqualified applicants, so at some
point they are likely to pay less attention to those channels and try other means. If I’m a recruiter and
I need to find 5 candidates for a job, I can sift through 100 resumes knowing that most will be
unqualified, or I can try and find 5 candidates in another way that is less labor intensive. Recruiters
want to find the easiest way to identify those candidates.
What’s the easiest way for the recruiter to find good people? It’s when qualified candidates are either
introduced to them (via referrals), or when qualified candidates introduce themselves to the recruiter.
When a qualified candidate introduces him/herself to the recruiter, it’s a “win win” - the recruiter saves
time by not having to go hunting for the needle in the haystack, and the candidate gets discovered.
The needle jumps out of the haystack and says “look at me, I’m over here”.
So what does this look like in real life?
If you see a job you’re interested in, as the very first step, do NOT apply to the job. Instead, here’s
what you do:
1 - Go to LinkedIn and type in the company name in the main search box.
2 - Select the company name from the dropdown.
3 - You are now on the company’s LinkedIn Company Page.
4 - There should be a People tab (NOTE: LinkedIn has been changing this feature quite a bit recently
so you may need to explore a bit) where you can filter employees (by location, college, etc.), search
for job titles, and more. You probably want to find a recruiter, so searching for words like “recruiter”,
“recruiting”, or “talent” might be useful. “HR” or “human resources” may also be a second option.
5 - Try to find someone who appears to be responsible for recruiting for the type of job you are
seeking. Most recruiters will probably mention something in the profile about the type of people they
hire. If the recruiter has something about “I’m hiring!” in their profile, bonus! That’s practically an
invitation to reach out to them. If you find someone who “looks like” you in some way, that may help -
the logic is that someone who went to the same school, grew up in the same area, has some shared
experience (past employer, etc.) might be more willing to help than someone with no connection.
6 - Once you select someone who seems like a good fit, we’re going to send a message with a
specific formula. The language is somewhat specific and it’s short by design. Sending a 10 sentence
message isn’t better than sending a 5 sentence message. We need to be efficient and respectful of
their time. NOTE: This is NOT a job application. This is just a message to try and establish initial
communication. We aren’t sending a resume or a cover letter. Since we’re sending this message via
LinkedIn, we have the benefit of knowing that the reader can simply click on your face if they are
interested in learning more about your background.
Here is the formula for the message:
A - Context: Why is this message happening? “Joe - I found your profile after seeing the
$JOBTITLE role listed on $SITE and wanted to quickly reach out.”
B - Why are you interested in the role?: Remember earlier when I said that 80% of the
applicants applied with no experience. They didn’t apply with any ‘intent’ - they just applied because it
was easy. In the second sentence you need to mention some specific interest in the role, the
company, something. Do you use their product? Does the role appear to be a great fit based on what
you’ve done recently? Do you have some passion for the work they do or the service they provide?
Write a sentence that lets the reader know your interest is genuine.
C - About you: You can write 2 sentences about your background, and you want to highlight
the relevant parts of your experience.
D - The ‘close’ (as they say in sales): This is where we are going to ask for something. What
are we asking for? What we really want to know is the best way to get a dialogue started, or the best
way to ‘apply’ for the job, but if we ask the question in the wrong way, we may get an answer we
didn’t want. The two ways I generally ask this question are:
“Based on your experience at $COMPANY, can you offer any tips on optimizing my chance of an
interview?”
OR
“Based on your experience at $COMPANY, can you offer any tips on navigating your hiring process?”
E - Gratitude: You just asked a stranger for a favor, you need to say thanks. “I appreciate any
help you can provide, thanks in advance!”
That’s the message. Again, it’s brevity is a feature - don’t get fancy with a bunch of extra material.
You send this message INSTEAD OF applying for the job. You do not apply and then send this
message. If you are messaging a recruiter, they live on LinkedIn and should respond within a couple
days if they are going to respond at all. If you are messaging someone you found that isn’t a recruiter,
they probably don’t spend as much time on LinkedIn and you need to give them a few extra days to
respond.
You may get no response at all. In that case, you can either choose another person to message, or
you can just apply for the job and hope they find you in that pile.
You may get a “Hey, thanks for reaching out, you’re not special, go apply like everyone else and get
in that line”. So you would then go apply and hope.
What we ideally want is a “Hey, you have a solid background for the role and we’ll pass on your info
to the hiring manager” or some other positive response. They will probably ask you to apply for the
job through some channel, because they need to track applications and want the data for their
recruiting purposes. But being invited to apply for a job after being identified as a potentially qualified
candidate is far better than having them have to find you in that pile.
