My Job is Applying to Jobs

For people who feel like their full-time job is applying for jobs, here are some useful tricks to get responses other than "thank you for your interest".  Now applying for jobs should be a full-time job.  If you are serious about finding employment or a new job, you should be spending several hours a day looking through ads and re-writing your resume and cover letters.  There are a few things you can do to hear back from potential employers quicker.

1. At the bottom of your resume, type in keywords that you saw in the ad posting but are not necessarily on your resume.  After you type them up, change the font color to white so that the words are there but are not seen by anyone except the computer.  This way if the company uses a computer program to screen resumes, your resume will not be disregarded because you used the word 'train' instead of 'facilitate'.

2. Network.  If you know someone who already works at the company, reach out to them and mention that you just applied and ask if they can mention that to the hiring manager.  This works out better in smaller organizations but enough good things can not be said about networking.  If you know the person well, use them as a reference.  Having someone already working there as a reference will make your application stand out.

3. Don't be afraid to go through a temp agency.  People are more likely to be hired on after a trial basis. Take on a temporary position and wow your employers.  If they are happy with your work, they will try to keep you.

4. Follow up.  If it's possible, reach out to the company to see what you could have improved in order to be asked in for an interview.  Was it the format of your resume?  Was it your skills didn't match the job posting?  Was it you applied too late and another candidate was already hired?

There are a lot of things that can be done to increase your chance of hearing back from the company to which you applied.  Don't be discouraged by receiving a 'thanks for your interest' email.  Remember than someone looking at a resume will give it 30 seconds and if they are not interested by what they see in those 30 seconds, they will pass.  Try one of these tricks and see if you get a positive response.  I'm trying the first trick today so I'll let you know how it works out!