The secret way to get a job was staring me right in the face for weeks before I realized it. I was helping out at a job center counseling people who had been trying to get a job for months but who just could not seem to get hired. I was really motivated to help these people but I didn't really help much until I finally figured out what was wrong.
Now if you think these people couldn't get a job because there was something wrong with them - THINK AGAIN. In fact, I was dealing with highly qualified people - people who I would want to hire myself. Many of them were people who had lost their previous job through no fault of their own. It's tough economic times and many companies have down-sized and they had to let exceptionally people go. Other candidates that I worked with were some of the hottest students to come out of the local university.
They should have been easily hired for entry level jobs but all they were getting were tons of reject letters.We did all sorts of things to help them. We did mock interviews. We went over their resumes with a fine-toothed comb. We re-wrote resumes so that they matched perfectly what the employer was looking for. We were sure to include all the right keywords in the resume, including the ones in the job description. We helped them research prospective companies so they could tailor their resume more closely to the company. We even helped them with their wardrobe. Nothing - and I mean NOTHING - seemed to be helping.
I was a mystery to me. Yes, I realized that there were fewer jobs out there than normal and that because of this companies had the luxury of being VERY selective but these candidates, in many cases, were IDEAL. However, they weren't even getting many interviews, let alone jobs.
And... here's what made it even more perplexing...
The few interviews that our clients were getting weren't usually going to those we thought were the TOP candidates.
In fact, we sometimes had several people applying for the same job and guess what happened?
If I were to mentally rank the candidates based on their job application, and in some cases this was REALLY OBVIOUS, the top candidates were NOT the ones getting the interviews.
How could this be?
Well, I FINALLY figured it out. It was staring me right in the face the whole time but I somehow missed it and so did all of my associates.
The difference that REALLY mattered was the cover letter.
Now, you may be thinking you have a really professional cover letter so that couldn't be YOUR problem...right? WRONG
Everybody these days has a "professional" cover letter. This is because there are "professional" templates out there readily available to take and modify and submit. They're free on the internet and there are whole thick books full of them that can be checked out for free at the library or accessed through job centers like ours.
Here's the problem in a nut shell. EVERYONE has the same type of "professional" cover letter... and after a while they all just sort of blend in together.
What you actually need is something TOTALLY DIFFERENT from everyone else. AND... you want some wording in there that immediately grabs the hiring manager. Every good marketer knows that there are certain phrases and ways of approaching things that trigger certain responses in most people... and here you have a very targeted audience: a very over-worked busy professional manager who is getting so many applications he/she can't possibly go through them all.
So, what does this busy hiring manager do? He/she reads all the cover letters and creates his/her short-list from this without ever even reading the rest of the application.
So if you have a cover letter that really stands out, you may even be able to beat out other candidates who may have a stronger resume, more experience, and better references because the hiring manager may never even see those if he/she is basing the short-list on the cover letter alone - and this happens way more than you may realize.
It also may explain why IDEAL CANDIDATES sometimes get passed over and it should give you a really good idea of what you can do about it if you are one of those candidates.
Now if you think these people couldn't get a job because there was something wrong with them - THINK AGAIN. In fact, I was dealing with highly qualified people - people who I would want to hire myself. Many of them were people who had lost their previous job through no fault of their own. It's tough economic times and many companies have down-sized and they had to let exceptionally people go. Other candidates that I worked with were some of the hottest students to come out of the local university.
They should have been easily hired for entry level jobs but all they were getting were tons of reject letters.We did all sorts of things to help them. We did mock interviews. We went over their resumes with a fine-toothed comb. We re-wrote resumes so that they matched perfectly what the employer was looking for. We were sure to include all the right keywords in the resume, including the ones in the job description. We helped them research prospective companies so they could tailor their resume more closely to the company. We even helped them with their wardrobe. Nothing - and I mean NOTHING - seemed to be helping.
I was a mystery to me. Yes, I realized that there were fewer jobs out there than normal and that because of this companies had the luxury of being VERY selective but these candidates, in many cases, were IDEAL. However, they weren't even getting many interviews, let alone jobs.
And... here's what made it even more perplexing...
The few interviews that our clients were getting weren't usually going to those we thought were the TOP candidates.
In fact, we sometimes had several people applying for the same job and guess what happened?
If I were to mentally rank the candidates based on their job application, and in some cases this was REALLY OBVIOUS, the top candidates were NOT the ones getting the interviews.
How could this be?
Well, I FINALLY figured it out. It was staring me right in the face the whole time but I somehow missed it and so did all of my associates.
The difference that REALLY mattered was the cover letter.
Now, you may be thinking you have a really professional cover letter so that couldn't be YOUR problem...right? WRONG
Everybody these days has a "professional" cover letter. This is because there are "professional" templates out there readily available to take and modify and submit. They're free on the internet and there are whole thick books full of them that can be checked out for free at the library or accessed through job centers like ours.
Here's the problem in a nut shell. EVERYONE has the same type of "professional" cover letter... and after a while they all just sort of blend in together.
What you actually need is something TOTALLY DIFFERENT from everyone else. AND... you want some wording in there that immediately grabs the hiring manager. Every good marketer knows that there are certain phrases and ways of approaching things that trigger certain responses in most people... and here you have a very targeted audience: a very over-worked busy professional manager who is getting so many applications he/she can't possibly go through them all.
So, what does this busy hiring manager do? He/she reads all the cover letters and creates his/her short-list from this without ever even reading the rest of the application.
So if you have a cover letter that really stands out, you may even be able to beat out other candidates who may have a stronger resume, more experience, and better references because the hiring manager may never even see those if he/she is basing the short-list on the cover letter alone - and this happens way more than you may realize.
It also may explain why IDEAL CANDIDATES sometimes get passed over and it should give you a really good idea of what you can do about it if you are one of those candidates.
A recruitment article by Dougles Chan - A recruitment coach that speciliased in recruitment training and recruitment mentoring in Singapore and globally.
Contact Dougles Chan @ +(65) 9388 0851 or email to dc@dougleschan.com for your recruitment training and mentoring needs.
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