How to focus attention on your job application

You’re looking for a job and spot an interesting opportunity. It’s at a very appealing company, but you have zero contacts there. You submit an application online, and wait… a very long time. Forever.

You just used the worst possible strategy, one that is almost guaranteed to fail. With apologies for being so blunt… every lazy, unqualified, inept and desperate candidate is also going to apply online. That means you are tossing your resume into the biggest – and ugliest – possible pile.

Here is a far better approach. It takes effort, but it works much better:

1.) Use LInkedIn and Google to identify actual people at the company. Ideally, look for people in the same general area you wish to work. You can also use any potential common connections to search, such as where you went to college, grew up, or worked before. (If you went to Acme University and want to work for IBM, search for “Acme University” and IBM.)

Find each person’s articles or presentations online. Read their profile carefully. Look at their Twitter account, if they have one. Search for anything that gives you a glimpse of their opinions or thought process.

2.) Actually study and understand what you find. Your challenge isn’t simply to find a name; your challenge is to find another human being who shares an interest with you. Once you understand that person’s point of view, compare it to your own. See if it sparks any questions. Did you find it interesting, helpful, provocative or confusing? Use your reactions in the next step.

3.) Give the person useful feedback. Shape your thoughts into a concise and positive statement or question. Use LinkedIn or email to reach out to the person. Give them a sentence about yourself. If you are using LinkedIn, invite them to connect.

You would be SHOCKED how few people do this. I’ve had weeks in which hundreds of thousands of people have read my articles, but just a handful wrote me with anything having to do with advancing their career.

Nearly every time I reach out to someone important, influential, or intelligent, they respond. This has always been true, even when I had no experience or obvious credentials. Most people love feedback. They love it when others take their ideas seriously. Reach out every day. Aim higher than you would otherwise dare. Trust me; it works.

4.) Be sure to spark a conversation. It’s not enough to simply say, “Wow, are you smart!” Your objective is to let the person get to know you a bit. So include something that encourages them to write back.

For example, you might write to a marketing manager, “I saw a video of you on a panel about customer engagement and was struck by your comment that training is what separates good firms from great ones. I’ve spent the past two years teaching in a public school and earning my masters degree; do you have any suggestions how I might make the transition to a training role at a firm like yours?”

5.) Do this again and again… at the same company. Unless you are targeting a company with less than ten employees, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Write to more than one person, and listen carefully to every bit of feedback. If you do, you will quickly gain insights you can use to contact another person, and another.

While it is great to have the person introduce you to his or her colleagues, don’t leave that responsibility on their shoulders. Keep researching, and contact them yourself.

At some point, it will become obvious that you are so interested in their firm that you are persistently reaching out in an intelligent and professional manner. People like people who share similar interests, and you will make it obvious that you are such a person.

6.) Look for insights you can share. As you do your research and talk to a growing number of people, you will obtain information that could be valuable to one or more of your new contacts. Don’t keep it to yourself, or assume they already know it. Send them a quick note with a link. Or, once you have added enough people as connections, you might do an update that they are likely to see. This will position you as a worthwhile – and trusted – social media connection.

7.) Now, mention a job that appeals to you. Once you have gone back and forth a few times, go ahead and mention that you saw a job position on their web site that especially appeals to you. Ask their opinion about the role. Ask how you might get the attention of someone in that group who could be involved in the hiring process.

If you do this with sincerity and genuine curiosity, you will transform yourself from an anonymous name in a pile that is depressingly large, to a person whom people at your target firm actually know and like.

People get great jobs through personal relationships. Go out and build some.

This article is published in collaboration with LinkedIn. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

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Author: Bruce Kasanoff is a ghostwriter for entrepreneurs.

Image: Motorized mannequins hold signs that read “Hire Me” in Toronto. REUTERS/Mark Blinch.