Getting Your Resume to the Top of the Pile

Last week I heard from an HR colleague that she had landed a new job. She had been looking for about four months and landed it with a company leveraging her network. We had met for coffee shortly after the position had been posted about a month and half ago and she indicated that she submitted her resume for the position.

I know what you are thinking; I thought you said she got the job through her networking not from applying online. When we met for coffee she had already applied online and had researched some information about the company but wasn’t having much luck getting a connection into the company. My colleague is very active and connected in the HR community and sat on the HR special interest group (SIG) for one of the area trade associations. Well, her luck changed as she found that one of her colleagues from the HR SIG had a connection into the company’s HR organization. After some calls, she was able to get her resume moved to the top of the pile. While the connections didn’t land her the job (she still had to interview and sell herself through the selection process) they did get her the attention of the hiring manager and past the noise of the hundreds of other applicants that came through the internet posting.

Over the past couple of months we have been talking about the power of networking. We review our networking efforts every week to keep us focused on this important element of job search. I have visited other search groups and reinforced the same message of networking. Networking is the path for finding the jobs that are never advertised. They represent approximately 85% of all open positions. Job seekers regularly question why they should network with people who don’t have open positions, or why they should meeting with people who don’t seem to be directly related to the jobs or companies they are targeting. I always respond that you never know who might be the one that becomes the connection to the next job opportunity. In some cases they may be the one who can get your resume moved to the top of the pile. For the 15% of jobs that do get posted, you want to network your way through the back door to that one connection that will help move your resume to the top of the stack.

Keep networking. It is the power to your job search.