Connect with hiring managers

- No matter what your industry is or how advanced you are in your career, we've all had times when we submitted our resume for a job we wanted and it felt like our application was disappearing into the void with no hope of actually turning into a job opportunity. If you're tired of that feeling, contacting key decision makers is one of the most important things you can do to stand out in a pack of hundreds if not thousands of applicants. Fortunately, there are plenty of tips and tricks that you can use to connect with those key decision makers to make sure that you get noticed. With today's technology, it's really easy to apply for a job. Regardless of whether someone is qualified or even truly interested in a given role, anyone can hop online and submit an application pretty much no time at all. And as a result companies are receiving an unprecedented number of submissions for each open position. As a job seeker, your first challenge is to make sure that you don't get lost in the pack. The best thing that you could do to get your application noticed and evaluated is to reach out to someone every single time you apply for a position. That someone can be a friend at the company who's willing to provide a referral, a recruiter that works for the company you're interested in, or the hiring manager themselves. Now most job postings won't list the name or contact information of the hiring manager, but typically they're not too difficult to find if you know where to look. Hop onto LinkedIn, search for the company's name and the title that's a level above the position that you're interested in applying for, and the hiring manager's profile should pop up. Send them a quick message in LinkedIn or send them an email letting them know that you've applied for a particular position and what you feel you bring to the table. If his or her email address isn't listed on LinkedIn, hope isn't lost. Try to find an email address from one other person that happens to work for the same company and you can typically apply that same email format to the hiring manager that you're looking to contact. So for example, maybe it's first initial dot last name at the company name dot com. If things go as planned, and that message turns into a conversation or an interview, a great way to prepare for the call is to start with the recommendation section of the hiring manager's LinkedIn profile. Recommendations often hint at a person's strengths, values, and workplace identity. Another quick trick for reaching out, to hiring manager's especially at startups and small companies is to connect with them and reach out through Instagram. The company should be small enough that a direct message will put you in touch with the owner or key decision makers, and it should also give you perspective on the company's personality while giving them perspective on who you are and your capabilities especially if you're interested in a creative based role. Obviously before you do this, don't forget to through your Instagram and make sure that it presents the image you want prospective employers to see. So those are some general tips that will help you stand out in a crowded applicant pool, but let's specifically talk about reaching out to headhunters. A headhunter is similar to a recruiter, but instead of finding talent solely for one company, a headhunter serves a third party often recruiting for a number of different organizations. Headhunters are fantastic assets to your job search because they can introduce you to hiring managers, small and mid sized companies that you may have never known existed, and open positions that have yet to be posted for the general public. Now when it comes to reaching out to headhunters, don't rely on one alone. You want to reach out to many. For the most part headhunters are working to close a number of open positions and are reviewing hundreds of potential candidates weekly. So chances are they'll only respond to you if you're the perfect fit for a role that they're looking to close. Reach out to several headhunters via LinkedIn, email, or even telephone. Now it sounds crazy, but most recruiting agencies strongly encourage their headhunters to pound the phone. So it's one of the last industries that's often open to accepting unsolicited calls. If you're like most of us, who in the past have felt like we were applying to jobs left and right and never hearing back, these strategies for getting in touch with hiring managers and headhunters can be the one extra step that you take that turns things around. Instead of clicking submit and hoping for the best, these tips can make the best happen.