You go to your dream company's career page and find the perfect role. You fit the qualifications for the role and are excited for the opportunity.
You attach your resume and cover letter and are hopeful that you'll hear positive news soon or hear back soon.
Days go by, even weeks, and you finally receive an inbox notification which states "Thank you for applying!"
Oh these words, you rush to open the email, but know that the first few words can make or break your day.
It's an update; you're thinking that it'll be an interview opportunity, yet the opportunity turns out to be another one of those dreaded emails.
"Unfortunately, we decided to go with other candidates."
Those dreaded words can break a person’s day. Have you ever felt this way?
I have had my fair share of receiving those emails, and I want to try and help you reduce those in your inbox.
Hence, I am sharing some insider tips from myself/Wonsulting to get into your dream career. Before we start, let’s break down the average application process.
We believe that there are 4 tiers in the Job Search process:
You simply apply to a role without a referral. We call this a “blind application” because it’s simply a “hope for the best” situation.
You get referred for the role from someone at the company, but is not on the team that is directly hiring. For example, let’s say you’re going for an Operations Analyst position and a Software Engineer refers you.
Someone on the hiring team refers you for the role; for example, let’s say you’re going for a Financial Analyst position at Amazon, specifically for Devices. Someone on the team for Amazon Devices recommends you for the role to the hiring manager.
The Hiring Manager who is directly responsible for the role recommends you; for example, let’s say you’re going for a Product Manager role at Facebook Messenger. The Head of Product for Facebook Messenger is the Hiring Manager; they recommend you for the role.
So what was the point of breaking down the tiers? Because most people will be in either Tier 3 or 4. Let’s break this down even further, and look at it more closely.
Let’s say you’re going for the Business Analyst position at Cisco.
How many people are applying? Let’s say 1,000+
How many people are getting referred? Let’s say 200.
How many people are getting recommended by a Hiring Team Member? Let’s say 10.
How many people are getting recommended by a Hiring Manager? Let’s say 2.
Lastly, how many roles are they recruiting for? Let’s just say 5.
If you were a recruiter/hiring manager, what would you look at first? Let’s say they choose the 2 from the Hiring Manager recommendation and they choose 2 from the Hiring Team Member recommendations.
That only leaves 1 role left for 1,200 to go for.
The reason why you’re getting rejected is because if you’re in Tier 4 or 3, you’re getting beat out by the Tier 1 & 2. If you’re able to get into Tier 1 or 2, that’s when you get a better chance, especially coming from a non-target school or from a non-traditional background.
At Wonsulting, we can help you strategize in reaching your career goals with our Ultimate Bundle. This job search package includes everything you need to get ahead in your job search. From resume revision, cover letter revision, networking tips from Fortune 500 career professionals, and more! Check out the full details on our services page.
Now, how do you get into Tier 1 or 2?
Networking.
Networking is game-changing, especially with you getting into your career
How do you network?
Here’s exactly what I’d do if I were trying to get into my career.
Reach out to professionals who work at the company that I’m interested in; there are SO many ways on how to do it, but let’s dive into how to do it first with Alumni.
How To Network With Alumni on LinkedIn
Let’s say you’re going for a Marketing Internship and you’ve identified your company as Cisco.
Search “Position” and then filter “Current Company” to “Cisco”. You’ve now identified 3,000+ results of Marketing Interns at Cisco. Now, let’s find those who attend your University. Let’s say that you currently go to Chapman University. You’d then change the “University” to “Chapman University.”
Go to their Profile and look at their About Section; the person will USUALLY have something regarding their lives, experiences, etc. You’ll use this information and incorporate into the personalized invite.
Then check their activity; the reason why you want to check this is because you want to make sure that they’re ACTIVE on LinkedIn.
Why?
If you reach out to someone and they’re not active on LinkedIn, you’ll never be able to connect with them because they’ll never see your message.
Now why do you send a personalized invite?
After they accept your invite, most will NOT reply at first. After, they accept, send a message with the following content:
Here’s a simple message template you can send:
Hi (Name), hope you’re well! Thanks for connecting with me on LinkedIn, I appreciate connecting with you!
I’m writing to you because I’d love to learn more about your story, specifically (xyz).
I’d love to follow in your footsteps & journey; my story is (your story in 1–2 sentences). I’d also love to see how I can provide value/help you in any endeavors/initiatives!
Please let me know if you’d be free sometime to chat, as I appreciate your time and help in advance.
Thanks and have a great day!
If they say yes to a phone call, that’s amazing! The goal of the call is as follows:
If this sounds like it will take up a lot of your time, we came up with a solution to help you network at the speed of light. It's called NetworkAI. Our job search tool helps you find the right people to network with based on what kind of job you're looking for and generates the perfect message for you to send them. Try it out for yourself and become that much closer to landing your dream job!
Throughout my own career, networking has been essential in landing roles at companies I’ve always aspired to work in. Here’s some quick “don’ts” especially when networking:
“Make friends, not connections”
— Jonathan Javier
Jonathan Javier is the CEO/Founder of Wonsulting, which mission is to “turn underdogs into winners”. He’s also worked in Operations at Snap, Google, and Cisco coming from a non-target school/non-traditional background. He works on many initiatives, providing advice and words of wisdom on LinkedIn and through speaking engagements. In total, he has led 220+ workshops in 9 different countries including the Mena ICT Forum in Jordan, Resume/Personal Branding at Cisco, LinkedIn Strategy & Operations Offsite, Great Place To Work, Talks at Google, TEDx, and more. He’s also been featured as a Top Job Search Expert in articles from Forbes, Business Insider, DailyMail, Yahoo News, LinkedIn News, Jobscan, Brainz Magazine, and more. He’s amassed 800K+ followers on LinkedIn, Instagram,& TikTok as well as 30+ million impressions monthly on his content.
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