3 Strategies To Get Noticed By Top Companies, When You Don’t Know Anyone There

I’m always impressed by people who are highly connected and have a long list of professional contacts on speed dial, ready to help and answer their call. So it has always concerned me when people say that your job search success depends on having a list of close contacts at the company you’d like to work at. 

As a career coach who has helped high achievers land interviews and roles at companies like Google, Deloitte, Lululemon, Molson Coors and other organizations in a variety of industries without any secret connections, I know that you don’t need to have a vast network to land a job at a top company.

When you don’t know anyone at a company, you need to take a different approach to make sure your application skips the line so you can get in front of the hiring manager, the right way. Here are a few tips to help you stand out. 

Skip the application portals to get ahead of the competition

Last year Google received over 2 million job applications. A recent industry hiring report indicated that 1 in every 140 Google applicants were hired for the job they applied to. In comparison, Harvard has a 1 in 15 acceptance rate so it’s 9x harder to get hired at Google than it is to get accepted to Harvard. 

If your only strategy is to submit a job application through an online portal, then you’re not giving yourself every opportunity to stand out. Given the volume of applications that a hiring manager has to sort through, they rely on applicant tracking software (ATS) to score applications and filter to the highest matches before creating a shortlist to interview. To help you stand out ahead of the competition and to bypass the ATS, find out who the hiring manager is and reach out directly. This will ensure your application doesn’t get lost in the application portal and help you get ahead of the competition. 

Communicate why you’re the perfect fit

It’s not enough to reach out to the hiring manager, you also need to clearly understand and communicate why you’re the right candidate for the job in a clear, succinct pitch. If you can’t do this, your application will just be tossed to the side. 

To get good at knowing why you’re the perfect fit, you need to take a step back and study your past experience. What specific experiences, projects and past roles have prepared you for this job? What skills have you developed that you’ll use in this position? What past results have you achieved that will demonstrate to the hiring manager that you can not only handle, but excel at the job they’re offering? Use this information to craft a pithy, succinct pitch to demonstrate why you’re the right person for the job. You’ll need to be able to communicate your pitch as easily and casually as you rattle off your email address.

Before you reach out to a hiring manager, make sure you have your pitch prepared. Some of my clients had the opportunity to share their pitch less than 24 hours after reaching out to the hiring manager, so being prepared before you reach out is a must. When you carefully study your past experience as closely as you would the job posting or company website, you’ll increase your chance of speaking to a hiring manager, without a referral.

Make connections

Finally, just because you don’t have any connections at a company, doesn’t mean you can’t create them. Look for opportunities to build relationships with employees at the organization you want to work for by searching LinkedIn for mutual connections. Find the company’s page and then search for the people tab, here you’ll be able to see all your first, second and third degree connections to people who work there. Use this list as a starting point to gain warm introductions and build relationships. 

Focus on building genuine relationships with people who you want to surround yourself with professionally. Don’t take a transactional approach by spamming your contacts or sending them your resume to pass on, take the time to build real relationships with people who you are excited to learn from. Then, focus on adding value back to your network. 

Recently one of my clients followed this approach. She connected with someone at a top company to learn more about their role and background. During the conversation, her contact shared about a job opening that hadn’t been posted yet and invited her to send him her resume. My client didn’t even have to ask!

Getting noticed by a competitive company doesn’t have to be hard

When you’re willing to thoughtfully and strategically approach your job search, you’ll find there are many exciting opportunities that naturally will open up to you.

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