10 ways to stand out in a sea of people who want the job by Trent Hamm on Jun 13, 2017, 12:30 PM Advertisement
 At any given time, there are millions of Americans out there seeking employment with some level of seriousness. Many of them are in your field, and some of them are likely applying for the same job. Most of those people follow the same exact pattern over and over again for their job search. They make a half-decent résumé and cover letter, send the exact same document to many different organizations, and then wonder why they rarely get calls back. Then they repeat. And repeat. And repeat. On the other end of that picture is a hiring manager at an organization, someone whose job it is to figure out who to interview and who to hire for a specific position. That person gets dozens if not hundreds of these kinds of applications and résumés every week. They're all pretty similar — some are more polished than others, but nothing exceptionally stands out from the pile. Somehow, a few of those résumés get selected for interviews. People show up. They answer questions. They go home. The hiring manager has to pick from among those few or else hire a few more. So, how does that hiring manager make that choice? Who goes to the top of that pile of résumés? Who gets the interview? Who gets the job from that interview? It's the applicants that stand out in a positive way at each step in the chain. I've been through this process on both ends of the equation. I've applied for very competitive jobs and actually secured a couple of them. At the same time, I've served on hiring committees for very competitive jobs and watched the sausage get made. There are quite a few tricks that really stood out to me on both sides of the coin that really made the difference. Here are the ten best among those strategies. SEE ALSO: An IBM VP shares the 4 things you need to convey if you want hiring managers to fight over you 1. Strongly prioritize applying to organizations where you have a connection  One of the easiest ways to get your application to the top of the stack is to have someone within that organization with a good reputation that can vouch for you. Trust me — if a person with a good track record sticks their head into a hiring manager's office and puts in a good word for you, your application is going to zoom right to the top of that stack. It's not a guarantee of an interview, but it's a huge positive attribute. Thus, one great strategy for getting a great job is to simply start by focusing strongly on organizations where you already know someone. Of course, this starts by having a pile of strong professional relationships, which is something you should start building and maintaining immediately. You do this by being active professionally with your peers on social media, attending professional meetings, and engaging people in your profession inside and outside of your workplace as often as you meaningfully can. Having said that, a dozen good strong positive relationships are worth a thousand very flimsy ones, so prioritize building good relationships over collecting tenuous ones. If you do know someone at an organization with an opening, talk to that person and ask them to take some time to put in a good word for you. If your relationship with that person is positive and you've helped that person in the past, it's very likely that they'll help you out, and a quick email or quick conversation with the hiring manager will help push that application of yours right to the top.
2. Craft your materials to specifically target the job and company  The vast majority of résumés and cover letters that a company receives are pretty generic. They're obviously created and designed to be able to be sent out almost thoughtlessly by the applicant, as though making one good ready-made résumé and cover letter is all that's needed. The thing is, each position is different. Each company is different. When your cover letter and résumé reflect what's unique about that position and company, it looks a lot better than an ordinary résumé. Before you send a résumé and cover letter to an organization, stop and take some time to do your homework on the position itself and the company you're applying to. Ask yourself what exactly that organization is really looking for in terms of the skills and characteristics you have to offer and then customize your cover letter and résumé to focus on those things. This strategy takes a lot of work, but it really pays off. You have to spend some time really researching the company and the position itself to really get a bead on what that company is all about and what they're really looking for, but a cover letter and résumé crafted to maximize that is going to hit a home run.
3. Focus your cover letter on a challenge the company is facing and how you can solve it  To expand upon the previous strategy, one powerful step you can take is to turn your cover letter into a pitch to solve a specific problem the company is facing. Again, this takes a great deal of work and some careful thinking, but it can really pay off. Rather than just looking at the skills you have and merely listing them out, instead look at what the company actually needs here. What are they hiring you to do? What need does the company really have to even offer this position? Write your cover letter from that perspective. The company has a problem of some kind or else they wouldn't have this position open. What is that challenge they're facing? What do you have to offer that will answer that challenge? Remember, the organization doesn't really care that much about you personally. What the organization cares about is solving this problem that they have, and they want to put the best person possible into that position so that the problem can be solved. They want to move forward on their mission, whether it's providing some kind of service or solving some kind of large problem or simply making as much money as possible. Ask not what the organization can do for you, but what you can do for the organization.
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