SO- IF you apply for jobs either randomly when you see them in the newspaper or on job sites, you are just throwing your resume out there hoping for luck.
It is a real lottery.
MOST COMPANIES HIRE FROM WITHIN
. There is a 90% chance that every job you have applied for was already filled the day you applied for it.
When a company is looking to hire someone, they are trying to fix a PAIN that they have, and they want it fixed fast...and there is usually someone already in the organization that has been doing the job. Not always...but usually.
STILL: It could be that you have skills that can be used to solve some pains and get you a great job! For example: A Warehouse Supervisor gets complaints that customers are not getting their deliveries until after 10am every day. The Warehouse Manager explains that that night manager retired and his assistant just left for a different job and HR has not hired people to replace them. Some of the customers are happy to not get their deliveries until after 10 am, but most of the customers need their supplies when of before the open for business, and they are angry and talking about cancelling their contracts.
That is the Warehouse Supervisor PAIN!
Customers are leaving out because the Warehouse Supervisor does not have a complete night team to do the work! So, the Warehouse supervisor reviews the work records of everyone on the night crew and finally promotes someone to Night Manager. But she still needs an assistant night manager and another night staffer to replace the one just promoted. Everyone in their 'pipeline ' has already been promoted from within! The Supervisor wants the PAIN to stop. So she has HR advertise for an Assistant Night Manager. HR gets a hundred resumes. They review them to try to find the 10 people who (on paper) look like the best people to stop the PAIN of the warehouse supervisor.
After interviewing all ten she finds two who have experience that most closely matches what she thinks the warehouse needs. She sends the resumes to the SUPERVISOR who sends them back saying ‘no... these people are not the right fit.
The HR department does that again and the same thing happens. WHY? Because the people in HR have never worked the warehouse night shift. The people in HR only have a vague idea of what an assistant night manager does in the warehouse. So the SUPERVISOR has to live with this pain for weeks and weeks or even months until HR finally sends the right person. Months later the PAIN of customers complaining and cancelling contracts is gone So what YOU want to do is NOT just apply to every job you see. Sending a bunch of resumes out and hoping they will 'stick' is no longer a sound strategy for a professional. You want your resume to go to the person who has the PAIN. If you are an experienced assistant night manager, in this situation, you want your resume to go directly to the warehouse supervisor!
Try this: Go to the BLS (Bureau of Labor and Statistics) website and make a list of all of the jobs that you like the pay for. Make a list of all of the places within 10 miles that should have those kinds of jobs. EVEN IF THEY ARE NOT ADVERTISING THOSE JOBS!
Next: Narrow that list down to the places you would actually want to walk through the door. Next: Go On LINE - do a search of each of those companies. Find out what they actually DO. If there is a web page it should have information about the employees...the president...the senior staff...the HR director...the individual department heads...phone numbers and sometimes even their suite numbers.
(Why do you do this? Because companies are required to post job openings publicly even if that already made the decision to hire from within. So you may see a job posted for "Coordinating Vial Manager" but when you get there you are being interviewed for "Vial Packager" because the Assistant 'Coordinating Manager' got the manager job, the coordinating supervisor got the assistant manager job and the Lead Vial Packager got the supervisor job.)
How do you get around this? You identify the company (companies) you want to work for (see above) you find the CONTACT PEOPLE...the DECISION MAKERS...because they are the ones who have the PAINS that must be relieved. So ...while you have been doing your research, you discover that 'QAZGARP' has their main office in a manufacturing facility that is a 30 min bus ride from your home. You go on line and see that 'QAZGARP' recently added a new product line that everyone wants and their stocks have seen a 5% increase steadily for the past 5 years. You go to their website and learn that their new "QAZZZAG" product is jumping off the shelves. You go by the office park and check out their lobby, the reception area and even engage the receptionist is light conversation. "I’ve always been interested in 'QAZGARP' What is it like to work here?" (if the receptionist says it is hell and they are leaving as soon as they can get another job...that is a warning sign. Look around...are the employees smiling, chatting and engaged or looking at the ground, shuffling and silent? If it is the second one...you probably do not want to take any more steps toward working there.) But let us say that you have seen happy faces and the receptionist is happy to be there so the next thing you do is go home and look for the company's PAIN. ....and you find out that “QAZGARP’ is getting trashed on social media because they cannot deliver their “QAZZZAG’ on time and people are pointing out that a soft fluffy pillow covered in mustard can do close to the same thing. You KNOW that you were a great assistant to the assistant day manager at another place... and you know how to do organize deliveries. So now, armed with THAT information you recraft your resume: instead of OBJECTIVES (because your objective is completely different from the objective of the person hiring you ...and they do not care about your objectives) you put your strengths as they relate to the job you want at “QAZGARP’ - You want to be a manager or assistant manager in the warehouse shipping department so you relate everything to that without actually saying it. "During my work at ANOTHER NICE COMPANY I streamlined the process that got the PRODUCTS to the PALLETS. Additionally I worked with the STAFF to get the PALLETS wrapped and loaded more efficiently so the trucks could leave on their routes earlier. I am positive that my knowledge, motivation and sensitivity to DELIVERY systems will be an asset to “QAZGARP’ and help increase customer satisfaction and profits." You include a short cover letter and you send this...not to HR... you send this to person that you researched who is the head of the Dept you want to work in (the WAREHOUSE SUPERVISOR) ... the person who has the PAIN. Your resume may sit for a week or two or until it is read and then the SUPERVISOR will take it to HR and say ’Why don’t you send me people like this who are qualified? Get this person in here for an interview!”. Your resume may be the thing that makes the DECISION MAKER say, "Look, XYZ is doing a terrible job. Let's get this person in for an interview and get a good idea of what they can do for this company." The thing is to do your research and get your resume to the person who knows the job they are hiring for ...or should be hiring for! It really does take just as long to send out 50 random resumes or fill out 20 random applications as it does to really do your due diligence and research where you want to work and then customize your resume for that job. (also.... search the term 'PAIN LETTER', please) People hire other people to work because they have a PAIN. That pain can be not wanting to work 80 hours a week...that pain could be not wanting to balance a checkbook or not wanting to talk to customers, or not wanting to load a delivery truck. That pain could be not wanting to build a billion-dollar airport. People get hired for jobs because those jobs are a pain for the person who has enough money to pay someone else to do it. I am perfectly capable of cleaning my own house. It is a PAIN for me ...so I pay someone else to do it...and my job is a PAIN for my company ...so they pay me to come in here every day and put up with it