If you’ve ever applied for a job at an online site, or even on a corporate site, you know it’s like sending your spaceship into a black hole. You ain’t ever gonna see that sucka again.
And so it was recently, for an opportunity that really piqued my interest and got my heart beating (no, Miss New Jersey was not involved). So I did what I normally do when I see an opportunity online – find another way in.
In this case, I had interviewed and gotten along with (many years ago) the now-president of this company. So I began to research. I found him on LinkedIn and did my best to sell myself in 200 characters or less. I sent emails to what I thought might be a few of his potential addresses. (Some bounced). I even did the standard online submission because when you do score an interview, they always say “please apply online so we can have your record in our database…” I even found a true email address for the VP of Communications who I was just about to reach out to asking him to forward my note to the president.
But I didn’t need to.
To my pleasant surprise, I got an email from HR asking for an interview. Was it the fantastic note I wrote on LinkedIn? Was it one of the many emails that managed to sneak through to the finish line, like a sperm finding an egg? Or was it the little ship that COULD make it through the black hole? I’ll let you know after my interview next week.
Do you have any stories of meetings that you secured? Were they left to fortune via a black hole or did they occur because you went around it? I’d love to hear your story in our comments.
Blessing: Ataulfo mangoes are in season! (and readily available at Costco)
Great going…..you are getting good at this!
Dad
Yay on the interview! And the mangoes! So funny, but getting that face-to-face is so like the journey of a spermatozoa.
Rooting for you David!
You go, guy! G'luck with the interview. As for online applications, I hear that most never even get read by real people. Instead, bots search for specific words on resumes and, if found, move applicants to round 2. File under: brave new world.
Thanks. So true about those submission databases being automated. You have to go around them and find someone from the inside.
And sometimes if you're lucky enough to get through, you get the proverbial "Oh, that position? It's been filled for months."
I hate online job sites most of the time.
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