According to research by employment search website Simply Hired, hiring managers get an average of 34 applications per job listing, but they spend time genuinely considering an average of only 12.6% of them – that’s less than 1/3. Some applicants may feel the need to go above and beyond the average application and do something unusual or unexpected to grab the hiring manager’s attention.
Simply Hired conducted a survey to find out whether or not “nontraditional” strategies to stand out are worth the risk, or whether it makes sense to stick to a traditional resume and cover letter. They surveyed over 500 hiring managers and over 500 job applicants to find out what sort of outside-of-the-box approaches applicants are willing to take, and which ones do and don’t pay off.
Most notably, the survey found that over 63% of hiring managers find attention-grabbing gimmicks totally unacceptable, with only 20.2% saying they were acceptable. Hiring managers were also given a list of unusual strategies to rank from most to least acceptable. Unsurprisingly, the least acceptable strategy was offering to sleep with the hiring manager – which should really go without saying.
Interestingly, hiring managers also really disliked when applicants persistently emailed their resumes over and over until they got a response. One or two follow-up emails after your initial application aren’t such a bad idea – but if you don’t get a response after that, continuing to pester the hiring manager isn’t going to help.
While sending baked goods to the office was considered a somewhat acceptable strategy, sending those same cookies to the manager’s home address was a big no-no. Desserts might sweeten your application, but not if you cross a professional boundary by bringing them to someone’s home – that’s just creepy.
Another tactic that hiring managers received fairly positively was “enduring extreme weather to hand-deliver a resume” – but waiting around for inclement weather to apply for a job doesn’t seem very efficient. However, hiring managers did respond well to applicants who went out of their way to demonstrate a skill, for example, by creating a mock product or presentation or completing their interview in a second language. A librarian who was surveyed said she landed her job by making her resume into a book and creating QR codes with links to her portfolio, while a woman applying to work at the hotel hopped behind the counter and started checking customers in.
It’s worth noting that while most hiring managers aren’t into your gimmicks and games, of the 12.9% of applicants who said they have risked an unusual strategy, 67.7% of those actually landed the job.
Still, it’s probably a safer bet to stick to the protocol and not try any theatrics. So then, what can you actually do to improve your chances of landing the job?
Applicants surveyed tended to focus most of their time on their resumes, but according to hiring managers, the interview and cover letter are “the top ways to stand out among the rest.” Sure, brush up your resume, but make sure to give equal time to writing a strong cover letter and practicing potential interview questions.
In the survey, applicants also tended to overestimate the importance of knowing people within the company and having a “unique” cover letter and interview question answers; meanwhile, they underestimated the importance of asking smart questions at the interview and personality. In fact, hiring managers reported that personality was the most impactful factor in their hiring decisions.
It appears that the best way to stand out in a job interview is to wow them with your personality and nail the interview. Weird outfits, stunts, and baked goods will only get you so far – and in fact, may backfire.
Mariana
April 29, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Beam me up Scotty, There’s no intelligent life down here.
I mean, Web 2.0 is all about relationships. Who cares if you invented a software program or can only marginally check your email?!? … If you are gaining meaningful connections to other people in the world while online, then Web 2.0 IS useful.
Lani Anglin-Rosales
April 29, 2008 at 8:01 pm
well said, mizzle 🙂
Matthew Rathbun
April 29, 2008 at 8:12 pm
I think that the premise of the “web 2.0” is that it’s designed to let the end-user decided how they wish to interact with other people… Why does everyone (Lifehacker) want to define different levels of end-users?
If the user is interacting with someone else, online then **poof** they’re a web 2.0 user. If they only stumble on an agent’s blog find what they like, they’ll make attempt to contact the agent. I don’t think agents should be target high-tech geeks, but rather trying to be themselves and let the consumer decide if they want to continue to interact.
ines
April 29, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Dang @mizzle! you are on a philosophical row!
I had a meeting the other day with a big Miami RE honcho and while I talked about our blog and AG and Twitter and the rest of the social networks he had this “hold my hat in the wind” expression and I felt a bit un-human. I know the Web2.0 tools are about relationships, but there are tons of people out there that do consider us a bit strange and out there.
ines
April 29, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Oh, btw, when are we doing the video commenting here like Rudy just did at Trulia? I thought that was super cool.
Bill Lublin
April 30, 2008 at 5:16 am
If technology is a moving target, do you think we’ll all get a notice when 2.0 gets replaced by 2.1 🙂
Glenn fm Naples
April 30, 2008 at 7:12 am
My thinking that is that there is too much out there to socialize with other people for many of us to truly take full advantage of. Bill is probably correct that web 2.0 will be replaced with 2.1 or 3.0 eventually.
tekhub
January 2, 2009 at 5:20 am
There are more social sites each day. Those who are in the business are wanting to capitalize on each, not knowing which will strike gold. If you can get established early in these startup social sites, when they get bigger you may have a jump on the rest of the late adopters.
my opinion 😛