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Competition for advertised jobs is fierce. An advertised job posting can generate applications from thousands of potential candidates. Likewise, employers can cherry-pick potential employees.

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To increase your chances of generating a response including an interview from a job posting, you should:

• Use LinkedIn to locate a company insider with a common connection (professional association, alum, etcetera)
• Request an informational interview to determine if the job is still available, name of the hiring manager, desired characteristics of the potential employee, and etcetera
• Customize your resume and cover letter using this information
• Ask your company insider to deliver your resume and cover letter to the hiring manager

Next, I am going to provide you with the steps I used to apply for a position last week with a Fortune 100 company.

1. Go to www.linkedin.com

2. Click on the “Advanced” link for the Search People field in the upper right region of your screen

3. Select “Located in or near:” for the Location field

4. Input a zip code for the Postal Code field and select the appropriate entry (such as 50 mi) for the Within field to ensure the location of the company is within this geographical range

5. Input the name of the company in the Company field and select Current in the box below this field

6. Click the Search button

7. If the search generated several results, you can limit the results by relationship by selecting the 1^st Connections, 2^nd Connections, and so on under the Relationship field.

8. Next view the profiles to locate current employees who have a common connection with you (professional association, alum, etcetera)

9. Contact these individuals to set up an informational interview. I have discovered that I generate better results by sending an email for the initial contact. The email I sent via LinkedIn listed the name of the position in the subject field and the body of my email included this:

“Hello X,

I hope all is well. I’m a current X association member and want to set up a brief chat this upcoming week to discuss your company. I can be reached at 469-892-5092.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks-Kenrick”

The individual replied the next day listing the time frame we could talk. I replied by stating:

“I prefer to have my resume/cover letter hand delivered to the hiring manager, if there is a match. Tomorrow after 1PM is good. Let me know what you think.

Thanks-Kenrick”

10. We had our 10 minute discussion, I customized my resume and cover letter, and I sent it to my new connection for delivery to the hiring manager.

Whether or not you are invited to interview for the suitable positions you’ll apply for using this process; your response rate should be higher than if you just apply blindly.

If you missed it, you should listen to “The Big Job Board Myth: How to Use LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to Land Your Dream Job.” You can listen to the archived version by clicking the player below. Peter Clayton, the expert guest, discussed or provided:

• 1. A quick overview of the big job board myth
• 2. The importance of using LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter during your job search
• 3. Steps and tactics of how you can use these three tools to create your own job market

If you like this episode, I encourage you to visit www.blogtalkradio.com/thecareercatalyst. Next download the previous six episodes, register for a free BlogTalkRadio account, mark this show as a favorite, subscribe to our upcoming shows, and become a regular listener.

Play Episode VII: How to Use LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook… | Download this episode (right click and save)

Also tune in to Episode VIII: Part II of the hit episode, “Use LinkedIn Like a Headhunter” with expert guest Ron Nash, the job seekers favorite master career strategist.

Ron will provide a step by step process to acquire referrals to hiring managers of your targeted companies, how to establish rapport, and eventually generate interviews. This is a show you do not want to miss. I encourage you to also listen to Episode II: Use LinkedIn Like A Headhunter at www.blogtalkradio.com/thecareercatalyst as a prerequisite for this show. If you cannot participate live in next week’s show, feel free to send your questions to kac@kenrickchatman.com by Tuesday.

Remember the wisdom of a crowd is richer than the wisdom of a few. So actively participate in the free online community at jobradiousa.com and encourage fellow job seekers to do the same.

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