How to Land a First Round Interview

Blog #4 in the series on career advancement, Context: Male, 28 years old, 30+ interviews 

One of the great fallacies in the process of hiring is the candidate belief that every application is thoroughly reviewed. However, the harsh reality is that many applications are actually not throughly reviewed or never reviewed at all. 

How it works: The reality of recruiting is that recruiters are rewarded for filling open roles as efficiently as possible. Success for recruiters in a few general sense is being able to fill an open role with the least amount of resources expended to fill that role. In this case, let's consider resources to be money (used on job postings and advertisements to attract talent), team time (interviews conducted by the hiring team), and individual time (individual recruiter time consumed to orchestrate and preliminarily review candidates). The lower the amount of resources consumed to fill an open role the better the recruiter. Of course there may be specific company initiatives that complicate this basic premise (like diversity targets or employee long term retention goals) but effectively the premise is the same. Fill roles at the lowest cost.

How you can make the process work for you: Internalizing this imperfect process is the key to making it work for you. So how do we set ourselves up for success to land the job that we are most excited about. 

1. Do not apply! - The most common mistake that people make when pursuing a job application is that they immediately apply to job postings. I am often guilty of this because it seems to be the most painless way through the interview process by limiting the number of conversations that you need to have to only those that are absolutely necessary. The issue with this is that it may feel good to check this off the list but now you have subjected your resume with no context around it. This is problematic because now you are putting the entire responsibility of evaluating your resume on the recruiter. Understandably this is an imperfect process, the recruiter likely has a hundred or two hundred resumes they need to consider and some may not get a close enough look or not get looked at all. Instead of leaving your resume review up to chance, the most important thing you can do prior to applying is speak to someone that either has that job at the company, is connected to the hiring team, or can give you some inside information on the role. What you are solving for at this stage is that you are referred to the role by somebody internally at the company. This will provide additional validation that you are a good fit for the role and significantly increase your chances of landing a first round interview. In the best case scenario, your referrer may vouch for you when it comes time to making hiring decisions. 
2. Use insider information to inform what you want - While it is always important to enter into the job search process with an idea of the roles that you want to take on, don't be narrow sighted. Sometimes the job posting my be misleading or there are key pieces of information that are left out that might change your conception of a particular role. For example, a discussion with a company employee may reveal a not yet listed role that fits your skill set more closely or another team/hiring manager might be generally more accommodating of a stretch skill set than another (and this has trickled down to how the recruiter evaluates candidates). Or furthermore, you learn that another team is hiring for a similar role on a more urgent basis. In short, make sure you use this touchpoint to either affirm that you are a good fit for the role or adjust to position yourself for a better option. I have had a few conversations where I have gone in with a role in mind but realized that another I was unaware of was more exciting or a better skillset fit. Again beyond referral this can help ensure you are positioned for the right role and increase your chances of getting a first round interview. 
3. Position your resume to satisfy mandatory competencies - If your resume is reviewed by a recruiter make sure that your resume lines up with the basic requirements of the role you are looking to pursue. In many cases, not having the core competencies spoken for on your resume will result in immediate rejection of your resume. If you don’t actually have a competency that is being asked for you can always indicate that its a work in progress or that you are taking steps to fulfill that requirement. But as mentioned make sure that every mandatory competency is spoken for in some way on your resume. This may require a little resume tweaking for each role but it is something that needs to be done.
4. Don’t be afraid to pursue multiple roles at the same company - In some cases more than one role may interest you or your initial contact at the company may push you to consider multiple options. If this is the situation you find yourself in, make sure you are only considering the options you are interested in and then making an active attempt to refine down your options as more information becomes available. Being transparent with whoever you are connected with at the company can often open new doors, confirm your interest in the company, and expand your network within the company, which all can add to the likelihood of you getting a first round interview.
5. Apply to similar roles at different companies at the same time - Before applying to a role make sure that you are also aware of and can actively apply to similar roles at competing companies. You should feel like you can pursue up to 6 similarly suited options without too much overhead. There are a few reasons why this can be effective. 1. Discussing the industry with various people from different companies can give you a lot more knowledge about the space which will increase your conversational aptitude about the role during an interview and even within your resume. 2. Companies are often overly focused on their competition and informing people within the company that you are discussing with a variety of their competitors can often create urgency in their process and provide an additional validation on your skill set. 

With these few steps, it is highly likely that you will be able to land a few high quality first round interviews and set yourself well on your way to pursuing your dream job.