I speak to numerous senior executives every week and there is often a common underlying frustration that they all have… lack of feedback.
Recruiters are habitually bad at getting back in touch with candidates to let them know they have been unsuccessful in their application. Of course this can be the nature of the beast with recruiters typically receiving on average 200 applications for each position.
I would also tie this into why there is often a lack of tangibles and personality throughout the process and magnifies the necessity to develop your network with key high calibre contacts.
The following techniques have proved very successful in improving feedback whilst extending your network and adding familiarity to the process.
In fact many of our Premium clients have improved their interview rates significantly whilst improving the communication of key, relevant skillsets and opening up their network:
Ear to the ground – Try to source opportunities as soon as they come up by regularly checking your sources and setting up RSS feeds. Contact the day the job goes live gets you ahead of the pack and often is the quietest time before the onslaught of applications the following day.
Add personality – If the opportunity looks particularly good, phone then immediately as they will be inundated the following day when job alerts are sent.
Sell yourself – use this contact as an excuse to sound out the key triggers of interest and sell your relevant skills and experience.
Build your contacts – even if the opportunity is not right make sure you develop your relationship with that contact so that they are more likely to think of you for future opportunities, suggest a 20 minute coffee if they’re particularly relevant.
Follow up – if you don’t manage to talk to anyone, make sure you follow up your application, find out why you didn’t make the grade.
You are looking for a senior level executive job and not to work as a shelf stacker so the majority of recruiters should entertain your call.
Have a productive week…