Securing the 1st Interview — Getting Past the ATS and Through to a Human

Two months ago, I accepted a dream job and decided to put pen to paper to share my learnings with the world after a 7+ month job search in the midst of a pandemic. Truthfully, I wrote 101 Interviews in 2020 as much for myself as for the millions of people out of work across the world. Writing down my emotional battles, the mistakes I made and the systems I used to land my dream job was therapeutic for me and, to my surprise, made a difference for more than just a few people.

Thousands of you have been vulnerable with me about how the article resonated with you and gave you hope. So, after taking some time for myself to adjust back into a working rhythm in my new role, I’m back to write more consistently — this time with a clear focus to serve you — the job seekers who have trusted my advice so far and who I hope continue to find value from my words.

I learned that the majority of you (~61% of my survey respondents) have unfortunately been job searching for 3 months or greater and of all the difficulties faced in your job search — you’re having the hardest time securing interviews or, as one of my subscribers put it, ‘getting to the starting line.’

Many of you were flabbergasted at my amount of interviews and, through your messages, painted a very different picture for me of the more common job searching journey you are facing — scarce of phone screens and fraught with ghosting. So, although I don’t wish the exhaustion and weariness that comes with interviewing 101 times, I am thankful and credit my many at-bats for allowing me to find clarity in my vision for my future and allowing me to land the role I’m in today.

So — how did I secure 101 interviews? Like many parts of my job-search, I developed a system that I call ‘Find & Reach a Human’.

First — Find a Human

Although it’s certainly possible to get to the starting line and secure a phone-screen just from applying online to a role, your chances of success if this is your only strategy are much lower and almost fully in the hands of an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). At least 75% of recruiters use an ATS to make their recruiting practice more organized and efficient. I’ve firsthand seen the benefit an ATS brings to a recruiting organization’s ability to hire at scale but, from a job-seeker perspective, the ATS is a barrier. Although there are tactics to stand out in a sea of thousands of resumes & cover letters within an ATS (more on that in a future article), the easiest way to securing your first interview is to bypass the system and find a human. Of course — you can’t completely bypass the ATS. I recommend that you go through the necessary hoops of applying to the job first and then immediately after applying, use this workflow to find and reach a human.

It’s worth calling out that the simplest way to find a human is to already know a human — if you have a credible connection already to someone at the company you’re interested in, leverage this connection and move on to the ‘Reach a Human’ part of the system. Many of you don’t have that luxury so for the majority that does not already have a connection to the company of interest, the following is for you:

While the ATS is a barrier, LinkedIn is your best friend — if you haven’t yet invested the time to update and optimize your LinkedIn profile to complement your resume, this is your sign from the universe that it is 100% worth the time and energy — do it already! Your LinkedIn profile should, on its own, be enough to land you the 1st interview for the role of your dreams. At it’s most basic, it should act as your resume — at it’s finest, it should be a marketing tool that showcases who you are as a person (About section) and what your colleagues think about you (Recommendations section) much more than a basic resume could ever accomplish.

After investing time & energy into your LinkedIn profile and having identified a role that you’re interested in, use the workflow below to find a human to connect with:

1. If the role is posted on LinkedIn, check if there is a Recruiter’s name associated with the role. If so —note this person as your back-up human.
2. Then, search the company on LinkedIn and click ‘People’ — this should give you a lay-of-the-land (how many employees there are, where geographically employees, they are concentrated, etc.)
3. Click ‘See all ____ employees on LinkedIn’ to drill down into the detail to form your ‘Potential Humans’ list —

Use the ‘Connections’ filter to see if you have any 1st or 2nd connections. If so — make a list of these people and their job titles.

Use the ‘locations’ filter to narrow in on people working in your geographic area (if this makes sense for the role and the company isn’t fully remote). Make a list of people in your geographic area at the company that hold similar or adjacent roles to the role you’re interested in.

Use the ‘title’ filter and execute a few searches with the exact title you’re interested in and the more general department name that the role works in. For example, if you’re interested in a Product Manager role at the company, type in ‘Product Manager’ or ‘Product’ — this is a good way to find peers and the hiring manager and make note of them.

4. Take stock of your list. Of all the people on the ‘Potential Humans’ list, determine what is the right first human to reach out to — I recommend prioritizing a top three. Unless you have a direct connection to them, a recruiter at the company should be your lowest priority person because they receive hundreds of messages a day about various roles. Instead, prioritize people that are directly impacted by the positive outcome of hiring someone great (like you!) for the role. If it’s in the cards, the ideal combination for the right human is a person that both works directly with the role you’re interested in and has some type of common connection to you — whether that be through a person who is a mutual connection, a school or even a common location. Bonus points if this right person is also the hiring manager! Narrowing down the list to the right person is more of an art than a science but is easiest when you start a list of solid potential humans and work your way down to the most relevant and accessible human.

Next — Reach a Human

If it’s financially viable — I recommend investing the $29.99 monthly fee for a LinkedIn Premium account. Among many great features & insights, the LinkedIn Premium account allows you to message people you’re not directly connected to using InMail. This isn’t an ad for LinkedIn or sponsored by them — it’s simply the method I used to directly message the right human for each role and it worked well. If the price of that subscription isn’t financially feasible, I recommend finding an employee of LinkedIn and reaching out to them. I’ve seen numerous posts from LinkedIn employees on the platform wanting to help job seekers and it’s worth a shot to see if they can sponsor your Premium membership.

Whether using LinkedIn Premium to direct message them on the platform or finding their email and reach out — I suggest you keep it short (no more than 5 sentences), gracious, and to the point. Your point should both be the value you bring to the role AND a crystal clear ask of the person you’re messaging. This ask should be appropriate to the strength of the connection — if you know this person personally or have a strong mutual connection, go ahead and ask for a referral. If you don’t know this person at all, aim lower and ask for 15 minutes of their time to talk about specific questions you have about the role and include one of these questions in your message.

If you’d like access to the exact outreach template I used in my job search, click here to subscribe.

Last — Follow-up, tastefully

Sometimes you’ll get a timely response but more often than not you won’t get a response. First, recognize that this silence often has nothing to do with you or your message but the circumstance of the busy lives we all leave. Tack on a global pandemic to the mix and often the last thing someone has time to do is respond to one, seemingly random, LinkedIn message or email. After 3–5 business days, have the courage to follow-up again by reinforcing the value you can bring to the role and again — make crystal clear what you’re asking of them.

If you’d like access to the follow-up template I used in my own job search, click here to subscribe.

This method isn’t full proof — you won’t get a response for every follow-up but a strong follow-up message increases the odds that you’ll reach the human. If not — go back to your prioritized list and start again.

NEED MORE HELP?

I hope you take away something new that gives you success but also realize that just reading an article may not be enough. I’d love for you to let me know in the comments what resonates with you and what you still have questions about and, if you can spare a few minutes, take this survey so I can further design how to help you beyond just the written word.

Deep breaths 🙏. — you’ve got this!