The Personal Branding Blog recently featured an insightful post about why it’s against your best interest to apply to jobs through job boards. I hadn’t thought of it quite this way, but Phil Rosenberg gets this right: If you’re sending in your resume anonymously, you’re engaging in a passive behavior. Career advancement favors the active!
Is submitting a resume anonymously the sign of a well-connected leader?
If you are looking for career advancement–in your current company or another–I suggest you follow this advice. Challenge yourself to ensure every interaction positions you as a leader.
In terms of searching in a new organization, if you’re a leader, you’re already connected to one or more well-placed people in that organization. A resume suggests you’re just reacting to a job listing at any company that happens to post an opening, instead of actively pursuing whether the company you want to work for has an opening for you.
Here’s the bottom line for you:
You brand yourself as a plan B candidate, at best: Plan A candidates are applicants the hiring manager already knows: Internal transfers, past employees and people who have networked their way to the hiring manager. The hiring manager bases the job requirements on plan A candidates. Hiring managers choose job board candidates when their budgets are too low to snag their plan A candidates, when they can’t convince plan A to leave their old jobs, when they can’t arrange an internal transfer, or the plan A candidate doesn’t pass background screening. Then they look at candidates from job boards or who applied through the company’s website … plan B.
The “traditional” modern way is to meet the right people, and network your way in. My answer is a little different–set up your online Job Lure, and have the hiring manager or HR department find you because of your unique qualifications!
Why is it better to be the sought-after expert?
When you have unique qualifications, you have the upper hand. You can negotiate a better deal.
If you’re looking for career advancement internally, the job lure helps to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise. Your challenge is to both show your knowledge by talking about it, but also by putting it into action. Coming soon–Part 2, with more insight about this topic!
Join the conversation! Comments and questions are welcome!
TL;DR Career advancement favors the active!
Image from Stock Xchg.
Dear John.
Can I copy this post into my blog. Sure that it’s contain have a link backlink to your site & show that you’re the author of this contain
Hi Simon, I’d prefer if you simply link to the site. Thanks!
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