The talent market is more competitive today than ever before. Often, candidates spend months searching for jobs, applying to them, and attending interviews before the right offer comes their way.
If you’re in the market for a new job, how would you like it if someone else did the footwork for a change—if recruiters came knocking on your door instead of the other way around? That could be the case for you if only you knew how to make it happen.
Now, it’s time to brush up on your AI skills and gain a mastery of the cutting-edge tools that can get you noticed by top recruiters. Follow the tips below to attract the industry’s top recruiters.
Take a Lesson From the Athletes
The terms “recruiters” and “recruitment” are most familiar from the field of sports. A high school athlete trying to catch the eyes of college recruiters is a good analogy for job recruitment in any field.
There are several things athletes do to get noticed. First, they excel at their sport. You can do the same by mastering your tasks and upskilling. Seek out additional training or work on personal projects to gain experience as needed.
Sports stats are recorded and reported. The top students make the leaderboards. You, too, need to create a “paper trail” or record of your accomplishments. Write a blog, publish a paper, apply for awards, or enter contests.
Some students publish compilation videos of their athleticism on YouTube. You can do something similar. Create instructive YouTube videos or Instagram reels that prove your expertise.
Finally, student-athletes attend camps and other events where they may meet college recruiters. You, too, can network at industry conferences, seminars, expos, and other events.
Build Your Online Presence
Many recruiters today use LinkedIn to find and contact candidates. Update your LinkedIn profile regularly with new skills, experiences, certifications, and publications. Post and interact with the posts of others. Make sure your profile is set to “open to work.”
Did you know? You can set the “open to work” marker to be visible only to recruiters. This can help you avoid awkwardness if you’re looking for a job while still employed elsewhere.
Don’t forget to take advantage of LinkedIn’s communication and networking tools. Grow your network by reaching out to peers, former classmates, professors, workmates, mentors, and other professionals you’ve met. Then, up your game by reaching out to industry leaders or management at companies you would like to work for.
Tip: increase your chances of connecting with leaders you don’t personally know by leveraging points of contact. For example, include a message with your connect request mentioning that you heard them speak at a conference or read their article on a certain platform. You can also seek to build intermediate connections.
When you have a 2nd-degree connection with someone (you’re not yet connected but have a mutual connection), they are more likely to respond positively to your connect request. This is doable even when addressing “famous” professionals, as we’re generally subject to the rule of six degrees of separation.
Beat the Bots
Software is used to automate a lot of human resources (HR) and recruitment tasks. AI systems pre-screen applicants, compose emails to candidates and post job listings. This eases recruiters’ workloads and may reduce hidden bias, but it can also be a challenge if you don’t know how to successfully play the game.
Your resume and application often have to run an AI-powered gambit before they ever reach human hands. Screening programs try to determine which candidates are a good fit for the opening by comparing their credentials to those required by the original job listing. If your documents don’t contain the right keywords, you won’t be flagged as a good match.
The best thing you can do is include as many words and phrases from the job posting in your resume and cover letter as possible. Look for required skills, degrees, certifications, and years of experience. Make sure you use the keywords exactly as stated.
The programs are getting better thanks to AI, but if the listing says “must be able to type 60 words per minute” and your resume says “types 60 words per minute,” the computer might not recognize it.
You can also use online resume builders or AI text editors to tweak your resume and make suggestions so that it is concise, eye-catching, and motivating.
Key Takeaways
YouTube, blogs, and Instagram are great tools you can use to create an online record of your expertise. LinkedIn, however, remains the most powerful of these networking tools. There, recruiters can easily find you based on your skill set.
You can also use AI-powered text tools to update and critique your resume. A strong resume with the right keywords is essential to getting past the applicant tracking systems and landing the job you want.
