3 Steps to Landing an Interview

You’ve been submitting your resume to countless job openings, yet you haven’t gotten any calls back. This can be the most frustrating part of the job search because it feels like your applications are just going into some black whole. Even the jobs that you feel overqualified for seem to be ignoring you too. If you’re ready to say goodbye to waiting around and finally start getting those calls to come in for an interview, you want to make sure that you’re doing the following three things.

Use job search tools like JobSearch by HonorSociety.org

Using job search tools like JobSearch by HonorSociety.org make the job application process much more streamlined and efficient. JobSearch allows you to search millions of job openings and aggregates from the major job search engines like Monster and Indeed. You don’t have to waste time going to each individual job search site and instead can do it all in one place. You’ll be confident that you haven’t missed any jobs that are a great fit and you’re saving yourself a lot of time.

Follow the application instructions  and include a cover letter

The next thing you want to do is make sure that you are following the application instructions to a tee. For most hiring managers, in the beginning stages they are looking for ways to eliminate applicants and the easiest way for them to do this is to ignore the applications that did not follow the requested process. If you haven’t been receiving any responses from the jobs that you have already applied for, ask yourself if you tried taking any shortcuts and didn’t submit all of the materials that were asked for. It’s also extremely important that you include a cover letter. A cover letter tells the story behind the resume. A resume is a list of accomplishments, but without the cover letter, it’s next to impossible to put a face to the bullet points. And under no circumstances should you ever type in “n/a” or “see resume” in the place of a cover letter. The job search is not the time to show any signs of underachievement or laziness.

Send a follow up email to the HR manager or hiring manger

Simply submitting the online application is not enough. With the internet, it’s now easy to submit job applications to hundreds of jobs, so you want to make sure the hiring manager knows that this isn’t just any job that you’re applying to. You want to show genuine interest in this job. About 2 days after you’ve submitted your application, send a short email to the HR manager or hiring manager stating that you’ve submitted your application and why you are so excited about this opportunity along with your flexibility to discussing the opportunity further. Tread carefully with this because you don’t want to be over eager. If you haven’t heard back in 3 weeks, then it’s ok to follow up, but not any sooner.