New Study Shows that Those Who Apply for Jobs First More Likely to Get Hired
If you are in the job market, applying for jobs as soon as you see them may get you hired. After a recruiter or hiring manager has reviewed the first batch of applications received, they may not go back to review resumes received later. In a recent study of 6,600 hires made in 2010, StartWire found that approximately 50% of successful job seekers applied within the first week that a job was advertised.
How can you increase your chances of getting hired? Be ready to apply for jobs before you see job openings, and try to find out how long a position has been advertised. Many job sites share information on when a job was posted; StartWire provides an at-a-glance indicator of how fresh the job is: if the job is listed as green, it's likely the job is new enough that you'll be at the top of the applications to review. If your job is listed as red, chances are good that the search is in the final stages or inactive.
Your chances of making it onto the interview list also increase when you have a friend or inside contact that can vouch for you. But even if you have a referral into the company you'd like to work for, you need to apply for jobs in order to get hired. You cannot be considered an official applicant under Federal hiring guidelines until you've applied.
So polish up that resume, get it ready to go, and go ahead and apply when you see new job leads. You never know when being first in line will help get you hired.
Diva Toolbox Contributor, Chandlee Bryan, M.Ed. is the Community Manager at StartWire, a start-up that closes the application black hole' by providing job seekers with free, automatic updates on their job applications from over 2,300 employers via e-mail and text.
