JobSync

Haven't Applied to Work at Your Company? You Should...

October 4, 2011

As a hiring manager, you trust the coworkers tasked with finding ideal candidates to be proficient at their jobs. This is especially important as the person you hire will help your department and company hit their numbers. However, what if you harbor serious doubts that highly qualified candidates are getting through to your desk, even in a difficult job market? To understand what such individuals are encountering when they apply to your company, it behooves you to walk in their footsteps and apply for these open positions at your company. And you may be surprised at what you find.

For starters, consider your company’s website. Is it informative? Can it get a potential pool of applicants excited by the prospect of working for your company? Does it effectively convey the spirit and corporate culture of your company?

Next, give your company’s online application a test drive. If it is tedious and cumbersome, ask yourself “Why?” After all, you know what skills and experience an open position requires, so why are others making it so difficult for job seekers to convey these attributes to hiring managers like you? Go ahead and apply, either as yourself or as a hypothetical candidate who would be perfect for the position. If you don’t make it through to an initial screen or never even receive acknowledgment of your application, there are clearly systematic screening problems at your workplace.

Lastly, while you wait, do you receive updated information on the status of your application? This and other hiccups along the way may tell candidates how organized and efficient your company is (or, in this case, isn’t). If such issues are significant, they could be discouraging the best and the brightest from completing applications to your company.

Mom was right: When trying to find the best candidates, apply yourself. Just be ready for the consequences. And rejections.

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