Any advice for getting your resume/application noticed by a large company?

doctorlexus

IBM, Cisco, Dell, etc.

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dave330i

Have highly desirable skills/certs.

Danielm7

Know someone within that large company?

doctorlexus

Heh. This is great. I love this thread already.

aftereffector

Sometimes it's all about timing. I got my big break with a combination of Dave and Daniel's advice (desirable skills and a personal contact), but also the slot I was applying for needed to be filled immediately, and I was given the fast pass through the normal HR gauntlet. If I'd applied one month earlier or one month later, it might not have worked out. Of course, I didn't know that at the time, so you could say that sometimes it's all about luck (and hard work and persistence and skills and certs and personal relationships).

Mow

try starting a blog that advocates for that company. If you have decent content you can start to make connections in that company.

doctorlexus

NetworkNewb wrote: »

Apply for positions your qualified for

For sure

I thought I locked on a good one with IBM a little while back, but the listing closed just a couple days after I submitted my application. It's harder to get noticed these days. I actually got hired by IBM more than a decade ago, but it turned out I couldn't take the job at the time. Wish I could get some of those old offers again.

doctorlexus

NetworkNewb wrote: »

Guaranteed ways to get your resume noticed by HR

-Send flowers to HR along with your resume.

-Use paper that has a perfume smell. Combine that with colored paper an even greater effect.

-Stalk the HR person and drop your resume off directly at their house.

(Don't have any good ones for online submissions )

These are great ideas. Myself and another guy once took chocolate covered strawberries to a recruiter when I was staying out in Austin. TX. That got us noticed, and she was very helpful.

The in-person advantage was definitely a big advantage back in the day.

danny069

Other than applying directly on the website of a company, find the direct email of that person to send your resume.

doctorlexus

aftereffector wrote: »

Sometimes it's all about timing. I got my big break with a combination of Dave and Daniel's advice (desirable skills and a personal contact), but also the slot I was applying for needed to be filled immediately, and I was given the fast pass through the normal HR gauntlet. If I'd applied one month earlier or one month later, it might not have worked out. Of course, I didn't know that at the time, so you could say that sometimes it's all about luck (and hard work and persistence and skills and certs and personal relationships).

I believe you're right about timing. I just have to keep checking frequently.

doctorlexus

Mow wrote: »

try starting a blog that advocates for that company. If you have decent content you can start to make connections in that company.

This actually seems like a great idea.

doctorlexus

danny069 wrote: »

Other than applying directly on the website of a company, find the direct email of that person to send your resume.

Is that effective? I guess it depends on the personality type of the hiring person. I could see them liking the initiative or getting annoyed at the circumvention.

danny069

doctorlexus wrote: »

Is that effective? I guess it depends on the personality type of the hiring person. I could see them liking the initiative or getting annoyed at the circumvention.

Well that is the chance you gotta take if you really want to the job.

Mow

doctorlexus wrote: »

This actually seems like a great idea.

What do you mean, "actually"?

beads

Become a SME on particular topic. Write and publish a very good article, wait for the tomatoes to stop being thrown at you, it happens. If its good enough to warrant giving a talk at a local meetup, for example we have maybe half a dozen I can think of: BurbSec, ChiSec, EastChiSec... et. al. These are your first real introductions and introductions lead to other introductions, you see how this works. Once you establish yourself on the local scene people will (*gasp!*) come to you for advice and techno-wisdom. As you grow more comfortable with the SME game your papers will increase in complexity and length; presentations will become a more technical and deeper in breadth and width - people will notice.

Don't rely solely on electronic social networking. Your looking to make a personal connection.

Feels like an oxymoron to IT people doesn't it?

- b/eads

Danielm7

Kind of a funny related story when I was job hunting a few years ago. I found a job opening at a local company but they listed it on multiple job sites but there were strange differences in the listings. I found their recruiter, a company employee, and asked her about it on LinkedIn. We talked a bit back and forth and by the time we got to a phone interview she told everyone that she found me on LinkedIn and wanted me to interview. I didn't want to correct her on that one, ha.

I didn't get the job because they ended up hiring internally but a year after that their security director interviewed at my current (much much larger) company and is now my boss. I ended up hiring my own boss from a company I didn't get hired at (and no, the resume never even got to him) and now lead the whole department under him. On the plus side I'm much happier at the current job and the old one sounds like a total hellhole.

dmoore44

Connect with a recruiter on LinkedIn or the jobs boards of a professional organization (ISC2, ACM, etc...) - I've had good luck going both routes.

Russell77

Try to match key words on the top third of your resume to the job posting. A computerized screen will pull resumes with the key words. Then a human screen will most likely not go past the top third of the resume unless they see something to make them read further.

Also try to be the first to apply for a new posting. After 24 hours they may have enough resume's to choose from and the rest are just back up plans.