Summary: Job hunting can be tough, and this offers strategies to improve your chances of landing an interview. First, evaluate the business as a customer through their website, social media, and review sites, noting areas for improvement. Next, engage key staff via LinkedIn or phone to learn more about the company’s culture. Finally, share insights with the recruiter or hiring manager to demonstrate your value. This proactive approach can also help you land interviews even when a company isn’t actively hiring.

Josh Matthews, the Salesforce Recruiter and host of the Salesforce Career Show shared:

The key items to start with include:

1. Understanding and ability to articulate your accomplishments.
2. Conveying the same in your resume and LinkedIn profile. 
3. If you have a job, evaluating how to make your current role work.
4. Contacting recruiters to work on your behalf. 

So you’ve done your resume and updated your LinkedIn profile, applied to numerous jobs, and still no luck. Try this!

Our most popular LinkedIn post last month can unlock more steps to work your way into an interview. Even if you are are on the shortlist, these tactics can help you make an impression and increase your interview odds. They key is to include your intangibles and people first soft skills in all of your interactions and make note of their presence or absence in the process.

1. Evaluate the business as a customer would.
   • The goal is to do the things a customer would on their website, via their phone auto attendant, via social media, via review and complaint sites, and via email and take notes on things to address and areas you believe could be improved. Be sure to include the BBB, GlassDoor, and Google Reviews for example.
   • Don’t break character by putting “ignore, just testing” or other cues in your communications. You want to be a mystery shopper with real needs so you can validate their response time, relevance, and readiness.
   • Where you believe it could help, make note of steps in their process where capabilities are absent or underperforming including IVR, text messaging, Knowledge, chat, AgentForce, etc.
2. Request to engage key staff.
   • The goal is to convey your value by evaluating the business through short inquiries likely via their public channels to start.
   • Use LinkedIn to find their HR lead and others in key departments. Send a message or locate them in the phone directory to leave a voicemail that you are looking to learn more about their history and company culture to better confirm your potential fit.
   • After you’ve gained some insights using the tactics in the first section, share that you are grateful for their help as you are confirming your potential fit and would love to know more of their experience. The best way to gather this info is likely via a phone call or other method that won’t become part of the historical record so be creative.
3. Sweeten the offer to the recruiter or hiring manager.
   • Once you’ve gathered some insights and experiences in the first two areas, you can notify the point of contact about the position with something like, “I’ve researched the online reputation of the business and acted as a prospective customer in various channels as I confirm my potential fit. I have some vital insights to share with the business which will help them improve and help me clarify my potential for growth.”
   • You might do this same process on the website and public channels of their biggest competitor as a comparison. You can include this detail with something like, “To get a better pulse on customer expectations, I’ve also followed the same steps with your competitor [ABC Company] and found key differences and opportunities I’d like to share.”
   • Keep the posture very upbeat, value added, and confident without being condescending or paternal. They key here is to position yourself as one who does the work in advance, turns it into significant value, and seeks a venue to turn it into actions that improve the bottom line – all things that you would need to do when hired into the position you are seeking.
4. Bonus: Do this even when a company doesn’t say they are hiring.
   • Businesses invest significant dollars into this kind of customer experience, competitor, and capability evaluation every year and your offering it for free is a differentiator.
   • Most businesses beyond 15 or so people are always on the lookout for great talent so they can be ready for staff changes.
   • Taking this kind of initiative and demonstrating the type of team member you will be often leads to interviews with little competition.

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