Forget Online Applications and Connect Directly with the Hiring Manager

Five years ago this direct route would be frowned upon. Why? Because it threatens process, and in the past, breaking process was bad form, at least more so than now. Disrupting process is very much in vogue. Don’t get me wrong, if you want to be aggressive, skip HR and go straight to the hiring manager, you are taking a risk, but there’s no greater risk than never taking one. So the best thing to do is find out all you can about the risk you’d be taking. That means get on LinkedIn and find people you might know at the company you’re looking to work for and find out as much as you can about its culture and how important process is over say performance. Is it hard for people to do the things they need to do to get results (do people or rules get in the way) or is there more of a startup feel where you have more of an opportunity to make things happen? Would this company be annoyed by you contacting the hiring manager directly or would it not matter to them as much as finding the right talent?

Research into company culture is sort of a new flank into Operation: Get Hired by Very Good Company That’s Right for Me. Social media opened this flank allowing more information about what it’s actually like to work at different places. The good news: you know more. The bad news: You have to work harder to know more. But this is a good tradeoff if you really want to go after a job that suits you.

So the short answer is yes. Go for it. But get as much information as you can upfront. The reason why people get annoyed by a breach of process stems from the idea that you don’t know or care enough about the way they operate, and they’re sensitive to that. Well, maybe there are other ways to show them you know who they are and what they want, and are ready to deliver. It’s worth a try.

Of course, we think the best way to get noticed is to work with a recruiter.

About NextGen

NextGen is the brainchild of longtime telecom professionals with nearly 50 years of experience and millions of dollars in Telecom Recruiting Services. We focus on establishing long term relationships with our clients and candidates so we can recruit the best and the brightest in the telecom industry. This ‘quality over quantity’ approach is at the heart of everything we do and has resulted in successful job placements at Fortune 1000 firms worldwide.

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