With thanks to Miles Cunliffe, Zach Nicholson at Wave Talent, Caroline Clark at Caroline Clark Coaching for their insights
At a time when the tech industry is reducing headcount and cutting back on hiring, competition for available roles is high. Maximizing your chances of success has never been more important.
A personal connection with someone in the hiring process can go a long way in helping you land a job. It’s estimated that a minimum of 70-80% of business roles are filled by networking, and that many roles are shadow roles that are never formally advertised, but distributed and filled via networks.
So how do you get face-to-face with a hiring manager when the odds are so steep, or jobs aren’t even listed? In this article we’ll focus on the process of getting a first meeting with a hiring manager, and look at how either a warm intro or cold outreach can 10x your chances of reaching this point vs. applying through the job description.
Whilst this doesn’t guarantee you a role, or get you past the interview process, it dramatically increases your chances by avoiding the huge drop off in conversion that happens through CV screening and recruiter calls.
Success rate at getting a job dramatically increases if you can skip CV and phone screen
Routes into a job
There are three main ways to get a meeting with a hiring manager:
1. Warm intro
>50% success rate*
You get introduced to the hiring manager by a mutual connection. This could be a friend or colleague, and we’ll include recruiters in this category.
People usually take these meetings because they don’t want to damage the relationship with the person they already know, so your chances of getting a meeting with a warm intro are >50%.
This should be your preferred way of getting in touch with someone.
2. Direct outreach
10-40% success rate*
You reach out to the hiring manager directly, outside of the application process for a specific job, and ask to meet them.
Very few people take this route, and it allows you to make a much more personalized connection with them.
This should be your approach when you don’t have a strong mutual connection.
3. Blind application
<5% success rate*
This is where you apply to a job through the formal application process.
This is the approach that most people take. It’s very difficult to stand out in this case, as your application will be processed and standardized by an Applicant Tracking System (ATS).
You should try and avoid this approach, or use it in addition to the other approaches, wherever possible.
We’ll cover the first two categories in this article, as they have the best chances of success, and should be the main routes you pursue.
* Based on personal experience from both sides of the table
Why networking is effective
Networking into jobs is more effective than applying blind for a number of reasons:
- Makes you stand out - most people don’t reach out directly to the hiring manager, so if you do, you’ll make a bigger impression than other applicants.
- Demonstrates motivation and conscientiousness - reaching out directly demonstrates a number of highly valued PM qualities, such as conscientiousness and ownership. It also indicates that you have high motivation to get the job as it requires more effort to approach someone in this way.
- Connects you directly to the decision maker - by approaching the hiring manager directly, you can create a more personal connection with them. You also avoid internal recruiters and HR people who won’t understand what the hiring manager wants as well as they do themselves.
- Avoids the ATS - by avoiding the formal application process (at least to start with), you avoid the CV screening process, where candidates have the lowest odds of making it through to the next round.
- Avoids cool-down periods - in a standard application process, if you are unsuccessful, then lots of big tech companies won’t consider you for another 12 months. Networking has no cool downs, and doesn’t have a binary outcome in the same way as a standard application - you can always send another reminder or try another contact.
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Benefits of an active job search
“Letting go of the “apply and see what happens” mindset learned from our early academic careers is hard. Finding the right school was simple: we applied to many schools and then chose among those that said “yes.”
In job-hunting, this mindset causes frustration. You apply for a job, get no response, then hear lots of “NOs” when you finally land an interview. And unlike school applications, few job opportunities pop up simultaneously — it’s hard to line up choices in parallel. For all these reasons, finding a great job requires a different mindset and approach.
In my job search, I focused not on finding and applying for jobs but on extending my network to set up an active perimeter where I received alerts when high-potential roles triggered my network. Instead of applying for jobs, I pushed myself to set up two high-quality conversations daily. In doing this, I made the job search an optimization problem. Each week I would sit down and think about all the people I needed to meet in the next few weeks, then begin the outreach to schedule meetings with them.”
– Gibson Biddle on how he became VP Product at Netflix
The traditional way of looking for a job is to check out some job boards and apply for the roles that seem like a good fit. And if you’re desperate, even some roles that aren’t a good fit. There are a few big problems with this:
- It’s passive – You can only apply to jobs that you find. You lack agency, and that can be demoralising.
- You miss opportunities – A lot of great roles are never advertised for. Hirers have great candidates in mind and never need to look for more.
- It doesn’t create value for you – Until and unless you actually get a job, you’re not creating any value for yourself. Each application doesn’t increase your network or skills.
- It’s less effective – You run straight into the CV and phone screening process, which are designed to stop 95% of applicants.
There’s another way to job hunt, that becomes increasingly important as you get more senior. This is the way that Gib describes above, and we call running an active search:
- Clarify what you want – You develop a really tight description of what you are looking for.
- Proactively build your network – You build a lot of high quality connections to be your “active perimeter” for new opportunities.
- Stay front of mind – You build rapport and nurture your relationships with these connections.
- Be ready when opportunities emerge – You’re then the natural first choice for people when they think of hiring for a role that would be a good fit for you.
The old adage is that “getting a job is a job in itself” and this is true. Running an active search is time intensive and takes significant application. But there is no scenario where this isn’t the best long term approach to landing the right job over time. Even if you find a job through a blind application (you can look for jobs the traditional way at the same time), then you’ll still be building your network and developing your outreach skills for the future.
The benefits of running an active search are clear:
- It’s active – You’re in control of your search, and set the tempo you’re reaching out to people.
- You’re first to hear of opportunities – By speaking to hiring managers directly, you’ll hear about roles before they even write the job description
- It creates long term value for you – Every message and call you make builds your network for the future.
- It’s effective – You’ll have a direct relationship with the hiring manager, and likely avoid CV and phone screening steps.
Now let’s look at the details of running an active search.
