Welcome to Pressing Questions, Fast Company’s work-life advice column. Every week, deputy editor Kathleen Davis, host of The New Way We Work podcast, will answer the biggest and most pressing workplace questions.
Q: Should I DM the CEO of a company to get a job?
A: No.
Ok, probably not.
Some career counselors have given the advice recently that in order to get past crowded recruiter inboxes, job candidates should DM the CEO or others in the C-suite directly. Their advice comes with a lot of caveats: that the message (or email) should be carefully crafted and that it works best at small companies.
If you’ve been looking for a long time, you might want to latch on to this unconventional advice, especially since a few people have had success with the tactic. But while desperate times call for desperate measures, it’s a risky move that has a higher chance of making a bad impression than a good one.
I know that going the official route through a job board, HR, or even a recruiter can feel like sending your well-crafted résumé and cover letter into a black hole. Years ago when I was looking for a job, I sent out over 200 résumés in this way and while I got a few interviews, my success rate was pretty bad for the amount of effort.
Here’s what I think works better from both my experience as a candidate and as a hiring manager.
Follow the directions
First, do what job posting asks of you. It’s your first test in following directions and reading carefully—important skills for any job. If the post asks you to upload your résumé to the corporate site, do it. (Even though it may feel pointless, it’s often a HR-required formality.)
Speaking of reading the job posting carefully, there might be elements in the post that most candidates overlook. Whenever I create a posting for a writer or editor position, for example, I always ask for two story ideas in the cover letter. If a candidate includes story ideas, it gives me a sense of whether or not they have read the site and if they are familiar with our tone and topics. It also shows that they took care to pay attention to details. If they don’t include story ideas, it’s a sign that they might be sending off a lot of résumés without closely considering the actual job.
Message the hiring manager or another employee
Next, after applying in the requested way, do a little leg work to figure out who the hiring manager is. Yes, most applications are filtered through HR first, but they are likely screening for key words and relevant experience and you are likely one of hundreds. The advice to reach out to a “real” person is good, just don’t try to do it via a DM to the CEO.
It’s usually easy enough to do a little poking around on LinkedIn and figure out who would likely be the manager for the role. Send that person a thoughtfully worded email mentioning that you applied for the posted position and why you are excited about the role. Explain that you realize that they will likely be viewing a lot of résumés, so you just wanted to make sure yours didn’t get overlooked.
An even better way to make sure your application gets noticed is to see if you have any connections that work at the company or if you know someone who does. Having a current employee flag your résumé will give you a higher chance at landing you an interview than emailing the CEO.
Need some more advice to make sure your job application gets noticed?
