How To Job Hunt Like a Spy (Part 1)

Hat tip to my pal Geoff Peterson for inspiring this idea! (Smile)

Is there a company that you really, really want to get into? Well, there is a way to increase your chances of being found and contacted without being a nuisance to the recruiter. Its called “Careersite Spying.” In a nutshell, you find out the pool of talent the company is recruiting from and then you make sure that your resume is there for them to “stumble across.” (wink) Its a pretty simple strategy that is easy to execute, depending on the ATS (applicant tracking system) that a company uses. Let me show you what I mean, step by step.

1. Okay, this is the website for the insurance company – Prudential. (Just in case that big blue company logo escapes your eye.)

2. Let’s go over to the Careers section of their site.

3. When I get to their Careers page, my inclination is to search for a job to use as an example. However, when I scroll down a bit, I see that they have links to their “Latest Openings” so I decide to click one of those instead. (No biggie, the strategy will still work.)

4. The job I saw was for a Business Analyst. Okay, whatever… I click the “Apply Online” button.

5. Since I am a new user, I have to go through a couple of hoops like signing up and agreeing to privacy policies, et cetera. Its a bit of a pain because I don’t feel like doing it. But oh well…

6. Okay, after I have registered on the site, the first thing I notice is “How did you hear about us?” in big red letters. (Big smile)

7. I have a various options here to choose from. Among them are: Campus Recruiting, Career Fair, Internet, et cetera. By using the scientific process of eenie-meenie-minee-moe, I pick “Career Fair”

8. When I choose “Career Fair” a second drop down menu appears and I am given more options to choose from. Among them, “100 Black Men of America,” “Al Dia Job Fair” and “Asian Diversity Career Fair.”

So… based on this method I can find out the following:

  • All of the Career Fairs that Prudential Recruiters will attend.
  • All of the colleges that Prudential Recruiters recruit from.
  • All of the websites that Prudential is posting their jobs on (Internet option)
  • All of the Print media Prudential is advertising in
  • All of the Professional Associations that Prudential targets
  • All of the Social Media channels that Prudential markets through (FYI, so far its only Linkedin and Facebook. No Twitter?)
  • Et cetera…

So if I really, really want to get into Prudential, it would be in my best interest to position my resume to be found in most (if not all) of those places. Make Sense?

Happy Hunting!

Jim

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4 thoughts on “How To Job Hunt Like a Spy (Part 1)”

  3. Wow, this is great advice for those seeking out the hiring habits of a company with a good website and good-data logging. It is almost like reverse-engineering the job hiring process! I like it, and it is definitely one of the more thoughtful approaches to out-side of the box job searching that I’ve seen.

  4. This is great advice for recent graduates. I’ve been going through business analyst training and have been dreading the job search.

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