If you work in an office environment and are looking for a job, this market is probably unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. The scales constantly tip back and forth between an employer’s and a candidate’s market, but I’ve never seen them tipped so far in favour of employers. Case in point: for a 12-month contract entry-level posting, I recently got over 500 applications in 4 days. Had to pull the posting down early to avoid letting too many people down.

So as a candidate, what’s there to do in this situation? Throw in the towel? Throw in 1,000 applications to every job on LinkedIn? Throw a tantrum?

Nah.

Let me tell you a story about what one candidate did that stopped me in my tracks and landed them a coffee chat, then an interview, then the job offer.

The Approach

This individual – let’s call her Sarah (not her real name, obv) – found me on LinkedIn. She didn’t contact me on LinkedIn, mind you, but I know she found me there, by what she said in her cold outreach email to me.

See, Sarah tried to connect with me on LinkedIn, but I almost always decline invites from people I don’t have a personal relationship with… nothing personal, just how I keep my network reliable and close-knit. She could have thrown in the towel there; nobody would blame her.

But she didn’t.

Instead, Sarah somehow figured out (guessed?) the construct for work emails at my company, then draft an email to me and sent it along. Normally, this would work against her – I get at least a dozen cold outreaches to my work email every single day. But as I was about to hit delete on what I initially thought was complete spam, something caught my eye…

…the email was personalized to my LinkedIn summary. That’s rare these days, and it got me to read the full note.

Then, something even crazier happened.

Sarah didn’t try to sell me anything. Not a product, and not even herself as a candidate. All she did was request a virtual coffee chat to learn more about something I specifically addressed in my bio. Her specific question – how one keeps the art of storytelling alive and well in a heavily-regulated industry – was one I had never been asked before.

And just like that, I was hooked. We got the coffee chat in calendar, and met a week or so later.

The Conversation

When I got on the call with Sarah, it was clear this girl came to play. We started with intros – I asked her to tell me a little about herself, and she was right there with the elevator pitch. Clear, concise, and focused on the elements that would be most relevant to me and my world.

Strong start.

The content of her answer was impressive: she was well ahead of her peers in terms of her volunteer experience, as well as in terms of clarity in her career aspirations. It was clear Sarah was hungry, and hungry is a strong trait to display when you’re making a first impression.

After intros were done, I let her steer the conversation, so that she could make the most of the opportunity she worked hard to earn. I waited and listened, because at this point there’s often a bait-and-switch that happens, where the person doesn’t actually care about what they initially said they did, but instead launches into an ask of me – get me a job, buy this product, collaborate on this idea, etc. And what did Sarah do?

She asked the question she led with in her initial email.

I can’t emphasize enough how rare this is for prospective hiring managers to experience. In a world where everyone who reaches out seems to have some sort of an ulterior motive, Sarah stuck to her initial approach. And it worked: we chatted about the topic for a while, and then I asked her about what she was looking for from a career perspective.

Sure, she wanted a co-op at my company (Sarah was a university student studying commerce). But she didn’t lead with that. And honestly, I’m not even sure she would have brought it up if I didn’t. The conversation flowed organically, and as a result, I was intrigued enough to want to support her further.

Wrapping it Up

In a world where everyone seems to be talking about AI and automation, the power of a human-first, personalized approach to reaching out is more powerful than it’s ever been.

Sarah landed the initial coffee chat because she gave a damn about my background and my interests in her note, when just about everyone else doesn’t. She got an interview because she stayed true to her initial ask in our conversation, and everything else about her was impressive. And she got the offer because she showed up to her interview just as prepared and ready to make an impact as she did in our initial conversation.

It sounds so simple… and yet nobody does it anymore. So when someone does, you stand out in the best way possible.

Try this: get on LinkedIn, and find someone at a company you respect. Read their profile in detail. Reach out to them, and ask for nothing more than a coffee chat about something they’re clearly passionate about in their profile. See what kind of a response you get.

Then, do that 10 more times.

You won’t get a response every time, but I can almost guarantee that you’ll get one more often than whatever generic approach you’ve been trying up to now.

And when you do get the chat?

Keep your word. Stick to your original ask. Maybe something else comes, or maybe it doesn’t, but either way, you will have had a great conversation with a new connection, and likely learned a few things along the way.

Good luck out there, and stay human! 😉