“In this economy, a number of companies refuse to interview candidates who aren’t referred by employees,” says Dave Lloyd, a Silicon Valley recruiter and author of “Graduation Secrets,” a career guide for young people (http://www.graduationsecrets.com)
Large corporations use referral programs to encourage employees to submit names of people they know for open positions. This screening process makes sense, since like attracts like — talented employees often have talented friends. And companies are willing to pay $500, $1,000 – and more – to employees who refer new hires.
That means you should start making friends at big companies you want to work for.
“I knew one motivated employee at a high-tech firm who made $500 for every hire he referred. So he actively searched for great candidates. He helped get three people hired while I was recruiting for that company,” says Lloyd.
Action Step: The best way to learn about employee referral programs is to strike up a relationship with someone at your target company — and ask. A simple email will do. Then, keep in touch. Your contact may end up walking your resume into a hiring manager’s office. You get hired and your “advocate” gets a cash award – win-win!
Does LinkedIn sound useful for this kind of thing? By the way, many employees may not know about the referral program. If they don’t and you do – then you have a huge edge.
Find out about employee referral programs in your targeted companies.
It can motivate one of your LinkedIn contacts to refer you in!
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This job hunting post was adapted from content provided to by my good friends Kevin Donlin and David Perry, co-creators of the Guerrilla Job Search System.
Kevin and David have been interviewed by CNN, New York Times, Fortune magazine, and the Christian Science Monitor about their method to finding a job.
Get a free audio from Kevin and David on how to get your job search into high gear
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