I'm a marketing-minded professional dedicated to building brand awareness and taking full ownership of tasks. Throughout my career I have excelled at cultivating meaningful relationships and delivering results. I am a driven leader and am confident that I can make a significant impact with any organization.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

The Power of Referrals

I'm a sucker for numbers and stats. I'm pretty sure the pseudo-obsession comes from reading the sports page as a child (thank you Dad). That being said, I'm convinced that the majority of job hunting is a numbers game. Apply for "x" amount of jobs and receive "y" amount of interviews based on your qualifications.

I've been looking within the Bay Area since February, at times taking breaks from the search to concentrate on school. Since graduation, I have been actively applying on a daily basis. Here's a breakdown of the numbers.

As you can see, I've applied for 130 plus jobs which have resulted in 16 phone interviews. So I'm getting an interview for every one in eight jobs I apply to, about 12.5 percent. From the phone I've managed to set six onsite interviews with hiring managers. A little better than one in three, or 37.5 percent of the time.

Now let's look at the power of referrals. I've contacted 77 professionals and have scheduled 38 informational interviews. Of the 38 meetings, I've managed to get 26 application referrals, which yielded ten interviews. So, when applying with a referral I increase my odds of getting an interview to one in 2.6, or sightly better than 38 percent.

For sake of argument, lets assume I was able to establish a referral for all 130 job applications. I would have received approximately 50 phone interviews and 19 onsite interviews.

Moral of the story: referrals will increase your odds, get you on the phone with more HR departments, and will increase your chances of getting in front of hiring managers.

1 comment: