Most of us in the careers field preach diversification: don’t put all your eggs in one basket… pursue a multi-channel job search… you never know where your next lead or next job will come from.
And that’s all true, in general. But last week I learned a startling statistic from a reliable source – an early peek at the CareerXRoads annual study of the Source of Hire data from “large, highly competitive, high-profile firms.”
Guess what? A referral from someone in the hiring company is 70x more likely to lead to a hire than any other source.
That’s right – 70 times.
So what does that tell you? Target your search… Align your skills and value with what you learn about the organization… Network to get a referral… And be ready to discuss the company’s challenges and how you can provide solutions. Do this whether or not there’s a current job opening. Do this as often as you can (it’s not as easy as zapping out a resume in response to an online posting).
Given this finding, if you’re going to concentrate your search in one channel, the only smart choice is the targeted/referral route.
Cross-posted at CareerHub
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