Being qualified isn’t always enough to land a job.

Past newsletter articles have emphasized the importance of polishing your résumé and preparing an effective cover letter to making a successful pitch in selling yourself. The goal is to get someone to pick up the phone and call you for an interview so that you can demonstrate your talent for getting the job and getting it done well.

But why isn’t being qualified necessarily enough?

It may be that the gatekeepers who control the portals are often not interested in who will bring the most talent, skills, and abilities to the company. In fact, about 90 percent of job applications initially pass through gatekeepers who look to spot key word match over content. Often these gatekeepers don’t truly understand the demands of the job and may be ill-equipped and ill-prepared to handle anything but a minimal sorting of applications. Sometimes a company will select only the first 100 résumés received for review prior to a cut-off date. And sometimes employers will place an ad for compliance regulations alone, knowing that the department has already preselected the next hire.

In fact, you may well be the most qualified person to apply for the position but your chances might be limited because you are applying to the wrong person(s).

So let’s look at some reasons why the most qualified person is not always the person who gets hired.

1. Your résumé may not stand out.

If you search through traditional channels such as Monster.com or newspaper want ads, your résumé must stand out from the crowd, as well as be free of errors or typos. You must submit a strong visual document to get noticed.

2. You don't have access to the key decisionmaker.

A job often goes to the individual who has the closest promixity and/or access to the decisionmaker, which is why networking works better than responding to a want ad. Networking is effective because it puts you on an inside track. You are more likely to find out about the availability of this position before it’s posted, and your chances are even better if you have a sponsor inside the company who will promote your candidacy. This powerful positioning gives you the opportunity to “close in” on the decisionmaker, to your advantage.

3. You don’t know how to “close the deal” with the hiring manager.

Closing the deal requires a thorough understanding of the job being offered and the challenges you will encounter in the position. To receive a job offer, you must convince the hiring manager that you have the smarts and the skills to make him/her look good and his/her life easier. Once you have a hiring manager as your sponsor, your chances of making it past even the most stringent, tight-lipped gatekeeper are vastly improved. If you cannot master this strategy then the job may go to a less qualified individual but one who can more effectively close the deal.

Sad stories abound about highly qualified candidates intimidating a less confident hiring manager who fears that the candidate might pursue his/her own position. The trick is to convince the hiring manager that not only are you not a threat, but that you can also accomplish the departmental goals and enhance his/her image in the boss’s eyes.

Don’t conduct your job hunt like someone who’s desperately looking for work. Don’t simply send out a bunch of résumés and then wait to see what happens, as so many job seekers do. This random, sporadic approach lacks focus, making you, the candidate, appear weak and ineffective.

Remember: Employers look for individuals who are capable of doing the job. This is reinforced when you truly target a position within an organization.

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Need some career advice?

Contact Julie Swaner for your one free hour of career consultation—a special offer for current members of the University of Utah Alumni Association. If you are not a member, get information about membership here, or fill out a membership form in my office.

Julie Swaner
Program Manager
Alumni Career Services
( 801) 585-5036