Want to get hired? BE SPECIFIC. Move with intention.

Imagine you’re going for a run.

You step out of your house—in which direction will you run? We can’t run everywhere at once, so we have to pick a specific direction. In the same way, you can’t work at every company, so you have to pick specific ones. And why not focus on the ones you really want to work for?

In my work as a career coach, I find myself constantly reminding frustrated and exasperated job-hunting clients that the classic “spray and pray” approach is the core of their problem.

If you’re getting generic rejection emails, it’s because you’re being generic. You’re not moving with intention.

Recruiters and hiring managers spend their entire days reviewing generic stuff. None of it stands out, and they have to use significant brain power to compare and contrast candidates who all look nearly the same on paper.

This sucks for them.

Instead, we can choose to be specific in our outreach, and in our reasons. This also helps you not get stuck with your reach-outs—not knowing what to say to them.

You want to work at Trainual? Why them, specifically?

If your first answer is “because they have a cool product,” what about the product seems cool? Get specific. Dig deeper into your reasons, and you’ll uncover things worth talking about.

When you do this, you make it vastly easier for recruiters/hiring managers to notice you. To see you for who you really are. And to want to meet you.