4 Tips to Get Hired This New Year

It’s been a great year at GovLoop.  Our audience has grown to over 250,000+ members, 50,000+ have taken our free training this year, and we’ve gotten to work with the top companies working in government market.

Great growth means a need to hire great people.  In the past year, I’ve been lucky enough to sort through thousands of candidates to find great people.  There are a number of key characteristics that stand out and I thought I’d share them.

So here are my 4 tips to get hired this new year.

1. Write Directly – While you have to apply formally for most jobs through a system, that doesn’t mean you have to stop there.  Take 15 minutes and find out who the role reports to and write that person a note how you are really interested in this position.  Out of 100 applicants, only 1-2 ever do this.
2. Get a Referral – With LinkedIn, it’s pretty easy to find a connection at most companies you will apply for jobs.  Do the extra homework and find a referral who will intro you in.  For most companies, referrals are their #1 source of best people and they treat referrals like gold.
3. Update Your LinkedIn Profile – The best companies are actively recruiting people from LinkedIn.  Personally, I spend hours looking for candidates with relevant titles and prior work experiences and actively outreach to them to apply.  If your LinkedIn profile is update, you’ll likely get approached by top employers for interesting articles.
4. Look for Growth – Growing organizations are great places to look for openings as likely they are hiring in bunches.  A non-profit that recently got a huge grant probably needs to hire.  A government agency that just expanded its responsibility, needs to hire.  A technology company that just raised $20M, guess what – that money is used to grow.

Good luck in 2016 and hope you find a job where you can make a big impact, have fun, and work with awesome colleagues.

P.S. Come join us – we are hiring in sales, client management, marketing, and more.