IT'S FRIDAY AND WE HAVE A LOT TO COVER!!!
First of all, I led my second webinar with CCing my EA this week and I am pleased to report I was considerably less terrified than the first time. Mainly because we got to talk about one of my favorite topics ever: how to creatively get your foot in the door with companies you actually want to work for, instead of submitting your resume into a black hole and hoping for the best. If you're one of the new subscribers who found me through that session, hi!!! I'm so glad you're here 🩷
In other news, I moved back to Dallas two years ago after living in Austin for 8 years, and today I am committing the absolute cardinal sin: traveling into Austin to attend SXSW. I'm going to a session on Saturday morning with Investor GPs, LPs, and Founders (read: hustling to find great new roles to work on for you people) and Tim Ferriss is speaking. Will I be brave enough to ask for a selfie? Genuinely unclear. Updates to follow.
[Oh, and I also launched my first ever digital playbook this week, more on that below]
Okay! On to the good stuff.
SXSW vibe:
Did someone forward this newsletter to you?
🔥 This Week's Best Openings
•Executive Assistant – StitchFix, Remote [Apply here]
•Executive Assistant – Skims, Los Angeles [Apply here]
•Chief of Staff – Dave & Busters, Dallas [Apply here]
Good luck if you applied!!!!
🏓 The Power of A Quick Ping
The volume of applications hitting hiring teams right now is unlike anything we’ve seen before. It’s a tsunami. A single Executive Assistant posting can easily attract 500+ applicants within the first few days, sometimes more. And when that happens, recruiters and hiring managers simply don’t have the time to carefully review every resume that comes through the system.
So they take shortcuts.
They prioritize candidates who were referred internally, introduced through someone they trust, or whose names were mentioned inside the company before the application pile started growing.
Which means if your strategy is simply to apply through a job board and hope your resume rises to the top, you’re entering the hiring process in the most crowded possible place. There are better ways to get your name in front of the people doing the hiring.
One of the things I covered in yesterday's webinar was how pretty much everyone with a job is operating on internal messaging platforms like Slack or Teams all day long. Talent teams and hiring managers are constantly sending each other quick pings, sharing resumes, talking through feedback, and flagging candidates worth a look.
When someone inside the company sends even the most casual message like "hey, I know someone who just applied for the EA role, wanted to pass their name along," that candidate's application gets pulled up immediately. When a job gets 750+ applications in the first couple of days, THESE are the shortcuts that talent teams use to figure out who is worth spending 20-30 minutes with on a screening call.
Here's how it actually plays out in practice:
Apply for a role
Go into LinkedIn and look for ANYONE you're connected to who works at that company. A former colleague, a mutual connection, someone you went to school with, literally anyone. Heck, If you aren’t connected to anyone, send a couple of connection requests!! You're not asking them to write you a glowing recommendation. You're just asking them to send one quick internal message letting the recruiter know you applied.
“Hi [Name]!
I noticed you’re at [Company], and I actually just applied for an EA role there. Is there any chance you could send a quick ping to [Hiring Manager / TA Name] to let them know I applied? I actually already wrote out a quick Teams message you could forward, say the word and I'll send it over.
I owe you one, thank you so much!
[Name]”
And here's the part that makes this strategy so effective: you can make it even easier for them to say yes by offering to draft the message yourself. Something like "I actually already wrote out a quick Teams message you could forward, say the word and I'll send it over." When you remove every possible barrier to someone helping you, people help you. The message your connection would send internally doesn't need to be elaborate either:
"Hey, I have a connection who just applied for the EA role supporting [team]. Her name is [Name]. Wanted to share in case it's helpful."
Et Voila! That one message usually prompts the hiring team to pull up your application immediately, before they've even started sorting through the pile.
This is one of 6 strategies in a playbook I just launched today, and if you’ve applied to a job this week, start with this one right now!! The other 5 are just as actionable, and the whole thing is built around the same idea: stop applying into the void and start getting into actual conversations with the people who are doing the hiring.
The playbook also includes the exact outreach templates, search strings, and scripts for every strategy so you're not starting from scratch. You can literally open it, copy the message, customize two lines, and send it today.
It's $27 (with code LAUNCH) through Sunday night and and goes up to $37 Monday morning. If you're in an active job search right now, this is for you.
Ask a Recruiter
Stuck in your job search? Not sure how to handle a tricky interview question or navigate the hiring process? Submit your question anonymously, and I’ll answer it in an upcoming newsletter.
📅 See you next time!
Was any of this helpful?! Hit reply and let me know :)
Sydney Morris
Founder, N+1 Search
Author, The Offer Letter