I will answer this from the perspective of a recent grad as well as the vantage point of an experienced professional.
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SUMMARY
I’m going to answer this question from the perspective of a new grad as well as a very experienced worker.
Here’s the sub-question was asked: I’ll be graduating with my Bachelor’s degree by next year and I want to get into software engineering. I did not go to a well-ranked school for computer science. I’m looking for some ideas of how to attract recruiters.
I’m going to address this in a few parts. The first part is I didn’t go to a great school.
How do I attract their attention?
The answer is it’s probably too late. What you are going to need to do is to invest some time and do some great work that’s noticed in order to get into that organization.
Why? Because they are not there to satisfy you. They have established criteria for hiring and you don’t meet it. Early in your life, you may decisions that are impacting you now – – you chose not to study all the time, hanging out with friends was more important to you than getting an A in that course. Maybe your fear got the better of you at the time you took that standardized test.
Whatever it was, the result was you can get into that great school that these firms believe is a good benchmark for success with their company.
They are trying to find exquisite talent for the organization and that is and you. You are a stretch at best, probably a loser from their previous experience.
You may not believe this but I’m not being critical of you. They just develop these formulas that are proven and over time as the new will be successful in your organizationAnd it’s not the person who went to the “C” school. They are not there to make you happy; they are there to solve a problem. They are not doing social work. It’s business; not personal.
You’re going to have to up your game and instead of doing mediocre work that caused you to be in this “C” school, you are going to have to up your game. You can do that in your next job, you can do that in projects that you do on the side that get noticed. However you do it, the going to have to step up your game so that they want to notice you.
For the new grad who hasn’t played big yet, you got work to do too. Had you come from a name school, it would have been easier because you come with that brand that the school has the creates an impression before you even walk in the door. The school you went to also has a and it rubs off on you too.
If you attended Stanford, they have a positive halo around them but you still need to deliver the goods. “Positive halo” means that they have a positive experience with previous graduates who come to work for them. You need to find alumni from your school who have been successful at their organization and see if they will provide you with entrée to the firm. From there, it is having a positive LinkedIn profile that causes them to want to reach out to you.
Speak to your career services office to see if they can set you up.
Summarizing up to this point, working with alumni who already work at the firm, using career services to be introduced and having a profile that makes them want to reach out to you, Reaching out to HR and hiring managers.
Lastly, for the experienced person, if you have done great work, if you are marketing yourself beyond simply doing your job, being in your silo, doing your tasks
. . . If you are out promoting yourself (After all, your career is part of what you do and marketing) . . . After all, you know these firms because they branded themselves from a career standpoint, right? You have to follow their example and brand yourself and market yourself outside of the cube you work in. Your LinkedIn profile is a small piece. Your public persona, Where you put yourself out, Where you can connect with these people who work with these firms, Speakers from these organizations– Can you get introductions to them when you see them?
The big thing though is making sure that the world knows about you.
I’m going to repeat that.
Making sure that the world knows about you and doing it consistently.
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Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.
The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.