The dangers of life are infinite, and among them is safety.

~Goethe

Few (if any) truly great things were accomplished by people who stayed in their comfort zone.

Where is the ‘safety zone’ in a job search?  It’s filling out online applications. You don’t have to talk to anyone or stick your neck out–you just type and send. It’s safe, but it’s dangerous. Why? Because it keeps you in hope that filling this out will get you an interview. The truth is that only a tiny number of online applications ever result in interviews. Think about how many applications you’ve filled out vs. how many interviews you’ve gotten from them. No interviews is a job search disaster.

What should you do instead? Stick your neck out. Tell everyone in your network that you are looking for a job, and more importantly, contact those hiring managers directly. Find out the email address of a hiring manager (the person who would be your boss, who can interview and hire you) at a company you want to work for, and send him or her a note (cover letter) along with your resume. This is how you get interviews.

One job seeker I know applied twice to the same company, for a job he was completely qualified to do. He didn’t get any response at all–not even a “Thanks, but no thanks.” He decided to contact the hiring manager for that job. Within days, he got an interview and a job offer. That hiring manager wasn’t even aware of this gentleman’s previous applications.

It may feel risky to contact a hiring manager, but the safety of online applications is an illusion that won’t get you a job.

If you have no idea how to find hiring managers or know what to say to them when you do, get my Hidden Jobs Finder. Not only will it help you make those contacts successfully, it will uncover the roughly 70% of all jobs that aren’t advertised at all (so you can’t fill out an online application for them, anyway). You will have more opportunities, and you will get more interviews when you find hidden jobs.

If you hesitate to contact your network (for whatever reason), discover easy strategies to help in my ebook, Networking Effectively: How to Build Your Network for Career Success, available on Amazon.