The modern hiring process is about ten years behind the technology. A decade ago online retailers had it easy: name yourself after keywords, fill your site with literal text that is easily parsed by search engines, and enjoy sitting at the top of the search results for every one of your potential customers. When you’re the only company selling sneakers on the Internet, it’s easy to be found. Name yourself “sneakers.com” and watch everyone swarm your site.
There are 10,000 companies selling sneakers on the Internet today.
Probably more. Just calling yourself “online discount sneakers” won’t cause you to be number 1 on a search engine. Now that the technology has matured, people pay massive amounts of money to be number one on a Google search. That avenue of getting attention is saturated.
So what did they do?
Return to brand.
Think of the content you consume. How much of it is branded content? You spend your life bombarded with a new message today – not “buy this thing!” but “love our company and what we stand for.” That’s why they put random people’s names on Coke bottles. That’s why the latest Allstate ad is just an inspirational message to hurricane victims in the Carolinas.
If you love the company, you’ll check into our products, and you’ll buy.
So I hear you’re looking for a job?
The current job-search process looks like online retail a decade ago: keyword-optimized resumes that (hopefully) filter to the top of the “google search” – in this case an algorithm for filtering through 10,000 applications.
The problem that no one seems to be addressing is that the “attention market” is saturated.
When every single student who’s graduating with your major this year can apply to every job that’s listed, you have to find a new way to stand out.
Return to Brand
Take a page from the online retailers’ playbooks – if they love you, they’ll check into your qualifications, and they’ll buy. That kind of attention doesn’t come from keyword optimization. It comes from branded content – communicating a genuine message, of who you genuinely are, to people you genuinely want to work with.
This will mean you don’t always fit. Not everyone will love your particular brand of crazy. But the ones who do, really do. You’ll move from trying to trick people into hiring you – trying to fit their mold – to finding places that you naturally fit.
And when you actually fit? They’ll be begging you to come and help fulfill their mission.
