Writing to employers blind in the current market might seem like a waste of time. When they are not recruiting, why bother? Except that you might hit them at the right time, just before they start to think about recruitment, just as they are about to spend money.
Understand that every recruiter wants to solve a problem. In the current market, where margins are tight and where organisations need to adapt rapidly, it is even more important that jobseekers understand what potential employers’ problems are.
We often hear of people making thousands of applications. The very fact that they are able to do so without hitting home means that their approach is not working.
So get more targeted. You need to do some research, find out what they do, what their problem are, who you know who works there – it might mean much more work in making each application, but if it is 10, 15 or even 20 times more effective, then the effort is worthwhile.
Perhaps you are in marketing. Study how the company presents themselves, how they communicate through social media, through the press. What you can find out about them on Google. Normally the problems are quite obvious to someone experienced in marketing. Rather than suggest a solution to their problem, explain how you have managed a similar problem and generated results.
Supposing you are an engineer and you see through reviews that they have a poor reputation for aftersales and customer service. Explain how you have corrected such problems in your career and the results you were able to produce.
Maybe the results are not easily visible publicly, perhaps you have to contact people through LinkedIn who work for the organisation. Possibly you need to reach out through networks and colleagues to find out what companies do wrong.
But if you find out organisations problems before you approach them, then you can present yourself as someone who can cure the problem. Most organisations know what issues they have, many simply do not know how to solve them.
Show them you are the one.
