It’s worth it to reply to a job post! Don’t lose heart.

Hello Everyone,

I want to encourage you all to not lose heart in your job search.

As the KIT List founder, I get emails from so many KIT List people who’ve gotten one — and even two or three! — jobs from the KIT List over the years.

So it’s worth it to reply to a job that interests you!

Since we are smaller than the huge job boards (we have 70,000 people in our KIT List community), your odds are so much better with the recruiters and employers who post with us. And many jobs are only posted here.

If you qualify for about 80% of the job requirements…GO FOR IT!

I’ve asked recruiters and employers about the long list of job requirements in many posts (often what seems like an impossible list!). Yet they say that if you match about 80%, that they’ll consider you. Don’t rule yourself out before even trying!

Important:
Take the time to write a brief cover email providing a few key points about why you’re a great fit for that SPECIFIC job (please avoid the generic, “Here’s my resume” or worse yet, no personal note!). If you capture their interest, they’ll look at your resume. It’s a good idea to include your resume in the body of your email so they can get to it quickly.

It’s smart to customize your resume to highlight your skills and expertise that will help that company solve their problems by hiring YOU!

Also, the spirit of this list is “friends helping friends.” If something is a good fit for a friend, forward it to them. The ripple effect of this has gotten so many people into jobs they love.

Finally, if you don’t get a response, don’t lose hope.

Recruiters and HR folks are under tremendous workloads. Though they’d like to, they just don’t have the bandwidth to get back to everyone. I saw a recent discussion on a Recruiter forum that recruiters were puzzled why they didn’t hear back for jobs they were applying and interviewing for THEMSELVES. They thought that as recruiters, they would at least get a response as a professional courtesy from another recruiter.

In the Recruiter discussion, the main reason for the “no response” problem was that the recruiters said they were so buried themselves. They are under the gun to fill jobs quickly, and with fewer resources than ever.

Job search is uncomfortable for all of us, but don’t give up and just know that the next job you apply for might just be the job you land!

Hang in there and keep helping each other!

— Sue