In the old days most job openings were advertised in physical sources, such as newspapers. Recruiters and hiring managers would receive a manageable number of responses to those advertisements and select the best candidates. With the spread of the internet, things have changed quite a bit. Job openings are advertised all over the place - candidates are overwhelmed with the number of openings and recruiters are overwhelmed with the number of responses they receive. Both parties have to go through tons of useless openings/applications and spend a lot of time finding good quality targets.

So clearly this calls for a change in strategy for the job seeker and here are a few tips to help you out:

• Avoid the shotgun approach: Select a few job targets and focus your attention searching/applying to only those job types. This will save you a lot of time, as opposed to applying to everything under the sun. It will also get you more responses, since you can spend enough time tailoring your application material for your target jobs, rather than sending out generic applications (which typically have a lower success rate). You could still use the shotgun approach but only for back-up jobs, which are not your main targets
• Grab Attention: Use areas like the subject line of your email to grab recruiter attention and to make your application stand out. Make your application POP, by showing the recruiting manager what specific benefits you can bring to the table
• Use references: The internet makes it very easy to quickly find people in your network who work at the company you are applying to. Get them to put in a good word for you
• Contact hiring managers directly: Don’t rely solely on advertised job openings. If you know the job you want, you can also try and find out who has the power to hire you for that job. Get in touch with them directly
• Work your network: Make a list of friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances, who you can get in touch with and inform about your job search/targets. Ask them for leads and request them to get in touch if they hear of anything interesting. These leads will usually be of better quality than published sources like job boards

Sources and references: Sandbox Advisors