Is Your Job/Internship Online Application Collecting Dust?

Everyone has been there but not everyone needs to be. If you've been waiting to hear from the company you applied to months ago try these three techniques: 


1.) LINKEDIN. If no response within a month, you’re going to go to LinkedIn, type in “company + early talent recruiter,” and send that person a message to actively follow up on your application. This is not being annoying; it is the early talent recruiter’s job to connect students to jobs and it is your personal responsibility to confirm your application gets reviewed. I've probably talked to at least 20 recruiters on LinkedIn. It works.

2.) DO NOT APPLY ONLINE. Students in certain situations like low GPA can have better luck securing an internship or full-time offer by networking with recruiters and classmates or contacting smaller companies to see if they hire interns. One of my friends realized his GPA was too low to pass the software application filters that the bigger companies use on online applications. So he bypassed applying traditionally and instead reached out to the managers at the company he was interested in. Throughout the interview process they never asked him his GPA once. He recently finished up his internship at the company. At the same company, one of the other employees had got the job by asking his neighbor who worked there if they hire interns. The answer was yes and he now has a full-time job there.

3.) REVIEW/RESUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION. When applying online, one of my friends accidentally selected that he required sponsorship. His application was denied immediately because of this error. If this company had not had automatically denied his application, his application could still be in limbo today and he would not have known why he hadn't heard from anyone. Review your application before you submit it. Also, submit the application with care. This means matching your resume to the job description. If you know you can now improve your application after you've been waiting a few weeks or months, go ahead and resubmit a better version. This will increase your chances of hearing back.