Stop applying. Start getting noticed.

Most job applications go nowhere, not because you’re unqualified, but because you’re invisible.

In today’s market, applying has become a numbers game.
Hundreds of applicants. AI-written CVs. Identical messaging.

So instead of standing out…
 everyone blends in.

In this episode, I break down why the application process is broken - and what actually works if you want to get noticed.

We cover:

•  Why applying to more roles isn’t the answer 
•  What’s really happening behind the scenes in hiring 
•  Why many roles are already in motion before you apply 
•  The difference between being qualified vs being known 
•  Practical ways to create visibility and stand out

If you’re early in your career, or feeling stuck getting no response, this will change how you approach job hunting.

Because in a crowded market…
being good isn’t enough.

You have to be seen.

Follow The Way I See It  for short, practical insights on hiring, leadership, and performance.
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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to The Way I See It. Short thoughts on work, life, and the decisions in between and why we tend to overcomplicate all three. Straight from the front line of modern business, grab a coffee, grab a pad, and let's get into it. Welcome to another episode. This week we're going to look at why most job applications are invisible and what you should be doing instead. So stop applying and start getting noticed. So if you're early in your career right now, um, new graduate, young professionals, to be honest, this it probably applies to anyone actually that's in a position that they're potentially looking at a new role. You've probably been told apply to more positions. You end up applying five, 10, 15 applications in one sitting, and ultimately what happens is very little, normally in most cases. No replies, no feedback, no movement. And you start looking at is it yourself, is it your CV? Is it your experience? Most of the time it isn't. And the way that people apply for jobs at the moment is probably more more broken than than ever. LinkedIn, uh mass job boards, they've ultimately made it too easy for people to actually apply. So what I what's happening is everyone mass applies, every role gets a hundred plus applicants, kind of AI-written CVs, AI generated cover letters, and the truth is you can you can spot them quite easily. So instead of standing out, everyone ultimately looks the same. So recently I was asked to partake in a podcast, Energy Sector Heroes. So the podcast's hosted by Michelle Fraser. It features around standout individuals in the energy sector and their journey to success, the challenges that they've faced, and the valuable lessons learned along the way. Podcast is definitely worth checking out. It's amassed over 400,000 downloads. Um, my episode actually has just been released on Spotify. So yeah, give it a listen. But I wasn't sure which direction the conversation with Michelle was going to go, but due to her audience and listener base, the conversation was more focused around how people in their kind of early careers can get noticed, graduates, people making their way through the career, but obviously not at that kind of senior level management C-suite just yet. So one of the main questions we kept circling back to was ultimately what should people be doing? And to be honest, I felt like my answer was pretty straightforward, but we almost kind of Michelle was digging for a little bit more, and afterwards it kind of made me think maybe it's not so straightforward and not so common knowledge. Um, and I've obviously been around this for so long now that I just kind of almost assumed everyone sees how it works. But I suppose if you've spent time in recruitment in any sector, you can see behind the curtain and you can ultimately see how roles are actually being filled, how CVs are being filtered, how decisions actually get made. But I suppose if you haven't and you've not been exposed to that, you're almost playing a game on what you've been told or what you you know anticipate, but not actually how things work. So I suppose I suppose this applies to most people, and not just in your early career, it'll be takeaways that you can get from uh this particular episode across all levels, and again, not specific to just the energy sector. Um, as always with this podcast, we don't really discriminate across sectors. So here's something people don't realise. A lot of the roles you'll see online are already in a process. Maybe there's already an internal candidate being considered. Um, there's probably multiple recruitment firms or agencies actually working on the role within their own networks, and sometimes the roles might not even be fully live, it may have already been filled, it could be a it could be a fishing exercise by the company where they're trying to see kind of what's out in the market and they're just testing the waters for now. So when you apply, you're almost entering a process that may be already halfway done, could already be done, and it's not because you're not good enough, but just because of how the kind of system works. So the real question ultimately becomes: if everyone is applying, how do you actually get noticed? And the answer's I mean, it's it's relatively straightforward, but it's also slightly uncomfortable. And you ultimately have to step out of the application process and instead of asking how do I apply better, ask how do you become visible. So, number one, go direct. So if you see a role that you like that's advertised, don't just hit the kind of apply button and fire across your resume and your CV. Go onto the company page, find who is the hiring manager, find who the team leader is of the of the kind of sector uh that you're looking to work in. Send them a short, direct human message, not please find attach my CV, but I've been following what you're doing around X. I'd love to understand it better. Would you be able to, or would you be open, sorry, to a quick 10-minute conversation? That alone kind of puts you ahead, right? Of most applicants, and it's super simple, super straightforward to do. Number two, pick companies, not roles specifically. So most people job hunt backwards, so they chase job titles, but instead pick five or six companies you actually want to work for, again, find the people, connect with them, start conversations, open dialogue, because opportunities don't just come from applications, they come from proximity, they come from timing. Um so if you are just putting yourself at front of mind with the people that count, then you're obviously better positioned. And number three, create signal, not noise. So if you're just another CV in a PAL, it's not that you're invisible, but you you almost may as well be, because at certain levels for certain roles, a lot of the CVs are very close. Um, a lot of the experience is going to be very close, so it's really hard to differentiate for a hiring manager. But if someone recognises your name when it comes up, you're already ahead. So familiarity matters more than potentially what people would realise or what they'd put value on. Now, I get it, it requires a level of confidence. Not everyone's naturally extroverted, and I suppose even for myself, I describe myself as more of a maybe not introvert, but I'm ambivert. My friends always laugh as naturally I come across, probably extroverted, but again, that's with I suppose that's with close friends and and certainly in business, because I have to be. But normally I can read the room, assess situations, and then I'll lean in. So I'm not naturally the loudest, but I suppose always the most intentional. So you don't always need to be the most confident person in the room, you just need to be the one willing to make the small step forward. So here's the reality: people who get noticed early in their careers aren't always the most qualified because naturally they're not going to be, but they're the most visible, they're the ones who reach out, ask questions, start conversations, and put themselves slightly outside the comfort zone. So opportunities don't go to the best CV, they go to the most known person. And if you can take anything away from this, it's stop reliant on applications to create opportunity, the passive, and ultimately it's what everyone's doing. So start creating the opportunity yourself by putting your name in front of people that actually matter because in a crowded market, being qualified isn't actually enough, and you have to be seen, and I think there's there's a lot more to kind of explore and unpack around getting noticed at across all levels, and certainly I'd give that podcast with Michelle a listen to because I think it's ultimately over 40 minutes long and we we really kind of get into the crux of things, but yeah, ultimately, if there's one thing to to take away, it's almost take action, but in a different way to just applying for roles and just get yourself noticed, and even if you're not like on the precipice of wanting a new role right now, it's still a good activity to do for the future because again, you're your name's out there, and say a role's created, but you've already put yourself in that kind of going back to point two earlier, the the five or six companies that you've targeted and you've connected with the hiring managers, and you've told them kind of just a little bit about yourself, what you've done, if if they're willing to take the time, which there's a good chance they will be. Then a role comes up in one of those establishments, and you're kind of front of mind, and then what happens in that scenario is they don't have to go through the lengthy process of signing off a role, doing the uh sending the stuff to marketing to do the job description, etc. etc., sending the stuff to HR for approvals. They can ultimately reach out to you directly and invite you in for a kind of confidential discussion, and then it saves them time and effort, and you get something out of the blue that maybe wasn't on your radar because it didn't exist at the time, and then all of a sudden there's there's a pathway and an opportunity into something that you know it's not advertised and it's not done. I suppose that's the the recruitment world agency-wise, in the background, we'll get certainly for my business. Uh we never really advertise roles because it's all done through kind of headhunting and just the relationships with our clients in the background, a lot of it's off market, and that's where a lot of the better roles typically sit. So, and what I would implore as well is if you do work for a business and you do receive a message of this nature, I just implore you just to take five minutes, ten minutes of your time as a hiring manager to entertain that conversation. Um, obviously, I appreciate everyone's busy and everyone's got substantial workloads, but if someone's willing to put themselves out there in that situation, then um yeah, it's definitely worth taking five minutes of your time to speak to that individual, whether it's for then or for the for the future. So, yeah, that's the way I see it. If it resonates, share it with someone who needs to hear it.