In You They Trust

There are a lot of intangibles that impact a successful job search

There is so much that goes into a job search. Tight resume. Strong cover letter. Wide networking. LinkedIn contacts. Relentless preparedness. Driving persistence. Constant referrals. Incessant follow through.

If this doesn’t sound familiar, either you’re not paying attention or you haven’t been job seeking too long.

Taken on their own, they may seem daunting, but they’re not difficult. The waters get muddy when they start interacting and overlapping.

There is a lot to be said about the notion that, in the end, people hire people. That may be true, but taken a step further, people hire people they trust. If they trust you, they will not hesitate to hire you. In reality, you’re not hired because of your skills, education or experience, you’re hired because of trust.

You can establish trust on your own. But, as they say, the best advertising is a word of mouth. In the job seekers world that translates into a referral. If you can secure a sound referral, you’re halfway home.

This is where the overlapping and interconnectivity come into play. You meet or know someone through your network. There is someone at XYZ Company who trusts them and they give your name to someone. You land an interview and because they trust your referral contact, their confirmation bias takes over and they trust you as well. And because of that trust, you get the nod.

So, let’s see, people hire people. People hire people they trust. People hire people who have been referred by someone else whom they trust.

This is not to say that resumes, cover letters, and the like are not important. They are. But in the end maybe the two most important elements in your job search just might be people and trust.