Working in recruitment, we were often told by candidates that they had applied for tens, maybe hundreds of jobs and often never heard back from the employer and never secured an interview. It’s an experience that the media tends to pick up on quite a bit too – tales of an unemployed graduate sending of hundreds of CVs to no avail always adds a little human interest to a bleak job market story. Whilst this of course is an unfortunate sign of the times we are in, there are certain things that all jobseekers, be they graduates or experienced workers, can do to improve their hit or success rate as it were. Here are our top tips on How to Get More Job Interviews.

Apply for fewer jobs
Yes, you read that right. Apply for fewer jobs. Applying for a job is not like the lottery where the more tickets you have, the greater your chances. Instead, you should choose the jobs that you apply for carefully. Have a good look at the criteria. Do you really meet the essential criteria requirements that the employer has stipulated? Do you have the mandatory qualifications? Do you have the essential ‘X’ number of years’ experience that they seek? If the answer is no, then chances are you would not be considered a viable candidate for the job in question, therefore why waste your time and effort in applying. Choose instead to apply for positions where you meet the criteria or ‘as good as’; that way you will significantly increase your chances of being shortlisted and ultimately get more interviews.

Tailor your CV
It’s a big mistake to create a CV and send that same CV out for every job that you apply for. Recruiters and employers make their minds up about a candidate’s suitability for a job within seconds of looking at a CV. If your CV doesn’t seem to reflect their requirements for this particular job, you are doing yourself no favours. Does your CV profile detail career objectives or aspirations that are contradictory and irrelevant to the job you are applying for? If so, change it. Look at the job ad, the job description and then look at your CV. Are you doing enough to highlight how relevant your skills and experience are for the role in question? If not, then do something about it. Make sure that every CV that you send out is tailored specifically for the job you are applying for.

Review your online presence

It used to be the case that candidates who applied for jobs were taken at face value – their applications and CVs were all the employer had to go on before the interview stage. Now however, thanks to the internet and social media, they have a lot more information at their disposal at the candidate shortlisting stage. If you have a, shall we say, ‘less than savoury’ public online presence, should you really be wondering why you aren’t getting interviews? It doesn’t take too long for an employer to do a quick search on Google or a Social Network to see what you are really like. Why not do a quick online search on ‘you’ and see what you can find out. Any opinions, views or posts that are offensive or controversial could be a big factor in you not getting job interviews. It’s not too late though to remedy it. Change your profile settings; make things private and delete anything that portrays you in a bad light and of course be more careful in future!

Refresh your job search strategy
If you have been applying for jobs by doing the same thing all the time without success, you ought to shake things up a little. If you are serious about getting a job, you really have to explore all the routes that could help you. Don’t just look at the vacancies in your local paper or jobcentre. Look at online job boards too. Register with a recruitment agency. Start being proactive and contact employers directly. Do more networking – both online and at networking events. All these things will greatly increase your chances of finding out about suitable jobs and that way you can apply and subsequently get more interviews.

We hope these tips help. Got any others you’d like to share? Why not let us know via the comments section below.

Still feel that you need more interview advice? Check out Anson Reed, specialists in online interview training and 1-2-1 Interview coaching.