How does that happen?
The Wait
From the moment you press send from your e-mail, you pretty much know your application will land in the inbox of the company you want to get in within seconds. However, it takes at least a week or two before the recruiter sees your application, reviews and decides whether to invite you for an interview. Either there is a holiday in between, recruiter on leave, too many applications, application being overlooked and the list goes on. Basically, if you are lucky, you will have the initial meeting within 2 weeks after applying. If not, this could take longer and in most cases, that is only just the first interview. So it could take over a month or two before you know you have an offer or not.
How to speed things up?
Candidate
If you have someone you know who is currently working in that company, ask him / her to drop a note to the recruiter. An internal referral is usually welcomed from the company’s perspective. If not, you can always do something in the subject line of your e-mail application to impress the recruiter as this is the first thing they see from you. (E.g. Your Marketing Manager is here) Be bold. Be different and Be fun. The recruiter will remember you.
Company
It is important to have a recruiter who understands what kinds of qualities are needed for the roles on hand. That takes a lot of research into the role as well as speaking to different business functions head. The recruiter has to prioritise the urgency of each positions and this arrangement will certainly speed things up. It is important to go the extra mile to conduct a quick telephone interview, especially when the recruiter has questions after reviewing the candidate’s CV. This will help the recruiter to decide whether a face to face interview opportunity should be offered.
HR Consultant
Some people have never spoken to or applied a job through a consultant. Firstly, some may not see the need and secondly, some think that they have to pay if they were to apply a job through the consultant. The truth is a good consultant is extremely valuable to and important for you to get the job they want. The consultant has a good relationship with the hiring person and in some cases, the decision maker. Therefore he/she knows exactly what kinds of qualities are needed for the job, communication skills, and personality, and whether all these will fuel good chemistry between you and the future boss. A great consultant will also be very honest with you if after reviewing your CV, he/she thinks you are not qualified for the job, share why this is the case with you and advise you not to apply.