In a tough labor market, many job seekers are doing anything they can to stand out and find a new position.<\/p>\n
Some have sent in hundreds of applications<\/a> in hopes of landing a role, but they should be careful about applying to multiple positions at the same company, experts say.<\/p>\n Nicole Kaiser, a technical and executive head hunter in the D.C. area, says that it’s “not unusual” for candidates to apply to several roles at large enterprises.<\/p>\n “It can be a great way to get in front of the hiring teams,” she says.<\/p>\n However, job seekers should proceed with caution, especially when applying to smaller organizations.<\/p>\n According to corporate recruiter Maribel Valencia, hiring managers<\/a> at small companies are more likely to notice when candidates apply across multiple teams, and it can leave a bad taste in their mouths, she says.<\/p>\n “You’re probably gonna look desperate, and you’re not going to get that buy-in from a specific department,” she says.<\/p>\n Below, Kaiser and Valencia share their best advice for job seekers considering applying to multiple roles at the same company.<\/p>\n Apply to targeted roles<\/p>\n To Kaiser, it’s “super normal” for job seekers to pursue several roles at a company, as long as their skills align with each job description.<\/p>\n Often, similar roles pop up across “sister teams” at large companies, she says, and applying to a few comparable roles won’t reflect poorly on a job seeker.<\/p>\n In fact, if a top candidate doesn’t land the job, the hiring manager may pass along their application to other teams within the company that have open roles, Kaiser says.<\/p>\n “That’s where the recruiters or your talent partners are picking up the phone going, ‘Hey, I have somebody, they’re pretty excellent. We just came down to the last two, and one was just a little bit better fit for this team. Would you like the notes?”<\/p>\n However, this approach could also backfire, Valencia says: if one hiring manager at a company has a bad experience with a candidate, they might share that information with their colleagues, and that candidate’s other applications will be “completely ignored.”<\/p>\n For Kaiser, applying to multiple roles only becomes a red flag<\/a> if those jobs are largely unrelated to the candidate’s skill set, she says.<\/p>\n “What doesn’t make sense is, let’s say I’m a business analyst and I apply for an analyst position, I apply for a project manager position, I apply for a technical writer position and I apply for a banker position,” she says.<\/p>\n Applying to seemingly random roles “is not going to look great” from a hiring manager’s perspective, she says, especially if “you’ve got none of those credentials in your background.”<\/p>\n Play to your strengths<\/p>\n In Kaiser’s view, mass-applying<\/a> to a variety of jobs can indicate that a candidate isn’t being strategic about their job search.<\/p>\n “That tells me that the candidate’s not going towards their strengths, where they’re really going to be a value add, where they’re going to match that job description and beat out other great candidates,” she says.<\/p>\n The job market<\/a> is undeniably difficult right now, Kaiser says, so she “can understand the desperation behind spamming out as many applications as you possibly can and knocking on as many doors.”<\/p>\n Unfortunately, that approach rarely works for job seekers, she says.<\/p>\n “You’re just kind of wasting your own time and the recruiter’s time, when you really could be spending the same amount of time that you spent on 7 or 8 applications to send one really exceptionally crystal clear one,” she says.<\/p>\n Amid a sea of weak applications, applying to jobs that genuinely align with your skills will help you stand out<\/a>, Valencia says.<\/p>\n “If you do have a really good resume and that attracts a certain hiring manager, they will eventually reach out,” she says.<\/p>\n Want to earn more and grow your money?<\/strong>\u00a0Save 30% with\u00a0this earnings-boosting bundle<\/a>\u00a0of our top courses.<\/p>\n Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter<\/a> to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life, and request to join our exclusive community on LinkedIn<\/a> to connect with experts and peers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a tough labor market, many job seekers are doing anything they can to stand out and find…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":311451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[7890,64,420,7891,84806,27498,7889,7895,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-311450","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-articles","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-jobs","11":"tag-make-it","12":"tag-make-it-land-the-job","13":"tag-make-it-work","14":"tag-makeit","15":"tag-sourcetagnamecnbc-us-source","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115391083497742873","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}