How to Get Hired Faster By Humans

Table of Contents
Intro
The Machine You Keep Feeding
Who Decides
The Long Game
Start With Their Content
The Comment That Opens the Door
When & How to Send the First Message
Roles That Never Hit the Job Board
Staying Top of Mind
30 Day Outreach Rhythm
What This Looks Like When It Works
Conclusion

Intro
We all know the traditional way of applying to a job.... find a job post, tweak your resume, write a cover letter for reasons that just waste your time, then fill out the application form, submit and wait.

Most times you'll get a rejection email that week, many times that same day and worse, sometimes 2 to 3 months after and we're not even going mention the companies that don't send anything at all.

Today, throughout your job search process, you can't seem to wonder at times, "does an actually human ever opened these things, or is some machine filtering everyone out."

Realize that hiring platform systems are not built with the best optimization algorithms to actually filter the right candidates. Also, recruiters on the back end have their limits of how many applications they can review.

You can be the right person for a role and still get overlooked because of these limitations and many other broken application processes.

After being on a journey of transitioning careers from a pro athlete to Cloud Engineer and multiple other tech roles since then, through trial and painful error, I've found the best and simplest way to solve this!

You need to stop relying so much on the traditional application process and start getting to the humans behind it. The recruiters, hiring managers and the engineers who might sit on your interview panel.

These are real people with names, opinions and social media feeds full of posts they wish more people engaged with. The closer you get to them, the faster everything else moves.

This blog is about how to do that without being weird about it.

Alright, let's talk about online applications, you drop a document into a pipeline that might have a thousand other documents in it. Before a recruiter ever sees your name, there's usually some software ran through you application already. If a role gets 1000s of applicants, the person reviewing them is spending seconds per resume and that's if they get to yours at all.

I'm not saying applications are useless, they're the official record and at some point you'll need one in the system so HR can move you forward but the mistake is treating the application as your strategy instead of your paperwork.

The application is the front door everyone is crowding around. The back door, the one with almost no line, is in the from of relationships.

Think about how hiring actually happens inside a company. A manager has a gap on the team, so they feel the pain of that gap every week. They want it filled by someone they trust, or someone they trust can vouch for.

Posting the job publicly is often the last thing they do and sometimes they only do it because the process requires it. By the time you see the posting, there may already be two or three names in the manager's head.

You need to strive to make sure your name is one of them.

Before you even go out trying to reach out to anyone, get clear on who matters in a hiring process, because they don't all do the same job.

The recruiter is all about the logistics. They source candidates, run the early screens and move you through stages. A recruiter who likes you will fight for you, fast track your resume and tell you what the team actually wants behind the polished job description.

Recruiters talk to dozens of candidates a week, so being memorable to one is worth a lot.

The hiring manager is the person with the open seat, most times they literally own the final decision. Since they're the ones that feel the missing headcount in their day to day work, they're the one who'll be relieved when the right person shows up.

If you build a real connection with a hiring manager, you can skip half of the pipeline.

Then there're the engineers and team members who would be interviewing you. They might not have hiring authority, but their opinion carries weight and a warm referral from one of them lands very differently than a cold application. People hire people their team already respect.

Knowing this difference is very important because it informs how you'll talk to each of them differently.

A recruiter wants to know you're a strong, low risk candidate who has a higher chance of being placed, a hiring manager wants to know you understand their problem and have the skills to help them solve it and a future teammate wants to know you're someone they'd enjoy solving hard problems with.

When I say build relationships, a lot of people hear "spend a year making friends before you're allowed to ask for anything," but that's far from it.

This moves faster than you'd think, often in a couple of weeks, because we're not here trying to build deep friendships, we just want to try to move from a total stranger to a familiar face.

That alone is enough to change everything about how your message gets received when you reach out to people.

A stranger's message will most likely gets ignored but a familiar name has a high chance of getting a reply. Yes, there's a science behind this.

The person who commented thoughtfully on three of someone's posts last week instantly is not a stranger anymore, even if they've never spoken directly. The brain files them under "I know this person a little," and that tiny bit of recognition is what gets your direct messages opened instead of swiped away.

So the long game is really a two or three week game that you run in the background while you keep doing everything else. You're strategically planting seeds with five or ten people at once and you only need one of them to turn into a conversation that changes your year.

Here's what NOT to do. Most people find a recruiter on LinkedIn, see they post about open roles and immediately send a message that says

Then they're confused when it goes nowhere.

Put yourself on the other side of that message. A recruiter or hiring manager who posts publicly gets these every single day so to them, a cold "please hire me" from a name they've never seen is noise and costs nothing to ignore, so they ignore it.

What you SHOULD do is first interact with their content because it's low stakes for both of you. At this point you haven't requested anything from them.

Doing this warms them up to your name and it teaches you who they are, what they care about and how they talk. By the time you message them, you'll know exactly the type of areas they deeply interested or passionate about.

That context makes your eventual message land, because it sounds like it came from a human who was paying attention instead of some AI generated script.

A like is fine, but leaving a comment is much more impactful to being remembered. When you leave a thoughtful comment on someone's post, three useful things happen.

The author sees your name attached to something that added value to their content. Their audience sees you too, which sometimes matters more than you'd expect and the algorithm starts showing you more of that person's content, which makes the next interaction easier. Now you've build a tiny loop where you keep showing up in a good way.

What you actually comment matters! "Great post!" will do nothing to move the needle, that comment is equivalent to a blank stare.

A good comment does one of a few things, it adds a point the author didn't mention, it shares a short, specific story from your own experience that connects to their topic and it asks a genuine question that shows you actually thought about what they said.

Let's say a hiring manager posts about how junior engineers often struggle with reading existing code. A weak comment would be:

But a strong comment might be something like:

Do you see the difference?

That comment shows you've done the work, you have a point of view and you're easy to talk to. The author is far more likely to reply, and now you've had a real exchange in public before a single message gets sent. Do that two or three more times across different posts over a week or two and boom... you're no longer a stranger.

Once you've interacted a few times and ideally had the person reply to one of your comments, the direct message is not going to be seen as "cold" anymore. You're now someone they recognize and you're going to use that recognition to increase the chances that your message gets read.

When you do message, keep it human and short. Nobody reads a five paragraph wall of text from someone they barely know. Make sure to reference the connection you already built, so sort of reminds them who you are and signal that this isn't a copy-paste blast.

Here's a version that works for a recruiter or hiring manager you've been engaging with:

Notice what that message does, it opens with the real connection not some some generic hello. It says who you are in one line, makes a soft ask instead of demanding anything and leaves the door open without cornering them.

That's a message a busy person can say yes to in ten seconds.

Now compare it to the alternative you might be tempted to send, which lists your whole resume, attaches three files and asks them to forward you to five teams.

A few tactics worth mixing in so you're not always doing the same thing is:

Sometimes lead with a question about their work instead of an ask about a job. "How does your team think about on call for junior engineers?" could start a conversation and conversations turn into opportunities.

Sometimes share something useful with no ask at all, like an article that connects to what they posted about because givers get remembered.

When you spot a role they've posted, reply in that context rather than out of nowhere. "Saw you're hiring a platform engineer, the timing's interesting because I just wrapped a migration project that's right in that lane, mind if I share a bit about it?"

If you met them at a meetup, conference or in a Slack community, lead with that because if you can share physical or community context that could be the strongest warm openning there is.

A large share of roles get filled before they're ever posted publicly, or right as they're posted, through referrals and people the manager already had in mind. If you only watch job boards, you're most likely always going to be late.

You're seeing the role at the same moment as the four hundred other applicants, after the manager has already started thinking about who might be a good fit.

When you've built rapport with the people who do the hiring, you move to the front of that line. A recruiter who knows you might message you and say "we're about to open a role that's perfect for you, want me to flag your resume before it goes live?"

A hiring manager you've been chatting with might mention they're getting headcount next quarter and ask if you'd be interested.

That convo can only happen if you're top of mind when the need appeared.

I've watched this play out many times in my career. Someone spends months grinding applications with nothing to show for it, then starts genuinely engaging with people in their field and within weeks a connection tips them off about a role that wasn't even live yet.

They walk in already warm, vouched for with a recognizable name instead of just being a number. Sometimes the interview is almost a formality at that point because the trust was built ahead of time.

Building the connection once is not going to be enough. The same way people can remember you, is the same way people can forget you.

The trick is to stay present in a light, consistent way so that when a role appears, you're amongst the names that surfaces.

Keep engaging with their content after the first conversation. You don't need to comment on everything because that's just going to read that you're desperate. Show up genuinely every week or two, drop a real reply when they post something you have thoughts on and always react when they share a win.

Don't forget to share your own work too! When you post about a project you shipped, a problem you solved or something you learned, you stay visible in a way that reinforces you're someone worth talking to. The people you've connected with see it and it builds the case for you without you ever needing to pitch yourself again. Your feed becomes your ongoing proof of work and a literal billboard of your running resume.

With all this said, please reframe from messaging someone every three days asking if they've found a role yet, this is very annoying. Engaging thoughtfully with their posts and occasionally checking in with something of value is welcomed.

There's a difference in whether you're taking or giving.... always remember, if you lead with giving, you'll almost never come across as a pest.

If you want something concrete to run, here's a rhythm that keeps you consistent without eating your whole day.

Week one is about finding your people and "listening" to their content. Identify ten to fifteen recruiters, hiring managers and engineers at companies you'd actually want to work for, then follow them. Read their recent posts, like and observe how they talk but make sure not to send out any messages yet.

Week two is when you start adding value in public by leaving thoughtful comments on their posts, a few people per day. Aim for comments that add something and don't just be a "yes" man/woman in an echo chamber. Some people will reply and a few will start recognizing your name. Make sure to keep notes on who engages back.

Week three is when you open conversations. For the people who replied or whose posts you've consistently engaged with, send a short, warm message. Reference the connection and keep the ask soft. You can even skip the ask entirely and just start a conversation. You'd want to spread these out so each one feels personal.

Week four is about deepening and staying visible by continuing the conversations that started. Post one or two things about your own work so your network sees you building check in lightly with anyone who mentioned a possible role. By now a handful of real relationships should exist where four weeks ago there were none.

Run that loop again continuously, with new people entering the top while older connections mature and your pipeline of human relationships will keep growing.

You'll notice recruiters replying to your messages because your name looks familiar, you'll have hiring managers commenting back on your thoughts, which means they know who you are before any interview.

You'll get the occasional "hey, are you still looking?" message, which is the clearest sign you're doing this right, because the opportunity is now coming to you and when you do interview, you'll walk in with more context about the team, problems and hopefully a person on the panel who already likes you.

None of this means you stop applying online or stop sharpening your skills. The resume and interview prep is still very important but what changes now is the path your application takes. So instead of dropping into a system that most likely will filter you out, it lands in the hands of someone who was already expecting it, with a name attached that they already trust.