You might call it pre-applying.
Talking with an employer before the company posts a job, not after, could help you land a role there, veteran career coach Laura Labovich told Business Insider.
She recommends that job seekers identify where they want to work, examine their network for any ties to the organization, and start building relationships inside prior to a job post even going up.
“The way to win is to not apply. Get in before they have the opening. Make connections. Become an insider,” Labovich said.
If you wait until you see a job posting before contacting an employer, she said, you might already be too late. That’s because once a role is posted, recruiters or HR staffers will often feel compelled to tell you to apply online in order to ensure all candidates get equal consideration, Labovich said.
Getting in line with everybody else can make the process seem “more like a cattle call,” she said.
‘Worth its weight in gold’
Aside from generally feeling lousy, the take-a-number approach is also rarely the best path to landing a role, as almost anyone seeking a desk job can attest.
The typical corporate job posting draws 250 applicants, Glassdoor reported in early 2025. Among those, only four to six candidates typically advance to the interview round. And, of course, only one person ultimately gets the offer letter.
Having someone who can flag your résumé to a recruiter or hiring manager and help you stand out is “worth its weight in gold” when there are so many people looking for jobs, said Rick Wargo, managing partner of the global technology practice at the recruitment firm Boyden.
“A warm introduction is always the best way to go about a job search,” he told Business Insider.
Knowing what to ask
It’s obvious that if you don’t know about a forthcoming job, you can’t make a pitch for it. What you can do is consider whether the employer has hired for the types of things you might like to do.
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That’s why, Wargo said, it’s important to start networking and making connections inside key companies before you need a job.
“You don’t go to fix the roof when it’s raining,” he said.
To beat the rush that often occurs when an employer lists an opening, you can contact people who might be at your level within an organization and ask questions such as, “How do you like your job?” “How do you like the organization?” and “How did you get to where you did?” said Labovich, who runs Career Strategy Group, an outplacement firm in the Washington, DC, area.
If it’s someone higher up the food chain — potentially someone who might be the hiring manager for a future job — the ask should be smaller.
“You don’t want to say, ‘I want a job,’ because if you’re getting to them early, there’s no job yet,” she said. Instead, Labovich recommends that job seekers seek advice, insight, recommendations, and referrals.
That contact can pay off: Messaging a hiring manager nearly triples your chance of getting hired, LinkedIn reports.
Ultimately, she said, making connections inside an organization is one of the best ways to navigate a hiring process that often feels “totally broken.”
That’s left many job seekers applying to as many roles as they can, even though many career coaches, including Labovich, urge that people prioritize networking instead.
“The way to apply for a job these days is to not apply for a job,” she said.
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