I am a hiring manager. And when I post a role on LinkedIn, I get at least 300 applicants.

That's crazy! Imagine how many applicants top firms like McKinsey, Goldman Sachs or Google get.

Sadly, for any role, only 5-10 people ever get an interview.

So in today's highly competitive job market, you really need a way to stand out from the crowd.

The best way to do that isn't by writing a great resume or cover letter (although that's important too) -- it's by building a relationship with the hiring manager.

Having a relationship with the hiring manager not only gives you "name recognition", but you can also sneakily fish for a better understanding of what the company is looking for.

Here's how you do it...

LinkedIn is your weapon of choice...

Most hiring managers want the best candidate for their role, so they actively promote the open position on LinkedIn.

They'll do this by posting, liking, or sharing the job ad on their personal LinkedIn profile.

Here's how you find them:

• Search for: [Job title] hiring
• Click on "Posts"
• Click on "All filters"
• Find "Author company" and type the company name
• Click "Show results"

Hopefully, you'll find a post that is advertising the role. Give it a quick sense-check to see whether it looks like the hiring manager.

If the person posting the job ad says something like "I'm hiring" or their job title looks like a more senior role in the same function, then you've hit the bullseye!

If you can't find the hiring manager, you might be able to find somebody else from the company who has liked or shared the job ad. Reach out to them and ask who the hiring manager is.

Now the hard part... building a relationship

My advice here is to avoid saying something like "I applied for the job, please consider me for an interview."

Instead, you should pretend that you already have the role.

Tell them that you applied for the role and would love to share some thoughts about what you'd if you were to get it.

For example, if it's a Product Manager role, then share some observations about their product, their competitors' products, and your recommendations or hypotheses about what to do.

In other words, you want to show them that you can already do the job.

Close it out by offering to share more observations and chat about the role they are advertising, and suggest catching up in the next few days.

Some hiring managers are paranoid about maintaining objectivity, so they won't want to chat during the hiring process -- but at the very least they'll be looking for your name when selecting who gets an interview 😉