get your foot in the door

Your CV is not the only way to get your foot in the door.
Most jobs that are advertised in the media or through agencies, want a CV then a specific covering letter. This makes hunting for a job a full time career in it's self, so not only do you have to trawl through endless list's of vacancies, most of which will only be there because the law say's companies must advertise them before they give someone who works within the company get's it,( just like the air and travel industry,) it's not what you know it's WHO you know, I have heard first hand from ex colleagues that have tried to get in to airport work and failed miserably, as the vacancy that they or more than qualified for has actually long gone to the brother or family member of someone already working for that airport.

So how do you get your foot in the door when you don't know a family member working at the same place advertising your dream job, well I have heard a couple of ways mentioned over the last few months, one way is to keep phoning up the company HR department and try and get a rapport going, start by saying you are not actually looking for work you just want information on the company and it's products, two go on-line and find out who the department bosses are and see if you can phone them and ask them about the company and its products or even ethical environment policies, and thirdly just write a letter to the boss asking if they think think the company will be recruiting in the near future, most will either hang up and refuse to answer questions or simply throw your letter straight in the bin, but you never know some may just think if you are that cheeky you may be worth a second look and ask you for that specific CV.

There is the secret job market and that works along the same way so go out there and give it a go, if you never try you will never know,  getting your foot through the door often means you have to be a lot pushy as nothing in civvi street is given to you on a plate, take a leaf from the Romans book and seize the day.