[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I’m currently in grad school and will be participating in campus recruiting there. However, due to my grad school being geographically a couple hours away (online classes) some of the firms in my city will not be recruiting there. This includes some large regional firms I am interested in.

How should I go about applying at these firms? Trying to find their recruiter on linkedin? Applying via their websites?

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Are you talking about big firms (Big 4 and/or regional) or just any firms? If you're talking about any firms, then cold-calling is probably your best bet because smaller firms don't have recruiters and often don't want to post an opening because doing so will result in hundreds of applications that are a hassle to sort through. Note that by “cold-calling”, I'm referring to actually ringing their doorbell and handing them your resume etc. in person. Even though I'm a big fan of cold-calling, I'd still look up the smaller firms, and if they have an online application then I'd fill it out and adapt the cover letter (or your “speech” when arriving at the firm) to indicate that you've already completed the online application but wanted to introduce yourself as well. The personal touch of attaching a real human to the application/resume/etc. makes a huge difference.

Also, seeing a resume printed out on paper is different than everyone in the online system so sets you apart. Let's say there's a position posted and 100 people apply to it. But let's say you also dropped off a hard-copy with the receptionist who delivered it to the hiring manager. As the hiring manager prepares for the daunting task of reviewing all applications, he's got yours already sitting in front of him, printed on nice resume paper, easy to review. This gives you a leg up over the competition who are all in the intimidating stack and who will all be printed out on plain paper. Your resume will have a touch of refinement and professionalism to it that the others don't. In this digital age, non-digital things still have a certain value to them.

For the bigger firms, I don't know the best protocols, since the nearest big firms were a couple hours away and never of interest to me

[Author]

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