6 innovative ways to get noticed by a hiring manager

One of the worst things that can happen after an interview is to be forgotten. Things happen. Sometimes a great candidate gets lost in the two-foot-high stack of resumes.

Malcolm Gladwell coined the phrase “the stickiness factor” in his book “The Tipping Point.” With these six tips, you can become sticky in the mind of the hiring manager:

1. Lay the groundwork.

Most job seekers don’t realize the job search starts well before you find the perfect job posting.

There’s an elite group of job seekers—high performers—that doesn’t have a problem finding a job. If they find themselves out of work, they’ll have multiple offers within the week.

What do they do differently?

High performers have a target group of companies they want to work for. They use networking to talk to those companies before a job is even posted. They present themselves as experts in their field. When an opportunity arises, employers search for them.

You can emulate high performers by making a list of five to 10 companies you’d love to work at and use your network to start talking to company insiders.