Pre-application informal chat

[HippyKayYay]

My mind was blown recently when friends mentioned that I should always contact a prospective employer for an informal chat if I'm putting in a job application. They said this was as much about me interviewing the prospective employer to see if it's the right fit for me. This is a totally alien idea to me!

I'm changing careers from a very... idiosyncratic... sector where I'd been in the same job for 15 years. Jobs are unbelievably scarce in that sector (hence career changing) and this breeds the self-belief that you should be very grateful for any job you can get and they're doing you a massive favour by employing you. But my friends were saying I should be approaching job applications (in my desired new field) with an 'I've got loads to offer and you'd be lucky to have me' (albeit not in an arrogant way) attitude.

So, do you do the pre-application contact? If so, what on earth do you ask them about? The ads for the roles I'm applying for are comprehensive, so I don't really have any questions... If you're an employer, what sort of things come across well in a pre-application chat?

Hi @HippyKayYay - I wanted to answer this as I'm also from a pretty idiosyncratic career background and have been freelance for the past 15 years. Due to an appalling lack of work in my industry, I considered moving back into a full-time role at the start of the year.

With one job I applied for, one of these 'informal chat before submitting application' was offered on the ad, so I went for it. Got on well with the man who would have been my boss - he encouraged me to submit an application, and following that, I got called to a first interview and then a second.

Because I was sidestepping into a slightly different area, I suspect if we hadn't had the informal chat, my written application wouldn't have made the first sift. However, I didn't actually get the job in the end - and this apparently came down to my lack of experience in that particular industry. So, on one hand I think the informal chat can be helpful - but I think the risk can be that if a person likes you and the conversation goes well, perhaps you are encouraged where you shouldn't really be and it's a bit of a waste of time in the long run!

I also absolutely wouldn't reach out to a prospective employer for a chat if the ad didn't offer that! I think in most industries this would be seen as pretty bonkers, so I'm not quite sure where your friends are coming from 😅

Totally normal when a recruitment agency is involved.

completely unusual if not.

as an employer I’d direct any such enquiry to HR and it would give the applicant the opportunity to ask questions but it wouldn’t make us any more or less inclined to hire them.

The job ads I’m looking at have a named contact on the ads. One says ‘informal enquiries are welcome…’ the other just has a named contact at the bottom but doesn’t say anything about informal enquiries…

Where I work (public sector) some managers sift you out of you haven't made contact for a chat first, others give those who contact good info for application etc.

Goes both ways. Some applicants who ring for an informal chat don't make it through to the first round as they effectively screened themselves out during that initial informal call.

If you ring for an 'informal chat' act as if its the part of an interview where you ask questions, i.e as though you are being appraised. I recently went to a group casual pre application chat over a teams meeting ( for police contact centre work). A huge part of that role was talking confidently on the phone. I was amazed how many people typed questions in the chat instead of 'putting their hand up' to speak even though this was requested. I'm sure they must have screened themselves out doing that.