I have a referral where a principal has emailed my resume to the specific hiring team for a practice, but he said also draft up an application for the offical online application. I am afraid my resume will be tossed by ATS filtering in HR before the specific practice can move me forward. I know that HR and the practice area are separated and therefore HR usually has to go into the ATS and move me to the hiring team. If the practice's hiring team gets the email, will they go and fish it out of the trash? What should I do?
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Referral to a practice area question
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Hi there,
In some companies the person referring you may ask to complete the online application even in case of a referral (usually you can mention the person referring you in the form). That’s what happened in my case with BCG.
If your CV is well structured, I would not worry about it – the HR team should pay attention to the fact you have been referred. In any case, if the person referring you asked to proceed in this way, you need to follow the process they mentioned.
Possible things you may do are:
- Double-check the CV is optimized for consulting before uploading it (you probably have done this already)
- Message the person who referred you, confirming you have completed the application online after doing so
Hope this helps,
Francesco
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Hi there,
Francesco is exactly right. This is just how referrals work in many offices. You'll submit the online application but it will be “tagged” as a referral.
If you are worried about the strength of your resume though, definitely get a coach to take a look!
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You should not worry about that. I was in your situation before and I think it is just formalith.
I got referral from associate partner in Bain (my ex-interviewer in previous year). The HR,the next day, approached me and asked to apply online, and within 30 min I got invitation for interview.
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Dear candidate,
great, well done for having gotten a referral. The process you describe makes a lot of sense, remember they have their recruiting system and it is probably a lot easier if your application enters the standard way. Do not worry about that, assume they can handle it.
Best regards
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Great question!
How it should work → you do need an official application in the system to be processed. Given your referral they will fish it out and get the process started.
How it might work → communication between the person giving the referral and HR breaks down. In the worst case if you receive an automatic decline or have not heard anything after a few weeks, you might politely reach out to the person who referred you to follow up and they will fix the issue.
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Hello!
I understand your concerns, this situations can be messy.
However, I would advise you to focus only on what you can do. In this case, if so, wait a few days and follow up with your referrer.
Hope it helps!
Cheers,
Clara
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Hi there,
feel free to share your CV, exact firm and desired office via PM - I'll be happy to take a look and advice on a concrete plan of how you can ensure, the application doesn't fall through the cracks.
Cheers, Andi
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