Job seekers should focus on personalized outreach instead of traditional résumés and cover letters.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Cathy Xie, a 25-year-old marketing professional based in Toronto. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I remember opening my laptop about a month into my job hunt, seeing yet another automated rejection, and feeling this kind of collapsing desperation. I knew I needed to do something different in my approach if I wanted to stand out in the job market.

I tried three new job-finding strategies, but I didn't get hired until I sent an email directly to a CEO with the subject line "My landlord inspired this email."

Job seekers should be thinking less about their résumé and cover letters, and more about how they can get a potential employer's attention.

In 2024, I founded a startup aimed at helping students and new grads with unconventional backgrounds pivot into tech and navigate the job market. Unfortunately, we had to shut down about a year and a half later due to changes in the market. It's a little ironic that the tech job market is what put me back on the job hunt.

After mass applying to roles across marketing, product, and growth, largely targeting tech and AI companies, I felt drained. I was also spending so much time doom-scrolling on TikTok, watching video after video of young Gen Z job seekers talking about their frustrations with the job market.

Job searching was always in the back of my mind, and I knew it was time to try a different approach.

The first route I tried was referrals, but those were not a huge success.

My next approach was scouring niche startup boards, subscribing to free newsletters that posted about startups hiring, and even following LinkedIn creators who report on startups that had just raised. Then I'd apply directly through the company's website and try to email someone on the team who would likely be my manager for that position. Though I didn't end up with a job from that approach, it was still a great way to network.

My last approach, cold emailing a founder, ultimately landed me my new role. I'd been following this founder's journey on LinkedIn for a while because I was passionate about his startup's mission to address the housing crisis in major cities. He posted that he was hiring a marketing manager and included a link to apply. I thought to myself, "I am not applying the traditional way again."

I had just come across a social media post from someone about how cold emailing helped them achieve so many of their life goals, and how rejection was redirection. It made me think maybe I should just email the founder directly. I had nothing to lose.

I know, as a founder, you get thousands of emails, so I needed to make sure my email was one he had to open.

It was also important to me to make my email as personal as possible because I think it's a lost art. Especially with AI, we've become overly formal with writing. My subject line was "My landlord inspired this email" because I thought it was funny and might grab his attention.

In the body, I introduced myself, described my past roles and how they prepared me for this job, and wrote about my passion for and interest in the startup itself. I tried to keep it personable and a little funny. I kept it around 150 words, so it was short and sweet.

He responded just over a week later by emailing me back and messaging me on LinkedIn to set up an intro call with him and the CMO. After two more interviews, including an intro to a case study and a case study presentation, I was offered the role of marketing manager.

The job has been great so far, and my team is amazing.

The first two questions a lot of people ask themselves when applying to a job are "How should I write my résumé?" and "How should I write my cover letter?"

However, I think the question you should ask yourself instead is, "How can I get the attention of this person?" Once you ask yourself how you can get in front of a person, you open up so many ways to approach this job hunt, rather than just doing the traditional cold application.

With this wave of AI, it's so easy not to put in effort with job applications and just mass apply. But I think what comes with getting people's attention is putting in the effort.

You can spend a few hours cold applying and maybe get one or two automated emails, or you can spend those hours doing a couple of very personalized outreaches. It will take effort, but I think it's important to put that effort in if you want to stand out in today's job market.