We recently had an entry level opening at Crash. We put the word out to some people, and we had six excellent value propositions come in. But one of them had a massive advantage over all the rest.
She was fast. Insanely fast.
We got her pitch within 12 hours of making the opportunity known. We put out the word in the early afternoon and she turned around a well-researched and written email with a one-page value prop by late morning.
Her stuff was good, but so were some of the others that came in over the next several days. The problem they all faced was that they were playing from behind. She was so fast that she instantly took the lead, and every hour that went by during which another applicant did not send something made us wonder why. If she could, why couldn’t they?
This isn’t some weird obsession with speed for its own sake. Nor is it an objective measure of ability to do the job. Working fast does matter, and not going dark on comms is important. But the reason she took a huge lead for being so quick was more personal and subjective.
Hirers are humans too.
Humans like it when people are interested in them.
I often compare the job hunt process to the dating market, because I think it helps people understand the employer side better. Feeling like someone is interested in you, and excited about the idea of working with you, matters a lot! Speed is one of the best ways to generate that feeling.
When someone replies lightning quick to an opportunity, they signal how much they genuinely are excited to work with the company. Like, can’t sleep excited. That is an awesome person to work with!
Speed isn’t everything of course. If she’d sent a sloppy pitch, her enthusiasm wouldn’t have been enough. But in a field of similarly skilled peers, as entry level roles often are, the differentiator of being insanely fast is insanely powerful.
Show you care. Be fast.