Recruitment advertising is a continuous activity for a growing company, particularly when the economy is doing well. Also, companies operating in specialized or niche areas and doing well are constantly on the look out for job applications from suitable staff as the availability of quality manpower will be limited. So how do companies recruit new staff? There are 3 ways of recruitment advertising...

1) Advertise in news papers in employment opportunities columns

2) Contact manpower agencies

3) Look through their file for previous job applications - if there is any previous history.

However, none of them are quick or inexpensive. Hence, if there is a way that cuts down on recruitment expenses or time for employers, they would go for it.

When you apply for a job as a prospective candidate in response to an ad, you are one among thousands of applications that the employer receives. Your chances of selection are as good as anybody else and it does not in anyway help you getting selected. Instead, if you can cut down the employer's time and money in recruiting staff, then you may improve your chances. But how does one achieve it? For that a job seeker has to find companies that are looking for good staff. Companies that are growing fast, either small or big, are the ones that are most likely to need new staff.

Size doesn't matter – or does it?

Many students and other job seekers routinely send their resumes to large companies thinking that they would be constantly requiring new staff that pays well. Large companies like Coca cola receives 10,000 unsolicited applications per year while Infosys, a NASDAQ listed company reportedly receives close to 100,000 applications in a year.

People apply to big companies even as they are shedding thousands of jobs. What would an employer think of receiving job applications even as the company is downsizing? Clearly the applicant has no knowledge of the company's business. Large companies are not necessarily large recruiters alll of the time. Even though it may look glamorous to work for large and famous corporations, the chances of finding a job in them are slim as they receive a large number of applications with regularity.

One thing to bear in mind is that small companies are growing faster than large corporations. Some are growing at the rate of 50% and more. A big company today was once a small outfit. Companies like Apple and HP were started in a garage. And imagine anyone willing to join them when they were working from a garage! Those who joined Apple in early days must now be millionaires with stock options and other benefits.

It is important to identify companies that are on the steep growth path, irrespective of their size, for improving chances of job applications being positively received. Companies whose growth has plateaued are no good as are companies that are on the downward curve. Hence a prospective job applicant has to consult people through networking and do market research on recruitment advertising before sending an application to a company – large or small.