Re-Application Process Post Rejection [duplicate]

Question

I'm currently job-hunting and I found that some companies (lets say around 15-20) that I had applied a long ago (~3+ months) still have those vacancies available and I wanted to re-apply to them but below is the conundrum that I'm facing

1. As mentioned, I had previously applied to those companies either via E-Mail or their Job Portals.
2. However, I was rejected either post 1 or more interviews (These were very positive for both me as well as them) OR got a response from the recruiters via email, sometimes from their personal IDs / via the applicant tracking systems saying the same thing.
3. So to get a better chance, I've up-skilled myself to some of the latest technologies (I've also made some projects using this new know-how) to enhance my profile as well as stay relevant.
4. I've also waited for more than 3-6 months for all of them so as to remain polite because I believe I wouldn't like to be spammed myself were I a recruiter.
5. Could someone please tell me now what'd be the best way to go , i.e:

a. Do I send a fresh application with my updated resume, cover letter in a handcrafted email (I've used http://bit.ly/2Dh9TCN to draft a suitable one explaining my previous application & why I'm a better prospect now due to point no.3 above) to each of the recruiter(s) of the respective companies?

b. Or do I reapply via their job portals using my new data?

c. Or is sending them a message via LinkedIn a better idea?

d. Or do I do any of the above in a sequential manner with a wait period of say 1-2 weeks in between?

Note: In any case, I believe I should mention that we've interacted before only to be rejected (I'll mention that positively, of course :P) or should I skip on that altogether?

Kindly pardon me if this question has been repeated anywhere on this forum (As far I could search, it wasn't) & let me know if any more data is required to answer this better.

Any help will be much appreciated, cheers! :)

Answer 1

There's no hard and fast rule on this - it depends very much on the specifics of why you were rejected as to how long would be appropriate before reapplying.

When I've been hiring people I've encountered this scenario a few times. Permanent positions for skilled roles can take some time to fill and even if you do there's no guarantee that the new hire will work out so it's not unheard of for the position to be still open or re-opened at around the three month mark. In either of those circumstances if I felt a previous applicant was a potential option I would contact them myself - a re-application wouldn't be necessary and wouldn't do anything to help their chances.

If they aren't someone I'm putting back into consideration it's because they simply weren't good enough, or the fit wasn't right and re-applying with the same or a modestly improved CV won't change that. You're going to struggle to substantively improve your CV in that time, and any deficiency in skills or experience that could be rectified so quickly would not be something I'd see as a barrier to hiring someone for a permanent role - it's just something I'd see as an additional training/on-boarding need of hiring them. as irrational as it may sound such reapplications are something that annoys me, to me it reads as someone trying the CV equivalent of trying to tell me what they think I want to hear and hoping they hit upon the "magic words" that will get them hired.

6 months is far more reasonable - it's long enough that I probably wouldn't reach out myself and you can easily gain worthwhile experience in that sort of time but closer to the year mark is much better IMO.

As for how to go about re-applying you need to re-apply through the channels they are seeking "fresh" applications through (out-of-band applications are extremely annoying!) but I would say it's worth mentioning your previous application in the cover letter or equivalent - especially if you can use that to draw attention to how you have changed and improved in the intervening time. Other than that I wouldn't do anything out of the ordinary, and especially not this:

Or do I do any of the above in a sequential manner with a wait period of say 1-2 weeks in between?

I've had quite a few candidates try this drip-drip-drip method and I wonder who on earth is advising so many people to do this, it's incredibly annoying and tends to make me think the candidate is the sort of person who keeps asking the same question over and over until they get the answer they want, and that's definitely not the sort of person I'd ever want to hire!