The Best Job Search Techniques

Hundreds of thousands of positions were obtained by job seekers last month, so employers are definitely hiring. If you are frustrated in your job search, then perhaps you should rethink your job search plan. Here is a recap of job search techniques and how to get the most out of them.

JOB BOARDS

The first thing a job seeker does is head for the job boards. After all, isn’t it exciting to find positions that fit you like a glove? The chief problem is that the job boards are the most competitive way to way to find a position and have the least probability of success – generally less than 5% of jobs are filled this way according to industry statistics. That is not to say that you shouldn’t use them – it just means that they should not be the heart of your job search.

Start by using Indeed.com or SimplyHired.com as these are job board aggregators, meaning they pull jobs from all the other job boards as well as company web sites to give you a single place to find openings. Also look at Craig’s List which is becoming a great place to find local job postings. And do NOT apply over the Internet. Yes that’s right, pull yourself out of the big pile of resumes in HR and use this simple technique.

First, find out who the hiring manager or key influencers are. You can usually do this by going to LinkedIn.com and doing a company search. Once you have their name and phone number give them a call and say something like: “A friend told me you might be interested in someone with my background. I have (insert your 2-sentence pitch), and I have just a few questions for you.”

Then ask them some questions that show you’ve done some homework on their company. Be very friendly, down to earth and personable and build some rapport, At some point they will ask you for your resume at which point you have now put yourself at the top of the decision maker’s pile and skipped the HR screeners. Using this trick can be the difference between being screened out and getting noticed.

RECRUITERS

Recruiters have about a 5-12% effectiveness rate in securing a new position for you so you should consider whether they should be a part of your plan. Here we are only talking about those who are paid a fee by the employer, and I would caution you to steer clear of those who want you to pay the fee for their services.

Start by considering whether the type of position is typically filled by recruiters. For example, recruiters will not generally work with entry level people or career changers as employers are paying them a hefty 20-30% of your first year’s compensation as a fee for their finding you. Entry level people are easy to find and a recruiter will generally not offer a career changer up as a candidate if they have no track record in the desired field.

If you decide to work with recruiters, then use a service (hint: like ours) that will present your resume to the largest number. These are inexpensive and very effective, especially in saving you time. Remember that recruiters in California can be searching for candidates on Texas, so do not limit your search locally.

NETWORKING

Networking is the king of effectiveness in job searching as it has always had over a 50% effectiveness rate. Especially in this market, networking should be the heart of your search plan as employers are much more inclined to hire someone who is referred to them as compared to a stranger. Networking is not as much fun as applying through job boards and requires a good deal more discipline, but the difference is not only in its effectiveness rate, but also in the quality of the job you obtain.

Most people think networking is sharing your resume with friends and neighbors but this is the worst thing you can do as you just lost control of the process as you wait for the phone to ring. Networking as a subject is a long article unto itself, but here are the key techniques.

Develop an “elevator pitch”, the 3 to 5 sentences that describe who you are and why an employer should want to speak to you. Develop support materials that include a networking business card too. Also make sure you are posted into LinkedIn.com which is becoming the top networking site for professionals.

Now identify the 5-10 companies you are most interested in joining. You can use LinkedIn which sports a fairly robust company search tool to do this. Then research the company online using a variety of excellent tools like Zoominfo, Spoke, Highbeam and many others you can easily find. Try to learn as much about the company as possible so you can impress an insider.

The next step is to identify people inside the company which you can also do through LinkedIn. Now your job is to network yourself into a meeting where you can impress them with your knowledge of their challenges, and how you can help them. Start by thinking about people you know who knows someone who is inside the firm. It’s great if you can get to the decision maker and it’s equally good if you can get an insider to walk your resume into their office. This is your Step 1 in networking.

Step 2 is to expand your search to other firms. Remember that good networking is asking people for advice as people are much more likely to give you advice than help you get a job. Here you want to know about industries, companies or people you should talk to who can help you focus your efforts. An easy, painless way to get going with this is to go to the regularly held networking meetings that are advertised in your local paper.

Now, if you are unemployed, plan on calling 25 people and having 3-5 face-to-face meetings per week. This is where discipline comes in, but after you have done this a couple of times, it becomes easier. Ask each person who else you should talk to and add them to your database.

In short, your job search plan should include the 3 major ways to contact an employer: job boards, recruiters and networking. Recognizing the different effectiveness rates of each in securing a new position, make sure you put a heavy emphasis on your networking efforts. Remember that although there are far fewer jobs open then last year, you only need one. Follow these steps and you will slash your job search time considerably.

Don Goodman, President of About Jobs (http://www.GotTheJob.com) is a

Job Search Techniques: How to Introduce Yourself

Nobody thinks of an introduction as being the first step in a job search, but it is. Whenever you meet someone new, you have the opportunity to expand the network of people who are looking for your next job. But introducing yourself as “jobless” is almost as embarrassing as introducing yourself as “homeless”–so of course people neglect this powerful networking opportunity and job search technique.

Reintroduce the introduction as your go-to job search technique.

Job search tip #1: Expand your job search network. Learn how to introduce yourself to new and different people. Set your goal to practice the introduction and also to meet people within your field.

But, it’s still uncomfortable, right? Try to introduce yourself by name only followed by a quick question about the person you are talking to. “Oh, Joe, you work at XYZ, do you like your job?” Once you talk to them for a few minutes they will normally ask what you do. Here’s where you practice the hard part. Practice saying, “I’m looking for work right now.” You can either continue talking about you, or shift back to talking about their career. I suggest that you talk about them. Continue your introduction by introducing them.

Tip #2: Introduce them to you, instead of introducing you to them. It’s uncomfortable to talk about you, so talk about them first and allow the bits an pieces about you come out second. Remember your goal right now is not landing a job, but expanding who you know.

If you get a chance talk about the challenges in their industry to demonstrate how much you listened and insight you can provide. You are building trust with a new contact.

Tip #3: Prove who you are, instead of saying who you are. The more you can talk intelligently with this new contact, the more you prove your mettle and increase trust with this contact. It’s networking, done effectively and comfortably. Your job search benefits from an impressed contact.

Tip #4: Allow the relationship to grow naturally. For this job search technique to be effective, the relationship needs to grow. Relationships take time. So ask the person for a business card, or ask if you can link to them on LinkedIn. A few days from now you will recommend them on LinkedIn. That will remind them of you and cause them to keep you in mind for opportunities when they present.

Introductions should never be high pressure. Not even in job searches should introductions be forced or moved faster than the level of trust that underlies the relationship. Done correctly, in a low pressure environment, an introduction can be easy and an important job search technique. After all, it’s not just what you know but who you know that lands you the job.

Job Search Techniques: Is Your Job Search On-Target?

There are a lot of people looking for jobs. Many of them are applying for every and any job that they can find. But is this any way to conduct a job search? It certainly is a less effective way to conduct a job search. As job boards proliferate and every company in the world starts saying ‘apply online’, companies are inundated with lots of resumes to sift through. And if everyone is applying for jobs–any job–many of these resumes submitted online are just one more resume. Study after study shows that a job search technique that consists of firing off resumes to online submission sites is not the best job search technique.

So how do you get your resume on the top of the stack? The key comes down to standing out. Less people apply through the mail. So do that.

Job Search Tip #1: Apply to less jobs, but target them carefully. Your goal here is to be an expert, just the right type of expert for the job. Spend more time on finding the right job, and less to applying for every job. You really want to find a position that you have a critical advantage to obtaining. This may be a special area of expertise, or special area of industry knowledge. An example of this may be an accountant that has knowledge of the medical industry. Or an engineer who has specialized knowledge in antenna design.

Tip #2: Be willing to adjust to the market and change your title, and career direction. Times have changed since you last were in a job search, even if that was 2 years ago. Job titles may have changed, so may the split of responsibilities. You can’t be stuck in the past, even if the title of your last job was more desirable or prestigious.

Realize that as more and more applications are sorted by computers, that computers rely on keywords.

Tip #3: Always be custom-made for the job you apply for. Customize your resume and your cover letter to be only for the job you are applying for. What does this mean? Your ‘objective’ should have the exact title in the job posting. Look through the job posting and identify the exact keywords used in the posting. Match your resume keywords to the posting keywords.

Maybe you even move more relevant work experience to the top–resumes do no have to be chronologically ordered.

Tip #4: Study the wording of the position and match it. Many job search candidates are not considered for jobs they are qualified for because of differences in terminology. If you have military experience, this is one of the best job search tips that you will find: reword your experience to match the style of wording in the job posting. If the job posting had a business style of job description, match it. If the job posting has a technical style, then match it.

Tip #5: Research the hiring manager and reach out to him. (If there is a head hunter involved, research which head hunter has had the best history of getting people into a company and send a hard copy of your resume to him). Make sure your cover letter is personalized. Even if you must also apply online, still send a hard copy.

Also connect to the hiring manager in LinkedIn or through a professional organization. His association of your name with a professional affiliation site like LinkedIn can increase your memorability.

Top job search techniques in this new market emphasize being the exact right person for the job. Being the exact right person means you know the exact right industry and the exact right people and you have precisely the right skillset. In many cases that simply a matter of proving that your skills are a match to the right people.

Job Search Techniques: What’s Wrong With My Job Search?

Most people concentrate on their resume and hope that they aren’t doing anything else wrong in their job hunt. It’s easy to look at your resume, but your job search technique is more than just fixing your resume.

Here are a few numbers to check yourself against. Most job searches take 3 months. A hunt for a job at the high end (over $100K) can take 5 months. A great job search technique should yield good results. You should contact about five people on average for an interview. Contact five head hunters, or submit five resumes and you should get one offer on average.

In about ten interviews you should get one job offer. For each ‘good’ job offer you get about three total job offers.

Of course there are other factors that change these numbers. If you work in a high demand field you can expect more offers. If you won’t move to a new location then you can expect less offers. But based on these numbers, you can get a feel for how effective your job search technique is working for you.

Now what? If you’ve found that your job search technique is less than effective, you can use these numbers to get a clue as to where your job search problem is. Decide whether you 1.) are getting too few good offers; 2.) are getting too few offers; or 3) are getting too few interviews.

If you are getting too few interviews, then make sure you aren’t just searching job boards and submitting all applications online. Make sure you are including customized cover letters–that use the keywords and the exact language that is in the job posting. Then check to make sure you are applying to jobs that you appear qualified for. If you are applying for the right jobs make sure that the language of your resume is not cryptic and clearly matches the language of the job postings.

You may be restricting your search by something like geography. Salary requirements may be unrealistic (see sites like Salary.com to check salaries in your area).

If you are getting too few job offers, look at your interview technique. Are you using real, detailed stories that clearly tie to your resume? Do those stories really show your qualifications? Stories should show increased responsibility, initiative, and your skillset. Do you appear confident or are you nervous during interviews? Practice your stories in front of someone. Learn to control your nerves.

If you are getting poor offers, you could be applying to the wrong jobs. Keep in mind that careers shift, maybe you need to reevaluate what current job you are the most qualified for. You could also be not showing your qualifications. Are you representing yourself in the best light?

A job search problem can be diagnosed and fixed with a little thought. These steps are a good start, but there is more you can do.For more free ideas about getting the job of your dreams join me on my blog at Think UpsideDown Books.

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