With the job market getting increasingly harder to penetrate using standard job-search methods become increasingly frustrating. When your “spray and pray” approach does not work, here are some proven methods that I have used with my clients over the past 25 years that have produced above-average results, especially in tough job markets.
- Your positioning message: Your résumé, LinkedIn profile, and your Bio (for senior executives) must tell a compelling story, creating a narrative that clearly shows your differentiation from other candidates with their résumés crowded with Task/Result bullets. What matters is not how much better you are than from the others, but how different you are. Creating a compelling leadership narrative takes effort, strong writing skills, and a point of view (PoV). Also, optimizing your LI Profile for landing at the top of LI search queries takes trial and error, but it is worth the effort. Most traditional résumé writers can make your résumé look pretty but lack the ability to extract a coherent leadership narrative that is highly differentiated.
- Augmenting Your Message: With the explosive growth of AI and all that goes with it many feel left out for not having kept up with what is happening. Many prospects call me to check if I can help them take some quick courses and certifications to be in the AI game. This simply does not work. Merely taking a course in some hot topic or even getting a certification does not differentiate you when you’re competing with experts doing this for many years. Although taking some courses can help, but what can make a difference is if you use that learning to infuse your ongoing work with AI and to show its impact in the immediate work that you do.
- Prospecting: Once you get past the myth of the hidden job market you can open your mind to something that is even a better proxy to that myth: Active prospecting. In any job market you’re typically competing with other candidates. In a tough job market, you are competing with even a bigger challenge, where many will apply with a far stronger résumé than you bring, with other advantages to boot. If you select your target employer carefully—regardless, if they are hiring or if they have any open positions—you can research the company in the areas of your expertise to explore what they are not doing or missing out on opportunities that are in your sweet spot. Making a case for it through a careful argument with supporting research data and showing how you can help them conquer that space or problem can be surprisingly rewarding.
Write a prospect letter (≤ one page) and attach your one-page bio (NOT your résumé) and send it to the CEO or someone at that level. Generally sending such a letter by overnight courier (FedEx, see #5 below) generally does wonders.In 2001, in the middle of the dotcom bust—when even Apple was laying off—we sent such a prospect letter—FedEx—to Steve Jobs with a compelling PoV. His secretary called my client the next day to set up a meeting with Steve. Over the past 25 years that I’ve been doing this, the success rate—they call you, but may not hire you always—is about 30%, which is impressive. Besides, you are not competing with anyone else!
- Leveraging Your Network: Before applying to an open position find someone from within the target company to help you with your message before blindly submitting your résumé, even with key words extracted from the job description. Ask someone in the know inside the company—connected with the hiring manager—to give you some insight about the opening. Often, job descriptions are posted from existing templates to save time and effort, so this extra insight can help you in your résumé and your cover letter.
- Cover Letters: Most applicants write their cover letters by copying the language from the job description and then from their résumé. Such banausic letters are not only not read, but they trumpet how lazy and unimaginative you are! Instead, if you are serious about making your case, do some digging through your company contact, recent press coverage, analysts’ calls/guidance, and your own research on the market the company serves. Based on this, formulate a point of view (PoV) showing how your expertise will help that company deal with their pain point(s). Merely intriguing the reader with your ideas, can help them understand your value in their time of need and can be a significant differentiator for you. Do not provide the complete answer to their problem but just enough for them to call you.
Remember this: The résumé is about YOU; the cover letter is about THEM! - Use FedEx: In addition to a great cover letter (in #4 above) if you have the name and address of the hiring manager (especially their boss), send a nicely printed (40# white or ivory résumé stock) résumé and cover letter (unfolded) by overnight courier. FedEx can be expensive, so use Priority Mail, which also has an attention-getting design/tracking.
- Leverage LinkedIn: Most LI members merely scroll through their daily feed and use that information in their job search. It is more impactful if you find someone from your target company posting a blog, video, or an article and then making a thoughtful comment on their post with some research. A mere Like will not get you what you’re looking for. In the case of one client, she was unable to get any response to the myriad submissions she made for open jobs at her target over the two years she was trying to get into that company. However, when she saw an article posted by one of its managers, we did some research and posted a thought-provoking comment, which got the manager’s attention. He asked the recruiter to contact my client to schedule a phone call with him.
- Post Blogs: Another way to get attention is to post insightful blogs on LinkedIn and other social media you use. Recently, one of my clients posted a series of four-part blogs on a highly technical topic popularizing it on LinkedIn, which were read by the CMO of a major F-100. When her final installment was up, she received a call from that company’s executive recruiter asking for her résumé.
- LinkedIn as a Job Board: There are myriad job boards and LinkedIn has become the sine qua non for most. The problem is, though, that the postings on LinkedIn are not aways current and monitored by the posting employer. They sign an agreement to post a job for a certain period and regardless of it final status it continues to show on LinkedIn for that duration. So, before spending your time responding to such a post, it is best to visit the posting company’s website to see if anything about that posting has changed. Calling someone you know from the inside can further assure you of that and even get you some additional information about that job.
- Interviews: In this job market the real game is getting in front of the decision-makers. When such an opportunity comes many candidates waste this avenue to ratchet-up their candidacy by acing each round. In this process they often get flummoxed by commonly asked interview questions such as Tell me about yourself, Why do you want this job, Why should we hire you, Why are you looking for a change, and other such questions. Unless you can crisply respond to such questions, you’ll get ghosted. In one case a prospect came to me after he tanked on a simple interview question: he was an IC applying for a manager role and when the interviewer asked him why he wanted the manager role he got completely discomfited by a to-be expected question and blew that opportunity.
- Post-Interview: Even if you think that you did well during an interview (s), reflect on any responses that could have been stronger. Write a thank-you note to the interviewer and in the second short paragraph revisit that discussion and reiterate how you can further reinforce that response with some additional material and a story. This shows that you care to deliver your very best and it can make a difference in how they see you.Also, inviting that interviewer (s) to your LinkedIn network is a good way to ascertain if they care about connecting with you. Mentioning this in the thank-you note is a good idea.
- Salary/Title: When someone is looking for a job or a change they normally focus on a higher title (than their current one) and a commensurate compensation. In a tough job market this can become a problem. So, during your interviews it is best to focus on your responsibilities and growth prospects than it is to focus on your compensation package and title.
- Harvest Your Pipeline: In any job market it is a good idea to having a robust pipeline of open-job targets and managing the submissions staging and interview line-ups. This allows you to leverage your pipeline activity to create a cascading domino effect. So, even when you do not have an offer, but are in the final stages of an interview loop, you can tell a competing opportunity that you are now in the final round and expect to get an offer in a few days. DO NOT say that you already have an offer, EVEN when you have an offer in your hands. Often, an offer already made has a half-life of less than a week and most companies cannot move that fast in most cases and you may end up compromising your candidacy. NEVER lie about an offer that does not exist; recruiters are expert at spotting a lie!
- “Sandwich” Follow-ups: After an interview recruiters are notoriously known for ghosting, leaving you in a lurch. Do not keep following up or calling constantly and stalking them about the outcome. Before you leave the interview ask what the next steps are and their timeline. In your Thank-you note (see #9) mention that you expect to hear back from them by that date they told you. In 99% of the cases, they will not honor that and yet you need to know.
So, first, send an email to the recruiter and remind them of what was said in the interview. Then ask them where things are. In almost all cases they’ll ignore your request. Now you wait for a few days and call them on their line, which will inevitably be their voice mail. In your message say the following: “Jim, I am following up on my interview from last week and I’d like to know what the next steps are. I know you’re busy, so I am going to send you an email right after I hang-up, so that you can respond to that email to save you time. I appreciate your alacrity!” If normal follow-ups give your no results this approach can get you some response about 50-75% of the time! Email-voicemail-email is the sandwich.
Looking for a new job can be a demoralizing experience if you do not stick to what it takes to launch your campaign with the realities of a tough job market. Remember always, it is how different you are; not how good you are!
Good luck!
