Job search

Frustrated with your job search?

in How-to,Job loss,Job search,JobPounce,Tools

As our coaches work with Jobpounce participants and interact with many aspirants, majority of the people are grappling with a serious ailment.

It would be easy to call it frustration but I think it has a lot more to it. Let’s review it a bit more closely.

Cause and effect

Most people put in a lot of effort to polish their resume and send it to their friends, or post it online or use job websites to respond to opportunities that have been posted
And then they wait for a response…maybe an email, maybe a phone call
Most of the time, there’s no response. And that gets job seekers even more determined to send out resumes and cover letters to a wider audience – the thought process being to spread the net a bit more wider to get a bigger catch
And when they still don’t hear back, frustration starts to creep in. And it’s not just because of the lack of response from HR or recruiters, it is because of the amount of effort that has already been put in with very little results. It is sunk cost…all that time and effort…we can never get it back

What to do?

Our recommendation is to change the way you look for jobs:

Define your market and focus on what the employers in that market are looking for. Because it’s about what is in demand and what the requirements are. One good question to research is “why is this employer hiring for this position at this time?”. The answer to this question will give you clues and will help you align with the opportunity
Connect with your personal and professional network. And remember that that current and past employers of people within your network are also your extended network.
Celebrate even the smallest of milestones you achieve…it could be a phone call with a counselor, or a new job lead or an introduction to a recruiter.
Keep your exercise routine up, its amazing how much physical well being can contribute to positive thoughts and inspired action
Don’t stress, even thought reports say that 10% of the population is unemployed, understand that 90% of the population is still employed It is just a matter of time before you are back to work.

What would be some other ways to reduce job search frustration?

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How to get a recruiter to call you (JobPounce sample tip)

in communication,How-to,Job search,JobPounce,Tools

As you may know, JobPounce sessions include a unique methodology and techniques to help job seekers find their next job.

Here’s a quick sample of one the techniques we teach – how to get a recruiter to call you.

Recruiters usually get flooded with resumes and they are entrusted with the tough and thankless job of going through the pile of resumes to identify candidates for a phone screen interview.

Now, we’re hoping that you are NOT sending out your resumes to recruiters and expecting a response back. So here’s how to get them call you.

How to get a recruiter to call you

If you have started looking for a job lately, you might have noticed this trend – it’s your lucky day if a recruiter emails you or calls you back.

Things that you will need

The basics – Computer, internet connection and printer
Pen and highlighter
Your favorite chair
Phone

Let’s assume that you saw a posting on an employer’s web site or someone in your network has tipped you off regarding an open position and you think you would be a great fit for this position.

Here’s how to get the recruiter to call you:

Ask yourself the question – “Why is this firm hiring for this position?”. That answer will help you understand the real opportunity or challenge that this firm is facing. This data point is invaluable because it sets you up as someone who will solve the problem rather than someone who’s ‘just looking for another job’.
Take a hard copy (print) of this position and sit down in your favorite chair with a pen and highlighter. I’m all about the environment and saving trees, but make an exception for this one page because it will be worth it.
Based on your knowledge and experience, highlight the areas that you think are WRONG about this particular position. Here are some example of inconsistencies or errors in job position descriptions:
- - For a sales position, there is no mention of responding to RFPs
- For a librarian job, the position does not mention classification of reference material
- For a User Interface Engineer job, the position does not mention integrating the user interface with backend database
These are really simple examples, but I’m sure you’ll be able to find at least a couple of errors in a given job description. At the very minimum, you should be able to identify some issues around this job description.
Develop a really simple script for this recruiter – “hello, my name is [your name] and I would like to highlight that there are some issues with you job posting for a [Position Name] on your website. I think there are some gaps in the description that may prevent you from hiring the right candidate.” Also include your contact info to this script.
For all the issues that you identified earlier,have a quick rationale around why this is an issue or a gap in the job description. Now you are ready to call the recruiter
Optional: Hopefully, you have the recruiter’s phone number. If you do not, dial that firm’s main phone during after hours, access the phone directory and use the recruiters first name and last name to leave him / her a message as described below
Call the recruiter, using your voice mail script. Since recruiters have very limited information about specific job description, they will listen patiently to the issues / gaps that you are mentioning, they’ll make notes and most likely, they’ll say – ‘I need to speak with someone in [HR / department that is hiring]. Let me get back to you.’. Be sure to leave your contact information with the recruiter
Assuming that you did a really good job with the upfront research, the recruiter will call you back with at least a clarification for the issues / gaps you had raised. This is a great opportunity to pop the question ‘It is a position that interests me and I’d like to apply’.
The recruiter is already impressed – you are someone who not only has read the job description carefully but you are someone who knows a heck of a lot about this particular line of work (since you brought up issues and gaps with their job description).

So, no points for guessing who’s resume will surely be included for the phone screen.

That’s it. You made it through the first barrier of screening!

Are there any additional tips that you would like to add to have recruiters call you back?

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Job Search Handbook Part II: Job Search Strategy

in How-to,Job search,The Job Search Handbook,Tools

Imagine a symphony orchestra trying to make music with no notes and no conductor. Though the players might be very skilled, but they would lack focus and coordination. And the result would be…well, not much to write home about.

That’s exactly what your Job Search Strategy needs to provide – focus on specific employers and coordinated job hunting efforts to get you in front of your target employers and most importantly, get you the job!

Components of a successful Job Search Strategy

The main components of a successful strategy are:

a) Market definition and focus: which industry will you be targeting, which specific employers will be your focus and what will be your target geography. The geography piece is getting interesting these days as more and more companies are open to work getting done virtually.

b) Unique value proposition – what do you bring to the table, brother?! As mentioned earlier, companies are all about defending and increasing revenues or drastically reducing costs. How can the combination of your skills, experience and working help your future employer to increase their revenue or lower costs? Clearly articulating your value prop can open more doors than you can imagine.

Also, you’ll need to bring in something that is absolutely unique about you, your skills and experience that will make you stand out from everyone else. You need to have purple cow effect (hat tip: Seth Godin) and it will immediately make the recruiters sit up and take notice.

c) Research and communication – researching your target market will provide you invaluable clues and a leg up over your competition in terms of intelligence. And then you can use your unique value proposition to communicate it to to your target market and add the specific intelligence you picked up during research.

Communicating your value proposition has never been this good…and cheap! You can use a combination of websites, videos, slides, blogs, tweets and social networks to communicate to the right people.

Those are the elements of your strategy!

In the next post, we’ll go over how do we bring your job strategy to life and get ready to execute!

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Currently employed

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Rethink your job strategy

communication

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