How To "Stand Out" From Other Job Seekers

Elke from Canada asked via Linkedin, “When applying for a job, how can I stand out from the crowd?”

The best way to stand out from the crowd is to refuse to join the crowd. You are part of the crowd if you obediently apply for jobs the way employers (read HR departments) want you to apply. HR departments  want you to line up like people taking a number at the DMV and complete online applications that hiring managers won’t see, submit resumes online that hiring managers will ignore, wait for interviews that will rarely lead to more interviews and very seldom result in job offers.

With the exception of the “cattle call” jobs – 50 Ibex call center openings, for example – the “hiring process” is a misnamed fraud. It’s an elimination process and HR departments know very well that hiring managers hire who they want, not those who survive the HR process of elimination.

Let me ask you something.  In the following vignette, which candidate would you rather be, candidate A or candidate B?

1.       Candidate A fills out an online application, waits around for a call and if he is lucky gets an interview with somebody who doesn’t have the authority to hire him.

2.       Candidate B skips the line, sends no resume, submits no online application, undergoes no deceptive, time-wasting interviews - and is introduced to and recommended to a hiring manager by a mutual friend.

In the following scenario, which candidate would you rather be, A or B?

1.       Candidate A paid $100 for a resume overhaul, $500 how- to- interview coaching and is sweating it out in the employer’s lobby trying to remember all the stuff to do and not to do in the interview.

2.       Candidate B is not sitting in the lobby, did not spend money on a resume overhaul or a “how-to-interview” course. Candidate B is across the street at a Starbucks where he is casually and comfortable being introduced to the hiring manager by their mutual friend.

In both scenes, the obvious answer is “B”. Do you know how to become “B”? If not, let me help. First, don’t double-down on the job search strategy you’re using now. If it were working, you wouldn’t be reading articles about how to get a job. Abandon the ineffective strategy now. Stop sending resumes to strangers. Stop waiting for calls from strangers. Don’t be part of the crowd. Don’t wait in line. Don’t be a chump. Jump the line.  You know I’m right. You’ve seen it all your career.

I got my first “real job” because my dad knew the General Manager’s dad, not because I was the best candidate. The General Manager had resumes from 50 people who were as good as or better than I was.

I got my first management job a few years later because a guy I barely knew mentioned my name to a hiring manager over a beer at a hotel bar 150 miles away. The hiring manager had run quarter-page employment ads in my local paper for weeks before he rejected the entire stack of resumes and hired the one guy who never joined the crowd. 

My friend lined up as if he was at the DMV and applied for a job for which he was an exact match. The ad said the selected applicant MUST have 1. Fluency in an Asian language 2. A masters degree or above in political science and experience as an actual resident of an Asian nation.  My friend lived in Japan for years where he learned to speak fluent Japanese and worked for a prefectural Japanese government and several Japanese companies.  And, oh yeah, he has a masters in Poli Sci.

The person who got the job had none of the requisite qualifications. She cut the line; she never had to join the crowd. She “stood out” and got the job because of a personal connection to the hiring manager.

This happens every day.

It can happen to you. But not until you abandon the get-in-line-join-the-crowd strategy.

Here’s how to “stand out” from the crowd by never joining the crowd:

1.       First, make a list of people you know. They don’t have to be close friends. People you know from a board you serve on.  Neighbors. People whose kids know your kids. Co-workers. Former co-workers.  You get the idea. Make the list. If you’ve been working for more than a few years, you should know dozens, maybe hundreds of people who should be on the list. Remember, the people on the list don’t need to be close friends. The guy whose recommendation got me my first management job was not a close friend. I didn’t even know he liked me or respected me well enough to recommend me but he did. Make the list.

2.       Find phone numbers for everybody on the list.

3.       Call each person on the list and tell him or her in clear, declarative terms what you do and ask him or her to introduce you to somebody who might like to meet you. Don’t tell them your job title, tell them what you do. Don’t assume they know what you do. They may know where you work but the former co-worker who hasn’t seen you in 10 years doesn’t know what you do now.  A recent survey showed that most parents don’t know what their kids do for a living. Notice I said ask them to introduce you to somebody, not tell you about job “leads.” Unless they introduce you to somebody, you’re still just lining up to join the crowd. If possible, ask them to introduce you to somebody in-person. Over coffee, breakfast or lunch is great. When somebody introduces you to a hiring manager they are risking their relationship with that person. That’s powerful.  If the hiring manager hires you and you turn out to be lazy or incompetent or you sexually harass co-workers the person who introduced you loses the trust of the hiring manager. That’s why candidates with a great resume are no match for candidates who know somebody who knows the hiring manager.

If you know where you wish to work, do an advanced LinkedIn search and find out who you know at that employer. LinkedIn shows you how you are connected to people, who you know in common. Start contacting those “connectors” and remind them who you are, what you do and then ask them to introduce you to the specific hiring managers they know at their company. Again, you are about to find out who your real friends are. Some of the people you think you can count on won’t risk any social capitol on you. However, some of the people you least expect to help you will introduce you to hiring managers.

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Other blogs by Joseph Higginbotham:
HigginbothamAtLarge.blogspot.com
HigginbothamHyperlocal.blogspot.com

How To Get The Unfair Advantage That Gets You The Job Offer

QUESTION: "When did keywords start overriding experience in the job search? Also, what can I do to get my resume to hiring managers? This process is frustrating."

ANSWER: I can help if you are willing to abandon the obviously ineffective job search strategy you're currently using and adopt the much more effective, faster-working strategy I'm about to propose. 

I've written elsewhere that a job seeker's first clues he or she is unlikely to get the job are as follows: (1) you are sending your resume to strangers like hundreds of other suckers (2) your resume is being handled like hundreds of other resumes (in this case, it's going through a scanner and heuristic software that searches your resume for certain "keywords" and (3) you're waiting for an interview with a stranger who is probably only conducting interviews to make it look like his hiring process is meritocratic. 

Before you can execute an effective job search strategy you must first understand how hiring really works. I can help. Here's how hiring really works: Hiring managers tell themselves and HR that they want to find "the best candidate" but what they really want is a candidate who is not a total stranger, either someone they know or someone to whom they are connected by a trusted mutual friend who vouches for that candidate. Odds are that the hiring manager to whom you'd like to send your resume already has a stack of paper resumes - some of them very good - but he hasn't hired any of them yet because they are total strangers. In all my years of collecting ridiculous executive search fees from clients not one of those clients ever filled the position in question with somebody from the total stranger category. Most of the time the hiring manager doesn't know why he hasn't offered the job to anyone yet. 

To get the job you need an unfair advantage. You need to get out of the stranger category. The shortest distance between you and the job is a trusted mutual friend who introduces you to your new boss. But how do you get the unfair advantage of being introduced to your new boss by a trusted mutual friend? I can help. Read on.

I'm going to tell you how to get somebody you already know to introduce you to your next boss. 

For the next week instead of filling out online applications and sending resumes to strangers I want you to do the following:

1. Make a list of all the people you know who like and respect you. This list should include current or former co-workers, vendors, neighbors, people you know through professional organizations, people you've served with on a board, people whose kids hang out with your kids, people you go to church with. You get the idea. Take out a legal pad and make a list. Unless you are a hermit your list will likely contain dozens or even hundreds of names. Use the most intimate means of communication you can to contact people on the list and tell them the kind of job you're looking for and ask them to introduce you to somebody who can hire you for such a job. Don't be surprised if some of the people on the list don't know what you do. Neighbors may know where you work but may have no idea what you do there. Tell them. Former co-workers may know what you did 5 years ago when they worked with you but may have no idea what you do now. Tell them. Have these conversations face-to-face where possible. Next best is phone. Only use social media or email to arrange a face-to-face or a phone call. 

Remember, the goal is not a "job lead." The goal is an actual introduction to somebody who can hire you. 

I got my first management job after the hiring manager ran 1/4 page newspaper ads for weeks, collected dozens of resumes from better-qualified candidates than me but still didn't hire anybody. He hired me because a trusted mutual friend recommended me. I didn't answer the ad. I wasn't asked for a resume until after I was hired. 

Here's your first clue that you are likely to get the job offer: Instead of sitting in the lobby waiting for a dead-end interview with a stranger, you are being introduced to a hiring manager by a mutual friend at a Starbucks or at the golf course or at a bar or over lunch. 

2. Use Linkedin to figure out who you know who can connect you to hiring managers you want to work for. Don't send resumes, contact your current connections and ask them to introduce you to John Smith, VP of Marketing. Start with a list of employers you'd like to work for. Then look up the executives and department heads. If Linkedin says you are a 2nd level connection to somebody that means you have a mutual 1st level connection who connects you to each other. Make the call. Remember, you want an introduction to the hiring manager. In person if possible but take any kind of introduction you can get. Conference call, email, Facebook Messenger. 

Except for call center jobs and minimum wage jobs, most jobs are unadvertised and if you are introduced to the hiring manager by a trusted mutual friend, that job may never be advertised. You'll be the only candidate. No scanner or heuristic software will get the chance to eliminate you from consideration. 

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Joseph Higginbotham is a former Director at Kanawha County Workforce Investment Board, a former headhunter, and a former hiring manager. Higginbotham's articles about job search have appeared in magazines and newspapers and Higginbotham has been an "expert panelist" at college career events and has been a guest expert on talk radio shows.