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.
-----
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.
Joseph, thank you for taking time from your busy schedule to answer my questions here and to speak to me. This was the encouragement I need to move forward.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome.
ReplyDelete