Balancing Priorities in a Job Search

The key to an effective job search is consistent commitment to both reactive (published jobs) and proactive (hidden jobs) efforts. Remember that while finding a job on the web FEELS efficient, only 25% of people succeed in that way. Balance is the key. It is better to do less on a regular basis than it is to launch furious sprints of effort followed by periods of relative inactivity as most people are prone to do.

Avoiding duplication of effort and maximizing activities already on your calendar are great ways to get more done with less time and effort. Do the following things consistently well to maximize the return on your search time investment:

Schedule your search effort: Build your job search “calendar” at least three weeks ahead as it is much easier to avoid conflicts, reschedules, and forgetfulness if things are planned in advance. Job search activities can involve groups, one-on-one meetings, and individual activities. In general, the more people involved in an activity the further in advance you need to account for it.

Therefore, schedule group networking events first since those dates, times, and locations are locked in.

Next come one-on-one interviews, business, and professional networking meetings which are dependent on aligning only two calendars. I came up with my three weeks’ advance notice guidance based on statistics I found suggesting that the ratio of acceptance to rejection dramatically increases at that point. A higher percentage of yeses to noes is not only more efficient, but also great for morale!

Last, slot your own individual activities such as internet job searches and adding LinkedIn connections which are not dependent on others and can be done anytime. If you are in full-time search mode, time your job application activities for early on Monday or Tuesday AM after the job is posted when success rates are highest.

 Timing when to do what on job search can save time and effort. Check out my upcoming April newsletter to learn more about the best time to do anything in a job search.

 Internet Job Search: This approach leads to only 25% of successful job searches and should therefore not take all of your time. The most productive sites to use for this are Indeed for quantity and LinkedIn for quality. Remember that this is all about key words. Build your resume based on an assortment of target roles and then tweak it to align language to each job posting when you apply.

 Remember that your goal is to get your application to the hiring manager. Therefore, Step One is to check LinkedIn or elsewhere to see if you have a connection who can get you past the screening process. And don’t presume that this contact has to be your best friend. There are a lot of reasons why someone you don’t know well would connect you to a human, such as a referral bonus or the desire to help a colleague.

 If you do end up applying, do so directly through the company website. Quick applies through Indeed, LinkedIn, etc. will often mean that your application will go through two talent management systems before it gets to an actual person.

 Unless you are applying to a small nonprofit or college, you should minimize your time on cover letters. They can’t be used for keyword matching and are often not forwarded to the hiring team anyway. Instead of major cover letter customization, I advise creating a well-crafted boilerplate version to send when given the option. Inclusion of a cover letter is occasionally used as a tiebreaker even if it isn’t truly read.

To learn more about building your resume to succeed in online searches, click here.

Employment agency: Recruiters (headhunters) are paid by companies to find turnkey talent. For this reason, search firms are not likely to earn a commission for someone who needs to be retrained. Based on market trends, I forecast that somewhere between 3% and 5% of jobs are filled via outside staffing firms.

That said, I do recommend that you add recruiters to your overall LinkedIn network building strategy. One never knows when a particular firm may get a job listing that aligns well with your skills. And some recruiters who are very well connected can make great networking partners.

If you need to know more about working with recruiters, click here.

Company research: Most great jobs are filled when an employer first recognizes that it needs to bring on additional talent to pursue a business opportunity or address a problem. This is the ideal time to strike because the screening process has not yet begun.   

These opportunities or problems typically are driven by either a role being vacated due to attrition or promotions and business transformation where an organization needs to bring on more people to achieve its strategic goals. Therefore, to improve your chances through this hidden job market you should do two things well.

 1.    Connect to people who occupy your desired position. This may sound weird, but it is a great strategy. When these competitors update their LinkedIn profile to announce a new job if often means their old job is open or that they are the beginning of a wave of hiring in their new company.

2.    Savvy job seekers target the events that create jobs at their level instead of waiting for competition once a job is published. Reading industry articles and following thought leaders on social media are good ways to ferret out pain points. Better still is establishing a network of industry insiders who not only hear that stuff, but who know the people who can connect you to it.

 I share tips on tapping into the hidden job market here.

 Professional networking meetings: It is important to be consistent with relationship management. Set a weekly or monthly goal and schedule those appointments in advance. Unemployed people should commit to averaging a conversation per day to gain practice talking about themselves and maintain professional relationships. Interviews would count toward this, as would group networking.

 Employed job seekers need to set a specific goal that would vary based on the urgency of the search and time available. If you take my advice on scheduling, you may find that you are running across very valuable contacts at work or at your kids’ soccer game which cost no additional time and would otherwise be missed.

 It is important to get into the routine of talking about your brand so that you generate referrals and become more fluent in interviews. In person meetings are best, teleconferencing second, telephone third, and electronic mechanisms (email and text) fourth.

 Brand development / content expert: I have seen many professionals secure paid engagements in roles for which they have no direct experience because they are seen as credible resources when someone in their network has a corresponding need.

 Authoring or sharing content is a great way to establish yourself as a subject matter expert. Presentations to industry groups are another great way. Some people have set up affinity groups in social media or have done websites, webinars, podcasts, and videos to broadcast. Even joining other online or physical groups of relevant influencers can provide the opportunity for you to showcase your expertise in a collaborative and non-salesy way.

 Network expansion: Building a professional network must be a lifestyle commitment for anyone who plans to work more than just a few more years. Remember that in order to get a job two conditions must exist: 1. An organization must need the solution that you offer, and 2. They must know you exist.

 That means that TWO groups of people should be added to the network: 1. Those within your target market who can influence your progress toward getting hired and 2. Those who, by the nature of the work that they do, make it their business to know what is going on within your target market. Think vendors, investors, analysts, advisors, and service providers for this. The first group will have deep knowledge of their own organization and know less about others. The second group will have a less in-depth knowledge of specific companies, but much broader networks and more diverse intelligence.

Try to avoid making all of your interactions about finding a job. Most people won’t be motivated to invest social capital to hit a colleague up to hire a friend. Instead, make sure to educate your connections on the business conditions that would suggest that they would be doing a favor for someone else by introducing you. Make them a hero to their boss or colleague by opening their eyes to the great solution that is you.

There is a networking philosophy called the “strength of weak ties” that demonstrates quite effectively how casual contacts might be even more effective than closely held ones may be. Learn more about that here.

 Networking maintenance: It is important to remain top of mind within your network so that people who have learned of the solutions you represent will remember you when they meet someone who needs you. This can be done with personal phone calls or notes. Introducing members of your network to each other is a great idea. Distributing content to the entire network or subsets of the network works, too. The key is to remind people of you by giving something rather than asking for things.

More in-depth networking tips can be found in an earlier blog post here.