Job Search Success: Can Targeting Make a Difference?
Don’t even think about trying this technique unless you’re prepared for an employer to offer you a job.
I was speaking with a client a few days ago and he told me a story about a candidate he had just hired for a sales position. She had lost her job at a company who was not a direct competitor, but was providing services at a different distribution level in a tangential industry. (I amaze myself sometimes with my ambiguity).
She had sent her resume to the CEO requesting an interview. He blew her off – wrong skill set – wrong industry – wrong level in the distribution/supply chain. And to top it off – he didn’t have a current opening.
She was persistent. She began an aggressive campaign of sending him letters detailing why he needed to hire her in his sales department.
She had conducted extensive research on the company, talked with their suppliers, talked with their customers, and found people within the company (using LinkedIn of course).
She described in “precise” detail the problems she perceived, the steps that needed to be taken, and where she could help to resolve those problems.
Over the course of a few interviews, she became more and more specific about how she could make a difference – through fact-finding in the interviewing, she collected great information.
The company was still undecided (hard to believe). Finally, she sealed the deal by preparing a plan of action of what she would do in her first 90 days. She convinced the company to allow her to present her plan at a meeting. Upon hearing exactly how she would translate her prior experience into actionable steps in this new company, they hired her.
That’s how targeted job search works.
What’s the alternative? The alternative is the shotgun scatter method to job search used by many job seekers. Under the shotgun scatter model, you send out hundreds of standard cover letters and resumes to every company that remotely includes a keyword of interest in their ads. 99.99% of these end up in the trash can. You just wasted 20 hours of your week responding to job ads for which you had no chance of ever making it to the stage of an interview.
Wouldn’t your time be spent more productively targeting jobs, opportunities, and companies – rather than wasting time on the shotgun scatter model of job search?
Barry
Tags: Cover Letter Tips, Custom Cover letters, Interview 1st Impressions, Interviewing Mistakes, Job Search Mistakes, Phone Interview, Resume Techniques
Interviewing, Job Search Mistakes, Job Search Preparation | Barry Deutsch August 17, 2010
About the Author
Barry Deutsch is a founding Partner of IMPACT Hiring Solutions, co-author of "You're NOT the Person I Hired", and "This is NOT the Position I Accepted". Barry is an award-winning international speaker, retained executive recruiter, and expert on hiring and retaining top talent, and executive job search.
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By JamesF, August 18, 2010 @ 8:44 pm
This tactic sounds a lot like ‘In The Pursuit of Happyness” movie.. persistence is a very quality trait.
By Barry Deutsch, August 19, 2010 @ 9:44 pm
James,
I like your reference to “In the Pursuit of Happiness” movie. Persistence is an important trait of success- and can be very important in the job search. Thanks for reading the blog post.
Barry