Job Seekers: Think Like a Recruiter – Part 7

Long ago in a far-away galaxy, companies would have their recruiters write recruitment ads for newspapers. They waited for the mail each day, opened the envelopes carefully, and began sorting paper into various stacks indicating levels of interest or non-interest. Job seekers would pick up the Sunday papers from local and out-of-town cities, sit at the kitchen table with colored markers to circle the best jobs in the want-ads, and stuff envelopes with nicely printed resumes and generic cover letters. Then they wait for the call. Nobody would think that this old-fashioned method is the way it is done today…or do they? Some recruiters rely heavily on job boards or their company career site to post their job ads. They wait for their database to be filled with applicants, read the uploaded resumes, and sort them into electronic files. It is called the “post and pray” method. Some job seekers search several job boards for ideas, save some for reference, and upload canned resumes and cover letters in response to the ads. Then they wait for the call. This too is called “post and pray.” Look closely at the similarity between these two methodologies. Both are filled with “acting” and very little “activity.” They still remain passive in their overall approach. The only thing different is that we have chosen to sacrifice electrons instead of trees for the ads and applications.

“There is a three pronged process to be a successful seeker. You must know what you are looking for, you must be proactive and not passive in your search, and you must be “findable” to recruiters looking for people like you.”

The first installment of being a successful seeker, the first prong of the search, focused on setting your destination. “If you don’t know where you are going, how will you know when you get there?” The second prong of your attack pitchfork is to aggressively pursue your objectives.

Second prong of the search – Make your search active rather than passive (or, Life is an all you can eat buffet and nobody is waiting on you.)

To be or not to be, if that is the question the answer is “not.” Nobody ever gets anywhere by just being. Results happen when you are doing. If you have a well thought out target for your job search, this phase is the execution of a plan that will get you there. It may be stretching the “journey” analogy a bit, but it is very much like a boat on a lake. You have several choices to reach the other shore, but drifting is not the best one. If you set your job search adrift you may get somewhere, but you could just as easily wind up back where you started or nowhere at all. Here are a few items that can pull you out of passivity and into a results-oriented search:

1. Pick the low hanging fruit – Employee referrals are the number one source of candidates for most companies. Recruiters love to have pre-qualified candidates referred to them by employees who know both the job at hand and a potential candidate with matching skills. Friends, relatives, former co-workers and other network contacts can be your foot in the door. Not only are they connected inside a company that you would like to enter, they know the inside track for getting positive results. Company contacts are a wealth of information on the culture and the idiosyncrasies of recruiters and hiring managers. They can map the minefield for you to insure that you have an easier path to success. It is very important to remember that it is your skills that will get you the job and not the referral. Getting help to get in the door is a great thing, but progressing further down the path is up to you.
2. Work the job boards – Heeding the advice to avoid post-and-pray does not mean that the job boards are ineffective. In fact, they are reported to be the second largest contributor to most company hiring. There are two ways that recruiters will find you through a job board and this is both active and passive as well. When you apply directly to a job posting, your application goes to some sort of database, either hosted by the job board or to the company’s applicant tracking system. The recruiter who posted the job will be the one most likely to see that you applied. The other more active recruiter tool is to do data mining in the job board database or the ATS. This is one reason that it is important for your resume to contain the keywords that highlight the skill set you want to present to the job. The keywords will also get you through any electronic screening filter. A caution about job boards: read the whole job posting and follow instructions. Don’t apply to titles but to the matching requirements of the job. If there is an instruction to “click here” rather than follow the job board link it is for a reason. Very few will ask for a letter or fax in today’s world, but it does still happen. Another key point about job boards is that they are idea goldmines. When you search for a job you are using the same search engine that a recruiter would use to find you, so find jobs and compare companies. It tells you something about their competition which can be useful information in an interview.
3. Social media advantages – More about this later, but all of the social media tools can be used to search for jobs. Find your target company’s Facebook pages and “like” them to follow the news, jobs and culture. Follow companies on Twitter, especially if they tweet on career opportunities. Don’t be insulted and unfollow them if they don’t follow you back as some have internal restrictions on how social they are allowed to be on Twitter. Having a complete active profile on LinkedIn is a must! This is a very powerful tool where you can research companies, get information on recruiters and managers, and engage with key opinion leaders in question and answer sessions. LinkedIn Groups are an important tool to find people who may be a network contact. Think about starting a blog if you don’t already have one. There are several sites which will host a blog easily and without the hassle of working with complex software. One is Blogger by Google which is easy to use and after a few tries you will be publishing your own thoughts and adding credibility to your search. Follow blogs by recruiters and make appropriate comments to stimulate the conversation and show that you are knowledgeable.
4. Don’t forget about low-tech – Telephones are not as sexy as computers, but there is much more of a personal touch when you reach out by phone. The first calls should be to people you know. The general consensus is that you should not appear to be begging for a job, but simply informing someone that you are looking will usually get the response that you want without asking. Telephone calls are a two-way communication, so listen as much as you talk. You are looking for clues as to how you can help the person you are calling which makes it much more of a reciprocal arrangement than a one-sided request for help. Cold calling takes a little practice. There are volumes written on how to do this, but it should be scripted and rehearsed beforehand. With a little practice you will learn how to get past the gatekeepers to recruiters and managers who can help you in your search. Don’t forget the reason you called. Get at least one contact from the person you called, add it to your log and then make another call. Recruiters and Sourcers who are effective in ferreting out talent use the phone extensively, so adopt that mindset.
5. Work for and with your network – Give as much as you get. Pay it forward. Take your contacts from social networks into real life. Join associations and interest groups near you and be an active participant in their activities. Offer to have coffee or lunch with your network contacts to add some personality to their impression of you. Other job seekers are often a great source of information and support while you are both going through the same thing. Compare notes and discuss problems together to add the synergy of two minds to solving a problem. Recruiters are people too…they drink coffee and have lunch. It is a professional relationship, but letting them inside of your outer layers of defense can create an air of trust. Since it is their job to peel back the layers of the onion to find out the aspects of a candidate, lend assistance in doing so.
6. Other online tools – In addition to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn there are other sites that lend themselves to searching companies for you to target in your job search.
   1. Zoominfo – An online directory to find information about more than 50 million business people and 5 million businesses.
   2. Indeed – This is a meta job search job site which gives information into job boards, newspapers, associations and company career pages.
   3. Search Engines – You are probably familiar with simple searches on Google, Bing or Yahoo, but these are also a powerful way to drill down further to specific jobs. Searching on a company or job title can give you a list of hundreds of leads. Using Boolean expressions can narrow the search, such as “KEYWORD OR KEYWORD OR KEYWORD” or use the search engine’s advance search capabilities. Boolean is not scary. There are only a few Boolean operators to learn and trial and error is fast enough to allow you to make corrections in the search as you go. This type of activity is the heart of sourcing and recruiting, so you are looking for a job the same way a sourcer would look for you. Just as the typewriter gave way to word processing, you have to change with the times. Don’t avoid it because you have never done it before.

Combining various tools will take your search to the next level. For example, when you find a company on LinkedIn do a Google search to find jobs or competitors. Find a job on a job board, find a recruiter at that company on LinkedIn, and search for contact information using Google. The combinations are endless. Focus on the ultimate target which is to get in the door for face-to-face interviews. There is also a hidden job market to be found outside of ordinary job postings. Recruiters sometimes look for candidates who are not looking for a job in order to pick the best talent from a competitor. You use these techniques to pick the best job for you whether or not it has been advertised.

This is admittedly a broad-brush approach on an extremely complex process. This series of articles is to focus on a methodology of thinking like a recruiter to keep you on track. The details of all of these points and more are just beneath the surface and can be uncovered by searching for them as you would search for a job. More will be published on some of these details in future topics for articles here.

Job Seekers: Think Like a Recruiter

• Part 1 – Beginning the Process
• Part 2 – Who Are the Recruiters?
• Part 3 – Inventory of Skills and Accomplishments
• Part 4 – The Resume
• Part 5 – Cover Letters
• Part 6 – Creating a search plan