Here is some sad news for job hunters. You probably are doing the exact opposite of what you need to do to land a job. Even more sad, many career ‘experts’ are fueling the misconceptions of what effective job hunting strategies are. When you compound it with the information age you find a whole lot of people doing what they think is productive work and getting nothing in return. I daily come across people who are frustrated at the lack of success
Once a job hunter finds out I’m a career coach I’m soon asked, “What is the best way to land a job?” If they have not asked it by their 3rd question I usually see in their face they would like to ask, or something similar. The look is more of a general asking of how do they as quick as possible end the current period of unknowns and instability. What they want is the easy one-stop shopping panacea to their troubles. And why wouldn’t they. Being without a job is a tough place to be. It can lead to sleepless nights and call to question self worth. The disheartening truth is the very actions job seekers take to alleviate their stress actually make it worse.
Let’s take a look at the 5 least productive job hunting techniques and understand why they are ineffective.
Top 5 worst ways to spend your time looking for a job.
- Using the internet to search for work: 4% success
- Mailing resumes to employers at random: 7% success
- Answering ads in trade journals: 7% success
- Answering newspaper ads: 5-24% success (less success for higher salaries)
- Using employment agencies or search firms: 5-28% (higher salary, less successful) (With one exception I will tell you later about)
Job hunting like many things in life is counter intuitive until you understand the deeper meaning. Moving backwards through the list let’s start with number 5.
Using employment agencies:
First I don’t have a blanket policy against employment agencies. In fact for some career paths I highly encourage clients to use an employment agencies I know are well run. The problem with some agencies is they are more like resume sweat shops than helpful partners. If you are partnered with a less than reputable agency it will be worse than if you never contacted them.
Many large companies (here we are talking about those with job you want to work at) have a policy where your resume can only be put in once and that is it. More than once and you are black listed. If you are applied to a job you are not qualified for, you are black listed. The less than desired search agencies send your resume out like a shot gun blast, indiscriminate of who gets it or how many times. In an upcoming article we will look at how to interview an employment agency to find the right one.
Answering newspaper advertisements:
The short answer is by time the ad has been placed and you see it you are most likely too late. Some jobs, particularly those oversaw by government contracts, are required to be posted in the newspaper. This is largely a necessary formality and somebody has already been selected and the company is waiting for the seasoning period to end. Even when the position is still open, your resume is lost in the process requested by the company. The better solution is to use the back door, which I will cover in a later posting.
Answering ads in trade journals.
This solution has the same faulty reasons as newspaper advertisements, except they are MORE dated. Most trade journals are monthly and require at least 2 weeks prep time. At the very least you are looking at a 2 week old position. Then add to that time whatever time it takes to send in your resume, be opened, passed to the right person and finally looked at. Once again the back door is your best method.
Mailing resumes to employers at random.
This is a desperation tactic used by people close to the end of their rope. They think the ‘concentrated’ effort they have used has failed and the opposite and more broad approach will garnish better results. However what they need to do is become more concentrated and focused rather than less. If you send your resume to a company that is not accepting positions you have wasted two peoples time, your and theirs. The time you lost would have been better sending it a company who had an open position. How do you find out if they have an open position? Call. Yes it is that simple. Many of the best jobs are never posted on large job boards. Mid and small companies will not post their positions on job boards. But if call or better yet drop they will tell you. Sure it takes some extra work. But what would you rather do send 20 resumes out and wonder if you will ever get a response or call 10 companies and find 2 job leads with the name’s of supervisors you can directly mail your resume to. (Notice I did not say email)
Using the internet to look for work.
This is a big shock to most people. Yes the worst way you can spend your time looking for a job is looking on the internet, at the wrong places. The internet is a very very useful tool to aid in your search. However it is rare to find a solid job lead you can be in control of. Job boards are filled with recruiters masking themselves. Most companies have their own application system on their websites and no longer need the use of job boards.
Then there is a more insidious problem of being on the net. You simply get lost and lose focus. Many of my clients admit loosing track of time by being carried away to a place they never intended to go. There is away to defang the ‘monster’ of time loss on the Internet. Set up job searching goals and stick with them. And yes that also will be an upcoming topic I will write on.
~Pirate
