I love Guerrilla Job Hunting techniques

Today's Blog Swap contribution comes to us compliments of Steven Kempton of SearchNiche and I urge you tocheck oout their awesome Blog --- the Asia Pacific HeadHunter

I love Guerrilla Job Hunting techniques, and from an international perspective I can tell you that David's techniques work both in

North America

and in Asia Pacific. This is especially true for candidates who are at the beginning of their career or candidates who

are making a drastic change in what th ey ar e doing. At the same time candidates who are in both of these situations NEED guerrilla techniques because most people are going to ignore them.

For example, recently an entrepreneur in

Australasia

sold his business for $500 million. Not many people would know this, but this particular entrepreneur actually took some time out from his already thriving business a couple of years earlier to travel and work overseas. When he arrived at his destination he was totally ignored by recruiters and really struggled to find a job. Why? Firstly, no one knew about the success of his business in his home country and secondly, no one cared. His back groun d was too different for what they wanted for positions. He was General Dogsbody when they wanted Mr. Specific.

My point is that if someone like this can get turned down, it shows you that even the most successful people can get ignored when they make drastic changes. This entrepreneur's change from business owner to employee was too difficult a mental jump for many of the hiring managers and recruiters who saw his CV. Of course, this wasn't a big problem for him because he just came home, continued to grow his business and eventually sold it for millions. But if you NEED a job and can't rely on selli ng a business for millions, then be a guerrilla.. Guerrillas use multiple techniques, act quickly, test the results and then try something else. They don't dwell on things. They continue to move until somewhere, somehow they achieve their goals. Here is my f avourite personal example of guerrilla success.

A candidate who I met a couple of years ago moved to

New Zealand

with no English ability. None meaning almost zero. He spent a month in a language school where his improvement was slight. Then he took his CV to over one hundred companies by fo ot to present it to managers. A lot of people would think that this is both desperate and ineffective. But despite speaking almost NO ENGLISH, this candidate received a job offer within 5 weeks. He worked for 6 months and then got a 50% pay raise at his firs t review. The fact was that almost NO ONE bothers to go to companies by foot anymore. No one - the competition there is ZERO. While the competition in a company's mail box and email inbox is INSANE, he went where there was no competition and got a job.

The other bonus for him in going by foot door to door was that people could see and talk to him immediately. Don't underestimate the importance of convenience to people. The fact that they could talk to him immediately as he passed over his CV was a real positive. On top of that, a lot of people were impressed with his guts. Actions speak so much louder than words, and by walking in and asking for a job face to face he showed he wasn't a person who was going to give up. Even with the his obv ious struggle to speak their language.

Now get out there!