Used wisely, email is a great tool. It’s instant and costs next to nothing compared to the mail AND your targets secretary won’t intercept and delete it!
Guess AGAIN!
The challenge is getting your message delivered - and opened. The proliferation of SPAM of all kinds has forced most employers and certainly all head-hunters to install sophisticated software that automatically deletes unapproved email.
So how can you increase the likelihood that yours will be one of the very few unsolicited emails that gets opened? The answer is both simple and difficult: write a great subject line.
To do this, you must be clear, compelling and specific. Here’s a drab, uninspiring subject line like the hundreds I get every single day:
Sales VP Resume attached for your review
Yawn. It entirely lacks sizzle, a sense of urgency, and specifics. What a waste of ether. I wouldn’t open it.
Let’s bring it to life:
David, how many VPSales can generate $150 M new revenues in just three years?
It’s long, but it takes you somewhere interesting. It has a fighting chance of enticing a click-through.
In the previous example, the jobseeker has no direct personal or business connection with the potential employer. But if there is such a connection, make it clear in the subject line, in an intriguing way:
David,Bob Hannah says you and I should talk
So your subject line does its job and the email gets opened. Now your first paragraph closes in for the kill. It can’t be like this:
As a senior sales and company executive, I have developed, mentored, and managed high performance sales teams, installed sales metrics and created sales plans and strategies in highly competitive markets. My experience includes both national and international duties.
Feel like you’ve read this before? I have, thousands of times. It’s as generic as an airport lounge. I get thousands like this every week. I never ever read them! To have an impact, the opening paragraph needs to have personality, attitude, and substance. Something like:
Hello David Perry,
Sales
VPs—they’re a dime a dozen. Right? Yes—with a few exceptions. Like me.
From June 2002 until March 2005, I drove revenues at XYZ Corporation from $80 million (and flat) to $130 million (and still rising). Before that, the sales team I led at XCO had the highest numbers across the global organization—18 quarters in a row. Now I’m ready to repeat that kind of success for another company—like yours. Are you ready to talk to me? If so, give me a call right now at 123-4567. Let’s talk.
See the differences Guerrilla? Now it’s your turn. Drop and give me 20 then write a couple of your own and ask yourself – would anyone besides your mother open and read it? Don't be terminated.
Grant Turck takes time out to talk to me about how he launched a targeted Facebook campaign at the Public relations firms he wanted to work at. Grant explains how he did it. What it costs and the results. He also has advice for others considering doing the same thing.
COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT of the VIDEO
David Perry: How do I find you on Facebook, because that is what we’re here to talk about today?
Grant Turck: On Facebook you can search for me in the Search box under Grant Turck and I should pop right up.
David: I wanted to talk to you today, Grant, about what you did specifically on Facebook because you just graduated from Pepperdine University in Public Relations, right?
Grant: Correct.
David: You’re looking for a PR job in Hollywood, here in Los Angeles. Tell me, why did you use Facebook, how did this come about, what have the results been?
Grant: The first thing I did is I picked up a copy of your book, which I found out about one day when I was watching NBC News and they had some recruitment guy {The Recruiting Animal} on there talking about what you should do and he said, “The number one thing you should do is pick up this book-“
David: I’ll have to find that tape! [Laughter]
Grant: “-by David Perry and Jay Conrad Levinson called Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 2.0.” I picked that book up and read through it and was looking for good ideas and one of the ideas in there was talking about Facebook advertising. It talked about how despite our recommendation to do Facebook advertising and how powerful it is at making one stand out, the percentage of people that will actually take us up on what we say is very, very, very, very miniscule. I said, “What the heck. I’ll try this. They say it’s not going to cost much and it’s very easy.” So I did. I took you guys up on what you said in your book and it’s turned out great.
David: How did it work out? Did you get interviews out of it?
Grant: The greatest thing I got out of it was exposure and publicity for myself, which is the number one thing, and not just in Los Angeles or Hollywood but in this world at large in this job market is to make myself stand out from the crowd, so with Facebook advertising, if you target your ads specifically to those people that you want to reach directly in a very, kind of creative manner that not many people seem to take advantage of.
David: Everybody wants to know what are the results? Did you actually get any interviews?
Grant: Yeah, I’ve actually had, in the past four or five weeks, about one interview a week.
David: Okay. Have you gotten any offers, or are they ongoing conversations?
Grant: Several ongoing conversations and I’ve had one offer.
David: Obviously you didn’t take it because we’re sitting here talking, right?
Grant: Yes.
David: That’s an assumption. So with the Facebook targeting, is there anything else you’re doing in conjunction, or is there anything else you think you should be doing, or somebody else that is watching should be doing in conjunction with Facebook?
Grant: Yeah, definitely. There is always more one can do in the self promotion game. I think that is the key to getting a job these days. You have to self-promote yourself because if you’re not self-promoting yourself nobody else is going to.
I’m finally getting my blog started, so I just have my blog up and it’s going to be TurckishDelights.com.
David: Turckish Delights?
Grant: Yes, playing off of my last name and the unique branding of Turckish Delights.
David: That’s cool.
Grant: I’m going to start doing a blog. I do Twitter. I do LinkedIn.
David: Where do you get the most amounts of hits? I know you’re on LinkedIn. Where are you getting the biggest bang for your buck? Is it with Facebook? With Twitter? Is it with LinkedIn?
Grant: I think with Facebook, I think it really has all come about the entire nexus. I’ve recommended people to be on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, I would say those are the top three to invest time into doing each one of those in conjunction with one another as being the most important.
David: How much time is that typically taking out of your day?
Grant: To maintain it I would say anywhere from two to three hours.
David: Okay, that’s just two to three hours casually, or two to three hours working at pushing it to the next level?
Grant: I would say two to three hours casually, maybe like one hour hardcore direct focus.
David: The Facebook interviews that you got, they were target companies?
Grant: Yeah.
David: And how did they come about? I mean, who did you target? How did they find you? What unfolded?
Grant: I’ve done several different types of ads on Facebook. I’ve done ones that have just been focused on the keyword “public relations” in Canada and the United States. I put focused on specific companies within public relations, sometimes I was running maybe 20 different ads with all basically the same relative body copy within the ad but the headline was different. So it would say “I want to work at Bite.” “I want to work at GH” for Golin Harris, or “I want to work at _____” and then just target those specific company names within the targeting. With Facebook advertising you don’t have to worry that somebody from Golin Harris is going to see your ad that you’re running the same time for Bite Communications because-
David: Oh, I didn’t know that.
Grant: -if you don’t have that you worked at Bite Communications in your résumé and you’re now working at the other company, you’re never going to see the ad.
David: So what these people, Bite is one that you talked about, what happened at Bite? Who did you connect with and how did that interview come about?
Grant: That interview came about from a senior account executive at the company who saw the ad and wrote me an e-mail directly and actually said to me that he had never responded to an Internet ad ever before but saw my ad, was kind of uniquely intrigued by it and wanted to reach out to me and that it seemed like I had some great qualifications that could be a great fit for Bite and I should look at their Web site. If I was interested I should e-mail their HR person, and they gave me the HR person’s e-mail address and he said I could then say that he had referred me to the HR person. I took a look at their Web site, it seemed like a great place to work, it was in San Francisco, so I emailed the HR person who then scheduled a phone interview which took place about a week, week-and-a-half later, and then about two weeks later I went out for a physical in-person interview where I interviewed with four different people within the company.
David: Then you got an offer that you ended up not taking.
Grant: Right.
David: So you went in at the HR level and the senior executive level, and we talk in the book specifically about entering, going in at the level of your boss’s boss. Is that the level you went in at?
Grant: With Bite Communications I would say probably so because I went in, the senior guy was the person who reached out to me and directed me to the HR person, and the interviews I landed I interviewed with the account manager with the team I would be working on, the senior account executive, the account executive, and then the HR person again, so I think I did go in at that higher level.
David: Okay. Now, do you have a top ten list as we talk about this in the book? Do you have a top ten list?
Grant: I don’t know if I have a top ten, like a full top ten list? I would say I have a top five list.
David: Are they all here in LA?
Grant: Yes.
David: Looking at the camera, who do you want to work for?
Grant: I want to work for Golin Harris; Rogers & Cowan; Bragman, Nyman, Cafarelli; Solters & Digney; or Warner Brothers.
David: Why those companies because you’re involved in other things. I mean you graduated from Pepperdine University with a degree in Public Relations, but you have other things that you work on that are really interesting. How can those programs you’re working on, the movies you’re working on, the books you’ve optioned…what was that one, The Secrets of…that you optioned for $20?
Grant: How to Succeed with Women Without Really Trying by Sheperd Mead, which is a book written in 1957. I’m pursuing that as a movie right now and we’ve just attached some great comedy writers, Dax Shelby and Robert Stevens. They’re a writing team so we’re currently going out next week to actors and talk with some people, Robert Downey, Jr., Matthew McConaughey, and folks like that to attach one of those names with the pitch that these guys come up with because the book is non-narrative, non-fiction and the plan is to take that pitch with the actor and take back to the studios for financing to have it written and developed and turned into a motion picture.
David: What is your involvement once it becomes an actual, what is it called, a product or…?
Grant: Once it gets put into active development and pre-production, which is basically my involvement, I’m a producer, I’ll be credited as a producer on the project, but when it comes down to the physical production that will be basically left up to another producer that does the physical line producing and on the set type stuff.
David: Once that happens, your involvement, other than getting paid for it, is gone?
Grant: Yeah, it’s minimal.
David: Tell me then, how these companies that you mentioned before, would benefit from hiring you given what else you’re doing. Is there a crossover? Is that an eco-system in itself that cross pollinates?
Grant: One of the things to look at from what I’ve done in the entertainment business is the ability that I’ve had to uniquely position myself and get things done that basically very few to no one else has been able to do. For example, one of the other projects that I’m working on, which is John Grisham’s The Partner, which I’m producing with Lynn Hende and Robert Chartoff, and people might know Robert’s name because he won an Oscar for Rocky, is I brought the money to the table to get it done but I had never produced a movie ever before. I knew one of the key things is that John Grisham - there are a lot of people in this city and Hollywood that want to make a John Grisham movie – is that because I never produced a movie before that John Grisham would never give me the rights to take his book and make it into a movie, so I knew that it would take somebody bringing somebody else on to the team with producing credibility to get that done so I went and brought Robert Chartoff on board and we pursued it together.
David: This is a family friend? How did you get Robert-?
Grant: I met Robert Chartoff through Lynn Hende who is the president of his company, and I met Lynn Hende through a client of mine, a science fiction author I was working with introduced me to Lynn Hende and said that if there is anybody in this business you can trust its Lynn. I went to Lynn and said, “I have the money to get this project up and running but I don't have the producing credibility. Can we pursue the co-production together?” Luckily it turned out and she said yes and so we did pursue that together. It’s very fortunate because a lot of times, especially in Hollywood, if you approach somebody and say, “There is this great book that would make a great movie,” they say, “Awesome, yeah, we’ll work together,” and you never hear back from that person again and they take that book and make it into a movie and you’re left on the sidewalk. I was very fortunate.
David: Where did you learn to do all of this? You’re not from here, right?
Grant: No, I’m from Cincinnati, Ohio, and I pride myself on the fact that I have no entertainment familial connection at all.
David: Where did you learn to do all the connections?
Grant: Just by doing. I learn best by doing and learning from mistakes and going with the flow. You learn so much more on the field than you do in the classroom.
David: Interesting. Facebook aside and LinkedIn aside, let’s go back to job hunters. I can see the value in hiring someone like you because you’ll just make connections until the deal is done, and that is the way things happen, right? Most people don’t realize that. What kind of advice would you offer job hunters now that may be struggling? For example, how do you keep yourself motivated? You’re here in Hollywood, you’re family is not here, right?
Grant: Right, they’re back in Ohio.
David: They’re back in Ohio. You supported yourself through Pepperdine, you graduated, you’re now looking for a job, you have all these different projects on the go, and you’re looking for a full-time gig as an account manager for one of these firms, how do you keep yourself motivated? How do you keep yourself going every day?
Grant: I exercise. That’s very helpful, but very basic, too. It releases endorphins, but beside that I do a lot of reading and ultimately, it may sound kind of dumb but you just have to tell yourself that in the long run it’s all going to work out and it’s all going to be okay. Think positive. You just do it.
Become recognized and branded as an "industry expert" by writing and producing a newsletter. All you really need to do is summarize best practices – add your experience or comments – print and mail it. When you send a newsletter with topical information that’s actually useful, employers may recognize your name when you telephone, making them more likely to take your call. When they in turn are looking to hire someone with your expertise you’re likely to be one of their first calls.
Newsletters should be 1-4 pages but no longer.
Summarize lengthy pieces and refer the reader to your web site for the full text version.
You can dress up the newsletter without breaking the bank by using pre-printed paper from companies like Paper Direct, http://paperdirect.com/
Make an electronic version and put it on your website.
Skeptical? Don't be. Everyone takes the "experts" phone call.
I'm in the Gatineau hospital waiting for Anita's surgery to finish. I don't like hospitals much. I don't think most people do.
For me it's the memory of spending 8 months on C-Block at Fitsimmones General in Denver with 50 other terminal patients. Most were casualties from the Vietnam War, sent to Denver for a last chance look see if anything could be done for them. The memories are still quiet vivid.
What I remember most, was the atmosphere.
I was 11 at the time and classified as terminal. Every man on the floor was. It's frightening what Man's weapons of mass destruction can do to a man and still leave enough of him to avoid a toe tag. It was utterly depressing the first few days until I met George.
He had a funny laugh. Worse than mine. And it was contagious.
I don't remember George's last name. What I do remember is that he was the ward clown, the main event, and ringmaster all wrapped up into one. And he lived large. From his wheelchair he daily cajoled and entertained everyone on C-Block.
He once confessed to me that knowing he was terminal had given his life new meaning. And that his mission was to make everyone he came in contact with smile.
He said he had a choice to either accept his lot in life and go out depressed and bitter or smile and laugh all the way to Heaven's Gate. I had the same choice he said. Everyone does. And then of course he demanded that I chose now.
Now obviously, I chose the high road - life. Anyone that knows me knows I see "silver linings on every cloud - pots of gold and Platinum pucks (it's a Canadian thing).
After 6 months in hospital I finally had the heart surgery that saved my life. I was lucky. My surgery was delayed several times because I was too sick to operate on and each boy who passed in front of me in the que died. My surgery was still novel and had never been performed successfully in North America back in 1971.
While I was waiting for my surgery George taught me how to play poker. How to market myself and make money. (I set up a courier company inside the hospital called "Anything for a Nickel Incorporated" and to run errands for the staff and earn a little spending money.) And how to laugh really big hearty laughs.
George also showed me how to live like everyday mattered and that the mountains in front of me where just speed bumps on the road to success. That I am in charge of Me Inc. and that by changing my outlook I can change my results.
He encouraged (forced is too hard a term - but he did withhold my ice cream at dinner if I failed to summarize that day's reading.) I was fed a steady diet of Napoleon Hill, Churchill's memoirs and every reel of The Three Stouges he could find. (George believed in "balance".)
We ran movie night - every night and dragged everyone who wasn't hardwired to their oxygen in to the cafeteria to laugh with us. We even "borrowed a copy of Barberela" when it first came out and showed that too. No one called Jane Fonda Hanoi Jane I we were all just smitten.
Sometimes it felt like everyone but our families had just given up on us. But we lived large. We rolled with it everyday and made the most of our opportunities. Knowing we had nothing to lose emboldened us. We really lived!
So why don't I like hospitals?
Because there seem to be fewer and fewer George's when I have to visit. Hospitals all seem so staid to me. The staff are too serious. The doctors are sterile, and more apt to speak in terms of the "odds of this or that" - so as to avoid future litigation.... than see the terrified individual in front of them and try to comfort them let alone give them hope.
But this morning was different.
The woman who runs the cash at the coffee shop in the basement of the hospital was full of life and laughter.
From my first interaction she made my spirits soar!
I instantly recognized my responsibility to my happiness and the need to help others around me soar too! Wrapped up in my own little world as I am today, I forgot that attitude is everything AND that attitude is contagious.
So let me stop now and ask you a serious question.
Are there any lessons here for job hunters? I think there are but that's my nature. Are the people around you helping or hurting you? Do they see a positive outcome for you or do they remind you of how "bad" it is out there? Did they remind you, that "John or Mary" are still looking too OR tell you that 4,000,000 Americans were hired last month AND 2,900,000 jobs were on record as unfilled?
What do you think? Do you need a George in your life!
EPILOGUE: I left the hospital in May 1971, 2 months after ground breaking heart surgery saved my life. Two months after surgery the nurse warned my father I wasn't likely to survive (I actually heard her tell my father to kiss me good bye as they were putting me under. I can still make out the sound of a helicopter touching down on the roof above the operating theatre, shepherding the surgeon who would save my life.)
When I was discharged I had $1100 in my pockets. (My mother who had just being discharged from a hospital in Colorado Springs confiscated my "ill gotten gains" and confiscated them (I got it all back a few weeks later.)) That was a lot of money for a kid. Back then my father's salary as a Navy Lt Commander was $5000.
On the down side I failed grade 5 and was told I would need to repeat it the following year, but I didn't care. The lessons I learned on C-Block would carry through the rest of my life.
I learned so much on C-Block, not the least of which is that your attitude determines your altitude.
George, well he went on to do great things because he had no legs to slow him down and no ears to hear distracting words.
Life is good. Anita will recover beautifully. Live your best life ever!
- David
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network
Tomorrow July 8th at 6 p.m. Eastern Time is the deadline to express your "genuine" interest.
It’s going to be an unforgettable summer for those fortunate enough to join he and I for the upcoming 10 week Guerrilla Job Seekers Boot Camp.
Why?
Because in this highly structured Guerrilla Job Seekers program, we are going to teach you unconventional tips, tricks and tactics that you WILL NOT find; even in the best-selling “Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters” series of books !
Naturally the course will include countless strategies that we NEVER blog about herein or anywhere else for that matter.
Best of all---you will be getting your weekly lesson plans, our exclusive Guerrilla Job Seekers software not available to anyone who is not in our class ---at any price, you’ll be joining us for small group sessions as well as “one-on-one” time with us (both) throughout the program.
Participation is LIMITED in order to give those who enroll in our program the individual attention you will not only need--- but deserve, in this unprecedented lackluster job seeker market.
After some discussion, we came to the decision to extend enrollment until Friday, July 8th at 6 p.m. Eastern Time.
We cannot accept any further applicants for the upcoming 10 week session after this firm date and time because Day 0 of the course is Saturday July 9th and you don’t want to fall behind !
For questions and more information you can call me (Mark Haluska) directly at my office at 724-495-2733. Should your reach my voice mail, simply leave me a message and I will return your call as quickly as possible.
Mark J. Haluska
Senior Certified Guerrilla Job Search Coach for North America
p.s. If after the 10 week course, and provided you perform all of your Guerrilla assignments, if you not working by then, we will stick with you FREE of charge until you are working !!!
Let’s be honest. It’s tough out there. For every job opening, hundreds of people are applying, hoping it will be theirs. You’ve probably discovered that getting a new job has been an exercise in frustration. Especially if you’re playing by the old rules.
Because, as you’ve learned …
The Old Rules for Job Hunting Do NOT Work – Not Now!
Most job seekers are doing the same things: sending resumes, applying online through job websites, and reading the help wanted ads.
You, too?
Ask yourself: “Am I finding any success by doing it this way?”
Why Guerrilla Marketing?
Unlike regular military units, Special Forces face the most-daunting assignments. As a former military man myself, I can tell you from experience that Special Forces units rely on their unconventional experience, training, and creativity to achieve their objective. This is where the term Guerrilla comes from.
In fact, America started in “guerrilla” fashion, more than 235 years ago.
British soldiers marched toward Lexington and Concord to gather the stored arms of the “rebellious colonists” and to arrest their leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams. Those British soldiers in their red coats marched in long straight lines. They were the best in the world. And yet they lost — badly — to a bunch of farmers, carpenters, and regular folk. Why? Because the colonists adapted, used their versatility, and creativity… and chose not to play by the old rules. They became guerrillas.
Those “new rules” secured America’s place in history. Now it’s your turn, to secure your future.
The team that put together the Guerrilla Job Search products and services on this site are all professional headhunters (recruiters) and marketing gurus. And, because you get our “inside” knowledge, you will maximize your personal experience, training, and creativity to land your next job - Faster.
We won’t teach you how to do anything unethical.
Instead, we’ll change how you think, make you adaptable, unleash your creativity, and maximize all your personal assets. You will transform from just another job seeker into one who stands-out. In essence, you will become a Special Forces Guerrilla who’s ready to experience victory.
Becoming A Special Forces Guerrilla
You don’t have to read or buy everything we’ve produced. But if you’re truly motivated, you will digest and act on what you discover here. The faster you do so, the faster you will land a new job. It’s that simple.
You won’t read any “theories” or or untried ideas here. Instead, you will discover exactly what to do and say, in your Guerrilla Resumes, cover letters, and job interviews. Nothing is left to chance.
This is state-of-the-moment advice — including such topics as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter — puts you ahead of your competition and top-of-mind with hiring managers.
Real Success Is Just Ahead
One last thing: you deserve more than a job. You deserve a fulfilling life. Few people get that. In fact, the U.S. Commerce Department tells us that 80% of employed people are not content with their job.
What a shame.
Because, the truth is, landing the job of your dreams is not as hard as you think. It’s simply a matter of changing how you think. That’s exactly what you’ll learn here — how to think differently. And most important of all, we’ll show you how to act differently. So you can get hired faster.
The average job search in America is now 39.4 weeks. Take heart, there are many many examples in the book and other materials here on this web site where guerrilla job hunters have landed new jobs in 6 – 10 weeks, on average - 300% faster than the national average. My wish is that you become a “guerrilla success story” too.
You’re in the right place.
If you want more people calling you for interviews, if you want more people knowing your name, sharing your links, and singing your praises, if you want to take your interviews to their rightful conclusion while cutting the number of hours you spend looking dramatically … we teach people how to do that all the time.
My name is David Perry – but you don’t care about me, you care about you. Your career. Your challenges. Your life. Let’s focus on that.
You want a great job. I’m here to help, with one-on-one consulting from certified coaches, done-for-you services, and a whole catalog full of training, so you can quickly learn how to get more people to want to interview and hire you.
Take a look at what's available here. It will help you land a great job faster!
Start with the free stuff like the audio CD (you’ll find I give away more strategies in my free resources than most people put in their paid products – it’s powerfully useful stuff).
Then read our Blog – more than 750 posts of tips tricks and tactics that’ll land you in front of hiring authorities and help you land the offer {OR read some of the 150+ articles we've been quoted in}.
And if you’re ready to kick it up to full speed, check out our “Products”– I’ve got THE best online and offline training in the business – and unlike the other guys, I’m not demanding your first born child for it.
So take a look – and take a 30-day test drive of anything in the store – I’m sure you’ll love it. And it’s all guaranteed.
Please enjoy the free advice (over 70,000+ words of it), the free audio & video tutorials and any training you invest in. Most importantly, put what you learn into action. That’s what will get you interviewed and hired.
Let’s make, it happen.
To your future!
David Perry Co-Director, Guerrilla Job Search International
You just know I've had enough when I quote Mark Twain first thing Monday morning. But frankly, I really can't take much more of this idiocy.
I love America and this bull#&*% "hopeless" attitude that is so pervasive in the media - press, TV, radio - is going to kill us all.
"Lies, damned lies, and statistics" is a phrase describing the persuasive power of numbers, particularly the use of statistics to bolster weak arguments or in this case rampant stupidity.
Now I'm not disagreeing with the stats and I'm not arguing that "New Jobs" aren't important. They are!
BUT those numbers only tell half the story --- and it's the bad half.
The 1/2 of the news that just sucks and makes people want to throw up their hands and give up. But it's NOT the whole story IN FACT it's misleading. It's shallow reporting. {I could apologize and point out that reporters don't have as much time as they need to investigate stories BUT that's another story.}
One of the great under-reported/unreported stories during the recession is that American employers have jobs they can’t fill.
What statistics reveal in the midst of the weakest economy in several decades and a national unemployment rate stuck around 9%, is that employers have jobs which can’t be filled. Month after month there are jobs that go unfilled.
How many jobs went unfilled last month?
That's easy. It's a well known number. At least with me!
Just go to this US Bureau of Labor Statistics link to see http://tinyurl.com/nku3d9 Today it shows that 2.9M jobs went unfilled. Yes I know that 14.1 million Americans are officially unemployed and only 18,000 new jobs were created in June and that was worse than May, when 25,000 new jobs were created but THERE'S STILL 2,900,000 jobs that went unfilled. Would knowing that prompt you to wonder why? {Please say yes or you will be unemployed for a long long time.}
Here's the real problem.
More than 99% of jobs are not advertised anymore!
Why?
Because employers are ill equipped to deal with the avalanche of resumes, each one of which has to be filed, tracked and replied to for EEO reasons. A typical newspaper or job board add may receive 5,000 or more replies consuming hundreds of hours of time to respond to. No one can afford to waste the time advertising under these conditions and it only takes advertising once to draw this conclusion. So, the vast majority of jobs remain unadvertised -- they are invisible to ordinary job seekers. However, millions of people are being hired and if you want to know how many, just Click this link: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t02.htm
Now, the other side of the equation.
Know how many people where hired last month in America? I'll bet you guessed between NONE and a couple hundred thousand. BUT not almost 4,000,000. But that's the truth - 4M people. And nearly 4M the month before. Again you can see that with this link: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t02.htm
What this means Dear Job Hunter AND journalists who write about the economy and "jobs", is that at this rate America will have nearly 50M "employment transactions" this year WITHOUT having many new jobs created. AND - most importantly - without your having seen many of the 50M jobs advertised.
Am I the only one who thinks this is important?
It's critical for the economy and the psyche of individual job hunters everywhere. The average job search in America now takes 39.4 weeks!
Why?
Because the average job seeker listens to the news and hears how horrible it is out there and concludes there's not much they can do about it and go back to watching Oprah or Ellen or whatever is on television in the middle of the day. When what they should be doing is trying to figure out how to find one of the 2.9M jobs that went unfilled last month. This is not rocket-science folks. It just requires a little ingenuity.
When did America became home to so many job-search Lemmings!
Where have the creative problem solving skills that made America great gone?
Which begs the question: what the heck are the city and state sponsored employment centers teaching job hunters these days? How to write a better resume!!!! therer's no point. That's setting them up to FAIL! Responding to job openings is necessary BUT it's also a crap shoot. No! You have better odds in Vegas.
For G** sake get people off the web, away from the newspaper and teach them how to find companies that have a problem they can fix and then tell that job hunter how to reach out to that individual with the problem [that's an opportunity in disguise] and tell them how they can fix it.
So back to "Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics --- and America's Lemming Culture. If you know someone who's job hunting please tell them that last month there were nearly 4M people hired in America and the nearly 3M jobs went unfilled. Then after when they recover from the SHOCK!!!!! ask them please, how they're going to penetrate the hidden job market and find one of those jobs. One way is to Google creative job search tactics and see what others are doing another is to use some of that American made resourcefulness and create your won strategy. Pick and chose but GET OFF YOUR ASS and do something today!
Rejection - it's a fact of life for most job hunters. After a while it starts to grind on you. I know it's hard not to take it personally because every rejection pushes validates your worthlessness - at least that's how one woman described here feelings to me last week. "The silence from hiring mangers when you apply on-line is deafening," she said. I know exactly what she means. The lack of acknowledgment that you even exist eventually gets to most people.
As a head-hunter who's done quite well over the last 25 years, I've had a front row seat as friends and family had their "buttons pushed” — not once — but sometimes dozens of times each day.
BUT the cold hard truth is ... it doesn't have to be that way.
If you want to find a job faster than the national average of 39 weeks, you need to do four things average people don't do - starting with taking responsibility for developing empowering yourself.
Action Step 1: Take Charge of Your Job-Hunt
Only you know your strengths and weaknesses. Only you know what you really enjoy doing. Only you know where you want to work and why. Only you know how you can help a prospective employer. Only you can articulate your interests and strengths in a cover letter and resume. Don’t let anyone else do your resume or your cover letter. You need to do it yourself. You can ask people to review it but it must come from you—even if you are receiving outplacement counseling. Come interview time, you need to mirror the person you have portrayed on paper or you will strike out. You will represent yourself better when you own every word on the page. You can look at at example resumes for inspiration but yours must be unique.
Action Step 2: Adopt a Tough Mind-Set
Surround yourself with positive people. Get rid of anyone who sympathizes with your plight and is eager to commiserate. You do not need sympathy. You need support, and there is a huge difference. Supportive, helpful, optimistic family, friends, and reputable professionals remind you of your strengths and give needed encouragement and feedback. Sympathizers zap your energy and self-esteem. Staying inspired requires the input of inspiring people, so find a trusted confidante who can help you polish your presentation, provide moral support, and strategize.
Action Step 3: Stay Focused
You need to feed your opportunity funnel in the same way that sales people feed their sales funnel: so many leads, so many calls, and so many interviews. Like a good salesperson, you need to track and record your efforts. You must keep a record to show yourself that you are making progress. If you can visually see progress, you will have an extra incentive to keep at it. If you’ve completed 10 calls today, then record it. If you have sent out a batch of networking letters, note that, too. I encourage my friends to chart their accomplishments on the wall as I do, because “seeing is believing.” Note how many interviews you’ve scheduled, calls you’ve made, call-backs you’ve noted, and research you’ve completed. It is critical to be able to view your “job-hunting funnel” to ensure you have adequate leads to provide a steady supply of interviews. AND make certain your LinkedIn profile is working hard for you.
Action Step 4: Think Positive
As Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.” It is important for you to believe you’ll succeed. You must convince yourself through your own self-talk, that you are successful. Write out positive affirmations about your job-hunting skills such as the following:
- “I interview well.”
- “I come across with confidence in interviews.”
- “I find the perfect positions that use and grow all my talents.”
Keep your statements in the present not the future tense. Read your list every day. Post it at eye level as a subliminal motivator. You can be your own worst enemy or your biggest fan. Give yourself credit for what you’ve completed and don’t beat yourself up over what you haven’t yet accomplished. Work at a steady pace with your end goal in mind. Your new job, and the burst of self-esteem that comes with it, will be worth all the effort.
Now you may be thinking that all of this sounds a little too simple to work. And you would be 1/2 right. It is simple BUT it also does work. There is very powerful psychology behind it. Imagine for a second how you would feel if you just won the lotto. See how your body and mind just shifted? How positive you suddenly felt? Your brain is that powerful. Use it to your advantage by dwelling on the positive.
The best news you may read all day...
is that on average - throughout the recession - 4 million Americans are hired every month and many millions of jobs go unfilled.
You read that right!
How many jobs went unfilled in America last month? Click this link to see how many jobs went unfilled last month and this link to see how many people were hired. Surprised? The biggest untold story in America is that the way employers hire has dramatically changed and if you're relying on job boards, newspapers and "traditional networking" you're missing out on 99% of the action. That's the New Reality.
If you would like ideas on how to penetrate the hidden job market effectively today, grab a copy of this audio CD Job search Secrets Revealed. It's free you can thank me later.
