Harness the power of direct mail. The first thing you need to do for a prospecting letter is compile your list. Find 5-10 companies you want to work for based on your research. Compose a letter to your network of contacts asking them if they know of anyone who works at any of the companies on your enclosed list.
When a contactdoes know someone at one of the companies ask him or her to forward your resume to them and let you know how to follow up on the referral. Enclose an eXtreme makeover resume or a functional one with 3-5 bulleted accomplishments that would be of interest to hiring managers at the companies you target.
Send the letter to all your direct contacts first: lawyer, accountant, friends, colleagues, former employers.
Send the list to your closest neighbors next and then people that you don’t necessarily know but you’ve always meant to stop by and introduce yourself to.
Attacha hand written note to your list and sign your name
If you hit a dead-end find out who supplies the company with computer products, stationery or any other service and approach them the same way.
Don’t be surprised if someone calls one or two of your target companies and tells them you are doing research on them… that’s not a bad thing to have happen.
“Employment negotiations are relationship driven and can last a lifetime.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++-Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 3.0
Sweet success. It’s Friday and you just received that long awaited job offer you’ve been waiting for. You give it a weekend of painstaking contemplation, and decide that although it is a solid offer, the salary just isn’t in line with what the market says you are worth. Come Monday, you are ready to call and counter. But just how do you go about this without the hiring manager telling you to “go pound sand,” so to speak? Here we outline the best strategies for countering, along with the possible pitfalls:
You Guerrilla doubters out there are going to appreciate this article because it is added proof that a Guerrilla Resume simply is not everyone’s favorite flavor; and that our methods are especially disliked by many so-called, process oriented job experts out there.
One of our current students (Mark G.) who is enrolled in the 10 week Guerrilla Job Seekers Boot Camp shared an interesting in the trenches story during last Friday’ job seekers conference call.
Per one of his weekly assignments, Mark applied to a particular department, and to a specific person within a company that piqued his interest. He used his Guerrilla cover letter and one page Guerrilla Resume in the “precise manner” that he learned in our boot camp. (The former is where I believe the overwhelming majority of “maybe want-to-be” Guerrilla job seekers fail. That is because they don’t follow our EXACT Guerrilla instructions and/or the job seeker puts together what they “think” is a Guerrilla cover letter and resume when in reality, it simply isn’t.)
To continue Mark’s story, the hiring authority routed Mark’s resume to Human Resources (HR) and “directed” them (HR) to call Mark in for an interview. Therefore, HR had no choice but to call Mark because HR does not have the authority to tell the boss –“no !”
Here is where the story gets interesting…
Upon arrival for the interview and following company protocol, Mark first sat with the HR Manager before meeting with members of the actual hiring team. According to Mark, after the HR person looks over his resume, that individual sits back and says, “You truly do yourself a disservice using a one page resume such as this.”
Mark asks, “How so ?” The HR professional responded by saying, “Well this is really nothing more than a dressed up functional resume that lacks sufficient detail. It’s not the way things are done.”
Mark responded by saying, “The cover letter and the 1 page resume method I used was only intended for the sole purpose of an employer to sit-up, pay attention and want to talk with me.”
The HR person then said, “But this resume leaves out particulars that we would like know before an interview takes place.” Mark then said, “Well, my one page resume and the information I provided got me in the door for an interview, didn’t it ?”
Purportedly the silence in the HR persons office was deafening regarding the matter and Mark was sent on his way to interview with the real decision makers !
Did I say, “Do yourself a favor, dump that Guerrilla resume ? “ Sorry, I didn’t really mean that, but it got your attention didn’t it ?
Mark J. Haluska, Senior Certified Guerrilla Job Search Coach for North America
A friend of mine just came back from a stupid interview.
By stupid I mean the interviewer was a man of very little brain and blew his chance to hire Dave. My oh so experienced friend with 20 years experience closing "C" level executives on multi-million dollar deals was confounded by a young pup who had just ascended to his first VP Sales and Marketing role and was rather very proud of himself.
The first question he asked Dave wasn't even a question. He pulled a pen from his pocket and said, "sell me this pen". Now Dave's a master salesman so he knew how to handle the question, but what would you do?
I can tell you what I did!
I had to do this with a perspective client early on in my career who was testing my sales abilities; I asked the question, “Do you need a pen?” He said, “Yes”. Great, how much money do you have in your wallet, I asked? Motioning to pass me the money he gave me the $150. I folded it and put it in my pocket - then I told him that wasn’t near enough – but it was a reasonable down payment. let's talk about how we can make my services more affordable by breaking up yiur payments....
With age comes wisdom [and just a touch of impatience for stupid parlor tricks].
Here's what I did the last time a client wanted to test out my persuassive skills with that stupid interview question.
I asked the interviewer, "do you need a pen?" He said, "no". I said great, so what do you need? "Nothing", he said. To which I said "terrific I'll be on my way because you're neither a suspect nor a prospect”.
Here's the point. And do take notes.
Sales people [that's you when you're looking for a job] don’t need to perform parlor tricks for interviewers. You also don't need to waste your time with people who have no intention of hiring you - unless of course you want to practice your closing routines.
Remember that the next time an interviewer asks you a stupid question.
In the recruiting business we refer to these as throwaways – sales calls we use to sharpen our technique. We know ahead of time they’re not going to hire us or we’d never work for them – BUT practice makes perfect. Who can you practice on this week?
1-How to be found by recruiters and hiring managers
After being laid off, George Brown knew exactly which company he wanted to work for next, but every time he called, Human Resources told him the company wasn’t hiring. So George sprang into action, and another guerrilla job-hunter was born.
George printed business cards that were round, slightly larger than normal, and very colorful. On the front was a picture of a pizza with a circle-shaped message: “Win a Free Pizza.” The flip side of the card gave his name, e-mail address, and telephone number along with the promise of a pizza for the first person to get him an interview with a manager in the company.
Dressed for an interview, George stationed himself at the entrance of the company and handed out cards to everybody who would take one. He kept this up for a couple of days and became a topic of conversation at the company. One manager figured that anyone who would go to so much effort deserved an interview.
One extra-large pizza later, George guerrilla-marketed his way to the job of his dreams at very little expense, and the company is more profitable because of it.
Compliments of Shari Miller, Principle of The Elmhurst Group, www.elmhurstgroup.com.
“I saw a job advertised online and applied by mail. I sent a box with a paper Starbucks coffee cup, my cover letter, and resume inside. On the side of the cup, where it has boxes for the type of coffee, I made my own box that said, ‘Hire Mary’ and checked it with a black marker. I heard back a couple days later to get my first interview,” says Berman.
After her first job interview, which went well, Berman followed up with panache. “It was Halloween time, so I decided to send them a chocolate covered apple with my hand-written thank-you note in a bag. I had a friend of mine, who was off work that day, take it over and deliver it to [the employer]. That was a big hit — they were thrilled — and I got the second interview out of it.”
Berman’s second job interview was with the executive vice president. Afterwards, she followed up diligently. “When I came home, I wrote a 30-60-90 day plan. I had taken copious notes during the interview and used that information to create suggestions for what I would do in my first 30, 60, and 90 days. I sent that to them via FedEx with another thank-you note. And I got a job offer.”
Now. Let’s break this successful Guerrilla Job Search down …
1. Start smart.The Coffee Cup Caper — a paper Starbucks cup, full-color Guerrilla Resume, and a cover letter (asking to meet for coffee), shipped in a box — gets extraordinary results. By contrast, ordinary resumes and cover letters, sent by email, get ordinary results.
2. Follow up with style. Delivering a Halloween treat with her thank-you note was correct seasonally, if not politically. Use good judgment before sending items that might be perceived as bribes by employers sensitive to such things, such as universities or public-sector organizations.
In Berman’s case, however, it worked like a (chocolate-covered) charm.
And, leaving out the gift, think of the impact a hand-delivered thank-you note can have on an employer, versus standard U.S. Mail or email. Could you arrange to have your thank-you note delivered by a courier, or a friend acting as one? Of course.
3. Give employers another reason to hire you. Mary did this in spades after her second interview, when she sent a written plan of action that outlined her first three months on the job.
A 30-60-90 day plan is a way of proving you can do the work — before you’re even on the payroll — by describing how you would learn the job, build rapport with employees/customers, and contribute to the bottom line.
Mary’s plan was 8 pages long and took the better part of a Friday night to prepare. (Before you balk at spending an entire evening at home researching and writing a 30-60-90 day plan, ask yourself if you wouldn’t trade a night out for getting a steady paycheck again.)
4. Score style points with your delivery. Mary’s first follow-up, the chocolate-apple-thank-you note, was delivered by a courier, not by email. Her 30-60-90 day plan was delivered by FedEx, not by email.
Do you not see a pattern?
Email should NOT be the delivery method for your career documents. Because you can’t delete a courier, and a FedEx envelope can’t get caught in a spam filter.
Bottom line: This smart Guerrilla had failed to get even one job interview in 20 weeks of job hunting with conventional tactics.
After adopting unconventional Guerrilla tactics, she found work in only 7 weeks.
If Guerrilla job search methods can work in Michigan, where the unemployment rate tops 15%, they can work where you live.
The only thing stopping you from thinking and acting like a Guerrilla Job Hunter - is you.
NOTE: Will E. Wurkornot got a job!!! Congrats, Will E. So, this is it -- Will's last attempt at making sense to a hiring manager. This is Number 10, in a series of ten letters (all are listed at the end of this post.
Using email to job hunt is a crapshoot on the best of days. Most job hunters don't know how to give good email. Here are a few hard and fast Perry Rules to insure your message AND resume get through AND get read:
Make sure your Subject line gives me a reason to read the message. “George Smith’s cover letter and resume” won't cut it! It's not a good enough reason for me to open it and read it.
You’re cover email should get my attention within the first three sentences. Remember you only have seconds to make an impression. So do not waste it telling me you’re “Hard working and enthusiastic”.
Address the email to a specific person
Tell me why I should read your resume in the first short paragraph.
Here’s an example of an email that got through to me. Got opened. Got read and Got a phone call back. What made the difference?
I can't cut and paste the note into the body of this blog but let me begin by telling you that it was actuallyaddressed to me, David Perry – and not occupant or the email equivalent “[email protected]”
The subject line got my attention because they creatively told me something about themselves: Energetic, Executive, Venture Experience.
Then their opening paragraph really grabbed me:
“Marketing savvy executive experienced in business development. Action oriented manager will bring sale closing strength and team building expertise to launch a new product or developes a new territory. My goal is to move to the N Carolina/Florida coast in summer 2011. I want to be financially rewarded for superior results”.
This one is direct and to the point. If I had a Job Order I’d read it immediately. If I did business in Southern USA I’d read it. If I did business with start-ups I read it, I did read it and I liked what I saw. Successful candidate with real skills and accomplishment who’s motivated to accelerate their career AND they know were they want to work. Doesn’t get a whole lot better than this for a “bulk” email.
Now, make sure you cut and paste - in plain text - your resume into the body of the email message below your note, BECAUSE most recruiters will not open attachments for fear of catching a virus....
First, find a company for whom you would like to work. Write a compelling covering letter describing why you are good for them, pointing the receiver to the enclosed CV for further information. Don’t seal the A4 envelope and don’t enclose a CV. They’ll think the CV fell out in the mail. Wait for the phone to ring, speak to the hiring manager personally, engage them in a conversation, and sell yourself shamelessly.
Compliments of Matt Foster, Managing Director, CVO Group
use high quality stationary
Make sure the letter fits very snugly in the envelope so it doesn’t really fall out.
Make sure your phone number is on the covering letter.
5 Free ways to ensure you’re on every employers’ radar
Despite signs of a strengthening economy, the tried-and-true methods of finding a job will no longer suffice.
Becoming a guerrilla job-hunter and making yourself easy-to-find is the best way to consistently move your career forward. The market is geared toward those who effectively brand and market themselves as the ultimate commodity across multiple distribution channels. AND it won’t cost you a cent. As Charles Darwin said, “It’s not the strongest of the species, nor the most intelligent, that survive; it’s the one most responsive to change.”
Serious job hunters should make the following 5 resolutions for 2011. I will:
Package my experience to astound employers [FREE]
Quantify my accomplishments in $$$ and ### and %%% on my resume [FREE]
Become easy to find and manage my on-line profile through ZoomInfo.com [FREE]
Supersize my network using LinkedIn the leading social networking software [FREE]
Build an eResume that is Google friendly so recruiters can find me [FREE]
The average “career book” looks at life from the job-hunters point of view - which of course is wrong. If you want to get a rewarding job you need to look at the process from the employer's perspective. Why should they hire you? What's in it for them? What can you bring to the table as an employee that will improve shareholder value? Give this serious thought.
In this article Kathleen Jaffe addresses 48 of the fears i fear from job hunters on a regular basis. It's worth your while to print and hang this somewhere you can read it when you need it.
Thanks for responding to Jerry's original post so creatively.
Where you one of those guys in high school that always seemed desperate for a date?If so it was probably because you were a real pleaser, An eager beaver?
Did it annoy you that the guys who seemed indifferent where the ones the girls where most interested in? You know the Captain of the football team couldn't brush them off fast enough AND the more he brushed the more they swarmed.
Have you ever noticed that passive candidates, those who seem to be the least interested in a particular job - often because they're already employed - are the most sought after? Is there a lesson to be learned here?
Yes. If you're consistently getting the interview but not the offer it's probably because you're too nice. Too easy. Too ready to please.
Its kind of like going fishing and the fish jumps in the boat - not much challenge in that. Employers want to be drilled by candidates just as much as they want to drill the candidate themselves. So the next time you go in for an interview prepare questions about the business NOT the job.
Be prepared to talk about the future of their industry and what keeps them up at night. Don’t ask them what keeps them up at night – research it through their association ahead of time and be prepared to talk about the issues and ideas as it applies to the interviewer’s firm.
The passive candidate gets the offer BECAUSE they'll take the time to assess the opportunity being presented against their current one. They have detached interest which forces/encourages the employer to sell more than they would to a job hunter who's desperate for a date - any date.
Guerrilla - set yourself up for success by setting yourself apart from ALL the other job hunters. Do your home work.
The New America
In the 1800s, our forefathers witnessed the beginning of a colossal economic transformation with the onset of the industrial revolution. Within a single generation, it became necessary to start clearing out old city neighborhoods and rich farmlands to make way for steel mills, railway yards, warehouses, and office buildings.
To fuel this economic behemoth, people left the far reaches of rural America to take jobs that most of them would hold for the rest of their working lives.
Today in places like China and India old city neighborhoods, entire towns, and rich farmlands are still being cleared to make way for trade and industry.
The tidal wave of economic change—pressure to increase shareholder value quarterly instead of yearly, outsourcing, and rightsizing —all have greatly affected the domestic job market that we once knew. Competition to get noticed and chosen for the best professional opportunities is stiff. No matter how talented you may be, many others also are vying for that top spot.
See which jobs have a future in this "New America" download the 3 complimentary chapters.
Recruit your entire tribe: doctor, dentist, lawyer, mechanic, hairdresser, butcher, banker, and real estate agent to help in your job-hunting. Ask everyone who’s connected to the community you want to work in. Commercial real-estate brokers are usually plugged in better than anyone else. They know who’s growing and who's going… out of business that is. They’re among the first to know when a new business is coming to town or when a company is growing or downsizing. Brokers usually belong to local business or service clubs.
Brokers live and die on referrals so they understand your need for leads.
Bribe them with regular breakfasts.
Reciprocate when you hearabout leads for them, but don’t ask for a referral fee yourself.
Veteran Ottawa Citizen Reporter Juliet O’Neil has delivered a brilliant 5 part series on the growing phenomenon of temporary workers entitled “Trapped & Temporary”. It’s brilliantly researched, well written and a must read. “Temping, Contracting and Offshoring” aren’t going to go away. They’re permanent fixtures on the North American employment scene.
Here’s what you can bank on:
1. The offshoring trend won’t stop anytime soon.
2. Companies will continue to maximize profits and reduce costs.
3. The government will not solve your career problems—at best it will provide limited retraining assistance.
Job Scurity
Your job is at risk and subject to being replaced by a “temp” if:
1. It can be broken down into many smaller tasks that can be redistributed to lower skilled, lower paid workers;
2. Your company’s profits are under constant assault by low cost competitors; or
3. Someone else with a high-school education can do your job with less than a week’s training.
Take control of your job and your life today. Start managing your career as a professional services provider of YOU INC.: learn how to brand yourself, increase your value, and ensure a steady stream of demand for your unique talents.
It’s not the strongest of the species, nor the most intelligent, that survive; it’s the one most responsive to change. —CHARLES DARWIN
It's Friday Guerrilla and Friday is the best day to do two things:
book interviews for next week
fill your opportunity pipeline
It's also a great day to examine your job hunt progress.
What progress have you made this week? [Which employers are you going to speak with next week?] How where your interviews? Did you send thank you notes to everyone you talked to? Even the ones where you where not successful.... that's an often over looked source of leads. Just because you didn't get the job or even the interview shouldn't stop you from saying thank you.
Stop and think about this for a minute. Have you ever gotten a thank you card from someone whom you didn't hire? What would you think? Crazy *&%#* Let me tell you how I would react - yes I know CEOs and hiring managers in general will react this way – remember I do this for a living.
One of your best sources for leads to fill your pipeline are the people who turn you down. That’s right – and it doesn’t matter at what level in the company they’re at. They know who else is hiring … they also know which companies may have a problem you can solve BECAUSE they’ve just spent more than a few hours interviewing a ton of people. Talk about competitive intelligence!
Now you just need to follow up with a thank you note for the interview – expressing your sincere gratitude for their time and your interest in staying in touch. And 5 days AFTER you mail the note you call them and ask who else among their colleagues has plans to:
Increase their sales this quarter
Take market share from competitors
Open new markets
Or what ever it is you specialize in....
PS. THEY ALSO KNOW WHERE THE PERSON THEY JUST HIRED IS COMING FROM. Think about that …
Compliments of David E Perry and Kevin Donlin. For more creative job serach tactics go to the Guerrilla Marketing for job hunters blog and download the free audio CD.
