Guerrilla Job Hunting

Job Hunting Case Study: Kevin Watson - Part 5 - Landed

Kevin Watson agreed in February to let me blog about him as we worked together to land his next gig.  Kevin landed quite a while ago despite being in a city with high tech unemployment with a glut of "consultants".  About 5 weeks after we started.  What he's been doing since then is even more interesting than the job hunt itself at least for me ---- and possibly for you]

{If you've just joined the discussion you might want to start here}

Much of what Kevin has done all his life in technology is cutting edge and quite unique OR at least his approach to things has always seemed unique.  No surprise then that he decided early in his search to spend time on what was important rather than what was urgent.  Whereas most job seekers feel they've put in a full day of job hunting because they've been to a hundred job boards and applied to 50 postings, Kevin  knew that keeping score this way wasn't going to make him feel good or get him a job.  So he figured out a way to make the jobs come to him OR should I say his wife dared him to.

Natalie - Kevin's wife - nonchalantly commented one evening over dinner [after Kevin had been interviewed by the Globe & Mail newspaper about the dismal economic outlook] that he was a great programmer and that what he needed to do was figure out a way to have the jobs come to them.  You see Natalie now needed a full time job too.  She said that since he had worked with me for several years automating job boards he ought to be able to figure out how to make the jobs come to them instead of spending all his time surfing corporate webs sites looking for opportunities.  

With this new "incentive" Kevin set out to do just that.  The result was an automated job search engine which he set up to search for specific jobs that fit the requirements that he and Natalie specified.  Each time the engine found a job that fit his requirements it sent him the details.  Pretty innovative and according to Kevin, not that hard [that's his way of bragging].  Anyway, Natalie landed a job in 2 weeks and Kevin 3 weeks later. Now Kevin has turned around created NatsJobs.com for others to use. Now that's what I call guerrilla.  Truth be known - I think it's more a testimony to Nathalie's powers of persuasion than anything.  It's amazing what people will do with the proper incentive. else.  so what's driving you?  Are you following what everyone else is doing or are you cutting a new path and blazing your own trail?  there's never been a better time in job hunting history to try something new.

There are a lot of different ways to be creative in your job search.  Maybe you're not a programmer but you don't have to be.  How many of these tactics are you using? 

I hope Kevin's story has helped you in your job search. 

PLEASE PASS THE POST ON TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY - WE'RE  ALL IN THIS TOGETHER.

- David Perry, co-author Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 2.0 AND the original Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters.

Kevin Watson agreed in February to let me blog about him as we worked together to land his next gig.  Kevin landed quite a while ago despite being in a city with high tech unemployment with a glut of "consultants".  About 5 weeks after we started.  What he's been doing since then is even more interesting than the job hunt itself at least for me ---- and possibly for you]

{If you've just joined the discussion you might want to start here}

Much of what Kevin has done all his life in technology is cutting edge and quite unique OR at least his approach to things has always seemed unique.  No surprise then that he decided early in his search to spend time on what was important rather than what was urgent.  Whereas most job seekers feel they've put in a full day of job hunting because they've been to a hundred job boards and applied to 50 postings, Kevin  knew that keeping score this way wasn't going to make him feel good or get him a job.  So he figured out a way to make the jobs come to him OR should I say his wife dared him to.

Natalie - Kevin's wife - nonchalantly commented one evening over dinner [after Kevin had been interviewed by the Globe & Mail newspaper about the dismal economic outlook] that he was a great programmer and that what he needed to do was figure out a way to have the jobs come to them.  You see Natalie now needed a full time job too.  She said that since he had worked with me for several years automating job boards he ought to be able to figure out how to make the jobs come to them instead of spending all his time surfing corporate webs sites looking for opportunities.  

With this new "incentive" Kevin set out to do just that.  The result was an automated job search engine which he set up to search for specific jobs that fit the requirements that he and Natalie specified.  Each time the engine found a job that fit his requirements it sent him the details.  Pretty innovative and according to Kevin, not that hard [that's his way of bragging].  Anyway, Natalie landed a job in 2 weeks and Kevin 3 weeks later. Now Kevin has turned around created NatsJobs.com for others to use. Now that's what I call guerrilla.  Truth be known - I think it's more a testimony to Nathalie's powers of persuasion than anything.  It's amazing what people will do with the proper incentive. else.  so what's driving you?  Are you following what everyone else is doing or are you cutting a new path and blazing your own trail?  there's never been a better time in job hunting history to try something new.

There are a lot of different ways to be creative in your job search.  Maybe you're not a programmer but you don't have to be.  How many of these tactics are you using? 

I hope Kevin's story has helped you in your job search. 

PLEASE PASS THE POST ON TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY - WE'RE  ALL IN THIS TOGETHER.

- David Perry, co-author Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 2.0 AND the original Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters.

Job Hunting Case Study: Kevin Watson – how to create a personal web site to put your resume on, be found and land a great job – the crash course.

{If you've just joined the discussion you might want to start here}

Kevin’s done a lot right so far and he’s had a job now for quite some time.  I’ve just lacked the time to blog about it.  So let me tell you how he did his web site and what he did to get on the radar of recruiters and hiring managers once it was done. 

Job Hunting Case Study: Kevin Watson - How to craft a consulting resume and a guerrilla resume for a recruiter.

Writing your resume ranks alongside root canals as fun-things-to-do. So why would I suggest Kevin Watson write a special one for contract consulting firms and another one for headhunters? Sadistic tendencies aside... 1st, the terrible truth about headhunters.

Job Hunting Case Study: Kevin Watson - The Resume Makeover with before and after examples

Kevin and I have been working on his job hunt not for about 3 weeks.  He got serious about it after Christmas.  The plan came first.  That took a couple of days.  Then we began work on his resumes.  Yes, he has more than one but I'll get to that in a minute.

Kevin's heard me say a thousand times, “The most qualified job hunter is rarely the one who gets the offer?”  Yup that’s right.  It’s not a typo.  I’m not crazy.  The best positions go to the people who do the best job at positioning themselves as the best solution to an employer’s problem --- once in they’re in the interview.  And that’s the rub. 

Job Hunting Case Study: Kevin Watson - Part 1 - "The Plan"

So my good friend Kevin Watson agreed yesterday to let me blog about him as we work together to land his next gig.  Kevin's done a lot in his career.  Much of it cutting edge.  None of it boring.  He's decidedly open to consulting opportunities because he does not want to move out of Ottawa. CANADA despite the 22 centimeters of snow which is now falling - adding to the 3 feet we're already enjoying.

As a headhunter, what do you do when you're best friend asks for help looking for a new job?

For me the toughest decision was whether to find him a job myself or show him how to do it.  Given I really admire Kevin, for a lot of reasons, I decided to take the hard decision and to slow down and show him.  {the old give a man a fish... argument}.