Yesterday Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters surpassed the 1 million mark. Google revealed that a search for “Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters” returned 1,010,000 page references.
You may laugh, but I think it’s a big deal. I can still remember when McDonald’s declared “more than a million served” – okay so I’m showing my age. I know Lady Gaga and Bieber have a billion but it’s a start AND honestly what’s more popular GAGA or a book that tells you how to take control of your life and get a great job? GAGA of course!
Of course the real test is what are the numbers for my mentor’s book? Dick Bolles and What Color is Your Parachute is the reason I became a head-hunter. After reading Richard’s book I created a self-help group with my friends and actually placed 23 of them before I naively thought I could do this for a living ... but that’s another story.
So while Parachute remains the most popular seller on Amazon, clearly people are talking about the guerrilla books too [there are three editions now... I got that idea from Dick... I’m just not as prolific.]
And Dick is ever the gentleman. Here is the cover quote from the first edition of Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters in 2005:
This is an immensely helpful book, with the ancient wisdom of recruiters, and the up-to-date insights of two skilled Internet surfers. If you're job-hunting, you’ll be grateful to learn the tips and tricks of these two seasoned veterans. I learned a lot myself."
-Richard N. Bolles, author, What Color Is Your Parachute?
We feel great that people are landing jobs faster because of the book. Our Guerrilla Job Search methods have already passed the test in some of the toughest cities in America, like Detroit where one man landed a 6-figure job just 8 days after hearing us speak. Three others whom we tracked landed just 7 weeks later – 5 times faster than the national average of 38 weeks [9½ months].
Read that back – 5 times faster than the national average of 38 weeks. Why should your family or friends have to look for a job for 9 months? Imagine if everybody in America had this information. How much faster would this recession be over!
Commentary from the Jaded Hacks at the New York Post. Praise from New Yorkers is great. High praise from BRIAN MOORE is golden as he writes Jaded hacks with little remorse for the ordinary.
Fortune Magazine’s Cover Story didn't hurt though. What started as a request for a single coment for a 300 word piece evolved into the cover story for writer-reporter Jia Lynn Yang,
The secret to finding a suitable job today lies in mastering the digital search environment used by employers. A rapid transformation in hiring practices has gone unnoticed by those looking for work.
Every year, 50-million jobs are filled in the United States -- almost all without a job posting because employers can’t deal with the avalanche of resumes they get. Today, employers are relying on a brand new digital suite of tools and tactics to find the handful of “most qualified” recruits that they want to interview.”
Taking control of your employment is especially important in today’s demographic because so many people are looking for new kinds of work - work that has meaning for them. Our population is getting older – for the first time, there will be more people over 65 than under 5 -- and older people are more reflective: they want to know they are doing something meaningful. Our book helps provide a catalyst for their productivity.
The nature of work is also changing, as people seek control. A new business model for the 21st century is arising. Enjoyment-based motivation, namely how creative a person feels when working on the project, is the strongest and most pervasive drive for workers today. When you are in control of your work there is the pure joy of creating.
As the economy moves toward more right-brain, conceptual work, the motivators need to change as well: to those stressing self-satisfaction and self-motivation. More and more people are working to their own tune: 15 million people telecommute every day…a large part of the workforce beyond the gaze of a manager. These kinds of jobs require confident self-driven control of employment.
Today we buy the value implied by our favorite brands, and Employers do the same! Do you buy generic beer? Clothes? Cars? Not likely.
Personal Branding
Why personal branding is critical for you today:
Employers are looking for results.
Results demonstrate Your Qualities, which satisfy Their Value Requirements.
Employers are not buying generic beer.
They will buy the intangible Qualities implied by your brand (you are Nike too).
How Do You Create a Brand – without a million dollar budget?
It’s pretty simple actually. Personal Branding is all about making yourself stand out so that people trust you and are interested in you.
To do this you borrow your previous employers Brand (names, slogans, and logos) to create an identity that is memorable and desirable to the people you want to reach.
For your cover letter this means name-dropping which projects you worked on or which clients you sold to. Be specific. Be detailed. Sell the sizzle AND the steak.
For your resume it may mean taking the logos (with permission of course) of the companies you worked for or product you developed and putting them on your resume for extra punch. Nothing will get an employer’s attention faster than a well-known brand’s logo, especially if it’s a competitor or a coveted account for the sales group.
For telephone queries it’s all in how you set the stage. When you are following up your letter, email, resume try standing out from the other 1000 applicants. For example:
Typical:
“I sent you my resume…”
“I’m following up the resume I sent…”
“I understand you may be looking for… “
“Do you need a …”
Those are the standard opening statements people use when they call me or leave me a voice-mail message.
Try this instead:
You Inc:
Mr. Jones, I was in
New York
when the world-trade towers came down. My company sent me there a few days earlier to close a deal and told me not to come back without it because there’d be no company to come back to…
Mr. Jones, are you getting all the new business you deserve or are you of the opinion there's room for improvement between now and the end of the next quarter?
This is not exactly rocket science. It just takes a little forethought and planning to leave a message or start a conversation that is more likely to get you a quick return call. In case you're looking for more examples, this comes out of both of my books, Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters and Career Guide for the High Tech Professional
Next week we’ll tackle branding for your resume. It’s actually pretty easy and terribly effective.
The intangible value of being --- that's what the new knowledge economy is all about - Knowledge Value + Personal Branding. Veteran information age guru Stan Davis confirms some insights into the increasing value of people in today's economy.
A person's "value" is just a measure of how much someone is willing to pay to obtain something from them.
In Blur, Davis and Meyer make the point that the boundaries between your work life and your home life are disappearing. In fact, today the rate of change and the depth of connectivity are so fast that every person, product, service and company are blurring together.
Computerization and communications have made us all a linked community. There are, for example, nine times more computer processors in our products than in our computers -- nine billion CPUs in items like phones, hotel keys, consumer electronics, day planners and cars. (ford motor company's latest cd's showcase technology built into their new cars , including
As products are more driven by software, they become easier to link together. Intelligence and information become the key value being offered in a consumable product (some 90 percent of the value of a new car is estimated to be in the computers and software it uses). And you are the value-adder.
Instead of resources or land, "capital" today means human capital. I personally despise the term but it is widely accepted and used by fashionable consultants.
It doesn't take a shoe factory to go into the shoe business these days. Nor do you need raw materials or fleets of trucks. Nike became a shoe industry leader by concentrating on the value-producing capacity of its employees, for design, marketing and distribution know-how. The real capital is intangible: your knowledge level, combined with an aptitude for application.
Today, employees in the high-technology world especially, tend to think of themselves as "free agents" -- like a professional athlete who is always in training. Knowledge workers are continuously investing in the next set of skills and training, driving up their personal "stock price". This puts knowledge value in the driver's seat. Your Brand is unique. How do you give it a dollar value?
Do a competitive analysis on one of your targeted employer's products and send it to them. People assume that all companies keep up to date on their competitors, but this is rarely the case.
Most companies don't have the budget or the ability internally to keep on top of innovations and best practices so your piece will likely be most welcome.
Focus on companies that are direct competitors with those you want to work for, not your own company.
Potential employers need to get something out of reading the piece.
Use graphs and charts wherever possible because people like visuals.
Make it only as long as it needs to be.
Ask for an opportunity to discuss your findings with the hiring manager if they're interested.
Offer to share your primary research if they're interested.
A: Job ads are designed to arouse your interest and entice you to apply. So often times it’s what ever goes – from the “team” you’d work with to the technology or even the location. Recruiters always ask themselves what sets this opportunity apart from everything else out there especially if the job isn’t deemed to be glamorous. They're selling "sex" and "power".
I do not endorse job search sites - however ExecuNet has always been the exception because of the results obtained by senior people who take the time and make the effort to engage with the site's features.
There are tons of stories throughout Guerrilla Marketing - many of which came from successful job hunters who use ExecuNet. Here's just one of them provided by Lauryn Franzoni, Execunet's Managing Director [and a real class act]. Now, in her own words.
"A methodical strategy paid off for this ExecuNet member who was very active in her local human resources groups. She contacted the national headquarters for the names of local chapter presidents, and mounted a campaign of contacting each one every two months. Her persistence paid off when she received an offer. "
Proving once again, that a direct line is often the shortest distance between two points
There's an old sales adage that applies to job hunting which goes something like this: "success is 98% just showing up". I want to expand on the use of technology and how to apply it to your job search.
The new rules of modern job hunting change daily as does the technology and counter-technology companies use. Because of that, a traditional staple in the job-hunter's arsenal is coming back into vogue - FAX. Guerrillas know that often the best weapon is "old reliable". I wrote an article for California Job Journal on the use of fax technology as an effective alternative to email, snail mail and web forms. It's well worth reading. On the Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters site there's a free trial offer as well. With Fax your document cuts through all the technology barriers in your way.
Fax was pivotal in a successful marketing campaign I ran to place two candidates as a team [no easy feat]. Fax was the KEY distribution tool for the launch which also consisted of direct mail, web site and blog - along with a direct marketing campaign lead by me - to leverage the full power of the Force Multiplier Effect. Without the initial traction from MyFax, it's very likely I would have worked a lot harder to schedule the 39 interviews. With it I simply zeroed in on who had opened the fax as the hottest prospects.
The two candidates where successful in closing on 38 offers from the initial round of 39 meetings. Their progress was tracked - in near real time - and podcasted on LandedFM in 3 segments over a 6 week period. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3. As far as tools go it's also worth while looking at the web site he designed and the accompanying Blog. Using one tool in isolation will increase your ability to penetrate the companies you want. Using several of them in tandem has an exponential impact.
And they'll love you for it when they're 30. The biggest issue I have as a progfessional recruiter continues to be the work ethic - or lack there of - of most new graduates. More and more of my friends like to
send their children my way for career advice as they near college graduation [you now know I'm really really old].
The difference in the expectations between those who have had summer jobs and those who haven't are simply stunning. Thos who've had summer jobs understand the need to actually work instead of just expecting to show up and be the president on day 3.
The single best thing you can do for your children is to throw them out into the real world - if only for the summer - as fast as possible. I guarantee you they’ll learn what work really is AND it’ll convince them to get a good education so they aren’t stuck in some job they hate for the rest of their lives. Don’t expect a thanks until you’re too old to cash it though!
Your message must be professional – not cutesy. Forget about your dog doing the voiceovers. Keep it short and snappy. Make sure you keep a call sheet handy and teach
your family how to take a message if everyone is using the same phone. If you have a teenage daughter and just one line then you must get Call Answeringbecause the line is likely to be busy and people will only call back so many times.
Consider giving out your e-mail and web site address as part of your message.
If you sound like a drone then have someone with a pleasant voice record your message.
I just came back from the gym and I’m all pumped up [pun intended]. I had a breakthrough day on the bench press and it’s directly relevant to job hunting. I practice what I preach in all areas of my life yet sometimes I erect barriers to success subconsciously. A few months ago I finally stopped talking to myself [I’m lonely what can I tell you] about how I should join a gym and just did it. In high school [late 70’s] I was somewhat of a body builder, primarily because I’d survived 4 heart operations and my doctors and father told me I couldn’t participate in sports [or have sex] --- ever! And I wanted to know for myself if that was true so I started working out to increase my stamina.
Anyway, I’ve been going to the gym religiously for two months now every M-W-F. I’ve stuck with a regime designed to build stamina and not muscle mass so I’ve increased my sets of 15 reps @ 120 lbs from 2 -3 -4 sets. Well this morning just for fun I decided to see if I could actually bench-press 150 lbs. As a 18 year old kid of 125 lbs I could lift 260. That was the most I ever did when I was in my best shape. I didn’t think I could but to my surprise it rose easily off my chest into the air, as did 180 then 200 then 220 and finally 260. 300lbs was beyond my capacity. It was electric!
Perhaps it’s silly, but I haven’t felt that jazzed in ages!!!
So I started to reflect on where I’d done that in my business career lately. A few minutes ago I just cleared my desk top [into a box] and I’m setting my sites on new mountain peaks – specifically clients I want and business goals which others have previously told me where impossible. [Point of fact when I began writing my first book colleagues told me I’d never finish and no one would read it. Now I’m on my third [I swapped out that group of colleagues] and I still have detractors]. It seems the do gooders never cease.
How about you? What’s getting in your own way? Have your friends and colleagues gently encouraged you not to think too big? Not to go after that new job too hard. They don’t want to see you crash. Funny how sometimes people encourage you to think big while indirectly discouraging you from acting. Don’t listen to them. Go after what you want …. Sometimes it’s just best to not tell anybody else until you’re finished.
Do a case study on a project which showcases your skills. This could be as simple as a new coveted client you sold, or as complex as a new product you helped introduce to the market.
Send the case study to firms you know have similar needs for the skills you emphasized in the case study. Not only do you get to showcase your writing, as well as your research and analysis skills, it demonstrates your business acumen too. For example: Did you establish an innovative compensation program for resellers that increased sales and decreased spoilage or returns? This is a big deal in retail, where 90% of profits are lost due to returns.
Chose an example that builds your credibility with your targeted employers.
Explain why you did what you did and what the short and long term effects were.
Results which would be of interest to a potential employer include: increased efficiencies, new marketing techniques, new or different distribution channels.
Ideas that would be good for competitive analysis include:
sales/marketing: distribution channels;
manufacturing: the use of just-in-time techniques; and
The most recent hire was hired because she sent me a beautifully hand designed booklet which contained the best samples of her design work. She didn’t just email me a link, or send a resume. The fact that she went over the top to design a hand made booklet was impressive. In fact, her experience on its own wouldn’t have gotten her the interview, much less the job. But the book did it!
I know this sounds like heresybut there’s method in my madness. Call the personnel department of the companies on your target list. Ask their manager or recruiter what outside agency or third party recruiting firm they use. Why? For two strategic reasons, First, any personnel person will immediately ask why you want to know. To which you answer, “I’ve been to your web site and I understand that you’re not looking for someone with my skill set right now but the agency you use may be dealing with other firms who could use my skill set --- so I guess I’m looking for a recommendation from you.” After they get over the compliment they will likely ask you about your skill set etc., in which case you should tell them that, “I didn’t call you looking for a back door into your company but if you want to have a cup of coffee sometime I’d be happy to share my accomplishments with you.” If they push you be prepared to sell yourself shamelessly. Second, if they don’t press you for an interview, insist on knowing whom they use and why.
Personnel Managers love saving money on fees, so they may try to hire you directly.
Personnel Managers tend to group together by industry and make referrals to each other.
Getting a referral from one of their customers will insure the agency treats you with kid gloves.
Always ask for the name of a specific person and their direct dial number.
Get permission to use the Personnel Manager’s name as a reference.
Ask if they personally know of any other companies that could make appropriate use of your skills.
Send them a thank you note with a copy of your resume to keep on file for their future requirements.
If you want to increase the pull of your direct mail campaigns then consider putting together matching letterheadand envelopes that have your picture on them. I use the head and shoulders shot below with quotes from clients to increase my mass mailings. You can do the same thing. I recommend you do this with your second and third tier prospects because the direct one-on-oneapproach will work better. This is a great idea for marketing and sales people who want to change industry and need to generate a large quantity of leads quickly.
Use a good quality head shot.
To save money ask a friend to use their digital camera. Make sure it’s set on the highest quality. You’ll need a 400 dpi resolution jpeg to ensure a crisp picture.
Wear a good suit and tie.
Take off your glasses so the flash doesn’t reflect off them.
Use a light background behind you and wear dark clothes.
Make certain you wear a contrasting color shirt. For example white with a blue suit, so you can be seen clearly when the picture is shrunken to one square inch and printed in black & white or gray tones.
It’s a statistical fact that if you hand-address the envelopes more people will open them.
I worked with one client who specialized in retail merchandizing (POP, planagrams, etc). After developing her resume, we discussed putting together a targeted job search campaign to go after some of the bigger players in retail. While working out her “unique selling proposition” she made the claim that she could walk into any retail environment and recommend how they could make more money through better merchandising. I asked, “Can you really back that up?” and suddenly her plan was born.
My client targeted 5 major retail outlets, went to a number of their locations, and made detailed notes on what she saw and how she would improve it. The first company she contacted was a major outlet with offices located in the building over the store. She walked into the offices, asked to speak to the person in charge of marketing, was told he was in a meeting until 11:00am, so she scribbled a quick note on a piece of paper that read “I’ve just spent 30 minutes in your store. I found 3 merchandising inconsistencies and identified 7 ways that should increase your sales by about 12-15%. My name is ____________ and I will be waiting in the coffee shop downstairs.”
“Please hand this to him at the end of his meeting. It’s very important” and she walked out.
Shortly after 11:00, the VP of Marketing came downstairs, met her in the coffee shop, and spent the next hour walking through every corner of the store discussing her findings. Although no such position existed, the VP hired her as their new Director of Merchandising.
Send your resume and a cover letter which states “It’ll appear obvious from my resume that I’m over-qualified for the job you advertised, so let me tell you why you should interview me and consider “super-sizing” your opportunity”.
Write a bulleted list of 3-5 benefits you think they might be interested in.
Close the letter saying something to the effect that “I am old enough to have already learned from my mistakes – so my experience is more cost effective than a more junior person. In a few months, or years, you’ll need to send them on training to upgrade their knowledge, whereas I come fully equipped to do the next job too.”
Point out any certificates or advanced training which you already have that someone in that job might be expected to acquire.
Show you are already qualified to do the next position too.
Point out any retraining allowances or incentives employers might be eligible for if they hire a more seasoned person.
There’s a huge obvious benefit to engaging in creative out-of-the-boxactivities which will bring you to the attention of hiring managers.
There’s also a real danger of crossing the line and doing something in poor taste or something that puts youor the potential employer at risk.
Here’s an example pulled from the pages of the Montreal Gazette in Montreal, Canada on October 15th , 2004:
“The job hunter hoped his resume would land him an interview. What he got was the attention of the bomb squad. The man was arrested after he included his CV in a ticking package left in a Montrealmarketing firm’s washroom last month. It was his way of drawing attention to the application, as he was among 400 contenders vying for six paid internships.
The 24-year-old didn’t get the job but he did get charged with public mischief. He had handed the receptionist an Arabic newspaper with a note alerting her to the ticking parcel in the men’s washroom, police said.
At a time of heightened concerns over terrorism, the package raised the specter of a bombing. Montreal police evacuated the company’s building. Later, police discovered the package was harmless. It contained a metronome - a device used by musicians to help maintain rhythm and tempo - along with the candidate’s CV. “
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
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.
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.
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.
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 !!!
Be Hunted. Like Google, if you don’t rank among the first 3 people a recruiter thinks of when they’re starting a project… you won’t get “clicked” for the opportunity.
Increase your visibility and expand your network by presenting at conferences, seminars – even usergroups. Ask to be your company’s designated speaker. You can have someone else write the material if need be. Public speaking is an effective job hunting technique. Recruiters will beat a path to your door.
It's a million times easier for yoiu to answer the phone than to try and get an employer to talk to yoiu if you're looking for one - right!
For more great Guerrilla ideas, grab your copy of our Free Audio.
David Perry and Kevin Donlin Co-Creators, "The Guerrilla Job Search System"
In grade school we learned the 3 Rs of Reading, wRriting and aRithmetic. Those were our most important lessons [ok so I’m dating myself]. For job-hunters it’s Research, Relevancy, and Resiliency which will deliver an A+ interview.
As a job-hunter you need to research and determine:
♦ what are your marketable skills;
♦ which industries/companies you shouldtarget that use those skills;
♦ what are the specific needs of each company in your target market;
♦ who’s in a key position to hire you in those companies [who can say YES to hiring you AND it won’t be human resources unless you’re an HR professional]; and
♦ what’s the best way to approach them?
The way you approach people will be determined by your research. There’s more aboutresearch in the book.
Your skills have to fit an employer’s needs. It has to solve the employer’s hot buttons [their corporate weaknesses – this could be sales, market development, research ops]. Remember it’s not about you it’s about THEM! At the core employers’ initially only want to know three things about you:
♦ Can you make me money?
♦ Can you save me money? and/or
♦ Can you increase our efficiencies?
As global competitiveness increases, employers will be looking for all three of the above. In Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters the book we clearly demonstrate how to express your relevancy – “Value” – to an employer.
Resiliency is the ability to spring back from disappointment and keep moving forward. This is a quality which keeps Guerrilla job hunters focused on their goals and driving forward on a daily basis.
Adopt a positive mind set no matter what. Here’s how you do it: You should have your job hunting goals sitting in front of you everyday and review it everyday. Morning and night and then execute that plan.
Guerrilla job hunters always look for the positives even when people and events are clearly indicating they shouldn’t. Guerrilla job hunters need to look under rocks too. Let me end this section with a story that touches on all the points you’ve been reading about attitude. This has been a taste of what’s in chapter # 2 of Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters.
Cindy "X", is a former HR executive responsible for hiring who agreed to be interviewed by Kevin Donlin and myseld today so long as we did not user her last name.
Cindy discusses several touchy HR issues including the ramifications of going around HR. Her insights will surprise and I say - encourage you! I was suprised by her answers.
So, if you're looking for job and not gettng the results you want then you might benefit form watching this webinar.
There’s a huge
obvious benefit to engaging in creative out-of-the-boxactivitieswhich will bring you
to the attention of hiring managers.There’s also a real danger of crossing the
line and doing something in poor taste or something that puts youor the potential employer at
risk.Here’s an example pulled from the
pages of the Montreal Gazette in Montreal, Canada on
October 15th , 2004:
“The job hunter hoped his resume would land him an
interview. What he got was the attention of the bomb squad.The man was arrested after he included his
CV in a ticking package left in a Montreal marketing firm’s washroom last
month.It was his way of drawing
attention to the application, as he was among 400 contenders vying for six paid
internships.The 24-year-old didn’t get
the job but he did get charged with public mischief. He had handed the
receptionist an Arabic newspaper with a note alerting her to the ticking parcel
in the men’s washroom, police said. At a time of heightened concerns over
terrorism, the package raised the specter of a bombing. Montreal police
evacuated the company’s building.Later, police discovered the package was harmless. It contained a
metronome - a device used by musicians to help maintain rhythm and tempo -
along with the candidate’s CV. “
As a door opener, try sending a booklet which embodies the
value or values you can bring to a company.You can go to www.successories.com
or www.successitems.com and
select from a
variety of professionally done booklets which will cost about $4-7 each.Booklets like Companies Don’t Succeed People Do or Motivation Lombardi Style are good choices.You can send one with a note that simply
says,
“Please accept
this book as an indication of my interest in your company.If you’re interested in discussing how I may
be able to help you reach the goals you’ve set for your company, I’d
be pleased to have a coffee with you.”
This is a soft sell approach that is a very solid yet
subtle way to get your foot in the door.Follow your
mailing about ten days after sending it with a personal phone call.Ask them if they’ve had an opportunity to
glance through it and if they have any interest in having a coffee.When they say “yes”, be prepared to put on your
consulting hat and enquire about what their business goals are and if the
company is hitting all of them.
Be prepared to offer up stories which relate what you’ve
done for your other employers.Frame
your story this way: the problem; what you did to fix it; and what the results
were.You want to imply subtly that
perhaps you could do the same for them but you’d need to get more closely involved.You may want to try closingthem by asking if it’s
an important concern they intend to address any time soon.If it is, suggest the employer “consider”
looking at a short term contract.Short
term contracts can lead to long term employment if executed correctly.Never offer to fix it for free.If in doubt as to what to charge askthem what they think is
“fair”.The word “fair” will disarm
most employers because if they are really interested in solving the problem
they won’t want to chisel you for fear you’ll
walk away.
Research their company like crazy.
Research their industry like crazy too.
Focus your questions on the whole business first and
then move into your area of expertise.
EBay
calls itself “your personal trading community.” Now it can rename itself “your
PERSON trading community.”
On
Monday, a seller listed a complete team of 16 Internet service provider
engineers, opening the bidding at a whopping US$3.14 million.
The
description for the auction says that the team works for a major ISP and is
willing to leave as a group. Buyers are limited to companies in Silicon Valley.
The
$3.14 million figure includes the salary of one director, three managers, seven
senior engineers, and five administrators, along with a $320,000 signing bonus.
Open an ebay
account and try it.
You can sell
your skills under a couple of catagories like “business”, “industrial” or any titile that is specific
to the industry you’re interested in.
Place yourself under every sub category wherean
employer browsing the site is likely to lookand which is relevant to your
background.For example a dental hygienist would want to be in: “Healthcare Lab”and “Life Sciences”under medical equipment, equipment, and medical instruments.
Put in a
price that is your median salary request, -- for example
$35,000 -- because most people set their search options to
sort their results by price.
Try an
auction too.
Send links to your ad to your friends and ask them to forward the link
to your ad throughout their network.
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 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.
Use a company like Got Marketing, www.gotmarketing.com to build and
distribute your e-resume.GotMarketing
has menu-driven templates which allow you to build a beautiful
resume.You choose to whom you’ll send itby uploading
your database or Excel spreadsheet.You can embed links and track who has
received it.You can embed links for
your web site.You can measure how many
emails were
opened, bywhom and
when.You’ll know who they forwarded it
to and if it the recipient read it or forwarded it and who it was forwarded
to.Follow up personally with the
people who you know viewed it and re-contact those who did not.
Keep it to one page.
Tease them and get them to click to your web site.
Embed a link to your full text resume.
Give them permission to forward the message toother people who may be looking
for your skills.
It worked well for the people on “Survivor” and “The Apprentice”,
so why not you.Produce a video, burn
it on CD or DVD, and distribute it to potential employers.Keep it tasteful and highlight the results
you achieved on one or two projects.Ask for an in person interview.If you buy video editing software and have a fast computer you can burn
your own copies for less than $2 complete with the box
Use a DVD box because you can tuck a resume inside the
front cover.
Personalize every one of them and I don’t just mean the
label.
Start each video telling the employer why you’re
interested in working for them.
Talk about the research you did to conclude they’re a
good fit for your skills.
Highlight accomplishments which would be of interest to
them.
Ask for an in-person interview.
A War Story
I
had recruited a young guy (very early twenties) for a Visual Basic Developer
position at one of my clients.He had a
two-year computer science degree and had been working for a year and a half to
two years as a sort of one-man IT department for a very small, rural
manufacturer.He did it
all...programming, networking, support, you name it. The day before the
interview he and I met for lunch.He
brought along his laptop and proceeded to show me how he had developed an
application for my client, based on information he had gleaned from me, their
website and other sources.He had been
working on it every evening for the past week, and I have to say, it was most
impressive.Good functionality, slick
interface, intelligent use of technology...simply awesome. The day of the
interview came and went.He did well,
just as I had expected, but we were a bit nervous.Another, more experiencedprogrammer had applied on his own and interviewed as well. I spoke with
the client just as he had made the decision to hire my candidate.He stated the deciding factor was (no
surprise) the 'homebrew" application my candidate developed....proving, in
one fell swoop, that he could, without a doubt, do the job, and perhaps most
important...he proved who wanted it more.
If you and others have been downsized, “right-sized”, or otherwise
reallocated, consider building and promoting a web site for all the affected employees.For the company this is good corporate
citizenship.Former Nortel employees
broke new ground when they did this with www.hiretoptalent.com.Eventually the site had several thousand
Nortel employees on it and employees from other companies as well.Recruiters flocked to the free site.Hire Top Talent was newsworthy.It garnered a lot of media attention which
just helped propel the brand and fuel the growth of the site.
Ask company management to pay for a site like this if
there are more than fifty people being laid off.
Ask for free server space if your employer will not pay
for the development.
Make resumes available in Word, ASCII and Adobe PDF
format.
Promote the site to recruiters, head-hunters and
temporary help agencies.
Promote the site to competitors and suppliers.
Use a central phone number if you can for incoming
calls so people aren’t harassed unnecessarily.
Establish a Pay Pal donation button for people who
want to contribute to keeping the site going – it’s free and you just never
know.
Rent a billboard at the entrance to an off ramp into a
busy industrial park or busy commercial intersection. Split the cost with eleven other people and
put your job titles under your pictures.Rent a 1-800 number or post an easy web address.Have a friend call the local news people and
USA Today.
For the budget conscious, try renting an empty cargo
container or trailer you can paint and place in a farmer’s field if necessary –
plywood works too.
Put your resumes on your web site for easy download.
Tell your story on the local cable channel.
Make a video and add five minute interviews of each
participant and distribute to local businesses.
A week latermail post cards with the same picture on the front to local business
owners.
Put a “Too Late” sticker across the faces of the people
who land jobs to motivate other hiring managers to act quickly.
Tony Parinello in his book, Selling to VITO, described the time he was leaving a voice-mail message for a prospect
when he accidentally hung up the phone in the middle of his message.He was immediately sidetracked by another
call,but later in the day the prospect
he was leaving the voice-mail for called him back and said, “finish your
message.”Try it, just make sure you
identify yourself first and leave your phone number before you hang up in the
middle of the sentence.A person
looking for an accounting job might say, “I’m calling about your book keeping.It appears [hang up]” wait until they call
you back and then finishing the sentence with, “it appears your company is …
[fill in the blank]” and see if there are any openings you should apply for.Tony has a host of other ideas every month
on his web site at http://www.sellingtovito.com
Keep the voice mail short.
Leave a generic message that would be of interest to
the employer.
Leave the impression calling back is in the employer’s
best interest.
Apologize for the power outage that caused you to leave
only half the message.
Offer a free gift if a potential employer will complete an
online survey.Companies send online
surveys out all the time.Many of them
have four to five screens to complete and I almost always answer them if I know
the company or am interested in the free gift.
Years ago one of my client companies did this.They sent a targeted mailing to potential
customers offering a cheap pocket knife to anyone who completed the survey and
sent it back.They wereoverwhelmed by more than 30,000
responses.Enough qualified leads for
their sales force for more than a year.The knife from China cost them less than $1 – the resulting sales
amounted to $20 million.
You can do
a similar thing.Send a survey on
hiring trends and target employers you’re interested in.You can ask an almost limitless number of
questions which could reveal their hiring intentions.
Send it to hiring managers and not toHuman
Resources.
Do a targeted mailing to no more than fifty companies
to start.
If youget
five leads you’re doing well.
Avoid sending alcohol or food which could spoil.
A
thank you note and a coffee cup… with an offer to buy them a coffee if…
Send your resume to whicheverdepartment they indicate is hiring.
A gift need not be an item you buy, it could be a
report you’ve prepared.
Have you ever received a post card from – sayParis - or Las Vegas?If so you probably flipped it over straight
away to see who it was from.In their
book How to Get Clients Jeff Slutsky
and Marc Slutsky’s customer did the same thing.She hired her kids to address post cards which she thensent to her potential
customers.You can do the same thing by
writing this line on the back, “Don’t gamble on your next hire.Call me, and let’s talk about how I can help
you build your business.”Can’t get
there?You can order them on line at http://www.cafepress.com/arrivelasvegas/290508for about $1 each
You can use any casino’s postcards.
A picture of dice has a similar affect.
The effect is not the same with the e-cards so use
real ones.
If you live in a residential neighborhood chances are
you’ve seen the post cards realtors send when they’ve sold a neighbor’s home.You can send the same type of post card but with your picture
on it announcing your availability.
Get addresses from your local Chamber of Commerce or
even just from driving around.
Send it to business addresses only.
Put your web site address and email address on the
card.
Tell them a full resume is available if they call the
number you provide or visit your web site.
Start your own temp firm with other people and market each
other – not yourself – on your lunch hour.I did this myself years ago when I worked for Consumers Distributing
[Service Merchandiser’s competitor in Canada].There were
20 or so of us who all wanted better jobs who joined together in a support
group.I would close my door at lunch
and make calls to try and find job
openings for my colleagues.My line was
very simplistic,
“Hi my name is David Perry and I have a friend with
_____ and he’s looking for a new job.Are you hiring any _____?May I
have him call you for an interview?”
That was it.If
they said yes, I took down the details and passed it on.If memory serves me correctly I was
successful about 1 in every 10 calls, back in 1983-1985.I placed 21 of my colleagues before I
realized perhaps I should be doing this for a living… but that’s another story.
Target your call to companiesthat fit with your friends’
skills.
Ideally your friends should make the call list and give
you the highlights of their background that fit.
Be prepared to give a thumbnail sketch of their background and
qualifications.
Be ready for people to ask you if you’re from an agency.
Make sure you tell people there is no fee for the
referral.
Keep records of whom you’ve called and when.
If you get a negative response then ask them what [in
terms of hiring] they are looking for.
Ask if they’re looking for anyone with your background.
The temporary help industry employs nearly two million
Americans on any given day.“Temping”
is a multi-billion dollar industry.This is a great way to break into a company through the back door.Remember, employers hire from within first,
so it’s a real advantageif
you’re already there.There may not
necessarily be a lot of firms hiring people on a full time basis with your
specific skill set, but there are probably a lot of firms that
can use someone like you right now for one day a week.Approach several of them to hire you for a
day a week each.
Market yourself as a “Top gun for Hire”.Often an employer needs your expertise but
not necessarily for a specific set number of hours each day. So you can
bill them for the results or ideas you produce and not the time you spend
working on their project.
A good rule of thumb on what to charge is 1.6 times
your previous daily rate.
Try to get hired for full days not half days.
Ask the employer to provide parking.
If you’re working by the hour see if you have to take a
lunch break or if you can work right through it and get paid instead or leave
early.
Send a gift certificate to ten companies you want to work
for.The gift certificate could be an
introductory offer for your time or for a particular piece of work you are
willing to do.Focus your offer around
the job you want to be doing if they were to hire you. Follow up with a quick
survey on your level of quality etc that they must send back to you.
Make sure the gift certificate has a specific value
attached to it.Perhaps $50 of your
time, and then make sure you spend just that amount of time
An easy way to measure hourly salary is to take your
salary, divide it in half and then knock off three zeros. That will give you
your hourly wage.For example $50,000 a
year person makes $25 per hour.
arrive on time, do your absolute best, and leave your
work area absolutely spotless.
Print the certificates on stock certificate paper you
can buy at Office Max.
Ask for referrals if you don’t get hired.
Use their testimonials to land the next job offer.
Go to a discount shoe store and buy a good pair of loafers on sale. Get two boxes.Send one shoe in one box with a card that says, “Now that I have one shoe in the door let me introduce myself...”I know it’s an old gimmick but chances are if you haven’t had it pulled on you, then neither has the hiring manager.
Make sure the shoe fits you in case you get it back and want to use it again
Make sure it’s well polished and doesn’t smell.
Black is best.
Don’t send a high-heeledlady’s shoe because you may be sending a message about the wrong kind of job.
Many people have specific charities they support in the
community.It’s not only good business
it’s good for business.Find out which one your targeted hiring
manager supports and write them a note volunteering to make a donation if
they’ll have breakfast or lunch with you.
Expect to donate as much money to the charity as it
cost you for the
meal.
Breakfast is cheaper and easier to schedule.
Plan on donating at least $50.
Being too generous may indicate you’re going to be a
costly hire.
You’re more likely to get someone out forbreakfast than lunch or dinner –
an earlier start to the day won’t interfere with work.
Send a thank you note indicating which charity you sent
a cheque to.
Ask for a receipt for your donation and write it off
your taxes wherever possible.
Request that the charity write a note to the hiring
manager acknowledging your donation in their name.
Many employers prefer to hire consultants to try them out
before they make a permanent offer, or to bridge the gap while
looking for a permanent employee or so they can hide the extra headcount in
their “variable” costs .Employers are
risk averse,and a new
unproven candidate may be a big liability. Many people get their start this way
through temporary agencies.Why not go
after employers you want yourself?Robert W. Bly has a letter in his book, The Encyclopedia of Business Letters, Fax Memos, and E-Mail” which
he suggests using to land consulting or freelance jobs, which starts this
way,
“Is freelance a dirty word to you?It really shouldn’t be.In public relations, with its
crisis-lull-crisis rhythm, good freelancers can save you money and…”
Wow!What a great
opener for starting a discussion!Write
a consultant letter for your services and use the possible contract as an
entrée to a permanent job. Great places to start looking for consulting gigs
are www.guru.com, www.net-temps.comor www.elance.com
all of which cater to independent consultants looking for contract work.Or, simply target some of the companies you’re
interested in.
Focus on the employer’sneeds, not yours.
Dismiss their concerns about hiring a consultant by quickly
stating the benefits in the 1st paragraph.
Provide letters of reference from former employers:
this not only establishes your abilities but may be just the
information they need to make the job a permanent one instead.
Give the employer your absolute best effort because you
may be auditioning for a permanent job.
If you’re not hired full-time,ask
for referrals to other departments, divisions or companies which they
think could benefit from your services.
Go to the used furniture store and buy a few old aluminum
framed wooden seat chairs like those we sat on in grade school.They’ll cost you about $5 each.Next buy a box large enough to put the chair
in.Now tape your résumé to the seat of
the chair with a note that says, “You can’t say you don’t have a chair for me
know”
This works well in engineering and advertising firms,
especially where you have already been given the brush-off because they “don’t
have the space or don’t have any extra chairs”, which is a common brush off in
the technology world.
If you don’t get the job, trygetting
the chair and box back so you can re-use it.
When you go in to pick it up ask the hiring manager if he/she
knows someone else who can use a high energy creative type like you.
Tape your resume to the underside cover of a pizza box [in
a thick envelope] and have a fresh pizza delivered to the hiring manager minus
one piece.The accompanying note should
read: “The only piece
missing is me… “
This works well for tech firms and ad agencies.
Make sure you call ahead to ensure the person is in
that day.
Ask Reception if the person has any food allergies.
Deliver it yourself just in case you can meet the hiring
manager.
Have it arrive at least 20 minutes before noon so they
don’t leave for lunch.
Refresh your job board posting every other day so you
appear in the top 20 search results..All you need to do is log “Not
our account” and change one thing on your resume, a word, a
sentence, or even just punctuation and you will automatically be promoted to the
front of the line.Corporate
recruiters are lazy, especially if they’re using job boards – instead of direct
sourcing – and most of
them use job boards exclusively.Use
different titles to describe yourself. For example post one for project
manager, another for manager of design and yet another for construction manager
because most recruiters search by title rather than content and certain
occupations can have several different functional titles which all describe the
same job.
Changing the date on your resume keeps you current.
Limit yourselfto two or three major boards like: Monster, CareerBuilder and probably
your local newspaper’s job board if they have one.
Focus the majority of your posting efforts on niche job
boards.
Tailor the content to the board.
Post every type of resume you can, functional,
chronological, extreme makeover etc., because you just don’t know what will
attract their attention.
Do a brochure instead of a resume.This is a great way to find temporary or
contract work which may lead to a full-time
position.Send the brochure to your
target group, offering your services on a contract basis.Speak to their needs on the front
cover.Profile your projects and
accomplishments on the inside three flaps.Use the inside flap for quotes from your references.Reserve the back panel for your mini
bio.Include a photo if you’re good
looking.
Hand address the envelope you mail it in
Buy glossy brochure paper which will run through your
laser printer from stores like Office Max and Business Depot.I order mine directly from Paper
Direct,www.paperdirect.com
You can lay it out easily in Microsoft Publisher or a
similar program.
Lead with your best foot.
Keep it business-like in
tone.
Keep the copy short.
Make sure your address and contact information are easy
to find.
Keep the font type to a serif because they’re easiest
to read.
