David Drescher and I have been corresponding for a long time over email. He sent me an email this week outlining how he has gotten awesome success in his job search. His email is below, with my comments in bold italics.
>> I went to potential employer vendors websites.
Brilliant. A great way to find new target companies that you might not have heard of before, but help you understand the industry better.
>> Once there, I extracted 200 target companies. From employers websites, manta.com, linkedin.com, and https://www.bbb.org/, I was able to identify the company owners.
Those are great research sources. They don’t have the entire picture, but surfing around can help you get more and better information as you prepare for that phone call.
>> I procrastinate when I am home and have a task I do not want to do.
Don’t we all? 🙂
>> So, I went to the department of labor in Morristown, NJ. There, I anguished over writing a phone script since I undervalue my skills and my worth to employers.
If there is a list of the top 5 things that keep job seekers from success, this has to be on that list. We are capable but we undervalue what we can do!
>> Somehow, I got enough of a script down on paper. I forced myself to call about 50 of the 200 owners in the span of one week. I will get to another 50 next week.
Key phrase: Forced Myself. Folks, job search is not a walk in the park. It’s not easy. We don’t all love the tasks we need to do. Sometimes we just HAVE TO DO IT. Force yourself! You might find it’s not so bad… and with more practice you might get better…
>> From calling, I got most everyone’s email addresses and cell phone numbers and followed up.
Two major successes: 1 – getting more info, 2 – FOLLOWING UP!
>> In the next week, I have 5 interviews scheduled. Not bad, ~1 interview per 10 phone calls. NONE of the positions were advertised and some may be created for me.
WOW! WOW! I guess forcing yourself can give good results, huh?
>> No one likes cold calling unless you are a sales maven which I am not. Do not expect you will like it. Just get out of bed and do it – awful if need be. Shaky hands, poor script, and quivering voice is OK too. You WILL get better each day. Your fears will subside. You will eventually come across relaxed and natural. The interviews will come.
This is awesome, David, thank you for that last paragraph. JUST DO IT! Even if it is not perfect…
>> Stay away from job boards, career gurus, useless networking meetings (you are building your own) and wasting time perfecting your resume.
Valid thoughts… let me address each one:
Job Boards: have their place and value – they are great for research, not so great for applying online (although people do it, and it works).
Career Gurus: This is a hard one. If I had a career coach or resume writer, I would have gotten a job. But there are charlatans out there and you have to be able to find the real ones, not the get-rich-quick scammers.
Networking Meetings: you said “useless”… so of course that’s something to stay away from. Aside from that, figure out which meetings to go to and do it right. Don’t just show up, be a warm body, and feel like you’ve networked… there’s more to it than that.
Wasting Time Perfecting Resume: Yep. It’s easy to hide from the hard stuff (phone calls) by tweaking… a resume, a job search spreadsheet (use JibberJobber instead), etc. Stop tweaking if it doesn’t lead you to interviews.
>> It is OK to tweak it for a particular job but do not spend more than 20 minutes doing so. It is also a good idea to join a few professional organizations that do what you want to do. You can do serious networking there.
Good thoughts…
>> Take all those rules you have in your head about getting an interview and trash them. You are selling your ability to make your employer money. Period. Call and find out who is buying. Anything beyond that is a waste of time.
There is other good stuff, but this goes to the core of what you need to communicate…
David, I’m glad this is working for you – now, go make more calls!
This speaks powerfully to the importance of a *target companies list* and not focusing your job search on published openings.
David isn’t the only person to have succeeded with this; when I worked for a major career transition services firm, Lee Hecht Harrison, we taught a method of doing this that had been extensively proven through their experience serving downsized managers and staff. I coach my individual clients on similar techniques, and it totally transforms the networking experience.
It’s not all about cold calls, either. Cultivate your LinkedIn network and a lot of those calls can be warm referrals.
Thea Kelley / Thea Kelley Career Services
Thea, thanks for leaving this comment. You are someone who has seen a lot of people do job search “stuff” … some of it right, some of it wrong. I appreciate your perspective and experience 🙂
Researching a corporate owner’s name and contact information is easy.
How did David get past their gatekeepers when he called for the owner? For a small business, sure; but once the size of the business is so many employees, getting that owner on the other end of the call — when the owner doesn’t know you and has an executive assistant for a reason — is tough.
What was David’s secret?
Ari – Who you are looking for is people who could hire you if a job were available and that is not necessarily the owner. But talking to the owner, president, CEO is typically a reasonable goal. One thing you might try is to contact the executive assistant, introduce yourself, explain what you are trying to accomplish, and ask the assistant to tell you how to contact the owner.