The Straight Line Job Search

by Duncan Mathison

I had a client who just hated networking. This was not new of course, but he was really serious about it. He did not like to ask for favors. He did not like the fuzziness of it and it seem to him like a bit of a crap-shoot to meet with people in hopes that some random connection could be made that would result in a job. For him, networking lacked logic.

I tried to talk him into trying networking for a while, but it was clear I was getting nowhere.

So OK, I said, just apply for posted jobs. This would have been fine of course except there were a couple big problems. First, there were very few jobs posted in his profession.  In fact it had been more than a month and a half since he had last seen a job opening in his area.  Relocation was out of the question unless he wanted to create a mess of his home life. A wife with a good job, two teenagers who were deeplyconnected to school and friends and a slightly underwater mortgage were absolute anchors to stay put.

He knew waiting for job postings would not get him a job in the foreseeable future.

He also wanted a job and was willing to do something about it. That is, if it made sense to him. If it was direct, logical and didn’t beat around the bush.

So I proposed “The Survey” approach.

First, a bit more about my client. He was an IT (Information Technology) professional. As a result, his experience was with a particular type of software and hardware. The survey approach works best with technical professions or professions where the right type of employer can be clearly defined. The Survey takes a little bit of preparation and a system to manage it but it is very straight forward. To implement the Survey, begin with …

The list – We made a list of companies that he suspected might have an IT department. This was based on their size and that the headquarters were located in town. He added to that list companies who were customers of a sales person who sold the very software he knew how to use. Whenever he could he tracked down the name of the IT manager – usually a Director or V.P of Information Systems.

The Survey – We came up with a few questions to ask the IT manager about their operation. What type of technical systems they had and whether they used the software applications my client knew. We also added a question asking if they had any hiring plans in the next quarter for their staff.

The Script – The decision to go to a conversation as opposed to email was a tough one. At the end of the day, we opted for the conversation. This is because a conversation demonstrated more commitment, and allowed a stronger connection. If that did not work, he could drop back to email or even snail mail. So he needed to know what to say. For example we started with, “Hello, my name is Bob and I am doing a quick survey of IT departments in town to learn what technical platforms they are on and the types of people they might need…” This script was refined to make it most comfortable to him as he used it but it pretty much stayed as is.

 He refined a set of answers for questions he anticipated but his goal was to check which IT departments would likely hire people with his skills. If they look like a good candidate, he asked if he could send them a resume. (I tried to get him to ask for a meeting but he thought that was too pushy for his style.)

The Result – He worked on this for almost two weeks solid on the survey. He made about 100 calls. He got through to about 40 people and it should be said it took an average of a little better than two tries each. Fifteen were “qualified” as potential employers because they used IT systems he knew. Almost all of them asked for a resume and three asked him to come in to meet with them. Only one was ready to hire and offered him a job.

I guess from a percentage standpoint, it can be argued that he had a success rate of 1% because 1 in a 100 calls resulted in an offer. (Although for several months he had a number of call backs from his survey after he had taken the position.)

But from a success standpoint, it was 3 weeks from beginning of the survey to the job offer.  That’s 100% in my book and a lot better than waiting and worrying. His family was relieved. He was thrilled.

Tags: hidden job market, job search advice, networking, On-Line Jobs, prospective boss, Unlock the Hidden Job Market

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 3:22 pm and is filed under Blog, Uncategorized, job market, job search, networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.