Job Hunting

If you find yourself having to look for a new role or are thinking about taking your career in a different direction, here are some hints and tips to help you on your way. That job you want is out there waiting for you.

The temptation might be to rush out your CV and get into the job market as soon as possible. Before you do that, take some time to step back and ‘prepare’………

1. Take some time to think about what you want to do, and the skills that make you right for that role

My first tip to you would be to take this break in your career to take some time to think about what sort of role you want, and importantly the type of role your skillset best sets you up win.

Remember, you are likely to be in a highly competitive market – it’s all well and good to be thinking about taking your career in a totally different direction but you are likely to be up against a number of candidates who all have a better match of skills to the role. The challenge is to find a match between something you really want to do and are highly qualified for. There are those companies who are prepared to take a risk on a maverick candidate, but they are few and far between. More likely they will be taking the ’safer’ candidate, who on paper has the skills for the role.

If you want to make a significant career shift or are looking for a role the next level up, the best place to do that is within your existing company. If you have been made redundant, at this stage you might have to make a sideways move and then, in time, look for that promotion.

2. Craft a CV and a covering letter that highlights your skills for that role

Step two is to craft your CV so that it sets out your skills that makes you look like the perfect candidate for the role you are seeking. Most people make the mistake of setting out a career history, putting in detail every aspect of every role they have had.

The important thing to remember is that this is your selling document. The job of your CV is to get you an interview. It’s your chance to stand out from those other candidates who have applied for the role. The reader needs to get the feeling, as quickly as possible, that you are worthy of the shortlist of candidate to be interviewed. The opening summary is probably the most important part of the CV. The recruiter needs to know it’s worth investing their time in reading the rest of the CV.

Ask a friendly HR Exec or recruitment consultant responsible for recruitment. Most I have spoken to tell me that they receive a pile of CVs for every role – frankly they don’t have the time to read every one in detail, some of the ‘filtering’ methods used can be quite depressing. Your CV needs to stand out – be brutal, or ask a trusted friend to be brutal: how well does you CV do on this front?

Back up your skills and achievements with evidence and numbers. If, for example, you are a first-class communicator or are experienced in business turnaround, prove it!

Your covering letter is equally important – if not more so. Some recruiters wont even get to your CV if the covering letter doesn’t sell you well for the role.

I always suggest you tailor your CV and covering letter for every role you apply for. And if you are considering different types of roles, write different CVs for those too.

I can’t emphasize enough – your CV and cover letter have to bring to life the skillset you have that makes you an ideal candidate for this role

3. Update Your Linked In (social media) profile

Once you have your new CV, update your Linked In profile. The likelihood is that if someone is interested in you, they’ll look you up on Linked In. The same applies for your Linked In profile as your CV – make sure that what’s on there makes you look like a great candidate for the role you are looking for. By necessity, this profile needs to be a bit more generic as you can’t keep updating it for every different role you are applying for, but the tailored CV and your profile need to match. I always suggest making the Linked In profile much ‘lighter’ on detail than your CV

If you are looking at a couple of different career routes, this stage is even more challenging. You have to make your CV sufficiently generic to cover both roles, to match both CVs. It’s at this stage that I ask people to think about whether they really do want to look at the two (or three) different routes. It’s not impossible to job hunt for different roles but experience suggests it is always better/easier to be highly focussed in what you want

4. Draw up a longlist of the people you think can help you find that new role

This is the final step in the ‘prepare’ phase. Let me get back to the point about recruiters/HR Managers receiving, in some cases, hundreds of applications for a role. Our challenge here is to circumvent that process, and ensure your CV is read by the recruiter.

It’s not that applying for jobs via jobs boards, recruitment companies, adverts etc. isn’t an option (more on that later), it’s just that I believe there is a better way. In addition to this, I’ve often found that some of the best jobs are never advertised.

The additional ‘risk’ for recruiters is the challenge of hiring someone you’ve never met, or only know about from their CV and what they’ve told you in the interview. The tests/profiling you were set helps reduce that ‘risk’, as do your referees (but who ever gave a referee who was going to give you a bad review!).

So, our task here is to make the recruiters job easier. To reduce the need to sift through tens (or hundreds) of CVs When they ask the question, ‘we’re looking to fill role x, do you know anyone who might be suitable’ that you are put forward as a candidate.

Your task at this stage is to draw up a list of the people who know you, who might be able to answer that question or, importantly, might know someone who knows someone who might be asked the question.

Think broadly about your list When I’ve been in this situation, I’ve included people I work with now, both within the company I worked for and beyond, but also people I used to work for. I even included people I worked with many years ago. You are looking for people who might be able to help you in your job search. Don’t assume people will have forgotten you or will or won’t help. At this stage, this is a numbers game – go right back through your career to make the list as extensive as possible.

Now the real work begins. I’ve often heard people say that finding a job is a full-time job in itself. So, it’s more difficult to do this if you are still in a full-time role (but not impossible). And if you are looking for some consolation to having been made redundant, then you now have the time to really commit to the job hunting process.

5. Reach out to that longlist to help

Your task is to reach out to that longlist and ask for some help. I usually suggest an email at this stage, especially if your longlist is long. You might want to draw up a shortlist of ‘hot helpers’ and give them a call. Be prepared for some surprises – some of the people you thought would definitely help just won’t come through, others, who were long shots, will prove to be a massive help.

As you reach out, tell these people about the sort of role you are looking for, attach a copy of your CV and ask, if they come across anyone in their network who is looking for someone like you for this role, to please pass on your details. I always suggest following this up with an email, or a phone call, and an offer for a chat or to meet over a coffee to catch up. Don’t make it all about your job hunting. Show some interest in them and what they are doing. Know that the chances that they have a role immediately available is low, but not impossible; you job is to keep on their radar, to keep front of mind, so that when they hear the question ‘we’re looking to fill role x, do you know anyone who might be suitable’, you immediately come to mind. Make sure you strike the right balance between keeping in touch and being annoying.

Also, ask the people you contact for another favour. Ask them to forward your details to 3 or 4 people they know who they think might be able to help, with a simple covering note such as ‘one of my contacts is looking for a new role, if you come across a role for x, please bear them in mind’ and attach a copy of your Cv. If they are prepared to do it, ask them to cc you on any emails they send out. Follow up these messages with an offer for a chat/catch up on the phone or over a coffee.

Set yourself up a spreadsheet, or some other way or keeping track of who has been contacted.

Finally, ask that second tier, to do the same: pass on your CV to 3 or 4 people they know with a quick covering note, a copy of your CV and, if possible, to cc you on the email.

Here’s how it works: assume you start with 10 people on your list. They send your CV on to 3 people they know. Now you have 40 people looking out for a role for you. If those extra 30 contacts send on your CV to 3 of their contacts, you now have 130 people on the lookout for a role. That’s why the initial longlist is so important – if you have 50 people on the initial list, then you’ll have many more people looking out for a role for you.

Now, if course, not everyone will do this, but this approach will get a large number of people on your cause. Keeping track of them will be a challenge, managing to keep in touch with everyone is a bigger challenge, but you do need to keep in touch. Network, network, network. You’ll drink more coffee and have more chats than you have ever done before – but it’s all part of the process of finding that role you want. As I say to people, you’ll have to kiss a lot of frogs, but you only need one of them to turn into a prince/princess!

Consider using something like Mailchimp or Send in Blue (which is free to send up to out 300 emails a day) to send out regular updates about you.

6. Contact recruiters, job boards etc

Now is the time to also contact recruiters, look at job boards and sign up for job alerts………. this will be equally time consuming. I know numerous people who went to this stage first. It’s very tempting as you feel as if you are getting on with the job of job hunting. They felt highly productive checking out available roles, sending out CVs, contacting recruiters. It’s not that it isn’t a relevant way to find a job, it’s just that I believe your chances of finding a job this way are lower than using the networking approach and the return on the time you invest in this is lower than the networking approach. That’s why I always recommend taking this route after the network approach

7. Prepare, prepare, prepare for that interview

Congratulations, someone has invited you for an interview. Now don’t blow it. Put as much effort into the interview as you have in every other aspect of the job hunt. Prepare, prepare, prepare. Know your CV inside out and be prepared to back up the achievements and skills in your CV with solid examples and detail. Research the company you are visiting; be interested in them. If you can, find ways to interact with them, their products or services before you go to the interview. If they are a retailer, visit a store, buy and use their product, speak to past and present employees…….

Make sure you research their market – even if it’s one you are familiar with. What are the big challenges they are likely to be facing, how can your skills help? Think about how you would handle the role, how could you ‘hit the ground running’? Be careful not to appear to be telling them what’s needed in the job (they’ll know that better than you), but aim to show that you know what you’d focus on if you were to be selected for the role.

Look up your interviewer(s) on Linked In. Are there things about them you can connect with? Psychology tells us we warm to people we have something in common with. Do you have common acquaintances, did you go to the same university or have similar interests?

And always have some questions to ask. I hear far too many stories of candidates having been asked ‘do you have any questions?’, only to be met with a blank face and a no.

Through all of this, I suggest ‘recruiting’ a trusted friend, ex-colleague or partner to challenge and support you through the process (of course, you could also work with a coach). Use them to make sure that the role you want and your skills match, your CV is as good as it can be, that your longlist is extensive and, importantly, to keep on your case/support you through the dark days of job hunting. There will be highs but generally there will be many more lows, so you’ll need someone to sustain your energy through that process. Take time out. The need to find a job can be all consuming so give yourself frequent breaks to do something else.

Good luck. Keep the faith. That job you want is out there waiting for you.