Job Hunting Directives from Knock 'em Dead

This is the book that taught me that like anything else, job searching is a skill. It can be learned and honed. 

Job searching is a personal sales campaign.

1. The goal is to get into as many conversations as quickly and as often as possible with the people who can hire you
2. Send between two and ten personal emails each day. Balance between responses to job postings, identified contacts within target companies, headhunters, and misc. networking contacts. Track this metric religiously.
3. Generate as many interviews as possible in a two- to three-week period. You improve your interviewing skills by getting many reps in. Also, the first offer (even from a company you don’t wish to work for) can be leveraged to speed everyone else up.

Get Knock ’em Dead: The Ultimate Job Search Guide by Martin Yate.

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[H] Knock ’em Dead: The Ultimate Job Search Guide by Martin Yate

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Wed, Oct 23, ’19

Job searching is a personal sales campaign.

1. The goal is to get into as many conversations as quickly and as often as possible with the people who can hire you
2. Send between two and ten personal emails each day. Balance between responses to job postings, identified contacts within target companies, headhunters, and misc. networking contacts
3. Generate as many interviews as possible in a two- to three-week period. You improve your interviewing skills by getting many reps in. Also, the first offer (even from a company you don’t wish to work for) can be leveraged to speed everyone else up.

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My Highlights

Step #2 Collect Job Postings Collect a half-dozen job postings for your chosen primary target job;

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Interviewers are fond of asking you questions about the following: 

• Things that didn’t work out well (but did in the end) 

• Things that didn’t work out well ever, and what you learned 

• Unpopular decisions you have had to make 

• How you developed new processes (because existing ones didn’t work or weren’t efficient) 

• How you improved something that was already working well 

• How you fixed something that was broken

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In fact, the TJD (Target Job Description) process we discussed should play a twice-yearly role in your ongoing career guidance strategy, both for maintaining employability and for pursuing professional growth.

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Twice a year, collect half a dozen job postings for the job you have now and the job you would likely pursue in the event of an unexpected layoff. Review these job postings for the skills employers are seeking. You should consider adding any skill you do not have to your professional skill development program. If the skill is relevant to your work, employers will often support you in acquiring it.

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TJD (Target Job Description)

How to Organize Your Job Search and Career Management Database 

It is important for your career that you build and maintain a career management database: Keep folders for target companies and your contacts within them, and the same for your contacts within recruitment firms. You might choose to add a Job Leads folder; into this you can put all the job postings you develop. You can add folders that contain contact info for both your on- and offline networking activities.

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Additions to these groups can be made at any time; when you see recruiters who work in your industry, put them in the appropriate folder. You’re creating a vehicle for launching a massive career blitz tomorrow or four years from now. Organize yourself to capture information today that you can use throughout your work life.

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If you are just starting a job search, build the information in these folders and beware of applying for jobs with these “super-desirable” employers right away, even when you have networking contacts who can open doors for you.

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the focus of your job search is always to get into conversations as quickly and as often as possible with the people who can hire you.

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Your identified target market should include every company within the geographic boundaries of your job search who could possibly hire someone like you.

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The primary goal of your job search every day is to identify and get into a conversation with anyone who holds any of these target titles at any and every company in your target location.

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You should maintain a balance between the number of written pitches you send out on a weekly basis and the types of people to whom they are sent. Start off with a balanced email and mailing campaign, and your phone follow-ups can maintain equilibrium too.

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Try to send between two and ten emails and letters each day addressed to someone by name and spread across each of the following areas: 

• In response to job postings 

• To the contacts you identify within target companies 

• To headhunters 

• To miscellaneous networking contacts

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It has been said that in order to gain that next job it takes on average twenty-five conversations with men or women who have the authority to hire you.

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Make every effort to get into conversations with decision makers with hiring authority and sooner or later you will get that job offer.

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The recommended approach is to generate as many interviews as possible in a two- to three-week period. Interviewing skills are learned and consequently improve with practice.

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