Being proactive about your job search

Recruiting good people is difficult. It's not much better than chance. Indeed the correlation between successful interview and job performance is 0.3. Those of you who understand coefficients of correlation will admit at least it's positive but we have a long way to go to ensure that every hire is going to a successful employee.

 

So here's the thing. Most people don't use the obvious route. I estimate that if you apply to a job advertisement there is a 10% chance of being successful provided you meet the specification. Most people who apply don't meet the specification and are therefore wasting their time.  I estimate an application via a jobs board has a 5% chance and a cold call or unsolicited email less than a 2% chance.

 

How about we look at this problem from the perspective of the recruiter. I have a role to fill. My first step would be to appoint someone who has already worked for me. Failing that why not ask someone I trust for a recommendation.

 

The proactive job search takes this principle of getting a recommendation and approaching the point of purchase (the person with the power to hire you), using a recommendation from a mutual contact.  Imagine a spreadsheet. On the left hand side are target organisations. Those with the propensity to hire people with your skill set and from your perspective, those organisations who have the culture and characteristics you know you do well in. Secondly, using LinkedIn and Google, you identify the point of purchase. Lastly, you try to find out as much as you can about them, where they have worked previously, their interests, etc. Turning to the right hand side of your spreadsheet, you list your network. Remember - your network has 4 sources. These are people you have worked with, former clients, suppliers and professional peers. You will need a network of at least 250 people. The trick is to make a connection between someone who knows you and the point of purchase. It may be necessary to make several connections before reaching the end point of the point of purchase.

 

The key is to use recommendations in your network to build contacts in your target organisations. There will not always be opportunities. However, each introduction allows you to build a network. This approach works best when you approach networking from the perspective of adding value to those in your network.  If you have a healthy balance sheet of people who owe you a favour, introductions are easy to achieve. This approach to job seeking allows you to target organisations and get introductions via a mutual contact.  Clearly there is no guarantee you will get a job, but working on the premise that we like to hire people we can trust, or hire people whose recommendations we trust, it is a better approach than applying to advertisements.

 

Think about it.