Revamping your job search strategy (MSNBC)
Posted: 01 Mar 2010 05:01 AM PST
Stephen Cobain was laid off from his executive position at a major Pittsburgh financial services company in December of 2008 and spent nearly a year looking for a job with little to show for it.
"I was doing all the things everyone tells you to do," he said. "I prepared my resume, wrote letters, contacted recruiters, looked on all the job boards, responded to 400 positions and maybe sent out 1,500 résumés."
It all led to no job, just frustration.
Until this past Thanksgiving, when his always-supportive wife stunned him by saying: "You must accept the fact that you're doing something wrong."
"My reaction was to say, 'I think I'm doing everything right. The right thing will come along,' " Cobain recalled. "And her response to me was, 'It hasn't come along yet.' "
It's hard to hear this type of criticism, especially when you feel you're doing everything in your power to land a job. And clearly, most job seekers have a great excuse right now — a crummy economy.
But if you've been job searching for months with few tangible results, it may be time to take a hard look at yourself in the job-hunter's mirror.
A change of strategy
That's just what Cobain did.
Instead of wearing pajamas, he started dressing in a suit every day to go to his home office. He stopped searching the job boards. He hired a financial services placement firm and a career coach.
The placement firm led to just one phone call back from an employer. However, he said the career coach he found through Guerrilla Job Search International helped him focus his search. The coach aided him in revamping his résumé, taking it from three and a half pages to one page, and ditching the job-chronology format for a list of his major career accomplishments. The coach also advised him to target an assortment of companies he would like to work for even if they had no advertised job openings.
"I mailed out 10 résumés, got eight interviews and got three job offers," he said.
Today, he starts his new job as senior vice president for a financial services firm in Pittsburgh.
New networking approach
Valentina Janek has been looking for work for nine months since she was laid off from her job as chief marketing officer for an investment company on Long Island.
Janek is a consummate networker, and even started a networking group for the unemployed called the Long Island Breakfast Club, which now has more than 800 members. But she recently realized she needed to start networking with top executives of companies, not just hiring managers or administrative people.
"My newest strategy is to meet every president I can. Go from the top down," she said, with a goal of meeting five company executives a month.
She's gotten herself invited to corporate functions and political events where business leaders are in attendance. "I went to an awards event where a president was the honoree," she said. "I bought him a book and gave it to him there and got his business card." As a result, she landed several interviews at the company.
While she didn't get the job and is still looking for one, she said the new approach reignited her job search.
