A complete guide to find your dream job in a smarter, funnier and more effective way

John Smith was very sad on that day. In the last 3 months, he sent around 100 job applications. He received only 2 answers despite having a top-notch CV in the industry he was looking into. What went wrong here?

Sounds like a bell? Well, you are not alone! Surprisingly or not, around 60-70% of people find a job through networking Vs the old method of "I see a job post and I do apply". Not that it does not work "per se", but sometimes there are a lot of factors at play from ATS (applicants tracking systems) to a significantly high number of applicants. On top of that, there are also recruiters who unfortunately could not care less about candidate experience. So that creates the need for conducting your job search in more effective ways.

You can use a lot of tools, but let's face it: LinkedIn just revolutionised the way we search for a job. Now you can easily anticipate trends and positions, connect in advance with relevant people and industries, write about interesting topics, and get noticed.

Your goal is to tap into TWO job markets:

• the surface job market: that is, when a position is already online and the recruiter is accepting candidates. This is the "visible job market", the one you can see from the job boards.
• the shadow job market: it happens when a position is not externally published yet but the manager is already seeking a candidate. There is no way to know which position is open. You have to build your way into it.

Is the shadow job market important? Absolutely! As mentioned above, several reports claim that up to 70% of job openings will never reach the surface job markets. Most of them will be filled through networking. Sometimes, these are the best positions.

Of course you need to tap in BOTH job markets, to cover 100% of the positions opened.

However, entering the shadow job market is necessary and will require much more proactivity and the right methodology. So, how can you tap into the shadow job market? To me, the best way is through LinkedIn. How? We will see it together.

"Ok so I jump and connect on LinkedIN"?

Stop! Do not do that...yet :). The very first step is defining who you are, what is your target, and what you stand for & experience (values and beliefs). You have to do this to get clarity on what you want and therefore target "less but more effective-for-you companies". You do NOT want to spam everyone in your network. So be crystal clear with yourself and be VERY specific.

An example could be the following:

• Name and Surname: John Smith
• Target: Seeking for a Head of Digital Marketing position, in a company between 5-800 people operating in the technological sector, located in Germany, with at least 3.5 score on Glassdoor and backed up by XYZ Venture capitalists.
• What do I stand for & experience: I believe, as it is grounded in my experience and achievements, in the power of digital platforms and technology to grow and scale the fastest digital department. I do believe creating a great team culture is essential to sustain the business, increases employee engagement and retention, and just make my job much more interesting.

"Ok I clarified what I want, now can I start searching on LinkedIn?"

You could indeed, but you need to check your CV first!

You need to make sure you build an "achievement-based" CV. In other words, your CV should be less about "I am responsible for X, Y, Z", and more like "I achieved A by doing B", where A is a quantifiable achievement and B is how you reached this achievement. Why you should write this kind of CV is a long matter that takes a long time to analyse, but if you need inspiration on HOW to do that I have just one article for you: My personal Formula for a Winning Resume. This for me is THE article to read. Full stop. It was written a few years ago by one of the people I admire most in the Tech industry, Laszlo Bock. The content here is as relevant today, and it is all that you need to get started and build your achievement based CV!

Make sure you will build the CV with at least the following sections:

• Contact information
• Summary
• Work Experience
• Other work experiences (for older positions, like the very first ones)
• Education
• Key Skills (Technical & Language)
• Extracurricular activities & Hobbies

Other tips:

• to have an idea about the visual style: you can type in Google Images "examples of achievement based CVs". You will have plenty of ideas to start with.
• for the sake of clarity, always use bullet points for each of your key messages.
• Make sure you do not skip the first and last sections mentioned above: an employer wants to know most of the time who you are at 360 degrees, so any information about you and what you are outside of work are pure gold!
• Make sure you use funnel logic for work experiences. Last experience gets the most of your bullet points. The older an experience is, the less bullet time it takes.
• Make sure you avoid generic expressions and skills. E.g. "Motivated", "energetic", "team player". Let your results and CV speak for you!
• As you write achievements, you will have minimal space for the "laundry list". What is the laundry list? A generic description of the tasks required for your old positions: "I was responsible for this...and this...and this". Recruiters do not need this information: they know what a position is like in terms of responsibilities. Instead of listing all of your responsibilities, write instead what you achieved: I achieved X by doing Y as measured by Z. This is what really matters.
• ALWAYS have a Cover Letter template ready. Cover letter are sometimes not required, but most of the time are a part of the application process. It is a deadly mistake not to have a template, which must be adapted for each individual application.

"Cool. I started to build the achievement based CV but I do not have "impact numbers" from my previous employers

Ok, then the solution is easy:

• Reach out to ex-managers (or colleagues or mentors) in your network. First, of course, ask them how they are doing and tell them you are trying to model out your impact in the organisations you worked for and their help would be so invaluable! As mentioned, colleagues or mentors that worked with you are also fine. They are an invaluable resource when you cannot reach out to your previous manager. So now you have identified who to contact. What's next?
• Ask for 15?minutes of their time, and set a video call with each of them (and pay for their coffee if you meet them in person!).
• Be open to all the feedback you will receive. Do not try to prove it or disprove it: just accept it.
• Write down all the feedback and impact data in a dedicated document.
• Now that you have your impacts, you can put them on your CV!

IMPORTANT: Remember to also add your achievements your extra-curricular activities and hobbies. Again, people want to know who you are: they want to know if you were the head of a professional organisations, and they also care if you achieved some professional results in Sports.

"Ok, I clarified what I want and I what I stand for. My CV is ready, ready to go...?"

Indeed. Just make sure you translated the key learning on the CV to your LinkedIn profile as well. You can look at mine for inspiration. Remember that your LinkedIn page is your "Landing Page". You can reach people all day, and you can maximise your visibility BUT if people land on your profile and do not see what they need to see: they will leave. It is like in Digital Marketing: do you have a bad landing page? Then you lost already a few clients.

Make sure your LinkedIn profile has these minimum requirements:

• It has an all-star status. You can find tons of articles on Google: "how to reach an all-star profile status on LinkedIn".
• You have a "killer" profile photo. Make sure it is of professional quality. Also, I think a smile tells a lot about the person.
• You need to have an outstanding Summary, just like on your CV. Your summary should tell at a glance who you are, what you stand for, your key achievements and Skills. Like on a CV, skip the generic terms ("Enthusiastic, "performance-driven", "motivated"), and go to numerical overall achievements and what you specifically believe in.
• Your job experiences, similar to your CV, need to be achievement-based instead of responsibility based.
• You have relevant LinkedIn Recommendations and a set of validated Skills.

"You were right. LinkedIN is perfect and people are starting to flock on my profile!"

This is what likely will happen. And now it is where your core strategy starts. Here is a list of things you have to do:

• Based on your "clarification exercise" which you did at the very beginning of this article: you have now to identify the target companies you want to work for.
• You might want to go to their LinkedIn page, become a follower and ideally activate their job alert.
• For each company, you should identify 1-3 key people to contact. Key people should mirror your desired target job. Ideally, they could be a potential colleague, the hiring manager or the manager above the hiring manager.
• for each person, check in your network if you have a connection in common and ask politely for an introduction.
• If you cannot get introduced, then please do your research on the person and write them a personalised InMail. Remember, if you ask for 10 minutes of their time then you should spend +10 minutes of your time researching the person. The mail therefore should be personal, it should reference something you liked in the background of the person (genuinely) and simply ask for 10 minutes of their time. Please do not beg for a job, nor do a very long presentation of yourself nor attach the CV. This is not going to work. Need inspiration on how to write an effective InMail? There are plenty of resources online, but I found this article absolutely inspiring and well made: https://cultivatedculture.com/how-to-get-a-job-anywhere-no-connections/
• You must be genuinely interested in the company AND the person you are writing to, and that really means spending time on understanding more about their background.

"Wow, so many people and companies. I am gonna get lost!"

No, you will not :)

You have to write down all of your progress in a tracker. I built one for you for inspiration: Company Tracker. The tracker is of fundamental importance to give you a sense of progress and see where you are getting the most success.

Also do not get discouraged if people do not answer. First, remember: you might contact 1-3 people in a company (no more!). As general principle use these follow-up rules:

• lack of answer after the 1st mail: try again in one week
• lack of answer after 2nd mail: try again in one month
• lack of answer after 3rd mail: this is ok, move on!

Also, check if your InMail message is good enough. Is it too aggressive? Does it beg for something? Find some really good friends in your network to revise the InMail for you.

"Ok results are coming and this method is indeed so much more rewarding....for everybody! But what about if I want to know more about it?

Ok, we are at the end of the articles: I hope I could give you the right set of principles and techniques. If you need to know more about the HOW, you can also check my article on How highly successful people do networking. The article will give PLENTY of tips and tricks on how to reach effectively people.

Questions?

Feel free to reach me out on LinkedIn. Depending on my time, I always try to do my best and help people out!