Getting your butt in the interview chair

“The doors will be opened to those who are bold enough to knock.” - Tony Gaskins

Below is a general outline for having more meaningful conversations about new opportunities and expanding the number of opportunities you’re aware of and/or able to discuss. This method varies slightly depending on what you do for a living but is a good overall blueprint.

I hear from candidates regularly:

• “I have a friend who works at XYZ company and I’ve reached out to them, waiting to hear back, but they’ve not been very helpful”
• “I applied to XYZ job and haven’t heard anything”
• “My recruiter sucks”

Have you said any of these things?

What’s the problem with these methods?

1. Your network might not know you (or like you) as much as we think they do
2. (At least) 2 problems with the application process

•  This list is long
• Number of applicants can overwhelm a company
• It’s estimated that as many as 70% of jobs are not posted. 

What now?

I’ve seen candidates have success following my methodology within the job market.

• Apply to jobs
• Identify a company you want to work for
• Make new connections in your field

Where most everyone falls short is they follow one step in the job search process for each particular position. You apply to Job A, talk to your friend about Job B, and send one email to someone you went to college with about Job C. It’s a combination of these efforts, for the same position.

How do you do this?

LinkedIn is a primary, and probably the easiest or most cost-effective tool to identify employees at a company. 

If you’re researching people at a company because of a job posting or you’re aware of an opportunity: You want to look for people at this particular company, starting with who the position might report to, do some research, and then work your way back from there. The person who the job reports to is critical for two reasons, 1. They are the person with the pain because the position is vacant, and 2. They are most likely the decision maker. In addition to finding this person, you should look at reaching out to three people at a company where you can identify some connection to that person, for an Engineering Manager position, you might look for a Director of Engineering, other people within Engineering, and perhaps even someone in HR.

If you’re looking at a company that might not have a position posted (it’s estimated 70% of jobs aren’t), you again are going to want to search for people in the company that are most relevant to you, for example, someone you might report to, someone within your field, someone from the same college, etc. Mention this similarity when you send the person a connection request.

Once you’ve found these relevant individuals, you’re going to want to start a campaign to connect with them, this starts with a personalized connection request and take your communication from there. Connecting with these individuals provides multiple advantages to you.

1.    It provides that individuals contact information, outside of LinkedIn – lot of people are not on LinkedIn regularly so sending them an email has advantages.

2.    It expands your network, in other words, all of their connections now become a “2nd connection” which gives you more access. Additionally, if you have a phone call with this individual, or do actually know them, you can now send invitations to their connections.

When sending the connection request, you want to personalize and compliment. 

• Please send me an email or LinkedIn message if you'd like some examples

2-3 days after connection, send a follow up message via LinkedIn again complimenting the individual, mentioning a similarity, and your reason for reaching out. Ask for time to make an introduction, ideally over the phone, and then make your introduction, attempting to gain relevant information.

What is relevant? Depends on who you’re talking to.

If it’s the hiring manager or potential hiring manager, you are wanting to find out more about the company and the position and what they’re looking for or if they’re hiring at all. This would be a person that if you’re speaking with, you better know what they’re looking for and how your experience lines up. Research this information prior to this call. If you waste this person’s time it’s over, scratch this opportunity or company off your list.

If it’s a peer to this position or someone else within department, ask questions about a person’s experience there, if they’re adding to their team and if so how the position being vacant is affecting them, try an understand the org chart and most importantly, who the vacant position reports to.

If it’s HR, somewhat similar to others within the same department, but maybe also the proper process to follow to land an opportunity with their company.

What happens when you follow this process? You’re going to eliminate the black hole of the application process, find out about opportunities that aren’t posted online, and start to have meaningful conversations with the right people about new opportunities!

Good luck and let me know how it goes or if you have questions! [email protected]