Job Seekers: 5 Tips for Your Job Search

As a headhunter, I get DM'd all the time by people from all over the world who see my posts and knowledge in the recruitment/job search field as a headhunter need help to explore new options.

This is the article I want you to read as it's 99.9999% likely to be the case that I am not the right headhunter for you since my market is so niche. Read this article to get the answers you're seeking!

Here are 5 tips job-seekers should do to actually land a job:

1. ONLY reach out to people in your NICHE or field.

Recruiters (internal recruiters and headhunters alike) are highly specialized. Someone who recruits for accountants in DC will not have jobs for engineers in Colorado!

Instead of wasting your own time mass emailing/LinkedIn messaging people (potentially landing yourself into the "report spam" bucket), only reach out to people who CLEARLY recruit for your niche or field.

This is easily done by clicking on their profile and evaluating the information they have on their LinkedIn profile page. Take this extra step to make sure you're reaching out to the right people & use an Excel sheet to document everything.

This is a process called market mapping that professional headhunters do to similarly evaluate the roles available in a market and who may be of relevance to contact. Your odds of response will be greatly higher if you actually focus narrowly.

STORY TIME:

As a headhunter, it's shocking how many people reach out to me without even bothering to look at what I recruit for.

Then when I tell them that I don't recruit for their sector, they can't even bother clicking on my LinkedIn profile or check out my website. Instead, they ask "what do you recruit for then?"

This is a terrible habit!

It's lazy, it's inefficient, and it's immature. Instead, curate the right workflow: do the work yourself, click on links, procure answers yourself using the internet, and conduct yourself appropriately in order to increase your odds of being taken seriously to actually get the help you want from people.

2. Headhunters likely will not be able to help you.

If you're in a "help, I don't have a job" and/or "I'm curious to see what's out there" situation, you have to do some serious research to see if headhunters even service your market vertical or not.

There are some fields that headhunters support heavily, and some niches where headhunters do not touch.

Do some research here on which agencies work in the space and if you can't find any, either work directly with hiring managers or HR people/internal recruiters.

You can try to prospect headhunters and see if you qualify for representation but understand that they usually service fields where candidates are extremely scarce and they're also very specialized and limited to their clients' needs and requirements (senior positions most likely, no entry-level hiring).

Best thing to do about this issue is this:

Ask questions, be friendly, leverage people if you can get hold of them, be eager to prospect new people. Ask your friends/network in the space if there are any reputable headhunters that serve the space.

BONUS TIP: Don't ask/rely on headhunters for referrals. Most headhunters don't know other headhunters in their space nor can guarantee their quality of service. You're better off vetting people out yourself directly.

3. Reach out to hiring managers directly.

Instead of waiting for portal submissions to find you through complicated algorithms and/or HR people/internal recruiters who either are likely on vacation or just too overwhelmed by reachouts, skip the line and go DIRECTLY TO THE HIRING MANAGER.

This means:

If you see a job posted at XYZ company in the accounting department, reach out to the manager, senior manager, AND/OR director of accounting in the company and solicit them directly. You can find their emails online (not hard to do), test it if you must (just try different email formats until you get it right), or just used good ol' LinkedIn messaging.

Add the contacts, message them/Inmail them, and notate your actions in your Excel sheet. Write short notes to introduce yourself and try to get them to get on a call with you. Attach your resume and iterate why XYZ firm is so interesting to you.

Then, update your excel sheet and follow up the next week. Keep organized!

4. Take complete ownership of your own job search process.

Remember this in job search: nobody owes you jack.

You may have messaged someone but they either ignored the note or missed it.

Do not give up or lose hope due to setbacks. Just. Keep. Going. Re-message them, follow up, systematize this process & edit your Excel sheet accordingly.

Job search is a skill, process, and system. Some people like us (headhunters) know this process inside and out. It's a highly manual process that requires a LOT of go-getter energy, persistence, and hard work to break through the noise to success.

You have to have an accountability-only mindset with thick skin to chase, get after people, and procure opportunities for yourself.

In job search, good things don't come to those who wait - good things come to people who fight really hard for something.

It's not enough to just show up and go through the motions. You have to really care and put your full self into the job search process.

This requires an entire mindset shift from feeling like you deserve help and support to procuring it yourself.

BEWARE: If you need/want coaching, be prepared to pay for it. Be careful who you engage though! Anything that sounds too easy "30 days I get you a job or your money back" is clearly a lie/scam/con. Ultimately, there is no way to outsource job search as much as the liars try to sell you that it's possible.

5. Do not take anything personally.

Corporate recruiters aren't liable to get back to you. Headhunters may not want to represent you. You likely can be prepared to receive crickets from 80-99% of the actions/messages/submissions you make.

This doesn't mean the world is personally out to get you. Heck, it doesn't even mean your resume is poorly written!

It just means you need to reach out to more people and/or write better messages so switch it up and try new formats (again where coaching with truly reputable pros can help).

Don't get bogged down by disappointments. Stay on track with your research, your systematized reachout strategy, your time allocated to this process, and chasing people.

Invest in your communication skills, practice your "tell me about yourself" and behavioral interview spiels. Tune into my free podcast for more coaching on these topics.

Stay busy, and keep on keeping on! One extra opportunity is one extra opportunity to practice and enhance your job search process and interview skills.

Closing Note:

It's YOUR job to get yourself a job. If you have the courage to understand and embrace this concept, you WILL find a job.

This is the mindset that breeds success not only to find a job but to keep a job and thrive in a job.

It's your responsibility to put in the grind, take charge, and leverage people in the process accordingly. Don't waste their time and don't waste your own. Job search intentionally and your results will be much better than a "spray and pray" method so many job-seekers use.

Dandan is a headhunter for headhunters at DG Recruit , career coach, and real estate & recruitment entrepreneur. If you want career coaching, inquire for coaching rates here .