Career

Steve’s Job Search 2012: A Blitz Works

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I lost my job right before a vacation.  I took some time to send out resumes before heading out to my suddenly-even-more deserved rest, then I hit the job search like the palm of a short but charismatic Lannister.

I hit all the job boards I could.  I burned hours upon hours telling everyone in my LinkedIn directory (who would want to know) about my job search.  I told my friends.  I rechecked my recruiter list.  I probably easily put 50 hours into the search or more in the first week alone.  Maybe more – I can’t honestly remember.

It worked.  I got an insane amount of resumes out as noted, and obviously got results.

A good blitz works for several reasons:

  1. It gets you out there pure and simple.  You might not sustain it, but it does saturate the market.
  2. It lets you evaluate your opportunities.  This is kind of like career echolocation, where you send out signals and see what happens.
  3. It gets some one-time or limited tasks just the heck out of the way so you can focus – like blitzing your contact network.
  4. It gets your name out there, so the chance for “pass alongs” increases with every contact you make.

#2 is one that’s not something I’ve heard people talk about much, so I want to emphasize it.  If you do a big, insane job search blitz, then at least you get a lot of signals back to evaluate your progress.

A blitz is also good as if you get good results then you get reinforced as well.  It’s a good way to keep yourself in good spirits.  If nothing else at least you can drown your panic in activity.

If you’re blitzing the job boards, do not just do the day you start or the last few days.  Go back as far as they can go so you catch up on any posts you can find.  It’s worth it – those positions are up there for a reason, and even if the job is filled, someone may still look at your resume!

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/

Steve’s Job Search 2012: Networking

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In my latest job search?  Yeah I did networking.

Yeah, I always emphasize networking.  What did I find out about networking in my latest job search?

Well, yes, it works.  You knew that.  Most of us know that.  I found that it works pretty well – I had several interviews due to networking, and all of them due to people reaching out to me due to past contacts.  As my job search geared up, I got lots of people helping my apply for jobs at their companies (though my results came so quick I had to let them down quick as well).

What did I do?  I took a weekend and wrote everyone I knew and told them my situation.  That took hours.  It was also worth it.

My advice:

  1. Be open about it. Tell them your situation, what you’re looking for, and where you’re looking for it.
  2. If you don’t know what you want or what you’re looking for, hold off until you do – it’ll just confuse things.
  3. Track and follow up with every person who replies, and review your conversations.
  4. When you do get a job, let people know (even if its a LinkedIn post or something).
  5. Find people who can refer you and see if they’ll refer others – after all, they may have some leads for friends of yours.

Networking’s effectiveness is, much like the use of job boards, also bounded by geographic area and connections.

There is also one, big, huge, enormous factor in Networking that I realized while doing my search, something I knew unconsciously, but now I *get* it:

The skills you develop in networking, the attitude of trying to connect, is just as important as any connections that you make.  When you interview, you’re networking, when you handle a rejection you’re networking.  You’re networking throughout the job search even if you don’t realize it.

That networking ability connects you with recruiters and interviewers.  That networking ability lets you turn a failure into a future interview.  That ability simply lets you connect.

That makes a huge difference.  I could see in my interviews that sheer connecting got me results.

So when you’re in an interview?  You’re still networking.  Remember that.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/

Steve’s Job Search 2012: Job Search Boards

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As noted, in May 2012, I lost my job – and found a new one in a few weeks.  This is part of my latest findings . . .

Despite what we’re often told, Job Search Boards do work.  If you use them right.  And you have the right skillet.  And live in the right area.  Which is a way of saying “they work kind of.”

Worse, as I have harped on before, they go through cycles of being useful.  For my profession Craigslist has become less useful, but Dice.com is mores.  In short, if you use job boards, I’d keep a list of good ones and check them now and then to see if they’ve gone bad – or gotten better.

So the real question is – do the damn job search boards work, or should I do all the networking everyone tells me about.

Well for me, I sent out a good 350 resumes, got about one solid lead for every 12 I sent out, and got to 3-4 “final rounds” (one of those is sort of debatable), and one definite offer that I took (terminating the process).   Not sure how far it would have gone otherwise, but from those numbers you can get an idea of what can be done in about 2.5 weeks.

Here’s what I found.

  1. If you live in a region/megaregion that has a lot of work (say, Silicon Valley, etc.) then job boards may not only be good, they may perform better than networking for results.
  2. If you’re willing to contract, then in most large regions you’ll have a lot of job board opportunities.
  3. You better have a good resume or cover letter because you will get lost in the shuffle.
  4. This does not work for every profession, and for others it’s better.  In Silicon Valley if you’re a PM with ERP or CRM experience, you can probably name your price.

 

So how do you leverage the job boards?

  1. Keep a list of them and find which ones work.  My personal favorite was Dice.com.
  2. Find scrapers like Indeed.com that scrape information from many sites – it also helps you find other job search sites.
  3. Do not rely entirely on Scrapers – they don’t cover everything
  4. Don’t waste time on these – mechanize and streamline the process, but don’t just apply

Job boards are one tool you can use – and if you’re in the right location, it may be an excellent one.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/