The Secret to a Successful Job Search

I've been inundated lately with clients who have been laid off or terminated due to economic reasons. Several hiring managers I’ve talked to have said that for every open position, there are literally hundreds of applicants. The jobs that do exist are simply being flooded.

The interesting thing I’ve noted is that there are now a lot of people suddenly without employment who haven’t ever conducted a job search before or haven’t had to do so in a long time. A common refrain I hear is a bewildered, “Where do I start?”

So exactly what is the secret to a successful job search, given these market conditions? The key is laser-precise targeting.

Successful job searches begin with a three-legged stool approach:
Polished résumé + targeted job search + network, network, network = successful search

You can have one or two of these components, but your stool won’t be on solid ground and steady. Something is definitely missing. Each ‘leg’ of this framework is geared to compliment and solidify support of the other legs.

Polished résumé. Job seekers nowadays have to be relentless and fearless. Take the time to figure out where you should best spend your job search energies. Is it the field that you have the most expertise in? Or is it a new direction where you can leverage your skills sets? Whichever direction you choose, you have to be focused. No “one size fits all” résumé will do. Additionally, take the time to polish your résumé – either utilize web resources, check out a ‘how to’ book from the library, or hire a professional résumé writer to make sure your achievements and value proposition stand out to prospective employers.

Targeted job search. Just as you have focused your résumé into a specific area, this is where you match that document up to the jobs that fit that description. If you have multiple talents (and most people do), you might create several different versions of your résumé targeting different fields to reflect that varied background. But, the important thing is that you need to match apples to apples. You can’t be a teacher and suddenly apply for a pharmacy technician position utilizing your teaching background- it simply doesn’t translate. Understanding your target market for your focused résumé is critical!

Networking. Here’s a startling statistic: 70%. This is the percentage of people who find jobs through networking. What does that say to you? It should tell you that you need to get out of the house and start talking to people.

Here’s a quick list of ideas to get the ball rolling:

1. Volunteer – you can meet people, contribute to a cause and feel good. It’s a win-win situation
2. Trade association events – volunteer to help out with registration for a related industry conference- you’ll be meeting everyone at the registration counter
3. Networking events/luncheons – mingling at these events can open doors
4. Job support groups – find out and leverage existing contacts from others in your same situation- most job seekers are willing to share their Rolodexes in exchange for the same favor
5. Classes – you can meet other people and even find out about job leads
6. Online business networking- LinkedIn.com is just one great resource to find out who your contacts know to connect to people and jobs
7. Informational interviews – these can be set up through someone you know or else you can try the ‘cold-call’ route. Remember: You are trying to get information, not a job. Informational interviews can be incredibly insightful, and if you handle it well (send a thank you note afterwards), you might just also gain an internal advocate for you at that company!

Looking for a job is a full-time job, and again, in this marketplace, you will only be successful if you focus your effort on the three-pronged approach, and be relentless and fearless. Instead of marketing someone else’s product, you are now marketing your own commodity: YOU.

Biggest Failure of Job Applicants: Not Mentioning Their Accomplishments

In a recent survey, many professional résumé writers cited the failure to outline the quantification of job applicant accomplishments as the number one problem with the résumés that they see.

Instead of providing a list of job duties, it is now necessary to show your value to prospective employers by providing specific examples of your top-line achievements. Think in terms of actions and then results of the successful projects that you've completed or been involved with in a team setting.

Look at this way: Employers want to know what your value proposition is as a prospective employee. What is it that makes you stand out over all the other similarly qualified applicants? And more importantly, they use this information to asseess what you are going to do for them.

It boils down to three simple things: Employers want to know if you made a company money, saved them money or saved them time. Or, if you are in the non-profit sector, that usually translates into have you increased program services, made more people aware, or broadened your fundraising base?

The key is to always show the value in the work that you've done. You should always keep a list of your accomplishments- a running tab, so to speak. And for those positions that are retroactive, going over previous performance reviews are a good source to find out the top-line achievements that make you stand out from an employer's standpoint.

If you position yourself as someone who is capable of having a significant positive impact on a company's bottom line, you've just made yourself stand head and shoulders over the competition, which will likely get you noticed and into an interview.

Résumé Length: The Truth Hurts

You’ve spent your career being the A-list ‘go-to’ person in your department or company. Awards hang on your wall, and the company exec pops in to personally give you a ‘good job’ handshake every so often. You’re in good standing with an admirable track record.

Does your résumé reflect that?

Most people spend the majority of their résumé space citing a laundry list of what they did, rather than focusing on their accomplishments, and worrying about the length of the overall document. More importantly, they don’t effectively showcase their top-line value proposition to prospective employers.

When it is not uncommon for hiring managers to receive 100, 200 and even up to 500 résumés for each open position, communicating what makes you stand out is even more critical. And résumé length has everything to do with it. The devil is in the details, and in this case, the details have to be short, sweet and to the point.

Delivering a concise, value-laden résumé takes critical editing skills. Many people end up edging past two pages once the details start to flow. This is exactly the point where the red pen needs to come out and ruthless changes need to happen. One résumé writing expert recently announced that she is now down to a one-page résumé summary for executives, who are usually the ones who flow onto three pages. (!)

So how do you winnow your background into a tidy and clear illustration about your value to prospective employers?

You need to show what you are capable of doing, not what you’ve done on a daily level. To get to this point, the truth hurts as you begin the editing process. A good way of thinking about it is to frame your background the following way:

Action (what you did) + Results (what was the outcome to company) = your value to the prospective employer

Take off that one responsibility that you really enjoyed but didn’t produce results. Trim down extensive training and professional development classes that you’ve taken… leaving just the ‘cherry picked’ top-notch opportunities that are the most relevant to your background.

Train yourself to think about your background in terms of not what you did on a daily basis but what the overall results were to the company as a whole. Did you make them money? Save them money? Save them time? Or in the case of non-profit organizations… did you expand services? Make efficiency changes? Increase outreach and exposure?

By adopting this approach, you can drastically shorten your résumé but add focused power behind communicating what you offer to a potential employer.

It’ll have an amazing effect on your viability as a candidate, and you won’t be worrying about how long your résumé is at all.