Job Search Lesson 11 - work with a career coach or someone you can bounce ideas off

If there was one thing that helped me land a new job, it was engaging a career coach.

The particular gentleman that I worked with, who I'm going to call Gary, was able to provide technical advice in the following job search areas:

• self and career analysis, 
• job search techniques (e.g. gaining access to unadvertised roles),
• standing out from the crowd,

Job Search Lesson 10 – enthusiastic candidates are more likely to get jobs

As is likely obvious, searching for a job can be frustrating and/or tiring and/or depressing... and perhaps what is most frustrating, is that the more frustrated / tired / depressed you get, the lower your chances are of actually getting a job.

In response to this situation, I was going to write a post on ways to keep your spirits up and to show people that you’re enthusiastic about getting a job – especially as I have previously blogged about enthusiasm.

After a quick Google search however, I realized that it would be pointless for me to write another article on the subject, as I don’t think I could do a better job than than Priscilla Claman did in her article in the Harvard Business Review Blog Network: Don’t let your job search depress you.

So instead, I highly recommend that step away from my blog for a moment to read the article as it’s got some great lessons worth sharing.

Job Search Lesson 9 – develop a 30 second commercial / elevator pitch

When you’re conducting informational interviews or networking more broadly, it pays to have a "30 second commercial" / "elevator pitch" prepared. This will ensure that you make the right first impression in networking situations as well as ensuring that you have an excellent answer to the interview question “tell me about yourself”.

I’ve recorded my recommendations on what you should include in your elevator pitch below, as well as an example response. I recommend tailoring your 30 second commercial to your audience. For example, you might want to be more or less precise in “what you want to do next” depending on who you’re talking to. Perhaps even importantly however, is to keep your introduction succinct!

Job Search Lesson 8 – using LinkedIn to find contacts to interview

LinkedIn is an excellent tool for identifying people to have an informational interview with. I know that when I was searching for contacts, I used the Advanced People Search tool extensively.

I began by searching for contacts in my network with the specific job title (including any derivatives) that I was interested in. For example, when I wanted to work in Brand Management, I searched for “Brand Manager” OR “Brand Management” OR “Marketing Manager”. Note: using the quotation marks around words returns that exact phrase. Using the OR operator, returns results with any of the items you listed (as opposed to ALL of the items you listed).

Job Search Lesson 7 - who to target for informational interviews

In my earlier post on the topic, I recommended that you first conduct informational interviews with friends of yours who work in the field that you’re interested in. If you ask the right questions and do the right follow-up, you should be able to tee up informational interviews with your friends-of-friends… then their friends...and so on.

But who else should you target for informational interviews?

Here’s a brief list of people I reached out to when I was looking to change careers… feel free to suggest others!

People to target for informational interviews

• Friends
• Friends of friends

Job Search Lesson 6 – keep track of your networking activities

As you conduct informational interviews and network to uncover unadvertised roles, I recommend that you develop a system for keeping track of your networking activities.

I approached this by taking notes just after I’d completed an informational interview while the material was still fresh in my mind. I then populated a table much like the one below. 

That way I always knew when I’d met with someone, what I’d taken away from the meeting, who had introduced me to them and whether I had done the appropriate post-informational interview follow-up.

Job Search Lesson 5 – post-informational interview follow-up

Step 1 - Within 24 hours of your informational interview send a thank-you email to your contact. Not only does this show the appropriate amount of appreciation for the time and expertise they provided, but it’s also a useful reminder for them to put you in touch with their contacts.

Here’s how I might word the thank-you note:

Subject line

Thanks for your time

Job Search Lesson 4 – preparing for an informational interview

So you've teed up an informational interview and now you need to prepare.

First of all I recommend pulling together a list of questions that you want to know the answers to. Here are some thought starters to build your knowledge:

1. Would you please tell me a little about your role / what areas you’re responsible for?

2. What about your job history, what roles did you have previously?

3. What skills do you required succeed in your role?

4. What are the main challenges in your role?

5. What are the typical career paths after your role?

6. What do you like most / least about your role?

7. How is your success measured?

Job Search Lesson 3 – organizing informational interviews

In my last post I recommended that you build your network and knowledge base by conducting informational interviews.

When teeing up an interview, I recommend that you send an email to your contact asking for a half-hour coffee catch-up or phone conversation. Half an hour is about the right amount of time as it's short enough that most people are happy to spare the time to meet with someone to chat about their career and long enough to gain some really useful information.

Job Search Lesson 2 – conduct informational interviews

In my last post I recommended that you spend half of the time you set aside for job searching, on roles that never get advertised.

One of the key activities in this regard is conducting Informational Interviews, where the objective is to learn about roles, requirements and industries… while building your network.

Job Search Lesson 1 – focus on both advertised positions and “unadvertised” positions

I recently changed jobs, moving into a different function, within a different industry. This was no small feat and something that business school careers councilors advise against.

Going through this process and working with the careers councilors at my MBA school, I learned a great deal about successful job hunting.

Over the next few posts I will share with you those lessons.

The first lesson you should learn is that a significant number of roles never get advertised and you should split your time between advertised roles and “unadvertised” roles. As a guide, I recommend spending about half of your job search time on “unadvertised” roles.

A question you may well ask is “if roles are never advertised, how do I find out that a role even exists?”… and the short answer is networking.

I've already described the attitude that you should approach networking with, but read my next few posts for specific networking tactics for job seekers.