Tell Me Your Job Searching Techniques

In My Humble Opinion
1

Perhaps there’s nothing new under the sun here. But, what are your job searching techniques? How do you manage your job search to keep your sanity? Naturally, I set up search agents where I can. Some sites do not allow search agents, or only save very broad criteria. So, routing through search results (if not hunting down my own results) is very time consuming. I also hit the headhunter websites and employer websites. Yet, I often feel I am spread too thin and spinning my wheels getting nowhere.

So, I am curious to hear advice from others. What tricks or shortcuts do you have to make the job search manageable? How do you make your rounds?

2

I gave up years ago. All my talent and beauty are going to waste drunk lumberjacking.

And, No. That’s not what I mean.

3

It seems like I’m a damn pro at job seeking because of so many terrible things…

That being said, I basically just went to Indeed and went from there. I don’t trust Monster and Career Builder is ok, but for the most part they feed into Indeed anyway.

I tried to get into agencies when I could too. I don’t fully understand how they work because they would always yell at me for applying to the same job with different agencies (as if I have a choice! I’m desperate here…) but I’ll have those every once in a while. I’ve gotten one job from them in my past, so they aren’t TOTALLY useless…

I tell you what though, my number one problem with job searching is what I was doing when I WASN’T job searching. I felt like any time I wasn’t on a job board I was wasting time, or doing something that I “didn’t deserve” (like reading or paying attention to the TV). I had to break myself of this habit because, honestly, there are only SO many jobs out there and once you’ve seen them it’s all there is.

The best technique is to just keep your head up and keep trying.

4

I’ve found the big search sites (Monster, LinkedIn, even Indeed) are almost impossible to succeed at finding a job because of how many people use them and apply.

Perhaps looking for job sites that cater to your particular area (non-profit job sites for your state/area, municipal league, engineering jobs, church jobs, teaching jobs, etc).

5

I saved an article that said it may be better to search for the hiring manager, then SNAIL MAIL your resume to them. It gets in front of a real person and past the automatic computer screening software.

I’ve about given up. I unfollowed all of the search agents because they weren’t helpful (one kept pushing buying a franchise on me).

6

When I was helping my husband job search, I found it useful to keep up with the changing nomenclature. It seemed like every year or so, they’d invent a new term to describe his job. Here are a few terms which all mean the same thing, and I had to expand my search terms to use every one of them:

Space Planning
Occupancy Planning
Site Planning
Workplace Planning
Facilities Planning
Move Add Change Coordinator

Luckily he got a job, as I’m sure that nowadays the job term has yet again changed to something else.

7

I can’t imagine that this would actually work because I would think that managers can’t be bothered with reading an actual resume that came out of the blue. They would much rather have the computer ones that have already eliminated things like years of experience and key words.

I remember my mom always wanted me to put on suit and walk into the front door of places with a resume in hand. I would always tell her “If I did that they would just tell me to apply online”. I would be that this is the same deal.

8

I have a resume online that I update. I just flip it to “visible” and wait 24 hours. Then I pick the job I want. Sometimes I’ve left it up for 3 or 4 days, but the first guys usually won’t wait that long for me to make a decision, so that’s about as long as I can stall. I don’t really know what you mean about keeping your sanity. What drives you insane about it?

9

Here’s a method that worked when I wanted to break into a new industry. Requires a bit of prep and phone work, but I got 10 interviews before I had to fill out a single application.

I was looking to break into a new industry, business consulting. Instead of looking for BC jobs, I put together a list of 25 firms and people who do business consulting here in San Antonio, including names, titles, phone numbers, and Linked-in profile address.

I called every one of them going down the list, saying the following (condensed)

“Good afternoon, is Jinx there?”
“Jinx is in his office. May I help you?”
“Of course. My name is JohnT and I was calling Jinx to ask him about his experience in business consulting. I see that he is a 20-year expert in Lean Six Sigma and, thinking about going into business consulting myself, I wanted to talk to an expert who ‘isn’t’ (be sure to emphasize this, kind of looking for relief) trying to sell me some classes. Would I be able to get 10 minutes on Jinx’s calendar, please?”
“Let me put you through.”

“Hello?”
“My name is JohnT - do I have you at a bad time?”
“No, I got a couple of minutes.”
“Thank you very much - this will not take long. I was calling to set up a time for an interview about your experiences in business consulting. I am thinking about going into business consulting myself, and before I took the plunge and made the commitment to spend money on classes, I wanted to talk to an expert, like yourself, about what this job entails and what it takes to be a success. I have about 10 questions I can ask now, or if you prefer, I can call you back after the work day.” (and you better have 10 questions prepared in case Jinx says “Sure, go ahead.”)

Most of the time, they’ll be glad to talk to you. Some won’t, but don’t worry about that.

Here’s what happens during that informational interview: Jinx starts asking me questions. “Why do you want to do this?” “What’s your background?” “What do you know about the XYZ industry?”

If you know what you’re doing, and you’re prepared (Linked-In, research in Jinx’s company), you can recognize these as potential buy signals, so be sure to tailor your answers to what you’ve learned in the interview and Linked-In page. The goal is to make Jinx interested in you, so that he starts thinking “well, maybe we can use JohnT. Let’s at least get him in here for a formal interview.”

Whatever you do, resist the temptation to have a long phone call with Jinx (sorry). You are always better off keeping it short and securing a face-to-face in the future.

So… how did it work for me?

25 Business consultants
15 Contacted
10 Interviews
7 Progressions where they started interviewing me
4 2nd interviews
2 Offers
2 Jobs

I cast a wide net and caught some fish. This technique probably won’t work if you want a specific job in a specific company, but it can work if you’re looking for a type of job offered by multiple organizations.

10

The union I’m a member of have job listings on their website. I’m not looking, but that is how i keep informed as to what is out there. I also occasionally check specific company websites.

11

I would suggest, also, getting off the computer. It seems like you’re working, but you’re not really making any progress.

Also, don’t talk to HR people. HR people don’t have staffing needs, they fulfill staffing needs. So if you’re a welder and want a welding job, don’t talk to HR, talk to the floor chief.

Sir T-Cup’s mom doesn’t have a bad idea, but it shouldn’t be a resume you hand over, but a simple business card. And before you walk in, you should know (via Linked-In) who you want to ask for:

“May I help you?”
“Yes, I’m Sir T-Cups. I was wondering if you could give this…” (hand him your card) “… to Susan McLellon.”
“Oh, may I ask what this is about?”
“I was looking to get into marketing and, before I spend the money on classes, I wanted to talk to some top marketing people in the <whatever> industry about their experiences. That would be Susan, and so I just wanted to introduce myself and see if she had some pointers. If you could give her my card, I could call her tonight or tomorrow morning and ask her some questions.”
“OK. You might want to call after 4:30 - that’s when her last meeting is scheduled to end.”

(The above works at smaller businesses and organizations, where the person you’re talking to and the person you’re seeking likely interact every day. For large corporations, forget doing this. But if you’re the type of person who doesn’t mind walking in and introducing yourself, by all means try. You’re at least talking to real people, as opposed to some website. )

12

I used to do that to myself, too, then I realized: job searching is a job, and when was the last time I had 100% occupation at work? It does happen but it’s not what’s normal - neither would it be normal when I’m working at looking for a job.
Nowadays most of my jobs come from LinkedIn, but sometimes I do hit IT-specific boards, in part as a sort of “market study”. One of my brothers has gotten all his jobs except one from friends (and that one was from his school; the employers called them asking for “a recent graduate that’s local to us”), but then, he refused to send his resume to wanted ads, use the boards and so forth: “jobs only come from friends” is, in his case, a self-fulfilling prophecy. The other brother has gotten all his jobs from wanted ads in our local newspaper.

13

Past history of mine shows that this only kinda-sorta works.

I’ve used this method twice and one time it got me a super-duper temporary freelance gig, the other time it got me an interview that didn’t end up working out for me.

So I guess this works? The problem I see with that method too is “Wow it took a lot to call me like this, you’d be great in our sales department!” To which I have to say “No, I hate sales.” 'Tis a bit of a double-edged sword.

14

I wouldn’t call it advice, but when I’m looking for a job I pretty much just use Indeed.com for general searches. I might use LinkedIn to spread the word that I’m looking, but I haven’t used it for job postings (yet). I’ll also search the “careers” site of any specific company I’m interested in working for.

Whenever I apply for a job, I take a screen shot of the job posting and I email it to myself – along with any file that I may have attached to the application (e.g., a tailored cover letter). I keep those emails in a “Job Search” folder, so I can easily reference the description/requirements if I hear from a recruiter. Any emails I get about an application also go in that folder (I make notes about phone conversations and send them to myself). Doing that not only keeps me organized in terms of which companies I’ve already applied to and for what positions, but it also helps me keep track of timelines: I know when I applied for a certain job, when I heard from the recruiter, etc.

While I’m interviewing, I also use “Not Interested In Them” and “Not Interested in Me” subfolders. If an interview doesn’t work out, I move all related emails and notes to the appropriate folder so that the main “Job Search” folder only contains active applications.

In my industry (federal contracting), I can’t imagine ever being able to identify the hiring manager. You’d be lucky to be able to find the name of the recruiter! :slight_smile: Unless you know someone who works in the same part of the same company, you’re much better off just filling out the online application.

Likewise, the walk-in strategy wouldn’t really work around here. At least, not for the work that I do. Like many things, advice in that area depends on your industry and the type of job you’re interested in.

15

I work in the Pharmaceutical industry and I mainly learn about positions from agencies contacting me. I’ve been doing contract work lately so I’ve applied through a lot of agencies and I’m on a lot of lists. They’re always calling so If I’m looking for work I’ll return their calls. I also look through Indeed and the job postings of companies I think I’d like to work for. I have gotten interviews that way. I keep a list of companies I’ve applied to and when because managers don’t like it when people apply for a position through multiple agencies even if it’s by accident, and of course agencies don’t like it and it leads to a lot of confusion.

16

What site are you using for your resume? What type of work do you do? Or are you just here to brag?

17

The problem with agencies, and especially agencies who are posting to Monster, Indeed, Dice, etc, is that often, many of them will post the same job, but only one of them actually has a deal with the employer to present candidates.

The others have copied the original agency’s job posting and are trying to muscle in and present their own set of candidates. Many employers will just ignore them, but the candidates won’t be told that they are waiting in the wrong line - they will just wait and then hear nothing - their details never actually went under the nose of the employer.

So it’s fairly important to try to track down the earliest-posted example of a job, when applying, so you have a good chance of dealing with the agency that actually has the contract to fill it.

18

Pick the place you want to work at …

Go by everyday and talk to the HR manager …

Eventually, the HR manager hires you just so you STOP hassling them …

Laugh if you wish … I did this twice a day for ten solid weeks … got hired at $2,000/wk … which was good money back in the early 90’s … damn, that’s not exact bad money today …

=====

Word of mouth …

“Hi, are you hiring?”
“No, not at this time.”
“Do you know anyone who is hiring?”
“Yes, Bill over in Thurston is hiring, check with him”

Works … give it a try …