Does This Job Search Sound Familiar?After a recent Networking Technology event here in Denver, Colorado a few job seekers had one thing in common....they all relatively had the same elevator speech. One thing I've learned, and still learning to this day is to be creative and unique during the job search process.
Having an elevator speech is highly important when out seeking that new Sales job. What else is important? Updated terminology for the industry you are seeking, talking to industry experts in the sector you are after and most important, get in front of someone who can hire you. Finding that person is easier than said. Whether you cold call them, find them through networking or from friends or a recruiter, try everything you can.
Tips to Help You Along The Way
1.Try calling the receptionist at the company where you are applying. You can ask the receptionist for the name of a person in human resources. If you are nice and engage the person on the phone, you will likely come away with a name.
2.When calling a company, ask to be directed to the human resource department; you will likely get the voice mail of a person within the department. Even if he is not the right guy, when your résumé shows up, he will pass it along to the appropriate counterpart in the department.
3.Looking for the name of a hiring manager? This takes more digging. Use LinkedIn and Facebook to find people. If you are on LinkedIn you will need to do a lot of looking to identify people that are associated with the company you are targeting. Join affiliated groups so that you can write to those people directly without an introduction. Is that sneaky? No. LinkedIn is a tool like any other. You need to know how to use it. From there, you can introduce yourself to a person at your targeted company, network with them and obtain a name. Facebook takes a little more work, because you need to introduce yourself and be added as a friend.
4.Traditional research also works. When doing research on a company, oftentimes the company will have a listing of senior management. You can start there. Send a letter or email to one of those people. You never know, you might get a response asking you to send your résumé to them directly, or they might even give you the name of someone to reach out to within the company.
5.Network with everyone you know. The rule of six degrees of separation is what LinkedIn is all about. For every person you know, that person knows six people. You can get names from friends, friends of friends, acquaintances, and many, many others.
6.Have access to a powerful tool like Hoovers? If you do, you are in luck. Hoovers has the names of people in virtually every company you can think of, as well as those companies you have never heard of.
7.Get a trade publication. Why you ask? I will tell you why. The trades publish newsworthy information about what is going on in a specific industry and continuously publish the names of people and companies. It is a great way to maintain abreast of industry happenings too. When people are promoted or move to a different company, a name is often published.
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