That this time, the job market is different. Normal job search methods are not working well, yet nobody seems to be offering new ideas that might respond to the modern marketplaces. In our session at New York SHRM, we emerged with some clever new ideas…
If you want a list of the problems, read my original post here. While they are targeted to some specifics in the HR profession, they fit anywhere.
Let’s apply some fresh ideas. I have made the following recommendation to several people – and most of them just edge away from me with a scared look in their eyes. Whatever. As Ashleigh Brilliant, the English cartoonist said – “Good ideas are common – what is uncommon are people willing to work hard enough to bring them about.”
First, use LinkedIn in a proper way – research and introductions. Simply put, posting a resume and sending a vague posting does not work. Ever. If you know of an organization of interest, use the search and research functions in LinkedIn to find people inside the firm, then use the power of LinkedIn to see which of your friends in your network knows someone inside the firm. Ask them for an introduction, and you are knocking at the door with a warm call, not a cold call. Warm is better.
Second, and this is the big one – use benchmarking and research instead of what people call networking. What most people are currently doing is just plain wrong. You ask for a brief meeting to get advice on the market and job opportunities, promising to only need 20 minutes. When you show up, it is a show all about you. You review your background, then bug them for job leads, then ask if you can bug their friends. What benefit is in this for the person who is opening up their calendar and rolodex? A warm feeling from being altruistic, perhaps. You will probably not be welcome for a second meeting, as there was nothing in it for them.
Let’s agree that people in leadership roles are under time pressure, and they are feeling out of touch with the world because of business pressures. They have a hunger for current information from the front lines of business. Use this in your job search. Offer them fresh information. Offer something they value, and do it in a meeting that is worth their time.
How? First, select a hot topic of interest to you and to the type of person you are approaching. Something current. If the audience is COO, make it operational. If CFO, make it financial. If CEO, make it an issue focused on strategic advantage. If HR, look at workforce planning or performance management. Want ideas? Read CFO Magazine, or Fortune, or Forbes, or The Economist. Then, select 20 or so organizations that are of interest to you as possible employers. Do a direct approach to the leadership team of those organizations, offering them the chance to participate in a benchmarking of this topic, and all who participate will get to share in the results.
If the goal of networking is to build high quality business relationships in a non-threatening environment, this will give you just that. You have to be a good communicator, interviewing them about how their organization handles your topic. You will then write a white paper from all of the information gathered from all of the organizations, and share it with your participants. This will elevate you in their minds as an expert in your field, will give them fresh, local insight on a current topic. Best of all, they now know you and they will help you on your next steps, or perhaps they may need you in their organization to fix a problem or two…
For extra credit, have your white paper published in the business press to elevate your brand or status in the community.
In all of this, you, the job seeker, are acting as a high quality consultant and professional, not a time-wasting job seeker. Best of all, you are making the job search process more of a “LEAN” process, and advancing your own knowledge as you do it. A win-win-win.
Best of luck as you implement this. Don’t hesitate to ask for my guidance on making it work. Happy to help.
Happy new decade!
Karl Ahlrichs' Uncommon Experience 
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