No one wants to hear it, but there is a secret to getting a job in today's tough market. I'm talking about a good job, you know, one you would actually want. One that may or may not involve a career transition. You need a YOU champion.
A YOU champion is someone who cares about YOU and wants to see YOU succeed. Someone who works at the company you want to get hired at, or knows the inside scoop of their search. Someone the hiring team knows and trusts to make recommendations. Someone who can give you honest feedback about how to tailor your interview, your resume, and respond mid-search to any doubts or changing directions.
And the real secret is that when you fnd a real YOU champion, it will be because they believe that your success is tied to their success. Think about that for a minute. How does your success become their success? Getting someone to care about you stems from a number of scenerios: It can be because of the mentor mentee relationship you developed; it could be that they want to work with you and see you as an asset or an ally; it could be they want you hired to preserve their contact and relationships with the company they are seeking to place you at; you may have helped them get hired in the past.
That last point is really important. You don't have to be in upper management before you can start helping people find a job. Even the lowliest interns at an organization have more of inside scoop on hiring decisions than the random monster.com or craigslist.or applicant. When you find out about jobs, make a call or send a targeted email to people you think would be good--like really good. Make a call to the person hiring , or pass along an email with a name, contact info and a brief referral to help them with their search. Not only do you help the person you refer, but you may find that the employer comes back to you in the future. I helped a friend find a job when someone recruited me. I passed on my friend's contact info, and told her what to emphasize in the interview and her resume. Then I pitched the employer that she fit the criteria that had been spelled out when they were intervieiwng me. I debriefed with her after the interview, and helped her strategize her thank you letter. She was a great candidate, made me look good, and got the job.
When I applied for my current job, I was same employer came to me directly. However, it was my friend who had gotten hired at the other office who kept me updated about where they were in the process, when I should contact them again, and what startegies would work best. My friend who I had helped less than a year before is directly responsible getting me my offer. Yes, I was a qualified candidate. So were a lot of other people who applied. I had the benefit of several people who had come to see that their success was tied to me: my friend who helped me with my application, and the ultimate hiring team who knew what it was like to work with me due to our board service and volunteer work together. You still need to be the champion of YOU, but you also need to find someone else who can champion, YOU too.
And once you get that job don't think your work is done. I'm currently a YOU champion for another friend who would be a fantastic asset to the company he is waiting to hear from.
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