Introductory
I have been in the U.S. for over 10 months now and have spent a significant amount of that time searching for jobs. I’m practically an
expert at being a prospective employee. One thing I’ve learned throughout this job hunting journey is that the traditional job application methods are no longer effective. Repetitively sending out a resume to dozens of potential employers is not only daunting, but also yields few results. It makes no sense to approach such an evolved job market in a boring, traditional manner.
From these experiences, I have discovered how to successfully navigate this competitive job market through these 4 steps:
1. Self-Analysis & Creating a Self-Brand
Start by identifying your core strengths through self-analysis. This could entail contemplating your past work experiences, asking peers what they think you do best, or even merely writing down your skills and passions on a piece of paper. It may take several months for you to be able to define yourself by a short pitch or a couple of adjectives, but by knowing exactly what you have to offer a company will make you a far more employable person. Defining yourself allows you to narrow in on your target job and prevents you from wasting time with companies that aren’t a proper fit for you. If you want to conduct this exercise more thoroughly, you may want to write up a marketing plan about yourself. To see an example of my rhyming pitch, click here to see my video.
After this analysis, take your pitch and descriptive adjectives that you’ve used to define yourself and turn them into your key messages for your promotional campaigns. This will become your self-branding broadcast through tools in the online and offline world.
2. Broadcast Yourself – Online and Offline Networking
We are entering into a new era where job applicants must now launch themselves into the job market in the same manner that a start-up company launches itself to the public. You must monitor and control all your public messages, much like a CEO monitors their own company. This step involves putting your marketing plan into action by broadcasting yourself using both online and offline methods.
Offline resources can take the form of attending networking events, to brainstorming various PR tactics to promote yourself. The key here is to merge both your online and offline efforts in order to properly engage your audience. Your goal should be to create remarkable content – i.e. content that others will remark about and share.
For online publicity, you can do so much more. You can advertise yourself through your LinkedIn page, Twitter, About.me, BrandYourself.com, WordPress, and through many other forms of social media – check out NameChk.com to investigate other forms of social media you can utilize.
Whatever you choose to do, try and make it original. When you devise an idea, research to see if anyone else has done something similar. Then, benchmark these “competitor” ideas against your own idea and combine the best attributes of each idea.
For instance, when I was initially applying for a position at HubSpot, I knew that I needed to stand out from other applicants after seeing Sam Mallikarjunan’s HireMeHubSpot.com Campaign. I watched Sam’s creative video, along with hundreds of other application videos, and sought out advice from my peers at networking events. By studying previously successful ideas, I developed a successful concept for my own video, which was extremely well received by the HubSpot community.
3. Reverse the Job Process – Get Found with an Inbound Approach
Searching for open positions can be time consuming and frustrating, let alone very old fashioned. Your time is wasted while waiting for a response for your application to be processed and it decreases your motivation at a time you need it most.
Reversing the traditional job process into an inbound job search allows you to “get found” by prospective employers, as you are filtering your search with positions that really interest you.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is your best friend when it comes to “getting found” on search engine results pages (SERP). The first step is to develop a list of keywords that best describes you and your desired position. Incorporate this list into your blog posts, LinkedIn page, tags for your videos, and basically any content that you publish online. This list will change over time so consider your keyword list making as an ongoing activity.
4. Be Persistent
Never doubt your abilities and never give up. Small incremental steps will get you to where you want to be. Think long term about your search: what you do now, no matter how small, will be part of the larger picture later on in your career search. I never gave up one day in my job search and I do not plan to now. Persistence helped me last Friday to meet my 2 heroes in marketing: Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. And I feel that it is through this persistence that will eventually get me a job in the U.S.
My biggest piece of advice to anyone job seeking is to always put plans into action. It can be very stimulating to come up with a great idea, but it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking it’s far-fetched and never implementing it. If you want the job of your dreams, fit time into your schedule to create your own job campaign. Never write off your ideas as being “stupid”. It may be your craziest idea that gets you closer to your goal. But it is persistence that will help you to achieve your goal.
This has been just my experience and my thoughts on job seeking. Help other job seekers by sharing and discussing your job search tactics in the comments section below.
Do you want to know more about my efforts during my job search? Send me a message via Twitter (@wogandavid) or add me on LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/wogandavid)
David Wogan 