Here’s an email I received and my response about resumes:
Dear Interview Doctor,
I saw your posting to make a list of target companies. I’ve heard this before and I struggle with it and maybe that’s ok because maybe it doesn’t pertain to me. My target companies are ones with sales of $10M to $60M. A company only has 1 CFO or Controller. So, what good does it do to target these companies if they don’t have an open position? I will be waiting a long time. So I continue to scour LinkedIn for postings to apply to. Am I thinking about this wrong?
Thanks, Persistently Frustrated
Dear PF,
I feel your persistent frustration. I hear this question all the time. I know it sounds counterintuitive but try looking at your effort based on your results.
Applying for jobs has about a 6% chance of success. Networking, on the other hand, has a 60% to 80% chance of success, especially at your level.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again and getting the same results. Why do that? Most job seekers can document dozens, perhaps hundreds, of resumes submitted to job postings without a response. Why not try the counterintuitive approach and switch it up a bit!
In an 8-hour job search day, I recommend spending about 1 hour per day on job postings and at least 6 hours on networking. Otherwise, you are just spinning your wheels on job postings.
So here is your day. You get up, scour the ads and LinkedIn. Find a few you like. Submit your cover letter and resume.
Spend the rest of the day networking. Turn the job postings into networking experiences. Research and explore that list of target companies. Go to LinkedIn and try to find the hiring manager. Reach out and talk – connect through LinkedIn and start a conversation about anything.
Turn your LinkedIn conversations into coffee meetings (virtual these days). Talk about anything – NOT about your job search. That is a non-starter. Your goal is to build a relationship with the people you connect to. That means you know something about them and they know something about you. You talk about business issues and help each other solve business problems.
The fact that a company has no posted opening does not mean the hiring manager (CEO / President?) is not frustrated with the current occupant or knows something about the current job holder that you do not know. If you talk to that person, find something in common, build a relationship, then you increase the chances that WHEN they have an opportunity, they will call you.
Building a relationship puts you in the right place at the right time, even when you have no idea how to fully define either concept.
Make sense? Let me know what happens when you try this technique!!