Guerrilla Marking for Job Hunters 2.0 Part 11

The major daily newspapers are still a rich source of job openings and not just in the cla.s.sified section. Careerbuilder.com is a product of Knight Ridder and the Tribune Company, which combined represent more than 130 newspapers. Careerbuilder is the vehicle I suggest my clients use because it has both national and local pull through the newspapers. Most major papers have their own online cla.s.sified section in which jobs are archived. Go back through the online archives 30 to 60 days because many jobs are not filled the first time they are advertised: is a product of Knight Ridder and the Tribune Company, which combined represent more than 130 newspapers. Careerbuilder is the vehicle I suggest my clients use because it has both national and local pull through the newspapers. Most major papers have their own online cla.s.sified section in which jobs are archived. Go back through the online archives 30 to 60 days because many jobs are not filled the first time they are advertised: * Post your resume if the site allows and enroll for the online cla.s.sifieds Job Alert program, which notifies you of matches with your background. * Post your resume if the site allows and enroll for the online cla.s.sifieds Job Alert program, which notifies you of matches with your background.* Always check the cla.s.sifieds. Display ads, or the "Career Section" as it is commonly referred to, are very expensive, as much as 100 times more costly than the cla.s.sified "word ads." Small- and medium-size companies use the cla.s.sified section.* Business journals are full of decision makers. To find the one in your city: www.bizjournalsdirectory.com or or www.bizjournals.com.* Review the "appointments" or "onward and upward" column for the names of recently promoted or appointed executives. Send them your resume.* Find out where the recently hired people came from because their old company may now be in the middle of a search that is a perfect fit for you.

Most importantly, read the business and city sections to see what is going on in your town. Which companies are growing or announcing new products? They may be prime candidates for your skills. Years ago when I first got into the headhunting business, I was trained like every other recruiter in how to troll for leads. I read the cla.s.sifieds every day and called the companies to see if I could help. My pitch was, "I have candidates who exactly fit your requirements," along with a bunch of other lame openers, and then I tried to overcome their objections to paying me to replicate their efforts ... ... with disappointing but predictable results. with disappointing but predictable results.

I soon realized that by the time an employer advertised a position, it was too late to try to sell my services. I would be competing with their newspaper ad and dozens of other recruiters to fill that slot, and frankly I wasn't that good of a salesperson. I needed an alternative-fast! Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for.

Quite accidentally, I read an article about a new office building being built. Still wet behind the ears and not realizing I was supposed to wait until they called us, I phoned the general manager and asked him if we could have coffee and talk about his project. The next day we spent most of the morning talking about the hurdles he faced in getting a team of construction guys together in time to complete the project. I volunteered to help and left with my first job order in hand. I knew nothing about construction, so I started calling my friends to see if any of them knew anyone in the construction business who would have coffee with me.

I found a guy who tutored me in the intricacies of hiring a construction manager: what to look for and where to look. I finished that project and was quickly hired to do 7 more. They put me on retainer, gave me a company credit card, and offered me access to the company jet.

All-in-all, I hired 37 people in 4 cities and never ran a newspaper ad-not once! Yet, I found the lead in the newspaper. So read between the lines of the business section and don't hesitate to call the president of a company you read about; he or she may be facing the same challenge as my first client. To this day, I still find the bulk of my projects by reading the business section, and I have little compet.i.tion from other recruiters who are still getting their leads the old-fas.h.i.+oned way.

Job Boards

According to John Sumser, the president of Interbiz.com, a firm that monitors the comings-and-goings in the electronic recruiting industry, there are approximately 42,000 different job boards. So, where do you start looking? First, there is no master list. Nor is there any way to register at more than one board at a time. To make matters even more interesting, Monsterboard, which at the time of my writing was the largest, has approximately 75,000 customers. With more than 10 million businesses in the United States, that means the industry leader has less than a 1 percent market share (www.interbiznet.com).

Job boards do not share information with each other, so you need to register with as many as you can find time for. Only those companies that pay a fee can post a job or review your resume. Some sites are so expensive they are only used by the Fortune 1000, so if you are looking for a job in a small business, you are better off using niche boards.

Register yourself at all the top job boards and you will cover 2 percent of the available jobs. The usual rule in marketing is that the top 20 percent of companies in an industry own 80 percent of the market. Not true here, obviously. You can find niche job boards for your industry by going to the Google search engine at www.google.comand typing in the words: "job board" and your niche (e.g., "retail" "construction" "software") and hitting the Google Search b.u.t.ton. That command in Google will bring you a list of job boards specific to your industry. You can also find niche job boards by function (e.g., sales or accounting at typing in the words: "job board" and your niche (e.g., "retail" "construction" "software") and hitting the Google Search b.u.t.ton. That command in Google will bring you a list of job boards specific to your industry. You can also find niche job boards by function (e.g., sales or accounting at www.theladders.com).

MAKE TECHNOLOGY WORK FOR YOU

The past 5 years have seen an explosion in technology that makes your job so much easier. Today, get more information faster than ever. Job aggregators, job alerts, news alerts are all readily available. Uncover potential job leads at the job aggregators, which are spider engines that go to all of the job boards (www.simplyhired.com, www.indeed.com, www.just-posted.com, www.jobster.com). If you haven't already done so, subscribe to them and sign up now. It's free. To research newly available jobs from company web sites, try www.hound.com.

SimplyHired is the largest of the aggregators. Besides supplying jobs directly to Mys.p.a.ce and Facebook, they have some amazing widgets and tools.

Job Widgets

You can add their Mys.p.a.ce Job Alerts Mys.p.a.ce Job Alerts to your Mys.p.a.ce homepage to see the newest jobs daily. Likewise, their to your Mys.p.a.ce homepage to see the newest jobs daily. Likewise, their Workin' It! Workin' It! application on Facebook. application on Facebook. Job Search Widget Job Search Widget brings new jobs to your iGoogle homepage, your blog, or your computer's desktop. brings new jobs to your iGoogle homepage, your blog, or your computer's desktop. Mobile Jobs Mobile Jobs lets people on the go access millions of jobs from the palm of your hand-literally! lets people on the go access millions of jobs from the palm of your hand-literally!

Job Tools

You can save your search preferences and saved jobs in the My Jobs My Jobs tab. Set up your own tab. Set up your own e-mail alerts e-mail alerts to send jobs when and where you want. The to send jobs when and where you want. The RSS Feed RSS Feed sends the jobs you're interested in to you in real time, while the sends the jobs you're interested in to you in real time, while the Local Jobs Local Jobs function lets you search by city block or other region. You can check function lets you search by city block or other region. You can check Salaries Salaries and and Trends Trends as well. There are also numerous job-related as well. There are also numerous job-related Forums Forums as well. as well.

By taking advantage of these systems, you allow technology to work for you, saving you valuable time and resources. Being a guerrilla is all about making the most of every minute. Put these ideas to work today.

GUERRILLA TIPS.

* Look for positions that are 1 or 2 levels above yours; they can give you clues to what is happening at a particular company and may hint at other positions that will soon be filled. When a company is looking for a new vice president of marketing, you can almost guarantee the new hire will realign the team he or she inherits. The same holds true for sales and engineering.* Register at local job boards because most employers advertise and source candidates locally first.* If you do not want to be bothered at home by recruiters, you should list an e-mail address as your main point of contact, preferably one you can cancel when you find a job.

GUERRILLA INTELLIGENCE.

How Best to Use Job Boards Steven Rothberg

Job boards have been around almost since the dawn of the Internet and became popular in the mid-1990s with the birth of some of today's biggest and best job boards. They're wonderful tools for both job seekers and employers, yet like all tools they can be dangerous in the hands of someone who misuses them. The following tips will maximize your chances of finding a great new job as quickly as possible.

Come, Use, Go Away Although I'm the president and founder of job board CollegeRecruiter.com and therefore have a vested interest in getting job seekers to use job boards, I also recognize that far too many job seekers spend far too much time on job boards. No one can use all or even most of them. and therefore have a vested interest in getting job seekers to use job boards, I also recognize that far too many job seekers spend far too much time on job boards. No one can use all or even most of them.

Just about every job seeker will be well served by using the big 3 general boards (Careerbuilder, Monster, and HotJobs), 2 or 3 niche boards that target your occupational field or experience level, and 2 or 3 niche boards that target your geographic preferences.

Once you find the general and niche sites that best fit your interests, go to each of them, register, apply to all of the advertised jobs for which you are qualified, and set up job match agents (sometimes called alerts) and then go away and don't come back until you receive an e-mailed alert telling you a job has just been posted. You should spend at most one day on the job boards and then at most an hour a week after that.

Keywords Matter When You Search Virtually every job board allows candidates to search by a combination of keywords and geographic parameters. Are you actually looking for a retail sales position in Manhattan? Then search using the keywords "retail sales" and the geographic parameter "Manhattan." Your results will be of much higher quality because most of the potential matches you'll see will actually be of interest to you.

Keywords Also Matter When You Apply The trick is to get your resume noticed by the employer when they are reviewing resumes submitted for a job for which you are both qualified and interested. Rather than referring to your previous experience just as an "Account Executive," also include the word "sales" if that's what your function actually was. Rather than referring to yourself as a "Registered Nurse," also include the acronym "RN" because some employers will search one way and others the other way.

Fraud Alert Protect yourself by posting your resume anonymously at the job boards that offer that option so that employers and fraudsters who search the resume bank can't see your name, e-mail, or other contact information. Better yet, patronize the small number of major job boards like CollegeRecruiter.com that do not sell resume searching access to employers so as to better protect the candidates who are using the sites. that do not sell resume searching access to employers so as to better protect the candidates who are using the sites.

Follow-Up Keep track of the jobs to which you've applied. Follow up with each and every employer. Give them 4 or 5 business days to review your resume. Then e-mail or call using any contact information included in the job posting. If there is no such information in the ad, and there often isn't, then go to the employer's web site and use the Contact Us or other such page to contact the human resources office. All you want to know at this stage is if they received your resume and when they'll likely review it. Be polite but firm in getting that information. Any good employer should be able and willing to communicate that to you. If they tell you 5 business days, call or e-mail them back on the sixth business day to ask for an update and the timing of the next step. If they tell you that they'll be setting up interviews in 10 business days, then call or e-mail them back on the eleventh day. Keep repeating the process until you've been hired or excluded from consideration.

Steven Rothberg is the president and founder of CollegeRecruiter.com at at www.CollegeRecruiter.com, the leading job board for college students who are searching for interns.h.i.+ps and recent graduates who are hunting for entry-level jobs and other career opportunities.

Newsgroups

Newsgroups are my favorite way to find candidates because they are categorized by industry and specialization. There is literally a news-group for every occupation and they are free, so everyone from the Fortune 500 company to the corner store can use them. Yes, you can get a lot of c.r.a.p, but the quality of jobs has been improving over the years. Headhunters use newsgroups far more than job boards because they are highly targeted, free, and used by the most astute guerrillas.

GUERRILLA TIPS.

* You need to check and recheck newsgroups every 24 hours because jobs only remain on the site for approximately 24 hours.* It is more efficient to search for jobs than to post your resume and wait for a call.* There are far more jobs on the newsgroups than on job boards.

GUERRILLA INTELLIGENCE.

The "Shotgun Blast" Approach Dave Mendoza

A weak personal branding strategy, an ineffective e-mail protocol, and a lack of online due diligence will often adversely affect the quant.i.ty and quality of job leads and interviews.

The most common mistake of job seekers is the "shotgun blast" approach. Too often job seekers e-mail, mail, or call anyone and everywhere without a strategy other than hoping the law of averages will inevitably be in their favor. In an online world, however, recruiters can sense desperation or lack of care in the approach of a job seeker that can just as easily call their competence into question. For instance, if a sales candidate only wants to work in Chicago, but e-mails a recruiter in Denver who only works in semiconductor engineering-it becomes readily apparent the job seeker failed to take the time to perform minimal due diligence. Likewise, an ambiguous e-mail subject header such as "Does it make sense to chat?" without any context within the correspondence and without a resume attachment, not to mention a lack of context as to how the job seeker a.s.sumed relevance in the relations.h.i.+p, all at once suggests minimal regard for a recruiter's time. Recruiters are keenly aware that the most adept job seekers are equally capable as they are of utilizing online resources tools for efficient introductions. Subsequently, in cases where a job seeker shows a lack of proficiency with regards to online etiquette, or avoids the more efficient means of introduction, they instead inadvertently showcase their vulnerabilities. The job seeker has only effectively presented weaknesses rather than strengths in the ever-important "first impression."

It's Not What You Know, It's Who Knows You The phrase "It's not what you know, it's who you know" is a phrase we learn early in life. We are most keenly aware of it when we submit our college applications and as we enter the workforce. Today, however, the emphasis of one's effort in effective networking is commonly misplaced. Social and professional networking used to be defined largely by power calls to foster candidate generation. Today, the emphasis is broader and in tandem; the effective phone call references the online connection as an introduction. Meaningful and sustainable networking relies on an emphasis of "knowledge transfer"-what you learn-in your a.s.sociations and likewise a "benefit by a.s.sociation." The personal brand of job seekers are optimized best when they have developed an online presence that signifies particular areas of expertise within their respective skill discipline and within a certain industry. How a job seeker positions himself within this realm is critical to attracting employers via online search tools that can sort by industry, company, discipline, and organization. The successful job seeker is always cognizant of the refined and relevant mantra, "It's Not What You Know, It's Who Knows You."

Dave Mendoza is an award winning blogger, global speaker, and sourcing consultant. A corporate partner to RecruitingBlogs.com, he is one of the top 20 networkers worldwide on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/davemendoza/www.sixdegreesfromdave.com).

PROMOTE YOURSELF

Many think answering newspaper ads and responding to postings on the Internet const.i.tute a solid job search strategy. Nothing could be further from reality. In fact, you are likely to get depressed and frustrated within days if you adopt this as your major strategy. Guerrilla job hunters know that publicity-or self-promotion-is the only tried-and-true means of landing your dream job. Now is not the time to be shy. As we demonstrate in upcoming chapters, an active job-hunting campaign involves making direct contact with employers and headhunters on a daily basis.

Newspaper ads and Internet job postings should not be ignored, but they are of limited value because everyone else is doing it. Guerrillas venture upstream to get the prize fish. It requires a little more effort, but they find a fis.h.i.+ng hole that no one else has discovered. Responding to newspapers is not a strategy; it is just another tactic.

In my experience, responding to newspaper ads gives you a 1 in 1,000 chance of landing a job. It is not unusual for an Internet job posting to attract 400 to 5,000 resumes. Do you like those odds? And who does the prescreening-the corporate recruiters or human resources department? Do you want them a.s.sessing your credentials? Still like your odds?