GETTING THE ATTENTION OF EMPLOYERS: A Basic Question from a Reader

Dear Mr. White,

I have carefully read your last post in your blog about critical question to start a  job research.  I have a question if you would like to answer me.   I have established my priorities and the sector in wish i want to work. But there is a substantial problem.  I can not contact the right people to hire me for their business (They do not accept to add me for example in their linkedin profiles, or not to talk in the phone) 

I wonder if you have any advice for an entry level engineer.

I thank you for your help.

Ahmed F.

Your question is one that I get frequently from job seekers.  Looking for a job, whether you are experienced, or seeking an entry level position, can be quite frustrating.

Your search never progresses fast enough, people you feel you need to talk with never see to have the time, or they say that the kind of job you want is not available.

There are ways to deal with these frustrations. 

If you feel that decision makers are not paying attention to you, or if you feel that you are not getting to the right people to increase your chances of getting the job you want, you need to take control, and be aggressive about getting their attention.  And there are effective and proven ways to get the attention of hiring managers.

First of all, understand that finding a job is an activist pursuit.  You need to understand that not all sources of job leads are equal. 

Listings in the want-ads of newspapers or trade magazines represent less than 5% of the available jobs.  These are often positions that require some experience (2+ years), so newspaper ads are not good resources for those looking for entry level positions.

In addition, recruiters, like myself, only represent about 5% of the available positions that companies have.  Recruiters usually only deal in salaried positions, and will positions that require some experience (usually 3-5 years minimum), rather than entry level positions.

Websites like CareerBuilder or Monster, while being a good source of job leads, also do not list the majority of available jobs…usually only about 10% of available positions.

These all only add up to about 15%.  So, where are the rest of the jobs?

The remaining 85% are in what is known as “The Hidden Job Market”.  These are the open jobs, careers and open positions that companies have, but are not published or made known to the general public.

So how do I find out what is available in the hidden job market and how to I get myself considered for those positions?

There are 3 steps you can take:

1.                   Knowing what kind of company you want to work for, go to the library and use the state industrial directory for each state where you want to work.  This will list the companies in that state by industry and will list the names of their executives by function (ie marketing, sales, production, finance, HR).

2.                  Write letters to the senior executives in the corporate function in which you want to work.

3.                  When writing the letters, do not ask for a job.  Instead, ask the person for an appointment so you can speak with him in person about your job search.  You want to ask him (or her) for their advice on how best to conduct your search. 

This will give you an opportunity to share your resume and experience, and you can ask who else they can recommend you talk with.  That will expand your job hunting network.  I will discuss networking as a key part of your job search strategy in an upcoming post.

As your network expands and you talk to more people, you will begin to find that people are talking about how meeting you and your background remind them of possible openings for someone like you or, even better, how they can create a professional opportunity for you with their company.

I will discuss this in even more detail in upcoming posts, so stay tuned!  In the meantime, if you have any questions write me at career.journey.mgmt@gmail.com