Job Search How to Reach Anyone You Want - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Job Search How to Reach Anyone You Want - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career “The quality of your life is the quality of your communication.” Tony Robbins What would you consider the most important factor for success when seeking a new job? A  great resume?  Relevant qualifications that match the job description? An MBA or other educational achievements? Actually, the most important factor for job search success and your overall career advancement is the quality of your communication. And, fundamentally, the first step  in quality communications is engaging people who have the authority to hire you for the job(s) you desire. But, we all know that the current hiring system is designed to insulate job seekers from the true decision makers. Online job postings are the most extreme example. Many  require that  you blindly complete an application and provide various additional information, not knowing if any human will actually see your information.  This is a source of great frustration, which is understandable. In contrast to online applications and other ineffective activities,  you know that  your best bet is to cut out the “middle men” (recruiters, resume screeners, etc.) and connect directly with decision makers who have the authority to hire you. After doing the research and identifying companies of interest, consider the following actions that  provide far higher odds of reaching people who can hire you: Take the time to research your companies of interest and  identify the specific person or people who would most likely be your boss. Various  online tools are available, most notably LinkedIn. These are your targets. Take a mental inventory to determine who you know in the companies of interest, if anyone. Review  your LinkedIn contacts, in case you have casual connections that you have forgotten. Where appropriate, reach out to them. Call if you have a phone number. If not, email if you have their direct email address. Last choice, send them an InMail message. Make a list of your best networking contacts and ask them blindly for introductions to your targets. This is a low  probability  option that is, next to going to networking meetings and passing out business cards (good luck with that), the most  common thing that people do in the  name of networking. Coach your contacts regarding how to make the introductions so they make them effectively. Go beyond the previous step of asking for blind introductions and  do thorough  research on LinkedIn by reviewing all the  first level contacts of your best networking contacts.  Identify those people  you most want to engage  (second level connections for you) and ask  for introductions. Again, coach your contacts to maximize the effectiveness of their introductions.  For those targets that cannot be reached through the previous methods,  research  to identify as many phone numbers and emails as you can. If you cannot find the direct number, you can most likely find a main/listed number for the company. Call those  for which you have phone numbers. Use email as a follow up to phone messages.  Make your voicemails and emails as compelling as possible. Answer the questions Whats in it for them? and Why should they respond back to you?. Consider upgrading to  one of the paid  account choices on LinkedIn. This will  provide  you a last resort electronic option to send your remaining targets a direct InMail. A last resort action  is to  show up at the office location and ask to speak with your target. This  has a low probability of success, but what  else can you do? If you truly want to work for the company, this will  demonstrate your passion and interest (NOT  desperation) by doing what no one else will do. If it is not practical to show up physically at the office location because they are in another city, write a concise and compelling note to your target and ask for 5 or 10 minutes to speak with them by phone. What else? What other methods have you used successfully to reach your targets? For most job seekers, engaging decision makers is a huge challenge. I hope you will try some of these suggestions and that  they will increase your ability to reach anyone. Improving your ability to engage strategic business contacts and deliver compelling messages will greatly increase your future odds of success in your job searches as well as in your overall career. This post has only covered how to make initial  contact with your targets. To truly engage them, you must prepare and deliver concise and compelling self-presentations. I hope to discuss that topic in a future post. Good luck and best wishes for the new year!