The Before: Tell a few friends that you’re looking for a new gig and “if you hear of anything, let me know”. Call a few recruiters and they hook you up with interviews. Submit a few resumes with the goal of picking the best offer and negotiating the salary as high as you can go. Spend a few hours here and there poking around.
During network meetings, come in ready to talk all about yourself, rattle off your background and accomplishments and hope they hear something that they find interesting. (I call this the deck-of-cards routine…toss cards out one at a time until the listener says “stop”).
A few errors were tolerated, as hiring managers had a hard time finding the “perfect” candidate.
The After (Today): Networking needs to be more focused, done with professionalism and a purpose and with great follow-up. Recruiters should be aware of your profile yet you need to be “findable” on LinkedIn. Be strategic in your application, assuring you address the buyer’s needs (hiring managers, interviewers). There are no salary discussions until you get an offer.
When networking, have a clear job search goal, be prepared to listen more than you talk, and treasure the information and insights they give you. Follow up over and over, especially with gratitude.
Prior to interviews, do massive amounts of research, be ready to talk about how your skills and experience make you the best candidate for their position.
Most importantly, tolerance for mistakes is lower than it has ever been. As it should be. There is no room for common mistakes that candidates are making over and over again. You have no idea why you are not getting the interviews or the offers after interviews. You just keep looking and feeling frustrated. The job-seeking world has changed around you but you have not.
The Future: Employers will all be using some form of technology to narrow down the best candidates based on word search and comparisons of your skills and experiences with their job description. Yes, networking will help get you in the pool, but that will only get you so far. Due to the increasing cost risk of hiring the wrong person, companies will conduct more phone or face-to-face screenings and they’ll check you out online via various sources and more. All of your facts and figures will be checked out for accuracy.
Interviews are more of a performance I that you will be expected to be fully prepared, have a 30-60-90-day game plan for the position you are applying for, and you may be asked to demonstrate the skills you claim to have (language, Excel, technology, sales role-play, etc.).
You need to be ready for the Future. No, let’s start with ready for Today. You need to re-invent your job search process and do it now. If you’re in job-search mode now, stop. Re-boot. Go to https://www.danamanciagli.com and Cut the Crap, Get a Job!
