An important part of your career management is to understand there’s a much better way to land the job you want than mailing or e-mailingunsolicited resumes.
That better way is called the targeted approach to finding finding a job quick.
Why is it so hard to find a job?
Because you’re sending out resumes that nobody asked you to send. So stop broadcasting your resume. It’s a waste of time. And you extend the amount of time it takes to find a job quick.
So how do you find a job?
Studies show only a single job is offered for approximately every 1,500 hundred resumes mailed or e-mailed. With reduced staffs caused by downsizings and layoffs, busy executives don’t have time to read your unsolicited resumes. Besides, a resume tells very little about your talents or whether you’ll fit in with the rest of the staff.
Your Career Service is not suggesting you stop posting resumes on the Internet job boards or sending them with cover letters in response to help wanted ads. You need to cover all bases. We’re talking about sending out resumes, willy nilly, to companies in hopes a job will be uncovered.
The six step targeted approach to looking for a job
- Carefully select prospects for your resume mailings by targeting a number of companies you want to work for; places where you believe your skill set, or what you do, will fit in.
- Gather information about each company and its executives. You can remind yourself by referring a previous post on Your Career Service titled, “Job hunting ignorance and how to avoid it.”
- Find the name of the executive at each company who you think could hire you if there were a job.
- Then customize cover letters to each person you’ve selected. Your mission is to explain the reason why you’ve targeted his company and to request a brief meeting to discuss your background and the company’s future needs in order to determine if you can be of help someday should a job become available. Again, you can refresh your recollection about how to write a customized cover letter by referring to my column on the subject written last January.
- Call each prospect for an appointment three days after you think your letter or e-mail was received.
- Repeat the first five steps each week by selecting a half dozen targeted companies every week and customizing cover letters to go with your resumes.
As I mentioned earlier, this targeted approach is also called the “the indirect approach” because you’re not asking for a job directly, but for a meeting to discuss your background and how you can make a contribution in the future.
This approach is one of the best ways to find a job quick. Why? Because you bypass the process of submitting for a particular job by uncovering a position before its posted. Now, you have an inside track to the job.
This is how to beat the competition for the job you want. With the targeted approach, you’ll also shorten your job hunt by doing the six steps each week. Remember to customize letters and follow up by telephone, several days after you estimate the letter was received, to request appointments to discuss your background and an organization’s future needs.
When you can not find a job, try the targeted approach to land the job you want.