Who do you want to work for? Do you know???
In this blog we’re going to
look quite specifically at figuring out where it is you want to work and how to
go about it as well as a little tip about Search Optimising the CV based on how
recruitment software works.
So, assuming you’re looking
for a new role, and if you’re reading this I guess that’s a safe assumption,
you should at least have developed some class of strategy to get your new job.
But, are you just being
reactive, that is, keeping an eye on various jobsites, speaking to recruiters
to see what’s out there and so on?
Is that really good enough? Are you content to be moved around by currents, effectively rudderless?
Is that really good enough? Are you content to be moved around by currents, effectively rudderless?
I’m aware that sounds a bit
controversial but think of it like this; by keeping an eye on what’s out there
and even emailing and visiting recruitment consultants, you’re fishing. Sitting
on the bank waiting for a fish, occasionally putting some bait on the line and
casting into the water and seeing what you catch?
I put it to you that you can
do better and you should. You should put on the right clothes, select specific
bait and wade into the water with a net and a big stick, tell the family you
won’t be home for a few days and catch the big one!
This is what I’d call
extreme jobhunting! What you’re doing here is effectively becoming very
proactive in the search, being laser focussed on the exact role you want and
full on going for it.
So, how do you go about it,
taking control and direction of the jobsearch.
It’s always one of the
questions I ask my clients. Where do you want to work? Are there any companies
that you actively would like to work for? You’re at a crossroads in your career
right now, why not take a different approach to the jobsearch and instead of
focussing on what is going to pay the bills, use these circumstances as an
opportunity for making your career a happier place!
So, to this end, make a list
of the companies that you’d like to work for.
Is it Google? Is it
Microsoft? Is it that excellent pet shop down the road?
Perhaps you’d like to work
for a company that is opening up in Ireland, or a company in a different
country.
Let’s say that you’ve now
identified five companies that you want to work for.
There are a number of steps
that you can take to get in front of the right person. Generally it’s unlikely
that a simple phone call will work, you’re getting into the world of
gatekeepers and people who say no for a living so don’t go there.
Here are the steps and I’ll
expand on each:
Who is the main decision maker for the role you want?
What is their email address?
Tailoring the Cover Email and the CV
Background information and how to find it
Tracking and following up
Not taking no for an answer
So to address each point:
Who is the main decision maker for the role you want?
The very easiest and simplest
way to do this is to firstly figure out the position or job title of the person
that you’d report to.
Would it be Sales Director,
Managing Director? HR Manager? Figure it out and write it down.
Now, put that title in
inverted commas and the company name and city, Dublin, Cork, London or whatever
into a search engine.
Chances are you’ll find out
their names.
Alternatively you could use
LinkedIn which if you’re not on, you should be.
If it’s not forthcoming,
then you use the telephone and ask!
Now we need to find their email address.
This is generally very easy
once you have the name as each company generally has a certain format of the
name followed by the website address as no doubt you know. At mynewcv.ie we’re
firstname at mynewcv.ie.
How do we figure this out?
Enter the web address, for
example cpl.ie without the www into a search engine. The first page of results
shows that it’s first name dot last name @cpl.ie.
If this gives you no joy you
can use inverted commas, asterisk at cpl.ie close inverted commas into an
engine.
Now we have the right person
and their email address.
Tailoring the Cover Email and the CV
Assuming you’re familiar
with the brand, you’ll have noticed that the website, and all sites follow this
theme, or corporate brand is uniform across their business.
View the font used on their
website and change your CV and Cover email to this font. This goes a long way
towards mirroring their corporate image from the start and believe it or not,
employees of this company, especially at a senior level, where you’re aiming
view this font all day every day, so mirroring it is a great psychological
advantage for your application.
If you don’t know what font
is being used, feel free to ask us here or put it out to your social media
network, crowdsource it! But more of that anon.
Bear in mind that you may
need to reformat the CV because certain fonts change sizes etc, but take your
time and do it right. Retitle the CV to Google CV or whatever and save it as
such, this will help the reader to realise that you’ve taken the effort to
approach them specifically and will bolster their good impression.
The Cover email should be
simple and contain three things:
Why you’re writing
Why you’re writing
Why you’re good for the
company and a
Call to action:
If you’re applying
internationally, ensure to correct the documents to the local language or
version of English, UK, Irish or American/Australian etc. A small thing but the
fewer red lines on their screen the better. Remember, they won’t have the same
spellcheck installed as you, so be aware of this, have the CV opened on a
different machine than the one that you composed it on and this will give a good
idea of how it will look when opened on the far side. If possible for this
instance use PDFs as they hold formatting 100% but failing that save the Word
document as RTF or Rich Text Format as it’s not as good but better than .doc.
What ever you do, try not to use doc.x format as depending on the software on
the other side of the desk, it may not open correctly or indeed at all, or may
have to be converted taking about ten seconds which is a poor first impression!
Background information and how to find it
As above, we mentioned
crowdsourcing. This is a chapter by itself however for this purpose and prior
to sending the CV I’ll explain how to crowdsource to get some information on
the company in question and how it can be useful.
Assuming you’re on Facebook,
Twitter and or LinkedIn or even boards.ie or online forums you frequent what I
strongly advise you to do is to ask your network about the company.
Post a status update or
start a new thread saying: anyone here work for or know anything about working
for company x?
You’ll be getting into the
laws of unintended consequences here but here are the possibilities:
Someone you know either
works there, used to work there or knows someone there.
You’ve told people you’re
interested in working for this company.
Somebody will tell somebody
else about you
Someone will tell you what
it’s like
Someone will ask for your
CV, tell you who the new hiring manager is and so on….
This is effectively using
your social network to work for you. It’s impossible to gauge how well this
will work, but what is 100% guaranteed is that you won’t get if you don’t ask.
The whole point of this exercise is to take as much control as possible and
follow your stated aim to work for company X or Y.
You can then use what you
have found out, perhaps a new project upcoming within the company that you have
had prior experience in, put it in the cover email, or indeed a current
employee lets you know that they have an in house referral scheme and he/she
will get €500 if they bring a new employee on board.
The best outcome here can be
that you forward your CV to a friend and they pass it on internally.
Thinking across the desk
again, put yourself in the position of the hiring manager. A colleague emails
or hands you a CV of a friend or acquaintance of theirs. Unless they want to
risk some seriously messy internal politics from their point of view they will
at least review the CV and get back either to you or your friend with feedback.
Bear in mind that with all
of this process it’s important to remember that there just may not be a place
for you here, but as you’re sick of me saying in different ways, if you’re not
in you can’t win!
Tracking and following up
Working off your initial
list of say five companies, identifying the best person and contact details,
amending your brand to mirror theirs and crowdsourcing for additional
information, you are ready to send your emails.
It is vital and I cannot
stress this enough, to track every contact you have with these companies.
You have to know when and to
who and what exactly you have sent. This will avoid confusion and you must look
good all of the time!
Use a spreadsheet, a
hardback notebook, a word document, whatever you use have a system, saying all
of the above and have it dated.
You may not hear immediately
about your email, the recipient may be on holidays or very busy or may even
delete the email, but you need to be ready to follow up.
In my experience one week is
the optimum time to follow up.
Prepare and send an email,
ideally forwarding the original without the CV this time politely asking if the
hiring manager has had the chance to review the previous email and if they
require any clarification on the initial email.
Also, take this opportunity
to get closer to them, use your research to demonstrate that you are following
the company closely.
e.g. I’m very eager to work
for a company like X as I feel closely aligned to your key ethics and I love
the product/service etc.
I wouldn’t use that exact
quote but phrase it in such a way that doesn’t feel wrong to you, but you must
get that sentiment across. And log and track everything.
Now here’s the really tricky
part.
I suggest that if you get
not satisfaction or feedback, then keep going. Call the hiring manager, send
them another email until such time as they give you an answer. Never lose the
positive tone and the demonstration of passion and constant research.
Which ties in nicely to the
final point;
Not taking no for an answer
You get no response or you
get a Dear John response as was so eloquently put by a client of mine recently.
I normally use a ruder expression but you know what I mean.
Is that it? Do you close the
door on this company that you really want to work for?
If the answer is yes, that you walk away and say, oh well at least I tried…then I put it to you that you weren’t actually that interested in the company in the first place. Start again and this time, name the company that you do really want to work for.
If the answer is yes, that you walk away and say, oh well at least I tried…then I put it to you that you weren’t actually that interested in the company in the first place. Start again and this time, name the company that you do really want to work for.
But if you get a no, that at
least is a response, you’re not being ignored. Depending on the nature of the
contact your response must be for more information, that is to ask “when would
be a good time to get back in touch”?
What advice would you give me about certain courses to do or specific industry experience would I require to be considered next time? Would you be happy for me to contact you in three months?
What advice would you give me about certain courses to do or specific industry experience would I require to be considered next time? Would you be happy for me to contact you in three months?
And a million other
responses all saying, I hear you when you say that you have no role for me now
and why that is, however I’m not giving up as I really want to work for this
company and I want to know what steps I should take to be considered next time.
Also, try and keep abreast
of what’s happening locally in this company. Use LinkedIn to see who is working
with, joining and leaving this company.
Get in touch if you need
some help with this, how and why to do it.
Use Google alerts to be
automatically emailed each time this company is mentioned online. Join their
Facebook group, follow them on Twitter and use your real name.
Get yourself super familiar
with their brand and if possible begin conversing with people who work there,
irrespective of what department they are in.
Email and general electronic
contact is great for this kind of thing. I recently saw a documentary that
included a given artist talking about something. I Googled the person and
emailed them with a question. Before I knew it I’m Facebook friends with this
artist and we keep in touch regularly. Same goes for politicians and
celebrities. It’s really easy to do, and people don’t get freaked out by random
people like us contacting them in this way as they know they can just delete
the contact.
Calling on the phone every
day or hanging around their houses is definitely not recommended but you should
effectively cyberstalk the people in question.
To conclude and recap; if
you know who you want to work for and you’re serious about doing so, you have
no excuse in not putting yourself forward in as intelligent and focused way you
can.
This company are unlikely to
ring you and offer you a job. Offer them a great employee!
I hope all of this makes
sense, but please email me at sales@mynewcv.ie
for clarifications and also if there’s anything else I can advise on in this
whole area.