7 ways a more aggressive job search produces better results
Is your job search producing lackluster results at best? Don't settle for a job search that just creeps along! Instead, consider taking a more aggressive approach to take fuller advantage of high performing tactics.
You need to know that an aggressive job search techniques are unconventional, often radical, and always strategic. And they work! They outperform traditional job search strategies in 7 key ways:
(1) Make your aggressive tactics proactive: If you have been in the job market very long this is the way it is typically done. Traditionally you submit your resume and cover letter, then passively sit back and wait for a call. Hopefully to an interview. But in an aggressive job search, you set the pace for your campaign through weekly networking calls or emails. These should include weekly follow-up contacts with hiring managers that you have sent your email and cover letter to. These will include both posted or anticipated job openings. By making 10 - 15 such calls each week, you can increase the pace of your results. And affect your search exponentially.
(2) Target your aggressive job search tactics: If you spend all your time only seeking online job postings, then you're missing out on all kinds of highly targeted job leads. Instead focus on specific industries, employers, geographic areas, and position types to help you magnify the number of interviews and job offers you receive. Don't make the mistake of applying for everything you see. Doing that may make you feel productive, but such a shot-gun approach to job searching ultimately fails to help you secure the position you desire. For several years I was in sales and the companies I worked for pushed cold calling. I hate cold calling because it is unproductive. So I focused in applying the above techniques to sales. They worked. I was always way ahead of my peers who spent their time cold calling.
(3) Aggressive job search tactics are consistent: If you sit back and wait for the interesting jobs to show up on job boards and in ads, you are guaranteeing failure or at best prolonging the agony of job searching.
If you submit 8-10 resumes in some weeks, say, and only 1-2 in others, then you are setting yourself up for failure. However by leveraging an aggressive job search will enable you to consistently submit 25 or more resumes per week, which in turn will produce a regular series of job interviews. And a series of interviews boosts your odds of receiving one or more job offers. That’s the plan after all, isn’t it?
(4) Aggressive job search tactics are customized: No matter how you figure, a job search is something of a numbers game just as it is in the sales scenario I mentioned above. The philosophy behind traditional job search tactics of blasting your resume to hundreds of employers all at once, is a job is a job, is a job. But that leaves no room for you to target specific industry segments or position types. A more aggressive job search technique will stress your individuality by weaving your personality and career-related values into your resume, cover letter, and interview responses that boosts the odds that hiring managers looking for someone like you will actually find you. If you read through the articles on our website ResumeHelpBlog.com you will find that is our basic philosophy because all jobs are not created equal.
(5) Aggressive job search tactics are free or low-cost: If you took advantage of all the job search offers available on the Internet, you could easily spend hundreds and possibly thousands of dollars, and still see little to no positive results. The good news, though, is that by using an aggressive job search technique by their very nature either free or extremely low-cost.
- Posted in: Job