High Hopes

This could rock your world: Forget about writing the perfect résumé, about memorizing clever answers to cliché interview questions, about impressing the human resources person at your next job fair. Forget about all of that.

Over the last 30 years, I have worked in the trenches of the recruiting business, and I’ve learned that in this market you can and should break the traditional rules. Technology is king, even in the realm of hiring managers at large and small businesses. That means using social media correctly can put recent graduates ahead of the game. Yes, this is a game.

Lesson No. 1: The employment game is broken, the cards are stacked against you, and most job-search candidates are set up to fail from the start. This is because the majority of job seekers spend their time chasing every lead, every possible job opening, and they end up burnt out. This is the wrong approach. The odds are against you because you look desperate and no one is attracted to desperation.

The answer is not to work harder but to work smarter. Don’t waste your time chasing dead-end job leads and interviews with people who couldn’t hire you if they wanted to. You need to get tough and focused and conduct a job search in which the odds are on your side. Everything is in your control. If you accept this fact, you will immediately rise up above your competitors. You will start spending your time each day doing tasks that will put you in a class by yourself.

Lesson No. 2: In today’s job market, if you don’t get companies to come to you, the odds of getting hired are slim. The good news is that there are new tools you can use to almost guarantee that you will catch the attention of corporate recruiters and hiring managers. The “Hidden Job Market” does exist. Most companies don’t even run ads anymore because they are inundated with résumés from hundreds—if not thousands—of job candidates.

To get around the paper jam corporate recruiters, independent recruiters and hiring managers use sophisticated search techniques to find their new hires on the Internet. Your “first” interview is actually being conducted by the corporate recruiters researching the Internet for your education, work experience, posts on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. What they find determines if there will be a second interview. This goes on before you know you are being targeted. Then one day the phone rings and you find yourself in a conversation about your career. It’s a beautiful thing, based on attraction.

Most job seekers fail to make any connection with companies with open job positions because they are going about their job search backward. You will be different because you will attract the attention of the hiring managers and make them want to hear more.  In today’s job market, you must “presell” yourself so potential employers move toward a hiring decision before they ever talk with you.

Lesson No. 3: The Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of March 2012, reports the official unemployment rate to be 8.2 percent. But there are many companies are hiring when they find the right candidates.

New college graduates and anyone actively searching for a new job needs to know that social media has gone mainstream in the recruiting community and has drastically changed the way companies recruit new people. I’ve seen articles claiming some companies fill 25 percent or more of open job positions using LinkedIn. Some companies hesitate to advertise their open positions because they are then inundated with hundreds of résumés from people who sometimes don’t have even the minimum requirements. It’s easier for them to conduct their confidential searches and then contact you if you are a fit for one of their positions.

New college graduates absolutely must have a professional profile set up on LinkedIn, so they can rise above their competition and be easily found by the companies searching for them (for more tips on using LinkedIn, visit yellowscene.com).

Finding a new job isn’t rocket science. It’s smart relationship building and it can accelerate your career and make you more money for the rest of your life. It’s just a lot easier to do today because of blogs, email lists and social media websites.

Frank Welzig is a job coach. Learn more at NewJobCoach.com