"The Heartless Bitch Job Hunter"
Jan 9, 2006
In keeping with my more recent threads about "Heartless
Bitches on the Job", I'm going to focus this Bitchitorial on a review of a
recent book that should be required reading for all job seekers out there: It's
entitled, "Guerrilla
Marketing for Job Hunters" (GM4JH), by David Perry and Jay Conrad
Levinson. David has been in Executive Recruitment for 17 years and he
wrote the contents of the book leveraging the "Guerrilla Marketing" approach and techniques of Levinson.
I know David personally, and his no-nonsense,
"take no prisoners" style shines throughout. (He's also been on my
case to get MY book out the door too.)
GM4JH truly epitomizes the HBI philosophy when it comes to
job hunting. It's about taking control of your career and your job hunt, and
not just posting your resume and sitting around passively waiting for the right
job to come to you. It's about going after what you want, and getting it, and I
can't think of a better person to write about that than David. He's a fireball
of energy (he makes ME look positively comatose!), and he practices what he
preaches. If he wants something, he goes after it until he gets it. Not only
that, but he cracks me up.
This isn't an overly generalized, "conceptual"
book - it provides a down-to-earth "here's how to do it" approach
that anyone can follow, and Heartless Bitches will appreciate David's forthright "tell it like it is" writing style. From the initial company and employer research through
to salary and compensation negotiation, David covers it all in detail. In
addition to solid tips and techniques on everything, (he even has actual
telephone and interview scripts and sample writing techniques to follow), David
includes insightful "war stories" and Guerrilla Wisdom from a wide
variety of industry experts.
Granted, Part 1 of the book is a bit dry - but it provides
the background necessary for the next sections – it sets the stage for why you
need the Guerrilla mindset and how to get into it. Part 2 starts to get in the
meat of things, and the tools and tips he provides are great. Some of the
online resources were eye-openers for ME, and I thought I was fairly
well-connected with the electronic tools of the trade. Part 3 offers more
radical Guerrilla Tactics for things like networking, cold calling and finding
that ideal job. Part 4 gets into the actual marketing campaign, interviewing
and negotiating the deal. There are several appendices with example resumes,
call logs, compensation checklists, and “The Only Cover Letter You Will Ever
Need.”
Having been involved in the hiring process for dozens of
people, I can tell you that the recommendations for cover letters and eXtreme
Resume makeovers MATTER. I can't tell you how many times I have TOSSED a resume
because the person couldn't be bothered to use proper grammar or spelling in a
cover letter or it was just plain DRY and uninteresting. If I read a bad cover
letter, I didn’t even LOOK at the resume.
Almost as bad is the cover letter where the person indicates they have
the required skills for the advertised position, but NOTHING in their resume
shows any experience whatsoever in the skills they claim to have. It's like the cover letter and the resume belong to two different people.
And the resumes! I
have seen so many TALENTED people with the WORST resumes imaginable, and
probably passed over many more because I just couldn’t wade through the dross.
I’ve even helped some friends get jobs by “fixing” their resumes for
them. I cannot stress the importance
of a concise, targeted, and spell-checked resume! I once had the misfortune of having to review a resume for a
Quality Assurance position that was RIFE with spelling errors! For Quality
Assurance! It was appalling. The first two mistakes guaranteed that I was
NOT interested in interviewing the person, but I kept reading just for
curiosity’s sake, like watching a train wreck… to see how bad it could
get. I lost count of the mistakes. I
felt like writing the person back and suggesting they consider a career change.
To something like, perhaps, FARMING?
Granted, GM4JH is ideally targeted at people going for more
senior executive or managerial level positions - but the techniques and tools
provided will work for anyone, and David gives tons of examples for many
non-executive positions. In chapter 12 he even provides special job hunting techniques for
Veterans.
The most important thing to take away from this book is that
it teaches the non-sales person the sales and marketing techniques that will
help you land the job you want. For many people who are NOT in sales or
marketing, this may be uncomfortable at first, because it challenges many cultural conventions.
Especially for women! Much of our
culture focuses on humility and not "tooting your own horn", and lord
knows, “sales” people often have a bad rep. But that attitude is the opposite
of what you need to do in order to land that great job and build a great
career. You have to remember, it's not
about being arrogant or a braggart - it's about making your skills and talents
visible in a clear and compelling way.
It’s about Being In Total Control, Honey!
When I first moved to my current locale, I gave up a 10-year
stint at an NGO. I did not yet know
David, but I used some of the techniques he describes in his books, so I know
they work. I researched the companies I wanted to work for: the web was still
in its infancy, so I used the local newspaper. They had an annual “Technical
review” of the top 200 companies in the region. I called the paper and
requested a back-issue. I didn’t look
at job ads, I read the company profiles and selected 12 that
were small-to-medium, had a professional services division, and looked like
they could use someone with my skill set.
I found out as much as I could about each company before making contact,
including checking with friends and colleagues to see if anyone worked at or
knew someone who worked at the companies in question.
I had not done professional services or consulting, but it
was something I wanted to branch out into.
I cold-called each company, and identified whom I could send a resume
to. I kept a call log. I tailored every resume and cover letter to the
company/person I was sending to. I
indicated that my breadth of experience on a variety of systems, in addition to
my broad-ranging skills (from administration to programming) made me ideally
suited to a consulting role. My
communications skills shone in both my resume and cover letter as well as in my
techniques for calling the companies and locating the correct hiring
managers. I called back those companies
from whom I had not had a response. In
the end, I sent 10 resumes, got 6 interviews, and had 5 offers. I recall
interviewing the hiring managers as much as they were interviewing ME. I wanted
to make sure I picked the right company. Ironically, the one that I ended up working for was one I had to
call back. They were very busy and had seen the resume but had not had time to
call me. I indicated that I already had 3 offers on the table, but very much
wanted to speak to them before I made my decision. They put me through a
whirlwind of interviews in 3 days and made me the best offer. It wasn’t the
highest dollar value, but it was the most interesting by far. (The highest $ value offer was from a
company where the interviewer looked like he was fighting an ulcer and on the
verge of a heart attack because his project was so over budget and behind
schedule. It didn’t look like an enjoyable place to work.)
Around that same time, I recall hearing another techie on
a radio program, complaining bitterly about having sent out 100 resumes and not
getting a single interview. What a
ridiculous waste of time. I don’t know
what his resume looked like, but I can only imagine how lousy it must have been
if he went through that kind of scatter-gun approach and didn’t get ANY
interest.
But back to the book…. David has graciously provided me with
a few select chapters to post online for HBI
readers to review. (Included at the end of the excerpt is information on how
you can get a free copy of "You Inc." - the 38 page guide to resume
makeovers and design.) Note that
Penelope Trunk's “Guerrilla Wisdom” on "Women and Networking"
in Chapter 9, has some interesting suggestions for places to network when you
can't be part of the "old boys club".
Even though I don’t golf, I find that David’s mainstream
techniques for networking work very well for me because I am in high-tech. I maintain a network of friends and
associates in industry and attend industry events. If you are shy and aren’t
much at just introducing yourself to people when you are at an event, you might
try a couple of these techniques to meet people and make connections:
- Attend
a seminar or workshop in your area of interest or expertise. Ask a relevant question, relating a
challenge you are facing or have faced, or better yet, one that asks for
details that the presenter has omitted.
I find that many times, people will come up to me afterwards to ask
about my question, and this provides an opportunity to meet someone I would
not have otherwise met.
Conversely, you can make note of people who asked a question, and
if you think you have a similar experience or can share some insights with
them, try to locate them coming out of the seminar and introduce yourself,
citing their question as part of your introduction…
- Attend
a seminar or workshop in your area of interest or expertise and then take
the time to introduce yourself to the speaker and exchange a business card
after the talk is over – it may come in handy in future, for one of
David’s “Guerrilla” techniques in locating a hiring manager or position at
that company.
- If
there is a tradeshow floor, visit booths and speak to individuals at
related or interesting companies, always exchanging business cards. It is surprising how many VPs will
actually be on the tradeshow floor for smaller companies. If there isn’t a
senior manager or VP there, you can often find out when and if the VP you
are interested in will be attending the event by chatting up the sales
people. If it is a larger trade
show, you may find that VPs or senior directors will be there at some
point, for strategic meetings with industry partners or counterparts, or
because they are giving a presentation.
If you pick up a business card, a good practice is to write
down when and where you met the person on the back of their card in case you
need to reference it later for a job contact. I have a pretty good memory and
remember when and where I got most of mine, but I wish I’d written that info
down for all of them.
My connections have proved very useful, not just in job
seeking, but in solving difficult business problems. If I don't know the
answer, I'm usually 1 degree of separation away from an expert who does. In some cases, I know that the strength of
my “network” has been a serious consideration in the hiring decision.
I
think one of the coolest things about David’s book is that is packed
with techniques for finding companies and positions that most people
have never considered, while giving real-life examples of ways to
implement those techniques. And even the most seasoned professional can
learn something from Chapter 14 – Hand-to-Hand Combat – Winning the Face
to Face Interview. This has to
be the BEST advice on interviewing I have ever seen. I've seen far too many candidates
that looked good on the resume and completely lost the opportunity
during the interview with me. If you want the job, take the time to do the research.
When filling a Java developer position for an online Application Service Provider, we asked
every interviewee if they had gone to the corporate web site and created a free trial account for
the application they would be working on. Only ONE had actually shown the initiative and taken the time to do that simple task.
And I don't care how much of a technical hot-shot you are: Dress well, BATHE, get a haircut or put it back
neatly, and brush your teeth. Here's a hint for the male readers out
there: Women have a stronger sense of smell than men. Drowning
yourself in cologne is almost as bad as not bathing at all. Soap, water,
and deodorant - That's all you need.
For more great Job Hunting information, I urge you to check out the website and blog for
"Guerrilla Marketing for
Job Hunters" at www.gm4jh.com
.
Enjoy!
heartlessly,
-Natalie
