| The job hunter is DEAD meet now the AMAZING job SNIPER |
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Yes, you've probably graduated from a good university, and you have sent a dozen job applications to different companies, but nothing ever happens. The first five months pass and you start to wonder. However, you keep hunting. You know that at some point, things will start looking better for you. So you continue to distribute your CV. Nevertheless, nothing seems to stir the waters. Desperation starts to kick in, as by now, more than a year has passed and you still have no job. You start to doubt about your self, your confidence starts to spiral down and you move in with your girlfriend because you cannot afford your house. At that point you have sent more than sixty CV's around, you have posted the same number in different sites in the Internet and you have a big pack of recruitment newspapers laying on your desk. However, you still have NO job. Your boat's engine is dead and you are stuck at the open sea.
This is the story of a very good friend of mine, who graduated as an engineer and he searched for a job for more than a year. During that time he exhausted all of his social networks, he sent over 40 applications but the only result he had was rejection and some secondary jobs. His moral was very low and at the end of that year, he was about to take a job he didn't really like. One day he called me and proposed me to go together to this university seminar: "How to pass a job interview". There we met the most amazing guy: Mr.P was an ex-CEO at his fifties that had made a lot of money and decided to stop working many years ago. However, he was touring the country giving communication and leadership seminars. It was during on of those seminars that my friend met him and changed completely his approach to job hunting. This article is about his journey. Meet Mr.P The moment he entered in the amphitheatre, I noticed that there was something different about him: It was in his look that was a bit colder and persistent than that of normal people, it was in his movements which were a bit slower than that of most people and it was in his voice that was so calm and commanding. Mr.P was an ex-CEO and definitely not the type of guy I would like to have at the other end of the table when I play poker. The things that he explained to my friend were to blow all the classic job recruitment out of the water. "Forget the CV's and forget the letters of motivations; These things are so mainstream by now, that the only thing you should pay attention is not doing anything wrong. If you want to find your dream job you must push your self a bit further." Further is a word that we use quite often but we very rarely understand the full meaning. The 'further' that Mr.P meant was so out of my mind that i didn't expect it from someone of his status. "The new way of doing things is the following"... said and added a long pause. When he finally opened his mouth again he spoke non stop for one hour. When he concluded I was deeply impressed. But that was merely nothing compared to the enthusiasm of my friend. He looked at me and his eyes were shining. I lost him for a month; I didn't know what he was up to. When I finally met him again he had a huge smile from here to Buenos Aires. It took him 28 days to get his dream job and he did it by applying, word by word, what his mentor had told him.
Curriculum Vitae, Letters of motivation and the Big Great Hope Since I remember my self in university, I was told how to write a curriculum vitae. Well the steps are quite simple and you have to follow them if you want to get the job. One very important aspect of it is: Avoid making any grammar mistakes. Usually, along with the CV, you will have to send another very important document known as the cover letter aka motivational letter. You can find some information on how to write one here. OK let's say you wrote all the above and you have sent them. What now? Now you wait and hope. Light a candle if you are a christian. Do a good deed. Take the neighbour's dog for a walk. Maybe god will be good with you. Because from now on, your application is a mere statistic percentage. You see, a job application always lands at the cruel but necessary hands of the Human Resources Office. That is a very pretty name for a group of people who are trained to say no and feel no remorse about that. They are the ones that choose who enters in their ship and who doesn't. They may receive something between 10 to 100 applications per day at their desk. From those, they only read a weak 40%.
So let's say that they read 2 per day - which is HUGELY underestimated for a big company. If you take in account the per year numbers and let's say that the person works in that post already for 3 years, we come to the magic number 2190, which is how many CV's he has read up to the point you send yours. Don't you think that this person has already started to NOTICE PATTERNS in the different applications? Any small difference there is the letters, it will be noticed immediately and the recruiter will draw his conclusion from that. Because that is ALL he has at his hands. He doesn't have the time to spend hours over your personality. Maybe he doesn't like your face because it reminds him some unpleasant memory, or maybe the color of the paper is not good enough. It can be anything. At this point he decides subliminally exactly like a guy that walks around at the supermarket. Is there any way to go around this Kafka wall and get the job ? CEO's are also humans - be always the exception of the rules It may come as a surprise to you but people leading companies are also humans. True. I read it at a magazine the other day, while I was waiting at the veterinarian's room to give my sheep a cooler haircut. As all humans they obey the same rules we all do. They all dinner every Saturday night with friends while talking about business and how nice their excursion in Malta was. They talk about their weekend in Gstaad, where they fell from the lift, and they talk about Tiger woods and how excited they were, when he managed to take the ball out of half a meter sand using only one hit. Stories like that always bring tears in their eyes. They talk and talk and they have the same feelings like the rest of us. And there comes our opening; What if instead of having to pass your job application from the trained monsters of Recruitment you met the chiefs *directly* and talked to them person to person. How would you do that? When there is a will there is always a way. But it needs energy and it need investment. Finding a job is a job by itself. Where can you meet these people? What should you tell them to attract their attention? What should you not talk about? How much time do you have at your disposition? As you, very nicely, understood we are no longer in the space of willingness but in the land of technicalities.
The Steps a job sniper always takes. Target selection: You choose the company you want. You find who works where. Then choose a person who is a project manager at some section or somewhere relevant to the post you are aiming for. Camouflage: You get dressed as close you can to the type of person you want to approach. You don't show up dressed in sport shoes if he is dressed very officialy. Reconnaissance: You learn as much as you can about the hobbies and interests of your target. Where he hangs out professionally and especially what kind of conferences he goes at. Learn what kind of person he is and make sure you know very well the subject you are going to work in. Read a bit of psychology and learn how to profile people. There are many books on the not so noble art of cold reading. Placement: Choose and go in one of those professional gatherings that your target will also be. Strike:
Repeat it until you get the above right: fake it 'till you make it. The above is very risky. It is very difficult to achieve and needs practice. Do it at your own risk. My friend went to a congress, where the Chief of R & D of a candidate company was and engaged him. Ten minutes passed and they were still both there, talking at the hallway. Someone called the Chief for a meeting. "I am coming, I am coming" he answered. Ten more minutes passed and the conversation was still super interesting. Someone else came out and asked the chief if he would finally come to the meeting and the chief responded that ... hey why don't they start with out him. As you, my intelligent reader, have probably guessed, he never went to that meeting. He had already been at many meetings in his life and the conversation was of greater interest. He stayed almost an hour at the spot and finally he was convinced that my friend could do the X job for him. "Continue without me" said to his quite surprised but still VERY sexy secretary. Five days later he sent the CV directly to the Chief and got the job with almost no Human Resources intervention. You can call it as you want but in my eyes it was seduction from start to end. If you are called to an interview make sure to use personal stories to describe your experiences. Interviews can be rehearsed and can be prepared. The best idea is to go to as many interviews as possible just for the sake of practicing. Make it a habit. For more information on passing a job interview look here.
Final thoughts For most people, let's face it, this method is not their cup of tea: it requires a great amount of courage. Just remember though that courage CAN be built. For the ones among you that will never engage themselves in such a glorious and ambitious endeavour, this story will be there to remind you that knowing how to make the shirt is not enough. You must know how to sell it as well. And if you feel that this story cannot be true and want to talk me about it: Don't bother. Your emotional activation means that you don't WANT it to be true. It is too disturbing. He who dares wins...
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