From the Desk of Chip Cossitt
Sr. Partner, Warren & Morris, Ltd., Executive Search.
Starting a Job Search – A note to my nephew
One of my nephews is a month away from graduating from law school. He graduates in January and reached out to me for some assistance. I get it. Finding yourself in a position where you are entering the workforce or suddenly need to find a job can be daunting. I literally cut-n-pasted my email response to him, below. Please, if you have a child graduating soon or a friend or colleague looking for a job, please send this to them. A little guidance can go a long way.
Dear (Nephew),
Congrats on your accomplishment! First, you are going to need to develop a solid Resume / CV. Check out this piece I wrote on Resumes. Follow the directions and it’ll be easy to set-up.
LinkedIn, Job Boards, Recruiters, Google, Social Media, Friends & Family
Start-off by creating a profile on LinkedIn. If you already have one, freshen it up, take a solid, professional photo, check-off the option on your LinkedIn profile as “Open to Opportunities” and fill that information out completely. When done, start connecting. Connect with professors, with friends, family, colleagues, anyone you can think of. Then research and join applicable networking groups.
Next, you’ll want to sign-up on all the top online job boards. Here in the US, that includes LinkedIn, Monster, CareerBuilder, Indeed and Dice… Then methodically go to each site, do an exhaustive search, apply to those that you like, then set up job reminders. That last piece is key. The site will then automatically send you any and all new roles that surface. This way you don’t have to keep checking every site. Huge, huge time saver.
Afterwards, locate recruitment firms, staffing agencies and temp agencies that specialize in your field and sign-up. Hit up the big national agencies and hit up the local and regional one’s as well.
Lastly, start Googling. This is to locate roles with those companies that only post roles to their own websites.
That takes care of your digital presence, for the most part.
Bear in mind, most of the roles you will find over the course of your career will be from someone you know. Whether that’s from your dad, mom, sister, friends, colleagues, people at the gym or someone you meet at a conference. But they won’t know to suggest anything, unless you make it public. Make people aware you are looking. Be verbal, include it in your discussions until you find your next role. Put it out on social media. Oh, and on that note, take a night to review your social media accounts. Yes, prospective employers will check these out. Go to Facebook, Instagram, whatever site you are on and, if necessary, eliminate anything on there that shows an unprofessional side of you.
Then turn it into a job. Plan to send out a certain number of resumes per week and stick to that plan. Whatever number you deem appropriate. To my candidates who aren’t working (company closed, they were laid-off, etc.), I suggest keeping a 40-hour workweek, during which time they’ll work on finding a role. Since you are still in school, I suggest maybe putting aside a couple hours a week and maybe sending 10 resumes out a week. Compound that and you are sending 40 a month; 20 a week gets you 80 resumes submitted per month, etc. Do what you are comfortable with. And be sure to make an Excel spreadsheet, categorize columns to include the name of the job, the company, the email address you used and, if possible, the person to whom you sent the email. And make the last column the date you sent out the resume. Then create a follow-up reminder so you can reach out again every so often and check on status.
As for different ways of applying or different ways of thinking…. Reality is, todays job market, at least on the front-end, is mostly managed electronically. Kind of tough to get creative, but there is a right and wrong way to do it. Companies and recruitment firms use ATS’s (Applicant Tracking Systems), which sort and rank resumes electronically based on keywords. The right way to do it, is to really detail what you’ve done and use specific keywords to explain it. If someone needs a skill and uses the internet to locate that skill and that skill isn’t on your resume, you will be not be found. Capiche?
The key here is that you do the work, cover your bases and stick to it. It can be frustrating at times but don’t give in. Your work will pay off! And when you are out there applying, don’t be shy to shoot for jobs above and below your pay grade, every connection is worthwhile and can turn into something other than what it was intended for. You apply for a role asking for 5 years, they see you, recognize you have zero years, but have this other thing that you look perfect for…. Worth it.
Hope this helps, (Nephew). Please don’t hesitate to hit me up with any other questions and again, congratulations on your massive achievement!
~Chip
About the Author:
Chip Cossitt is a Senior Partner with Warren & Morris, Ltd., executive search and has been providing executive search services for more than 25 years.