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Job Search in a Difficult Market

I don’t think I am breaking any big news story when I say that finding a good job in the Maine job market can be difficult. Many of you have already reminded me of that fact and my daily work with USM students confirms it.

But I also know that there are good jobs to be had. Just this week I had three calls from local employers about good positions they are seeking to fill. The problem seems to be finding a way to connect the two parties: the applicants with good skills and the employers with solid opportunities. Our approach is to post the information to our website for all to see. But not every job seeker knows to look there and not every employer realizes we have this free service.

So how do you, as a motivated, talented, hard-working, qualified candidate get to the head of the line for consideration in such a competitive market?

First of all, realize that it IS a competitive market. You have to be extremely pro-active and tenacious. Just sending off a generic resume and waiting for results doesn’t cut it. It will most likely languish on a desk, get filed, or even get thrown away. Unsolicited resumes show up in droves on manager’s desks and, unless there is a matching open position currently being advertised, the chances of it being read are pretty slim. They are usually passed along to the HR department for appropriate filing, circular or otherwise. If there is an advertised position, your resume is most likely sharing a pile with dozens if not hundreds of others, making the selection process extremely difficult.

The key is personal contact. Employers hire people, not 8 ½ by 11 pieces of paper so their decisions are based on how they feel about the real live flesh-and-blood human behind the resume. Your goal needs to be maximizing the opportunities for those meetings.

Consider using a process called Informational Interviewing to meet some of the players in the job market of your choice. A recent statistic I saw claims that only one out of every 500 resumes results in a job. By contrast, one out of every 12 informational interviews results in a job. Yeah, yeah, I know I said I don’t really trust statistics but I do believe there is a great deal of truth in this one.

Informational Interviews are NOT a subversive way to sneak past the secretary to ram your resume down a manager’s throat. They need to be conducted in good faith. In other words, if you say you are there to research a career field and interview someone, that must be the real reason you are there. You need to be prepared to ask intelligent questions and listen carefully to the answers.

But, wait, you say. People are too busy to do this. I’ll never get in to talk to anyone.

My response: You would be surprised how easy this is. People love to talk about their own experiences and share advice with someone considering their career field. It makes them feel important to be asked and interviewed about something they know so well. It also gives them a chance to “size you up” in a very non-compulsory environment. They don’t have to evaluate you as a potential hire, but if you come across as a promising candidate they can (and often will) approach the idea of working with you in your job search. It presents a win-win situation for both parties.

Your first step is to identify the people you would like to talk to. This means knowing what direction you are looking to take your career. A person with more focused career objectives will tend to ask better questions and come across more powerfully. Nothing leads to success like sincerity and enthusiasm.

Your contact method can be a letter (no resume enclosed…that suggests you are really looking for a job interview) or a phone call. Email can work as well. Follow up your contact to request a specific appointment, stressing that it will be brief and perhaps mentioning some of the questions you will be asking.

Be professional in your demeanor. Dress appropriate to the environment. Thank the individual for the time spent and follow up with a thank you note. Ask for referrals of other people in the field and permission to use this individual’s name to contact them.

You will begin to notice some important benefits to the process:

1) You may realize that this field is not what you envisioned, causing you to reevaluate or refine your career goals.

2) The interview process will become a more comfortable situation for you… an important benefit when you begin the process of employment interviewing.

3) New contacts and sources will become available as you follow up on leads offered by the people you meet.

4) A mentor in this complicated process may emerge as a result of your meetings.

There are some great web articles available on Informational Interviewing. Here are some of the ones I found:

Quintessential Careers (Really thorough and well-written tutorial!)

Dane County Non-Profits Guide

Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Quarterly