How to Take Back Control and get a job Fast

With the economy gloomy and many organisations making cutbacks, a lot of people, even salespeople(!) are finding themselved out of work. A recent campaign I consulted on, involving recruitment technology, clearly demonstrated the high level of competition in the job market, with hundreds of additional high-level applications being received for the most mundane of jobs.

So what to do if you’ve suddenly found yourself out of work.  There are many steps that you can take to give yourself a leg-up:

1. Think about personal branding. Putting in a few hours effort can really reap rewards in terms of demonstrating your professionalism.

2. Network, network, network. Use that personal branding effort.  Contact everyone you know, using Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, the telephone (remember that!) and let people know that you are looking. Direct them to your profile/blog etc. They may not have worked directly with you for years, so you have a great opportunity to re-define their vision of you.

3. Check out Jill Konrath’s (of Selling to Big Companies fame) free (I’ll say it again, FREE) resource to help you get back to work faster.

4. Sell yourself.  No, I don’t mean at an interview.  I mean turn your job-hunt into a sales campaign:

- Don’t rush in.  Make sure that you plan your pitch before-hand: what questions are you going to ask to get the prospect talking, how will you uncover pains, what will you ask to investigate the reasons behind those pains and finally, how will you create a vision where employing you can help solve their pains

- Research the company. It sounds so obvious, so why doesn’t everyone do it? Trust me, they don’t. Get on the Web and find out everything you can about the company and the individual you are calling. Do you know anyone that deals with this company. Call them and leverage their inside knowledge. Perhaps they can even make an introduction. You don’t know until you ask.

- Get all this down on paper and try it out with a trusted friend or colleague.  Use your plan as a prompt for your call, but don’t read directly from it, unless you are an accomplished voice actor!

- Prepare your collateral. Write an email template that you will use in response to requests. Include some bullet pointed benefits of employing you. Remember to underpin them with hard evidence where you can. You will tailor each email before you send it, but it’s good to have done most of the work beforehand. Helps you to avoid getting bogged down when you should be on the phone.

- Prepare a short profile of yourself and a full CV. If you aren’t confident doing this, get help. Friends, colleagues, even professional services. One word on your CV, slight embellishment through appropriate language is one thing, lying is another. Don’t do it. It will come back to haunt you and may cost you your career.

- Make sure that it is consistent with your personal branding. You need to present the same front on Linkedin, email, CV etc. Iron out any disparities and be sure to include URL’s to your online presence in your CV, profile and email copy.

- Phone up Sales Managers, Sales Directors etc., and pitch yourself. Remember, questions, questions, questions. If they are talking, then you are building trust, getting inside their head and buying yourself time to think about what you are going to say next. It’s a telemarketing fundamental, but don’t come off the phone without having agreed a next action that you control. Retain control wherever possible. If they say they will do something for you, get their agreement to accept a call from you.

- Finally, another obvious one. When you say that you are going to do something, do it. Send the email when you said you would, call back on-time etc. These are simple things, but if you don’t do them it speaks volumes about you.

Good luck and happy hunting.

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Tagged as: career panic, getting a job, recession