HOW DO I FIND A JOB?

Frank Judd, Director of Client Accounts, answers all of our questions about finding a new job or role.

Hey Frank! How do I find a job?

STEP ONE – RESEARCH

• You have to talk to yourself and figure out the things that are happening today in your career, current role, and company that you love. Then filter out the things that you don’t. This is really the start of your targeted search. Now you’ll be able to start to narrow it down based on the types of things you would like to do next and where you would like to do that.
• Then you want to research your industry. Find out who are the power players. The power players aren’t necessarily in terms of who is succeeding now, though that could be one of the reasons you choose a company. You determine that. Figure out what the market is saying about your industry and who is doing certain things right. Whether that is work culture, flexibility, or leadership. Find what is right for you.
• Then think, “what role and function do i want to be in next? What does that ideally look like for me?” Then you break that down. That’s how you start looking for the searches. Look for what matters to you whether it’s title, responsibility, industry. Thats where LinkedIn comes into play.
• Almost every major organization will post the roles they have open unless it’s confidential.

STEP TWO – LINKEDIN/JOB BOARDS

• I would say go to job boards, LinkedIn job descriptions, and company website career or job pages. DO NOT APPLY THERE. This is where you should start your research. Go there as a resource. You want to see the types of jobs they’re offering, the openings that are there, and often who that role reports into. It doesn’t always have a name, but at the very least it should have a function.
• I wouldn’t apply through those outlets because those programs are so fixated on  specific keywords, titles, levels, years of experience, etc that a resume needs to have. The algorithms dictate what gets through to a manager and what gets auto-declined and pushed into a folder that is ultimately a black hole of thousands of resumes the hiring authorities will likely never look at. Another reason i dont recommend you apply via a company website is because its all being tracked. When the HR manager eventually gets to you they’ll see a record of how many roles you’ve applied to you and then could end up thinking “does this person know what they really want to do or are they just trying to come to this company taking whatever role in hopes that its a breakthrough?”

STEP THREE – FILTERED SEARCH

• Figure out the structure of the organizations you could see yourself working for. See who the roles at these organizations report to. Find that person and connect. Do a quick LinkedIn search of who presides over your department in the c-suite and begin to connect.

STEP FOUR – OUTREACH

• Send a brief message. Your message should be personal to your own communication style. But just connect as organically as possible.
• Also connect with anyone within an HR or Talent function within that organization as well. Those are the people that are looking and scouting regardless. You want to be on their radar. If you send them an InMail they’ll almost always accept your connection.
• I wouldn’t apply in the first stages. I would just be active in connecting with the right people and start networking.
• Try to open conversation and business dialogue. It should never come from a place of desperation. Your goal isn’t to convey why you want to work for that organization. You are trying to indicate that there are parts of the organization that you value and are important to you and then giving them business reasons as to why they should have a conversation with you.
• Give them reasons to want to speak with you. Its important that youre coming off as someone who is there to problem solve.

STEP FIVE – GET THE JOB

• If within a week or so you have not heard anything back from them, i would suggest you go one step lower. Go to the person that is reporting to those people.
• Start researching recruiting firms that work directly in this space. Start reaching out to people at all levels of the firm. Recruiters love to talk to new and qualified people. They want talent in their portfolios and databases. Start having conversations with people that are already having conversations with organizations that are like the organization you’re going for.