Because you are your best product.
This is a guest post by Joshua Waldman. If youâd also like to guest post here on JobMob, follow these guest post guidelines.
Warning: what Iâm about to share with you might actually get you hired faster than you intended. Only follow these instructions if you want a job at your dream company within a few months and you are willing to do whatever it takes to get it.
These two techniques are based on a single human characteristic, ego.
Almost everyone Googles themselves. Even Lady Gaga googles herself, as if there were any risk of her not showing up! Most busy executives take the time to Google themselves too. And if they donât, then their admins or customers do.
Oh, and guess what the cheapest ads are to buy on Google and Facebook? Thatâs right, someoneâs name. Are you catching on yet? Let me break this down step by step.
Prerequisite 1: Know Your Dream Company
For this ninja technique to work, you should first know who your top 10 dream companies are, and the names of the executives (or managers) who might have some say in hiring you.
This is the easy part because LinkedIn will most likely have that information for you. Start by browsing the various industries on LinkedIn. Follow this link to a page that has been hidden by LinkedIn: LinkedIn Browse Industries, and select your preferred industry.
Next filter you list of companies down by the characteristics you prefer such as company size or location.
Finally, search within these companies for contacts with roles you suspect would be in a position to hire you. For example, if you want a marketing job, find the VP of marketing. If you want a developers job, find the director of product development.
Prerequisite 2: Show Your Body of Work
The way click ads work is this: someone Googles a search term, like their name. Since youâve put a bid on that term, your ad shows up. If the ad getâs their attention, someone will click. You pay when they click. And that person is taken to a website.
If you donât have a website, then you need to get one NOW. All you need to do is buy a domain name ($10/yr). Then either set up a blog, or redirect it to your online portfolio, like Vizify. The idea is that when your target person clicks, they see information that is relevant to them and they perceive that you can provide value to their organization. This next story will illustrate why your web presence is so important.
Google Ad Words and Human Vanity
This technique came from Alec Brownstein, who is now sitting in a corner office at the top floor of his dream job (metaphorically of course). His story starts with a Google Ad Word campaign. Alec knew we wanted to work at Young & Rubicam (Y&R) New York. So he researched the names five creative directors, whom he admired the most.
Next, he took out a Google Ad Word campaign for each of their names which only cost him less than 15 cents per click and no more than $6 in two months. The ad read: Hey, [creative director's name]: Goooogling [sic] yourself is a lot of fun. Hiring me is fun, tooâ with a link to Brownsteinâs website, alecbrownstein.com
After two months, Alex received calls from four of his five target people. A few months after that, he had job offers from two of his target creative directors.
Summary:
- Find five or ten names of people you want to talk to in a company
- Take out an ad for each of their names
- Link the ad to your website to demonstrate your body of work with an easy way for them to contact you
Facebook Ads and the Power of the Second Degree
This next technique comes from Ian Greenleigh who found that most managers and leaders are so proud of their success, that they usually fill in their entire Facebook profile, including their role at their company. This revelation helped him get hired at his dream company, Bazaar Voice, in a few short weeks.
Ian took out an ad in Facebook Ad Manager platform and directed it just to people in a specific geography, who had a specific role in their bio. Take a look at his ad here on the right.
And it directed people to a page on his website called, â5 Reasons You Should Hire Meâ.
Ian was surprised how many people offered to help him. And he found that although Bazaar Voice didnât respond directly, someone with a connection to his dream company did respond, and offered to make an intro for him. The power of his second degree. In his own words, âThis was a great conversation starter.â
- Identify the job titles of the people you want to work for
- Take out a Facebook ad focused on just them
- Experiment with different ads, and different targets
- Direct them to your website where you can start a conversation
About the Author
Joshua Waldman, author of Job Searching with Social Media For Dummies, is recognized as one of the nationâs top authorities in Social Media Career Advancement. To learn Joshuaâs secret strategies for shortening the job search and getting the right job right away, watch his exclusive video training here: http://careerenlightenment.com/training
This article is part of the Over $6000 in Prizes: Itâs The 6th Annual JobMob Guest Blogging Contest, which was made possible thanks in large part to our sponsors:
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great article per usual Josh. I am a big advocate of approach # 1 and blogged about it recentlyâŠ.for what it is worth, here was our adviceâŠ.
The proactive approach â leveraging Linkedin for job outreach.
If you are in a sales role, you come up with your target list of accounts, research them and pursue them. Why should a job search be any different? Many candidates wait to be found and contacted by recruiters. As a recruiter, this is part of our value add to you but if you only do this you will miss out on crucial opportunities and you are not in control of your job search. Here is how to change thisâŠ
Create your list of target ideal places to work. If you are in the digital arena, start by reviewing the industry-specific Lumascapes and read publications like Techcrunch and Venturebeat to see who has been funded and / or is doing interesting things.
Create a large Boolean string of the list of firms from #1 as follows: âcompany 1â OR âcompany 2â OR âcompany 3â etc.
Upgrade your Linkedin account so you get to see more results
Do an advanced search on Linkedin (put the Boolean string into the company field) to identify who you know in those firms and which friends and recruiters are your intermediary connections
Research the available positions in those firm and prioritize those firms that are actually hiring
Leverage Linkedin to ask for introductions to those firms from your intermediary recruiter and friend connections.
This advice is common sense but doesnât get aired to often in the job advice columns. If you follow both approaches you have covered the bases and leveraged Linkedin to its fullest extent for job search.
These two examples serve as powerful âthinking outside of the boxâ techniques for job-seekers. Great idea to use Facebook; it makes perfect sense to leverage the worldâs largest social media network for more than just uploading photos. I just purchased my domain and I am planning to link it to my portfolio using Vizify. Thanks Joshua!
This technique sounds really promising and Iâm hoping to put it into effect PDQ. Thanks!
I really love Joshâs inventive use of social media in the job search. He is my go-to resource when advising my own clients in this area. I posted this
article on my Facebook Business Page.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Workplace-Solutions-Group/190281717666273
Now this is a great approach to getting yourself seen, and I like it. With vanity the way it is you bound to have people find their way to you once you do this. I like the idea of going away from conventional job hunting techniques in favor of a creative almost guaranteed way to make yourself seen. Great article.
Iâm going to take all this advice on board.