How to Make Jobs Come to You
By Gary Hinde
We all hear about people who get recruited or headhunted into new roles – they have people calling them and offering them new jobs for more money with essentially no effort on their end. How do you get to be one of those people where the jobs come to you instead of you having to look for the jobs?
Well for starters, you have to excel at what you do and be a person people really want on their team. Beyond that though, there are a number of things you can do to increase your chances of appearing on a headhunter’s radar. In this article we’ll tell you what you can do to help make the jobs come to you.
Understanding the Search Process
The best people are almost always employed and rarely will they apply to job postings. For this reason, employers often hire recruiters to go and “head hunt” top talent for them. Headhunters specialize in finding those passive top candidates in the market and it’s important to understand how they find talent and what you can do to increase your chances of them finding you as opposed to someone else.
Work With Multiple Recruiters & Manage Those Relationships
We highly recommend that people work with multiple recruiters in their industry - both when they're looking, as well as when they're not looking. Working with recruiters is free and only serves to increase your chances of being contacted about relevant jobs. To make the best use of your time, search out those recruiters that work in your space and deal at your level. If you’re currently at the mid-management level, it won’t be beneficial to work with a firm that deals with C-level roles. As well, do research to ensure the firm you’re considering is reputable – the recruitment industry is one with few standards and barriers to entry.
Once you’ve identified reputable recruitment firms that work in your industry, reach out to them and communicate who you are, what you do, and what you’re interested in. Depending on if you’re currently actively looking and what roles they have open, they may not bring you in right away – and that’s fine. The key is to get on their radar and make a connection. Once you’ve done this, the onus is on you to make the effort to maintain and keep up the relationship.
One of the most important things to do is to regularly touch base in order to stay top-of-mind with them - even if it’s just a quick one-line email that you send quarterly. Most times recruiters are extremely busy and they’d prefer that to a lengthy conversation or long email anyways. By staying top-of-mind, when suitable positions do come up, you'll be one of the first people they think of and contact.
Fine-Tune Your Resume for Search
The first place recruiters search when they get a new role is usually their existing database of people they’ve already met and are familiar with. Every recruitment company maintains a detailed database of people they’ve met or who have sent them resumes that they leverage for future roles. It’s important to get your resume into these databases for when relevant roles come up.
Similar to how you filter information on the Internet by using key words and a search engine, recruiters often compile a list of potential candidates by using the same methods. They make a list of key terms, skills, or experience they’re looking for in a candidate and then search out candidates that possess those items. Ensure your resume clearly contains those attributes that would be most desired for the types of roles you’d be looking for. Think about what the key terms a recruiter might search for to come up with relevant candidates, or what are likely to rank highest on the priority list of the hiring company. The more clearly your resume matches those items, the better chance you have of appearing as a strong candidate in their initial search.
Create a Substantial Digital Footprint
Another way to increase your chances of being found by recruiters is to create and maintain a digital footprint for yourself. In-house databases aren’t the only place recruiters look for suitable candidates – remember they’re looking to find the best of the best for their clients so they have to be exhaustive in their search. Often they’ll do a Google search or a search within various social networking sites like LinkedIn or Facebook to try and locate star candidates.
To optimize your presence online, it’s important to understand Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how results turn up when searched. Essentially the more active you are online within a certain area, the better the chances that you’ll appear in the top results when someone completes a search for it. For example if you’re extremely active in the Toronto social media community, there’s a greater probability that you would appear in the search results if someone was searching for social media people in Toronto.
To create a sound digital footprint, ensure you’re doing some or all of the following:
- Maintain active LinkedIn and Facebook profiles
- Create a blog related to your profession – post frequently and comment on other blogs
- Get quoted as an expert in articles
- Join associations or attend industry events – often times your name will appear in conjunction with associations and events when searched showing you to be an active member of your industry.
The above are some of the more common and tested ways of creating a solid presence online, but you’re certainly not limited strictly to those. The digital landscape is constantly changing so it’s always best to keep an eye on those technologies and platforms that are coming to the forefront and becoming more popular.
Also remember that simply having a LinkedIn or Twitter account isn’t enough – it’s how active you are that dictates you relevance and will increase your chances of appearing in search results. As it relates to blogs – your posting frequency, content, readership, and whether you comment on related blogs will all impact where you appear in a search.
Network
Many companies will admit that one of their best sources of hires is referrals. Most of us are also familiar with the saying “it’s not what you know, but who you know.” Both of these statements speak to the importance that networking plays - not only in a job search, but throughout your career as well. If we know that a good percentage of opportunities come via people in our networks, then being well connected only serves to increase the probability that job opportunities will come to us through these channels.
It’s important to expand your network by attending events and functions, meeting new people in your industry, and getting on the radar of certain key people. How we maintain and communicate with our networks though is as, if not more important. For the purpose of using your network for potential job prospects, it’s critical to ensure people know exactly what it is you do. If people are unsure of what your job is, then it’s unlikely they’ll approach you with any potential opportunities.
When you introduce yourself to someone new, make sure you tell them what it is you do. Fine tune your 'elevator pitch' so that it's a compelling snapshot of who you are and what you bring to the table. If managing your network online, be sure your various profiles clearly list what you do.
Be a Star
The most important thing you can do to get jobs to come to you is to be a high performer in your current job. If you don’t produce results that people want, then no amount of being easily accessible or found is going to change that.
If you are a star performer however, then ensure you’re following the above practices so that the people who are looking for the best talent in the market can find you. There are opportunities opening up every day with companies that are proactively seeking out talent to fill them. If you want to be a person who is sought out for such roles, then ensure you're well connected and can be easily found.
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As Director, Client Services, Gary Hinde works in partnership with some of the brightest minds in the technology industry.
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