Getting a good job has more to do with numbers than a great resume or the best experience.
This doesn’t mean you can just throw anything together and get good results, although you may still get some results. What I’m saying is a reasonably good resume and cover letter, and proper follow up will do more for you than trying to get that magic resume to win the Blue Ribbon at the World’s Fair.
Looking for a job is like a salesperson selling a product. A salesperson is competing with other professional salespeople and each of their products is as good as his/hers or even better. However, a good salesperson can outdo the competition by following some simple rules, and the main thing, is to have a great attitude with determination and persistence.
You can have a mediocre resume and cover letter but with determination and persistence outdo others that are better qualified than you and have better looking resumes and cover letters.
Frank Bettger, a salesman in the ’30’s wrote a book “How I went from Failure to Success in Selling” told a story when he was to give a speech on salesmanship. He never gave a speech before and he was terrified. He got up on the podium and said three times “See the People.” “See the People.” “See the People.” Then he walked off. Later in the book he said that was the best advice he could give anybody and he shortened the “See the People.” To STP.
There you have it in a nut shell, “See the People.” Or STP.
The cover letter and resume are not substitutes from getting in front of the hiring authority. In fact, the cover letter and resume are vehicles to use to get you in front of the employer. The cover letter and resume are your advertisement. They are the enticement and inducement for an employer to contact you for a job interview. You send these out so you have an opportunity to have an employer know something about you and want to know more.
In every company, you are dealing with people who are responsible for hiring and you need to see them. You may say, “Great” but how do you get to see them? My answer is anyway you can. Find a way. Write letters, telephone or email them, visit them at their place of work. You need to get in front of them.
Here is a step by step approach on how to do this.
The most important thing for you to remember is you are dealing with people. People vary in personality and character. A book called “Please Understand Me” is about Character and Temperament Types by David Keirsey and Marilyn Bates. They say there are 16 Character Types. In reality, there may be even be a hundred types, the point is this; people are different. What appeals to one person may turn another person off.
You may, in your mind, have a resume that is outstanding but the person who looks at it, isn’t impressed.
There is no perfect resume, cover letter, interview tricks, perfect job, etc.
Let’s pretend a moment that you get a resume book shows 100 outstanding resumes and each of these resumes were sent to one employer for the same position. Well, how good is this outstanding resume now? Each outstanding or perfect resume is now competing with 99 other outstanding resumes. Now, do you see my point?
One can’t know what will impress the employer’s hiring authority. They may select your resume because they see a school you went to that they also attended. Perhaps it’s a company both of you worked for once but at different times. It may simply be the appearance of your resume.
There are books that say employment recruiters are not persuaded by unusual or other slick tactics. One should stay with the tried and true conservative approach. This is just generalizing. After reviewing 75 white colored resumes in a row, one may just jump on an odd looking resume or a different colored one just to break up the monotony.
The same employment selector can reject your colored resume on Monday but accept it on Wednesday. The reason, people feel differently every day. One Monday, they may have a headache, worried about some problem at home and on Wednesday be completely relaxed and in good humor.
So how do you play the numbers game and come out on top.
The first caveat is there is no guarantee. The following may work most of the time, but may not work at any given time.
Someone once said “Timing is everything.” A cover letter/resume received on Tuesday and rejected could have been accepted if read on Friday. Life is just that way. Just as you can make a good decision doesn’t guarantee a good outcome. But, this doesn’t negate that you make a good decision based on the available facts, but the outcome is outside your control. However prudent decision-making improves your odds of a good outcome.
The same can be said with applying good skills to the job search process. It won’t guarantee you a job but it will improve your odds immensely.
Here are the best things you can do for yourself for the job search.
Be organized. Keep good records. This will do more for you than anything else. If you find a help wanted ad that you think you’d like to apply for, clip the ad, attach it to letter size paper, or keep a note book and date the ad and what periodical it came from. Usually it’s your local newspaper. You can file it alphabetically, by job category, location or whatever, but keep a cross reference of it.
Keep a log of every piece of mail you send out. You want to include Employer name, address, phone number, date, a column for resume, cover letter, and a column for other or miscellaneous. For example, If you mail a cover letter and a resume, you would check two columns, for resume and cover letter, and you would fill in the employer information. You also want to include a column for follow-up and results.
The idea here, is to keep as accurate and as much information as necessary to track what you are doing.
You will probably have more than one type of resume and cover letter made up, so you also need to indicate which resume and cover letter you sent. You can put a number or letter on it, anything, so you will know later what you sent.
Note: You should make up at least five different types of resumes. Each resume should be done a little differently and highlighting different points. You don’t want one resume to try to do all things. The same goes for cover letters. You can make a template and then modify off the template.
There are many tactics and strategies on how to look for a job but none would be of greater value than your attitude. Your attitude is going to be the single biggest factor in what happens to you in the job search. Looking for a job is difficult work. Using our salesperson metaphor, a salesperson has to endure mostly rejection. It will not be unusual for you to get 95% or greater rejection rate. Don’t despair. This is typical. You will hear “NO” many more times than “yes”. Get used to it.
There are books out there that will tell you that networking is the best way to get a job. Others will say trash your resume. Other books will site that only 5 to 7% of jobs come from the help wanted section. They will also tell you that most jobs are not advertised. All of these books are correct up to a point.
People get jobs in all kinds of ways. The so called ideal way to find a job is to use as many tactics and approaches possible. This will enhance your chances of getting a response. Of course the ideal way is the one that eventually got the job for you but it will more than likely be a different ideal way than someone else’s ideal way.
Some books will tell you that sending out “confetti” letters, these are letters sent out in numbers saying the same thing and just using numbers is not very effective. They say that you may only get a response rate of 1% or 2 %. But if you sent out 500 letters, 1% is 5 responses and that’s 5 more response that you may otherwise not have had.
One of the best selling books on the job search says that sending out resumes at random is one of the worst ways to do the job hunt because the success rate is only 7%. It also says that private employment agencies is not good because they only have a 5-24% success rate and answering newspapers have only a 5-24% success rate. But if you add all of these up and utilize every one of them, which is what I am recommending, the totals are 17% to 55%. I’ll take this percentage anytime.
Taking the low end, if you made one hundred contacts through mail outs, answering newspaper want ads and going through employment agencies, you will get 17 responses per every 100. Out of that 17, you will probably get 5 invitations to an interview and out of this possibly 2 job offers. Not bad. Increase these numbers and see what you will get.
The more things you have working for you the better are the chances of you getting the job. Employment agencies may be a long shot but you have one or more people working on your behalf to get that job.
Let’s suppose an employer puts a help wanted ad in the newspaper for a clerical position. Let’s say the city that the employer does its business in is a city of 250,000. Even when the economic conditions are good, an employer of 200 employees or more is more than likely to receive about a hundred or more resumes.
Some will trickle in on Monday with the bulk of them showing up on Wednesday and Thursday of the first week and then a few more will trickle in even into the next week.
The person who is to review the resumes will just glance at the cover letter and resume perhaps for 20 seconds or so, perhaps even less. The object is not to include qualified candidates but to exclude them. The reason for this is that it is not cost effective or time feasible to spend too much time trying to figure out who the best candidate is out of 100 pieces of mail.
So, the reviewer will choose criteria that will reject the paperwork. They may choose to reject resumes without cover letters, to reject those that do not have eye appeal or some other appearance problem. If they find a resume that has misspelled words and poorly organized. Perhaps it’s too difficult to read. Maybe it doesn’t have an objective or an employment overview. The point is each employer has their own criteria to reject a cover letter or resume. They want to eliminate as many as they can so they can reduce the number down to 10 to 15. This will be manageable and easier for them to look the paperwork over more thoroughly.
Because of the selective process, the chances are good that the best candidate for the position was rejected.
People who are more likely to get the job are better skilled at the job search. Many quality workers aren’t good at looking for work and putting together their cover letters and resumes in an eye catching way.
You could be theoretically the best job candidate and have an excellent cover letter and resume and still be rejected in the selection process. The reason, the whole job search and job selection process is very human and fallible.
A professional salesperson knows how to work the numbers game. They use what is called the “Law of Large Numbers.” This law simply states that the more numbers you contact the better chances of you getting “so many sales” irrespective of your salesmanship, product or other situation.
Many sales training manuals will say something like this; contact 10 people get 3 interviews and make 1 sale. This number ratio will probably not prove out with only ten contacts but when you make hundreds of calls or send out sales approach letters, the numbers will show up over the long hall as reliable and consistent.
Do everything you can to put together a good cover letter and resume. Prepare yourself well for the job interview, but when it comes down to it, it’s all numbers. Don’t allow your ego to get involved and feel you are being rejected.
I am going to give you some suggestions, tactics and strategies and that will help those numbers, but after all is said and done, it’s only the numbers that count.
I have asked many people who have responded to a help wanted ad in the newspaper and asked them what their result was. The answer I get most often is they usually get a postcard telling them they were not selected.
I then ask them “How many resumes did you mail to the prospective employer.” They look at me incredulously and say, “Why, one, of course.” I then reply why you didn’t mail 5 or 10 to the employer. They usually reply, “Well, why?
I explain to them that there is nothing preventing them to send more than one resume to an employer. It’s sort of like buying more than one lottery ticket to play the lottery. Your chances are better the more often you participate. I tell them to send different cover letters and resumes on different types and colors of paper and mail them on different ways. What you want to do is give each mail out a different look. By doing this you increase your chances that your letter and resume will be selected. This may especially happen if there is more than one person reviewing the resumes.
Another thing you can do is send a letter and resume to the president, the director of human resources and the hiring person with cc and the appropriate names on each piece. What this does for you is get your name in front of three people and by cc the other names shows the individual that you mailed to that the other people to one to. This could make the HR person and the manager of the department look at your resume more closely because they see the president’s name is on it.
Chances are good the president won’t see the resume and the administration assistant will just route it down to the HR department, but now you have three contact names for you to follow up with on the telephone.
There are some books that tell you the best approach to the job market is through the telephone. What they propose is you cold call a prospective employer and give them a hundred word dialogue about who you are and your qualification. They usually give a variety of responses for you to say when the person you are talking to says no to you.
Here’s the problem with this approach. When a person answers the phone, they have their minds usually on something else. When you start talking you are trying to break into their thoughts and have them focus on what you are saying. You in the meantime are trying to say so much, so fast and in so little time that the receiver of your call probably doesn’t understand much of what you are saying. When the person responds with the typical “I’m sorry, we’re not hiring now.” You will have been instructed to say some cute or clever comeback to get the person to pay attention to you. This could work, but usually not.
It will to your advantage to send a warm up letter to the intended person, first, letting them know you will call them. When you call, you will identify yourself and say, “Mr. so and so, I mailed a letter to you a couple of days ago, did you receive it?”
The person, if gets much mail at all, will probably say something to the effect that they are not sure and to remind them of what the letter was about. This is your opportunity to create dialogue with them. Give them a short summary of the letter and ask if they recall the letter now. Chances are they saw your letter and routed it to Human Resources. It doesn’t matter. What you want to do is try to get the person talking and helping you.
People are more apt to talk when you ask them open ended questions. These are questions that require more than a yes or no answer.
Before we get into this further, let us go through the steps that one needs to go through to get to the point of talking with someone.
Years ago, in the ‘70’s and early ‘80’s a popular job search tool was the broadcast letter and resume. The word broadcast means casting your cover letter and resume in the broadest (widest) possible way. In other words, you will be mailing many letters to many companies. In the ‘80’s books started to appear to say the broadcast letter is not the way to go. They said most jobs are not advertised and the way for you to uncover the “Hidden Job Market” is through networking and the informational interview.
Now in the 21st century, networking and the informational interview are now considered passé and books are beginning to go back to the broadcast method.
There is no one exceptional way to go about the job search. Just like a salesperson uses multiple ways to uncover leads, so should you. The salesperson uses mail-outs (Approach letters to Prospects), networking, talking to friends and acquaintances, cold calling on the telephone and through referral (one person refers the salesperson to another).
In your job search, you should do the same thing. This is called a job search campaign.
People can’t hire you if they don’t know you exist. Your job is to acquaint them with you and your skills and qualification and make them a permanent contact of yours.
Typically, the average person who sends out a cover letter/resume to an employer just waits for a reply. If they get no reply they move on to the next help wanted ad or employer.
Let’s look at what happened. When you responded to that help wanted ad, you introduced yourself to someone. Someone now knows you exist. They may have excluded you in their selection process. That’s okay. Your next step is to follow up after the letter/resume was sent with a phone call.
Most job applicants do not do this. So, you are now in the minority of people doing something that most don’t do. The follow-up phone call gets your name in front of the hiring people one more time.
If they discarded your resume and say they don’t recall your letter/resume or they have already made the selection, you follow up with, “Mr./Ms, are there any other positions in your company that my skills and qualifications may be applied?
You will probably get an answer something like, the company is not hiring for any other positions at this time. Then you reply, I understand Mr./Ms. However, I’m sure you’ll agree that positions become available for various reasons in the future and I’d like for your company to get acquainted with my experience when the opportune time comes.
The typical response you are going to get is one of resistance. Your objective is to engage in polite but directed conversation and to see if the person you are talking with will give you some inside information.
If this person doesn’t seem very helpful and wants to brush you off, you should close your conversation with, “May I contact you from time to time to see if anything has changed.” They will usually say yes because they want to get rid of you, but they don’t know how persistent you are. You will follow up with another letter thanking them for the time and courtesy they gave you and that you appreciate they said you can contact them in the future. This is your open invitation to continue to make contact with this person.
What you are going to do is follow up with letter and phone calls at various times in the coming weeks and months. I call this the drip—drip—drip technique. What is the drip—drip—drip technique. Most everyone at one time or another had a water faucet that wasn’t fully shut off or needs a washer replaced. It won’t be long before you hear drip, 20-30 second later, drip, another 20-30 seconds later drip and so one until you finally get up to try to stop the dripping.
The drip eventually caused you to act and do something positive. By putting your name in front of a person every so often with well placed intervals, the person who receives your mail pieces will get to know you and eventually will try to do something for you. If you did this with friendliness, politeness and persistence you will have changed this person from a stranger to an advocate.
The broadcast letter is one tactic to use in your overall strategy. The broadcast letter is mailed out as an unsolicited letter indicating your interest in the company and that you are wanting for them to get acquainted with what you have to offer. You put in your letter a disclaimer that you know that a position is not likely to be available presently but with business always in a state of flux a position may become available at some future date.
A good way to mail out broadcast letters is to first of all identify the companies you are interested in working for and getting the names of the president, the Human Resource Manager and the Manager of the department you are interested in.
Since companies typically get mail in #10 standard business envelopes and that are type written, you can increase your chances of getting your mail read by hand writing the name and address on an off size envelope, perhaps one that looks like a greeting card. You also do not put on the envelope a return address. This will more than likely stand out from other pieces of mail and cause the recipient to be curious and want to look at your mailer.
The idea here is to mail out many pieces, hundreds if the city you live in will support many employers. You don’t have to send them out all at once because you will be making follow-up telephone calls. So, decide how many you can reasonably follow up on within 3-5 business days.
The letter can say something like:
Because businesses go through various economic cycles, and with the belief a company such as yours is always looking for good qualified and experienced help, I am writing to you because your company may be in need of someone with my skills and experience as they would apply to your current or future needs.
I have a diversified background in business, including 20 years experience in the transportation industry. I am experienced in Customer service, Freight Rates and Billing, Freight Rate Auditing, Commercial Collections and Supervision.
My education includes 2 years college in Traffic Management with continuing education in Management and Supervision at South Seattle Community College, 2002.
I have had successes in increasing efficiency, reducing cost, increasing revenue and problem solving.
Some of my accomplishments include:
l Analyzing transportation charges that Reduced errors 90% resulting in savings of $1,000,000.
l Designing a form reducing the workload 25% between Two departments.
l Recommending changes in carrier tariff rules and rates Increasing revenue 20%.
I have the ability to analyze and define problems and the resourcefulness to implement and follow through with solutions. For example, at Sears Inc., I was able to discover a procedural problem that resulted in recovering over $1,000,000 in back freight allowances for which I received an employee suggestion award.
If my qualifications can meet a need in your company, a personal exploratory meeting, without obligation, would be welcome.
I am aware that you may not have a suitable position at this time, but do to growth or other company changes; a position may become available in the future that I may be able to fill at the opportune time to our mutual advantage.
With this in mind, I would like very much to meet with you personally and talk to you about possible future employment and acquaint you with what I have to offer.
Since I know how busy you are, I will call you in a few days for an appointment to arrange a brief meeting at a convenient time for you.
This cover letter will be on your letter head but it will not be addressed to the recipient. You will make copies of this cover letter template along with a copy of your resume. Your Cover letter should be on white paper and your resume on a light gray paper to differentiate the two.
The whole point of this approach is to get your name out to as many employers as possible. The hard but rewarding work that produces results comes from your follow-up call.
Okay so far I’ve said there is nothing holding you back from sending out more than one cover letter, resume package in response to a newspaper help wanted ad. You are mailing out, unsolicited, hundreds of pieces of mail, spaced out so you can make the appropriate follow up call.
Now, here is another thing to do and keep in mind. Once you make a contact, never lose a contact. Keep this contact forever. Too often people will send out mailers or make a call and then forget about these people.
In today’s business and employment climate, during your career, you will probably have 7 to 10 job changes. The people you contact can be a part of your network. When you follow up with a phone call and talk with someone and ask them if you can contact them from time to time, you do so. It will be the best investment in your time and you will be surprised at how many of these original cold contacts become friends.
You don’t always have to call them. You can simply send them a little note keeping them informed as to your progress in the job search. If you get a job, then stay in contact with them and let them know what you’re doing.
With computers today, you can replicate letters very easy by having a core template and modifying it as necessary for each person you send a letter to.
When I say the job search is merely a numbers game, it is, but it doesn’t mean you get sloppy or careless. To reiterate, a good salesperson prepares as best as he or she can but then the rest is purely numbers or statistical. Keep the numbers flowing and you will reach your goal.
Now lets say a few words about the informational interview. This has now been around for 20 years or so. There are people in the work world who are turned off by this method because they think this is a veiled tactic to try to get a job even though they say it’s only for information. Don’t let this stop you from networking. People are people and they will respond to other who demonstrates respect and sincerity to them.
Many books will go to lengths telling you about your transferable skills and that you can transition yourself into a new career, direction or job by convincing a prospective employer that you have the skills to do the job.
Real Business World lesson number one, people don’t like to take risks, they resist change, they stay with the familiar, and they follow the path of least resistance and basically are lazy. Lazy in the sense they want to expend the least amount of work and energy to accomplish their goals.
Let’s do a hypothetical. An employment recruiter is looking at two resumes. Each person has 15 years of business experience. Each person shows they have had success and achievements. The job that is open is for the manager of the customer service department. One resumes shows that out the 15 years of experience 7 years were as manager of a customer service department. The other resume says that all 15 years was as a customer service representative but the cover letter says that all the skills are transferable and he or she says I can do the job just give me the chance.
I’m not saying the cover letter says these words, but that’s what the two resumes convey. One has the hard experience and the other doesn’t. Who are you going to hire?
There’s always a long shot that they will hire the customer service rep over the experienced manager, but not likely. It is very difficult to cross over from one area of experience and job function to another completely different one.
The people who hire are always trying to hedge their bets. They don’t want to make a hiring mistake. However, in reality, they may. The person who has 7 years managerial experience may have the years but is not very good at the job but the 7 years will still make the impression and cause the hiring authority to put a heavy weight on the most experience. Numbers count.
Here’s another reason why I say the job search is merely a numbers game. When it comes down to hiring someone, people almost always hire the person they like not the best qualified person. People will always be people no matter who they are or where they are. In other words, most of us want many of the same things. From a personal standpoint or because we are just plain being human we usually like people who like us or are like us.
Your whole endeavour is to get in front of an employer’s hiring authority. You can’t get the job until you are face to face with this person and then you try to sell or convince them you are the one they want and need.
The only exception to this may be that you met the president of some company at a local bar, hit it off, and said he wants to hire you. The next day he calls Human Resources and says hire this person. Nothing more is needed.
No matter which job search book you read, all they can do for you is give you some general principles to follow and the rest is up to numbers and chance.
There are going to be those who will argue or oppose what is being said here. But, nobody can guarantee you a job by reading their book and following what they say.
When you are competing with others, it’s a crap shoot.
On the other hand doing the follow-up and staying in contact with people who you’ve made contact with can over time be the best way to get job offers.
When a position becomes available, a company will try to fill the position from within first. Then they will see if someone, a current employee, knows someone. If they don’t find someone this way, they will look in their file of recent resumes and see if someone qualifies from this pool. When all of these don’t produce a person for the position, they will advertise.
So, if you have been staying in contact with these employers over the years, they may think and consider you.
When you do the follow up work with either a call or letter, try to find something interesting to share with them. If you have added any skills or education since the last time you contacted them, you can include this. If their company has been in news, that is good news, you can mention something about that. You will be the judge of what to say or include.
A professional salesperson keeps a customer contact file. He or she will rate each customer based on how much business they give him and other criteria such as what are the chances one of his customers can be upgraded from being a mediocre customer to a top customer. The system can be as simple as “A” “B” and “C.” “A’ being the top customers and “C” the lowest.
Based on the types of responses you get from your contacts, you can rate them as well. Then the “A” can get a follow-up more often than the “B’s” and “C’s.”
Looking for a job is called a campaign because it is a whole set of activities in a planned and strategic way over a period of time.
Depending on the circumstances, the time of year and the economic condition, you may be competing with hundreds of people for the same position. Somehow, you have to stand out from the crowd. No matter how good your cover letter and resume, the odds are against you.
As I stated before, if you have a hundred cover letter/resume combinations sent to the same company for the same position and they all had outstanding cover letters and resumes and everybody had pretty much equal experience, how does the hiring authority pick and choose. The answer of course is it depends on the individual and that can be as varied and fickle as the mood or whim of the moment.
The smartest thing anyone can do is to be constantly looking for new employment and keep networking and meeting new people. When you get that new job, you should be thinking about the next job. Over a period of time, you can and should be known by many people. Find as many ways as you can to get your name in front of people for whatever the reason.
Many people volunteer as a way of getting known. You can write a piece in the local newspaper or submit articles to magazines.
Even though you may not be getting paid for this, you are getting yourself known.
Joining clubs and associations are a good idea, better yet, join a job networking club. Taking classes in school can help. Anywhere there are people; there are people who can usually help or point you to someone who can help. The best bet is that most people like to help and are flattered that you ask them.
One of the biggest holdbacks for people is their inability to be assertive. If this is your case, the best thing you can do is take a class or read a book in assertiveness training or how to deal with being shy.
One of the biggest qualities employers look for in employees is their ability to express themselves. If you car a good communicator you have an advantage over your lesser counterpart.
Most jobs can be learned on the job. However, having basic computer skills, communication skills and being well groomed are definitely assets to have. Understanding how power and politics work can also be of an immense help to you.
Always remember the best qualified or skilled candidate is usually not the ones to move up the corporate ladder. This doesn’t negate the fact that good credentials don’t help or not useful. Graduates from the top college and university such as Harvard gives you a big advantage. People are impressed with big name colleges and universities, titles and awards.
There’s a movie called “Finding Forester” staring Sean Connery, who plays a recluse, one time best selling writer. He is mentoring a young black male in writing. He tells the young man that being published helps in getting the girls. He mentions that it can even be a bad book, the key is that you are published.
You can prove this to yourself anytime you want that a title or award impresses people. The next time you are in a social setting and you are talking to someone you have not met before, tell them you are a Ph.D. and watch their reaction. You can make a name of title for yourself.
In the ‘70’s, there was a TV series with James Garner, called the “Rockford” files. Rockford, who was a private detective, would make up a business card for whatever the occasion he needed. He would tell people that others would believe he was who he said he was because he had a business card printed. I know this works because I’ve done it myself.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not telling you to falsify any information, but wherever possible use titles and or names that makes an odd impression if you can rightfully use them.
A garbage man is no longer a garbage man but a sanitation engineer.
Okay, let’s summarize. Do put together as good a resume and cover letter as possible. Spend time on this. Appearance is importance. It’s appearances that will grab the attention of the evaluator. One cannot know what will impress people. One person can be turned on to your resume and another will not like it all. Experiment and make up a number of different styles of resumes. Show them to your friends, better yet see if you can get strangers or even employers to look at them and give you feedback.
This doesn’t mean you can just throw anything together and get good results, although you may still get some results. What I’m saying is a reasonably good resume and cover letter, and proper follow up will do more for you than trying to get that magic resume to win the Blue Ribbon at the World’s Fair.
Looking for a job is like a salesperson selling a product. A salesperson is competing with other professional salespeople and each of their products is as good as his/hers or even better. However, a good salesperson can outdo the competition by following some simple rules, and the main thing, is to have a great attitude with determination and persistence.
You can have a mediocre resume and cover letter but with determination and persistence outdo others that are better qualified than you and have better looking resumes and cover letters.
Frank Bettger, a salesman in the ’30’s wrote a book “How I went from Failure to Success in Selling” told a story when he was to give a speech on salesmanship. He never gave a speech before and he was terrified. He got up on the podium and said three times “See the People.” “See the People.” “See the People.” Then he walked off. Later in the book he said that was the best advice he could give anybody and he shortened the “See the People.” To STP.
There you have it in a nut shell, “See the People.” Or STP.
The cover letter and resume are not substitutes from getting in front of the hiring authority. In fact, the cover letter and resume are vehicles to use to get you in front of the employer. The cover letter and resume are your advertisement. They are the enticement and inducement for an employer to contact you for a job interview. You send these out so you have an opportunity to have an employer know something about you and want to know more.
In every company, you are dealing with people who are responsible for hiring and you need to see them. You may say, “Great” but how do you get to see them? My answer is anyway you can. Find a way. Write letters, telephone or email them, visit them at their place of work. You need to get in front of them.
Here is a step by step approach on how to do this.
The most important thing for you to remember is you are dealing with people. People vary in personality and character. A book called “Please Understand Me” is about Character and Temperament Types by David Keirsey and Marilyn Bates. They say there are 16 Character Types. In reality, there may be even be a hundred types, the point is this; people are different. What appeals to one person may turn another person off.
You may, in your mind, have a resume that is outstanding but the person who looks at it, isn’t impressed.
There is no perfect resume, cover letter, interview tricks, perfect job, etc.
Let’s pretend a moment that you get a resume book shows 100 outstanding resumes and each of these resumes were sent to one employer for the same position. Well, how good is this outstanding resume now? Each outstanding or perfect resume is now competing with 99 other outstanding resumes. Now, do you see my point?
One can’t know what will impress the employer’s hiring authority. They may select your resume because they see a school you went to that they also attended. Perhaps it’s a company both of you worked for once but at different times. It may simply be the appearance of your resume.
There are books that say employment recruiters are not persuaded by unusual or other slick tactics. One should stay with the tried and true conservative approach. This is just generalizing. After reviewing 75 white colored resumes in a row, one may just jump on an odd looking resume or a different colored one just to break up the monotony.
The same employment selector can reject your colored resume on Monday but accept it on Wednesday. The reason, people feel differently every day. One Monday, they may have a headache, worried about some problem at home and on Wednesday be completely relaxed and in good humor.
So how do you play the numbers game and come out on top.
The first caveat is there is no guarantee. The following may work most of the time, but may not work at any given time.
Someone once said “Timing is everything.” A cover letter/resume received on Tuesday and rejected could have been accepted if read on Friday. Life is just that way. Just as you can make a good decision doesn’t guarantee a good outcome. But, this doesn’t negate that you make a good decision based on the available facts, but the outcome is outside your control. However prudent decision-making improves your odds of a good outcome.
The same can be said with applying good skills to the job search process. It won’t guarantee you a job but it will improve your odds immensely.
Here are the best things you can do for yourself for the job search.
Be organized. Keep good records. This will do more for you than anything else. If you find a help wanted ad that you think you’d like to apply for, clip the ad, attach it to letter size paper, or keep a note book and date the ad and what periodical it came from. Usually it’s your local newspaper. You can file it alphabetically, by job category, location or whatever, but keep a cross reference of it.
Keep a log of every piece of mail you send out. You want to include Employer name, address, phone number, date, a column for resume, cover letter, and a column for other or miscellaneous. For example, If you mail a cover letter and a resume, you would check two columns, for resume and cover letter, and you would fill in the employer information. You also want to include a column for follow-up and results.
The idea here, is to keep as accurate and as much information as necessary to track what you are doing.
You will probably have more than one type of resume and cover letter made up, so you also need to indicate which resume and cover letter you sent. You can put a number or letter on it, anything, so you will know later what you sent.
Note: You should make up at least five different types of resumes. Each resume should be done a little differently and highlighting different points. You don’t want one resume to try to do all things. The same goes for cover letters. You can make a template and then modify off the template.
There are many tactics and strategies on how to look for a job but none would be of greater value than your attitude. Your attitude is going to be the single biggest factor in what happens to you in the job search. Looking for a job is difficult work. Using our salesperson metaphor, a salesperson has to endure mostly rejection. It will not be unusual for you to get 95% or greater rejection rate. Don’t despair. This is typical. You will hear “NO” many more times than “yes”. Get used to it.
There are books out there that will tell you that networking is the best way to get a job. Others will say trash your resume. Other books will site that only 5 to 7% of jobs come from the help wanted section. They will also tell you that most jobs are not advertised. All of these books are correct up to a point.
People get jobs in all kinds of ways. The so called ideal way to find a job is to use as many tactics and approaches possible. This will enhance your chances of getting a response. Of course the ideal way is the one that eventually got the job for you but it will more than likely be a different ideal way than someone else’s ideal way.
Some books will tell you that sending out “confetti” letters, these are letters sent out in numbers saying the same thing and just using numbers is not very effective. They say that you may only get a response rate of 1% or 2 %. But if you sent out 500 letters, 1% is 5 responses and that’s 5 more response that you may otherwise not have had.
One of the best selling books on the job search says that sending out resumes at random is one of the worst ways to do the job hunt because the success rate is only 7%. It also says that private employment agencies is not good because they only have a 5-24% success rate and answering newspapers have only a 5-24% success rate. But if you add all of these up and utilize every one of them, which is what I am recommending, the totals are 17% to 55%. I’ll take this percentage anytime.
Taking the low end, if you made one hundred contacts through mail outs, answering newspaper want ads and going through employment agencies, you will get 17 responses per every 100. Out of that 17, you will probably get 5 invitations to an interview and out of this possibly 2 job offers. Not bad. Increase these numbers and see what you will get.
The more things you have working for you the better are the chances of you getting the job. Employment agencies may be a long shot but you have one or more people working on your behalf to get that job.
Let’s suppose an employer puts a help wanted ad in the newspaper for a clerical position. Let’s say the city that the employer does its business in is a city of 250,000. Even when the economic conditions are good, an employer of 200 employees or more is more than likely to receive about a hundred or more resumes.
Some will trickle in on Monday with the bulk of them showing up on Wednesday and Thursday of the first week and then a few more will trickle in even into the next week.
The person who is to review the resumes will just glance at the cover letter and resume perhaps for 20 seconds or so, perhaps even less. The object is not to include qualified candidates but to exclude them. The reason for this is that it is not cost effective or time feasible to spend too much time trying to figure out who the best candidate is out of 100 pieces of mail.
So, the reviewer will choose criteria that will reject the paperwork. They may choose to reject resumes without cover letters, to reject those that do not have eye appeal or some other appearance problem. If they find a resume that has misspelled words and poorly organized. Perhaps it’s too difficult to read. Maybe it doesn’t have an objective or an employment overview. The point is each employer has their own criteria to reject a cover letter or resume. They want to eliminate as many as they can so they can reduce the number down to 10 to 15. This will be manageable and easier for them to look the paperwork over more thoroughly.
Because of the selective process, the chances are good that the best candidate for the position was rejected.
People who are more likely to get the job are better skilled at the job search. Many quality workers aren’t good at looking for work and putting together their cover letters and resumes in an eye catching way.
You could be theoretically the best job candidate and have an excellent cover letter and resume and still be rejected in the selection process. The reason, the whole job search and job selection process is very human and fallible.
A professional salesperson knows how to work the numbers game. They use what is called the “Law of Large Numbers.” This law simply states that the more numbers you contact the better chances of you getting “so many sales” irrespective of your salesmanship, product or other situation.
Many sales training manuals will say something like this; contact 10 people get 3 interviews and make 1 sale. This number ratio will probably not prove out with only ten contacts but when you make hundreds of calls or send out sales approach letters, the numbers will show up over the long hall as reliable and consistent.
Do everything you can to put together a good cover letter and resume. Prepare yourself well for the job interview, but when it comes down to it, it’s all numbers. Don’t allow your ego to get involved and feel you are being rejected.
I am going to give you some suggestions, tactics and strategies and that will help those numbers, but after all is said and done, it’s only the numbers that count.
I have asked many people who have responded to a help wanted ad in the newspaper and asked them what their result was. The answer I get most often is they usually get a postcard telling them they were not selected.
I then ask them “How many resumes did you mail to the prospective employer.” They look at me incredulously and say, “Why, one, of course.” I then reply why you didn’t mail 5 or 10 to the employer. They usually reply, “Well, why?
I explain to them that there is nothing preventing them to send more than one resume to an employer. It’s sort of like buying more than one lottery ticket to play the lottery. Your chances are better the more often you participate. I tell them to send different cover letters and resumes on different types and colors of paper and mail them on different ways. What you want to do is give each mail out a different look. By doing this you increase your chances that your letter and resume will be selected. This may especially happen if there is more than one person reviewing the resumes.
Another thing you can do is send a letter and resume to the president, the director of human resources and the hiring person with cc and the appropriate names on each piece. What this does for you is get your name in front of three people and by cc the other names shows the individual that you mailed to that the other people to one to. This could make the HR person and the manager of the department look at your resume more closely because they see the president’s name is on it.
Chances are good the president won’t see the resume and the administration assistant will just route it down to the HR department, but now you have three contact names for you to follow up with on the telephone.
There are some books that tell you the best approach to the job market is through the telephone. What they propose is you cold call a prospective employer and give them a hundred word dialogue about who you are and your qualification. They usually give a variety of responses for you to say when the person you are talking to says no to you.
Here’s the problem with this approach. When a person answers the phone, they have their minds usually on something else. When you start talking you are trying to break into their thoughts and have them focus on what you are saying. You in the meantime are trying to say so much, so fast and in so little time that the receiver of your call probably doesn’t understand much of what you are saying. When the person responds with the typical “I’m sorry, we’re not hiring now.” You will have been instructed to say some cute or clever comeback to get the person to pay attention to you. This could work, but usually not.
It will to your advantage to send a warm up letter to the intended person, first, letting them know you will call them. When you call, you will identify yourself and say, “Mr. so and so, I mailed a letter to you a couple of days ago, did you receive it?”
The person, if gets much mail at all, will probably say something to the effect that they are not sure and to remind them of what the letter was about. This is your opportunity to create dialogue with them. Give them a short summary of the letter and ask if they recall the letter now. Chances are they saw your letter and routed it to Human Resources. It doesn’t matter. What you want to do is try to get the person talking and helping you.
People are more apt to talk when you ask them open ended questions. These are questions that require more than a yes or no answer.
Before we get into this further, let us go through the steps that one needs to go through to get to the point of talking with someone.
Years ago, in the ‘70’s and early ‘80’s a popular job search tool was the broadcast letter and resume. The word broadcast means casting your cover letter and resume in the broadest (widest) possible way. In other words, you will be mailing many letters to many companies. In the ‘80’s books started to appear to say the broadcast letter is not the way to go. They said most jobs are not advertised and the way for you to uncover the “Hidden Job Market” is through networking and the informational interview.
Now in the 21st century, networking and the informational interview are now considered passé and books are beginning to go back to the broadcast method.
There is no one exceptional way to go about the job search. Just like a salesperson uses multiple ways to uncover leads, so should you. The salesperson uses mail-outs (Approach letters to Prospects), networking, talking to friends and acquaintances, cold calling on the telephone and through referral (one person refers the salesperson to another).
In your job search, you should do the same thing. This is called a job search campaign.
People can’t hire you if they don’t know you exist. Your job is to acquaint them with you and your skills and qualification and make them a permanent contact of yours.
Typically, the average person who sends out a cover letter/resume to an employer just waits for a reply. If they get no reply they move on to the next help wanted ad or employer.
Let’s look at what happened. When you responded to that help wanted ad, you introduced yourself to someone. Someone now knows you exist. They may have excluded you in their selection process. That’s okay. Your next step is to follow up after the letter/resume was sent with a phone call.
Most job applicants do not do this. So, you are now in the minority of people doing something that most don’t do. The follow-up phone call gets your name in front of the hiring people one more time.
If they discarded your resume and say they don’t recall your letter/resume or they have already made the selection, you follow up with, “Mr./Ms, are there any other positions in your company that my skills and qualifications may be applied?
You will probably get an answer something like, the company is not hiring for any other positions at this time. Then you reply, I understand Mr./Ms. However, I’m sure you’ll agree that positions become available for various reasons in the future and I’d like for your company to get acquainted with my experience when the opportune time comes.
The typical response you are going to get is one of resistance. Your objective is to engage in polite but directed conversation and to see if the person you are talking with will give you some inside information.
If this person doesn’t seem very helpful and wants to brush you off, you should close your conversation with, “May I contact you from time to time to see if anything has changed.” They will usually say yes because they want to get rid of you, but they don’t know how persistent you are. You will follow up with another letter thanking them for the time and courtesy they gave you and that you appreciate they said you can contact them in the future. This is your open invitation to continue to make contact with this person.
What you are going to do is follow up with letter and phone calls at various times in the coming weeks and months. I call this the drip—drip—drip technique. What is the drip—drip—drip technique. Most everyone at one time or another had a water faucet that wasn’t fully shut off or needs a washer replaced. It won’t be long before you hear drip, 20-30 second later, drip, another 20-30 seconds later drip and so one until you finally get up to try to stop the dripping.
The drip eventually caused you to act and do something positive. By putting your name in front of a person every so often with well placed intervals, the person who receives your mail pieces will get to know you and eventually will try to do something for you. If you did this with friendliness, politeness and persistence you will have changed this person from a stranger to an advocate.
The broadcast letter is one tactic to use in your overall strategy. The broadcast letter is mailed out as an unsolicited letter indicating your interest in the company and that you are wanting for them to get acquainted with what you have to offer. You put in your letter a disclaimer that you know that a position is not likely to be available presently but with business always in a state of flux a position may become available at some future date.
A good way to mail out broadcast letters is to first of all identify the companies you are interested in working for and getting the names of the president, the Human Resource Manager and the Manager of the department you are interested in.
Since companies typically get mail in #10 standard business envelopes and that are type written, you can increase your chances of getting your mail read by hand writing the name and address on an off size envelope, perhaps one that looks like a greeting card. You also do not put on the envelope a return address. This will more than likely stand out from other pieces of mail and cause the recipient to be curious and want to look at your mailer.
The idea here is to mail out many pieces, hundreds if the city you live in will support many employers. You don’t have to send them out all at once because you will be making follow-up telephone calls. So, decide how many you can reasonably follow up on within 3-5 business days.
The letter can say something like:
Because businesses go through various economic cycles, and with the belief a company such as yours is always looking for good qualified and experienced help, I am writing to you because your company may be in need of someone with my skills and experience as they would apply to your current or future needs.
I have a diversified background in business, including 20 years experience in the transportation industry. I am experienced in Customer service, Freight Rates and Billing, Freight Rate Auditing, Commercial Collections and Supervision.
My education includes 2 years college in Traffic Management with continuing education in Management and Supervision at South Seattle Community College, 2002.
I have had successes in increasing efficiency, reducing cost, increasing revenue and problem solving.
Some of my accomplishments include:
l Analyzing transportation charges that Reduced errors 90% resulting in savings of $1,000,000.
l Designing a form reducing the workload 25% between Two departments.
l Recommending changes in carrier tariff rules and rates Increasing revenue 20%.
I have the ability to analyze and define problems and the resourcefulness to implement and follow through with solutions. For example, at Sears Inc., I was able to discover a procedural problem that resulted in recovering over $1,000,000 in back freight allowances for which I received an employee suggestion award.
If my qualifications can meet a need in your company, a personal exploratory meeting, without obligation, would be welcome.
I am aware that you may not have a suitable position at this time, but do to growth or other company changes; a position may become available in the future that I may be able to fill at the opportune time to our mutual advantage.
With this in mind, I would like very much to meet with you personally and talk to you about possible future employment and acquaint you with what I have to offer.
Since I know how busy you are, I will call you in a few days for an appointment to arrange a brief meeting at a convenient time for you.
This cover letter will be on your letter head but it will not be addressed to the recipient. You will make copies of this cover letter template along with a copy of your resume. Your Cover letter should be on white paper and your resume on a light gray paper to differentiate the two.
The whole point of this approach is to get your name out to as many employers as possible. The hard but rewarding work that produces results comes from your follow-up call.
Okay so far I’ve said there is nothing holding you back from sending out more than one cover letter, resume package in response to a newspaper help wanted ad. You are mailing out, unsolicited, hundreds of pieces of mail, spaced out so you can make the appropriate follow up call.
Now, here is another thing to do and keep in mind. Once you make a contact, never lose a contact. Keep this contact forever. Too often people will send out mailers or make a call and then forget about these people.
In today’s business and employment climate, during your career, you will probably have 7 to 10 job changes. The people you contact can be a part of your network. When you follow up with a phone call and talk with someone and ask them if you can contact them from time to time, you do so. It will be the best investment in your time and you will be surprised at how many of these original cold contacts become friends.
You don’t always have to call them. You can simply send them a little note keeping them informed as to your progress in the job search. If you get a job, then stay in contact with them and let them know what you’re doing.
With computers today, you can replicate letters very easy by having a core template and modifying it as necessary for each person you send a letter to.
When I say the job search is merely a numbers game, it is, but it doesn’t mean you get sloppy or careless. To reiterate, a good salesperson prepares as best as he or she can but then the rest is purely numbers or statistical. Keep the numbers flowing and you will reach your goal.
Now lets say a few words about the informational interview. This has now been around for 20 years or so. There are people in the work world who are turned off by this method because they think this is a veiled tactic to try to get a job even though they say it’s only for information. Don’t let this stop you from networking. People are people and they will respond to other who demonstrates respect and sincerity to them.
Many books will go to lengths telling you about your transferable skills and that you can transition yourself into a new career, direction or job by convincing a prospective employer that you have the skills to do the job.
Real Business World lesson number one, people don’t like to take risks, they resist change, they stay with the familiar, and they follow the path of least resistance and basically are lazy. Lazy in the sense they want to expend the least amount of work and energy to accomplish their goals.
Let’s do a hypothetical. An employment recruiter is looking at two resumes. Each person has 15 years of business experience. Each person shows they have had success and achievements. The job that is open is for the manager of the customer service department. One resumes shows that out the 15 years of experience 7 years were as manager of a customer service department. The other resume says that all 15 years was as a customer service representative but the cover letter says that all the skills are transferable and he or she says I can do the job just give me the chance.
I’m not saying the cover letter says these words, but that’s what the two resumes convey. One has the hard experience and the other doesn’t. Who are you going to hire?
There’s always a long shot that they will hire the customer service rep over the experienced manager, but not likely. It is very difficult to cross over from one area of experience and job function to another completely different one.
The people who hire are always trying to hedge their bets. They don’t want to make a hiring mistake. However, in reality, they may. The person who has 7 years managerial experience may have the years but is not very good at the job but the 7 years will still make the impression and cause the hiring authority to put a heavy weight on the most experience. Numbers count.
Here’s another reason why I say the job search is merely a numbers game. When it comes down to hiring someone, people almost always hire the person they like not the best qualified person. People will always be people no matter who they are or where they are. In other words, most of us want many of the same things. From a personal standpoint or because we are just plain being human we usually like people who like us or are like us.
Your whole endeavour is to get in front of an employer’s hiring authority. You can’t get the job until you are face to face with this person and then you try to sell or convince them you are the one they want and need.
The only exception to this may be that you met the president of some company at a local bar, hit it off, and said he wants to hire you. The next day he calls Human Resources and says hire this person. Nothing more is needed.
No matter which job search book you read, all they can do for you is give you some general principles to follow and the rest is up to numbers and chance.
There are going to be those who will argue or oppose what is being said here. But, nobody can guarantee you a job by reading their book and following what they say.
When you are competing with others, it’s a crap shoot.
On the other hand doing the follow-up and staying in contact with people who you’ve made contact with can over time be the best way to get job offers.
When a position becomes available, a company will try to fill the position from within first. Then they will see if someone, a current employee, knows someone. If they don’t find someone this way, they will look in their file of recent resumes and see if someone qualifies from this pool. When all of these don’t produce a person for the position, they will advertise.
So, if you have been staying in contact with these employers over the years, they may think and consider you.
When you do the follow up work with either a call or letter, try to find something interesting to share with them. If you have added any skills or education since the last time you contacted them, you can include this. If their company has been in news, that is good news, you can mention something about that. You will be the judge of what to say or include.
A professional salesperson keeps a customer contact file. He or she will rate each customer based on how much business they give him and other criteria such as what are the chances one of his customers can be upgraded from being a mediocre customer to a top customer. The system can be as simple as “A” “B” and “C.” “A’ being the top customers and “C” the lowest.
Based on the types of responses you get from your contacts, you can rate them as well. Then the “A” can get a follow-up more often than the “B’s” and “C’s.”
Looking for a job is called a campaign because it is a whole set of activities in a planned and strategic way over a period of time.
Depending on the circumstances, the time of year and the economic condition, you may be competing with hundreds of people for the same position. Somehow, you have to stand out from the crowd. No matter how good your cover letter and resume, the odds are against you.
As I stated before, if you have a hundred cover letter/resume combinations sent to the same company for the same position and they all had outstanding cover letters and resumes and everybody had pretty much equal experience, how does the hiring authority pick and choose. The answer of course is it depends on the individual and that can be as varied and fickle as the mood or whim of the moment.
The smartest thing anyone can do is to be constantly looking for new employment and keep networking and meeting new people. When you get that new job, you should be thinking about the next job. Over a period of time, you can and should be known by many people. Find as many ways as you can to get your name in front of people for whatever the reason.
Many people volunteer as a way of getting known. You can write a piece in the local newspaper or submit articles to magazines.
Even though you may not be getting paid for this, you are getting yourself known.
Joining clubs and associations are a good idea, better yet, join a job networking club. Taking classes in school can help. Anywhere there are people; there are people who can usually help or point you to someone who can help. The best bet is that most people like to help and are flattered that you ask them.
One of the biggest holdbacks for people is their inability to be assertive. If this is your case, the best thing you can do is take a class or read a book in assertiveness training or how to deal with being shy.
One of the biggest qualities employers look for in employees is their ability to express themselves. If you car a good communicator you have an advantage over your lesser counterpart.
Most jobs can be learned on the job. However, having basic computer skills, communication skills and being well groomed are definitely assets to have. Understanding how power and politics work can also be of an immense help to you.
Always remember the best qualified or skilled candidate is usually not the ones to move up the corporate ladder. This doesn’t negate the fact that good credentials don’t help or not useful. Graduates from the top college and university such as Harvard gives you a big advantage. People are impressed with big name colleges and universities, titles and awards.
There’s a movie called “Finding Forester” staring Sean Connery, who plays a recluse, one time best selling writer. He is mentoring a young black male in writing. He tells the young man that being published helps in getting the girls. He mentions that it can even be a bad book, the key is that you are published.
You can prove this to yourself anytime you want that a title or award impresses people. The next time you are in a social setting and you are talking to someone you have not met before, tell them you are a Ph.D. and watch their reaction. You can make a name of title for yourself.
In the ‘70’s, there was a TV series with James Garner, called the “Rockford” files. Rockford, who was a private detective, would make up a business card for whatever the occasion he needed. He would tell people that others would believe he was who he said he was because he had a business card printed. I know this works because I’ve done it myself.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not telling you to falsify any information, but wherever possible use titles and or names that makes an odd impression if you can rightfully use them.
A garbage man is no longer a garbage man but a sanitation engineer.
Okay, let’s summarize. Do put together as good a resume and cover letter as possible. Spend time on this. Appearance is importance. It’s appearances that will grab the attention of the evaluator. One cannot know what will impress people. One person can be turned on to your resume and another will not like it all. Experiment and make up a number of different styles of resumes. Show them to your friends, better yet see if you can get strangers or even employers to look at them and give you feedback.
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