Career Intensity by David V. Lorenzo, Business Coach and Advisor

October 11, 2006

The New Rules for Getting a Job - Visibility

Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

Getting a job is just like selling a product. Most people don’t understand that.

The goal in any job search is to sell you to a prospective employer. You are the product.

As we set out to market you to your prospective employer we face a series of challenges. The first challenge we face is the fact that your prospective employer does not even know you exist. Let’s face it, you could be the best in the world at what you do, but if no one knows about you, it doesn’t matter.

This is a problem of visibility. Right now, in the eyes of your future employer, you are invisible.

On the surface, it may seem like you should just introduce yourself to your prospective employer and this problem will be solved. Most people try to do this by sending a resume and cover letter. Think about it. They send a letter that essentially says:

“Hi. My name is Dave. I’m a great at doing a certain kind of job. I know I look like everyone else but I’m better than everyone else. Here’s a list of things that I’ve done that may interest you. Hire me. Now.”

And then they sit back and wait for the phone to ring.

The problem with this approach – sending a resume and cover letter – is that it is only slightly more effective than doing nothing. Why? Here are the reasons:

You are trying to get hired before someone even knows who you are. This is like trying to get married without even dating.

Everyone else is sending resumes and cover letters. They all look the same. The goal in this stage of your personal marketing campaign is to stand out – to become visible. If you do what everyone else does you remain invisible.

A resume and cover letter is all about you. This is bad. Employers want to talk to people who will help them. If you focus on yourself you will never get a job. You need to focus on the employer. You specifically need to focus on a problem that you can solve for the employer.

Everyone sends their resumes and cover letters to the same place. Most people send resumes and cover letters to Human Resources (or to a mail box in an ad or to a non-specific email address, etc.). You might as well leave your resume on the windshield of cars at the supermarket. Human Resources is the place good resumes go to die.

Now you’re thinking, “Well, what am I supposed to do?” Here are the five steps to gaining visibility during a personal marketing campaign.

Be clear and realistic about your intentions. You don’t want to get married. Not yet. You just want to date. Your introductory correspondence must state that you want to set up a meeting – nothing more.
Send letters that will get noticed. Notice I said letters - plural. Never, ever, mail just one letter. Any type of mailing is more effective when it is done in a sequence. You must send at least three letters to each person that you hope to meet. In most cases, more is better. If you can send four or five letters you’re better off. Why? People will ignore some, if not most of them. Don’t worry –each letter will be different enough so if, on the outside chance that the prospective employer is reading them all, he will be interested.
Make the content of the letters about the company – not about you. More specifically, the content of the letters should be about a problem you can solve for them. The more specific the problem the better your chances are of getting a meeting.
Send the letters directly to the decision-maker. Never send a letter to Human Resources. You want to make your case directly to the person who can determine your fate.

By now you should be getting the idea that I want you to think differently about your job search. You should start to see that looking for a job is exactly the same as marketing a valuable product.

I know that in laying out this process, I may have raised more questions. Specifically:

What should these letters say?
How should they be different?
How do I know what problems a company has that I can solve?
Who is the decision-maker and how do I find him or her?

We’ll discuss those questions in our next post on this topic.

Filed under: Personal Marketing
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Pingback by Career Intensity Blog - David V. Lorenzo — October 12, 2006 @ 18:18
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