{"id":"6001691e6cee07000687daaf","slug":"the-2-hour-job-search-en","title":"The 2-Hour Job Search","audio_url":"https://hls.blinkist.io/bibs/6001691e6cee07000687daaf/6001691e6cee07000687dab1-T1610705295.m4a?Expires=1642797996&Signature=PkdB4dh6fJB99GbW5gILea5pqkcfpQASTAMXawi7l4TvGfrJNbgS69~W3C3grj60zfc13nU-PhMg66mcVlBoQjWDZgO4f1Rjdup-2aI6gv24kfDujHhmunPUO9be1VO9nqPnYFim0zDLOCCnTgWH9NsT~4yb~6NhJgWRfqt8W3k7bt4qpCZzKEXc0JEHViuU6KXjpA7gKnzEeXNcq7nHFopS1ZdsPmVjbcn5H5Cxm8THVC1tv97nKhCkXXSooTnqQu7V32jfw~ZbaS2iVe3pV7o2HFbiDJjYpVwLDyOUfNhp4yTkEnqyaw3b-DyLgIsLyZrYHvqSBEvofwVYp0g8Ww__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJXJM6BB7FFZXUB4A","chapters":[{"id":"6001691e6cee07000687dab1","title":"Simply applying to job postings online won’t lead to a job.","text":"

The British writer Aldous Huxley once said that “technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.” This statement is renewed tenfold when it comes to job-hunting online.

You’d think that with the invention of the internet, finding a job would be simple. After all, you can open any browser, go to Indeed.com, and apply to scores of job postings with minimal effort. But, as anyone who has spent hours firing off those applications will tell you, you could apply to a hundred vacancies and not hear back from a single one.

Why? Well, companies are often swamped by all kinds of applicants – including unsuitable ones who are desperate for any work. They may or may not even see your application, and definitely don’t have time to respond to each one.

The key message here is: Simply applying to job postings online won’t lead to a job.

The internet was supposed to liberate us, wasn’t it? It was the great information superhighway that would lead us toward greater convenience. In the case of finding work, it has only complicated things.

In the past, if you wanted a job, you looked for vacancies in the local newspaper or at a job fair. Your other option was to go from employer to employer, handing out resumés. Applying for a vacancy meant taking the time to print out your resume and delivering it in person or by mail. The effort required meant that businesses received far fewer applicants. And those applicants often did their research on the employer and thus knew that they were suited to the jobs for which they were applying.

Now that anyone with access to the internet can simply apply, many businesses list openings online as a formality. It’s too much effort to sift through thousands of applications. More often than not, the job will go to someone already working for the company.

So why do we continue to apply online in this unfocused way? Well, when you’re unemployed, applying for work – any work – can make you feel like you’ve achieved something. You can say to yourself, At least the day wasn’t wasted! It’s also a way of saving face, since being unemployed can make us feel ashamed in front of family and friends.

Sadly, for most people applying for jobs online, the wait will go on. But fear not: In these blinks, we’ll look at what you can do to land your next role in a more measured way.

"},{"id":"6001691e6cee07000687dab2","title":"You should begin your job search by making a list of forty potential employers.","text":"

The best way to make genuine progress with your job search is to set limits for yourself.

When you’re confronted by the endless possibility of the internet, it’s easy to lose yourself, like a traveler in a vast desert. And that can be draining and demoralizing. So, rather than drift through endless job postings, you can adopt the strategy in these blinks, which is broken down into seven focused steps.

The first step is to create a finite list of forty employers. By stretching yourself to this number, you’ll begin to consider less-obvious organizations beyond your “usual suspects.”

This is the key message: You should begin your job search by making a list of forty potential employers.

So how do you choose forty possible employers? Make it easy on yourself by breaking them into four sets of ten.

For the first ten, think of your dream employers – those you choose if you could work anywhere. Let’s say that you’re a computer programmer and you’ve always dreamed of working for Microsoft. It doesn’t matter if that sounds overambitious. Write it down. The sky’s the limit here!

For the second ten, make a list of organizations that employ people like you. This means finding alumni from your most recent school, and researching their current employers. The best resource for this is LinkedIn.com. You’ll need to set up a profile if you haven’t already done so. From there, using the custom search option, find your fellow alumni. Then see who they work for and note any employers that appeal to you.

If you don’t have an alumni network, a great alternative is to join one of LinkedIn’s many Groups, where you’ll be able to associate with like-minded people. There, you’ll be able to see the companies for which group members work, and then follow the same process as with alumni.

For your third list of ten possible employers, check job websites like Indeed.com, and note ten employers that appeal to you. Like the alumni approach, this helps with brainstorming and broadening your horizons.

Lastly, search for “trending employers” – those that are currently making waves with their products, innovations, or wider activities. There’s an easy way to do this: comb your favorite industry or news website. Find stories about new company developments and note any employers you could imagine working for. At this point, you’re only interested in the employer’s name.

Now that you’ve listed forty employers, it’s time for the next step: finding potential advocates at each of them.

"},{"id":"6001691e6cee07000687dab3","title":"You need to find internal advocates at any potential employer.","text":"

You’ll now need to evaluate your list of forty potential employers as prospects. But, as mentioned in the previous blink, simply applying to the many job listings online is rarely successful. There is, however, something that will increase your chances – an internal advocate. This is a current employee who’ll vouch for you.

In today’s job market, an internal advocate is a necessity. Why? Well, put yourself in the employer’s shoes. With so little time, would you rather work through thousands of applications, or be directed to a promising individual by someone you respect? It’s a brutal truth, but without internal advocacy, you stand very little chance of getting to the interview stage.

In fact, research has confirmed that for every person hired by the New York Federal Reserve through the online process, twelve people were hired through internal referrals.

Here’s the key message: You need to find internal advocates at any potential employer.

So how, exactly, can you find internal advocates? It sounds like a daunting task, doesn’t it? Well, by focusing only on the forty potential employers you’ve listed, you can keep it manageable. And at this stage, you don’t need to know whether a contact will actually advocate for you. You just need to know whether there are people like you currently working there. That means alumni from your alma mater, good friends or family members, or people from another affinity group, like the military.

If you have access to your alumni from a previous school or university, the best way to search for advocates is by using LinkedIn.com. You can search for one of your listed employers to see quickly whether any alumni work there. The most valuable kind of alumni are graduates of the specific program from which you graduated, since you’ll already have something in common with them.

The other kinds of potential advocates are simpler: you should already know whether family or good friends work for a company.

And to stay organized while scouting for contacts, add a Y for yes or N for no next to the company names you’ve already listed. We’ll come back to these in a later blink, but there are a few more things to do before reaching out to anyone just yet.

"},{"id":"6001691e6cee07000687dab4","title":"Motivation is extremely important when you’re deciding whether or not to apply for a job.","text":"

You've listed forty possible organizations and determined whether you have any potential advocates at each. Now it’s time for step 3: A reality check on exactly how motivated you are to work for them.

It might seem obvious, but motivation is often overlooked when people apply for jobs – especially when the desperation of unemployment can be all-consuming. But the truth is, it’s the most important factor when ranking your job targets. That’s because chasing after internal contacts and applying for jobs can be disheartening enough. Motivation drives you through the slog of those awkward networking encounters and job applications. Also, potential employers can tell whether or not you’re motivated, since your enthusiasm, or lack thereof, will show in your correspondence with them.

To succeed, you need real drive.

The key message here is: Motivation is extremely important when you’re deciding whether or not to apply for a job.

So how do you know whether you’re truly motivated to work for a company? It may seem like you should already know this, but it actually takes a little bit of work – and honesty – to figure out. And a simple scoring technique can help. Going back to your list of forty employers, score each one from 1 to 3, depending on how enthusiastic you are about each. In this rating system, 1 is least motivated and 3 is super-motivated.

When rating your motivation, take into consideration everything you find attractive about a company. This could be anything from its brand name and location to growth opportunities and benefits. You should also consider how each company might help you meet your ultimate career goals. What’s important here is overall, genuine enthusiasm that comes naturally without requiring much thought.

Why use this three-tier rating system? Well, human beings are not very good at making qualitative judgments, but we are good at comparative judgments. We’re not always able to say why something is the best, but we can judge if it is better, by comparison, than something else. So this rating system, while not perfect, should give you a sense of how you feel about each employer.

Now that you have your motivation ratings for all forty potential employers, we’ll look at step 4 of this job-search process in the next blink.

"},{"id":"6001691e6cee07000687dab5","title":"You need to keep an eye on job websites to see if any of your favorite employers are hiring.","text":"

With your list of forty employers, potential contacts at each, and your motivation ratings all in hand, you’re ready for the next step: checking out job listings on Indeed.com. While you shouldn’t just drift aimlessly from one job website to another, these sites do serve some purpose – they give you information on what employers are looking for.

But beware: it’s easy to get sidetracked when you see an interesting job posting from a company not on your list. Stay diligent and focused! To save time, stick to your forty targets; otherwise, you’ll waste valuable energy in what’s already an exhausting process.

This is the key message: You need to keep an eye on job websites to see if any of your favorite employers are hiring.

So, what information are we looking for on job websites like Indeed? At this point, we’re seeing whether any of our forty employers is currently hiring. This information is useful – but not for the reason you might think; it’s not yet time to apply.

Instead, identifying a suitable job listing means it’s time to track down an advocate at the company. The goal is to get that person to vouch for you as soon as possible!

But let’s say you’ve found a listing for a role you’re not suited to. Well, it still gives you useful information. It tells you that the company is hiring and looking for someone somewhat like you, if not exactly like you. It may still be an opportunity worth looking into.

And just as in the last blink, there’s a strategy to prioritizing opportunities. We’ll be giving them a score out of 3. The top score, 3, is for any employer who has a relevant vacancy. A score of 2 goes to those who have posted a semi-relevant vacancy. And a 1 goes to those who have no relevant posting.

After this process, you’ll be able to see which of your listed employers has a viable vacancy, along with potential advocates. You’ll also see your motivation score. Taking all scores into account, you’ll immediately see that some employers are prioritized much more highly than others.

The highest-ranked employers are the ones to focus your efforts on. Next, we’ll look into how to find an advocate to help you inch closer to a job from the inside.

"},{"id":"6001691f6cee07000687dab6","title":"There is a precise method you should follow when seeking internal advocates.","text":"

By this step, a select few organizations should be topping your list. These are the ones that you’re most enthusiastic about, that are currently hiring, and that have potential contacts to whom you could write.

Now you need to do the hard bit: locate the right kinds of contacts. It’s time to go back to LinkedIn or other social media profiles to help you find them. This means doing a little amateur detective work – which, to be honest, is something most of us have gotten pretty good at with today’s technology.

And don’t worry – just like before, there’s a process to organizing your research into impactful action items.

Here’s the key message: There is a precise method you should follow when seeking internal advocates.

The goal is to find two potential contacts from each of the top companies on your list. Why two? Well, quite simply, it’s because not everyone replies to emails from people they don’t know, or don’t know well. And by choosing two contacts, you’re increasing your chances that at least one of them will respond.

To sort through your potential contacts, create a list that categorizes them into four types.

The first type is anyone who is functionally relevant to the job for which you’re applying. These people are likely to be most helpful. Not only are they familiar with your field, but they also understand the hiring process. They’re best-placed to know exactly whom to refer you to next.

The second type are fellow alumni or members of your shared affinity groups, like the military. These contacts won’t be as useful as those in the first category. But given your shared history, you’ll have an excuse to write to them and ask about the organization.

The third type are employees who hold a position one or two levels above the one you’re applying for. Even if they can’t help you directly, they might be able to refer you to a subordinate. And that subordinate will be very motivated to help you, to impress his or her supervisor.

Finally, the fourth type are those who’ve been recently promoted, which you’ll be able to identify by looking at their LinkedIn profiles for the dates they held certain positions. They will have more social capital than those still working toward their first promotion, and may feel more confident advocating for you.

After ordering your contacts into these tiers, you’ll finally be ready to reach out to the most promising ones.

"},{"id":"6001691f6cee07000687dab7","title":"In any outreach communication, you need a very concise message.","text":"

After all this researching and sifting, you’re now ready to write that all-important message. This note could secure you the most important thing in the job-seeking process: someone who will vouch for you.

How you go about this is critical. You want someone you don’t know to read your message and feel compelled to reply. Your note must be concise. Otherwise, your potential advocate may not even look at it.

Here’s an exercise to drill this point home: The next time you visit your favorite news website, note how you actually interact with it. Chances are, you’ll subconsciously screen out much of the content, ignoring ads and entire articles.

The key message here is: In any outreach communication, you need a very concise message.

Just as we screen out information when we look at a website, we do the same with emails and messages. In fact, we often don’t open messages from names we don’t recognize. Those people you’re trying to contact do the same.

So what can you do to increase the chances of a reply? First, keep your copy to just seventy-five words. Sound too short? Well, you’re writing to a complete stranger and want to reach her. So your message should fit on her phone screen.

Second, don’t mention job-hunting right away. She already knows you’re interested in finding work – otherwise, you wouldn’t be writing to her.

Third, state your connection to her – like being an alumnus of the same university or a member of the same LinkedIn Group – in the first line. This immediately gives her a reason to care about the message.

Fourth, make your request in the form of a simple, direct question, so she will feel obliged to respond. For instance, you could ask if she’s available for a ten-minute chat about her position in the company.

Fifth, define your interest both narrowly and broadly with an open-ended question. Try something like, “What should I expect from the work culture in the game-design department?”

Lastly, make over half the word-count about the contact’s work, not yours! Remember, you’re writing to a stranger. She doesn’t have enough stock in you to be interested in all of your wonderful achievements just yet.

Now, with all of this in mind, you’re ready to cultivate a contact who might just be the one to vouch for you. And these days, that is the most important ingredient of all when trying to find a job.

"},{"id":"6001691f6cee07000687dab8","title":"You may secure an informational interview after your outreach message. Now, it’s time to prepare.","text":"

So you’ve written your most promising contacts and received a response. One person is willing to schedule a meeting with you. In job-searching terms, this conversation is called an informational interview. And an informational interview substantially increases your chances of getting your foot in the door.

The point of an informational interview is to be personable and professional, and form a human connection with your new contact. You want him to want you to work at his company, so it’s not a hard sell – that’ll just turn him off. Instead, think of it as a chat in which you’re super-curious about his professional world.

The key message is this: You may secure an informational interview after your outreach message. Now, it’s time to prepare.

So what do you need to do to prepare for a successful informational interview?

First, learn about the company itself. You don’t need to know everything, but you should be aware of recent developments and news stories – like the launch of a new product. You can find this information on the company’s website. This groundwork makes sure you won’t immediately be stumped when your contact asks, “So did you see our big news?”

Then, do some detective work on the employee you’re about to speak to. Study his LinkedIn profile to get a sense of his work experience. Google him to see if he appears in any professional articles. This information, which is perfectly fine to bring up in your meeting, lets your contact know that you’ve done your research.

Be much more discreet, however, with any information you’ve gleaned from social media and other non-professional sources. You don’t want to look like a stalker! But if you see that your contact is a keen swimmer, for example, you may want to talk about your own swimming accomplishments – if that’s something you have in common, and the opportunity arises.

Your goal at the informational interview, above all, is to establish rapport and ask relevant questions that can’t immediately be answered by searching online. These are on topics like corporate culture, what trends your contact is following, and any advice he may have for someone interested in the company. Just remember that your contact won’t enjoy being stumped by a very complex or technical question.

It can be intimidating to take this next step, but try to enjoy it and let curiosity lead the way. And with all of this guidance under your belt, you’re now ready to go out there and face the music. Good luck!

"},{"id":"6001691f6cee07000687dab9","title":"Final summary","text":"

The key message in these blinks:

To search for work effectively, you need to limit your choices. Stretch your options by listing forty target companies, then focus your efforts only on those. Crucially, you should look for internal advocates at each. This is an essential step in the modern job market. Then, to connect with an advocate successfully, write a concise note, asking direct, open-ended questions that demand an answer.

Actionable advice:

Learn to use Microsoft Excel!

When sorting your forty job targets, Microsoft Excel is a useful tool. It allows you to enter all of the necessary data and automatically sort them depending on their criteria. So, if you can’t already, find a YouTube video or take a course to learn how to use the program.

Got feedback?

We’d love to hear what you think about our content! Just drop an email to remember@blinkist.com with The 2-Hour Job Search as the subject line, and share your thoughts!

What to read next: The Long View, by Brian Fetherstonhaugh

You’ve just learned how to navigate the increasingly complex world of job-seeking. Confronted with a bewildering variety of choices, we often flounder when looking for work. Just as with the blinks to The 2-Hour Job Search, you’ll find essential tips in the blinks to The Long View. Dig into these blinks for practical exercises that will challenge you to rethink how to assess your skills, invest your time wisely, broaden your personal network, and much more.

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