Unconventional Job Hunting Strategies

Don’t be afraid to explore different methods to find what you’re looking for

First published in?jobpostings magazine
careers. education. ideas. all of it.

By?Kate Aenlle

Image courtesy of JobPostings.ca

We’ve all heard the tales of the lucky ones who walk up to big-league employers, ask for jobs, and just get them. Are these stories simply urban legends, keeping our hope alive that, one day, we too will find full-time employment with the company of our dreams?

Recently, an article in the?Business Insider?talked about how one young man crafted a blunt, honest, and clever cover letter in the hopes of getting an internship with a finance company. By writing things like ’the truth is I have no unbelievably special skills or genius eccentricities, but I do have a near perfect GPA and will work hard for you and ’in all honesty, I just want to be around professionals in the industry and gain as much knowledge as I can, he got a favourable response from multiple finance companies who appreciated his unique way of trying to find a job and, more importantly, wanted to hire him!

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all be this lucky?

Although the idea of having a full-time job offered to you seems appealing (and, frankly, a little miraculous), finding your dream job isn’t just about getting lucky; it’s about getting noticed and hired for your talents, skills, and experience. But how do you get noticed when employers are flooded with a sea of resum?®s from candidates that are just as qualified as you? David Perry, author of?Guerilla Marketing for Job Hunters 3.0, says that the biggest mistake people make when looking for a job is ’to go looking for a job. In an age where we quite literally have unlimited resources at our finger tips, it may be wise to think outside the box when trying to find that perfect career.

’The easiest way to find a job is to figure out what you want to do, who you want to work for, and then get them to call you, says Perry. Sounds simple enough, except most people still venture into the traditional send-your-resume-and-cover-letter-to-a-potential-employer route, and don’t know how to just get employers to call them. He says that to get ahead and stand out, people shouldn’t scrap their cover letters and resum?®s. He says that people in search of a job need to make themselves accessible for potential employers who are now using the Boolean method to find candidates.

The Boolean method

The Boolean method, or a Boolean search, according to Perry, is a tool that employers are using to find best-qualified candidates for positions that they need to fill within a company through keyword searches online. They started to search for candidates this way when the recession hit because the job hunt became exponentially more competitive.

Once job opportunities became harder to come by, companies who advertised job openings were bombarded by thousands of resum?®s and there just wasn’t an effective system to sort through the constant flow of resum?®s submitted for a select few job opportunities. Although ’they still had jobs, they stopped advertising them, says Perry. This is why ’the simple way to find a job fast is to make sure you’re online, whether it be LinkedIn, Zoominfo, or Facebook. Make sure that you can be found using the keywords an employer would use to find someone that’s got your skill set. Then you’re answering the phone, rather than leaving another jumbled, fumbled voice message for an employer who’s not going to call you back.

Like Perry, Ian Greenleigh, manager of content and social strategy at Bazaarvoice, knows the value of having an online presence.