MOVE
UP WITH HELP FROM YOUR FRIENDS
Research shows that most CVs end up in the bin. It's time
to be more creative, writes BARBARA McCARTHY
JOB creation in Ireland is on the up but as anybody with
experience of the market will confirm, most of the jobs
being filled are never advertised. The world of work is
not unlike a pyramid, says Richard Nelson Bolles, author
of What Colour Is Your Parachute, the bestselling
guide to job hunting and career changing.
“It’s
a large structure, segmented by different job- hunting techniques,”
Bolles said. “Employers start at the bottom
of that pyramid. They try to fill vacancies by looking internally
and hiring from within. Only after that do they go up the
pyramid to other methods, such as contacts, employment agencies,
unsolicited résumés and ads.”
Job
hunters, he says, often take the opposite course. They start
by mailing CVs and looking through advertisements. Only
when they have exhausted that route do they move down the
pyramid to the strategies that employers prefer. Randomly
mailing out CVs to employers tends to be a waste of time.
Only one job offer is made for every 1,500-1,700 resumes
sent out in America, according to Bolles’s book. Answering
ads in professional or trade journals can be just as fruitless.
“That method also has only a 7% success rate,”
he said.
Rowan
Manahan of Fortify Services, a career management and outplacement
company, agrees. “Employers generally look within
the company first to see who is available,” said
Manahan, the author of Where’s my Oasis?
“After that they let it be known within their
network that they are hiring.”
According to Manahan this network comprises of trusted friends,
mentors, school and college friends, co-workers (past and
present), previous employers, clients, family members, professional
advisers, and lecturers. Further down the line, it can also
include customers, suppliers, people you meet at seminars
and courses, sporting buddies or mates at the local pub
as well as professional and trade organisations related
to their given field. Some jobseekers are reluctant to use
their contacts fearing that they will be perceived by their
new colleagues as incapable of finding a job on their own
merits. They need have no fear on this score, according
to Manahan.
“No
employer is going to take on a sub-literate, incompetent
clown just because he happens to be someone’s nephew,”
he said. Once one has decided to be more creative,
the question is how to go about finding jobs that have not
been advertised.
Donald
Asher, the author of The Overnight Job Change Strategy,
says the only answer is to get out and meet people.
“If you hide behind the internet, you may spend your
entire life looking for a job,” Asher said.
“You have to talk to people to find a job.”
That means identifying the industry in which you would like
to be involved, getting leads and contacting the company
and finding out about possible vacancies.
Remember
to use your network of contacts — everyone has one,
although some are bigger than others. Anthropologists say
we all have 30 people in our lives whom we trust and, if
each of these trusted 30 has another 30, then we can have
a network of up to 900 people.
So
why does the employer look to his network first? According
to Gallup International, the association of market research
companies in almost 60 countries around the world, getting
it wrong at hiring stage can cost the employer as much as
3.2 times the remuneration package. This includes wasted
management time, loss of productivity and the hidden costs
of low staff morale. That is why employers examine every
branch on the grapevine so as to ensure that they are hiring
a known quantity. They believe that a trusted company client
is unlikely to recommend that they employ a layabout.
“Market
forces are squeezing margins at the top end and the increasingly
aware consumer is demanding improved services and quality.
Employers cannot afford to pay over the odds,” said
Manahan. More than half of Manahan’s executive-level
clients gain entry into the jobs marketplace “through
some level of personal contact”.
Seamus
Considine, a partner at Amrop Hever, has had the same experience
at his executive search firm. “More and more employers
are less likely to use newspaper advertising in place of
networking and other methods,” he said. “Up
to 70% of people get senior level roles through methods
other than advertising.” This does not mean you
should ignore adverts, but rather you should not rely on
them as your only source of information. To find the best
candidates, clients often employ the services of an executive
search company. “These can identify, select and
recruit top level senior management,” Considine
said.
Firms
such as Amrop Hever present their clients with a list of
options. “It is a very rigid process where we
examine if the candidate will fit in with the culture and
climate of the job,” he explained.
“We examine both the behavioural and the technical
aspects of the candidate.” Considine advises
the jobseeker to have a strong understanding of his skills
and look at these from an employer’s perspective.
Also he suggests that people have a current CV in the top
drawer and be aware of what is going on in the market place.
“Jobs don’t just become available when someone
retires, the majority of roles come about by organisational
restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, business growth
and new product opportunities,“ he said.
After
that finding the best hidden job is down to luck. But remember
the words of Oprah Winfrey: “Luck is a matter
of preparation meeting opportunity.”
original
article here