THE SEVEN SEARCH TECHNIQUES

Everyone looking for a job uses one or more of these seven techniques. The good news is that there are only seven of them, and they’re not complicated. The bad news is that they’re often misunderstood. Even some job hunting books contain misinformation on them. Here they are, in order of their importance:

These four work for only a small percentage of job hunters:

1. Walking In is when you go to the employer’s location and ask for a job. It works best for hands-on jobs that pay by the hour, like dishwasher or non-union carpenter. It’s usually not a good idea for higher paying jobs.

2. Cold Calling is when you phone complete strangers, people who have never heard of you and try to convince them to hire you. It works for some job hunters. Most people don’t like doing it. Luckily, you don’t have to use it.

3. Direct Mail is sending letters or e-mails to complete strangers. When you are on the receiving end of this kind of thing, you call it “junk mail” or “spam.” It is possible to find a job this way, but it requires very large numbers of letters or e-mails (usually hundreds or thousands) and an extra long Target List.

4. Completing Applications is most important in government hiring. For non-government hiring, it’s not a strong technique. Many people fill out the application after they get hired, not before. Employers sometimes use applications as a polite way to get rid of unwanted applicants: “Fill out the application, and we’ll let you know.”

 

These two work for about 20% of job hunters:

5. Responding to Job Ads is mostly done on the Internet, though there are still some ads in print that are not on the Internet. If you can find ads for your kind of work and your resume is suitable for them, you should definitely try it. You’re doing well if you get one interview for every 40 (yes, forty) resumes you send out in response to ads.

6. Using Staffing Firms (including executive recruiters, employment agencies, and temp firms) works best for people with resumes showing solid work experience in standard job titles like administrative assistant, accountant, brand manager or controller. Managers and executives with strong resumes can sometimes quickly get offers by getting a strong resume to 100 or so executive recruiters.

When you post your resume on Internet sites, you’re in this category. The site’s owners are including your resume in a monstrous resume database, then selling employers the privilege of searching the database.

 

This one works for everyone, if you know how:

7. Networking, or just plain talking to people, is how the majority of people find jobs. But, wow, are there a lot of crazy ideas out there about networking! It’s often confused with information interviewing or mixed up with stuff that’s not networking at all, like networking parties or network marketing. Some books actually tell you that networking is the same as cold calling, or even suggest that it includes tricking people or stretching the truth.

If you understand what networking really is (and use it honestly, with a Project Plan and Target List) you can find a good job without having to do anything unusual or unpleasant.

There’s an entire chapter on the Seven Search Techniques in Orville’s book, The Unwritten Rules of the Highly Effective Job Search , explaining their pros and cons and how to use them.