Entrepreneur and blogger extraordinaire Neil Patel just wrote a post called “You’re the reason why you don’t have a job“. I saw the tweet, and clicked over, expecting him to talk about your lack of passion, innovative thinking, creativity and the like.
Instead, he covered the mundane basics — things like having a 2-page (or shorter resume), personalizing your cover letters/intro mails, being on time, networking, etc.
I think the things he covered are the oxygen of job-hunting and interviewing — that is, if you aren’t doing those, you are going to be out of luck forEVER in today’s economy.
I think the real reasons that most people don’t have jobs go far beyond his list — these are the types of things that really get the door opened, and people paying attention:
1) Show Passion! Your cover letter should contain your login/profile for the website (if it’s a consumer web company), your top idea(s) as to how to improve the experience, questions you have about things that puzzle you about the company, and more — show that you’ve dug in and are willing to question the status quo.
2) Go beyond networking. Have back-channel feedback loops installed (i.e. ask a friend to introduce you, even if you’ve already made an initial outreach). Get active on blog comments and/or tweet streams. Show passion in user communities (i.e. if you’re an active Twilio-an, you’re much more likely to be noticed in the interview loop)
3) Volunteer/make a bold offer. No one wants people to work for free (at least, ethical employers don’t want that), but we DO appreciate people who are willing to make us offers we can’t refuse. That, plus a strong background, passion for our work, and social justification (#2 above), make it much easier to pull the trigger.
4) Get off your ass! So many people sit around ‘waiting for people to hire them’; they’re the same people who bitch and moan about being asked to put in extra effort once they’re hired. Get used to selling yourself, your skills, your abilities, and your passions — no one else is going to do it for you.
Also, refer to my ‘how to hire/fire at startups‘ — focus on the inverse of many of my examples — look for things that are trigger points in the relationship, and then just think the inverse.
I very much like this post better. More direct as to why not rather than what to do.
I am currently employed but seeking a company to better use my passion for SEO. To get noticed I do some pro bono work on LinkedIn in their Q&A discussions.
If the company I am applying for is on LinkedIn, I contact their HR, but also 'view profiles' of other people relevant to my position. They see I have viewed, curiosity makes them view mine in return, and a connection is made.
Because in SEO, it is all about linking back to great content and ranking high 🙂
Richard
http://www.linkedin.com/in/richardgetz
That's a great point Joe! I never thought as "entitlement" but that's exactly it. Entitlement is bad.
That's exactly how you got your internship with us @MikeyTom! Remember walking up to me at the Seattle 2.0 event? I wasn't even looking for interns for last summer, and we ended up hiring you and Nancy pretty much on the spot, just because of your passion and energy! And, we've recently hired Kenji very similarly — he just blew us away!
That's another great blog post — "Entitlement is killing you" — once people start to breathe life into a feeling of entitlement, it's insidious (I think… I'm not exactly sure what that word means, but it feels right, here). You need to rid yourself of entitlement, and keep scrapping for everything you get every day — then things seemingly just fall into place.
I totally agree — like the early post on 'hiring and firing', the roles can very easily be switched — companies that don't take ownership of their hiring process and show excitement about what they're looking for also shouldn't be wondering why they have a dearth of great candidates, or why their eventual hires turn out to be low-to-middlin' performers.
I'm happy to hear that you landed a full-time gig — the fact that you're even reading this post (and commenting!) tell me that you're already well ahead of the curve.
Onward,
Dave
As someone who was on the job hunt for over a year, I agree with Neil (and you) that I'm the reason why I didn't have a job, but let's level the playing field a bit here. Granted, I'm not whining or blaming employers for not giving me every job I ever applied for, but there are some consistencies that I found during my hunt:
1) Employers/hiring managers know exactly who they're looking for, what skills they want that person to have, and exactly the personality they want that person to possess. But they don't always voice it in the job post or during the interview; or
2) They don't know who they want to hire or what they want them to do (and aren't honest about it during the interview) or change what they want during the interview process.
And it's all about individual chemistry.
As you mentioned in your list, the way to figure that out that information is to find a back-channel introduction or volunteer your way to a job (volunteering is how I landed my full time gig). And writing posts like this where you're transparent about what you're looking for.
Thanks, Dave.
I think it boils down to entitlement. I can spot it on the resumes, cover letters and during their interview. Sitting around 'waiting for people to hire them' is a form of entitlement. They've stopped learning and pushing themselves, and they've started building an expectation that they should get such and such level of responsibility, pay grade, perks and type of work. Meanwhile, the economy has moved on, new technologies have disrupted their line of work and they just haven't kept up..so of course nobody cares.
I completely agree with you here Dave. If you aren't able to do the things that Neil outlined in his post you really are out of luck/have fun watching college students who can do this pass you by ; ) .