This is a tried and true statement that has been part the Career Coach’s playbook forever. Today, in a highly competitive, new job market that is dramatically shaped by technology, this statement now qualifies as an immutable truth for anyone looking for a new job.
When I make this statement, either in a speech or an executive coaching session, heads nod in agreement. The problem is that too often the nodding of the heads does not translate into a daily routine that reflects this truth.
There are several reasons for this:
- There elements of a job search that require actions that most executives have little or no experience with, including cold-calling, strategic networking and self-promotion of their professional brand
- Many executives do not have a plan to guide their search. In their former jobs executives measured their performance using key performance indicators (KPI). In a job search most executives do not readily know what the KPIs should be much less how to incorporate them into their daily routine.
Here are five keys to accelerate your search for a next better position:
- Develop a daily work routine for your search.
Coach’s Note: You must invest time in the office each day of the week. Accelerating your job search requires that you generate activity to enhance your brand, establish new contacts and aggressively build networks within a network. Your standards for productivity in your job search should not be that different from your previous employment.
2. Create Key Performance Indicators to ensure that your work time is productive and effective.
Coach’s Note: This is where the rubber meets the road. Most executives hate cold calling or anything to do with self-promotion. So, they do not include KPIs that will measure the necessary actions you must take to attract the attention of recruiters or other executives who are quietly looking for talent like you. KPIs include: new primary contacts, secondary contacts within targeted organizations, telephone calls made to corporate recruiters search firms, colleagues and vendors, all of which may be able to provide job market intelligence; etc.
3. Schedule coffees, lunches with existing and new contacts.
Coach’s Note: This will require some cold calling. Avoid relying only on those people you already know but who may not be in a position to help you (retirees, friends outside your targeted market segment, etc.) Calling friends is certainly easier than calling people you do not know but expanding your network is a must. If you are sitting back waiting for the job offers to roll in from recruiters, or even invitations to be considered for a new role, you will significantly prolong your job search.
4. Create mini-case studies and other custom content for posting on LinkedIn and your personal web page.
Coach’s Note: Most of the corporate recruiters and many of the search firm consultants use sites like LinkedIn and Instagram to identify active and passive job applicants. If you are not elevating your digital brand weekly, if not daily, your time-to-hire will lag behind those that do.
5. Stay current. The time it takes to land a new job in a highly competitive market takes time, six to eight months or more. It is important that you remain up to date ion industry developments, including mergers, turnaround situations, etc. Candidates who seem out of date are hurting themselves.
Coach’s Note: Posting news stories to sites like LinkedIn help you stay up to date It also signals to recruiters that you are current with your industry knowledge.
Master Interviewing Skills Course Schedule for Chicago
Join Chrishonda Smith, CCDP, SHRM of OhioHealth and John Self, an executive career transition coach, for a Master course on interviewing skills at the American College Healthcare Congress in Chicago, March 23 – 26. This is one of the more popular and highly rated sessions of the Congress The session is at 2:15 PM on Wednesday, March 25.