Following on from the last post about Chris, lets recap.

Chris – a highly skilled & experienced electrician was getting nowhere quick in his job search. He was doing all the standard things right: an up-to-date resume, applying for lots of jobs via the newspapers and online and making himself available for interviews at the drop of a hat. All to no avail.

It was now time for me to share with Chris the REAL SECRET of job search.

I put my coffee down on the table, leant forward in my chair, gazed upon the Chris’ confused countenance indicative of a tortured spirit within and spoke out loud the words of wisdom that have inspired people of all races and creeds achieve greatness over milenia   … “don’t be a sheep”

When I use the words don’t be a sheep I really mean don’t follow the crowd. Don’t do things just because everyone else is doing it. The reason job sites like Seek, CareerOne, Monster and all the rest are so popular with candidates & job seekers is that it is soooooo easy to search for a vacancy, apply for a role, upload your cv and submit. A few clicks and you’re done. So, so simple … no pain and you can tell your spouse, parent or bank manager “No problem everyone … I applied for 20 jobs today alone!” Surely a few days of applying for all those jobs one or two will come your way I hear you ask. Maybe … maybe not. My money is on the maybe not!

There are thousands of job seekers – active and not so active applying for jobs. Believe it or not there are hundreds of people applying for each role. The chances are there but they are slim. The crowd, as history clearly shows, follows the path of least resistance.

My advice to Chris was to forge a new path. Bypass the jobs sites, newspaper ads and teeming masses of recruiters and go direct to employers. This path is narrow and twisted and takes real work to navigate. But guess what – you aren’t sharing the path with 1,000 other job seekers. If you’re doing it right – it will most likely just be you!

The tips I gave Chris were (in summary) the following:

1. Research the organisations you want to work with.

2. Make a direct approach

3. Get a meeting

4. Sell yourself

5. Win the opportunity to work with them.

The above is oversimplified of course but that is the core of it.

Here is the email I got from Chris just the other week:

from Chris Rock <c.rock@yahoo.com> to james@envoysearch.com.au date Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 7:31 PM subject Jobs signed-by yahoo.com.

hide details Mar 2

Hi James,

I took your advice and phoned a few people and I had 3 three interviews and two offers.

I have accepted one offer as a Design Engineer with XXXXXXXX Energy Solutions and I’m starting on Monday.

Thanks again for your help.

Chris Rock

James Evangelidis

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Tagged as: Bypassing recruiters, Chris Rock, secret