Passive Job Search

The Problem:

The primary reason most executive job seekers take a year or more to find their next position is because they do not use all the proven tools to find a job. They follow a limited search strategy that involves networking with known company and recruiter contacts, pursuing published job leads, and writing to a few dozen companies of interest. This conventional approach often leads to inevitable disappointment causing the job seeker to slow down the search even further, leading to fewer leads, and more disappointment. Invariably after a year or more of discouragement, he or she defaults out of necessity to accepting lesser opportunities often requiring major adaptations to lower compensation, responsibility, and difficult moves. 

Solution:

We advise our OptiMarket executive clients to pursue an “ All Channel” job search strategy that employs every one of the proven job search techniques simultaneously. Why? Because the key to finding the right job faster is to let as many target contacts know about your skills, experience, and goals as quickly as possible. Great sales people know that the sales process is no, no, no. no, no, no, yes- and the game is getting through all the no’s as fast as possible in order to get to yes. The same is true of job search. It is a sales challenge that involves dealing with a seemingly endless barrage of resistance and objections before making the sale. The best way to get there is to use all the tools available, and to have them all in play early on in the search, within ninety days of commencement. These are the tools you should use, ranked in order of priority:

Networking

Everyone knows that networking is the best method to find a job.  As networking leads to approximately 75% of all jobs, it stands to reason that one should allocate 75% of available search time to this process. Few do. Why? Networking is humbling, takes a great deal of time, requires diligent administration, and is full of disappointment and frustration. Great networkers understand this and don’t take the push back and disappointment personally. As with effective sales people, they know it is simply a numbers game, and do a good job of blocking out emotions. They understand that most of their time should be spent effectively networking which means contacting a minimum of one hundred contacts per month in order to personally meet with one new contact every day on average. Nearly all the executives in transition we know who land in less than one year either meet or come close achieving these key benchmarks. Those who take a year or more do not.

Important networking sources include college and graduate school associations, church networking groups, venture capital clubs, and local groups organized by business function [marketing, finance, It, etc] to name a few. The aggressive networker will attend at least two meetings per week.

Direct Marketing to Companies

Many executives consider direct communications to cold companies as a mass mailing which is a waste of time and money. First, mailing to a targeted list of approximately 1,000 companies, for example, is anything but a mass campaign when one realizes that there are over 13,000,000 companies in the US. A focused approach to 1,000 firms represents an infinitesimal percentage of the total, hardly a mass effort. Secondly, well crafted direct to company letters are generally recognized as the second best method to attain a job. They reach a relatively large target audience at the same time, which often leads to multiple offers. This result dramatically improves the negotiating leverage for out of work executives. Third, the cost is reasonable, approximately $ 1.50 per letter. Further, it doesn’t take much time: in as little as two weeks one can identify and purchase a company data base, buy letterhead, and mail. Finally, and most importantly, in just two weeks the executive can reach as many target companies as networking would take in over a year. While networking is the most effective way to get referrals to target companies, direct marketing significantly broadens the immediate reach of the executive's search campaign. The more targeted companies approached the greater the probability that one of them will have a current need for someone with the executive's skills and experience.

Direct Marketing to Recruiters

This campaign is also an important part of any search strategy although it generally yields fewer results than company mailings primarily due the “ out of work” bias that many recruiters have against executives in transition. Sending e-mail to recruiters is preferred because it is more cost effective than a letter, and most recruiters now accept e-mails from job seekers.  A national recruiter list of over 5,000 can be purchased very inexpensively. One should mail to all because a recruiter in San Diego could very well be conducting a search for a position with a company in Stamford, Connecticut.

Direct Marketing to Private Equity and Venture Capital Firms

Although a long shot, senior executives who can also demonstrate an ability to bring a possible new investment opportunity to these firms often land excellent positions in this manner.   Executives pursuing this direction are strongly advised to contract for a monthly fee equal to no less than two-thirds of their previous salary as well as a substantial success fee if a deal is consummated. Hopefully, the executive will be chosen as a member of the acquired company’s management team, however if not, he or she will have been fairly compensated for the effort. Given the very low success rate associated with this search method we would not advise any executive to work on a possible deal without significant compensation. The best way to reach these firms is by referral. However, absent that, data bases exist which can be used for direct to firm communications.

Another possibility, however less successful, is to position oneself as a permanent member of the firm responsible for either working out troubled portfolio companies or identifying new investment opportunities. Usually, only executives with outstanding industry credentials, high-level contacts, and considerable "deal" experience, are considered. Referral is the preferred method of introduction.

Published Leads

Although less than 5% of senior executive jobs are gained through this method, it must be used because it can work. The Wall Street journal, trade publications, selected Internet sites, ExecuNet and Net Share are all good sources of published job opportunities. However, the reason finding a great job using this method is so difficult is job openings are reviewed and acted upon by hundreds of thousand of job seekers. The competition is enormous. Therefore, little time should be spent in this effort. Perhaps two hours per week.

Summary:

The most successful job search approach is to adopt the “All-Channel “ strategy that utilizes all of the proven job search techniques concurrently. The reason this plan works best is because no one can predict which tool will work most effectively for any one individual at any point in time. Further, the sooner all of your target audience learns of your skills experience and job objective the sooner you will find your next job.