Career Advisory postgraduate studies – after the eighth weekend
“I have contacted 40 companies directly. 5 replied, and I spoke with 2 on the phone and on Skype. After 7 days, I sent a follow-up email to the ones that hadn’t responded. After another 3 days, I sent them invites on LinkedIn. Additionally, I have contacted 1 alternative decision maker. The result: silence”. Career Consultants are often approached by frustrated candidates who are unaware of what they are doing wrong and why their search is unsuccessful. On top of that, the candidates find their years of experience and age to be the reasons for their failures. The key to success lies in the strategy and the active use of modern job search channels: networking, contacting headhunters, and direct application. This was the topic of the eighth weekend.
Job search channels, including networking, contacting headhunters, and direct application
The first day of the eighth meeting was led by Anna Mady who focused on active job search, using channels such as direct contact, contacting headhunters, and job ads.
On the first day, Anna discussed the ways and methods of creating a list of potential employers. When creating the list, the most important thing is to consider the client’s goal and target audience. The formula of the meeting was very practical, as students had the opportunity to practice:
- ways to reach a potential employer
- methods of identifying the target group
- how to find the decision maker’s email address
- how to effectively contact the decision maker
- how to write the content of the cover email so that it results in our CV being opened and us receiving an invitation to an interview
The second day of the eighth meeting was hosted by Anna Zadrożna who explored the ways of reaching headhunters, including the difference between the cover email to a headhunter and to a potential employer. She also discussed 3 popular client cases:
- “I’ve contacted 40 companies directly. I have approx. 20 headhunters in my LinkedIn network, but I haven’t contacted any of them. As to networking, I haven’t done anything”.
- “I will be on vacation in August and will continue looking for a job in September. I have my ups and downs, plus I’m afraid I’m too old to be a good candidate (I’m almost 50)”.
- “I’ve contacted 33 companies. So far, I have received 19 responses (reminder emails – follow-ups – were sent 10 days after the first message). 2 companies said they would contact me in the future, as they had no suitable vacancies at the moment”.
Candidates are often frustrated, not achieving the desired results and blaming their failures on age or having too much experience. However, this is not the reason for such a situation – what is important is the strategy, the quality of the documents but also the number of people contacted.
Later in the day, Anna focused on the third most effective job search channel, which is networking. Students saw how to effectively work with clients in order to activate their network in a productive, strategic and elegant way to achieve their career goal within an organization or in the market.
In addition, she addressed the following issues:
- how to establish an action plan with a client
- what to pay attention to when writing a message
- how to work with a client who is not willing to “network” for various reasons, such as: lack of contacts, small or hermetic industry, ego, fear of rejection.
On the second day, we also had the opportunity to host Łukasz Małecki, HR specialist and manager, founder of ShareHire. Łukasz talked about the digitization of referral programs, the way in which such programs work (from the perspective of the employer and the candidate) and what benefits they can bring.
Reflections after the eighth weekend
“I found the tips on sourcing and research very useful. At first I was not comfortable looking for decision makers, and thanks to this meeting, I know how to do it professionally, without spamming, and according to certain rules.”
“I am worried about the decreasing response rate on LinkedIn. It seems to me that the future belongs to code-breakers.”
“It brings me down that the response rate is dropping, and that LinkedIn is not necessarily effective. I wonder what will happen if most of the candidates turn to hiring managers.”
“I think the role of an advisor is to support and believe in the client’s actions while keeping an eye on their schedule.”
“After this meeting, I definitely want to implement a document with a service schedule so that the client has more responsibility for their actions, and so that I can better control their progress”
“What was new to me was the topics we discussed regarding networking and the referral system – I was not aware of how useful these are.”
We will keep you informed about the progress of our students, as well as the postgraduate studies themselves.
PS. Read more about the meeting:
– first
– second
– third
– fourth
– fifth
– sixth
– seventh
Are you interested in this area and don’t want to wait for the next edition? Follow the information about our courses – also in-house – on this website:
https://careerangels.eu/become-a-career-consultant/
