“I’ve contacted 40 companies directly: 5 replied, I spoke with two on the phone or through Skype. After 7 days, I sent a follow-up to those who had not responded. After another 3 days, I sent them invites on LinkedIn. I contacted one 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, candidates blame their years of experience and age for their failures. The key to success is in the strategy and the active use of modern job search channels: networking, contacting headhunters, and direct application. And that was the subject of the eighth weekend.
Job search channels, including networking, contacting headhunters and direct application
The first part of the eighth weekend was led by Anna Zadrożna, who focused on the topic of how to actively look for a job using channels such as direct contact, contacting headhunters or job advertisements.
On the first day of the weekend, Anna discussed the means and methods of creating a list of potential employers as the most effective job search channel for experienced candidates. The most important thing in preparing the list is to take into account the client’s goal and their target group. The formula of the weekend was very practical as the students practiced:
- the ways of reaching a potential employer
- the methods of identifying their target group
- how to find the decision maker’s email address
- how to successfully contact the decision maker
- how to write an effective email to guarantee that your CV will be opened and you will be invited to a job interview.
During that day, we hosted Konrad Zabłocki, HR Director, who talked about how recruitment processes look like from behind the scenes and advised on what a candidate who wants to actively look for a job should do.
The second day began with how to reach headhunters, including the difference between an email to a headhunter and one to a potential employer. Anna also discussed three client cases which relate to frequent situations of candidates, e.g.:
- “I’ve contacted 10 headhunters. I had 2 interviews and I am waiting for a reply. I don’t know what else I can do.”
- “In August I will be on holidays, and I will be back looking for a job in September. I have my ups and downs, and I’m afraid I may be too old to be a good candidate (I’m almost 50).”
- “I’ve contacted 6 companies directly. Each time, my candidacy was rejected by email, not even inviting me to a phone interview.”
Candidates are often frustrated, failing to achieve the desired results, and blame their failures on their age or too much experience. However, these are not the real reasons behind these weak results – what is important is the strategy, the quality of the documents, but also the number of contacted people.
The second part of the day was led by Sandra Bichl, who focused on the second most effective job search channel, which is networking. Sandra showed how to work effectively with clients, so that they could use their own network of contacts in a productive, strategic and elegant way to achieve their professional goal within their organization or on the market.
She also addressed:
- how to establish an action plan with the client
- what to pay attention to when writing messages
- how to work with a client who is not willing to network for a variety of reasons, such as: lack of a network, small or hermetic industry, ego, or fear of rejection.
Reflections after the eighth weekend
“After the weekend, I realized how to create a precise list of potential employers consistent with the client’s goals, and how to identify a potential employer along with their email address.”
“The art of writing an email was eye-opening to me; it’s a great effort to write it in a simple, yet effective way.”
“I realized to how many people one must send an email to generate job interviews.”
“The weekend with the guest, and his description of creating a job ad to which 1000 candidates applied for was fascinating.”
“I realized the great value of job search channels, especially networking. It is worth maintaining strategic relationships with people and performing regular audits of your network. In the future, it will help us and our clients to turn to the them for help.”
“This weekend made me even more aware that everyone should always take care of their network – not only when looking for a job.”
“I leave the weekend even more convinced about the strength of relationships. It is always worth maintaining them. Even when we decide to decline joining a recruitment process that we were invited to by a headhunter, it’s essential to do so in a strategic way – maybe by recommending someone else. We never know when such a contact may prove useful to us / our clients.”
We will keep you informed about our students as well as the progress of our studies.
The enrollment for the 2022/2023 academic year has opened:
- study in Polish – details of the program
- study in English – details of the program
PS. read more about the other meetings:
Are you interested in this field and you don’t want to wait for the next edition? Follow information about our courses – also in-house – on this page:
https://careerangels.eu/become-a-career-consultant/
