WHEN NETWORKING ISN’T THE ANSWER

You may want to take a more direct approach to the job market, cutting out or sidelining some of the stages in this book. That may be a valid strategy prompted by the kinds of jobs you are applying for.

While it’s always important to talk to people and ask for their help, there are sectors and types of work where it’s less appropriate or less effective to use networking. For example, if you’re trying to get into a graduate entry programme in a large organisation, you’ll have to go through a defined recruitment process and it would look ridiculous trying to set up a meeting with the head of graduate recruitment. If you are chasing public or third sector jobs which are regularly advertised, or applying for your first job, or seeking an internship, all that may be required is a good CV or a well-prepared application form.

In some sectors unsolicited approaches or attempting to network your way into a job won’t work unless you are seeking a role at the highest level. With many public sector jobs, for example, the only way an application is considered will be if it comes in through a recognised process. Here, making a telephone call to highlight your suitability for the role can be seen as pushy and unacceptable, although it is often possible to ring someone to find out more about the job details (see Chapter 11). Large organisations, too, including many plcs, often have prescribed recruitment methods – formal processes requiring you to submit an application form or CV to HR, or your application will be handled by a recruitment agency.

In these circumstances conversations with useful people won’t directly get you onto a short list. However, two ground rules before you read on:

1. Use all steps which are likely to improve your message or shorten your job hunt.
2. Cut out steps because they are not appropriate, not because you want to avoid them.

We have acknowledged that many people are averse to networking. Some will never do it, but many will unconsciously create opportunities for conversations at levels 1, 2 and 3. The fact that you don’t want to network doesn’t mean that it won’t work. Many job changers will say at the point of securing a job offer, ‘I wish I’d started talking to people earlier’. Learning to have conversations with a wider group of people is a relatively small step, so even if you only do it in your way, and only do a little, it will still make a difference.

There are many reasons why level 1 and 2 conversations can help you even if you are applying for jobs which simply require you to go through a highly defined recruitment process. There are other channels to the marketplace that need to be mastered. For some kinds of jobs the most important tool is a strong CV, or a well-composed application form. Multistrategy job hunting means working smarter, not harder, by using several job search methods simultaneously, with the greatest emphasis on whatever activity gets you quickest into a conversation with a decision maker. If following a rigid application form process gets you the interview, go for it.

It always helps to find out as much as you can about a sector before you get into a selection process, so it will never in fact be true that networking is of no help to you at all.

AVOIDING THE SEE-SAW BETWEEN NOVELTY AND GLOOM

Often people who are in the jobs market find themselves oscillating between two possible worlds. The first is the world of the big idea – a complete change of career. The second is far more familiar – doing the same kind of job you have done in the past.

What often happens is this. You toy for a while with the idea of career change, saying to yourself ‘the world’s my oyster’, but you don’t do very much about it. You might do a bit of half-hearted desk research, but you don’t turn the idea into a Level 1 conversation. Since you’re absolutely determined not to use networking, you get stuck into job search mode. Perhaps you send out a Functional CV (see Chapter 6), believing that what you have to do is communicate transferable skills. This draws you a blank. You apply for a few jobs that you’re uncertain about, get little in return, and the job market starts to look as bleak and grim as the media suggests. You begin to see-saw helplessly between ‘new and interesting’ and ‘duller than dull’. You’re swayed by friends and family who tell you to be ‘realistic’ and forward you advertisements for undemanding but safe roles. Before too long you conclude that you won’t be able to make a career change at all. Can you see a connection between evidence and decision? No. There isn’t one (see Chapter 17 on interpreting market response).

Sometimes what seems pragmatic is, in the words of career coach Stuart McIntosh, to:

Stick with your previous job role and sector in order to stand any chance of re-employment. Too many people aim first for the perfect job and then take any job (typically at a much lower level) and kid themselves that they can find a better job in the future which rarely happens.

KEEPING IT SIMPLE

Focus on doing what you can with the resources you have, using the channels available to you. This may require you to spend a large amount of your time applying for advertised positions, or offering yourself as a candidate for jobs handled by agencies.

Even this narrow-range activity requires considerably more time, imagination and lateral thinking than most candidates are prepared to give. You need to be able to describe past achievements rather than repeat old job descriptions. You need to be able to describe yourself well on paper – because your CV and application forms will do a great deal of the work for you. You will need to learn to talk about what you are good at without sounding so hesitant that you can’t get the words out, or so arrogant you won’t be believed. You will need to get your best evidence across at interview.

WHAT IS YOUR JOB CALLED?

Start with a review of your CV (see Chapter 6) and seek a mini 360-degree review from colleagues, peers and friends about what you do well. Career coach Stuart McIntosh suggests: ‘decide with someone else’s help where these strengths are best applied, i.e. what job are you looking for and what are the job titles which apply to these roles?’ Then match your experience against other kinds of jobs, including roles which have job titles that are unfamiliar. Knowing what your next job is called, in different contexts, helps you find it. Look at the UK’s biggest jobsites and research jobs that seem to be of interest, and again make a note of what they are called. Use these job title discoveries to guide your search.

Write and talk about past job titles with care. If they are vague or impenetrable – particularly true of public sector job titles – explain or unpack them in terms that make them more recognisable.

CATALOGUE AND DESCRIBE

Examine the language used to describe jobs you find interesting. If you’re struggling to find the right language to describe what you do well, actual job advertisements and job descriptions can give you ideas for phrases you can use in your own CV.

Several chapters in this book outline different ways of cataloguing what you do well. Go back to your Experience Databank (see Chapter 6) to see how to build up an unedited scrapbook of past experiences. When people find it difficult to describe themselves, they often struggle to translate this evidence into something attention-grabbing.

To take a simple example, let’s assume that your last job involved dealing with customer enquiries. The Story of Your Job table below shows how you can tell the story of the way your job started as words on paper and built up into a real experience.

The story of your job

Building on the above step-by-step process of remembering how the job grew around you, you can present this information attractively to any organisation looking for proactive customer service. This section of your CV might look like this:

REVAMP YOUR OFFER ON APPLICATION FORMS

Remember the essentials:

• Turn your experience into evidence, and turn your evidence into something that someone reading your application form will find interesting.
• Don’t assume that people know what your job was all about – job titles give very little away. Tell the story.
• Describe achievements objectively, even if they were small ones.
• Use energised language, ideally using action verbs to begin bullet points.
• Match the language and terminology you use to the kinds of jobs you are trying to reach.

THREE-STEP EVIDENCE

If you want to make a dramatic improvement in the way you present your work experience in application forms or on a CV, try this three-step approach:

1. What was the activity? Don’t get distracted by talking about personal qualities such as being reliable or conscientious. What were you actually doing? What’s a good word to describe that activity so it sounds reasonably impressive?
   Example – you went to a client meeting when your sales manager was off sick. What were you doing? Getting up to speed with information quickly, crisis management, managing relationships, negotiating, managing a difficult customer relationship.
2. What level of difficulty did you face? Having started by naming the skill you should now add something about the context and the nature of the challenge.
   Example – you had to present an idea for change to a suspicious and potentially hostile community meeting. Outline the context and challenge which required the skill: presented controversial ideas to a difficult audience, dealing with objections through clear explanation and project knowledge.
3. What did you achieve? Add a short sentence which describes what happened as a result of your skill.
   Example – you took an idea to your boss about improving website traffic. Tell the story which ends with: The idea was implemented across the whole region contributing to a 35% increase in web sales.

Jane Downes advises:

Have a list of the top three areas of interest to you in a future job, and ensure you have a tailored CV which is relevant to each individual area. Where job seekers can go wrong is in having a one-size-fits-all message – or an uncontrolled message. It is OK to advise a recruitment agency that these are your top three role areas of interest in a particular order. It is also OK to tell them you have tailored appropriate CVs for this. Where it gets complicated is if you have no defined plan about who you want to work for and what role/job title you are seeking. You then leave it in the hands of the gods to make these decisions. Bad move. You need to learn to be your own career manager.