After getting hired for a new job a month after publishing the original article, I wanted to follow up on Part 1 of my marketing job-search lessons. I have 12 more tips — they come down to building relationships, asking for help, and focusing on what you can control.
Start by Building Relationships
1. Show up, and keep showing up. A former boss described it as this: “You keep going to industry events ’til you start recognizing people and they start recognizing you.” Helping at the door at the first Raleigh Media Leaders networking event, I knew no one. Helping at the door at the fourth Raleigh Media Leaders event — 11 months later, now as one of the volunteer organizers — I recognized two-thirds of the people.
2. It’s not just one thing — it’s a series of events. I got my job offer at Coalmarch Productions in early September 2010. I met Coalmarch partner Jake St. Peter after joining the board of TIMA (the Triangle Interactive Marketing Association). I joined TIMA after meeting Janet Kennedy at the first Raleigh Media Leaders event in January 2010. I went to Media Leaders because I saw Phil Buckley promote his new event on Twitter. I saw the promo because I started using my Twitter account. Perhaps I’d have gotten the same job eventually (Janet is ubiquitous!), but who knows?
3. But single instances can help, if you have a reputation behind it. I got a first-round interview after making a single, thoughtful comment on an agency CEO’s blog. He emailed to ask me to come in to meet the team. But I believe it wasn’t just the comment — I’d built a large library of content by blogging for months, and I’d built my offline network, too.
4. Online communication can supplement — but doesn’t replace — face-to-face interactions. In one of my blog interviews, smartest-guy-in-the-room Greg Ng mentioned sending twice as many Twitter DM’s (private direct messages) as public tweets. Greg elaborated:
“It’s building relationships, purely one on one. Not me “@”-ing you and everyone else sees it all. That’s great too. But conversations that you and I may have in direct message will now build an even deeper relationship. It’s just for you.”
Don’t be Afraid to Ask for Help
5. Invest in yourself. Hiring career coach Darrell Gurney of CareerGuy.com gave me a framework for my search. After I realized I needed a bold “Hire Me” call-to-action on my website, I hired designer Maura McDonald to create the graphic. After a hiring manager said I came across as un-spontaneous, I signed up for improv classes at DSI Comedy in Carrboro.
6. Have an accountability system. Finding a new job is a long process, with lots of smaller activities that lead to bigger results. My career coaching with Darrell included weekly check-in calls with him and his other clients. We’d report on our progress and make commitments for the following week. If you can’t afford to hire a coach, find a reliable accountability partner or join one of the local job-seeker groups that offers this service for free. But you have to stick with it for this to pay off.
7. Get an office somewhere. I did on-site marketing consulting for a startup that had a spare office. It was a part-time gig but they let me use the office for my job search the rest of the day. After two years of working from home, it was great to be around other people on a daily basis. If you’re currently unemployed, think about people you know — they might have an extra desk.
8. Help other job-seekers. This bears repeating from Part 1. First, it’s rewarding to help other people. Second, helping others lets you focus on something other than the fact that you’re looking for a job. Third, you’re not directly competing with them — either they’re in a different area, or they’re either more or less qualified if you both apply to the same position.
9. Have something specific to ask for. For instance — an industry you want to research further, a referral to a specific company, someone who might have office space to trade for advice, etc. I was floored by how many people responded to the last article with advice and encouragement. You will not find a job by sitting at home and emailing resumes to ads on Monster.com.
Reduce Stress by Focusing on What You Can Actually Control
10. Start a blog as a platform for your ideas. After hearing both Beck Tench and Phil Buckley extol the benefits of blogging, I was convinced. From an SEO perspective, blogging helps you “own” your Google search results. More organically, blogging is an opportunity to show hiring managers how you think. Whether you do WordPress self-hosted (my choice) or make a quicky Tumblr blog, make a brief plan, and then just start doing it. Your first few posts will be bad and then they’ll get better. And go to the Raleigh SEO Meetup for guidance.
11. Do informational interviews. I did 75+ informational interviews over nine months. I found most people I asked were glad to meet with me. You never know where a connection will lead — to a job, a consulting gig, new ideas, a new employee, or something else. And always ask if they can recommend someone else to speak with — at one point, I met with someone four degrees removed from the original contact. Stay in touch with people on a regular basis, to help stay top-of-mind.
12. Bonus tip: Keep refining that business card. You can’t control everything in your job search but you can at least fine-tune your job-search business card. I used mine as a way to test my pitch — to see how people responded and to optimize it along the way. Don’t focus on your business card to the exclusion of building actual relationships, but it’s nice to have someplace to focus that isn’t dependent on others’ whims (e.g., interviews). I really liked using Avery’s Clean Edge business cards, which don’t have the cheesy perforations along the sides. Or hire a designer for help.
Add Your Advice!
Have any of these suggestions worked for you? What would you add to the list? Read my earlier article for 11 more tips.
Ad agency marketer Karl Sakas helps companies and non-profits use marketing to make more money. As the head of marketing and client service at Coalmarch Productions in Raleigh, North Carolina, his clients include two-person startups, regional non-profits, and international corporations. Also, he’s really into trains.
Related Posts:
- Marketing job search lessons: Update #1. I’d appreciate your advice and referrals.
- Phil Buckley on non-linear careers, and smart people to follow in marketing and technology
- Why you need to keep up with Justin Bieber, and other important marketing lessons from creative director Gregory Ng
- Roller derby marketing tips from marketer Lillian Axe of the Carolina Rollergirls
- Increase your search marketing ROI with top SEM tips from the Triangle AMA
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Great advice – especially #2. My only edit would be, “…once you start attending marketing events on a weekly basis, you realize Janet is ubiquitous…” which sort of goes back to #1.
There’s no question that your job hunting posts was some of the best writing I saw in 2010. Keep up the good work my friend!
Truly GREAT post, Karl…but that’s not a shocker.
You’ve actually given me some things to think about that I hadn’t already considered for my on-going search. Thank you for that!
Happy New Year to you & may we see more fantastic marketing tips come from you in 2011 too!
On business cards, I love Moo.com. Small print runs as low as $25 mean you can rapidly change your card design without worrying about the 200 odd cards you haven’t used yet. The quality is professional, and they have a narrow cut that never fails to draw comments. Also, invest in a neat card holder. Mine is a keychain. It’s a conversation piece. I’m thinking of getting one that spreads out like a portfolio so I can let people pick their favorite design.
On informational interviews, do you initiate those on your end? What’s your approach?
Great tips! One that turned out to be key for me was “keep following up.” Again and again and again and then again when you think hope has been lost.
Of your many great posts this year, Karl, this is among your best. I’ll be sending many a job-seeker here for a primer. I’m hard pressed to think of anything to add, except possibly to always follow up a networking meeting or interview with a thank you and an offer to help that person, if possible.
Oh, and to Rachel: I found that it really takes the pressure off of your informational interviewees if you tell them right up front what you hope to accomplish in the interview. Naturally, you’re not looking for a job outright, you’re looking for their opinion or some guidance. Consider telling them about yourself and then asking where they might see you fitting in–if not in their organization, perhaps somewhere else in the local area. Always ask for a few names and contact info of other individuals you might be able to talk to. If you can get two of three contacts from each interviewee, you’ll soon have more people to talk with than you’ll have time to talk with them.
Great post. This is a fantastic way to inspire people to do big things in the new year. Hope your 2011 is the best yet.
Thanks for the feedback and the additional tips!
@Rachel: Grant has a great overview on approaching people. I find it helps to open the informational interview by asking, “How did you get to where you are today?” As for getting info interviews in the first, it helps if I’m already familiar to them from social media or other meetups. But I also got some meetings by cold-writing letters to people I didn’t know. If people declined or didn’t respond, I didn’t take it personally — no one’s obligated to meet with you.
Karl, this is a textbook example of how to follow the textbook. All this info is out there as tips, best practices, etc. But what happens is poor execution and follow through. I think the key differentiator is you. You did the work, you kept trying new tactics, you networked and you created your blog and published your interviews.
Awesome perspective of a well run employment campaign!
Thanks, Brian! It’s funny, my job search involved some of the same tactics I use on behalf of my marketing clients at Coalmarch — working hard, testing new ideas, creating content, connecting the right people, finding ways for everyone to benefit, and making things happen. And sending thank-you notes.
Now, I feel like I may lose my “ubiquitous” title since I am just now commenting on your blog 9 months after you wrote it! Plus I had a hard time spelling ubiquitous!
Thank you for your kind words about me but especially for your common sense advice and encouragement to job seekers. It is tough out there and you really make great points about the many ways to keep the job hunt alive and interesting.
Thanks for contributing here, Janet! And yes, I enjoy sharing advice with marketing job seekers in the Triangle.
To extend my reach (beyond people I connect with one-on-one), I’ve organized a collection of career and job search how-to articles on my blog — feel free to share these with anyone who’s looking: http://karlsakas.com/find-a-job-in-marketing/
OK, well I beat Janet in being last to the punch!
Karl, great input and overview of all it takes to be protean in your career management. I’m glad the structure I provided seeded your campaign development, and yet your unique twist to the development of that campaign–through your blog and social media expertise–allowed you to create a campaign as personalized as what you bring to any organization. So, kudos for doing the work. That’s what I find most stops people: you can give them a structure, you can lead them the water…but you can’t make them think! You thought. Good on ‘ya!
I hope the structure that you made good use of, as will be outlined in my upcoming book, Never Apply for a Job Again: Break the Rules, Cut the Line, Beat the Rest, will fly as far with others as you flew it.
Thanks, Darrell! I think the biggest benefit from working with you as my career coach was the mixture of structure and accountability. Coupled with my own efforts, it paid off — it took me nine months to build my network and move from independent consulting to an agency position, but then just a month to find my next agency position.
If people want to check out your latest book, it’s available on Amazon pre-order: http://www.amazon.com/Never-Apply-Job-Again-Break/dp/1601632029
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