Looking for Hippos

Allocate Your Time and Resources to Achieve Maximum Results

"Hippos" are "high payoff" activities. The length and quality of your search is greatly affected by how well you plan and manage your time. Use all the campaign strategies, but devote your time in proportion to their effectiveness. Networking is the number one way people find new jobs. My hunch is that the average job seeker spends less than 20% of the time networking, yet networking produces up to 80% of the results. Imagine if job seekers networked 80% of the time!

Networking. Between 60-80% of all jobs are found through networking. Some surveys put this figure as high as 85%. If you are not investing at least 60% of your time on networking and related activities, you are not allocating your resources appropriately.

Recruiters and Agencies. This category covers a wide range of employment specialists; from temporary agencies, to contingency recruiters, to retained search firms. Recruiters, used properly, can be very effective in helping you get into companies. Up to 20% of jobs are found through recruiters.

§          The leading resource for finding recruiters that might be helpful to you is Kennedy Information. Their website is www.KennedyInfo.com. You can search for recruiters by specialty, industry, salary range and more. Build a list of 100-500 recruiters that match your criteria and contact them.

§          Another good way to find recruiters is to study Internet job postings and identify recruiters who post jobs you like. If they have one job you like, it is quite possible that they have more. Check their website and post your résumé.

Online Résumé Posting. This method is more effective and much less time consuming than ad response.

§          Post your résumé on five to 10 different job boards. One example, and the leading brand, is www.Monster.com. There are hundreds of other sites.

§          Employers and recruiters use this extensively. If you come up as a match in a search and they contact you, your chances of winning an interview are much greater than if you respond to one of their ads.

§          To maximize this method, update your résumé every week. Search results are often sorted by when the posting was last updated, with the most recently updated at the top of the table. Make sure yours is near the top of the list.

Ad Response. This includes both printed and online openings. Online postings are easy to respond to, that means you are throwing your hat in the ring along with potentially 3,000 other candidates.

§          This is a low payoff activity, so allocate your time — spend no more than three hours per week.

§          When you find a good fit, don't just reply — network your way to the decision maker.

Job Fairs. These may be somewhat effective for low to mid-level jobs. Employers are less and less satisfied with this strategy. It is expensive and time consuming and they are not getting good results, so they are shifting their focus to recruiters and the Internet. Scan job fair ads for target company names. Even if the positions they are hiring for don't match your background, go anyway. The people there can help you reach the right people in the organization.

Direct Mail.  "Kids, don't try this at home." It doesn't work.  This refers to blindly sending your résumé to dozens (or even hundreds) of CEOs, HR directors and other managers in the hope that your materials will impress them so much that they will suddenly pick up the phone and offer you your ideal position.