Those of you out there having trouble finding a job need to shut it down for a second. Take a breath. Stop listening to every Tom, Dick, and Harry who has something to say about what you should do to up your search game. There isn’t a reputable publication – digital or print – that doesn’t have some feature in every edition on how to get a job. And a lot of it is fluff. Stupid. Silly. Fluff. So be careful.
There’s really only one thing you can do to truly improve your chances of getting a job. You already know it…yes, you do. You might just need a reminder. It doesn’t involve a better resume or cv, a better LinkedIn profile, a BeKnown or BranchOut account, 2,000+ Twitter followers, career fairs, a new suit, or a tummy tuck.
250 resumes are received for each position and recruiters spend all of 5-7 seconds looking at each. Those odds suck. Big time. So screw all that. You need one thing and one thing only.
A Friend.
Find a job you like and then work your ass off to find a friend that works there. And by friend, I don’t mean someone (necessarily) who stood up at your wedding or held your first born at her baptism. I mean anyone you can draw a line of familiarity to. Someone who knows you. Someone who knows of you. Someone who knows someone who knows of you. Do it any way you need to. But you need someone on the inside to carry that little puny resume of yours over to the person that needs to see it. And it needs to be delivered with a brief intro, a ‘please’ and a ‘thank you.’ That’s the only real chance you have. It just is.
If you can’t find a ‘friend’ in the place you want to work, then working there is most likely beyond your reach. Give it up. Move on and put your energies into jobs and places where you have those friends. Or work really really hard to find friends in the places you want to work. This is all intuitive – you’ve heard it before, you’ve probably preached it before. But chances are you’ve lost focus and gravitated back to the shotgun approach to job search – ‘post and pray.’ Stop it. Find a friend.
Image Credit: VinothChandar
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