Welcome to the Executive Leap Flash Briefing. I’m Mike Suttererman, and in today’s episode, I’m going to cover what I consider are your top nine job search tactics to help you land a new position as quickly as possible. Before we get into those nine, though, I want to talk about why job search tactics are so important. Bottom line is you have to a game plan if you want to be number one and get hired. Regardless of how qualified you are, a job search takes time. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. So you have to be prepared and expect the job search to be an arduous effort. Even more so, thanks to the pandemic, job searches are taking even longer than they used to. According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, on average, it’s taking people right now 27 weeks to land a new position. That’s 6.8 months. Let’s do some math. Let’s say you make 60 grand a year or 5,000 a month gross income. Multiply that time 6.8 months and you’re out 34,000 bucks. Perhaps you make 120,000 a year or 10,000 a month gross income. Easy math. 10,000 times 6.8 months is $68,000. If you’re in a senior level VP to C-suite position, currently or previously earning over $250,000 in compensation, it’s going to take you even longer than 6.8 months, perhaps double or triple that amount of time.
I’ll let you do the math on calculating what that would cost you in lost earnings, but it’s going to be a ton of cash. Now that I’ve painted this dire picture, fear not, with the right planning and approach to your job search, you can circumvent I spent time in a number of different ways, using my nine job search tactics to help you land a new position as quickly as possible. So let’s go through those. Number one, make a plan and work the plan every day. As Ben Franklin said, no one plans to fail, they just fail to plan. So make a plan. And in that plan, you need to add daily exercise or just a chance to recharge. You need to manage your stress. Number two, build an affiliate army by leveraging your current network. This affiliate army will keep a look out for you for positions on your behalf. I suggest you call each one of the people in your affiliate army, whoever you’ve deputized. Talk to them. Let them know what your situation is, what you’re looking for specifically, such as title, location, industry, et cetera. Number three, build a digital presence. Using social media, you want to create your functional niche and industry authority.
Number four, reach out to industry-specific recruiters and ask them to get on their schedule. You don’t want to call them up and just launch right in to asking them to keep you in mind. They don’t know who you are. You’re interrupting them because they’re making phone calls and recruiting people and working on what they need to do by phone. Get on their schedule, book a time, and then ask them a few questions such as confirming they work in your industry and within your functional niche. Ask what salary ranges they typically work on and make sure they place people at your level. You want to see if they know anyone else who would benefit from knowing you. And ask them if it’s okay for you to stay in touch. And if they say yes, don’t bug them. Just drop them an email or call them every 2-3 weeks. I promise you, once they get to know you, when they have something come up that fits with what you’re looking for, they will call you. Number five, build a specific target base of companies you want to work with. Follow them on LinkedIn and Twitter, comment when appropriate, and apply directly to company job postings.
These companies you’re following, if there is a position that pops up and you’re interested, figure out who the hiring manager is or at least the level of which this hiring manager is going to be. You can look them up on LinkedIn, do a little research on it, and send that person your resume and cover cover letter directly, completely bypassing HR. And as a reminder, in episodes 236 and 237, I discuss how to write cover letters. Number 6, do not waste your time applying online to LinkedIn postings, Indeed Postings, CareerBuilder, Monster, etc. On average, only about 3 to 4% of all job applications online are ever contacted. Number 7, make sure your resume, LinkedIn profile, Digital branding and interview strategies are teed up and ready for war. This is war right now. You want to be the last man or woman standing. And I’ve discussed these specific components of your job search throughout the executive lead flash briefing. But now I can also share with you how you can put this podcast on steroids, if you will. You can get access to many clinics on all these topics. I have designed and Built for you specific courses on how to jumpstart your job search and land quickly.
You’ll learn exactly how to write a resume to land job interviews, how to get recruited off your LinkedIn profile, how to bulletproof yourself on interviews and position yourself as the number one must hire. Quit coming in second place. Quit being told the job has been put on hold. You’ll learn job search tactics beyond the nine I’ve included in this podcast today. A ton amount of information easy to absorb, easy to deploy online on your time schedule. I make the videos fun and entertaining. These mini clinics include the videos, of course, but have templates, real-life examples of what works and what doesn’t work. And the best part, these many clinics are affordable. Now, it’s been suggested by people close to me, I could easily charge $2,000 to $3,000 for these courses, Especially when you land faster and save 5, 10, 15, maybe even 20 grand because you’ve shaved months off your job search. However, I want to make these courses high value and very affordable. And I want to give you a 10 to 20X or 10 to 20 times the cost back to you in value. So you’re going to save a huge amount of money and a huge amount of time by landing faster.
You can get access to the mini-clinics only Feel free to reach me, Mike Sutterman, at 336 404-4610, or you can email me to Mike@gethiredclinic. Com. And for a limited time only, you can get an 18% discount off any of these courses. All right, number 8, network, network, and more networking. Be smart about it. Don’t contact people on LinkedIn and then hit them up right out of the gate for a job or an introduction. Build the relationship first. And lastly, number 9, be different. Come up with ways to set yourself apart. As mentioned in number four, follow your ideal companies on Twitter and LinkedIn. You can then send a handwritten note in an envelope other than the standard number 10 business envelope. Now, I know this sounds totally silly, but I’ve heard of people sending a shoe along with a cover letter and a resume saying they’d like to get a foot in the door. We’re discovering sharing a hobby of a senior level executive that is your hobby, such as making pizzas. By the way, you can find out about hobbies of people on LinkedIn. And sending a note with a resume and cover letter talking initially about making pizzas.
Again, these ideas, I know, sound really silly, but the bottom line is, without sending wrote, you have to think outside the box. So there are your nine must-have job search tactics. If you’re looking for a new position, visit my firm’s website at www. Ascentselect. Com as we have hundreds of positions posted. Again, if you have questions, call me directly at 336-404-4610. That’s all for today. Thanks for listening in my Executive Recruiter Insider Secrets to Leaping your Competition and Getting Hired. I’m Mike Sudermann. Have a great day.