Why Can't They See Me?
The biggest challenge most of my clients face is getting recognition. Being seen. Noticed for that job.
Whether you’re in a job, looking for the next challenge. Or on the bench waiting for something new to invite you to step back into the game of your career. Being seen is a critical part of the process.
In the old days – seemingly about 150 lifetimes ago – you looked through your local paper. Saw a job ad that caught your eye. Applied in the way the advert suggested. And waited to hear if you’d got the interview. More often than not, you did.
Then along came technology and the Internet offered the sultry promise of making this whole process easier. Faster. More advanced. Now you didn’t just look in your local paper. You could look everywhere. All around the world if you were so inclined.
What no-one foresaw – or if they did, what no-one told you – was that meant companies would see their applicant levels rise by as much as 1000%. Choice would be greater. Administration would become a nightmare. And about 990 applicants for almost every job would fall through the cracks of cyberspace and be lost for eternity in the ether.
A whisper on the breeze tells you the recruiters and headhunters are the answer. Get in with them and you’re going to get yourself into the lucky ten. But they are harder to connect with than Lord Lucan. What on earth do you need to do to get noticed?
Here are three of my favourite ways:
1. LinkedIn
A good LinkedIn profile, properly optimised for the target of your work affection (in other words, with keywords your target roles might be searching against) will get you a great deal further than you might think. Many of my clients receive 4 headhunter calls per week. On surveying some non-clients, that seems to be about 16 per month more, than the average person who has a LinkedIn profile is receiving.
2. A Great CV
Much as CVs are being phased out, for the time being you still need one and the better it is, the better your results will be. Not all CVs are created equal. Having reviewed somewhere in the region of 185,000 CVs in my career (conservative estimate) I feel suitably qualified to tell you most of them are not worth the document they’re typed on. There are key things a CV must have, which include relevance for the job applied for. Achievements that make you stand out. And information that tells the reader something, other than the standard cliché terms like ‘self motivated, team player, who works well on their own’. You will know if your CV is any good by the amount of response it gets you. A good CV will be getting you interviews.
3. Video
To really stand out from the crowd use a video CV. Three minutes of targeted conversation, telling the company why you’ve got the experience and character they’re looking for, can get you a million miles closer to the interview than a CV alone. This needs to be as professionally put together as the role you’re going for – the more senior the job, the better the video needs to be. In all instances you should look directly into the lens – that way you’re making eye contact with the watcher.
If you want to talk about any of these in more detail please drop me a comment below or email me at [email protected].
In the meantime, I’d love to hear your favourite way to get noticed. Is it one of my favourite three? Or do you have your own?
