- Get hold of back issues of the classified section-eight to ten weeks' worth. Many jobs aren't filled in this period of time. It may be that you are the candidate a company has been waiting for. I know of an executive who was the ninety-seventh applicant the company interviewed. It had been looking for nine months before he came along. (This executive laughingly claims he got the job because the company was too tired to look further.)
- Subscribe to The National Business Employment Weekly or plan to pick up a copy each Sunday at a newsstand selling magazines or out-of-town newspapers. It's not inexpensive-$52 for three months by mail or about $3.00 a copy on the newsstand-but it is really an excellent job source, particularly for more senior managers and executives. The National Business Employment Weekly is, in reality, a compilation of the Display Help Wanted ads from the Job Mart section that you've probably seen on Tuesdays in one of the four regional editions of The Wall Street Journal. The Employment Weekly does intersperse these regional ads with editorial of interest to job seekers. This includes statistics on salary and benefits information, usually lifted from already-in-print salary studies, as well as how-to articles on writing resumes, taking interviews, etc. Much of the material is actually borrowed from previously published material. Several of the chapters from earlier editions of have appeared in NBEW.
- While you might find it difficult to justify the high cover price of The National Business Employment Weekly based on editorial, this single source of display classified ads can be valuable, particularly if you are searching for an executive position. There are a couple of things you may want to keep in mind, however, as you use it as a source for ads to answer.NBEW is a job seekers' newspaper. Thus, were you to answer an ad from this publication, you tacitly admit that you are an active job seeker. If you are claiming that you are "conducting a discreet job search," answering an ad appearing in this vehicle will certainly blow your cover. For this reason, I suggest that you don't answer ads from NBEW. Since these ads are reprints from the previous Tuesday edition of The Wall Street Journal, you can easily reference the original source of the ad when you do send in a response.
Since some companies use all four editions of The Wall Street Journal, frequently the same (or very similar) ad will appear several times in NBEW, or in subsequent weekly issues. While duplicate ads are obvious, I've had a number of clients tell me that they inadvertently answered several ads for what afterwards appeared to be the same job as a result of the confusion caused by different box numbers. Take care: you don't want to appear overanxious, and sending several resumes to an advertiser will certainly make you look just that.
- Subscribe to 'The New York Times Sunday' edition. It costs $28.85 per quarter if you live fifty miles or more outside of the New York area, and as such is a very inexpensive investment in job leads. The Times is particularly useful to job seekers with financial and marketing backgrounds since Wall Street and Madison Avenue are located in New York City. Importantly, many ads in The Times do not appear in the Eastern Regional Edition of The Wall Street Journal. Thus, subscribing to The Times makes sense. (You may want to try your local library before subscribing to The Times, however, since this newspaper is found in many local libraries.)
- Subscribe to The National Job Search Weekly. This weekly news-paper goes back many years, and many librarians know it only as "Job Search Weekly". (The "national" was added after NBEW became so popular. National Job Search Weekly is a pickup of display help wanted ads from approximately seventy different daily newspapers around the country. These ads are reduced so that approximately twenty or so appear on each page of this tabloid. All ads are organized by job category so it's easy to find those that apply to you. If the advertiser hasn't given an address to write to (and instead uses a box number), the National Job Search Weekly incorporates a code number into each ad it reproduces so that you can determine which newspaper the ad was picked up from. Each issue of Job Search Weekly includes a key to the code.
- Consider the National Job Market. This newspaper is really an attempt at a national classified section. The classified ads in this newspaper tend to be aimed primarily at administrative and operative positions as opposed to executive and managerial positions-although some mid management positions may be found in its pages. I suggest you purchase a sample copy before you subscribe. In some instances, it could prove useful.
- Subscribe to the major newspapers in those cities that you'd like to work in. Experience has shown that more and more companies are using local newspapers to find executives and managers. The reason that they are not using The Wall Street Journal editions for this purpose apparently is that the Journal covers too much territory. As such, advertisers receive responses to their display ads from great distances. Many advertisers would sooner look at local talent first since there is no relocation or recruiting travel costs associated with hiring locally. In some cases, too, the local newspaper rate is a good deal less than the Journal's regional rate. If you subscribe to newspapers in three or four cities that are of particular interest to you, or in which your job discipline may be concentrated, (e.g.: San Jose for computer field positions) you may well spot some ads that weren't reproduced else-where.
- Read the business pages of your local paper (or paper in the nearest major market) strategically, keeping an eye out for announcements of promotions and appointments. You may spot persons who might have use for talents in their new positions. Write congratulatory letters. In them, suggest that you meet to explore ways in which you may be of service to the newly promoted individuals.
- While you are looking at the business pages, note any companies moving into or out of your area. Such moves may involve personnel changes as people elect not to make such moves with their organizations. Follow up with the company to determine whom you should drop a note to concerning possible employment opportunities. It's a long shot but worth the effort.
- Look at back copies and current issues of trade periodicals in your field. Many have job opportunities or classified sections in the back. Some ads will be duplicates of those you'll see in the Wall Street Journal. Others will be new to you. Before you subscribe, check your local library. Many have the leading business periodicals on file. And they are the ones likely to have ads that interest you.
One final thought: In all cases except for The National Business Employment Weekly, send your letter and/or resume five to seven days after the ad first appears. A survey by a leading executive recruiting firm revealed that seventy-five percent of the total answers to ads were received within four days after an ad's appearance. If you send your letter out on the sixth day, you're a lot more likely to get it seen and noticed. And if your prospective boss has been inundated with letters during the first four days, he or she is probably going to be in a better mood when your letter comes in with a smaller stack of mail. Since ads appearing in National Business Employment Weekly are actually reprints from ads appearing five days earlier in The Wall Street Journal, you may want to send your reply off immediately so that you look like you're replying to the Journal ad rather than the one in National Business Employment Weekly.
