Revise Job Search Strategy and Maximize Your Job Offers

Revise your job-search strategy, plans and materials if and when your original target becomes an unrealistic one

Many job-seekers come to me to critique their resume at some point in their search. Often they'll present me with a resume that is everything a resume shouldn't be-laden with puffery and lengthy job descriptions; sloppy to look at and poorly organized. When I tactfully point out where improvement is needed, frequently I'm met with: "Well, I'll revise it when I run out of these. I made up two hundred, you know." Were these same people to own their own businesses, would they continue to run an advertisement once someone had shown them why the ad wouldn't pull a good response? Of course not! But somehow it's different when it comes to job search. People use resumes that don't work just because they have them; they send out the same letter in response to ads even though they rarely get invited to interviews; and they make several mailings of the same broadcast letter even though two hundred letters in their first mailing produced zero results. What prompts job workers to stick with the status quo-to fail to make the effort to revise their broadcast letters, resumes, or answer-to-ad formats-is beyond me! The cost of doing so is minimal and the consequences of not changing an element of the campaign that doesn't work are obviously serious.

Continuing to go after a particular position when it becomes evident with time that it is not attainable is just as ludicrous. One example brings the point home. A group vice-president, fired after twenty years with a conglomerate, set out to secure the presidency of a medium-sized company. Logical goal? Yes, if you stop to think that he had "run" several medium-sized companies within the conglomerate. But eight months later, when he was still out of work, he was still pursuing this goal and turning down opportunities at the group VP level. When he came to me at this point, I had a feeling I ought to check his references for him. Five out of five recommended him highly as a group VP. Not one felt he could handle the number-one spot-and incidentally, all five references were at the presidential or board chairman level. When I reviewed my findings with the group VP, he was interested in them. But he still pursued the presidential slot for another six months exclusively. His success was no greater than before. When he finally revised his goals mentally, and pursued a goal that was attainable, he landed an excellent position-as executive VP for a $60-million company-in about two months. Obviously it takes a certain amount of self discipline to redo a resume; more to revise your estimation of your career potential. Still, you should do one or the other, or both, if after reviewing your search results at the end of eight, twelve, or sixteen weeks, you discover you are not as marketable as you assumed you would be.

Try your damnedest to get every job offer you can including those you're not sure you want.



Recently I met with a very frustrated job-seeker who complained he had not been able to get a good job after a four- or five-month search. As we explored the reason for his lack of success, I asked him how he'd done in one of his interviews. "Very badly in that one," he told me, "but I wasn't really interested in that position so I didn't try to do a particularly good job." Either he was making the excuse for having done badly for my benefit, I thought to myself, or his sour attitude had actually come through in the interview. Why discourage offers before they are made? That can be fatal to the success of any job search for several reasons:

• You cut yourself off from an important Negotiating Tool.
  

Even if you would never take the job in question, if you can get an offer it could help you get the job you do want! If a company with a job you are interested in knows you have an offer from another company, it may be more interested in making a better offer of its own. Why give up this potential clout?

• You needlessly burn your bridges behind you.
  

This is not a safe thing to do in a prolonged job search. Maybe the job you're interviewing for doesn't appeal to you at this moment in time. You don't know that it might not turn out to be your most appealing alternative later on.

But can you stall your second-choice employer until your first-choice employer comes through with an offer?, you ask. Not always. But I've known candidates who've successfully managed to hold off companies for four weeks or more once an offer had been made, while they tried to pry loose another, better offer. And I've known several job-seekers who worked hard to get offers from their second-choice companies knowing full well they'd turn them down at that point in time. But getting the offer in the first place established the company's keen interest in these candidates. Several months later these candidates re-approached their second choices after failing with their first. In one of them the job was still open and the original offer was made again!

• You spoil a perfectly good dress rehearsal.
  

Regardless of whether you want a job or not, the interview is an excellent opportunity to see how well you can make people want you! If you practice responding to the needs of the potential employer in such a way as to get an offer (even when you don't want it) you'll know you've mastered the technique that can get you an offer with the company you do want to work for. Becoming an effective interviewee isn't a breeze. So why not practice with those companies you really aren't interested in?

• You miss out on an important psychological advantage in your campaign
  

Everyone likes to feel that he is needed. In this respect, getting a job offer can be extremely important in building yourself up psychologically. This is particularly true if you were fired, or if your job is about to end. This psychological boost may be the very thing you need to score well in your next interview with a company that you are interested in.