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Backdoor Job Search: Create Opportunity by Being Your Own Headhunter

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by Darrell Gurney

 

Bob Dylan sang "The times, they are a-changin'." Well folks, they have a-changed!

 

My first book, Headhunters Revealed! Career Secrets for Choosing and Using Professional Recruiters, which came out nearly a decade ago, was to assist job-seekers in getting the most value out of third-party recruiters, or "headhunters."

 

I wrote it during the time of a "candidate-driven" employment market, when far more good jobs were available than people to fill them. It was written from the perspective of having been a professional recruiter for more than 15 years, finding jobs for the likes of everyone from executive VPs, CFOs and directors of sales to human-resource managers, executive assistants, and accounting clerks.

 

Headhunters Revealed! asserted that having the career partnership of a headhunter in your back pocket is always smart. In vibrant economic times, headhunters are a strong supplement to your personal job-seeking efforts.

 

But recruiters -- all the way from temporary clerical agencies to high-end, retained executive search firms -- are just one tool in your job-seeker pouch ... and that tool doesn't work as well in a slower economy.

 

Have you, in fact, noticed that headhunters are not as vibrant a part of your job-search toolkit recently? It's not because there aren't jobs out there. It's because in an "employer-driven market" -- in which a big talent pool floods the market -- employers try to hire directly on their own and avoid recruiter fees.

 

Obviously, we are in a drastically different situation from 10 years ago ... which calls for different methods. Today, you must know how to be your own headhunter.

 

I recently interviewed Richard Nelson Bolles (What Color is Your Parachute?) on a nationwide teleseminar in which we discussed effective career networking. He said something that we should all know by now, but many folks have not fully realized. "In regular times, more rudimentary job-search methods will work... but these aren't regular times."

 

How many people do you know who are doing job search using the same old methods they always have? One of the best effects of our interesting economy is that it is waking folks up to the need to become more entrepreneurially savvy in terms of marketing themselves.

 

Today, marketing yourself effectively in career transition is a skill as constant as driving your car because continual transition is now a part of life. It used to be that a person might need to change a career or job just a few times in life. Now, someone will have 8-10 jobs and make 3-4 career changes even before age 38. So, learning long-term career management strategies is now no longer a luxury ... but a necessity.

 

My most recent ebook, Backdoor Job Search: Never Apply for a Job Again!, is the other side of the coin from my first book. It calls upon not only those 15 years as a headhunter but also the subsequent 10 years spent as an overall career strategist and coach ... once I decided I wanted to teach people how to fish rather than give them a fish.

 

Guess what? Only 20-35 percent of the entire job search spectrum lies within the public-knowledge domain. The rest, 65-80 percent, rests in the "hidden job market." [Editor's note: See our article, Is the Hidden Job Market a Myth?.] To take charge of your own career, you must learn to tap into this hidden market ... not just for your next job, but as a function of career management for life. In any economy, the person who knows how to connect into unadvertised jobs through establishing and maintaining relationships will always come out on top.

 

Politics is politics, and unless a law is being broken by favoritism, politics will continue as long as people need each other. In job search, this reality means that being known, being liked and being top-of-mind makes all the difference between you hearing about the next opening that comes up in your field of interest or someone else hearing about it.

 

People want to hire and work with people they like and know. So, the question becomes how do you best capitalize on this principle of human nature? By sitting at home and applying to an opening online? By sending in your resume for a posting you saw on a job search engine? Can you say "silly boy" or "silly girl"? I thought you could.

 

To avail yourself of human nature, you have to get out and walk around in human nature! You must step outside of your safe and secure abode into the wide world of human interactions, and find ways to interact that get you known and liked by those in the line of hire.

 

Simply telling your friends "I'm looking, so let me know when you hear of anything" rarely gets the job done. It tells them nothing really, and positions you pretty much as chopped liver: "Let me know when you hear of anything!"

 

As much as the folks you know may love you, they just feel uncomfortable in situations when they don't feel they can help ... so they and others will avoid you when you seem needy or desperate. That's human nature too; we avoid uncomfortable situations in which there's a chance we won't "win" or where the fears of others brings up our own insecurities (e.g., "the economy").

 

In Backdoor Job Search: Never Apply for a Job Again! 10 Time-Tested Principles for Launching an Effective 'Backdoor' Campaign, I promote the practice of completely putting aside your need for a job as the absolute and necessary first step to actually creating the relationships that will support you in getting a job.

 

Principle #1 says "The best way to get a job is don't be looking for one!" Of course, you have to be out there meeting people, but meeting people based on reasons other than your need for a job will have you meet more people ... because, again, people shy away from those in "need." The second rule, therefore, follows: "An ounce of research is worth a pound of job search." So, finding research projects that get you out connecting with folks and, thereby, becoming "top of mind" is where to best put your attention.

 

This method worked for me when, a virtual unknown in LA, I met the CFOs of the top seven entertainment studios in their offices and landed a position in international film distribution without even going through human resources. And, it still works today and will work as long as humans populate the planet ... because it relies on human nature.

 

All the way from executive employment to everyperson jobs, knowing how to be known before an opening arises will always put you ahead of the pack and landing the job before the front door masses hit. If you want different results, you'll have to think differently ... and do things differently.

 

Final Thoughts on Being Your Own Headhunter

The times ... they have a-changed. Are you a-changing with them?

 

 

Questions about some of the terminology used in this article? Get more information (definitions and links) on key college, career, and job-search terms by going to our Job-Seeker's Glossary of Job-Hunting Terms.

 

This article is part of Job Action Day 2010.

 

 

Darrell W. Gurney, executive/career coach and 20-year recruiting veteran, supports people at all levels to make profitable transitions or create thriving businesses. He is the author of Headhunters Revealed! and is a personal and business brand strategist. His Backdoor Method for networking has helped many individuals expand their reach within both careers and new client circles. Hear them speak for themselves and check out his newest eBook.

 

Maximize your career and job-search knowledge and skills! Take advantage of The Quintessential Careers Content Index, which enables site visitors to locate articles, tutorials, quizzes, and worksheets in 35 career, college, job-search topic areas.

 

 

 

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