It was a Fall day in 1992 and I was working for my Father's recruiting firm, that afternoon I had a meeting with a candidate that was seeking employment that I will never forget, his name was Blaine. Blaine's story changed the game for me- he was a daring, courageous, and coachable candidate. He executed the most brilliant job search strategies that ultimately landed him his dream job in a very bad job market.
Blaine was a six-foot four, dark haired, young sales representative who looked the part and had a solid resume. He did however have one major challenge, he did not have a college degree. In a tough job market this can be deadly, an employer has all the control and if your resume is not perfect you are not considered, period- end of story. We quickly learned our first step from trial and error. After sending his resume to 12 companies all who said they were hiring, they all passed after seeing his resume. They were dead set on not meeting him and the part I couldn't believe was that he was a SALES PERSON for gosh sake. Meeting all potential sales people should be mandatory! The best sales people I have met in my career rarely are the most formally educated. It is all about interpersonal skills, trust, warmth, character, chemistry, and work ethic. You MUST meet them in order to say "go" or "no go", and not by reviewing a resume and making judgements.
At that point we decided to put his picture on his resume and instead of faxing or e-mailing his resume we came up with a great idea. Blaine hand delivered his resume to the hiring manager in person. That's right, we set up an appointment for 5 minutes to meet and greet the hiring manager and drop off his resume so they could see him and meet him in person. When we rolled out the idea, each hiring manager resisted but after it was all over they thought it was a smart first step. One company literally changed their interview process to incorporate the "in person" resume presentation. It took the edge off for both the candidate and the company. Think about it, everyone would rather prefer a five minute meeting over an hour long formal interview as a first step in the process.
His five minute meeting were suddenly lasting 15 or 20 minutes and one "five minute" meeting lasted almost an hour! It was working!
Once a potential employer was interested, we did not want to lose them. It was like fishing, we had them on the hook and did not want to let them get away. Our focus was all about moving the process forward, if the process went cold already lost them. If they kept moving forward with the process everything else could fall into place, that will be when we could talk about details like compensation and career path.
After his first meeting, we decided to go with the unorthodox approach and send his thank you note in a small little box instead of an envelope. Inside the box was a note thanking them for their time and a comment about "thinking outside the box" and if he was hired, they could count on him to be innovative. They all loved it, and each company was drawn to his creativity.
When he identified the company he without a doubt- wanted to work for, he became relentless!He had already hand delivered his resume, sent the thank you note in the box and it was time to close the deal. He told me "what do I have to lose, a job I don't have?" and he was right!
He called at 5AM and left a message for the hiring manager saying he was an early riser and did not expect to reach her however wanted to leave her a message saying that he was very interested in the opportunity and looked forward to hearing back from her regarding the next step. The hiring manager thought the the call was great- probably the best move so far in her opinion and being a sales manager she understood his approach and she respected his effort. She was still not ready to hire him- she was 100 percent on the fence. Her entire sales team had college degrees and this would be her first non-degreed hire in a bad job market.
Two days later, he got up early, dressed as if he was going to work and drove to the companies office. Once there he waited until the sales manager arrived and greeted her just after as she walked into the office. Being a parking lot stalker will get you arrested even back in 1992. He said he was going to stop in this morning and see if he can have a cup of coffee with her and talk about the industry, so she agreed. They went into her office as she got settled for the day they started chatting and then he suddenly said something brilliant! He said "Linda, I know you may have reluctance to give me a chance, and I very much respect that and understand, but I want this job more than anything else. So let me ask you this, when in your life have you been given an opportunity you wanted and fought hard to get slip through your fingers?" She said, "after a hard fight to get what it was I wanted I held on tight and worked hard to keep it, I never let it go". He said, "Exactly- I am certain I will out-work, out-smart, and out-deliver my colleagues and you have my commitment the decision to take a risk and hire me just might be the best decision you make this year." She said, "okay Blaine, here is your shot. When can you start?"- he said "RIGHT NOW".
These are tough times, get creative, get aggressive, but don't stalk anyone or corner them in a parking lot. Be professional, be relentless, and be unique. Do not just send a resume and hope in a market like this. You have to get up early and get after it! It is WAR out there!
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