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Assisting clients and students in refocusing their job search
Editorial by Christian Saint Cyr
National Director / Canadian
Job Development Network
In an early edition of ‘What Colour is Your Parachute?’, author Richard Nelson Bolles noted the average job seeker applies for just two jobs per week, despite having 40+ hours per
week to conduct job search.
This would suggest that each job required as many as 20 hours to write the cover letter, modify the resume and submit the application. In fact, a typical job may take as little as one hour to apply for and while we need to factor in follow-up, seeking job postings and time gathering labour market information, the real question isn’t about how long it takes to apply for a position but why it’s difficult to do so in the first place.
Job seekers have difficulty reaching out to employers for the very same reason job developers have difficulty prospecting employers. Employers do not react well, are often irritated and do not want their day interrupted. This is the same reason professional salespeople have difficulty prospecting new clients.
Add to this, the complexity of the end-of-December, early-January period where employers are never around or unlikely to return calls and emails. The hesitant job seeker may put off submitting any applications at all until later in January and possibly February before getting any real traction in job search.
How do we get job seekers to take job search seriously and do it quickly?
It is difficult to get job seekers to adopt a multi-week focus, let alone a multi-month job search plan because in their mind, they don’t want to wait weeks, they hope and expect to find a job immediately. We don’t want to diminish this expectation, but we also want job seekers to think pragmatically.
Let me introduce you to the E.P.P., or the Employment Prospects Pipeline. For sales professionals, they refer to this as the sales prospects pipeline, where the contacts they made 30 days ago result in the sales they make today.
By constantly stocking the pipeline, salespeople generate ongoing sales. If they take a break of a couple of days or a week, they’ll experience a dip in their sales 30 days later.
The job seeker needs to embrace the idea that while they may get a job today or tomorrow, if they don’t, they want to continually generate prospects which may turn into a job 30 days from now.
By simply applying for a single job every day and doing it for 30 days straight, they are creating the opportunity that any one of those applications may result in a job 30 days from now. By continuing this process, on an ongoing basis there will be a possibility of new job opportunities emerging every day.
As the job seeker stocks their pipeline with new employer contacts, they are creating new opportunities for networking, interviews, reference checks, applications and a whole host of activities that may eventually result in a position.
When you meet with clients or students, stress the importance of making new employer connections every day through applications, submitting resumes, responding to social media items and follow-up. Have them take ownership of their pipeline and create an environment where on a weekly basis they can describe their own pipeline, all of the employment opportunities in it and where they are at with each one of those employment opportunities.
And while the Employment Prospects Pipeline is critical for job seekers, it’s just as important for job developers and those who practice employer engagement. By setting goals for connecting with employers every single day, you’ll achieve far stronger employment and placement outcomes. Failing to do this for a few days or weeks will result in a drop in your employment and placement outcomes.
We’ll be discussing the Employment Prospects Pipeline in detail at this morning’s meeting of the Canadian Job Developers Network, today Monday January 2nd at 8:30am Pacific or 11:30am Eastern! Click here to join the session
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