Scouting for Jobs

He stood on the sidewalk of one of the busiest inter-sections in the nation. As cars commuted into Philadelphia from New Jersey, A.J. O’Malley begged. 

But O’Malley wasn’t asking for votes or money; he was handing out his résumé. 

O’Malley graduated with a degree in management with honors from Rutgers University in New Jersey. Yet months after graduation, he still had not found a viable job. Although he had established many business contacts in the state, traditional tactics had given him little traction in the slow economy.

“I knew there was someone out there looking for someone just like me,” he says. “I decided the easiest way to get to the people who could hire me was to do something that would catch the attention of a lot of people.”

And despite occasionally getting yelled at and honked at, it worked. O’Malley got a job.
A naturally outgoing person, O’Malley handed out three hundred résumés to drivers before he landed his job at Masso Torrence Wealth Management in New Jersey. 

Getting the proverbial foot in the door of a company is like getting out of bottlenecking traffic. For the adventurous, this competitive economic market brings the added challenge of trying to rise to the top and stand out in a crowd of extra job-hungry applicants. 

While some people prefer the shock value of signs, t-shirts, and roadside solicitations, other job seekers are turning to emerging social media outlets and accepting nontraditional jobs.

Face-to-Facebook 

Tom Howard’s current boss didn’t have to meet him before she realized that she wanted Howard to work for her. Howard’s boss, Lori Barber, noticed they had several mutual friends on Facebook, so she decided to invite him to be her friend. They corresponded on the social networking site for months. From Howard’s frequent updates and materials on his page, Barber could discern Howard’s commitment to internet marketing and knew he would be a good fit for her company.

“They never posted my job anywhere,” Howard says. “If I hadn’t been on Facebook, I would never have landed it.”

Often traditional job searches will not fully reflect the range of jobs available. Some employers scout out potential employees through social connections and past résumé submissions before posting on anonymous job boards to make sure they get the best candidates. 

Howard says potential employers may look first at an online profile before reading a résumé, which is why it’s important to maintain professional social media profiles. While networking sites, like Facebook and MySpace, allow users to chat with friends, post pictures, and play games, Howard suggests that people avoid posting personal information on their pages. 

He now works as director of interactive marketing services at netsuccess.com and says he couldn’t be happier. According to recent figures, Howard’s experience is not so out-of-the-ordinary. Social networking sites are slowly transforming into employment networking sites. 

These sites provide opportunities not only to connect people in similar fields but also to post résumés, interests, and related experience that a future employer might stumble upon. United States web traffic to employment sites increased 20 percent in the first few months of 2009, according to internet usage analysts at hitwise.com. Facebook alone saw a 149 percent jump in hits from February 2008 to February 2009. At the end of 2009, it had also risen to the second-most-visited site on the internet—behind Google. 

As employers are beginning to tap the rich resources available on the web, its influence should not be taken lightly. Whereas before, job candidates could spend hours polishing résumés, picking out power suits, and practicing potential questions, candidates can now make first impressions in a matter of minutes through their online presence.

To Web or Not To Web 

O’Malley’s roadside résumé blitz is old fashioned compared with postings on the information superhighway. Professional headhunter and HR consultant Paulo Oliveira says as job search techniques evolve over time; people need to change their strategies to match how employers are hiring.

“Every respectable company now has good web resources to find job candidates,” he says. “This means you have to be on the web to be seen.”

Careerbuilder.com actually found that the internet is the medium of choice for recruiters. It reported that 23 percent of employers say their hiring budgets decreased last year, which makes free or low-fee internet recruiting appealing. Online hiring sites ranked the highest, followed respectively by newspaper classifieds, career fairs, and staffing firms. 
Oliveira insists that while the internet is an important tool, it should not be the only one used. Job seekers should avoid the temptation to post a résumé and feel like all is well.
“Whatever database you are in, yours will be one of a million résumés,” he adds. “Increasingly so, not much more than sheer luck will land you a good job by only placing your résumé on internet sites. That’s particularly true in the beginning of your career when you don’t have specialized experience.”

Recent HR reports indicate that the average employer now receives between two hundred and five hundred résumés per job opening. Employers are more likely to remember candidates they’ve met. Oliveira suggests people set up face time with potential hirers. He adds that a potential employee’s face needs to be familiar to many of the right people in the industry so that when jobs come along, they will remember that person.

“Successful job hunters have invited potential employers out to lunch, chatted, or otherwise met key people in their target professional areas,” he says. “Approaching them is simple, say: ‘I am interested in a career in your field. Since you are one of the professionals I admire, could you spare a few minutes to talk with me about the challenges and opportunities of your profession?’ The great majority of professionals would enjoy sharing their experience with others, particularly with younger people.”

Oliveira suggests that those looking for a job should use traditional job search strategies but also use enthusiasm, persistence, and personal contact to stand out. 

Stepping Outside The Box 

While the internet has proven to be a great place to get creative and cast a wide net, some prefer using bold techniques that will draw even more people in. In a healthier economy, traditional job searches may have yielded positive results without much effort. Now, job search creativity seems to be the life jacket for financial safety.

Tony Steiner had been out of work for months. He could not expect his dream employer, Integer Group, to receive him with open arms without something to help him stand out.
So Steiner traded in his résumé and cheesy smile for a personal branding tactic that was sure to turn heads at the marketing company’s Denver office. Steiner set up a booth with bagels, coffee, and water at the company’s entrance. He canvassed the area a day earlier to create a buzz. Steiner even created his own press release, which he posted on his web site, and connected with the Denver Post and a local television station to cover the event.

“This gave me an opportunity to show my creativity and leave a strong impression,” Steiner adds. 

Through his efforts, Steiner landed an interview with the company, received a job offer from a market research firm, and started his own freelance marketing company with five clients. 

Getting a Move on It 

When Trey Cranford was laid off in 2008, he decided to get a move on his job search . . . literally. 

Cranford, an advertising executive in the publishing industry, hadn’t searched for a job for fifteen years because he used referrals every time he changed jobs. But when the publishing industry suffered sharp downsizing, Cranford, director of operations for a printing facility, got the boot. 

“I started like anyone else: hit the job boards, local recruiters, and direct-hire placement companies. But I needed something that totally separated me from everyone else,” he says. “I decided to make my job search a marketing campaign for myself and treat it like a business.”

That’s when an idea that Cranford had seen in Las Vegas popped into his head. He bought a large trailer with a billboard-like advertisement that he drives throughout the streets of Corpus Christi, Texas, like a bus advertisement. The billboard says, “Think outside the box,” and lists Cranford’s cell phone number. 

Although the advertisement was not targeted to a specific market, Cranford admits that it acts as a talking point and gets a lot more responses. He’s now received more than a dozen serious calls because of the trailer.

In addition, Cranford printed 250 trifold brochures with his résumé, experience, and references to give to potential employers, who often are flooded with bland business cards and cookie-cutter résumés. Although he has yet to receive a job offer, Cranford’s marketing techniques get him interviews with about five potential employers a week.

The overhead cost alone of creatively getting noticed with trailers and brochures prevents some from taking these drastic measures. One laid off marketing manager, however, found that creativity does not start with cash—it starts with your own two feet. 

“There was one particular company he was trying to get into but never could get a response, so he decided to get more creative,” says Larry Mitchell, recruiting manager for Zachry Industrial in San Antonio, Texas. “He overnighted one shoe with his résumé and a note to the vice president of marketing. The note said: ‘Just trying to get a foot in the door.’”

Mitchell says while creative strategies are seldom used, they definitely leave lasting impressions.

The Road Less Traveled 

BYU graduate Dustin Draper found the Teach for America program to be a good way to strengthen his skills and collect a paycheck before law school. Teach for America is a two-year teaching program for non-teachers designed to partner bright college graduates with struggling public schools.

Even though Draper, a former English and economics major, had been admitted into law school and had to defer a scholarship offer, he decided to teach high school students in Houston through the program.

“Teach for America will be very good because I’m not likely to be laid off being a teacher, and it puts off law school a little bit longer,” he says. “The economy will recover, and the job market will be a lot better when I graduate.”

Draper now has the next five years of a relatively stable job and school to pad his time while others wade through the economic drought. Particularly with 1.9 million college graduates without jobs, being flexible about the type of jobs you seek is helpful.

Draper was willing to think outside the box to find employment beyond his own personal interests. However, some job seekers may not have the requisite skills. Completing internships in a specialized area will usually help students refine their skills and establish connections in a particular industry.

Dick Smith, director of MBA career management at the Marriott School, says after a résumé blitz last year at Microsoft, Amazon, and T-Mobile, several students landed post-graduation internships.

“Even though these companies weren’t hiring full time,” Smith says, “the students at least got acquainted, had dinner from Microsoft, and some landed internships.”

Friends With Maria 

One of the safest and most effective ways to find a job is utilizing your social network, says Larry Shallcross, a former RCA personnel manager. Shallcross gained a unique perspective in human resources at RCA because his job required him to fill all the non-broadcast positions at NBC. Shallcross worked at RCA at a time when minorities in the workplace were scarce, but because of civil rights legislation, the company sought to hire dozens of female and minority employees with little experience in broadcasting. 

“You can’t just hire people because of classifications; they have to perform well,” Shallcross says. “But if they did well, and if they were friends with Maria Gonzales—a top anchor producing quality work—we chose them.”

Oliveira, the headhunter, could not agree more. References from trusted people in the industry are still the most important tool job seekers should keep in their toolboxes, he says. 

And remember O’Malley, the guy on the New Jersey highway? His new boss, Chris Masso, partner at Masso Torrence Wealth Management, says he was well connected with O’Malley through O’Malley’s godfather and girlfriend before O’Malley received any press. Although Masso had previously received his résumé, it was not until O’Malley’s “freeway stunt” that Masso seriously considered him. 

“We saw his stunt and said, ‘Ok, here’s a guy who has some gumption. We need that mentality,’” he says. 

Apart from demonstrating gumption, though, highway stunts pale in comparison to establishing connections and networking, Masso adds. 

“I don’t think you want to suggest anyone go to a busy street and hand out résumés,” he says. “But I guess it worked.” 

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Article written by Sara Elizabeth Payne