Strategy #4: Implement A Perfect Job Search

I’m going to present you with an outline of my perfect job-search strategy. But before I give you the details, I want us to spend a few minutes thinking about what a theoretically ideal job hunt might look like. This is where we get to indulge in a bit of blue-sky thinking, so I’d like you to join me as we imagine a perfect scenario, without the constraints of what usually happens during a conventional job-search.

In this thought experiment there are no limitations on what’s possible so let’s go crazy and throw a few wacky job-hunting ideas around and see where it leads us. Those are the rules of the game so try to play along. OK, are you ready to begin?

First of all, I think that most of us would welcome a job search that planted us directly in front of a new employer whose purpose and activities dovetailed with our career ambitions, practical needs and particular strengths. They’d operate by a set of principles that we were in full agreement with, matched our preferred working style and allowed us to do a job that was well-paid, secure, fulfilling and exploited our highest-level skillsets.

Because this is a perfect job-search scenario that we’re thinking of, our route towards this exciting work opportunity wouldn’t be compromised by the presence of any other job applicants. We’d find a way of becoming the only person who was in the frame for the job, the sole candidate being considered for employment. This might sound fanciful but I did tell you that this activity featured some blue-sky thinking, didn’t I?

Instead of having to trawl vacancy ads or job boards, submit application forms and produce CVs or resumes, we’d discover how to get plugged in to a rich seam of contacts who’d help us along the way. Inside contacts would be the order of the day as we engineered personal introductions to influencers and named decision makers. We’d junk resumes, CVs and other application paraphernalia, the usual sort of arms-length processes and documents that we’d happily see the back of. Our contacts would guide us through the intricacies of the organisation we wanted to join, give us knowledge about what’s going on inside the company and advocate on our behalf. They’d lead us directly towards power-players who had the authority to hire us immediately.

And this being a perfect job search, we’d use privileged information and inside knowledge of the organisation we wanted to join to build a compelling pitch that proved we were the best person to handle the work challenges that our skills were best suited to. Because we were so well-prepared, we’d have the confidence to take control of the interview in a way that demonstrated the kind of skills and attitudes that are the most highly-rated by almost every reputable employer. Our presentation would be so effective that we’d tip the balance of power decidedly in our favour and that would let us choose whether or not we’d permit this organisation to become our new employer. Crucially, we’d be in control of every key part of the process.

How does all that sound to you? A perfect job search perhaps, or a flight of wild imagination that would be impossible to enact in the real world? Well, I’m pleased to tell you that what I’ve just described is a summary of my transformational job search strategy which is eminently achievable if you decide to implement it in its entirety.

There are three key stages that you need to get to grips with, so let me explain what each of them involves. The first is to locate lucrative work opportunities before anyone else discovers them. Once you’ve done this, you then position yourself as the best and, in fact, the only candidate for the position you want. The benefit of doing this should be obvious but the trick is in understanding how to do it properly.

In essence you conduct a bespoke research campaign from the ground up, one that aims to identify the perfect job opportunity for you individually. This research matches your highest-level skills with an organisation that faces a significant challenge that you can legitimately help to solve. This is what elite job searchers do. It’s the approach that I’ve used to win every single work contract I’ve pitched for, for myself personally and for the team of people who work for me in my training company, over the last 30 years or so.

It’s precisely what I train every job hunter to do as part of my Vocation Master programme and I can tell you that it works beautifully. I don’t have the time or space to explain the specific procedures here, I’m afraid. This forms a substantial part of my Job Search Masterclass so you’ll have to investigate that if you want to learn the ins and outs of locating potential employers which match specific criteria you set, although an upcoming strategy article addresses this topic.  

 The second stage is to manoeuvre yourself into the orbit of well-connected people, both inside and outside the organisation that you’d like to work for. You make contact with current employees who can help and inform you in various ways, and with ex-employees or other stakeholders who have good inside knowledge of what’s going on within the company they used to work for or deal with.

This is a strategy that top people use for several reasons. Inside and outside contacts can provide gold-standard knowledge that will help you decide whether it’s worth your while making an approach for an employed position with a specific organisation. Positive information will encourage you whereas bad information might make you think again about a particular opportunity.

Useful contacts will also facilitate further contacts, if you play your cards right, and eventually lead you to the person who has the authority to hire you. The trick is knowing how to use this technique properly. Again, it’s one that I’ve used countless times myself, and it’s a strategy that I teach every one of my course participants to use. Learn the skill of engineering contacts and you’ll slice through recruitment resistance like a hot knife through butter.

The third part of my job-search strategy is to take control of the interview and to then do the job, right there in front of the person who has the power to hire you. This is no standard job interview that I teach you, I can assure you. It’s very far from the sort of adversarial meeting with all of the attendant problems that you usually get. Instead, it features a carefully-designed pitch that puts your research, knowledge and skills into full and exceedingly powerful effect.

You’re in charge of everything that happens in key hiring meetings that determine your future with an organisation you want to join. You’re in control of the format, content and manner of delivery during any employment encounter. There’s rarely any rejection from the interviewer because, ultimately, you’re the person who decides whether or not to allow a company to become your new employer. You can learn more about how this works in my full Job Search Masterclass, and in my free Job Interview Secrets short course. More on this in a moment.    

These three stages of my job-search strategy describe precisely what elite work changers do. They might adapt and mould their actions to suit their particular needs and the requirements of the specific job search they’re conducting but make no mistake. This is the template they use and it’s the one you should replicate if you want to give yourself the best-possible chance of joining this elite group of workers. I’ll be explaining precisely what you need to do in each of these three stages as this series of strategy pieces proceeds.

Neil Grant, Vocation Master, London, September 2023

If you have any comments, suggestions or questions about the issues I raise here, I invite you to contact me personally. Please get in touch via LinkedIn;

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