Specific is Terrific
or Why You're Not Moving Forward
Hi.
Quick post-Usher show insight for you today.
Along with buds popping from the ground, birds feathering their nests and snow melting (hopefully), this is the time of year when hundreds of soon-to-be grads start posting on LinkedIn and FB groups like this:
Hi all! I hope everyone is doing well!
I am a recent graduate from the SCHOOL with a Bachelor's in Management and Marketing. I am currently searching for either a remote position or one located in SMALL GEOGRAPHIC AREA. I am open to pretty much anything, but my interests lie in marketing, HR, or communications! Also if anyone has any advice on reworking my resume or career work, I would appreciate it! Thank you in advance. (RESUME POSTED AS WELL)
There are over 20,000 members of this particular group. There were 3 comments, one from an area 3 hours from the specific geographic area, another from a recruiter who indicated they would send a PM and the third with some general insight regarding this person’s resume.
None of these have panned out to anything specific for the poster. (I asked).
This person is frustrated and feeling invisible in a tight job market. They are doing what they’ve been told to do - NETWORK ON LINKED IN. The problem is that the lack of specificity makes it hard for anyone to help.
And this isn’t networking.
Let’s address specificity today and next week talk about networking on LinkedIn.
SPECIFICITY GETS YOU NOTICED
And getting noticed is step one to getting introductions and ultimately referrals to job openings and then pre-screens, and then interviews and hopefully job offers.
Most job hunters (new grads or not) are TERRIBLE at being specific. (me too). And there’s a few reasons for that:
Fear of being cancelled for saying something wrong, or sounding too good at what you do.
Fear of limiting opportunities.
Lack of clarity around what work is going to be and what you want to be doing for 8-10 hours a day (with whom, for whom)
I get it. No one wants to look silly, sound pompous or frankly, call too much attention to themselves and what they really want (aside from Social Media, I guess?)
Fear is hard to banish. For now, let’s just pretend you can do that and move forward to specifics.
Instead of a general ask, someone like the potential candidate above could increase the useful responses by:
Sharing something about a specific area of marketing they want to work in/have had experience with (data collection and analytics? large scale launches? small launches? geographically targeted? design? copy?)
Specifying any software or tools they are familiar with that relate to the work they want to do.
Picking ONE area (HR/Marketing/Communications) and being very specific around what in those areas they want to do. All three areas mentioned are VERY BROAD and every recruiter who has worked with roles in those arenas have very specific needs and criteria they need to fill - make it easy for someone to see you in their organization)
Pin-pointing a particular industry.
Regarding Hybrid/Remote
During the pandemic and immediate post-pandemic times companies, who had released large groups of their employees realized they needed them back and had to keep them safe. They were pretty liberal with hiring people remotely to get work done. And then they weren’t.
Businesses change their mindsets slowly. If you need to work and you have little “street cred” in your field (meaning you are NOT a household name in your field) odds are you will be waiting longer to find a remote/hybrid job than someone who has more flexibility about a) relocating or b) working on-site.
>Don’t shoot the messenger! I know your cousin’s best-friend’s boyfriend found a remote dream job 2 days out of school.<
Before you post that you are looking for a remote/hybrid position (in any location) think twice. Even if you 100% have no alternative than to work from home all day, every day, don’t put it in your plea for connections/leads. Why? Because as soon as I see that I turn off my networking hat if I have no one in my extensive network who is or will be hiring remote/hybrid people in any capacity.
Instead post the specifics about what you’re looking to do (as discussed above) and you can include, “currently located in the GREATER CITY area.” This lets a recruiter or other hiring manager know where you are geographically and presume you want to work in that area. However, they may reach out with a pitch for a role that you think is your dream job - that either needs you to come into the office or is located somewhere else in the country.
CAVEAT - you are getting dozens of inmails and calls every day about roles that are not in your geographic area and replying to them is taking time away from legitimate applications and interviews - put the requirement to be remote back in.
TL;DR
Simply putting your resume and a very broad ask on LinkedIn isn’t going to help you get a job.
Instead pick ONE thing you want to do (you can change it in your next post) and show why you want to do it and demonstrate what you know about doing it.
Resist stating ultimatums that may be keeping you from being top of mind of recruiters and others that can help you.
Remember hiring authorities want to know how you can help them make money or save money, indicating you understand the problems in a particular industry and why a business needs YOUR SPECIFIC skills is a key to getting noticed.
