Getting Interviews

Don’t Reject Yourself in a Job Search

by Robert Hellmann • Career Change, Getting Interviews, Interviewing, Job-Search Strategy

If you want to speed up your job search, adopt the mindset of a successful salesperson. Sales professionals know a few things about rejection that can help jobseekers. They know you shouldn’t assume rejection if you haven’t heard back from a prospect. They know that it’s often possible to overcome an apparent rejection or hesitations about the services you are offering. And they know how to skillfully keep in touch when there’s no interest now.

Many of my new job search clients, however, are too quick to see rejection and give up. They

How to get an Interview with a Phone Call

by Robert Hellmann • Getting Interviews

Once your resume and LinkedIn profile are complete, you’re ready to start getting interviews. And the most effective way to get interviews is to actively go for what you want; send high-impact emails to hiring managers who may be complete strangers, and then crucially follow up with a phone call to land that interview. This “active approach” is more effective than passively waiting for the ad to show up or the recruiter to call, and then responding.

Salespeople intuitively understand the active approach to the job search, since they use a similar approach every day in their sales jobs. If you are in a job search, you are effectively in sales whether

7 Ways to Jump-start a Stalled Job Search

by Robert Hellmann • Getting Interviews, Interviewing, Job-Search Strategy, Resume, LinkedIn, self-promo

When clients with stalled searches first contact me, they often see the cause as something beyond their control. They tell me “I’m too old (or young),” “I’m overqualified (or underqualified),” “there are no jobs,” “I’ve sent in countless applications with no response,” or “I don’t have enough (or the right) experience.”

While in some cases they may be right, most of the time I find that they face a different problem with a much easier solution. Below I’ve included the top seven ways you can jump-start your search, based on my experience of the real reasons for many stalled searches.

Are you Limiting Your Job Search Potential?

by Robert Hellmann • Getting Interviews, Job-Search Strategy

Even if your resume, pitch, and emails are all stellar, at the end of the day your job search is still a numbers game. To improve your odds of landing a position quickly, you’ve got to actively go for a large number of potential positions.

That is, don’t just passively wait for the search firm to call or the ad to show up, since you’ll get a low return on your time investment. Instead, take the active approach. Start by creating a plan that casts a wide enough net to include enough suitable positions (open or currently filled). Your search must encompass

Your 20 Second Pitch: Don’t Cold-Call Without It!

by Robert Hellmann • Building a Business, Getting Interviews, Presentations, Resume, LinkedIn, self-promo

Whether you’re in sales, business development or a job search, effectively cold-calling “strangers” to get the meetings you seek is a crucial skill. For jobseekers, this is called accessing the “hidden” job market, where you’re developing new long-term relationships that can lead to opportunities.

When you cold-call, you have only roughly 20 seconds to gain their interest. At that point you need to give them an out or you risk making a bad impression; they may be about to run off to a meeting and keeping them on the phone would be a no-no. So if you haven’t interested them enough by then, you’re done. That’s why you need a 20 second pitch.

Write These 6 Things to get a LinkedIn Introduction

by Robert Hellmann • Building a Business, Career Change, Getting Interviews, Recruiting

One of LinkedIn’s killer applications is its ability to leverage your “first degree network” to get introductions to your second degree contacts– for recruiting, landing interviews or prospect meetings, partnerships, or just to learn from others. To get the meetings you want, make it easy, for both your first degree connection to forward your request and for the recipient to agree.

Let’s take an example based on a client’s situation. Ellen wanted to meet Susan, a second degree connection, and she saw that John was their mutual first degree connection. Ellen’s introduction request to John contained these six elements, in the sequence below:

Avoid These Six Job-search Time Wasters!

by Robert Hellmann • Getting Interviews, Job-Search Strategy

The most common time killers in a job search (excluding procrastination) involve interviews that go nowhere, networking meetings that net nothing, and countless job applications that get no response. Here’s how to manage these and other situations so that you can turn waste into haste and jump-start your job search.

How to Write Compelling Resume & LinkedIn Profile Bullets

by Robert Hellmann • Getting Interviews, Resume, LinkedIn, self-promo, Social Media

When I first look at a client’s resume, I quite often see a list of bullet points that reflect only responsibilities. One of my clients, for example, a Chief Accounting Officer, listed a bullet point that read: “Led team in managing the monthly close.” After we discussed the impact she made through her management, we modified the text to read: “Led team in reducing monthly close turnaround time by at least 30% while improving accuracy.” Do you feel the extra power

Applying for Jobs? There’s a Better Way to Get Interviews

by Robert Hellmann • Getting Interviews, Job-Search Strategy

A prospective client once came to me for help. “In the past year, I’ve applied for about 100 positions, yet have had no interviews,” she told me in frustration. I was pretty confident that I knew the crux of her problem straight away. It was the emphasis she placed on the number of jobs she had applied for. Usually, just applying for jobs is not nearly enough, especially at more senior levels.

Are You Keeping in Touch with Your Network?

by Robert Hellmann • Building a Business, Getting Interviews, Job-Search Strategy

If you’re not, you’re not a good networker– you’ll miss opportunities! Getting meetings (and then “acing” these meetings) is 50% of what you need to do. Keeping in touch following these meetings is the other 50%.

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