OnTarget Blog

An OnTarget member, Kathleen Turner, sent me an email last week about the use of word clouds in applying for jobs online.  Although I don’t advocate applying for jobs online, the insights from the email are useful.  The gist of the idea is that the closer your resume word cloud is to a job description word cloud, the higher the likelihood that you’re a good fit (at least on paper) for the job.  Here’s the insight.  Run a word cloud on your own resume to see whether or not it reflects the experiences you’re trying to communicate and the types of jobs you’re looking for.  I used Wordle to run a few resume word clouds and found the results useful.  Below is a word cloud for the OnTarget blog site.  Run your resume through Wordle and let me know if it creates an accurate representation of what’s next for you.

I stumbled across this TED Talk by Rory Sutherland entitled Perspective is Everything. Perspective is a particularly powerful idea in the context of a job search. I believe it was Richard Bolles who characterized the job search as “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, yes.” For even the most successful and self-confident, that’s a lot of rejection. It seems like the most successful job searchers have a way of reframing their search. I hear comments like, “It’s been great to reconnect with people in my network who I’ve neglected the last few years.” Or, “The job search has given me a chance to meet new people and learn about companies I was unaware of.” Or, “I’ve really enjoyed spending some extra time with my family and getting back into shape.” Treat the job search as a journey – a chance to reconnect, meet new people, and learn new things. It’s hard work, but reframing can change your perspective and make it more than just a job search.

HBR recently published an article entitled The Rise of the Supertemp:  The Best Professional Jobs May No Longer Be Full-Time Gigs.  Last week I shared it with PREMIUM group members, and it resonated with several of them.  The flexibility and independence of project-based careers is appealing to many executives who have tired of endless corporate meetings and internal politics. 

The author of the article is the founder of Business Talent Group, a recruiting firm that specializes in placing senior project-based talent.  Here are some of the highlights of a recent Business Talent Group survey.

• Majority of the Talent pool are committed independents – 67% have operated as independent for 1+ year.
• Majority of the Talent pool are seasoned – 97% have been in the work force over 10 years.
• Over 60% of the responders are male.
• Over 75% from top tier MBA programs, or hold JD/MA or PhD / MD degrees.
• Mindset of Top Tier Independent Professionals is to “have control of what I think about and what I do professionally”
• 65% of Talent indicate that “control” is one of their top 3 reasons for serving as an independent professional, followed by “variety” and “professional flexibility,” each cited by 47% of Talent as being considered one of their top reasons.
• 25% of the responders indicated that “control” is their very top reason for serving as independent Talent (followed by “professional flexibility” @ 17%; “personal flexibility” @ 16%; “variety” @ 11%; “financial” @ 6%)
• “Financial Attractiveness” is cited by only 35% as one of their top 3 reasons for serving as an independent professional
• The project profiles most often cited are “strategy” and “business plan development” – almost 60% of all project work has been in the aforementioned.

Regardless of whether you call it supertemping, project-based work, or consulting, this type of employer/employee relationship often makes sense for both parties, and I would be shocked if an increasing percentage of work does NOT become temporary and project-based over the coming years.

OnTarget embodies the idea that the best way to find a job is by networking, and the best way to find a job that’s a great fit is by targeted networking. OnTarget also embodies the notion of small groups. Even for wildly successful individuals who don’t need the money, looking for a job can be arduous and emotionally challenging. There are a myriad of opportunities for distraction. Working on your job search with others in small groups can provide support and focus.

The idea of leveraging groups for job search is probably based on Nathan Azrin’s original research on Job Clubs back in the 1970s. Azrin’s Job Clubs were based primarily on action, positive reinforcement, and networking. The mornings were spent on the phone, and the afternoons were spent following up on actual job leads (out of the office).

If you’re part of an OnTarget group, that’s great, but I think there’s value in forming your own small groups outside of OnTarget and using the group to provide support. Use Azrin’s approach as a guideline, and make sure the groups are action-based, provide positive reinforcement, and offer networking opportunities. Resist the temptation to lament the state of the economy or hiring managers who don’t have a clue. Use your target list as a focal point for discussion, and try to find connections within your targets. Help others in the group create actionable todo lists, and follow up to hold them accountable. Consider anointing a group leader to keep things on track.

I did a short webinar last week on Target List Research Tools for OnTarget PREMIUM members. I thought I would post it to see if anyone finds it useful.

There is a ton of information available regarding LinkedIn optimization or LinkedIn SEO. I won’t try to summarize all of the common wisdom in a single post. However, I will provide you with my approach to using LinkedIn to search for candidates with the hope that my approach is a general proxy for the way most recruiters search. Understanding how recruiters search for candidates on LinkedIn will provide insights as to how to optimize your profile.

Let’s assume I’m trying to identify possible candidates for a VP Marketing search for an supply chain software company.

The first thing I’ll do is use LinkedIn’s Advanced People Search to search for marketing people currently (or previously) employed at a set of target companies. I’ll use the COMPANY field to specify the target company, and I’ll use the TITLE field to specify marketing. Depending on the number of profiles returned, I may narrow the search by setting TITLE to VP Marketing or Director Marketing. Note that I’m searching for current AND previous employees. This is a good reason for NOT shortening your LinkedIn profile (or resume) by eliminating early career experience.

The second thing I’ll do is to search by industry, function, and keyword. For example, I’ll set INDUSTRY to Computer Software, TITLE to Marketing, and KEYWORDS to “supply chain”.

OK, let’s assume I’ve just performed an Advanced Search, and I get 75 results (people). Now, I need to filter through those 75 people quickly and decide which profiles to open (and review) and which ones to skip over. I have the option of Basic or Expanded view. I choose Basic because there’s little additional info of value in the Expanded view. In Basic view, I see name, headline, location, industry, and a photo.

So, how do you optimize your chances of having me “click” on you and look at your profile? Here are a few thoughts.

• By default, LinkedIn sorts search results by Relevance. Make sure you have plenty of relevant keywords in your profile such as marketing, supply chain, etc. Industry, function, and vertical orientation are good places to start. If you are a CFO, make sure you get recognized for CFO searches as well as finance searches.
• Make sure you have a photo. It seems like about 70% – 80% of LinkedIn profiles (at least the ones that I find) have a photo. Make sure it’s a professional business type photo. A picture of you and your three dogs frolicking in a lush field of blue bonnets is probably better suited to Facebook.
• Put your current title in your Headline unless you are changing careers. The common wisdom amongst LinkedIn gurus is to use your Headline to describe your “value proposition”, NOT to display your title. I want to see your title. I can get your value prop from your profile. The exception to this rule is if you are trying to change careers, and your current role/title is not relevant.
• If the number of search results is large, I will likely sort by number of Connections (instead of Relevance). On a search I just ran that produced 271 profiles, the first 56 profiles had more than 500 connections. Interestingly, as the number of connections per profile decreases, the likelihood of a photo seems to decrease as well. If you have few connections and no photo, you are probably sending a message to recruiters that you really don’t want anyone to contact you.

I caught up with Bill Barnett last week (see bio below). Bill and I worked together at McKinsey in Dallas back in the 1990s. Beginning last November, Bill started writing a series of career management posts for the HBR Blog. You can check out Bill’s posts here. Bill’s perspectives on career management and job search are very much aligned with OnTarget, so I think his posts are great

In talking to Bill about cultural fit, he made an interesting distinction between the job not being a fit and the person not being a fit. To understand the idea of a job not being a fit, think about a marketing job in a sales-oriented culture. Bill’s next blog post will cover this in more detail. I hope you’ll check it out.

Bill Barnett bio
Mr. Barnett retired in 2003 from his position as a Director in the Dallas office of McKinsey & Company, Inc., an international consulting firm, after 23 years of employment, where he led the firm’s Strategy Practice. Mr. Barnett also served as a director of Papa Johns International, Inc. from 2003 until March 2009, and has been an Adjunct Professor at the Yale School of Management and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University.

Before jumping into a job search, it’s important to understand where you are today. One way to quantify where you are is in terms of “domain experience.” Although it’s difficult to find a commonly accepted definition of domain experience, most people have an intuitive sense of what it means.

My definition of domain experience is fairly broad and includes the following dimensions:

1. Industry. I like to use a primary (such as Software) and secondary (such as ERP or Accounting Software) industry.
2. Function. I like to use a primary (such as Marketing) and secondary (such as product management or PR) function.
3. Vertical orientation. The industry to which you market or sell.
4. Scale. Size of company.
5. Growth rate. Annual revenue growth rate of company.
6. Total staff. Total staff (not just direct reports) reporting up to you. Do NOT include cross-functional or matrixed or dotted-line reports.
7. Levels above. How many levels above you, between you and the CEO?
8. Levels below. How many levels of reports do you have?
9. Location. Location of the company.

I like to think of domain experience as your “career context”. It’s important to have a clear grasp of your domain experience for several reasons.

• The extent to which you can leverage your domain experience will likely drive the impact you can achieve in your next job, at least in the short term.
• The more dimensions of domain experience that you attempt to change in your next job, the more challenging will be your job search.
• If you need to find a job quickly, you’ll want to focus on jobs that leverage as many dimensions of your domain experience as possible.

Understanding and reflecting upon your domain experience before you launch a job search will likely save you time and effort in the long run.

I wanted to try to summarize the underlying premises of OnTarget in a few bullet points.  In that spirit, here is a DRAFT of the OnTarget Manifesto.  Comments and feedback are welcome.

1. Fulfilling work is at the core of wellbeing, arguably more important than financial, social, physical, or community wellbeing.
2. Significant structural changes have fundamentally impacted the nature of work, our careers, and how we secure employment. Your ability to navigate the ever-changing career landscape and conduct successful job searches will drive your overall level of career satisfaction.
3. It’s beneficial to pause, take a step back, and prepare yourself BEFORE jumping into a job search. Resist the temptation to network with friends and colleagues, contact recruiters, or email your resume until you can crisply and clearly articulate what type of job you’re looking for.
4. The BEST way to find a job is by networking, and the BEST way to find the BEST job for you is by targeted networking. By contrast to the way most people look for jobs, targeted networking is more intentional and proactive, and less arbitrary and passive. Targeted networking may seem like more work than surfing Internet job sites or networking with friends and colleagues, but the process is almost always more effective and, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, more efficient.
5. Targeted networking allows your network to be more helpful to you in your job search.
6. The process of finding a job is simple, but it’s not easy – it can be arduous and emotionally challenging. Having a coach and a small group of trusted colleagues to provide perspective, guidance, structure, support, and accountability is critical.
7. It’s incumbent upon you to understand the job before accepting the job. The best way to understand what a job entails is to define it in terms of quantifiable time-based deliverables. Only after you understand what a job entails can you determine whether or not it’s a good fit for you.

Ed Perry forwarded me a great article from Knowledge@Wharton entitled Why the Job Search is Like Throwing Paper Airplanes into the Galaxy.  It’s a bit long, but it’s full of insights, including why applying for jobs doesn’t work, how the job of HR is to “de-select” applicants, and how referrals can put you above the noise.  The article also points out how arduous the process can be from the employer’s side as well.