Darrin had spent 18 months looking for a job. He spent 6-8 hours a day at his computer looking for job postings and fiddling with his resume. He emailed 1,965 resumes in that time, a little over 100 a month. He never had an interview in the 18 months. Most of the resumes received no response. The few hundred that responded politely thanked him for applying, but expressed no interest. So, he would edit his resume again. Finally, he took a job search workshop that focused on calling people rather than emailing resumes. He started telephoning 10 people a day. He scheduled 10 meetings a week. He had a great job offer in 3 weeks.
Making a Phone Call Terrifies Job Seekers
I’ve helped people find jobs since 1976. They included teens looking for their first job to retired professionals looking to make retirement more interesting. The salaries ranged from minimum wage to $250,000 with a $60K signing bonus and a million dollar annual performance bonus.
The majority resisted our teaching to call 10 people a day and schedule 10 meetings/interviews a week. I don’t understand why, but, the thought of telephoning someone terrifies them. Too many job seekers will do almost anything to avoid opening their cell phone.
Tactics People Use to Avoid Telephoning Someone
Many job seekers work hard to find a job—in the beginning. They refine their resume, send off emails, and scout the job boards. After a few weeks, they despair because they get poor results. Soon, they spend 1-2 hours a day looking for work.
They employ a variety of tactics to avoid phone calls. They include:
- Writing and rewriting their resume for months
- Editing cover letters and standard emails until they “are perfect”
- Sending emails to jobs they found on the Internet
- Looking at job boards for good job postings
- Taking care of children
- Completing projects and making repairs around the house
Monday we outline how to trade the isolation of a job search for talking to people
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