Career Doctor - September1997

The Career Doctor
The Career Doctor
is Arnold Tilden, Ed.D., NCC
of Tilden & Associates Consultants

Dear Career Doctor:

When I got downsized we received instruction in resume writing and cover letters. I’m pumping them out, but without success. What am I doing wrong with my career search? Do I have problems with how I present myself on paper? I’m feeling very rejected. Help.

Dear Rejected:

Your basic resume and cover letter look fine. Frankly, I could offer some changes, but they wouldn’t necessarily be improvements. By now, I hope you have had the chance to review last month’s column on customizing your presentation for each opening. I also hope you have taken advantage of MODE’s novel and FREE "Candidates for Hire" classified section.

You may be doing nothing wrong with your job search. If that’s the case, as it often is, we may still offer some assistance by helping you deal with a very common malady when engaged in a job search: the dreaded "R" word, REJECTION.

As candidates, we carefully submit requested materials in a timely fashion and wait. And then we wait some more. We call and get the equivalent of the "don’t call us; we’ll call" you reply. In other words, if you’re a finalist selected for an interview, we’ll call. Otherwise, assume we’re not interested. How else can we feel other than REJECTED.

Basically, conducting a job search is selling yourself. And you may be experiencing what many in sales deal with on a regular basis: mini-minded gatekeepers who believe it is their task to be cold and impersonal to both job seekers and sales people. On too many occasions (once is too many) they surpass cold and impersonal and go to downright rude. And, it’s not only the front line gatekeepers who can behave badly to candidates and sales representatives. Their behaviors usually represent the attitudes found at the very top of the organization.

People in sales embrace a concept called the sales funnel to help them maintain their sanity. They know that most of the calls they make will not result in a sale. In fact, they are prepared to get many more no’s than yes’s. In fact, there’s a saying in sales, "Every no gets me closer to a yes". Now this can be dangerous when taken to an extreme and sales representatives run through the mechanics of the funnel in a rote, mechanical way.

Having issued that caution let me outline the elements of the sales funnel and suggest that you approach your job search the way many approach selling. At the top of the funnel we load in the in the first step of the process. In sales it’s following up on leads from referrals, or making what are called "cold calls," meaning that there has been no prior contact to warm-up the call. For the job hunter the top of the funnel will consist of leads we intend to pursue. These come from multiple sources: classifieds, referrals, agencies, friends, etc.

As we move down the funnel, sales reps understand that only a proportion of their initial calls will advance to the next step of the process: the interview. The same holds true for the job hunter. Depending on the field and level of your search, you may need to respond to 25, 50 even 100 openings to get an interview.

Getting the interview is an essential advancement toward the desired result: a sale or a job offer. With extremely rare exceptions, sales are not made and jobs aren’t acquired without an interview.

Seasoned sales representatives know what many job hunters have yet to learn. Interviews don’t always result in sales, even when they go very well. Prospects are considering competitor’s products and services and seeking the best match with their needs. Similarly, hiring personnel are interviewing other qualified candidates for the position you covet. Because an alternative is chosen, it doesn’t mean that it is better; only that it is a better match for a given situation. This is a lot easier to say than it is to cope with.

The third level of the funnel is the sale or the offer. Time to celebrate? Open the champagne? Not yet. Not every sale is a good sale and not every offer is the one you should accept. Evaluate both carefully to make sure that you won’t have serious regrets down the road.

In summary, approach your job hunt as many sales representatives approach their work. A sales person might know the ratios for his or her industry to be 25:5:1. That is, 25 calls should yield 5 interviews, which will produce one sale. That’s 24 no’s to get one yes. And, that’s just for an interview. If it takes, on average, five interviews for a sale, that’s 120 "no’s" to get to the ultimate "yes." In some fields and at some levels, the ratios are even tougher. Understanding the dynamics of the funnel will help take the sting out of a "no," and should help you appreciate that it actually helped get you closer to the "yes" you’re seeking.

— Signed the Career Doctor

If you would like the Career Doctor to answer your question: just send it along to The Career Doctor, c/o MODE, P.O. Box 5566, Harrisburg, PA 17110. You can also fax it to us at 717-236-0886, or E-mail it to: TheStaff@MODEweekly.com, with a subject line of: Career Doctor Question.

P.S. Check out MODE’s NEW "Candidates for Hire" section. It offers candidates like you the opportunity to place reverse-classifieds or "help available" ads that highlight your abilities and availability, and best of all, it’s FREE. Check out Page 28, and be sure to tell your friends about MODE’s Candidates for Hire section.