Why You Must Go FAR Beyond Resumes and Cover Letters in Today's Job Market
Resumes, cover letters and interviews are often unproductive.
A resume and cover letter is not going to get you noticed. An interview? You'll probably blow it like everybody else does -- if you use the 1950s techniques so popular still.
Sending out resumes and cover letters?
When thousands of people apply for the same job opening, your chances of getting it approach zero.
Almost to the point where that tactic of sending out resumes and hoping for an interview is comparable to the ancient "shoe leather" methodology.
The super old fashioned way was to pound the sidewalks, going up and down the streets, knocking on doors, asking to speak with the personnel manager, filling out applications, getting a polite "we'll keep it on file," then waiting for the phone to ring to set up an interview.
The new way is upside down, backwards, opposite.
You STOP chasing after job openings.
The job you get may not even have an "opening."
The clients you get may not have even thought they would be customers of what you're selling.
You STOP caring about job boards, job fairs, career coaching, employment-search training, tricky interview questions, resume format, and cover letters.
You leave all that behind and become heroic.
You position yourself as the hot item, not the job or the employer.
You become, and DISPLAY, something that employers and clients actively seek.
You stand alone as a super valuable item, so hot, that a company might invent a job position just to have you on their team, and not their competitor's.
How? By knowing what problems companies typically have in a field and becoming an expert at solving them.
Gaining experience at solving them, even if that means doing it for free for a local charity or by charging low introductory prices at first, to get some real clients who pay you for what you do.
Basically, you get the employers to hunt you down. You lure them to yourself. You create a word of mouth vortex that swallows up all the conversation in your field, with your message being the loudest and most respected.
The emphasis is on your exceptional expertise and your ever-increasing knowledge and upgrading of skills.
You are not just good. You are great and getting better every single day. You rock. You are a blessed Over-Achiever on Steroids. You smash through mediocrity and losery slackers.
You know exactly how to solve a problem and you teach others about it in your blog articles, Facebook posts, LinkedIn updates, and YouTube videos.
You authentically present yourself as the solution, the smartest one, the most creative resource in your local area.
You have multi-media productions, from blogs to videos, showcasing your talents, skills, expertise, problem-solving style.
You quit "going to interviews" for jobs. The interviewers come to you.
The media wants to spotlight what you do. Magazines want you to write articles for them. You find forums in which you can be a big shot, know-it-all and have fun sharing your brilliant ideas and asking your probing questions.
You become the employer or client's Top of Mind Choice when it comes to what you do.
Your focus is no longer on "how great is my need for a job" or "why won't anyone hire me?" -- it switches to "how great is their need for my expertise?" "where should I be showcasing my expertise?" and "who should I be approaching about the problems I can solve?"
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