To do: Use a Target List to uncover opportunities

A tip from Lisa:

Posting an ad to recruit for an open position is one of the last tactics a recruiter wants to use. Once a position is available online, the recruiter is often deluged by hundreds of ill-qualified applicants. You want to be in touch with the hiring manager before that ad gets posted—as an employee referral, through a social media introduction, or using a direct approach.

In searching for a job, you employ both active tasks and passive tasks (such as social media postings). We look at social media in a later module of this course. For now, let's talk about how you can actively uncover opportunities for career advancement. Most jobs are filled through employee referrals, social media recruiting, and hiring managers’ personal networks, so that's where you need to focus your energy. To take control of your job search, you must penetrate the unadvertised job market.

Build a Target List

You will start by building a Target List of of 15–20 companies, or 5–10 departments in your current firm, where you would like to work, and where you have an applicable skill set, regardless of whether or not they have any advertised job openings. For each target company or internal department, you will locate a contact who can influence the hiring process or a prospective boss, and then reach out to that person directly, asking for an exploratory interview.

Begin by downloading this tracking spreadsheet and saving it to your hard drive or cloud storage location (such as Google Docs). As you identify a potential target:

Add them to the spreadsheet in column B
Set the status to New

You will fill in the other columns only after you have narrowed your list to the 15–20 organizations with the highest potential. Now start to identify companies and organizations that interest you. Look at this article I wrote for LinkedIn about how to find the right contacts. Here are some ideas for where to look:

Look at Industry Peers

Brainstorm a list of industry leaders as potential targets to pursue in your active quest (provided that no contractual bindings or noncompete clauses from your previous employers that prevent you from doing so). If you have experience and skills in your field, competitors will want to talk to you.
Use LinkedIn’s Company Search function to locate companies within your industry, and narrow them down by geography, company size, and your relationship to that company (i.e., whether you have 1st-, 2nd-, or 3rd-degree connections that work there).

Consider Vendors and Clients of Previous Employers

Consider the companies that did business with your previous employers—these are potential employers where you could leverage your expertise. Be sure to check your employment contract and use common sense and good karma when approaching these types of organizations. Burning bridges is never good form.
Search for additional vendors and clients by industry, size, and geography.

Check out “Best Of” Lists

Review companies that appear on the various “Best of” lists produced by associations, such as the Society of Human Resources Management, and business journals, such as Fortune, Crain’s New York, and the San Francisco Business Times. "Best of" lists will give you the top employers in various categories, including "Industry Leaders," Most Family-Friendly," and "Fastest-Growing Companies."

Perform a Geography Search

Look in your own backyard for companies where you can apply your transferable skill set. Doing a zip code search using LinkedIn’s Company Search function will produce a list of employers in your area sorted by industry, company size, and more. Then see whether you have connections with their employees or reach out to the hiring managers at those businesses.

Pursue Companies that Fuel Your Passions and Hobbies

Are you an accountant who has always wanted to work for an environmental nonprofit? Do you love to hike and want to pursue an accounting role with an outdoor sports equipment company? Find businesses related to your passion and see where your skills could be put to professional use.
Perform a search for these companies using LinkedIn’s Advanced Company Search function to find companies that do business with the firms that support your passion.

Seek Out Like-Minded Co-workers Who Share Your Interests

Do you simply want to stay in your current field, but work with like-minded people who share the same interests? To find like-minded prospective co-workers, use the newly improved LinkedIn Groups Search to find fellow yoga aficionados or altruistic volunteers at children’s organizations. Note where these individuals work and add companies that fit your professional needs to your Target List for further exploration in your job search.

Take the next step

You will now use LinkedIn and other available sources of company information to research the hiring managers at the companies on your Target List and to network with their current employees. Reaching out to these people directly will generate exploratory discussions and informational interviews that will greatly increase your odds of landing a job you want, whether or not the company has any advertised openings. As you develop information about your potential contacts, update the tracking spreadsheet, adding columns as needed and updating the status so that you can see at a glance where you need to put your effort. To make your initial contact:

Identify at least one person in each company or organization who works in the area that interests you
See if the contact has a public Facebook or Twitter feed and Like or Follow that person
Send a request to be added to that person's LinkedIn group, mentioning how you are connected, such as:

Mutual contacts
Groups
College alumni
Industry
Hobbies and interests

Your goal at this stage is not to ask about job openings, but to establish a mutually beneficial networking connection.

Hold yourself accountable to make contact

Set weekly goals for the job search activities you will perform, and hold yourself accountable. I suggest that you use a combination of active and passive job search activities. Here are some examples of activities that should be on your list:

Attend networking events that pertain to your profession, industry, alma mater, or social interests.
Reach out your existing network through a phone calls, email communications, or coffee meetings.
Establish contact with employees from companies on your Target List to broaden your network and expand your reach.
Volunteer with an organization that serves a cause you are passionate about and that can offer you networking opportunities.
Respond to job postings received in job alerts that you have established in one or two Web sites or in Google Search.
Check the information stream offered by Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn (or some combination of these) for your target companies and related firms for newly posted job links that pertain to your area.

Once you have committed to doing a specific number of each of these activities per week, you will start to gain traction in your search.