How long does a prospective CEO have to wait to hear back from an employer after filling out an online job application? The answer is simple: CEOs use a nontraditional job search. They don't have to sort through pages of blanks to fill in, and then wait for the robots to rank them in a computer system. Prospective CEOs find jobs in better ways, and you can use the same techniques, too.
You don't have to be a potential CEO to employ a nontraditional job search that eschews an online job application as your first point of contact with a company. Rather than going through online job boards to find the best opportunities for advancement, put more effort into your job search.
Begin With Your Network
To find your next position through a nontraditional job search, start with your network. Talk to colleagues, co-workers, supervisors and department heads who may know of job openings before they are posted. Get to know people at corporate events, job fairs and meet-and-greets sponsored by industry organizations. Your local chamber of commerce offers another great networking opportunity. Develop relationships with people within your industry who may have information you can use to expand your professional horizons.
Brand Yourself
Leverage your industry knowledge to branch out away from your current position, and use your personal brand to develop a new direction for your career. CEOs often start out as consultants as they lend their expertise to others in the field. Eventually, a future CEO earns credibility in the field after developing relationships through his consulting business. This nontraditional job search involves getting people to pay for your services.
Listen to what people in your industry need. Did someone in your network say Acme Brick across town needs a paralegal to help with pending litigation? You happen to be a paralegal with 10 years of experience in corporate law. You decide to reach out to Acme Brick and, suddenly, you have a job as a consultant. The next step in your nontraditional job search is to repeat this process over and over again until you develop your own type of consultancy.
Start Talking
The best CEOs learn to reach out and start conversations with the people around them. It's through these talking points that CEOs, and ordinary job seekers such as yourself, figure out what a potential employer needs. After you figure out the needs of an employer, explain how the services you provide fill that specific need.
A contemporary job search works as a process beyond an online application. You have to tap into your network, develop expertise and then start talking to employers that may need your help.
Using these three steps of a nontraditional job search, you can take control of your own career. Networking, consulting and conversing all take time and energy to master. However, the results are well worth it. Chances are you land a better position than those you will find on job boards.
Photo courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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