10 Ways to Launch Your Dream Career Change
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Tired of being just another resumé in someone's inbox? Try breaking the recruitment rules, such as by parking a van emblazoned with your picture outside a company's office, as one job hunter did to get noticed.
Other methods include taking the managing director's parking space or writing directly to the chief executive. But while some wacky methods work, others just get up employers' noses. Here's how to make yourself stand out without annoying a potential boss.
Research your target company carefully. You'll be selling yourself, so ensure you have something the company needs.
"Work out what problem a company has even if it has not realized it -- and then sell yourself as the solution," says Paul Armstrong, regional head of an HR consultancy group.
Write a great letter selling yourself as someone they need, and tailor your resumé to suit. Then take action.
Make a spectacle of yourself.
One man wanted to work for IBM but could not get an interview, recalls Paul Smith, director of professional and executive recruiter Harvey Nash. "He hired a van and put a big picture of himself and the words 'I want to work for IBM' on the side and parked it outside the offices. He got his interview." This is a high-risk strategy -- you look foolish if the company ignores you. But that's unlikely, because if you returned every day for a week, it would be embarrassing for them.
This probably works best for sales and marketing jobs where self-confidence and visibility is important. Ensure you have your sales pitch well worked out in advance and look professional.
Go to the top. A letter to the managing director never goes unnoticed. "I always read them and respond," says Mr Smith. "But ensure your spelling and grammar are impeccable, and address and sign it by hand." Your letter is likely to be passed to the HR department with a note from the MD's office, which should get it to the top of the intray.
Play poacher-turned-gamekeeper. Use your old contacts list to search out your "victims" from your last job and sell yourself as someone who can teach them how to deal with people like you.
Computer hackers who sell themselves as IT security experts do this.
Mr. Armstrong also cites the case of a senior PA who joined a training company advising sales teams how to get past PAs to their bosses.
Visit a relevant exhibition to meet executives from target companies and sell yourself face-to-face.
Take individually-prepared letters and resumés. This saves a lot of time and gets your face known immediately.
But beware -- wacky applications can go wrong.
Avoid the wacky resumé. "Companies and recruitment consultants frequently get colored resumés and mail shots with pictures of candidate's families and even collages," says Mr Smith. "They don't work. There are so many, and if they have to be scanned into a database, the colors make it difficult to read the type." Retailer Tesco encourages innovative applications and has used unusual recruitment methods, including giving out flyers and application forms to 900 women at the Race For Life sponsored run in Cardiff, UK.
Clare Price, resourcing manager for stores and distribution at Tesco [in the UK], says: "We not only put quirky and unusual recruitment methods into practice, but also encourage innovative application methods from candidates.
"But remember that being innovative for the sake of the shock factor isn't always the best strategy -- retain an element of common sense in your approach."
