4Sight Coaching

Job seekers, your time is NOW: Q1 through Q2.

You often see us posting about taking care of yourself throughout the grind of today's job search. We still will.

But today, the message is to THROW DOWN THE HAMMER - as much as you can, and in as balanced way as possible - over the next few months.

With the exception of certain seasonal industries, many employers operate on a calendar fiscal year. Budgets renew and allocate for hiring. (Not all, but enough to create a pattern and feed into a general strategy).

Here's our suggestion...

JANUARY: "NO POSTINGS" NETWORKING.

As leaders return after the holidays to catch-up, tackle performance reviews & appraisals, review year-end data, etc. they are often not (quite yet) focusing on hiring. This is the ideal time to get on the radar of your target employers. Connect, message, initiate slow, GENUINE, HUMAN (NOT AI) conversations. The timing here is such that you'll be getting ahead of the upcoming job postings, which is the strategy.

FEBRUARY: SAME AS JANUARY.

But start to keep an eye out for a first wave of postings. Continue lightly, authentically and collaboratively nurturing new connections. (View them as real humans with whom you can interact and add value to and learn about each other... not just as a potential job contact).

MARCH through MAY: 1-2 COMBO.

Steer any new connections towards open job focus as you see fit/if you see a posting. View this as helping each other; job opportunity AND business impact discussion.

Apply to open jobs as you see fit, but first target where you've built relationships and created familiarity prior to the posting. Keep looking for new postings, and following up to cold applications with swift, genuine and value-focused direct networking.

Continue building relationships to get on peoples' radars early... always.

We don't have a crystal ball - we don't know what Q1/Q2 hiring will be like in such a challenging outlier of market dynamic. This is simply what's typical. Maybe in this current market, we'll see a similar pattern but just softer.

Now, we know you may already be tired from the grind of last year. It's heavy. And the weight of the world makes it heavier. So go as hard as you feel that you can.

But in general, NOW IS THE TIME. Hit it hard, but pace yourself and exert as much focus on self-care as you can.

In this market, you MUST leverage LinkedIn for 2 job search use cases: (1) general proactive networking with organizations of interest; (2) following up to all 'cold' applications, after you apply. This may seem forward and a bit uncomfortable to some, but unfortunately it's the new reality. Here's how to do it (including what to write)...

Locate your contact of interest, either the hiring manager of your role/the role to which you're applying; their skip-level; and for an application follow-up... a recruiter whom you believe may oversee hiring for that role, function and/or division.

Invite them to connect on LinkedIn (** with a personalized message**), and/or send them an InMail, if you have those available.

For general networking:
"𝘏𝘪 [𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦], 𝘐'𝘮 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯 [𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺], 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘮𝘺 [𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘢𝘱/𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘟𝘠𝘡/𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 '𝘴𝘪𝘻𝘻𝘭𝘦' 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦]. 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘺, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 20-𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘵𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘵 [𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺] 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘴? 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘸, 𝘐'𝘥 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘪𝘵. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶." (You won't always get a response, but if you do this with 5-6 people, you may get a couple who say yes).

For application follow-up:
"𝘏𝘪 [𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦], 𝘐 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 ["𝘑𝘰𝘣 𝘛𝘪𝘵𝘭𝘦" + 𝘫𝘰𝘣 𝘐𝘋/𝘳𝘦𝘲 #]. 𝘎𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘮𝘺 [𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘢𝘱/𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘟𝘠𝘡/𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 '𝘴𝘪𝘻𝘻𝘭𝘦' 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦]... 𝘐'𝘮 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘦𝘳. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩, 𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦!" (They may not respond, but as a veteran in-house recruiter, 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘦 when I say that - behind the scenes - they often 𝘥𝘰 pass along the interest to the right person.

This is simply 𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 in today's market. If you're not doing this, you're behind. layoffs

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