…know your ratios
I’m often amazed when I ask candidates who have been looking for a job, especially for some time, “what are your ratios?” They look at me with a stare and then mumble something like, “What do you mean?”
I say, “I mean, how many calls do you have to make to reach a hiring authority? How many hiring authorities do you have to speak with in order to find ones that are interested in interviewing you? How many of those interviews do you have to go to and get invited back for second and subsequent interviews? And how many second and subsequent interviews do you have to get to get a job offer?”
Continuing with their deer in the headlight stare, they ask something like, “why would I want to know that stuff?” “Because,” I answer “if you want to work a ‘system’ of finding a job, you need to keep track of all your numbers. You need to know exactly how many cold/warm calls to hiring authorities you need to make in order to get an interview. You need to know how many interviews you need to get in order to get second and subsequent interviews…And you need to know how many of those second and subsequent interviews you need to get in order to get a job offer. Ultimately, you need to know how many phone calls you need to make in order to get a job offer.
If you approach finding a job in this way, it truly becomes a “numbers” game. All you have to do is focus on the numbers. It’s certainly easier to control making a number of phone calls than it is to ‘get a job.’ The thought of ‘getting a job’ is overwhelming. The thought of making 150 phone calls is a lot easier to deal with and a lot easier to control.
This is what I mean when I state, “if you manage the process, the result would take care of itself.” If you make the right number of calls and say the right thing, you reach a certain number of employers…if you speak with that certain number of employers in the right way, they will grant you an interview…if you interview well and establish your value to enough employers, you will get job offers.
The quality of your interviewing is irrelevant unless you get enough of them.
Do you know your ratios?
