by John M. O’Connor
The recruiter in Atlanta, GA called Ellen Jimison that morning to schedule the interview. The phone call and subsequent interviews went well? What happened? Why didn’t she get the job?
Most big companies look for Ellen Jimison. Just look at some of her experience. In her previous roles she worked with four international vendors to sell suites of security software products to end user accounts. She handled key national and international accounts and traveled a bunch, managing software and performing many project management solutions for multi-million dollar engagements. Ellen just had a few issues, such as her positive experiences ended about the end of the technology boom in 2000. Sure she had a track record of overachieving but that track detoured. She made a decision to stop traveling when reality hit three years ago. She was pregnant with twins, served about six months and then made the decision to quit her highly lucrative and international job. Her twins are healthy today but her marriage wasn’t surviving stress, changes and mini-crisis associated with it all.
“Life changes. I knew I had the kind of background companies would love to see,” she said. “However, I knew I had issues that might be a concern like my family, restrictions on travel, and a time out of the market.” Most of the positions she applied to in sales and software sales required a road warrior. She stated her willingness to relocate but travel only 25% due to family. All the contacts and competing security solutions software companies turned her down initially. She created presentations to recruiters through email and the phone but was met with even more resistance. Why the gap in employment? Were there any personal problems? One recruiter even said: “You haven’t had the bit in your mouth for so long and in this market, with this technology, two or three years out is too long.”
Ellen didn’t like the tone of the recruiters she talked to or images of a bit in her mouth. So she did what she thought a good sales person would do – call, call, email and cold-call – just hit the numbers harder. Those calls spanned industry contacts, recruiters and friends. Friends offered a whirlwind of conflicting but well-meaning advice on a variety of subjects: resumes, cover letters, email campaigns, Internet posting, various approaches for networking within the field, personal advice. Everyone wanted to help. But with two years of savings depleted by a new family and the obvious expenses of no job and recent legal hassles of divorce things were heating up. The pile of books around her home computer seemed to be about every self-help resource she could find online and in her local bookstores, e.g., resume writing, motivation, job search, careers.
After compiling all of her advice, readings and so on, the mess got messier. “I really just started going a little cuckoo from all that I was trying to master. It’s easy to work on and solve other people’s problems. But like most people I was having trouble solving my own. My desperation could be perceived on the phone despite my personal confidence and professional focus.”
Her positive job search responses expected in the first months of search now looked even bleaker at nine months into the search. Her planner looked full. She had interviews but none at the six-figure level she needed for her goals and lifestyle. But her search activity consumed her with 40+ hours a week going out into job hunting, multiple boiled down and built up renditions of her resume, a few regional job-search seminars, software professional and sales professional meetings, and of course the endless online search. This didn’t include the children, the community volunteer work, starting a weight loss and personal improvement program for local mothers of multiples, and, of course, hanging on to her marriage.
A few job offers finally developed. “They seemed okay but were mostly all commission, lots of travel. I repositioned myself, received and turned down two inside sales positions at local companies that only paid about half of what I needed. I have never not solved a problem professionally. With my personal life at an okay level, I just thought I could do this on my own.”
Ellen Jimison needed to transform her thought processes, not just do more and work harder. She needed to work smarter. Here’s how she eventually shortened her search, battle planned the effort, turned a strategy of loss into that of winning, and is currently happily working.
Strategic Success Strategy 1: Get your documents professionally done
Ms. Jimison hired a career coach and certified professional resume writer to get the job done. After interviewing five professionals with multiple qualifications she selected one. “This individual just jelled with me. I got a good gut feeling from them that they not only understood what the documents weren’t doing in my million different formats, but they gave me a game plan.” She purchased a complete executive package that included: target cover letters (to recruiters, for ad responses, follow up, thank you letters and more), three focused and achievement oriented documents, and support after the document completions.
Some of the hottest new formats and styles were used, including taking all her comments by customers and references and compiling them into a powerful web portfolio. “I just couldn’t believe how bad what I was sending out was.” Ms. Jimison added. “I had so sliced and diced my background that I had no marketing message. Here I am an accomplished marketer in my field but my presentation to employers and recruiters read like a laundry list or fact sheet – no visuals, nothing! I learned that less is more and more is less in this process. My personal web portfolio marketed me exclusively to VCs, presidents of companies or VPs of sales divisions within my industry.” Her personal presentation was now at the caliber of her professional level.
She put away her ‘change with every breeze’ approach to resumes and used key core documents. She ended up slightly updating four key resumes – software sales, major account management, regional marketing management – software, and general sales. So with the ground secured, she moved on to the next right strategic move.
Strategic Success Strategy 2: Plan a multi-tiered research, call and direct mail campaign
Most people think they just need to call everyone. Ms. Jimison logged 1567 calls made, messages left and really had little to show for her efforts. So she stopped cold calling and started a multi-tiered approach that required a combined effort. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, most jobs are filled through the hidden job market, up to 75% or so. With her career coach’s help, Ms. Jimison crafted her direct mail campaign to 732 recruiters in the software field nationally who had placed professionals like herself.
She sent a short, powerfully written statement covering the hot buttons to recruiters: positions and desired opportunities, travel requirements, salary tolerations/requirements and other preferences. Recruiters want to know this information up front from candidates. She gave it to them. Her career coach recommended posting on 43 national sites and 64 company sites. All this happened within a matter of days after her strategically written documents were developed. Timing keys job search. “I really sent so many resumes and made so many calls when I was unproductive,” Ms. Jimison says. “What I needed to do was to have my own focused campaign. Instead of blasting with a shotgun I used a rifle approach.”
Strategic Success Strategy 3: Learn a new language and attitude
“In all my efforts and things happening to me personally,” Ms. Jimison adds, “I began to lose confidence in myself and my abilities. I know I was pressing. I know it was coming across in all my calls and correspondence.” Her career coach assessed her strengths and suggested selling herself from a position of strength not weakness. In her mind, when she called, she would let recruiters, contacts and others know how well things were going. Remaining with this positive tone, she sent the message that things were going well in her search, letting on nothing about her concerns.
“My tone changed about everything,” Ms. Jimison states. “There was no way I was going to get a great opportunity or even a decent opportunity in this tough market without being positive. I let every recruiter and human resources professional know my job search was going great, had interviews lined up, but I still thought I would like to consider working for their company because of my potential value add of A, B and C.” Any negative that slips out can be fatal in a job search. Ms. Jimison learned the game she knew well from her very recent sales days. She states: “Be upbeat. Let your customers know you care about them, but if they don’t get on board and buy from you, their competition will. That’s how I got after my job search tactics, language and attitude changed.”
The Results
Ellen Jimison now works about 35 hours a week from her Atlanta, GA home office for a Fortune 100 company. She coaches software sales representatives nationally and calls on a local base of accounts in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Most of the work happens on the phone with the occasional travel. The income level looks good – she now is tracking $74,000 this year. But her lifestyle is better. Her career coach suggested she do this anyway.
“I focused on what was right for me and my family not just the prestige of a title or money,” says Ellen Jimison. “I did some assessment testing as well. From this I found out that I was looking not just for a job but for the best opportunity I could find. The company I found valued family even though, of course, production mattered.” When she found the employer that embraced these values, she took the position. The money followed. That may not have been the biggest blessing or strategic move. Stress does crazy things and can create tensions personally not just professionally. She and her husband got back together and are doing fine. Their boy and girl twins, now two, are happy also.