Got an email this week from Jim B. that went like this:

I purchased the Guerrilla Resume writing product and intend to put it through its paces.  In the meantime, it appears I have [an] opportunity with a company that doesn’t have an opening but will “keep me in mind” when something does become available. I am strategizing on how to get them to act. Ideas?

Here was my response to Jim:

If you want to stay on the radar of the employer who said they would ”keep you in mind,” use their words to your advantage.

Mail them a letter and a helpful newspaper/magazine article every 10 days and tell them you want to make it easier to “keep you in mind” as they had mentioned. Give them another reason to hire you with each letter you write. In 90 days, you’ll give them 9 more reasons to hire you. Who else will be doing that? Nobody.

Now. How can you use this advice?

Simple. Find a way to keep in touch with employers, every 10 days or so, in a way that proves your skills.

Can’t think of a way to do that? Think harder. Or you’re in trouble.

Because, until you find a way to make yourself relevant to employers, you will never be able to separate yourself from the hordes of ordinary job seekers who are waiting for the perfect job to fall into their laps.

Big Obvious Hint: Perfect jobs are NEVER advertised and they are NEVER easy to get. (Go ahead and search for “Hooters Talent Scout and Beer Taster” on Monster and see if it pops up. See?)

Instead, the perfect job goes to the job hunter who persists past the point where others give up.

As Confucius is purported to have (not) said: “Man who waits for roast duck to fly into mouth waits very long time.”

Stop waiting for your next job to fly into your mouth.

Start following up with employers today and give them more reasons to hire you tomorrow.

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According to an excellent article in The Wall Street Journal:

With the economy tanking, lots of people are striking out on their own. Some never thought of starting a business until they got laid off. Others kicked around the idea but never found the time or the passion to pursue it. Now, launching a start-up seems like a better bet than taking on an endless job hunt. 

If you’ve thought about starting your own business instead of working for others again, now may be the time to do it, recession or not. Because, there’s no perfect time to start a business … just as there’s no perfect time to have a child. It happens when it does.

Another good resource if you’re thinking about starting a business is my friend Tim Law, who blogs about it regularly. He writes: ”Why not use your passion, hobby or skill set and put a business around it?”

This is another way of asking, “What would you do all day if you weren’t getting paid?”

Answering these questions will go a long way to determining what your passions are, which will determine the best sort of business to start — if entrepreneurship is the route you decide to take.

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Here’s another Depression-era job search tactic that can get you hired today, from the book, Pick Your Job And Land It! by S.W. and M.G. Edlund.

Of their methods, first published in 1936, they write: “For over three years, the authors have tested the program laid down in this book in the now famous Man Marketing Clinic” in New York City. Here’s the tactic: Make a written sales presentation of what you have to offer.

Your resume and cover letters can get you interviews. A sales presentation, delivered in the interview, can get you job offers.

What should go into your written sales presentation? Four things, according to the Edlunds (and me):

1. a description of all your experience, education, and training relevant to the job you seek; this can be as simple as a color copy of your resume, extended to 2-3 compelling pages

2. samples of your work: copies of reports you’ve written, presentations you’ve delivered, graphics you’ve designed, etc.

3. case studies of achievements and specific results produced in each position — try to use pictures and graphs to illustrate them, for maximum effect

4. proof of your performance: letters of recommendation from managers, clients, professors, et al; copies of awards, photos, etc.

When deciding what to include in your sales presentation, consider the Edlunds’ advice: “The man or board to whom you are making this presentation is not interested in you but only in what you can do for him.”

In the pre-digital 1930s, this presentation would have been printed and bound in a portfolio. Today, you could use PowerPoint, but I would create something tangible with a “thud” factor when you lay it on the table in an interview. Start with a nice 3-ring binder and fill it up until you’re proud.

Note: We teach this tactic, which we call a “Guerrilla Portfolio,” in our Guerrilla Job Search Home Study Course 2.0.

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Think the job market is tough now?

It’s been tougher. A lot tougher.

Recall the 1930s, when unemployment ran as high as 25%. That’s tough.

Now, do you think the best job-search methods from the Great Depression might help you find work now, in the Great Recession, when fewer than 10% of people are jobless?

I do.

To get you started, here are two Depression-era job search tips, taken from a book published in 1938.

The book is “We Are Forty And We Did Get Jobs,” by C.B. Thompson and M.L. Wise, two forty-year-old women who spent 10 weeks perfecting a job-search system by looking for — and getting — jobs in cities across America.

Of their system, they write: “It proved, in short, the touchstone that had magic even during the depths of the 1938 recession.”

Here are two of their tips, with modern applications for you …

(more…)

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David Perry and I were in yesterday’s Christian Science Monitor  in a story about extreme job-search tactics.

Here’s how one woman found work using our tactics:

Then there’s Jann FritzHuspen. After 18 months of looking for work, in September she express-mailed a coffee mug along with her application to three prospective employers, asking each if they’d meet her for coffee. Two ignored her. The third agreed and, a month later, offered her a job as executive director for a nonprofit organization in Roseville, Minn.

Here’s more about Jann and how she got hired:

Ms. FritzHuspen wasn’t the first to send a coffee mug to a prospective employer. The idea came from a guerrilla job-search boot camp she’d attended, hosted by Mr. Perry and Kevin Donlin, author of “51 Ways to Find a Job Fast – Guaranteed!” Mr. Donlin and Perry call the tactic “the coffee cup caper” and claim it yields phone interviews 100 percent of the time and an in-person interview about 30 percent of the time.

“This was just one of my tools in the toolbox,” says FritzHuspen. “[I]f I didn’t set myself apart, I simply wouldn’t get myself in the door.”

Jann was a member of our last job search bootcamp. Membership is closed for now, but her “coffee cup caper” is described in full detail, with step-by-step instructions, in our Guerrilla Job Search Home Study Course.

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