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In a best-case scenario, unemployment is an interruption to

your life, taking time and effort, requiring you to put yourself

out there for possible rejection.

In a worst-case scenario, unemployment is a financial

emergency. Either way, it’s a lot of stress, to say the least.

In this report you’ll find my best 7-Step Plan for a fast job

search. Each step will have an immediate and dramatic

impact—and you’ll get a job you’re very happy with as soon

as possible.

The job search is a numbers game. Don’t let anyone tell you

different. It’s a sales process in which you’re the product

that’s being sold to the customer, the hiring manager. Every

product needs to be exposed to as many customers as

possible in order to increase sales. Not everyone will want or

need your ‘product,’ so there’s some rejection built into that

process…but eventually, the statistics will work in your favor

and you’ll find customers who are interested and ready to

buy.

Step 1 - Find More Than Enough

Opportunities

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So how do you find those customers (potential employers)?

You don’t do it by applying for jobs online. Need proof?

Think about how many hours upon hours you’ve spent filling

out online applications—with very little results. Very few of

those applications make it to the people who can hire you,

even if you’re very qualified for the job.

And, posted jobs only make up a

fraction of what’s available. For

every job you see posted, there’s

at least one or two more that

aren’t. Those are called hidden

jobs. By sticking with online

applications, you don’t have

access to all the opportunities you

need. It’s like putting all your eggs in one basket (or two).

The cherry on top is that you’re setting yourself up to

compete with everyone else who saw the ad (could be

hundreds or even thousands of job seekers). You’re just one

small fish out of a big sea of applicants, and you deserve

better odds than that.

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The best and fastest way to give yourself more than

enough opportunities is to find and contact hiring

managers directly. The

hiring manager is the

person who would be

your boss, or your boss’s

boss.

Finding and contacting

hiring managers is a little

like cold calling in sales.

It’s uncomfortable, and

you will get rejected a

time or two—but it’s the most effective thing you can do to

find opportunities that no one else knows about yet. Even

better, it puts you at the front of the line for those jobs,

talking directly to the person who can hire you.

For such a great benefit, it takes a little extra work. You need

to do 2 things:

1) Reach out like never before to your network.

EVERYONE you’ve ever met should know you’re looking for a

job, and what you’re looking for. Now’s not the time to be

shy. Call them, email them, or message them on social media

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to let them know you’d appreciate a heads up if they know

someone you should contact. They’ll be happy to help you if

they can. Make sure to ask if there’s anything you can do for

them in return.

2) Find the names and emails of hiring managers with

some research.

You have to go looking for these hiring managers. You can

find them using LinkedIn, Google, Facebook, and old-

fashioned networking, to name a few. Once you find them,

you can uncover their email addresses or phone numbers,

and send them your resume.

That’s not all—not only do you want to find them, you want

to find them (and contact them) by the hundreds. That’s the

secret to uncovering more than enough opportunities for

you to find a job quickly.

(My Hidden Jobs Finder is a system that

makes it easy to find and contact hiring

managers by the hundreds.)

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The first thing those hiring managers will do is either to look

at your resume, or look you up online. In both cases, you

have to have your act together.

It’s imperative that you have a LinkedIn profile that

represents you very well, and clean up your Facebook profile

so you appear to be the outstanding candidate you are.

Your resume should be a marketing brochure for you. That

means it has to be clear, easy to read,

and make it easy for the customer to

learn about your product. What helps

that along are 3 things:

1) power words that describe your

skills and accomplishments (like led, managed,

organized, created, and so on)

2) bullet points that draw the reader’s eye to what will

impress them

3) numbers, dollars, or percentages that quantify your

accomplishments

Step 2 - Set Up Your Resume and Social

Media Profiles to Sell You

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For example, a long paragraph that says you were

responsible for creating a newsletter that resulted in

increased sales for your company is considerably less

impressive than a quantified bullet point that says:

Developed newsletter that resulted in 24 new

customers and $1200 in sales in the first month.

Any hiring manager reading that will want to know how you

did it because those are the kinds of results they want, too.

To find out, they’ve got to call you to talk. THAT’S an

effective resume.

Even if you’re not sure that this is the ideal opportunity for

you…if you get the chance to interview, take it. I’ve seen

LOTS of cases where the person went in to interview for a

position and got offered another opportunity that was a

better fit after the company talked to them.

Step 3 - Prep for Every Interview Like It’s

the Last Job On the Planet

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For every single interview you go on, you should prepare for

it like it’s the most important thing you’ve ever done.

Research the company like crazy. Use Google, LinkedIn,

Facebook, the corporate website, and anyone you can talk to

who works there or used to work there or knows someone

who works there. Look at what they do, what their plans

are, what challenges they face, and the biggest tasks and

challenges of the position itself.

While you’re at it, prep your references. It’s easy to call and

give them a heads-up that your

interview is scheduled. Tell

them it’s for X job, and they’re

looking for Y qualities, and ask if

they can highlight those for you

if they get called. It’s simple but

very effective.

Take all that research and use it to put together a 30-60-90-

day plan.

Step 4 - Bring a 30-60-90-Day Plan

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A 30-60-90-day plan is an outline of what you see yourself

doing in the first 3 months on the job. What is necessary for

you to be successful on this job?

Lay out your strategy for that and

write it down so that you can talk

about it with the interviewer. You’ll

start a powerful, detailed

discussion that’s fantastic for the

quality of your interview.

I can’t tell you how many people

balk at this idea, until they actually

try it. Then they never go to an interview without it. It’s

consistently THE most effective interview tool I’ve ever seen.

Hiring managers are impressed by the energy and critical

thinking abilities it takes to put a plan together. I’ve seen

many people get jobs over more qualified candidates using

this plan.

Generally, after a company sees your plan, they’re chomping

at the bit to hire you right now because they know that a

candidate this good is going to get snapped up quickly. And

you will.

(Find out more about 30-60-90-Day Plans here.)

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Interviewing is a skill like anything else. To improve a skill,

you have to practice. It doesn’t matter if it’s playing the

guitar, cooking, playing golf, or competing in the Olympics.

You don’t get really, really good at it until you practice.

The only way interviews are different is that they’re more

stressful than all those other things (except maybe the

Olympics) because there’s so much riding on the outcome.

This is the most important thing in your life, so it’s worth

taking the time.

How do you practice? Research great answers to interview

questions. We have on our blog an article series about how

to answer interview questions. You should absolutely check

that out.

If you’ve been unemployed for a while, you’ll need a good

explanation for why it’s been so long since you were in the

workforce. Put yourself in the shoes of a potential manager

and think about what their greatest fears probably are when

Step 5 - Practice Answering interview

Questions

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they look at your employment gap—that you were fired for

some justifiable cause, or that there’s something wrong with

you somehow and that’s why you aren’t employed.

So then think about what will make them feel better:

If you were laid off, it will help a lot if you can tell

them that you were part of a mass layoff, and that it

wasn’t just you.

If you can truthfully say that you took time off to deal

with a family emergency, or to take care of your

children, or to go back to school, all those things make

sense, too.

If you can provide strong references from people you

have worked for, that is a big help, too. That

reassures them that you are in fact a good choice.

You were for someone else, and you will be for them,

too.

You have to come up with an explanation that makes sense

to them, and be confident when you explain it. Confidence

covers a multitude of stuff. If you’re OK with it, it makes it

easier for them to be OK with it. If you’re nervous or

apologetic, it makes them wonder what it is that you have to

be guilty about. Be confident and make sure that your

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explanation addresses those underlying issues of the hiring

manager.

And then do a few mock interviews so you can practice

saying your interview answers

out loud. You can do that with

me, as a career coach, you can

do that with a friend, as long as

you pick someone who’ll be

brutally honest with you.

You will be amazed at how

much this practice improves

your answers and makes you a better candidate.

Toward the end of the interview, they’ll ask if you have any

questions, and your answer should always be “Yes.” You

should prepare ahead of time company-specific and

position-specific questions to ask, and you should always ask

Step 6 - Stand Out by Asking Questions of

Your Own

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these two questions:

What are you looking for in an ideal candidate?

Is there any reason you

wouldn’t hire me?

The answers to both of those will

give you mountains of extremely

valuable information that will

assist you in getting this job.

Always, always, always

follow up every

interview conversation—

phone interviews, face-

to-face interviews, even

Skype interviews—with

an email that thanks

them for the

opportunity, points out

Step 7 - Follow Up Consistently

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your key ‘selling’ features, and asks for the next step. That

email should arrive within 24 hours of your interview.

If they don’t call you by the time they said they would, you

call them. It’s not being too bold to call. It shows that you

care enough about the job to pursue it.

(Download Career Confidential’s Free Podcast – Following Up

After the Interview)

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To get hired fast, don’t be afraid to be aggressive. This is

your life, and it matters. Find as many opportunities as you

possibly can, and pursue each one with enthusiasm, using

these tips. Best of luck!