In the last couple of weeks, I’ve written about interview mistakes and difficult interview questions. But how do you actually get the job you want though? How do you get a job with NO experience? Or local experience? How do you get a job you’re not qualified for? How do you beat out the competition?

In this article I’m going to show you…

I’ve been working in the recruitment industry for over 8 years so I have a pretty good idea as to how recruiters and hiring managers think and how they determine who gets shortlisted, who gets rejected, who gets interviewed and who gets the job.

In this article I’m going to show you:

How to get a job with no experience/no local experience

How to get a job you’re not qualified for

How to get the job and beat out the competition

This is the NO BS guide.

Let’s begin…

Identify your dream job

Before we begin, you need to identify your dream job.

If you could do anything – what would it be and why?

Write down and make a list of everything you want in your new job:

Salary

Hours

Responsibilities

Environment

Location

Team size

Boss

Take your time to think about this carefully.

You don’t just want ANY job, you want the RIGHT job.

How to get your dream job

There are 7 steps to getting your dream job:

Apply for an advertised position Send your resume into a recruitment agency Send your resume directly into the company you wish you work for Use your own network Use LinkedIn and other similar social networking sites Talk to someone already in the job you want Change your mindset

I recommend doing everything simultaneously and leaving nothing to chance.

Let’s look in detail at each of the 7 steps now…

Applying for advertised positions

Applying for advertised jobs is the first thing you should do but it’s definitely NOT the only thing you should do.

There’s nothing wrong with applying for advertised jobs, but just know that when you apply for an advertised job you’re often competing with hundreds of other people so you probably only have a 1-3% chance of success unless you’re a perfect fit for the role. (In my experience employers generally prefer to hire overqualified candidates that tick every single box instead of taking a chance on someone less experienced)

You might not know this but there is a hidden job market of tens of thousands of jobs that are never advertised which the vast majority of job seekers don’t know about. In fact, it’s estimated that 80% of jobs are never advertised. These jobs often go by word of mouth and are given to friends, friends of friends, ex-colleagues and people who just happen to be in the right place at the right time.

So apply for jobs but don’t just sit back and wait for people to call you. Be proactive in your search from the very beginning. You want access to all of the jobs, not just the advertised ones.

Tailor your resume for the job advertisement

Rule number one when applying for a job: Everything in your job application must be done from the perspective of the employer, from your resume to the covering letter to the interview to the reference check.

Recruiters and hiring managers often receive 100+ applications for each role advertised and only spend an average of 6 seconds looking at a resume before deciding whether to shortlist it or eliminate it. Because of this your resume should always be tailored for the job you’re applying for and speak the language of the job advertisement/description!

Don’t ever send a generic resume or covering letter for any job. If you do this you don’t have a chance.

Before sending in your resume for any role look at it side by side with the job description and ask yourself:

Does your resume look like the ‘perfect fit’ for the job?

What is most important/essential to the employer? Is it reflected clearly in your resume?

Does your resume meet all of the criteria listed in the job description?

What is lacking/missing on your resume?

What would improve your resume?

Would you call you based on your resume?

It’s not only your resume that should be tailored for the job you’re applying for but also your job titles. So if you were working as a software developer for Accenture but your internal title was ‘consultant’ or ‘technical lead’ change it on your resume and LinkedIn profile to “C# .Net Software Developer.” (Or to whatever your actual job is)

PS: Note to my American readers: Resumes outside of America are longer than one page and here in Australia are often 3-5+ pages. I’ve even seen a couple of 30 page resumes. It doesn’t matter how long your resume is though – 6 seconds is all you get!

Customize your cover letter

The same goes for your covering letter.

Either have a covering letter specifically tailored for the job you’re applying for – or don’t send a covering letter at all.

Seriously, it’s better to send no covering letter than a generic one. A generic covering letter won’t even be read. It just says to the recruiter/hiring manager that you’re applying for all kinds of roles and there is nothing in particular that is special about this one.

Your covering letter (if you choose to send one) should be a personalized response to the key selection criteria mentioned in the job ad. If the role advertised specifically mentions 5 points in the key selection criteria, then your covering letter had better address all five points.

Sending your resume to recruitment agencies

Another good idea is to send your resume into a recruitment agency.

Recruitment agencies get access to jobs before anyone else does and they can let you know about a new role the moment it comes up before it is advertised to the market.

In recruitment I often see 3-5 great candidates who could easily do the job I’m recruiting for (but obviously only one person can get the job), and these are the first people I contact when another job becomes available.

But first a quick note on how the recruitment industry works…

How the recruitment industry works

I’ve worked behind the scenes of various recruitment agencies since 2005 and have recruited hundreds of candidates in Banking/Finance, IT and Telecommunications since that time so I have a pretty good idea as to how they work.

First of all, the biggest misconception about recruiters and the recruitment industry is that it exists to find candidates a job.

Wrong!

When recruiters tell people what they do for a living it’s very common to hear:

“I’m looking for a job!”

or

“I know someone who is looking for a job!”

But recruiters aren’t in the business of trying to find people jobs. That’s not what they do.

Recruitment agencies are in the business of finding candidates that meet specific client needs. That’s it. They’re not in the business of trying to find jobs for people no one else wants to hire!

Most often the candidates recruiters are looking for are currently employed, extremely good at what they do and possess a very hard to find skill set. You know, the same kind of candidate you’d be looking to hire for your company!

Sometimes inexperienced/unqualified/unsuitable candidates will try to talk a recruiter into presenting their resume to a company in the hopes they will get lucky. But here’s why a recruiter won’t do it: If a recruiter presents your resume to their client and you don’t have the necessary skills/experience, not only will the client reject your resume but it will damage the relationship between the recruiter and the hiring manager. The hiring manager will simply think: “Why is this guy presenting candidates without the skills and experience I specifically asked for?” “Don’t they listen?” “Don’t they understand what I want?” “Is this person an idiot?”

The bottom line is that a recruiter isn’t interested in getting YOU a job, they’re interested in finding the RIGHT person for the role they’re recruiting for. If you’re the right person – great! If not – too bad. As far as a recruiter is concerned you either have the skills and experience they’re looking for or you don’t. That’s it. It’s nothing personal.

Use recruiters to your advantage

I recommend sending your resume into multiple recruitment agencies because even if you’re not shortlisted or suitable for a specific job, your CV will still be kept on their database for future roles.

I would then follow up with a phone call within 48 hours to get feedback on your application and to find out if they might have anything else suitable for you.

Questions to ask recruiters

You should ask every recruiter you meet with/speak to on the phone the following questions:

What do you rate my resume /10? What would improve it? What do you rate my LinkedIn profile /10? What would improve it? How do you rate my presentation and interview skills /10? What would improve it? Where do I rank compared to other candidates you’ve spoken to for this role? What could I improve upon? What weaknesses do you see in me as a candidate for this role/in general? How long has this job been open? What is the interview process? What else can you tell me about the company/project/job that is not listed on the job description? What is the most likely start date for the position? What other jobs/companies do you think I would be best suited to?

Ask these questions because recruiters will often give you some great tips and insights that probably would not have occurred to you before.

Send your resume directly to the Companies you want to work for

I also recommend specifically targeting the top 5-10 places you would love to work and sending them your resume and covering letter (tailored of course) through their online job portals.

You should then follow up with a phone call within 48 hours to introduce yourself and to briefly explain what you love about the company and what specific skills/experience/value you bring to the table. (Do this in a non-needy, non-pushy, non-salesy, friendly kinda way).

Who should you call?

Either:

Human resources (worst case scenario because HR are gatekeepers who don’t have the power to say “YES” but only to say “NO”)

Recruitment (they should be able to give you some good insights as to what kind of skills/experience they’re looking for/how to get a foot in the door)

A hiring manager (best case scenario because now you’re speaking to an actual decision maker with the power to say “YES” and to hire you)

If you are able to speak directly to one of the hiring managers you might even be able to get some information about the recruitment and hiring process and if you’re lucky you might even be able to organise a time to meet over coffee.

Even if you get told by the manager that you don’t have the right skills/experience/qualifications etc. at least you now know what they’re looking for and an introduction has been made. You can then follow up by sending an invitation to connect on LinkedIn with a thank you for their time and you don’t have to waste your time holding your breath wondering why no one is calling you.

If you can’t get anyone on the phone after several attempts (don’t leave a voicemail), I recommend sending personalized LinkedIn invitations to a few people in the company. Most people will accept your invitation (if it’s personalized) and they might even give you some information about how recruitment is done and how you could get a foot in the door.

If you’re wondering who to send LinkedIn invitations to in the company I’d start by sending out invitations to people with the following titles:

Recruiter

Manager

Your title (or similar). So if you’re a software developer and you wanted to work at Amazon type in “Software Developer Amazon” and start sending personalized (not generic) invitations to everyone who comes up

My #1 best advice for getting a job

If I was unemployed or starting all over again from scratch trying to get my first job in an industry, here’s exactly what I would do:

I would spend an entire day (over 5+ hours) creating my own personal spreadsheet of 100+ employers along with their phone numbers

I would then set aside an entire day (8+ hours) to call every single one of those employers in a row starting at 8.30am and I wouldn’t finish until 6pm (Note: I would probably make that day a Friday since most people are happier on a Friday and are therefore more likely to say yes to an interview)

If an employer didn’t have anything suitable/wasn’t looking for anyone, I would ask them if they knew of anyone else who might be hiring or if there was anyone else they recommend I speak to

This is exactly how I got my first job in radio and it’s what I’d do again if I were starting from scratch or unemployed in any industry.

Your goal as a job seeker is to speak to 100 hiring managers as soon as possible. If you’re only speaking to 1 hiring manager per week/per fortnight/per month, your job search will take forever.

There is only a certain number of push backs and rejections that stand between you and your next job. Maybe it’s 20. Maybe it’s 50. Maybe it’s 150. Whatever the number is, it’s your job to get those rejections over and done with as soon as possible, because it’s only those rejections that stand between you and the job.

Listen: You can take a year to knock on 100 doors and get 100 rejections, or you can take a day. Personally, I’d prefer to get it over and done with in a day. The faster you have those conversations the faster you’ll get a job. It’s as simple as that.

Use your network

Whenever you’re looking for a job, probably one of the first places you should start is within your own network of friends, ex-colleagues, ex-managers and other people you know to see if they have a job or know of anything going.

Last year I spent 6 months in India after travelling the world for 3 years (2013-2016) and visiting 37 countries. I knew that I would soon be returning to the workforce after being out of work for over 3 years and having less than $2, 000 to my name!

That’s 3 years without a job! Without a boss! Without a pay check!

When I worked in recruitment I would judge a 6 month gap on a resume as a bad sign… Yet I had a 3 year gap on mine.

I was a little anxious about returning to the workforce after all that time and I wondered who would hire someone who hadn’t had a job in over 3 years?

Answer: Surprisingly a lot of people. I got job offers all over the world but I decided to rejoin some of my old workmates in Melbourne who would probably be more forgiving if I was a little rusty and took a few weeks to come back up to speed.

I’m glad I made that decision and it makes sense if you think about it… Who is more likely to offer you a job, a pay rise or a promotion? A stranger or a friend? Someone you know or someone you don’t?

Friends of course. Friends will hire you for positions other people won’t and they will often pay you and treat you better than strangers will.

So if you know someone in your network who can potentially help you – why not ask? What do you have to lose?

Who do you know in your network that could potentially help you?

Who do you know in your network that could introduce you to someone you would like to meet?

Who do you know in your network that could provide you with some useful information and contacts?

LinkedIn

LinkedIn definitely needs to be part of your job search strategy.

10 Reasons to get on LinkedIn

LinkedIn has 500 million users worldwide (with a target of 3 billion) so all of your future bosses, colleagues and business partners (and everyone else in the business world) is on there LinkedIn allows you to grow your professional network a thousand times faster than you could face to face LinkedIn allows you to easily build relationships with people who already work in the companies you want to work in You can join groups of like minded people on LinkedIn (currently there are 5 million and counting) You can apply for jobs on LinkedIn You can get headhunted on LinkedIn (recruiters and employers love to headhunt people on LinkedIn) You can headhunt others for your own company on LinkedIn You can learn and grow your professional knowledge on LinkedIn (there are thousands of articles on every subject imaginable) You can build your own personal brand on LinkedIn by publishing your own blog articles for the world to see You can build relationships with people on the other side of the world for job and business opportunities. For example: if you wanted to work in New York but didn’t know anyone in New York, you could start by sending LinkedIn invitations to people who currently work in New York in your profession. For me as a recruiter I would simply type in: “Recruiter New York” and start connecting with New York recruiters…

There are also lots of things you can do to make your LinkedIn profile look good and stand out.

10 ways to improve your LinkedIn profile

Your LinkedIn profile is your resume for the world to see and it needs to look good.

When recruiters and hiring managers look at your profile, you want them to be impressed and like what they see!

Here’s how to improve your LinkedIn profile…

Have a professional looking photo (it’s the first thing people see and you are 21X more likely to get found on LinkedIn with a profile picture) Have a detailed description of each of your previous roles Have a summary detailing exactly what you do (not generic – specific) List your current position/current location Make sure the dates and job titles on your resume and LinkedIn profile match (recruiters and hiring managers will definitely check this) Get connected to more people (The more people you are connected to the more people will want to connect with you) Get other people to endorse and recommend you (something I haven’t yet done myself) Follow leaders and influencers that interest you so they pop up in your feed (I follow Gary Vaynerchuk, Guy Kawasaki, Oprah, Tim Ferris and Tony Robbins) Join groups that interest you Build your own personal brand and share subject matter expertise by writing blog articles

I strongly recommend that you make a conscious habit of growing your LinkedIn network by at least 5-10 people each day. It only takes a few seconds to connect with someone and you never know where that connection might lead. It might lead to a job, information about a job opening or a business opportunity.

It’s good to build your network strategically with quality contacts that can help you in your career but remember: Just because someone isn’t in a management or C-level position now, that doesn’t mean they won’t be in a few years. Personally, I don’t discriminate. I connect with anyone who wants to connect. If a student working at McDonalds or Starbucks wants to connect with me, I’m connecting. I don’t think your network can be too big and I don’t think you can know too many people.

Ask for help from someone already in the job you want

If you really want to do a job, why not seek out people on LinkedIn that are currently doing the job you want and ask for their advice/thoughts/opinions?

Who knows more about what is needed to achieve/succeed in a role than the person currently doing it?

Ideally, ask lots of people currently working in the role you want and get lots of different ideas and opinions. It’s sure to be a worthwhile exercise and it will save you a lot of wasted time and effort.

Most people will be happy to offer advice and/or point you in the right direction and will be happy you asked.

What advice do they have for you?

How did they get into their current positions?

Why not take them out to lunch (or at least coffee) and interview them? That way they get a free lunch and you get free career advice! It’s a win-win!

The interview

I’ve spoken in depth about the job interview in my article 35 Interview Mistakes to Avoid and I strongly recommend you read it.

Here’s a quick summary of the 35 Interview Mistakes to Avoid

Being late Being too early Being rude to the receptionist Being unprepared Not dressing for success Ignoring grooming and body odor Leaving your mobile phone on Not knowing how you’re going to answer the tough questions Not listening/not answering the questions which have been asked of you Being too scripted Surface level answers Not reading the interviewer/s in real-time Failure to demonstrate problem solving Not reading between the lines Not building rapport with the interviewer Arguing with the interviewer Overselling yourself Appearing too desperate/needy Appearing too nervous Appearing disinterested Criticizing your previous employer Talking more than you listen Lying Volunteering too much information Being guarded Being overly familiar Not remembering everyone’s names in a group interview Ignoring interviewers in a group interview Not asking questions about the role Asking high maintenance questions Asking about salary and benefits Not treating a phone interview like a real interview Not doing practice interviews Not sending a thank you email Not learning from your interview mistakes

Some people go into interviews selling themselves hard, talking about all of their accomplishments and how right they are for the job.

I prefer to go into interviews ready to listen and I interview the interviewer as much as they interview me.

I want the employer/hiring manager to be doing most of the talking (80%-90%) with me doing most of the listening (10%-20%).

I also want the hiring manager to be selling me on the job and telling me why I should want to work there instead of the other way around.

References

A quick word on references: Choose your references carefully and be sure to coach them beforehand. Your prospective new employer is definitely more interested in some aspects of your career/skills/experience more than others and it’s up to you to coach your references to make those points abundantly clear.

Change your Mindset

When it comes to finding a job your mindset is everything.

Finding a job is a full time job in itself. It’s not something to be done passively. You can’t just apply for jobs online and then sit back and wait for people to call you. If you do, you will probably be unemployed for a long time.

You cannot knock on too many doors, make too many calls or speak to too many people. The more jobs you apply for, the more conversations you have going, the more interviews you go to, the more job offers you are likely to get.

If you are to succeed you must take matters into your own hands and don’t hold your breath waiting for anyone to do what they said they were going to do.

Did someone say they were going to call you back?

They won’t.

Did someone say they were going to send you an email?

They won’t.

Did someone say they were going to get back to you?

They won’t.

People are busy and disorganized. They’re flakey and forgetful. They’re slow and unreliable. resumes get lost. Emails get deleted. Phone calls and voicemails get ignored.

The only person that is going to get you a job is you.

The number #1 ingredient for success

The number #1 ingredient for success in the job hunt is PERSISTENCE.

Both of my careers in radio and recruitment came from massive amounts of persistence.

Let me explain…

How I got a job as a Breakfast Radio DJ (With NO experience)

I remember speaking to my best friend when I was 21 (in 2001) and telling him that I wanted to work as a TV presenter, but unfortunately I didn’t have the confidence to pursue it. (I wasn’t a very good public speaker)

He paused, thought about it for a moment and said: “What about radio? That way you can build up your confidence and communication skills and no one has to see your ugly mugg!”

I can’t say that it was ever a dream of mine to be on the radio. I was never one of those kids who called up radio stations trying to win prizes or requesting songs. In fact, I always thought that radio announcers sounded like dorks. I still do.

But I gave my friends advice some serious consideration and I decided to take it. Less than six weeks later, I enrolled myself in the New Zealand Radio training school and began to study radio alongside 30 other talented students from around the country – almost all of them far more confident, extroverted and outgoing than me. Lots of actors, stand-up comedians and big egos.

But something interesting happened the first time I turned on the mic… I felt completely at home. It felt good. It felt natural. It felt right. As soon as I got on the mic other students and teachers immediately started complementing me telling me how good I sounded. They said I was a natural.

I remember the manager of the radio school approaching me and telling me something which really surprised me… She said “most people are not themselves on air, they try to be someone else, someone they’re not, it’s only when they get off air that they’re themselves… but you, you’re the exact opposite, you’re completely yourself on air, but someone else around other people”.

It was a strange thing to hear, but I knew she was right. I did wear a mask and I did try to be someone I wasn’t in order to fit in with the people around me.

As the weeks and months went by I got better and better on the mic until I was one of the top 2-3 DJ’s in the school.

Finally, on the 2nd to last day of school we went around the room and the teachers asked each of the students what kind of job they planned on applying for once they graduated. Most people said things like “Copywriting” or “Production” but I had no interest in any of that stuff. I replied “announcer”. The teachers smiled and said something like “Yeah eventually, but competition for announcing jobs is super tough so you’ve probably got to work in the industry for a few years and work your way up to that and do something else first”.

Truthfully, the odds of getting a job as a radio DJ without any experience aren’t very good. If you want an on-air job like I did, especially a good one, the odds might be 100/1. Or even 500/1 or 1000/1.

However I didn’t care if I was working from 3am – 5am in the middle of nowhere, and I didn’t care if I was the lead announcer or a backup announcer, I was going to get a job as a radio DJ and that was all there was to it. My mind was made up.

Within 6 weeks of graduation 80% of the class had found work. The students were hungry, eager and desperate to do anything just to get some experience in the industry. But I didn’t want the jobs they had. I wanted to be the one speaking on the radio, not the one working behind the scenes.

I decided to do something differently in my job search. Instead of applying for advertised jobs where I would be competing against celebrities and other experienced DJ’s I found myself a list of every single radio station in the country (131 radio stations) and I decided to spend the entire next day calling every single station until someone finally said yes.

I woke up the next morning and did exactly that. I spent the entire day from 8am – 6pm calling every single radio station in the country. All 131. As soon as one station said “no” I would immediately brush it off and call another one.

By 6pm I was completely exhausted…

And I had been rejected 131 times in a row!

I didn’t mention this earlier but to pursue this new career in radio I had quit my job in IT as a help desk/desktop support consultant and I was dead broke, living with my girlfriend and she was paying the rent. I didn’t have a dollar to my name. No money at all. A few friends from the radio school even asked me: “What are you going to do if you can’t get into radio?” But I told them that I was getting in, there was NO plan b, and that was all there was to it.

My girlfriend had believed in me from the start but even she was losing faith. I think she thought I was pursuing a fantasy that wasn’t going to work out. We started arguing and she angrily told me to get another job, but I knew that if I did my focus would be on THAT job and not on my career in radio and that it would almost guarantee I wouldn’t make it.

It’s funny, but even though I had been rejected 131 times in a row by every radio station in the country, I still had the strongest conviction that I was going to get a job as a radio DJ. Despite the odds, despite the competition, despite the massive number of rejections I had already received, as far as I was concerned it was inevitable. It was just a fact. My willpower was so strong. I was so determined.

I decided to wait one week before trying again.

Again I went through the list of 131 radio stations whilst my favorite Eminem song “8-Mile Road” played in the background as motivation music (I used to love listening to Eminem in my early twenties). I had only been on the phone for about 20 minutes (I think I was up to station number 9) when I spoke to a station manager who kindly tipped me off “hey we don’t have a job but I know who does, Classic Hits has just had someone leave and they need to fill the position immediately so you should give them a call!”

So I did.

I called the station manager and had an immediate on the spot one hour phone interview. She was desperate to hire someone, and I was desperate to get a job. It was a breakfast announcing role from 6am – 10am weekdays Monday – Friday with a sports show on Saturday. The pay wasn’t amazing and it was only in a small town but she offered me the job over the phone and I accepted immediately.

Just a few days later I was moving to the other side of the country to begin my career in radio. I was super excited to break into the industry.

Although I was one of the last people in my class to get a job, arguably I got the best job by holding out for what I wanted, and refusing to quit until I won.

Sometimes you don’t need to be the best, you just need to be first. If an employer is desperate and you just happen to be there in the right place at the right time, ready and willing to start immediately and to help them solve their problems, why wouldn’t they say yes? Maybe someone left unexpectedly, maybe someone was fired or quit, maybe they just have super urgent deadlines, it doesn’t matter, their crisis is your opportunity!

Without my tremendous never say die persistence, I wouldn’t have got that job, and if I had waited until the job was advertised I would have had to compete against highly experienced announcers and also against famous stand-up comedians and TV presenters which meant that I probably wouldn’t have got the job either.

PERSISTENCE IS THE SECRET TO SUCCESS!

How I got into the recruitment industry

When I moved to Melbourne, Australia from Wellington, New Zealand back in late 2005, I came without a plan and without a lot of money. I had less than $700 AUD to my name and I was sleeping on the floor of my friend’s tiny one bedroom apartment (the only person I knew in Australia) so I needed to find a job quickly.

Within a few days I began applying for all kinds of jobs – at universities, call centres and other low level temp jobs. Anything and everything. I didn’t care. I wasn’t fussy. With just a few hundred dollars to my name I couldn’t afford to be. I would have worked at Starbucks if I had to. I just needed to find a job quickly. I applied for all kinds of jobs just to have a job.

One of the first things I noticed as I applied for jobs was that I was called in for a number of interviews with recruitment agencies and I began to meet with a bunch of recruitment consultants.

These recruitment consultants however didn’t impress me. Most were ditzy young girls who didn’t seem to know much about anything, and I was surprised at the complete lack of skill they seemed to have at interviewing.

Most of my radio show in New Zealand was dedicated to doing celebrity interviews, and I started thinking to myself: “Why am I applying for these crappy jobs, just to have a job, when I could easily do their jobs? I’m a much better interviewer than any of these people! Why not apply for a job as a recruitment consultant?”

So I did.

I began searching online for entry level positions for recruitment consultants and I found one position advertised for a junior recruitment consultant and I applied for it but didn’t hear anything back.

I decided to follow up my application with a phone call but the manager “wasn’t available” and no one called back.

I was persistent though. Although my calls weren’t being returned I kept calling every single day to see how my application was going because I knew I could do the job.

Finally after 5 days of calling the manager finally took my call and I told her that I wanted to meet in person to prove that I was more than capable of doing the job. She liked my confidence and assertiveness and asked me to meet her and her colleague on Friday afternoon for an interview.

It turned out to be the easiest interview I’d ever had and I nailed it on the spot and agreed to start on Monday.

Both of my careers in radio and recruitment came from a tremendous amount of hunger and persistence. No matter how many times I was knocked back I kept coming back and would not quit until I won. If I had made one less phone call for either job I wouldn’t have secured an interview and I wouldn’t have broken into either industry.

You need to have the same attitude. A never say die, never quit, never give up attitude, is crucial to your success in the job hunt.

Persistence is everything.

Summary

In this article we’ve explored the 7 steps for getting your dream job:

Apply for an advertised position Send your resume into a recruitment agency Send your resume directly into the company you wish you work for Use your own network Use LinkedIn and other similar social networking sites Talk to someone already in the job you want Change your mindset

I recommend doing everything simultaneously and leaving nothing to chance.

Getting a job is the same as achieving any other goal. Working hard and smart, taking massive action, being persistent and learning from your mistakes.

Every time you get rejected for a job, try to get some feedback as to why. Is it your resume? Is it your presentation? Is it your interview technique? Is it your references?

I’d like to close with 2 quick questions:

1. Would you hire you?

Put yourself in the shoes of the employer: Who would you hire you?

Would you be impressed with your resume/covering letter?

Would you be impressed with your communication/presentation skills?

Would you be impressed with your interview answers/examples?

Would you be impressed with your work experience/references?

If you wouldn’t hire you – don’t expect anyone else to hire you either.

2. Are you willing to work anywhere?

Some places are a lot easier to find work than others.

If I’d stayed in New Zealand my career options would’ve been incredibly limited, but by moving to Melbourne thousands of new job possibilities immediately became available to me.

So think about it. Would you be willing to relocate to another city or country for the right job? In some cities job opportunities are abundant. Would you be willing to move to Australia? Canada? Dubai? London? New York? San Francisco? Hong Kong? Singapore? Tokyo?

If you’re in the job hunt, I highly recommend you check out my other articles:

150+ Career tips from the CEO’s of Apple, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, JP Morgan and more!

35 Interview Mistakes to Avoid

25 Resume Mistakes to Avoid

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Footnote:

IT companies image credit: rvlsoft / Shutterstock.com LinkedIn image credit: Diabluses / Shutterstock.com