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Successful Job Searching

On page 2 of our Jobseekers Guide we explained 11 ways to find jobs.

Most jobseekers use only 1 or 2 methods and miss out on the 80% of jobs which are never advertised.

We'll show you how to tap into this 'hidden' job market though speculative approaches -- otherwise called the Direct Approach.

Job Searching Using The Direct Approach

When it comes to looking for a job you may need to use the 'speculative' approach. This basically means cold-calling companies (by letter, phone or in person) to find out if they would be interested in hiring you based on your skills, knowledge and experience.

Like 'Networking', the speculative approach is a potentially lucrative but under-used tool. If done well, speculative approaches can reap the following rewards:

If a company has a job vacancy but has yet to advertise, they may decide to interview just you for now, since you look good. There is obviously much less competition, which can only work in your favor.
If you are really that good, a company may create a job vacancy just for you, rather than lose you. We know of someone for whom this happened.
While a company may not have a position open immediately they might still want to see you. Based on this you can add this company to your ‘network’ and of course they may offer you something in the future.
Even if the company goes ahead with advertising its vacancies, you have made an initial personal contact (be this by letter, phone or in person) which stands for a lot. Since very few jobseekers go to these lengths you will be easily remembered for your initiative when it comes to short listing for the job interview.

As you can see, making speculative approaches can be very worthwhile. Be ready to put in quite a lot of work up front and do expect to get more rejections than interviewers but stick at it.