Most recently, I read through a great piece by David Rogier on Medium about the best recruiting advice he ever got. As any self-respecting ambitious professional wanting to get a great position at a dream company, David talks through his struggle to get himself a position in a ‘start-up’ and the advice he got from Tristan Walker.
His approach is definitely not common, but surely creative. Personally I also felt that apart from allowing you to see recruiting in a new light, this approach helps you define what you potentially like about a job and it doesn’t matter if you started now, are have been in a position for 15 years and would like a change now.
This approach can potentially work at any stage in your career.
David Rogier’s story behind the recruiting advice no headhunter ever tells you.
David met Tristan Walker and asked for advice on applying for jobs within start-ups. Tristan proceeded to share his own job search story. Apparently, Tristan wanted to work with Foursquare in 2009. He started out by applying on the company website.
He even wrote directly to the CEO and sent him a note. He wrote several times, each time meeting with no response. At this point, still sure of working with Foursquare, Tristan used a creative new approach.
He started working for Foursquare. He knew the job he wanted in the organization and he started calling potential advertisers for Foursquare – while not working there.
In his 9th email, he had a concrete suggestion for the CEO of Foursquare- that he had lined up potential advertising partners for his company. This is when the CEO did reply and Tristan went on to head Business Development at the company. He had self recruited himself into a job that he wanted before really getting the role.
Pros and cons of a unique or creative recruitment strategy
Be prepared to fail
The thing is depending on how you see it, it is a good thing or a bad thing. But considering we like to be optimistic and open about what we can achieve instead of focusing on what went wrong, here are the good parts. Even if a creative strategy like this fails, it prepares you to fail.
It’s like you take a risk, if it works out that’s great, but it is also helpful to keep your expectations low, in case you do not succeed. And then, try again.
You will stand out
By going as far as indicating what you can do for the company and investing time in details, you could essentially think of an approach like this as a speculative application. You already know your application is highly customized because of all the time you have spent working on your creative application project. Compare this to tons of other applications that the company is receiving. Most likely, if you do it right, you will stand out.
Your self-awareness will go up
A mentor once told me, before deciding to choose a career or making strong decisions based on mere epiphany, I need to h4 more detailed. Sit myself down and note down lists of what I’d like to. The specifics. While doing that, there is a possibility to come across an idea or a feeling that I had closeted or not been aware of. It also helps stretch boundaries of what we can actually do.
At this point, it is helpful to get outside-in feedback from your network to get a quick check on how they see you. Is this what your new job looks like? Is this what you’d enjoy doing or is it just a whim? Be prepared for heightened sense of clarity. That’s your new superpower.
Ideas will rush past you, some will be drool-worthy
Fast Company presented a great list of 8 start-ups and how they came up with their ‘next big thing’ ideas. Some of them seem regular, run of the mill events.
Some may have been discarded as mere drool-worthy. But it is essentially possible to see that the big thing doesn’t seem to just the idea, but also the ability to realize that this is the big idea. While working on solving someone’s problems and coming up with a unique application strategy, it is fully possible that you may find something exciting and decide to hone it into the next big thing all by yourself. The key is to keep your eyes open. And imagine a potential.
You may get no response even with hard work
David puts this one up really well, and I’d share what he said,
I did sample work and emailed it to the hiring manager. Never heard back. Starting doing more work. Never heard back. Did more work. Never head back. I actually called Tristan and asked for ideas. His advice: if you are doing work for someone and they don’t have the courtesy to respond — you probably don’t want to work for that person. I agree.
I hope this enables you to find dream positions in places that you’ve been vying for. In addition, hopefully, it can enable you to see yourself as an ‘active seeker’ and not just be a passive stakeholder in the job search process. Get out there and claim your world.
