Never Apply for a Job Again!: Break the Rules, Cut the Line, Beat the Rest Read Free Page A

“out of the blue” garden.
    Overall, Darrell Gurney’s method is a great referral generation strategy. As I spell out in my book Networking Like a Pro , senior executives are hiding from you. Darrell shows the way to win at this game of hide-and-seek. You’ll be shouting “Olly olly oxen free” all the way into the good graces of these senior players who will reveal themselves to you…to get you hired.
    ~I VAN M ISNER , P H D, N EW Y ORK T IMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR, AND FOUNDER OF BNI

Preface
    My first book, Headhunters Revealed! Career Secrets for Choosing and Using Professional Recruiters, came out a decade ago. It was to assist job-seekers in getting the most value out of a viable tool of career transition—third-party recruiters, or headhunters . I wrote it during the late 1990s, a working world shaped by a candidate-driven market, when there were far more good jobs available than people to fill them. It was written from the perspective of having been a professional recruiter for more than 15 years, finding jobs for everyone from executive VPs, CFOs, and directors of sales to human resource managers, executive assistants, and accounting clerks.
    Headhunters Revealed! basically asserts that it is always smart to have the career partnership of a headhunter in your back pocket when managing your career, in the short term (“I need a job NOW!”), and as a passive candidate in the long term (“If the right opportunity comes up, I’ll considermaking a move.”). Knowing how to best work with these enigmatic entities, how they operate their business, and what makes them tick allows you to reap the most benefit from their expertise. In strong and vibrant economies, headhunters are a savvy supplement to your personal job-seeking efforts.
    But recruiters, all the way from temporary clerical agencies to high-end, retained executive search firms, are just one tool in your job-seeker pouch. Also, they have a limited ability to help you in slow economic times—what is called an employer-driven market—because there simply aren’t as many jobs to fill. When there is plenty of talent available in the market, employers can recruit more directly on their own and avoid placement fees. So, it is important to learn effective job search methods in order to become your own career manager. This skill is handy for all economic seasons, yet it’s often the recessions that wake most people up to the need to learn new ways to approach their job search.

CareerGuy Tip: Become your own career manager, for good times and bad.
    Only 20 to 35 percent of the entire job search spectrum lies within the public-knowledge domain. The rest, 65 to 80 percent, rests in what’s called the “hidden job market.” To take charge of your own career, and not rely on the whims of the market or other folks to do it for you, you must learn to tap into this hidden market—not just for your next job, but for life. In any economy, the person who knows how toconnect with unadvertised, behind-the-scenes opportunities through building relationships will always come out on top. This book, Never Apply for a Job Again!, will assist you in doing just that.
    Please note that if you replace the word job in the previous paragraph with the words entrepreneurial opportunity or new client , you’ll realize that this method applies just as well to these ventures…because it’s all just a “job” in one way or another. The point is, pursuing new clients or opportunities in the same way everyone else does is predictable, recognizable, and filterable. You’ll want to use this same stealth approach to create many more career openings in those areas also. So, anywhere in this book that you see the word job , simply make that replacement.
    In these pages, I will offer you the insight, philosophy, and instructions that I’ve provided for thousands of clients throughout my 25 years in the career coaching and recruiting business. You’ll learn how to be in command of