Climbing to the Top of the Pack in Your Job Search

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Two weeks ago, an acquaintance from the Publicity Club of New England invited me to speak on a panel about job searching and networking. The panel was well rounded and included national communication headhunters, etiquette and image experts and local hiring managers. In attendance was a room full of twenty-something job seekers whose ranks easily exceed the number of available PR jobs.

Many of the experts agreed with the tough challenge facing recent grads. One headhunter working exclusively in filling communications positions throughout the U.S. and Canada told attendees that August through October 2009 was the most difficult year for his firm in more than 30 years of business. The hiring managers in attendance nodded in agreement and you could almost feel the audience mentally bracing themselves for the job search struggle ahead.

I could certainly relate. Only three months prior, I had finished a temporary PR apprenticeship with a Boston firm and was back on the market. Facing that kind of job market, I knew it would require far more to be considered for a job than submitting a cover letter and resume. I decided that I had to treat my job search like a public relations challenge, which it truly was: trying to have my voice heard over a sea of static and competing messages from other candidates.

This kind of mentality allowed me to think strategically about my search. I imagined the challenge of hiring managers – dedicating only a fraction of their time to evaluating candidates, they need material that had an impact and was entertaining to digest – while demonstrating on face value that I understood how to apply PR concepts. I reached out to PR Week and pitched a story about my job search. To my shock, I got it. From there, I created www.burkeswork.com so employers could easily navigate my material and see a personal image of me that was more “real” than a name on a resume.

This is the advice that I give to job seekers since it helped me land two positions in such a poor job market. I believe it is important to understand that ultimately, managers hire people, not resumes, and that creatively crafting an image of competence is equally as important as having the skills for the job.

Ultimately, my search led me to Text 100. What attracted me was their commitment to professional development, global opportunities, flat organization and work/life balance. I think it’s important for employers to understand that candidates prize these attributes almost as much as salary. They want to know explicitly how this job is going to get them to the next step in their career. The problem is that those attributes are the selling points of every hiring manager I’ve met.

Employers should assume that candidates will do their own research. I personally checked out Text 100′s employee reviews and salary information on www.glassdoor.com, watched YouTube videos of global office parties to get a feel for the culture and searched LinkedIn to determine how long employees stuck with the company. It goes to show how much more power candidates have to reference check their potential employers.

I’m pleased to report that my research and personal experience with Text 100 has proven everything I heard in my interview to be true. The culture is tight-knit and collaborative, management and coworkers are amazingly supportive and my career growth is strategically planned. Not all employers will match their true culture to their online presence as well, and it’s illustrated for me how important image management is for both parties in today’s job search.

You can learn more about Text 100′s career openings on our Web site. Yes! We’re hiring.

Photo credit: Tony the Misfit