85% of jobs are hired through a referral from your network. That’s insane.
It means applications aren’t doing anything for you. Ever heard of the 80/20 rule? Don’t spend your energy on the activity that takes 80% of the effort for 20% of the results (or in the case of cold job apps, only 15% results!).
So how to get those sweet, sweet referrals?
Turn your job hunt into a campaign!
The first step is people telling other people about you so they can tell other people to hire you is letting everyone know your skills, interests, and the fact that you’re for hire. Start learning and working OUT LOUD. People can see what you’re up to and refer you to others.
Check this out. Amanda listened to a great podcast episode. She took notes. And she decided to Tweet those notes and tag the host of the show. It’s a top 50 podcast. Yet he Retweeted her, which meant lots of people saw it. One of those was a hiring manager at a media company. Right there on Twitter, her asked her to apply.
Now she has not a cold application, but a referral from one of the company execs! All from Tweeting her work.
(You can use Crash if you want some help.)