WHO’S WHO? How to connect with right people to get your dream job

It is critical to research your target jobs, people and companies to be able to connect and secure interviews with them. 

When companies hire, they struggle to find the right people quickly. That’s why a multi-billion-dollar recruitment industry exists to solve this problem. 

So, when you are looking, ensure that you make the people at companies and jobs you are interested in aware that you are looking as soon as possible. They will welcome the interest of a relevant and well-presented potential candidate. It’s a win-win.

A good list of companies and contacts to reach out to can make a big difference in how soon you start talking to potential employers. 

When you have a number of different job opportunities in consideration at the same time, you can be choosy about what is important to you and say no to jobs that aren’t a good fit for your career aspirations.

There are two proactive approaches you can take to targeting what you want in terms of a new job. Applying either one, you will position yourself ahead of others. You can see a visual representation of these two approaches in the image:

Top-down approach. You decide the industries that you want to target, identify the key companies within them and the relevant jobs within those companies.

Bottom-up approach. You decide on the jobs that you want to target, identify the key companies that offer these roles, and then research the industries these companies are in.

Once you have decided on the industry, companies and job/s that you are going to pursue, it’s time to position yourself and focus on the key people you need to contact during this process. 

Google is your first and best point of reference to start researching companies, but these additional sources can assist you in locating useful company insights:

• Annual reports

• Wikipedia

• Glassdoor – current and past employees

• Company social-media pages – LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter

• Google News

• Industry analysts