How To Put Out Feelers
Are you looking for a new job or change of job scenery? Have you decided to make a career move? Today we’re going to see how to put out feelers. Whether you are job-hunting, looking to start your career, an experienced professional looking to switch companies, a former employee looking to get his/her job back, or just want to see how your profile rates with recruiters, this article is for you. You are going to learn how to put out feelers and why you should.
First, what does this mean – how to put out feelers? Putting out feelers means testing the market to see if your profile and resume are relevant and interesting to recruiters. In other words, do you get any bites or responses?
How To Put Out Feelers In Your Network
All of you have trusted friends, colleagues, and other professionals who can provide you with valuable information about the market and your profile. After you have written or updated your resume and Linkedin profile, ask some of these confidants to look them over. Ask them for feedback. Would they change anything? Are there any points that were unclear or they believe should be tightened up for clarity?
Of this group of people in your network, where do they work? Are some of these companies of interest to you? If yes, look at their career pages and see if there are any openings. For companies with openings that you deem a good fit, ask your friend to refer you internally. Do you get a response? One thing about feelers: you are testing the waters to see if your profile is competitive and wanted by recruiters. Do this with a few companies and see what turns up.
Sign Up for Specific Job Lists
Job sites such as Indeed, Glassdoor, Linkedin and the many others will always offer you free job alerts for specific segments, search queries, locations etc. Take advantage of these. These free job alerts can save you a lot of time when testing the market and can help you find potential jobs for which you can put out feelers.
Interview, Interview, Interview
I can’t stress this enough. As you are putting out feelers and submitting your resume for a series of jobs, you are bound to get some hits on your resume and recruiters interested in talking with you. Sometimes these are dream jobs; other times, these are invites to companies you have never heard of. The point is, take the interview.
The more you get in front of recruiters and practice your delivery, the better equipped and ready you’ll be. You can determine areas of yours that need improvement, strong areas, and other areas that you should shed some light on in future interviews. These interviews will give you a better idea if you are a good fit in the market for a specific position or if you need some polishing.
How to Put Out Feelers with Linkedin
Linkedin has become the go-to social media network for job searching, all-things-business sharing, and expanding your professional network. To leverage this powerful network and put out feelers, start by updating your professional summary: job descriptions, new courses taken, volunteer jobs you’ve done, and anything else relevant that recruiters should know about you. I strongly suggest once you have done this, get some of your trusted friends and colleagues to look it over. Ask them for feedback. Is your message clear, do your descriptions in fact match your job, or is there room for improvement?
Once you have updated, corrected, and now have a stellar profile, start driving the spotlight to your profile. One of the best ways to do this is by sharing relevant news, articles, videos, whitepapers and other info about your segment. Don’t just share any old content. Make sure it is high-quality and something your segment will deem interesting. When you do this, this will drive more views and possibly likes and shares to the article you shared, thus increasing your profile views.
Linkedin Groups
Linkedin groups are another great place to grab some attention. Look for groups in your segment, say digital marketing for example. Look at some of the content that is being shared there. Find additional, relevant content to share. Also, join in on the comments section. Don’t just share for the sake of sharing – add value. If you can help someone out or share your knowledge about something, people will want to connect with you. This also shows your authority/knowledge in an area.
Write an Article
I know this may sound time consuming, but if you are knowledgeable in a specific area, why not share that knowledge with your network. Sharing articles will help your profile gain more visibility, shares, likes, and you will probably have more people wanting to connect with you. Now let’s look at it from another perspective. If recruiters see that you have written a series of articles about a specific segment, and they are hiring for a similar job in that segment, they may be more eager to talk to you.
How to Put Out Feelers with Industry Associations
Different business associations can be a great place to meet new people, stay up-to-date on segment trends and practices, and discreetly job-hunt. The best thing is, these are people from your industry, and they may know of jobs internally at their companies or at a friend’s company that has an open position. Getting to know them better, sharing job experiences, or even presenting at an event will put you on their radar. Don’t be surprised if they ask you if you would like to interview for a job. This is a great way to put out a discreet feeler.
Start Company Mapping
Are there specific companies that you want to work at? Add them to a spreadsheet. Next, create another column with a link directly to their career page so you can check out their job postings with a fast click. For the next column, look at the professionals who hold the same position that you desire at this company. Review their profiles and see what their job description looks like. Connect with them and add these people to your list in the spreadsheet. If you know of an open position at their company, you could pose a quick question about their experience with the company etc. It is worth trying. Although they may not always respond, it is a great way to get on their radar and possibly be contacted for an interview.
Next, look for the recruiters at this company that most likely recruit for the specific position you want, say marketing analyst. Visit their profile. Once you have visited, they will more than likely see that you visited and then go to your profile. This puts you on their radar. That is why you cleaned up your Linkedin and started sharing articles. You want to stick out. Add this recruiter to the spreadsheet as well.
How To Put Feelers Out If You Are Just Starting Your Career
This may be your first job in high school, in college, or just out of college, and you want to know how you stand against the competition. A great way to do this is by writing a resume with your job experience, volunteer experience, sports, awards and other accomplishments. Additionally, create a Linkedin profile and add similar information.
Once that is done, apply to some jobs that you see are in your wheelhouse, i.e. jobs for which you have the skills and qualify. See if you get any responses on your resume. Additionally, go to job fairs. Talk with recruiters, company owners and other members at the fair and see what the initial response is. Do you receive follow up emails to interview or maybe a phone call or two? If yes, this is good news and it seems like your resume is doing the job. If not, there may be some tweaking to do.
Be Self-Critical
As just mentioned, if your resume is not getting responses, you need to do some tweaking. When you are in this situation, you need to be self-critical and do a self-assessment. Think about the perception of your resume. What message is it giving? Is it really saying what it should say? Invite other people to read it and see if it makes sense and in fact conveys what you want. Also ask a teacher or someone else you trust to review and give their feedback. Receiving this feedback, continue sending out more resumes. Do you get more hits and responses? Track your progress and the amount of emails sent vs the amount of responses.
Wrap Up
Today we have seen how to put out feelers and test the market with our resume. This can be an effective way of determining new opportunities and getting called in for a job. I hope that you have enjoyed this article and will be able to confidently and effectively put out feelers and get that job! If you have any other suggestions or tips on putting out feelers, please add them in the comments section below and share with the community.
For more articles on job search and interview tips, check out the CareerPrep blog. Also visit the CareerPrep and EnglishInterviews Youtube Channel.
