The 9 Week Job Hunting System
We all know the statistics. Most jobs are never posted online, most people are hired from the “network” of the hiring team, blah blah blah. But, if you’re not in the network, it can be pretty demoralizing. How do I get into that network?
There are so many problems with how people look for jobs. It’s monotonous, emotionally volatile and people too often look in the wrong places. Then, when you do find a job you get one offer and take it, not even being able to entertain other offers for fear of losing the one you have.
So, I’ve created a system that addresses each of these issues.
The 9 Week System Explained
The goal of the 9 week system is to get you at least 2 job offers to choose from by:
- Giving you access to jobs that you would not otherwise have access to
- Accelerate or decelerate conversations so that your offers line up
- Vary the type of work you do/meetings you have to avoid burnout
The 9 week system is not necessarily a one and done thing. Some people may do several cycles before finding a job.
Each of the emails you’ll be sending and meetings you’ll be taking have a different timeline for how long it generally takes to lead to a job.
The Schedule & 3 Sources of Job Opportunity
Weeks 1–3
People — Informational Interviews
For the first three weeks you should be focused on the people who have a career that you admire and would like to emulate but not necessarily at companies that you’d like to work for. With these people you’re going to want to ask them for an informational interview. During this meeting you’ll ask them questions and tell them a little about what you’re looking for. If you’re impressive they’ll probably give you an intro or two. Most likely this will be to a person who works at a company that is a fit for you but they’re “not hiring”
For advice on what to say in these informational interviews, check out Lucy Dotson’s post summarizing the TIARA framework .
Weeks 4–6
Companies — Places You’d Like to Work
For the next three weeks you’re going to set up meetings with people working at companies that you think would be a fit for where you’d like to work. If you need help choosing companies or telling your story read my last post “Where to Apply and How to Tell Your Story When Job Hunting”.
…But they’re “not hiring” for my exact role; this is not a thing. You should look for a company that is generally hiring and let the conversation do the rest. Hiring managers don’t know the exact role they should hire as much as you don’t know where you should work.
During
Weeks 7–9
Jobs — Applying to Open Positions
Pretty simple. Companies are hiring, apply to jobs and interview for them.
Cold Email, Really? But what do I say?
Here is an example from my own email.
Hi [First Name]
My name’s [Your Name]. I wanted to reach out to see if there is any way I can help [Company]. I heard about y’all from ___________.
[Company] lines up incredibly well with my purpose of [Your Purpose] and my experience in [Industry] and [Experience].
I’m the former [Role] at [Former Company], [doing something really relevant]. [I’ve also done/love a second thing that makes me an almost perfect candidate for a job you haven’t decided you even need yet].
I’d love to hear about some of the challenges at [Company] and share some thoughts I had about what you’re doing in [your field]
oh my goodness sorry this is so long for reaching out cold
Hope all is going well
[Your Name]
I hope that this is helpful. Please ask me questions if you have them.
Best of luck,
Graham Hunter
p.s. I’m hiring a Marketing manager and a Growth PM at Visor, bringing done-for-you taxes to the masses, at a DIY price.
