How Do I Start My Stealth Job Search?

Dear Liz,

I am a big reader of your columns and I share them with everyone. I think you have your finger on the pulse of work today. I've been at my job for seven years and at least two of those years have been a complete waste of time. The company grew fast and then tapered off and now it's 'Cut costs, cut costs, and cut more costs!' There is no room for growth (personal or professional) or job satisfaction  left in this company anymore.

A lot has changed in the job market in the seven years I've been working here. I didn't have to job-hunt to get this job, since I just followed a VP who moved to this company from my last employer, along with about half of my former department members.

We all started working here together and we didn't have to apply or interview for our jobs, so I haven't actually put a resume out on the street in a long time. I don't want my current manager to know I'm going to be job-hunting. What are the steps to follow to get my job search going? Thanks in advance for your help and your terrific advice (and for your cool drawings, too!)

Yours,

Norman

Dear Norman,

Hats off to you on stepping into the talent marketplace! You're right -- a lot has changed on the job-search trail, but most of the changes I see are very positive ones. Pretty much every medium-sized and  large employer now  uses loathsome automated recruiting portals to screen job candidates, but more and more employers are realizing how pointless and talent-repelling those things are, and ditching them.

Hiring managers hate Black Hole recruiting systems, because they are slow, cumbersome and useless in helping a manager make a great new hire. Candidates hate them because like other kinds of Black Holes, they suck in information and give nothing back.

Luckily, it is easy to bypass the automated recruiting system and write to your own hiring manager -- your possible next boss - directly. You can find your hiring manager's name this way, and find his or her mailing address on the company's own website. You can take control of your job search, skip the Black Hole applicant tracking system and get the job interview first, and then the job.

Here's a 12-point plan for getting your under-the-radar job search started:

1. Decide what you want to do next, after you leave this job. You don't have to look for a new job that's just like the old one. You get to decide. Maybe it's time for a big career shift!
2. Now, brand yourself for the job you want (not the job you've got)! Begin your branding exercise by writing about yourself (not for publication --  just for you). In your new job, what sort of work will you do? Write your bio as though you're writing about yourself working at your new job, six months from now. You've already had experience in a lot of different subject matters, whether you've held the job title or not. Use the bio-creation exercise to reclaim those experiences and get them into your branding!
3. Will you update your LinkedIn profile? You're in a stealth job search now, so you don't want to raise alarms. You can set your Notifications to "off" so that your LinkedIn contacts don't get notified about your profile updates, or you can live with the LinkedIn profile you've got throughout your job search.
4. Determine your salary requirement and your other requirements for your job search. Write about your ideal job. What is your target salary level, position title, daily commute, amount of travel per month, and so on? Write your expectations out on paper and talk about them with someone close to you. Determine your floor in each category. What is the lowest salary you would accept -- and what would make that low salary worthwhile to you? Know what you want so the universe can bring it to you.
5. Write your Human-Voiced Resume to bring your new branding into clear focus for the benefit of hiring managers who don't already know you. Remember -- you don't need permission to change careers. You need to give yourself permission!
6. Create a Target Employer List. You may already have target employers in mind, or you might decide to browse LinkedIn profiles to spot employers who are struggling with the very same kind of Business Pain you solve.
7. Learn about Pain Letters and then research and compose a Pain Letter to a particular hiring manager you'd like to start a conversation with.
8. Send your hard copy Pain Letter, attached with one staple in the upper left corner to your hard copy Human-Voiced Resume, directly to the first hiring manager on your Target Employer List, by post.
9. Activate your network. Check in with old friends and new acquaintances to begin expanding your sphere of influence.
10. Get some consulting business cards and begin passing them out to people you know (instead of the business cards your employer gave you).
11. If you are planning to use a Third Party Search channel in your job search (that is, to partner with one or more recruiters whose clients may be looking for someone like you), reach out to one or two trusted recruiters or friend-of-your-friend recruiters to talk through your resume with them. Your Human-Voiced Resume will probably not be your recruiter's favorite, so you'll need a traditional resume for recruiters as well as your Human-Voiced Resume to send to hiring managers directly.
12. Get a journal and begin writing in it every day or every other day. Write about your job search. Write about your ideas, dreams and feelings. You are growing new muscles. Hats off to you!