Hey everybody, Stuart Bradley here, and if you are not doing this one thing in your job search, you are going to find it frustrating. So let's jump into that one thing and implement it... implement it into your job search, especially if you are a international student.

And why do I say international student? Actually this advice applies to any American executive and recent graduate. But, having been an international student, supporting this group is one of my areas of passion and it's a cohort that has limited time. We can all study the best practices of the international student job hunt.

This is the one thing that you need to do to be successful in the job search is something I call consistency. Consistency in the job search. I'm not talking about doing something every five or 10 minutes or necessarily every hour, but once a day, once every two days with consistency.

Consistency in Applying and Networking

Now there are two things that break down your job search or define your job effort: one is applying, applying to jobs. The second is networking. These two things need to be done with consistency and when they are, your results will be outstanding.

When I coach, I coach in terms of three concepts that might not seem natural to you at first: focus, mindset and method. The first is focus getting a focus. The second is method. And that's where we're gonna focus on today is the method of the job search and the form of consistency. And the third item is mindset. And I'll touch on that at the end. So having confidence, having the belief that you are someone who is or can become the talent that can be hired, right? Having that confidence is key.

Applying and Networking: the two areas where consistency pays off

The first thing is the job applications and the second is networking. Now one thing I have observed among people who very much want to get a job in the United States, whether it's Americans like myself at one point or an international student, which I also was at one point, and that is getting applications out, just making that application done, getting it done. And so instead of - on one hand a burst of activity led by a famine or a drought in activity - focus on making this consistent, having that discipline to send in applications on a regular basis. That way you will start to develop a momentum in your job search where you will be able to relatively smoothly handle those high levels of responses that you may get when you get as opposed to having them all jump on you at once. The other reason that consistency in applying is so important would you like to know? 

It's because you need to follow up on that application. When I say follow up on that application, I don't mean play the waiting and hoping game: you probably know who you are - if you are waiting and hoping to hear back. Who hears back from job applications that they submit online? Unlikely. Right now the myth is that there is that perfect candidate out there. The company might think, "hey, there's this perfect candidate out there" or you might think, "I'm this perfect candidate and I'm going to be found" and what we know is that it's front of mind that matters in the job search and not perfect because there is no perfect candidate in the job search. It doesn't exist. So when we talk about consistency in applying, we are talking about follow up making the applications on a regular basis and basis and following up.

If you were wondering, time is behind the power of consistency

Time compounds everything. This is the power of compound interest. When time is involved, time compounds the impact of actions taken consistently. That is why compound interest is the marvel that it is, and Einstein had something to say about the power of compounding:

Following-up: the details

• Following up means no less than seven business days after the job application has been submitted. Reach out to that company to confirm submission and ask about next steps. This process of asking can be directed to the recruiter that has been assigned to the university or if you have a referral, this means following up on that referral to talk about the next steps in that process. If you're lacking both of those, do some research, maybe identify who that hiring manager might be through Linkedin or your alumni database. There's no wrong way to do this when you follow up and show your passion for the job to which you've applied; that shows the company that you are at a higher level than others in terms of your willingness to do business and your interest in the company and that following up work that takes work. 
• It takes work to follow up. If you've applied to 20 companies one day on indeed.com or simplyhired.com then you have 20 companies that you then seven days later all at the same time need to start following up with and that sets you up for a "boom or bust" cycle that we want to avoid. So let's distribute our application effort, make it consistent that way our followup efforts roll like a wave, right? We have overlapping waves of activities: the job application submission step, then we have the follow up step and then additional steps where the conversation has begun and both parties feel like there's an opportunity for more interaction.

Getting into Conversation with the Company

Now let's talk about conversation for a moment before I jump into networking. This whole process of getting a job is about entering into conversation with the companies that we want to hire us and these companies, once in conversation with us, are going to feel like, "wow, we have de-risked our investment in this new individual and we can move to the hiring stage". 

"We know this person." "We want to bring this person on board." That is the goal of that conversation with an employer.

Consistency and Entering into Conversation

The two ways we enter into conversation are through cold job applying and through networking. And when I talk about networking, I'm not talking about throwing your resume out there and saying, hey, let's talk about me. The last thing people want to do when they want to help somebody in networking is turn that conversation into an interview. So when we're reaching out, when we're networking, we're getting to know other people and that can involve cold emailing and cold calling. But once you create that conversation, think of that as not just a conversation, but as social interviewing.

Networking is interviewing that is social.

Leading with your resume is upfront and bland. That turns a networking meeting into a interview. Realize in any case that interviewing is already some form of interview. You've already entered into conversation with the company. And so here as well, consistency is key. The consistency of your outreach to find a networking counter-party. This begins with having a focus in your job hunt. You can approach the job search without focus - thinking that you want to spread your net wide - I'm not going to be able to stop you. That's the way a lot of early career people start. But I will tell you this secret: in addition to consistency, having a focus will make all the difference, because when you have that focus, your story becomes consistent and the more you tell that similar story and that similar set of accomplishments, the better you get at it. I made the mistake of having no focus at one point and I paid the price in terms of taking a long time to search and not getting a return offer after an internship.

Nuts and Bolts of Consistent Networking

So consistency in networking means reaching out daily through Linkedin, through your alumni databases, through email to find that percentage of people that are interested in giving back, that are interested in developing talent. And you by reaching out, become one of those people. You select yourself, you raise your hand and say, "I am ready to grow." So networking and the job application process are both underpinned by this secret, which is consistency. I'm talking about daily outreach in terms of networking and coffee chats. I'm talking about following up on when and where to meet and then taking the time it takes to prepare. You do that consistently so that you don't go through a boom and bust cycle of having several networking meetings in a period of time and then back to nothing and that feeling of being alone or empty in your job search, not having momentum. 

Let's talk then about mindset.

No matter where you are in your search, you might think you have a lack of experience, and that can bring you down. You know what? Your lack of experience is a great blessing to you and to any company that would hire you because it's the profile of person that wants to learn, that's hungry, that firms are looking for. And if you've got that profile of a lack of experience, then you meet what most companies are looking for, especially in that early talent development stage. You've got it. And so the thing to realize about the mindset and the search is be yourself. Own your own experience, be proud of it. See the glass half full.... and guess what guys? You have to be yourself because everyone else is already taken.

Your lack of experience is a great blessing to you and to any company that would hire you because it's the profile of person that wants to learn, that's hungry

Conclusion

Consistency is one thing that you need to have in order to make your job search quick and efficient. It's always going to be a journey. It's going to have its ups and downs and this aspect of consistency is really what is integral to becoming a professional. And when you start to develop professional attributes, habits, characteristics, your job search ends that much more quickly because you found the match.

Hey guys, take a look at my website if you wish for more materials. I have a membership site which I'm launching soon, so that's going to be a huge resource, and then we have the application-only Career Accelerator. Maybe neither is for you, and that's totally OK. Now, below this video on consistency, throw in some comments, throwing some questions. Let me know that you saw this and that you're committed to consistency. Are you committed to consistency in your job search? Let me know in the comments below. Full video of this post available in my blog.