Every Conversation Is An Interview

 Welcome to 2022!

We're going to open up the blog in 2022 by teaching how never to miss an opportunity again. There are two things you need to absorb here and it's going to be short and sweet and when you adopt these two concepts, you are never going to miss an interview again. 

The two things that you need to know/do in order to get those interviews are:

1) Make interviewing your priority in 2022

2) Realize that every conversation is an interview

Make Interviews Your Priority

If trying to get a job, it's most likely the case that you are trying to send applications out and you are hoping that some sort of conversation ensues.

In 2022, instead, look beyond the application step and get into conversation and develop relationships with the people to whom you are sending the applications.

There are ways to do that and that's the details and implementation is going to be beyond the scope of this short post.

So, change your mind about what...

How To Get Your Dream Offer With “Minimum Viable” Effort

I'm excited to share something that I call the minimum viable job hunt (MVJ) with you.

There is a really good book that you might wanna check out called The Lean Startup, addressing how companies in Silicon Valley scale and grow so quickly. I thought we should take the key piece out of that teaching and apply it here into our own job hunts. 

If you're with me on this, I think you’ll really enjoy this, and definitely sit down, grab a piece of paper, grab a pen, take some notes, and let's kind of map this out together as we go through this. 

In the book, The Lean Startup, the concept is of the minimum viable product (MVP). What does that mean? There are three letters there, so let’s go through them one by one.

Product (P)

Let's first start with the P (product) that seeks to “launch” and become the next billion-dollar company. It has a P because it stands for “product”....

Why you shouldn’t be afraid of meeting people on the job hunt

The excitement of meeting new people has got to be probably the thing that makes work-life interesting.

Finding new friends and colleagues should be easy, so what is it about reaching out to new people that is so scary when we know that's what we want to do anyway? 

You need to change your mind from: 

“Hey, no one would reach out to me or be willing to contact me.”

>>> TOWARDS >>> 

“Now I'm going to change my mind and try something new.”

It’s time to change your mind on this! 

One of the aspects of the StuartSystem is that all of my courses are focused on us generating our own job hunt data -  not being so quick to believe this or that negative thought which data won’t support. 

Let's go out and collect some data that really matters - like having a sequence of messages that you can depend on to start networking or following...

Using LinkedIn To Find Your Future Boss

In my Career Accelerator Program, members always apply and “hear back” and network with the right people. Today, I thought it would be helpful to share how we use LinkedIn to achieve that. 

So let's just jump right in and talk about what it takes to see everybody and find everybody on LinkedIn.

What Is The Big Problem On LinkedIn? 

The first thing to address is: what is the problem? Why is there a problem with LinkedIn? 

It’s this: you just see your friends and friends of your friends. 

What's the chance that you're using LinkedIn now and it just so happens that your roommate knows the boss of your dream company or that your friends in your class know the hiring manager and will be the one reviewing your resume? 

Good one, Stuart!

 “What are the chances your roommate already knows your future boss?”

It's impossible, right? 

You need to be able to see beyond your friends and...

Networking is awful and doesn’t work!

This is how it feels, and that is the conclusion - for most people.

Online applications don’t seem to work either, so the only option is to go to grad school.

Is that how you’re feeling?

When done well, networking is no different than generating interviews on demand. That’s how we treat it among members of my Career Accelerator program. The result is that we are generating interviews on-demand.

Have questions about networking?

Shoot me a message and let’s chat!

“Have a plan or become part of someone else’s plan”. Heard this one before?

Here’s an example DIY job hunting plan you can consult:

1. Focus on firms you love—Not just job postings. Build this list and track your outreach from this list.

2. Consult 20-30 junior hires doing the exact function you wish to have. Reach out over LinkedIn and set up calls to do this. Ask them all of your “dumb questions”.  -- (Assuming your data is “normal”, it does take 30 data points to reach statistical significance ^^)

Become more than a resume to company leaders. People hire people, not your resume. Network!

Don’t judge yourself. Focus on process. Continue to refine your process so that you’re doing more of what works and less of what doesn’t.

Losing my job as an executive, I had to job hunt again. Yes, frustrating and often depressing, and yet it brought an amazing insight: experienced professionals don’t know how to job hunt.

That was me, but that was also every other ex-CEO, ex-CFO, ex-CMO in my group job coaching training for executives.

The confusion about the job hunt extends beyond individuals. Entire companies are unsure how to find talent and when they do, it doesn’t stay long.

Wondering how unsure companies are? Just look at the extensive processes attached to each job post, and the grinder they run you through when you apply online.

Meanwhile, it was the chap who got to know the hiring manager a bit better than you did with not quite your skills that got the job.

Does that convince you that things are a bit mixed up?

Now, you could throw up your hands in frustration, or you could see this chaos as your opportunity.

Since people hire people, not your legal status or your GPA. It’s important to...

What to do when you see an attractive job posting? 

Quick breakdown of what to do: 

#1 Apply online

#2 Become a real person through 1x1 live interactions with people in the firm to bring your application to life. 

While doing the reverse (#2 than #1) is still the best, you don’t always get to choose. 

Just don’t wait to hear back -  and still expect your life will change! 

For more information on how to achieve #2 (networking) invite you to check out my networking course explaining what to do: https://bit.ly/networking203.

Are you tired of writing content that doesn't get read?

I decided to do a deep data dive to find all the patterns of Linkedin Connection requests.

So I looked at content that generates at least 40% or more acceptances and found they went up to 80%

And I found a handful of characteristics that you need to follow in order to generate at least ONE networking call every time you sit down to message.

One of them was that you simply ask to connect and not more

Here are TWO more that you need to follow: https://www.jstuartbradley.com/blog/linkedin-connection-rates

Follow them. You'll start getting more results from Linkedin.

Cheers,

Stuart

Messaging on LinkedIn is a pain.

Not because messages are hard to write (worse case you can copy/paste from a proven course), but due to the fact that no one can guarantee that your message is accepted. 

Just think about it… you finally get the guts to message strangers, but no one can guarantee requests get accepted.

That often stops us from starting. 

So, I thought it would be fun to analyze successful messsages among my community and see what common characteristics that they have.

That way you can replicate what they are doing and increase the likelihood that your requests are accepted. 

Now for this study, I looked at all the messages my students were sending. 

Here’s what we learned.

We are able to get as high as 80% acceptance rates: 

Amrita was able to get 137/160 = 85.6% acceptance rate using her messages. So, first thing - great reponse rates are possibe! 

It's not personal, if no immediate connection

When you request a call...