Singer–and musicians in general–need jobs. Even when you aren’t busy with your usual gigs, you want work. I’ve coached hundreds of job seekers over the past decade, all non-singers, and now I want to help you find the work you’re looking for in between auditions. I recently recorded a special Auditions Plus Podcast that you can download for free HERE. But I wanted to expound on that with a few specific tips to help you get started.
So how do you get a hiring manager’s attention in this busy world? You send 100 resumes out but don’t get called back – what’s going on? Don’t they see your worth? After 10 years coaching jobseekers, I’ve found that there is a lot more to the story if we dig deeper. The single most important factor in getting a response is the relevancy of your message as it relates to the person you’re trying to engage with.
Detective Work: Often jobseekers send resumes to impersonal online job ads with no idea who it’s going to. The key is to do some detective work and find the actual person behind the walls of the company. Who is the actual manager – what’s her name, her title, her background. What does her Linked-In profile tell you about her in terms of her work experience, projects, and education?
Motion: Things happen when we are in motion. Momentum begets momentum. Something magical happens when we act – even if we act imperfectly. I was working with a jobseeker recently who was applying the principles of motion by looking up companies on Linked-In and Google, and then emailing and calling them. As he was doing that, he happened to see a company where he knew someone on the inside. That triggered him to reach out his connection, which ended up a couple weeks later with a great job.
Confidence: The best recipe to strengthen confidence is to experience a good outcome as a result of action. Even if it’s one phone call or email that gets a decent response. As you act and build confidence, you’ll be emboldened to be more creative and try more outreach methods.
Process: So here’s what you do – identify your top 5 target companies where you’d like to work. You might have a couple of them already in your mind. The others you can Google by searching on keywords such as “Software Companies in Colorado,” or whatever make sense for your specialty. Once you have the top 5, look at their websites and see if you can find the hiring manager on the About Us page.
You can search on Linked-In by company name and find a directory of the employees that have LI profiles. From there, you can send a LI invite. If their website and LI don’t provide the contact you want, you can simply call the main number and ask for his title. Remember, momentum begets momentum – even if the action seems like it won’t produce results, you don’t know what may come of it, or what thoughts the action may spark.
After you’ve found the hiring managers in your top 5 targets, it’s time to approach and engage. This is scary for some people, but you may be surprised at how accommodating most people are. Call or email and just be yourself. Use this outline to engage: “Hi you, this is me, this is what I do, can we talk more sometime?” As you do this a few times, you’ll start to set up phone and in-person interviews, and it won’t take long before one of those interviews results in your next gig!
The Job Search: 4 Keys to Help Find Your Next Job
