Are you giving up too soon in your executive job hunt

Are you giving up too soon in your executive job hunt Have you already given up on your executive job hunt because you got rejected? Its alright if you did. You certainly wouldnt be the first or the last. But what if we told you that looking for a job is kind of a numbers game? Furthermore, what if we told you that you actually gave up way too soon? You may roll your eyes in disbelief. You may think, I already got rejected once. This must be indicative of how this job hunt will go for me. Fortunately for you, this couldnt be further from the truth - and weve got numbers to prove it. You Are Probably Overestimating Your Chance of Rejection A recent Stanford article reports on statistics stating that people give up too soon before asking for a favor. Simply put, were afraid of rejection. The interesting part, however, is that people tend to overestimate the chances of their requests being denied. Were also more likely to overestimate the chances of being denied if weve been rejected in the past. What does this have to do with your job hunt? You may incorrectly assume that its more difficult to find a job than it actually is. Furthermore, if youve already been turned down for a job it would be easy to assume that no one wants to hire you. In reality, the only thing previous rejections suggest is that you may need to be more proactive and widen your pool. Take a look at your current plan of attack for your job hunt and ask yourself some of the following questions: Are you waiting for recruiters to contact you on LinkedIn or are you reaching out to them yourself? Are you relying on job boards or are you looking for jobs on the companys corporate website as well? Are you only focusing on social media or are you also using the phone to call job leads? (Vice versa also applies here.) Are you contacting people in your network or are you waiting for them to contact you? There are many different layers to the job hunt these days which allow you to expand your reach. The key is to make sure youre actually using them while being as proactive as you can. It takes several points of contact to land a job. If you happen to be a sales executive then you may have heard the common phrase that it takes an average of seven touches of contact to make a sale. An executive job hunt is no different. You may have to make several points of contact before you are finally hired. So heres the million dollar question: Are you following up with employers, leads, recruiters and contacts your network? Furthermore, are you following up regularly? If the answer no or youre just not sure, consider creating a system that reminds you to follow up with your contacts periodically. You can set follow up reminders on Google Calendar and Outlook to remind yourself. If you feel like youre being a pest by following up, get over it. You have something to offer a company and its your job to make sure they know it. Moral of the story is simple: dont give up too soon. Otherwise, you may miss out on great job opportunities. Be Well! Lisa