BULLETPROOF YOUR CAREER

BUILDING AND USING A TARGET LIST

If you don’t have a target list of companies, you don’t really have a “search.” And if
you don’t continuously maintain a target list of companies throughout your career,
you cannot bulletproof your career….for life!

Your target list is an important tool in your bulletproofed career kit.

• The numbers vary, but studies continuously show that between 60% and 80%
of executive level jobs are not posted --- they are filled via networking. I know
that the amount of ads/promotions/emails you receive touting great posting
sites would leave you to believe otherwise, but don’t be confused or fooled by
that constant bombardment.
o Those are businesses that benefit financially from the level of activity on
their site. For example, here is how Indeed makes money.
§ They are a pay-per-click model (PPC). Let’s assume a somewhat
conservative average Cost Per Click (CPC) of 10 cents and an
equally conservative rate of click-through of 15% per page, they
make $30 per thousand pageviews. So on 720M pageviews each
month (reported by Google AdPlanner) that is equal to $20M
revenue per month just in the US. The annual revenue for
Indeed’s estimated annual total revenue is $2.6B!

• There are also many instances, especially in closely-held, mid-size companies,

when a very confidential search is conducted through their network. This is
very often the case when they are seeking to replace an underperforming
executive leader who is still in the role.

• When you have a target list, you have a proactive go-to-activity that will put you
in charge of your search rather than waiting for an opportunity to find you.
 • A target list enables you to equip your network with the information they need
to help you. You can make specific, actionable requests, such as, “I am l looking
for introductions into this, this, or this company or a company of similar size in
that industry.” Now, you give your network a target and they are much better
able to help you.
o IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are networking with someone who has never
had to search for a job, you can be very certain that they will not realize
that it doesn’t matter if they know of an open position at the company,
you just want to know people inside the company. You will need to
explain that to them.

• When you already have made a contact with someone inside of a target
company even when there was no role open, you are very likely to be first in
line when there is an opening, and worst case scenario, if you see an opening
and your contact hasn’t reached out to you (they simply can’t keep everyone
top of mind, and if you haven’t been staying in touch regularly, you most likely
are not top of mind), at least you have had some contact and the door is open
to reach out to them directly to say “I saw this role and would love to talk with
you about it.”

USING LINKEDIN TO BUILD A TARGET COMPANY LIST

COMPANY SEARCH

In the past, free and premium members could conduct a company search on LinkedIn
based on industry, location, revenue and number of employees. Unfortunately, they
took away that capability unless you have one of their $1K plus memberships.

I developed a work around that will help---it’s not perfect---but it will help. The
workaround is based on the assumption that if a company is headquartered in a city,
the CEO likely lives in that city as well. Below is the step-by-step process that will
enable us to find CEO’s of companies in a specific industry in a specific location. Again,
as with all LinkedIn searches, you will get some non-applicable profiles (i.e, the
executive assistant to the CEO), but it is about 95% accurate.

Once you have the search results you will simply check out the CEO’s profile and then
go to the company page for their company, and if appropriate, add it to your target list.
The reason you check the company page is to see how many employees the company
has (it will only show the number of employees on LinkedIn, but that is a good indicator
of total size). This does kill two birds with one stone, because you can also check to see
if you are already connected to the CEO or have a second level connection.
 • Step 1: Put your cursor in the large search box at the upper left of the home
screen and just hit enter (do not type anything into the box).
• Step 2: When you get to the next page, click on “All Filters”
• Step 3: Select the location that you are targeting. If you have more than one
location, do each search separately.
• Step 4: Select your target industry. If you are targeting more than one
industry, do each search separately.
• Step 5: Scroll down until you see the “Title” search box on the lower left of the
page. Search on the title: “CEO”

This search will produce a list of CEOs in your industry in your geography and you can
then follow the instructions highlighted in yellow above to add companies to your
target list.

COLLEGE/MILITARY SEARCH

Identifying others who attended your college (undergrad or postgrad) and/or if you
have served in the military identifying others who have served in the military is a good
way to not only add to your target list but also a good way to identify target
companies. Here is how:

• When you search on your college or branch of the military, your city and your
industry you will have a list of people who have a strong affinity point because
of the shared background. Because you searched on your industry, you can
then review the companies that the individuals are in to see if any of the
companies are appropriate. If so, you can add them to your target list, and you
will know that you already have someone inside the company who might be
willing and able to provide you with insights about the company.

• Once you identify the companies that are appropriate for your target list, you
can then also send an invitation to connect to the person inside the company. A
simple message such as, “We share the same industry and the same alma
mater. I would like to connect, and in the spirit of LinkedIn, please let me know
if you would like an introduction to any of my connections.” By adding the last
sentence, you will get a response back from those who accept your invitation
about 80%-90% of the time. I recommend that you then reach out via email to
those who accept your invitation to let them know that you have identified
their company as one that could potentially be a fit for you, and ask if they
would be willing to connect by phone to share some insights about the
company and to explore how you could also be of assistance to them.
 • Not everyone will respond—outreach never delivers 100% results. But it only
takes a few to accelerate your search and to give you an opportunity with the
support of an insider.

FORMER COMPANY SEARCH

There is a very common pattern that you can find if you are looking for it. When a
company hires someone from a company and that person does well and fits their
culture, they tend to like to hire others from that company, and therefore look
favorably on applicants from that company and in fact. In Atlanta, for example, you
will find that there are many former Home Depot employees at Carter’s.

You can take advantage of this by doing the following search on your current or former
company:

• Step 1: Put your cursor in the large search box at the upper left of the home
screen and just hit enter (do not type anything into the box).
• Step 2: When you get to the next page, click on “All Filters”
• Step 3: Scroll down to “Past Companies” and add your past company name
there.
• Step 4: You can further refine the search by scrolling down to the “title” field
and adding your area of expertise, for example, “marketing” or “technology”
etc.
• Step 5: Review the profiles to see if any of the individuals are in companies that
could be appropriate for your target list.

USING GOOGLE SEARCH TO DEVELOP A TARGET COMPANY LIST

Google is so often underutilized for target list development! Here are the best ways to
leverage this resource:

• You can search on “competitors of” for any of your already identified target
companies. You can also go directly to www.owler and enter your current
target company name and it the resulting report will include competitors. TIP:
This is also a good resource when preparing for an interview.

• Search on “INC 500” and you will find links to all of the lists. Those annual lists
are broken out by city and industry and are a great source for privately-held
companies. For example, follow this link to see all the results just by searching
on “INC 500 Connecticut” http://bit.ly/inc500ct
 • Search on your industry and city/state. For example, “retailers headquartered in
Atlanta”

• Search on “fastest growing companies in” and add any city or state

• Search by size, for example, “middle-market companies” or “largest” and add

any industry, city or state

• In Atlanta, the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) holds an annual event
honoring the 40 fastest growing companies in Georgia. The event began in
2008, and you can find the list of all honorees to date (by year) here:
https://www.acg.org/atlanta/events/signature-events/georgia-fast-40-
awards/georgia-fast-40-honorees

• While applying blindly to postings has a low rate of return, you can review postings to
identify target companies. Simply search on any of the major sites such as Indeed by
your industry and city to identify potential target companies.

THE BEST WAY TO USE THE BUSINESS JOURNALS/NEWSPAPER

Most business journals do have the “Book of Lists” but the issue with those lists is that they
really are simply made up of “the usual suspects” and they are on everyone’s list.

The best way to use your local Business Journal or local newspaper is to look for news that could
signal change in a company, including a pending acquisition or the hiring of new executives.
The changes in those companies could make them good targets for you. And also notice where
the “new hires” came from—there may still be a vacancy there!

SOME LAST MINUTE TIPS

• Connect to the internal recruiters at each target company.

• I recommend that you build a list of at least 20-25 companies. The list will be dynamic.
You will learn information about one target company that may cause you to remove it
from the list, and, you should always be adding companies as you learn of others that
could be a good fit.

• Prioritize the companies by first concentrating on those companies where you have a
contact already in the company, or have a contact who can introduce you to someone in
the company.

• As you add new connections, go back to check to see if your network expansion has
yielded connection in target companies where you did not have any.
 Make Your Next Career Move
THE RIGHT ONE!

ARE YOU READY TO BULLETPROOF YOUR CAREER?

For a limited time, I’m offering complimentary

15- minute “Laser” career breakthrough consultation calls.

FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW

TO SCHEDULE YOUR CALL TODAY
https://bulletproofyourcareercoaching.as.me/lasersession

Here’s what you will walk away with from our coaching session:

1. We will attack the #1 challenge you are facing right now in

your job search.

2. I will identify hidden challenges that may be slowing your

progress.

3. You will leave the call with your biggest challenge solved, and
you will be renewed and reenergized for your search.