Staying within your comfort zone and approaching a job search like everyone else will keep you in your parent’s house and out of a job for a very long time. Staying within your comfort zone of applying to jobs online and not making true human contact will leave you to be ignored like the 5,000 other candidates applying for the same job. What will set you apart from other candidates is your willingness to leave your insecurities at the door, stop the random job applications, and pick up the phone and call someone.

As a junior at Flagler college, I would spend every moment in between work and class to followup with recruiters, make cold calls to prospective employers, and develop new relationships via my cell phone. At this point in my life, I was taking 21 college credits, had an internship, and worked a 30 hour per week job. My biggest goal at the time was not getting a 4.0 GPA, but to get an incredible internship that would provide me with a solid foundation to get a job right out of school.

That was a rough but extremely fun semester. I absolutely hated calling and speaking to people, let alone a human resource executive. In the end the hard work paid off. One of the first questions that the senior brand manager at Abbott asked was “did you really call 47 people including our executive vice president of marketing? I had no idea college students were so tenacious.” It’s true, I called over 47 people at Abbott Laboratories and I spoke to most of them 3 to 4 times. In the end my hardwork and passion to work for this particular company was my golden ticket to this internship. This is one of the most important lessons in my life, tenacity and hard work pay off and gets recognized when your effort is truly remarkable.

You may be asking yourself, ‘who in their right mind would call 47 people?’ Honestly, I thought about stopping after the first 3 gate keepers that told me not to call back. I should have been satisfied with being reassured that messages were being left with the people in the organization who matter. Fortunately I was stubbornly persistent. I had one goal in mind: to get in front of anyone that would speak to me about the internships at Abbott Laboratories.

Being tenacious is great, but you must have a clear messge to be effective. A clear message will set you apart from all of the idiots that are trying to “sell” themselves to employers that don’t care who you are and who have no personal interest in giving you a job.

First of all, when calling employers, you need to know who, specifically, you are trying to reach. Be brief and concise on why you are calling and have a follow up action ready to go. Most of the time, you will want to speak to the HR manager in charge of the internship program or of entry level recruiting. These managers are always looking for interesting applicants to fill several spots ASAP because, if all positions are filled, they won’t have to rely on bottom feeding through college fairs and random online application filtering.

There are two options for the stated purpose of your call: following up on your resume or an introduction before submitting your resume. By calling an employer you are no longer just a resume and cover letter, you have become tangible. Most HR managers that are used to recruiting students will be surprised to this approach. If an applicant does call, it is usually for a general check of their application status – acceptable but pointless. By calling for an application status check you have wasted the company’s time and your own. Put some depth into this conversation by describing your excitement for the opportunity or asking questions about the company or the job. Doing any of the above will set you apart.

Finally, always keep the follow up action as your goal. You want the follow up action to be getting an interview, speaking to the hiring manager, getting the recruiter to your website, keeping your resume on top of the pile, having someone actually read your resume, or suggesting you to a colleague. Who you talk to at the company, and the conversation that you have with them, decides on what your follow up should be. When calling and speaking to the secretary for the hiring manager you may ask what’s the best time to reach her or can you provide me the contact information for anyone else that is hiring for this position within the company. Your goal is to suggest a next step, otherwise known as a “soft close.” A soft close will further your chances of speaking to the right person and getting that dream job within your company of choice.

When calling prospective employers, make the following daily habits: keep an organized list of who you called, what you said, who you left a message for, make a note of the next time you will call them, and what your follow up action will be. These habits will keep you motivated and excited for the duration of your job search. Eventually your hard work will pay off and you will see progress in your job hunt.

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Networking is the number one most important asset for any entry level job hunter. Networking is not just a small tactic for when you meet people at a bar or a friends graduation party, but a life long strategy that will eliminate your need to pursue this horrendeous process every few years. Most governments, companies and organizations hire through an intricate network of friends working with friends. By the end of this post, you will know who to network with and how to make it a vital role in your current and future job hunt.

Networking is both passive and active. Passive networks consist of friends, colleagues, teachers, family and anyone that you have a close relationship with. The passive network group should be the easiest and most productive group to see results from, depending on the level of personal interest involved. The passive network has a vested interest in you and will work their connections to find you a job. I began to interact with my passive network when I began my first job hunt; it was very casual and informative, letting everyone know that I was graduating or looking for an internship. This was barely effective, I was telling the people what they already knew. The best way to interact with your passive network is through close, intimate conversations. This doesn’t mean taking your Aunt out to a fancy restaurant and and begging her to get you a job at her company. Be very casual and ask your passive network what they do for a living, where they work, and how they got to the position that they are at today. Make this first conversation heavily focused on them, after that your passive network will begin to ask what your goals and aspirations are and how you plan to get there. At this point you should go in for the big close, ask your passive network to let you into their network. If no one in your passive network is in your preferred career field, I guarantee they know someone that is. You should begin with your family and move out to the other groups that you consider to be in your passive network.

Passive networks take only a minimal amount of hustle and communication; getting true results from your active network will require a little bit more sweat. Active networks includes alumni, friends of friends, trade organizations, and complete strangers that are working the job or at the company that you are trying to get into. The active networking group can become a huge weapon in your job hunting arsenal by getting your foot in the door quicker than you have ever expected. For example, imagine if you want to work in marketing at Fedex and you currently work at a local business. When the fedex guy comes in every morning to get the packages you casually make small talk with him for a few weeks and, when he becomes familiar with you, he could send your resume to corporate or to his manager. Most companies actually pay their employees to provide good candidates to them for open positions. If you work where a sales rep from the company that you want to work for comes in on a regular basis, ask them to submit your resume. Sales reps love money (broad generalization that I will stand by) and will hopefully get your resume to the top of the food chain much sooner than you would expect. The key rule to make active networking productive is to first become interested in your new contact and then have them become interested in your career aspirations. Developing relationships is the foundation for all networking. Don’t jump the gun on the relationship building or you will never effectively use networking to become employed. I can personally thank someone from my active network (that I now consider part of my passive network) for my first career out of college.

The common ingredient between passive and active networks is your ability to communicate. Listen to your contact’s advice, criticism and opportunities and then speak about yourself. Using the insight that your networks provide will put you head and shoulders above anyone that you may compete with for a job at every stage. Use your contact’s experience to your advantage and allow their information to build up your confidence during interviews and to customize your resume and cover letter to that specific employer.

Remember this: the fundamental building block behind networking is friends hire friends before they hire strangers.

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