Born and raised in the Philippines, Aly is a Program Officer living in Berlin. In politics, the industry Aly works in, there are few job openings for non-Germans in Berlin. In the four months we worked together, one new job ad would be posted a month.
I could not believe it. I typically work with clients in tech, for example data engineers and product managers. There is at least one new opening per day.
So when there is a job opening, Aly would spend five to eight hours on her application. She would spend all weekend (or two) customizing her CV and motivation letter.
This is insane. You have to stop doing this.
That’s what I told Aly when we started working together. As someone who’s working full time (which most job seekers are), Aly had only 5 to 20 hours per week to work on her job search. The best use of that time is reaching out to people and networking.
Like everyone I share this strategy with, Aly was at first hesitant. Why would anyone connect with her? What would they talk about? How would this lead to a job?
She didn’t even know the login details of her LinkedIn account!
But because she recognized that what she was doing wasn’t working, Aly trusted me. At first, reaching out to even a few people took an hour or two per day. They would connect back, but she wouldn’t know what to reply. It felt like a waste of precious time.
She pushed through and got a few people on the phone. She met people in her industry, learned about interesting topics they were working on, and made friends. And she got fast. Later, she would routinely reach out to 10 people – often more, because she would find so many people interesting – in one evening.
“This is actually addicting,” Aly said.
Even though there were still very few job openings, she found connecting fun. She met many interesting people and learned what they were working on.
Aly applied to the three measly roles that did open up in the four months we worked together. None worked out – it was a mix of roles being too senior and the company not responding.
In the end, one organization proposed a role specifically for Aly: Would she consider being the Special Assistant to the CEO?
They had been thinking about this role for a year now. But the CEO demanded exceptional standards for it. It was not easy to find people who could work well with her. Because of her networking, Aly had met almost everyone in this 15-person company. They knew she was perfect for the role, so they offered it to her.
Until they found Aly, the role did not exist. The opening was never published online. And because of this, there was zero competition for it.
I tell my clients that 60 to 80% of job openings are not published online. I’m not sure whether that number is accurate or not. What I am sure of is that many jobs – the best jobs – are gotten by word of mouth. Most people don’t believe these “hidden job openings” exist, or that they can get them.
But Aly proved so beautifully that they do, and you can.
In fact, she taught everything she learned from our work together to her work best friend D. D is also an expat in Berlin. He thought he was stuck in his organization, that almost no one in Berlin hires non-Germans in his industry.
But he tried what Aly did… And guess what? They also created a role for him! He applied for a project manager role. But since he connected to multiple people in the company, they got to know him, and decided to create a business development role for him. They’ve always had a need for a person with D’s combination of skills and experience. Until they learned about him though, they didn’t think such a person existed. So when they met him, they created the role for him. Amazing.
Congrats Aly, and all the best for the new role!
