1 Overlooked Way to Land Your Next Interview

Last week, Katie and I helped two job-seekers write their resumes from scratch. One of them, Darla, was also someone we helped the prior week conduct a Career Audit. If you want to catch the replay, you can find it here.

It’s called the Appreciation Approach and here’s how it works:

Step 1:

• Create a list of anyone whom you once worked with throughout your entire career that you admired and/or learned something from.
• Note: You don’t have to know this person personally, but it’s brownie points if you did.
• This list could include:
• Past colleagues
• Past managers
• Past leaders
• Take your time thinking about this list, too.

Step 2:

• Each day, select 3-5 people from your list and send them a very simple and appreciative message like this:

Hi (Name),

It’s been awhile since we’ve worked together at {insert company}. I just wanted to send you a quick note to say that I learned so much from being around you {or from working with you on [insert project], or [working for you]}. Specifically, what you taught me about {insert what you learned from this person} has helped me come a long way in my career. I simply wanted to thank you for that.

If there is ever anything that I can do for you, please do not hesitate to ask. It would be great to hop on a call and catch up. I’d love to hear how life is treating you and catch you up on what I’m doing.

If it’s not a good time, no worries. Either way, thank you again for all of the lessons and I hope that you and your loved ones are doing well.
Sincerely,

{Insert your name},

Note: Not everyone will reply back. First, don’t take it personally — and second, don’t forget to follow up.

Now what happens once you actually get on a call with them, and how do you turn that into an interview?

Here’s the suggested 3-Part Framework:

• Part 1: Talk about them
• Part 2: Talk about you
• Part 3: Make the ask

Note: Why talk about them first? Well as my momma always told me: “Nobody cares about how much you know, until they know about how much you care.” And she’s right. Once you take a sincere interest in them / their lives / etc., they will take a sincere interest in you.

Part 1: Start with them

Things you can discuss:

• First thank them again for their time and the lessons they taught you
• Ask them how they are spending their time nowadays
• Congratulate them on any recent wins/promotions (check their LinkedIn to help w/ this)
• What have they been up to since working with you
• What are they working on now that they find exciting / challenging
• Ask them if there is anything you can help them with
• For example: if they are hiring for a particular position, offer to introduce them to someone in your network or offer to share the job description with your network

Part 2: Now they will likely ask about you and what you’ve been up to.

This is where you get to bring them up to speed on:

• What you’ve been up to
• Any life updates worth celebrating
• What you worked on / enjoyed about your last job
• Reiterate what you learned from them and how it helped you
• Any recent skills you learned, certs you acquired, projects you completed
• Then you can bring up a recent layoff (if applicable)
• Note: If you do bring this up, it’s important that you keep it positive

If you’re unsure about how to bring up losing your job, then feel free to borrow this script (and make it your own):

How to bring up getting laid off:

“And recently, back in January, I got laid off. At first, I thought getting laid off was one of the worst things that could have happened. It was tough, but it ended up being such a blessing in disguise because it allowed me to take a step back and audit my career. I got to think about what I’ve really enjoyed, the impact I’ve made, and be intentional about what I’m looking for next and what truly excites me.”

Part 3: Now you can make your ask.

Simply ask them if there is anyone they know that might be hiring or worth speaking to. You can say something like:

“I wanted to ask you if there is anyone in your network who you know is hiring for {insert the position you’re going after} or at least worth talking to about {insert the type of position you’re going after} roles?”

Here are the 3 likely scenarios that come next:

1. They don’t have anyone to refer you to, but you still (re)established a relationship with someone you admire
2. They give you a few names that you can follow up with
3. Either they might be hiring or they introduce you to someone who is

Whichever scenario plays out, you still:

• Made someones days
• (Re)established a new relationship with someone you admire
• Found a relationship that you get to nurture

In a world where most people are spending countless hours applying on job boards and not seeing traction, this is a really great way to “network” and potentially land your next interview.

And if it does turn into an interview, you can use a plethora of our free resources to help you prepare for those interviews!

Like I said, this is one of my all-time favorite ways to land interviews because it’s authentic, genuine, and relationship-based.

Try it out and let me know how it works.

Wishing you all the best!

If you want to learn all of the other ways our clients are landing interviews in this market w/o wasting their time on job boards, then join us for our next LinkedIn Live: