Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 2.0: 1,001 Unconventional Tips, Tricks and Tactics for Landing Your Dream Job
In Today’s Job Jungle, the Guerrilla is King
“You’ll learn how to build a compelling new network in days that gets you sit-down meetings with decision makers who can hire you, for jobs that aren’t advertised or don’t even exist yet.”
—Kevin Donlin, creator, TheSimpleJobSearch.com; co-creator, The Guerrilla Job Search Home Study Course
“This book is brilliant. Packed with stories, examples, and tactics to help you at any point in your job search-this book is all about landing a real job with intense competition in a minimal amount of time.”
—Jason Alba, CEO, JibberJobber.com; author, I’m on LinkedIn—Now What???
“Recruiters: read this book! You’re going to need it. When people start following the advice in Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 2.0, you’re going to be looking for a job.”
—Shelly Harrison, founder and CEO, Launch Pad
“Job hunters don’t need to be told the ‘what’ of job hunting, they want and need to know the ‘hows.’ They are all here and then some.”
—Dave Opton, founder and CEO, ExecuNet.com
“Changes in information and communication technologies have created new opportunities and pitfalls for the job seeker. Stand out from the crowd and truly shine by illuminating your most important talents to the broadest audience—in a cost-effective fashion.”
—Sam Zales, President, Zoom Information Inc.
“Don’t get lost on the battlefield, win the war. Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 2.0 will give you the ammunition to get noticed.”
—Donato Diorio, CEO, Broadlook Technologies
“Lays out a straightforward and detailed ‘plan of attack’ for every step of a job search…an indispensable tool for job seekers to land the interview.”
—Gautam Godhwani, CEO, SimplyHired.com
“Competition for the best positions is especially fierce and every candidate will be looking for an edge. If you want to get the edge…you need to get this great new book.”
—Steven Rothberg, founder, CollegeRecruiter.com
“The only book that explains step by step, how to land interviews with the companies you choose AND create a high-visibility profile attracting employers-like a moth to a flame.”
—Terrence Kulka, Director, Executive MBA Program, Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa
“Beyond your Guerrilla Resume…here’s how to take charge of your personal brand, and stand out from the crowd leveraging LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, and more.”
—Peter Clayton, CEO, Total Picture Radio
P.S.—We knew you’d read this far. How did we know this? Please turn to Chapter 5 and read, “One Unusual Way to End Your Guerrilla Cover Letter.”
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Great 21st Century Strategy - But Why Not Just Start Your Own Business?
This is a great book. I can’t recommend it highly enough. I have been employed 10 years with the same employer and decided I needed to brush up my job hunting skills and see what’s working now given all the technological changes over the past decade. I RARELY write reviews, but this was so good I just had to. I can’t recommend this book enough. Funny thing though: I was completely shocked to learn what is required now to stay and be competitive it today’s job market. It’s astonishing. So different that when I got my first job back in 1993. It was so easy back then. My goodness. How complicated and TIME CONSUMING staying ahead has become. I know these strategies work because I’ve seen it done with great success by others that I know and folow, but I had no clue how much of a time committment that it is. It’s basically like taking a second job (if you’re working; and I’m talking 10 - 15 hours per week easily to stay “on top”) or making it your full time job (if you’re currently not working). To be honest, the impression that it left on me most was this: there’s absolutely no reason why these strategies couldn’t be used by consultants or entrepreuers in fact who own a business, and if now it takes this much effort to be in the “top selection pool” I’m not sure if I’d want to work for anyone else but myself quite frankly unless the reward being provided a new prospective employer is incredible. Translation: this book isn’t just about “job hunting,” it’s about building a brand, getting noticed, getting sales : and if you can do that to find a job, why not just start a business and build an asset instead of making someone else rich. Make yourself rich.
5 Stars Best Resource on the market to help land your dream job.
This book is the best resource on the market today. “Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 2.0″ reveals and thoroughly explains tips and tricks to land that dream job you always wanted but did not know how to obtain it. I personally took many notes and implemented the tools shown in this book immediately and I found instant success.
4 Stars Practical and fun to read, but let me tell you about the serious flaws
The “Guerrilla Marketing… 2.0″ is a very solid book, no question. Even though put together by a lot of authors, a common thread of a governing (editing) hand can be seen. The overall editing, nevertheless, did not fully eliminate:
- content repetition in different chapters, and
- typos (I’ve seen “entrée level job” instead of “entry level job”. Seriously.)
But let’s talk about bigger issues. The book has 14 chapters, and towards chapter 6 I began to feel a growing resentment to reading the rest because I realized that, although the content is good, the book itself is a shameless trick for the self-promotion of a group of recruiting industry professionals. Here’s why:
PROBLEM 1. Too much sales emphasis.
I am going to use an advice delivered in Chapter 11 of this book on how to write cover letters (or book reviews, for that matter) in “Problem - Agitate- Solve” format. Here’s how it works:
“Looking for a comprehensive job search plan? You’ve been out of the job during one of the worst recessions in the country, desperately trying to get your foot in the door of any employer. Thankfully, there’s a ray of sunshine in the form of “Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 2.0″…” - what does this intro look like to you? Right, that’s a nicely put sales pitch.
That is exactly the advice you get throughout the book, and the advice is tried and true in terms of your own job search: YOU are the product, YOU must sell yourself, YOU are your own sales, marketing, and operations team.
But in laying out this very practical and common sense approach, the book is so heavily skewed towards sales, that sometimes you gotta do a double take when you see sentences like this one:
“…you should order fine stationery for your resumes and cover letters (I [the book author] order mine from [...])” (rephrased). The new form of “read between the lines advertising”? Hmmm…
PROBLEM 2. Sales trickery
I am definitely giving a lot of credit to the authors for putting it all together for the job seekers and teaching how to “sell oneself” in the job market. However, some of the self-selling techniques offered in the book are outright trickery (e.g. how to get through to an executive on the phone) that won’t do much if there is no substance (e.g. employee experience) to sell. This brings us to the next point.
PROBLEM 3. This book is NOT for every job seeker. It is for those who can pay.
What the author should have told the reader upfront is that the book is written not for an ordinary job seeker. Nor is it written by an ordinary recruiting industry veteran. This book is shining with subtle and not-so-subtle examples of writing by an author who spent a good chunk of his career doing 100K+ executive searches. That definitely skews the perspective of how you see the job seekers’ goals. Sure, there are good stories to tell about VPs quickly finding jobs, but what if you are in the shoes of a laid off non-managerial level employee, or one with little experience and little but realistic life expectations?
PROBLEM 4. When 2.0 is not Web 2.0
If you are a web-savvy job seeker who has no trouble following the advice of this book on what to do advertising/networking/selling yourself online, you will do just fine. However, I have personally checked EVERY SINGLE URL that this book contains and discovered that:
- a few of the referenced web resources no longer exist (a very minor number, thankfully) due to no fault of the authors;
- most web sites belong to the authors’ industry peers who are so eager to sell you their own services that they have placed the “buy Guerrilla Marketing …2.0″ link at least in one place of their own web site;
- some of the suggested advanced Google queries don’t work.
Again, a bow to the authors for putting it all together and emphasizing time and again the importance of sales and marketing in the job search. Nevertheless, this book is out there to make money for the authors, and although they are trying to be subtle about it, it comes through loud and clear.
5 Stars Finally, a book with best practices based on Web 2.0
Many books I have read on this topic offer theory and concepts. This book includes practical insights and tips that are based on experience and trial and error. Any one looking for best practices that leverage the full capability of web 2.0, look no more, because this is it.
4 Stars excellent resource
I think Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 2.0 is an excellent resource. There’s a ton of information, some of which is a bit hard to use, but a lot that can be used immediately. Information on using technology, online social networks, creating a searchable internet presence, personal branding, and networking, and preparation is excellent.
Definitely check it out!
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Hope this helps!
Daryl Bennett[...]
Filed under: Resume Writing Book Reviews