Actually I used the Internet and the phone and I also used a bit of networking but all told, that’s essentially how I became a recruiter.

The good news is that you can also use the same tactics I did to find a job too and the better part is that most other people you’re probably competing with for various jobs won’t do the same thing.

I’d been laid off from a sales job in early 2000 when the company I was working for had gone out of business. I’d already been thinking about looking for a new job just before the company closed so I was already in the job search mode to a certain extent.

I’d already thought about becoming a recruiter so my first thought was to do a bit of research and figure out exactly what recruiters do. I did some online searches – this was 2000 so the the Internet was good but not as good as it is today – and I did get some good information.

My next step was to find some actual recruiters to speak with. I did some checking in the Yellow Pages and located a few local IT recruiters (IT interested me the most so I targeted IT recruitment firms), cold called the the companies, asked to speak with the person who hired their staff and essentially told them I was looking for a job and asked if I could speak with them in this regard.

I was able to speak for a few minutes with each company’s hiring manager, got to answer their questions, tell them a bit about myself and then got invited into their respective office to meet them in person.

I ended up interviewing with 4 different companies and got offers from 2 of them.

Now in the recruitment business like some other sales jobs, it’s certainly easier to cold call a company and essentially invite yourself in for an interview. Companies like this often look for new staff regularly so it isn’t uncommon. Still, not everyone picks up the phone and makes that call so if you haven’t done it, you might try it.

If you’d like to read about how I cold-called my way to another job later in my career, check out this post from a few months ago.

Is cold calling for jobs a worthwhile use of time?

As a recruiter, one of the things we do is contact hiring managers – some of whom we are already working with, some who we are not working with – to enquire about open positions that they have, that we can help them fill.

In some cases, the recruiter might contact the hiring manager and enquire about open positions in general or that are shown on their website.

A better way is for the recruiter to identify a position on the company’s website that appears like it could be hard to fill and have a job candidate who fits the position that the recruiter can discuss with the hiring manager. In other words, the hiring manager has a problem (an open position) and the recruiter has the solution (the job candidate).

As a recruiter, I can recall numerous times where I’ve been looking to fill a particular job. Let’s say it’s a sales representative role. Assuming I don’t have anyone in my database who fits the job, one of the things I like to do is contact sales managers who I know (or know of) and ask for their help. I tell them up front that I’m a recruiter, I’m looking for a sales rep, and that while I’m certainly not asking them to refer me to any of their staff, I wonder if they can point me in the direction of any sales rep they know who might be interested to speak with me regarding the job.

Once I go through my sales manager list, I start looking for sales managers who I don’t know and I ask them the same thing.

Imagine that: I’m calling people up who I don’t know and I’m asking them for help. Often, they do just that and give me the name of someone – a sales rep – who I can speak with for the job I’m looking to fill.

What does this mean to you the job searcher?

You can also use the same techniques to find a new job if you so choose.

We already spoke about how I cold-called my way to a job. I showed how it actually helped me find a job, a recruitment position where cold calling and taking the initiative over the phone was something important to the job itself. Sales-based positions or public relations roles would probably also qualify as roles where phone skills are an important requirement that you could prove to a hiring manager by picking up the phone and letting them hear your voice.

Granted, not everyone is comfortable picking up the phone and calling someone cold. Plus, with all the social networking sites and with the prevalence of email, it’s so much easier to hide behind your keyboard and fire off dozens of resumes to nameless, faceless email addresses.

But are you accomplishing anything?

Cold calling for jobs doesn’t necessarily even have to start out with that goal in mind. Instead, you cold call people who could be of assistance to your job search and gather information from them.

One effective way to network is to speak with people who could positively influence your job search even without asking them to hire you. Asking a stranger for a job over the phone isn’t going to cut it. Asking them for help or advice can pay dividends however. Just like I did in the example with the sales rep I was looking for.

Perhaps you read about an experienced person in your industry or profession in a newspaper article or on the Internet who holds a position that intrigues you. Maybe you know of someone in your local area who you admire professionally and would love to have a few minutes on the phone with.

You decide to call that person up, introduce yourself and the purpose of your call, and ask for 5 minutes of their time on the phone – setting a time limit up front assures them you aren’t going to talk their ear off for an hour. You let them know you read about them and ask if you can pick their brain. You ask them how they attained their position and if they have advice for someone like yourself who is looking to attain the same thing they have and see where the conversation goes.

Then you wait and see how they respond.

People generally like talking about themselves. Many people genuinely like helping other people if it only takes a few minutes of their time. That’s why doing it over the phone often works. You mention up front that you’re only looking for a few minutes of their time on the phone which is a lot less effort than going into their office and probably taking a lot more of their time to accomplish perhaps the same thing.

If you approach it as an information gathering exercise and don’t ask them for a job, you’re not putting the person on the spot which should put them at ease and make it more likely that they will spend a few minutes helping you out.