Dangers of the Do-It-Yourself Market

You could, of course, not invest in your career. You could join the thousands of job seekers applying to online ads or bombarding disinterested recruiters with irrelevant resumes. This approach guarantees maximum competition and minimum compensation because it creates a “buyers’ market” where the employer has the leverage, not the applicant.

So it is possible to find an executive job in this do-it-yourself manner about 25% of the time… if you know how to create an effective resume and get through the electronic gatekeepers and/or junior HR people who screen out more than 90% of all applicants.

But is it a good use of your time?

This do-it-yourself approach can involve excessive drudgery, unfortunately, as you send resume after resume, or fill out job application after job application, often with absolutely no acknowledgment of where you stand. One of our recently landed clients shared his experience—before hiring the Barrett Group:

[Ned] talked to his connections and headhunters and … took a contract position… After his contract job ended Ned pursued some other opportunities but, when nothing worked out, he decided to get professional help. “I had been using headhunters, but they don’t work on my behalf. They work on behalf of their corporate clients,” said Ned. “I wanted to find someone who would champion me. I needed to make an investment in myself.” [See Ned, VP Business Development.]

There it is: are you worth investing in? Imagine investing a month’s salary and achieving an ROI of 200%-1400%. [Read more.] Recently dozens of Barrett Group clients landed great positions even in the middle of the summer, and even more recently twelve landed in just one week! Check it out: we publish our clients’ successes continually. [Read more.]

But maybe you do not yet take your career seriously enough?

The do-it-yourself approach also requires clear targets, research, job search experience, skill in interviewing, lots of energy, patience, and some degree of luck. Frankly, most candidates do not fulfill these requirements. Here’s how one landed client put it:

“I stumbled across one or two interviews, but they weren’t what I was looking for. I didn’t have any other good leads, either,” said Ray. “It’s funny because I’m a marketing guy and you’d think I’d be better at marketing myself. But I’d never had to look for a job before, so I wasn’t any good at it.” [See Ray White, VP Marketing Operations]

Without adequate job search experience, most do-it-yourselfers stumble repeatedly, costing themselves time and money as they remain underpaid or unemployed. Another landed client told us about his pre-Barrett Group experience:

“Eric landed a few interviews, but they all went nowhere. In one particularly frustrating situation, Eric was invited to interview seven times for a position over multiple weeks, then asked to produce a lengthy demo project, only to be told that the company was imposing a hiring freeze. After eight months of such disappointments, Eric, feeling helpless, decided on a different approach. He researched “recruiter help” and found The Barrett Group (TBG).” [See Eric Smith, AI Solution Director]

So, yes, you can perhaps do it yourself—or at least try to,—but that approach ignores roughly 75% of the market where there is little or no competition and, as a result, higher compensation.

We call this the “unpublished market” and, if you know what you’re doing, there are always executive opportunities to be discovered. Remember, more than 470,000 executives changed jobs in the past year. With a little help, you can too. [Read more.]

And by the way, executives who make career changes simply earn more money ultimately. We’re not talking about job hopping. Strategic, thought-out career plans definitively earn clients more money than sitting still and hoping. (Read more.) Besides, how many times have you negotiated a compensation package? With the Barrett Group at your elbow, you have access to more than three decades of experience—thousands of successfully employed predecessors’ experiences—and this inevitably means $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 or more in improved compensation over the initial offer once it comes in.

If the Barrett Group sounds too good to be true, consider that Forbes has now cited us as one of the best in the business for four years running because of our excellent track record.

Perhaps you are no longer in the do-it-yourself, time-wasting, frustrating, and potentially fruitless job search category. Perhaps you have evolved, and it is time you took your career seriously. Or perhaps it’s time to invest in yourself. Let us know if we can help.

Peter Irish, CEO
The Barrett Group