Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 2.0: 1,001 Unconventional Tips, Tricks and Tactics for Landing Your Dream Job [Paperback]

Jay Conrad Levinson (Author), David E. Perry (Author), Darren Hardy (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 22, 2009

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."

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jay Conrad Levinson is the author or coauthor of the more than 32 books in the biggest series of books on marketing in history. His books appear in 60 languages and are required reading in many MBA programs worldwide. Jay taught guerrilla marketing for 10 years at the extension division of the University of California in Berkeley. He was a practitioner of guerrilla marketing in the United States--as senior vice-president at J. Walter Thompson, and in Europe, as creative director at Leo Burnett Advertising. He has written monthly columns for Entrepreneur and Inc., a syndicated column for newspapers and magazines and online columns published monthly on the Microsoft and GTE web sites.

David Perry - Nicknamed the "Rogue Recruiter" by The Wall Street Journal, David Perry is a veteran Head-hunter, closing more than 1000 projects, with a 99.7% success rate, and negotiating more than $184M in salaries. 
     He is frequently quoted on trends and issues regarding executive search, recruiting and HR in leading business publications including The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Fortune, Forbes, Canadian Business, Computer World, EETimes, HR Today, and appears regularly as an executive search and labor market analyst on radio and television across North America.
     David is the author of Guerrilla Marketing for Job-Hunters 2.0: 1000 unconventional Tips, Tricks and Tactics to Land Your Dream Job [Wiley 2009], Guerrilla Marketing for Job-hunters: 400 unconventional Tips, Tricks and Tactics to Land Your Dream Job [Wiley 2005] and Career Guide for the High-Tech Professional: Where the jobs are and how to land them [Career Press 2004]. 
    He is immediate past Vice Chair of the Canadian Technology Human Resources Board and was on the board of the Software Human Resource Council for 5 years.  He is HR Policy Advisor for the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA),
    David graduated from McGill University in 1982 with a BA in Economics and Industrial Relations.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 2 edition (June 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470455845
• ISBN-13: 978-0470455845
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (213 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #193,818 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

99 of 106 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Timid Job Seekers Have Skinny Kids!! March 13, 2010

By Skip Freeman

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

First review: March 13, 2010
Now, April 13, 2011, 13 months later...

If you are serious about finding a new career opportunity, this book is required reading. Don't do another thing at all in your job search until you have this book in your hands and read it. It is better that you do nothing at all than to do something without David Perry's guidance, coaching, wisdom and insight.

Do you want a larger paycheck sooner rather than later? If so, invest in yourself. Buy this book. Not buying it will probably cost you thousands of dollars. Buying it will cost you about $[...] (with shipping). If you had the opportunity to buy David Perry a Starbucks, sit down with him for 3 hours and pick his brain, I bet you would do it. That is what you are doing here...having a virtual cup of coffee with the best in the business in job hunting. But it gets even better...with his book you have all of the notes from that meeting, in writing, to review and use over and over again.

Now, with that having been said, I am sitting here at my desk eagerly downloading my preview copy of Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 3.0. WHY?

I am a "headhunter." I do not call myself a recruiter. I do not call myself an "executive search" consultant. I PLACE PEOPLE into COMPANIES. I help companies "hire to win." I am 100% commissioned in what I do. If I do NOT place my candidate into an open position, I don't get paid. I don't eat! I am in the JOB HUNT BATTLE EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE!

Thus, what I do MUST WORK! All too many job hunting books are written by HR professionals and career counselors who will get their salary or get their "career counseling consulting fee" regardless of whether you get hired or not.

SO WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH GUERRILLA 3.0??... In one word, "EVERYTHING"!

I started my "headhunting" business in 2003. I was very good at it. In 2005, I saw Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters in the book store. I read the bio and learned that David Perry is a "recruiter" so I figured I would buy a copy and peruse it. After just a few pages, I was highlighting, paper clipping, taking notes and devouring the book. The very next day I was in the office reshaping the way I did business.

*I learned how to write powerful cover letters and send them to my clients on my candidate's behalf
*I honed my voice mail scripts
*I started role playing mock interviews with the candidates I presented
*...and the list could go on...

The main point is I learned how to truly differentiate myself as a recruiter. I learned how to be a "guerrilla" and that is when I can say I went from being a recruiter to being a "headhunter." More importantly, I learned how to powerfully differentiate the candidates I represented so THAT THEY WOULD GET HIRED!!! And they did. I was a top 200 recruiter in the MRI Network out of over 8000 recruiters for 3 years in a row. GUERRILLA WORKS for getting hired.

In 2009, I started building my firm and started hiring people to work for me. The first book I went to buy for training my new people was Guerrilla and to my dismay, it was "out of print." I panicked. But with a few clicks, I quickly discovered that, in just another few weeks, Guerrilla 2.0 was coming out. I pre-ordered 7 copies.

When the book landed in my office, we all did a deep dive. That year our entire recruiting firm, with rookies, billed close to a million dollars by PLACING PEOPLE.

So you can see why I can't wait to read 3.0.

David teaches you HOW TO PLACE YOURSELF...HOW TO RISE ABOVE YOUR COMPETITION AND WIN THE JOB YOU WANT instead of letting it go to someone else.

If you get 3.0 and don't get anything from it, I want to know why. Shoot me an email at [...]

Yes, his methods are different. Yes, they can be scary. Yes, you initially will be nervous using them. Guess what!? I have made money using them and you will too....HOW? You will get hired and get your paycheck!!

And here is the best part...he tells you exactly what to do. You aren't left guessing. So unless you are retired or planning on retiring this year, you need this book. Whether you are an introvert, extrovert, salesperson, engineer, manager, accountant, lawyer or just graduating from college, this publication is required reading. Read more ›

185 of 204 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Very Useful Information, But Also Some Serious Flaws July 6, 2009

By Reader from Washington, DC VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I was an enthusiastic reader of the first edition of this book, "Guerilla Marketing for Job Hunters: 400 Unconventional Tips etc. for Job Hunters."

I was about halfway through that book, when I found out that the second edition, "Guerilla Marketing for Job Hunters 2.0: 1,001 Unconventional Tips, Tricks, and Tactics" was about to be released. I was very excited, stopped reading the first edition, and ordered the second edition. When it arrived, I threw out my copy of the first edition.

Frankly, I wish that I had kept the first edition and finished reading that one. OK, it was published in 2004, and much has happened since then -- a recession, and the development of many new online resources like Linkedin. But while the first edition was short, well-organized, and very focused on "doable" -- the second edition is not as well-organized and is much, much longer.

While the new edition has much of the excellent advice contained in the first edition, it has added-on so much technological goobledygook that even an admiring and computer-savvy reader like myself is left with a serious case of TMI (too much information).

We're paying co-authors Mr. Levinson and Mr. Perry for their expertise in narrowing down a clamoring field of job boards, technologies, and tactics to those which are most effective, a task they performed admirably in their first book.

In this second edition, virtually every job hunting technique -- including the kitchen sink -- is hurled at the reader. I'm at page 61 -- and have quickly flipped through the rest of the book -- and I'm starting to tune out as the co-authors breathlessly recommend: sign onto technology X! add widget Y to your desktop! read blog Z! you can't afford not be on network A! join the following 15 networks!... -- and you must do tactic B! etc., etc., etc.

Each resource is presented as something indispensable, that a reader "must" do. The reader gets the feeling that if he or she doesn't sign up for all 1,001 resources and tactics, it is his/her own fault that they remain unemployed.

But we're paying the authors to pick the best resources and tactics, which they aren't doing.

Any reader who does even 10% of all these tactics will need to stay awake 24 hours per day to implement them. Now I expect that the co-authors are trying to give us the widest possible array of tactics and strategies to choose from. But people buy books like this to have wise, experienced authors recommmend the top four or five strategies in any niche, not, say, the top twenty-five.

And some parts of this book, unlike the first edition, are written in career counseling and business jargon psychobabble. Here's my favorite, from p. 16, "They [employers] are searching for a person . . . who can explode outward from an open-ended initiative-driven space." What the heck does that mean?

And some statements appear to be out of touch, despite the authors' repeated references to our current recession. My personal favorite on page 46: "Show an employer you have that spark and they will hire you over more experienced candidates any day!"

Uh -- no! Not during the current recession, where employers with 10 points on their job candidate wish list are insisting that candidates meet 10.5 of those points. It's disturbing to see statements that are out of touch, as they break the concentration needed to absorb the flood of otherwise good information in the book.

Another problem is that tactics and resources are recommended without any indication of which industries or job searches they might be most useful for. A job hunter could easily spend hours signing up for the hundreds of recommended resources, and only discover later that perhaps 5% of them are really useful for that person's particular job search. The book is indiscriminately enthusiastic over every single widget, blog, network and tactic.

In the next edition, the co-authors need to edit the book line by line to remove some of the hyperbole, out-of-touch comments, promiscuous resources recommendations, wittle down the recommended resources to a reasonable number, and categorize the resources according to the fields and careers they would be most useful for.

Also, it would be helpful to have a little more space devoted to interviewing and negotiating salaries and benefits, which are crammed into two short chapters at the end of the book. While I appreciate that so much of the book is devoted to finding job leads and securing interviews, it is very easy to "lose" a job during the interview(s) themselves or during salary negotiations.

Now, on the plus side, the book does contain a ton of innovative resources and ideas, which is why I will probably try to finish the book -- if I can get through such statements as (p. 64)"This is a must-have applet." Oh right -- just like the other nine applets, search engines, and other resources on pages 64-66 listed as being good for your "war room" (translation -- home job search office).

Bear in mind, all ten resources appear really, really good! but they're apples and oranges all thrown together in one basket. It would be helpful to have some categorization: This is your home office -- here are (1) phone apps; (2) seach engine apps; (3) etc.

Well, excuse me, I have to start reviewing my "must-have" "applets" -- only 267 more pages to go. I do plan to finish the book, but will likely not adopt more than one or two tactics from each chapter, as I need time to sleep and eat. Read more ›

68 of 72 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars For the introverts out there March 10, 2010

By Marieux

Format:Paperback

Even though I was feeling a little intimidated by the title of book, I decided that after being unemployed for 14 months and not getting any results hiding behind the computer screen, I had nothing to loose. As an introvert I could continue banging my head against the wall or try something different for a change. I found that the most beneficial part of the book was the suggested warm approach for cold calling. Some of the ideas or concepts introduced are extreme, but so is the marketplace. We do have to step out of our comfort zones, if we really want to get to where we want to be. I have read literally everything I could get my hands on to revamp my job search strategy, but this book was the most beneficial.

66 of 72 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Jam-Packed With Ideas July 18, 2009

By Michael Kelemen

Format:Paperback

David Perry is a super-recruiter. I met him a few years ago and was quite impressed.

At the time, David asked me to write a review for the first edition of Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters. I didn't want to but eventually I read it - twice - and gave it a rave review.

Then I started recommending it to job hunters. Most people didn't read it, I'm sure. They wanted me to find them a job (I'm a headhunter). But one guy, Barry, got back to me and said, "I'm reading that book and what he says here about resumes is pretty ridiculous."

"Well," I said, "just ignore that part."

"But I don't agree with this and I don't agree with that either," he went on.

"Well," I said, "I don't agree with everything either. But look, for me, the guts of the book are the chapters on research. He tells you how to identify companies to target, how to find out about them and how to make contact. It's good solid material. Why don't you focus on that?"

He didn't. And he didn't find a job. And he's someone who could have used a few guerrilla techniques because he was a nice guy, a smart guy, athletic and well-educated but he was sixty years old.

In person, he could have passed for 45 but on paper he was over the hill. What's more, he'd run his own company for 20 years and had a few short stays at other jobs as he tried to re-establish himself as an employee.

That said, when I started reading the second edition of David's book I had, at first, much the same reaction as Barry did a few years before.

I wasn't reading it from front to back. I just opened it up anywhere and the first thing I found, on page 280, was a section called The Killer Question....

Here, Dave tells you to ask the interviewer what the competitors are doing that keeps his company up at night and then call those competitors to ask for an interview and use the information you gathered in your first interview to impress them.

According to Dave, there's nothing wrong with this. The interviewer isn't your pal and he's not doing you any favours. The meeting was just a fact-finding mission for both parties and no commitments were involved.

That might be so but I would have to give it some thought because, to be honest, I was shocked and appalled but because I knew the author, I re-opened the book and started reading again.

This time, on page 139, I found Dave advising job hunters to start a blog. My initial reaction to this was negative, as well.

Every career counselor advises her readers to start a blog and it seems to be a mindless reflex action because starting a blog is not a practical tactic for most people.

It takes a lot of time and many people are not good writers and most of the time no one is interested in what they have to say.

The example given by Dave was unfair I thought because his sample blogger was a law student who had a passionate interest in Mixed Martial Arts. This made him the owner of some very unique expertise and he rapidly became known as someone who could discuss contract disputes in the MMA world in a professional manner.

Still, I had to concede that blogs weren't entirely out of the question. I had urged Barry to start a blog many times. He wasn't working so he had the time to write and even if no one found him on Google when they searched "marketing communications" he would be able to use his blog to demonstrate his knowledge of his field to anyone who might be interested.

So, I pressed on.

Next I came to advice about email marketing campaigns. Dave advises you to create a list of 20 companies you want to work for and email it to everyone you know asking if they know anyone who works in any of these firms.

You also ask them to pass the email on to a number of other people they know. I'd never thought of this and if you do it well it might get some results. He calls it the email chain letter and it's on page 221.

The next thing that caught my eye was Dave's advice to use numerals rather than words to represent numbers in your resume (page 116).

I'd always made a point of writing out numbers as words because it looks more formal and dignified but I also know how important it is to make your resume easy to grasp at a glance so he pretty well sold me on that right away.

I had a mixed response, however, to the section on "Warm Calling". Dave's warm call is just a cold call with another name. Even so, if and when you do have an opportunity to speak to someone -- on the phone or in a face to face interview -- his tip to be ready to ask a series of short, diagnostic questions could help you identify a need you might be able to fill (page 206).

So what am I saying here? That when you read this book you're bound to find things you don't like. Just like Barry and just like me. But don't forget the advice I gave to Barry.

David Perry is a very successful recruiter. And his book has a solid core of vital information based on his personal experience researching companies and marketing candidates to them.

Every page is loaded with ideas and there's 300 pages.

There's information that can only be of interest to wild men like Dave himself, a true guerrilla (see his profile in the Wall Street Journal) but it also has a ton of stuff for people who aren't interested in anything too audacious and yet want to do something more than just sit back and comb through the want ads.

So you could toss half of the book in the garbage and it would still be a bargain.

In fact, one of your problems might be that it presents more information than the average person knows how to manage. When there's so many suggestions how do you know where to focus?

My advice is to start with start with chapter 4. It tells you how to find companies to approach. Then read chapter 8 on networking. It tells you how to identify and reach the people you want to speak to in the target firms.

As you read these chapters and the rest of the book, simply ignore the stuff that doesn't appeal to you and explore the stuff that turns you on.

I also encourage people to read David's Guerrilla Job Hunting blog. It has a comment section in which you can pose questions to a very smart and friendly guy.

And, finally, I have to wonder about something. If only the WSJ had published that profile of Dave seven years earlier, in September 2001, George Bush might have hired him to find Osama and history would have been very different. Here's a link to the article [...] Read more ›