Richard Sellers — May 11, 2017 Clickbait is a hot word but not a new one. What may be new is how marketing (and other) executives need to add clickbait to their job search.
Clickbait can simply mean getting readers interested so they take action to learn more.
Clickbait Can Be a Question, Statement, Promise, or List
Executive job searchers need to get the right people to become interested in learning more about them. Different than on the Internet, however, job search clickbait must be relevant to the intended reader as well as the candidate.
Relevant clickbait is not:
- Expected.
- Boring.
- Typical of other candidates.
- Universally of interest.
Relevant clickbait can be:
- Quirky.
- New.
- Surprising.
- Different
- Relevant only in a twisted way … ringing new thinking and perspective.
- Bold and decisive. Turning off some readers.
Clickbait must tie directly to your:
- Job search strategy.
- Persona.
- Target industry and company.
Job searchers need to use it on virtually everything to virtually everyone, including your team of supporters as well as potential employers and executive search people using phone calls, voice mails, emails, bios, cover letters, cold letters, résumés and LinkedIn profiles. And probably more.
Here’s a difficulty to overcome: you can’t repeatedly use the same clickbait. Therefore, following the earlier lists of dos and don’ts, you will need to develop several.
How does the concept work after you’ve landed an interview?
Ir morphs only a little to setting your hook and being memorable. You still have to standout from the other finalists by being personable, interesting, and different as well as qualified.
You can stop reading now unless you’re curious about its first uses, at least in media, according to an article by Harriet Phillips in the Independent, February 2, 2017.
Thomas Browne wrote Pseudodoxia Epidemica, or Common Errors in the 17th century using provocative questions in the then new print media to generate interest in science. He became well known and respected for bringing science to people, although there was considerable pushback to his scientific methods.
Examples of his good-humored, almost mischievous, questions:
- “Who would win in a fight, a toad or a spider?”
- “Do elephants have knees?”
Admitting that it’s a leap from elephant knees to job search, the concept of using clickbait is still a relevant and powerful approach to increase the number of hiring managers “clicking” through to your career materials.
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