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Flip your job search inside out and start breadcrumbing people. These two pieces of advice sound peculiar and messy. But following them could lead to your next job. Neither involves a specific response to a job posting. And you can start doing them right now.
It helps to have a presence on LinkedIn, along with an updated profile. For many recruiters, LinkedIn is the first place they will go to learn more about a candidate after they view their application materials. But the inside-out and breadcrumbing advice is for well before you apply or even learn about an open position. Together, these tactics will help set you up for success when you eventually apply.
Inside-Out Search
“Don’t just look for the openings,” said Mary Olson-Menzel, an author and executive leadership coach on a recent episode of the How to Be Awesome at Your Job podcast. “Start to create a target list of companies that you’re inspired by, a target list of companies that feel like companies that you might want to work for.”
Olson-Menzel describes this approach as flipping your job search “inside out” in her career advice book “What Lights You Up,” and it involves an exercise where you categorize three potential employers on your target list:
Prospects. For higher education professionals, these are the obvious institutions that fit your desired location and career background, whether you’re a researcher, teacher, or administrator. Pivots. These could be employers from other industries, types of institutions that diverge from your career trajectory, or those that could offer you a role in a completely new functional area or discipline within academe. Passions. This is a “what-if” category, where you could take something you really enjoy doing — a hobby, side hustle, or other interest outside your main work — and find organizations or clients that could pay you to do work that “lights you up.”
An example for academics could be an exercise science or sport management professor who enjoys video gaming putting a university that offers an esports minor on their list. There they could teach classes about the physiology or business of esports. They could even be the advisor for the campus esports club. In higher ed, there are many opportunities are available like this to apply one’s niche interests.
Next, begin reaching out to people who work for the employers on your target list. Search the institution and position titles on LinkedIn and figure out who you might know that works there. Look for a segue to introduce yourself. It might not be someone who makes hiring decisions, but many people have hiring influence.
Send them a short email or a LinkedIn connection request along with a note explaining why you are reaching out, such as a mutual acquaintance, a desire to expand your network in their area, or to inquire about job opportunities.
“Keep it simple,” Olson-Menzel said. “Because, immediately, they’re going to look at your LinkedIn profile and check out who you are anyway, so you don’t have to give a lot of words into who you are and what you’re looking for. Just, ‘I’m looking for my next career adventure, and I’d love to talk.'”
John Rindy, assistant vice president for career and academic progress at Slippery Rock University, recommends using LinkedIn to connect with counterparts and their subordinates or direct reports at institutions on your target list. But he has a more subtle way to connect with potential employers and play the long game. It’s a term he calls “breadcrumbing.”
Breadcrumbing
“Breadcrumbing is exploring and clicking on strategic LinkedIn profiles that expand the awareness of your professionalism among people who might eventually be on a search committee,” Rindy said. “It’s leaving a trail for someone to look at your profile. Then it’s, ‘Oh, why is this guy looking at my profile?’ and then they will click on yours.”
“Even if you’re not applying there for six months, they’ve now seen your name, and they’ve seen your profile. And you also want to make sure your profile has good stuff on it. But breadcrumbing shows deliberate effort that you want to work there and you started researching a long time ago.”
But breadcrumbing doesn’t have to only occur in the notifications on LinkedIn that tell users who has been peeping at each other’s profiles. You can accomplish similar benefits to gain recognition and awareness from people with hiring influence by simply engaging with them on LinkedIn. This includes commenting on their posts or sharing their content.
LinkedIn is not simply a place to display your professional credentials on your profile. It’s a place to curate your brand and, according to Olson-Menzel, “give a fuller picture of who you are as a professional (and) who you are as a human being.” She said to not be afraid to share something personal — for example, she posted about her mother dying and how much she inspires her — but just keep it positive and avoid discussing politics and religion.
“If you put something really interesting out on LinkedIn, I’m going to like it, I might share it, and I might even repost it with my thoughts,” Olson-Menzel said. “This is where you’re starting to create some positive momentum with the algorithms of LinkedIn so that more and more people are noticing you on there.”
In Conclusion
Flipping something inside out and leaving breadcrumbs might sound like tasks carried out with surgical precision, like setting a mouse trap. But done right, these two tasks are like networking itself: ongoing exercises for career development that are never exhausted or finished. There are always more people and potential employers to engage.
Even if your goal is to find a new job, following this advice can be enjoyable and rewarding for its own sake. Connections matter. Inside or out.
