The ONE phrase I used to unlock meetings with Hiring Managers all over London (including Google, Facebook and Twitter!)

Back in 2013, I was fired from a job I thought was my dream job.

For the first time in my career I was unemployed (or ‘Work Single’ as some people liked to call it!) and on the job market.

Unfortunately after 8 years working for Nike there was one fact I knew to be true:

The best jobs in town are rarely advertised.

And if they are, they rarely go to people who just apply online.

In fact, in my 8 years working for Nike, I never met a person in our Marketing department who got their job through applying online or using a recruitment agent.

Faced with this cold hard fact, I had to ask myself:

‘If people don’t get jobs at Nike through applying online or using recruiters, then surely it is the same at other big global brands?’

So I made the decision that I would not apply for a single job JUST online, but instead go about building a network from scratch that could support my job hunt.

Having not grown up in the UK, my network was small - tiny even! So I had to work out how to unlock meetings with people. 

I quickly realised that asking for a job was not the way to go. 

If you asked for a job, people shut the conversation down very quickly. 

But I discovered there was ONE THING, that when asked for, people were happy to give it. 

What was that ONE THING?

Advice. 

When I asked for a job, I got shut down.

But when I asked for advice, I got offers to help with my job hunt.

And so, in order to unlock meetings with any hiring manager at any big brand I created a MAGIC phrase. 

And this is it:

‘I’d love your advice on what I should do next in my career’

All of a sudden, the flood gates opened! 

So many people offered to help me.

Turns out, people are very happy to give advice.

And once they meet you and like you, they are also happy to help with your job hunt.

So, from now on, ask for advice, NOT A JOB!