How to doorknock

Greg Wyatt • March 19, 2024

Doorknocking is an old-school sales approach you may well have experienced, such as when a young person with a clipboard rings your doorbell and asks you to change electricity provider.

My wife even bought from exactly this scenario.

But while it’s not uncommon in a business-to-consumer situation, it can also work business-to-business… if you can get past security.

Although technology has moved on, the principle is the same, whether in person, by phone, email, letter or LinkedIn:

You approach someone cold and create your own opportunity.

This isn’t an approach for everyone, and certainly requires a modicum of chutzpah, but if you are used to a high failure rate in applying through job boards and agencies - what do you have to lose by not gaining a job through being proactive?

And more than that - look at all the advice on LinkedIn on how to improve your odds in a job search.

It’s all transactional and applicable, available to everyone - if you all follow it, everyone takes the same step forward.

While taking steps others are less prepared to do means the approach alone may stand out.

Of course, if you encounter the equivalent of a sign which says ‘Tresspassers will be shot’, that’s something to consider if the rules are important.

I’ve never applied through traditional means to a job. Here’s my successful application history -

  • Walked into the Cinema and asked for a job

  • Walked into Office World and asked for a job

  • Worked for Dad

  • Talked to one of my ex-colleagues and gained some by-the-call phone research work

  • Temped through an agency

  • Walked into the Pickerel Inn and asked for a job

  • Referred to Workplace Law

  • In managing their (small-scale) recruitment, I got to know the MD of Whitehill Pelham as a supplier. I went to work there.

  • Tapped up to return to a more senior role at Workplace Law

  • Started my business upon being given the boot


It’s true I did apply through job boards and agencies, but it’s mainly through my own means I’ve secured my employment.

Doorknocking has one key advantage and one key disadvantage as a route to a job.

The key advantage is that you approach companies by category, not because they are recruiting. These categories can be:

  • All the employers in your local business park you can walk around

  • Top 100 employers in your particular domain, whether industry or tech

  • Companies that have recently had funding and are about to scale

Or however you choose to categorise a list.

The point is to make contact and make a case for yourself, on the principle of

the right person, right time, right place, right message, right offer, and right price.

So of course, there’s an element of luck involved, for these elements to all come together.

We’ll dig into this in the next section.

The key disadvantage is that they may not be recruiting, or ever have a need to employ you, and even if they do have a vacancy, you still have to establish the right fit.

That means a logically low hit rate.

But again, let’s go back to job board applications - how many hours have you spent applying for jobs where you never even heard back?

The difference is the anonymous rejection of a volume based application versus the personal rejection from your direct approach.

Your threshold for an acceptable failure rate will inform whether this is the right approach for you.

Right person, right time, right place, right message, right offer, right price.

This is a principle of any marketing activity, including other means of looking for work.

Let’s reorder the list and see how we can make them work for us:

Right Place

Those Categories above. The place is the Company, and how you contact them. You can go in blind, if you are a bold prospector by nature, or you can research them in advance.

Right Person

Typically this will be the ‘next one up’, Head of department, Director, CxO or Owner.

Who would be the budget holder at work? Those are a good target. Research, as usual, can help - look them up on LinkedIn, PR, news, video platforms. What can you find out?

Right Time

In most situations, if you categorise by anything not time-related, this will be pot luck.

What if, instead, you categorise by timed factors? What might be a hiring trigger?

Perhaps you could contact a list of companies who have just announced funding, or a big win - events that can trigger investment in the business through hiring.

Or maybe you hear through the grapevine that Janine is about to go off on maternity leave.

If their process isn’t time-related, can you make it time-related?

“We aren’t hiring right now” might mean they’ve run out of headcount in H1 (Jan to June), and may have a new budget in July. What can you find out that helps you both?

And if you have radio silence, why not try again in a month or three months?

Think about how you buy - if you don’t need something it doesn’t matter so much about how good the message is.

If you do need something, someone who keeps in regular touch might sell you what you need.

Right Offer

You have more opportunity for career creativity, in being unemployed, than someone entrenched in a 9 to 5 permanent job.

What problems can you fix for a company, in a non-traditionally employed capacity?

Let’s say an employer has a problem that needs fixing. They don’t have capacity to do it right now, it isn’t burning enough to seek professional help, and there isn’t sufficient work in view to make it a job.

What if you caught them at the right time?

An out-of-work TA Manager who offered to revamp an onboarding process.

A web designer who notes lots of issues with their website.

A strategic operational issue that is their unknown unknown, but your expertise identifies.

A swamped team who could benefit from their admin burden being reduced.

An orchard that needs pickers at harvest - no shame in that.

Who knows what that might be?

What starts out as a short-term / project / part-time piece of work can become proof of concept. The FD of one company I’ve recently recruited for created his own job, contacting them a couple of years ago because he loved their products.

Right message

This is both nuanced and vulgar.

It’s nuanced because nailing the message CAN create an opportunity a poorly written message can miss.

But it’s vulgar because sometimes you can just catch people at the right time, no matter how cruddy your message is.

This is very much the case in recruitment - I’ve picked up several senior appointments by happenstance.

“I’m glad you called Greg, I’m just starting to think about my maternity cover in June.”

Had I not called, that HR Director may well have gone to the specialist HR recruiters she is also in touch with.

If you have a strong hook in your message -such a key area of rare expertise, or a clear issue you’ve identified which companies may have - great, go in with that.

But if you don’t - done is better than procrastinating:

“Hi Greg, I live locally to Bircham Wyatt Recruitment. Love what you do. I wondered if you might be recruiting for an apple picker at any point? If you can’t help, could you point me in the right direction?”

Right price

I’ve left this til the end because much of this is variable and subjective. What are your needs? What can they afford? What does the market say? How flexible can you be?

Research will help, if you can get a sense of what they generally pay through indeed, glassdoor or others. Or maybe what comparable companies who are advertising will pay.

One approach might be simply to pro-rate your salary over the period you’ll work there.

As a related aside, door-knocking can sometimes inadvertently give you access to jobs that are being actively recruited. Consider it a happy byproduct of your work, if you find yourself in this situation.

Like any activity in a job search, it’s worth persevering. Otherwise it’s too easy to think, after 10/20/100 unsuccessful efforts that the approach itself is at fault.

There is always an element of good fortune in any marketing activity.

This may be out of your comfort zone, in which case it’s an opportunity to grow.

Or it may be out of your capacity, which is understandable.

You may even find other approaches are more effective than you.

But the only certain thing is that if you don’t try you definitely won’t benefit from it.

Thanks for reading.

Regards,

Greg

p.s. if you found this article helpful, may I ask that you share it with fellow job seekers? This will always be a free publication, and I have no intent to monetise career coaching, which I hope allows it to be as accessible and objective as possible.

I’ve no idea if ‘liking’, commenting or reposting helps. What about ‘commenting for coverage’ 😂?

Why not share it in a LinkedIn post? You may start some interesting conversations, and help others you don’t yet know.

Jump the shark. A Recruitment AiDE, pt 13

By Greg Wyatt • January 29, 2026
May 2023 You’ve heard the phrase, I take it – “jump the shark”? It’s the moment when one surprising or absurd experience can indicate a rapid descent into rubbishness and obscurity. When it’s time to get off the bus. Typically in media. Jumping the Shark comes from an episode of Happy Days in which the Fonz does a water ski jump over a shark. 👈 Aaaaay. 👉 A sign creators have run out of ideas, or can’t be bothered to come up with fresh ones. In movies, sequelitis is a good example of this – an unnecessary sequel done to make some cash, in the hope the audience doesn’t care about its quality. Sometimes they become dead horses to flog, such as the missteps that are any Terminator film after 2. It’s an issue that can lead to consumers abandoning what they were doing, with such a precipitous drop in engagement that the thing itself is then cancelled. Partly because of breaking trust in what was expected to happen next. And because it’s a sign that the disbelief that was temporarily suspended has come crashing down. If you don’t believe that your current poor experience will lead to further, better experiences, why would you bother? Once you’ve had your fingers burnt, how hard is it to find that trust in similar experiences? It doesn’t have to be a single vein of experience for all to be affected. Watch one dodgy superhero movie and how does it whet your appetite for the next? You didn’t see The Eternals? Lucky you. Or how about that time we had really bad service at Café Rouge, a sign of new management that didn’t care, and we never went again? Just me? Did they sauter par-dessus le requin? Here’s the rub – it matters less that these experiences have jumped the shark. It matters more what the experience means for expectation. So it is in candidate experience. It’s not just the experience you provide that tempers expectations – it’s the cumulated experience of other processes that creates an assumption of what might be expected of yours. If you’re starting from a low trust point, what will it take for your process to ‘jump the shark’ and lose, not just an engaged audience, but those brilliant candidates that might only have considered talking to you if their experience hadn’t been off-putting? Not fair, is it, that the experience provided by other poor recruitment processes might affect what people expect of yours? Their experiences aren’t in your control, the experience you provide is. Of my 700 or so calls with exec job seekers, since The Pandemic: Lockdown Pt 1, many described the candidate experience touchpoints that led to them deciding not to proceed with an application. These were calls that were purely about job search strategy, and not people I could place. However, one benefit for me is that they are the Gemba , and I get to hear their direct experiences outside of my recruitment processes. Experiences such as - ‘£Competitive salary’ in an advert or DM, which they know full well means a lowball offer every time, because it happened to them once or twice, or perhaps it was just a LinkedIn post they read. Maybe it isn’t your problem at all, maybe your £competitive is upper 1% - how does their experience inform their assumptions? Or when adverts lend ambiguity to generic words, what meaning do they find, no matter how far from the truth? How the arrogance of a one-sided interview process affects their interest. The apparent narcissism in many outreaches in recruitment (unamazing, isn’t it, that bad outreach can close doors, rather than open them). Those ATS ‘duplicate your CV’ data entry beasts? Fool me once… Instances that are the catalysts for them withdrawing. I’d find myself telling them to look past these experiences, because a poor process can hide a good job. It’s a common theme in my jobseeker posts, such as a recent one offering a counterpoint to the virality that is “COVER LETTERS DON’T M4TT£R agree?” Experiences that may not be meant by the employer, or even thought of as necessarily bad, yet are drivers for decisions and behaviour. I can only appeal to these job seekers through my posts and calls. What about those other jobseekers who I’m not aware of, who’ve only experienced nonsense advice? What about those people who aren’t jobseekers? What about those people who think they love their roles? What about all those great candidates who won’t put up with bad experiences? The more sceptical they are, and the further they are from the need for a new role, the less bullshit they’ll put up with. What happens when an otherwise acceptable process presents something unpalatable? Might this jumping the shark mean they go no further? Every time the experience you provide doesn’t put their needs front and centre or if it’s correlated to their bad experiences…. these can prevent otherwise willing candidates from progressing with your process, whether that’s an advert they don’t apply to, a job they don’t start, or everything in between. Decisions that may stem from false assumptions of what a bad experience will mean. Instead, look to these ‘bad experience’ touchpoints as opportunities to do better: instead of £competitive, either state a salary or a legitimate reason why you can’t disclose salary (e.g. “see below” if limited by a job board field and “we negotiate a fair salary based on the contribution of the successful candidate, and don’t want to limit compensation by a band”) instead of a 1-way interrogation… an interview instead of radio silence when there’s no news - an update to say there’s no update, and ‘How are things with you by the way?’ instead of Apply Now via our Applicant Torture Sadistificator, ‘drop me a line if you have any questions’ or ‘don’t worry if you don’t have an updated CV - we’ll sort that later’. Opportunity from adversity. And why you can look at bad experiences other processes provide as a chance to do better. With the benefit that, if you eliminate poor experience, you'll lose fewer candidates unnecessarily, including those ideal ones you never knew about. Bad experiences are the yin to good experience’s yang and both are key parts of the E that is Experience in the AIDE framework. The good is for next time. Thanks for reading.  Regards, Greg

How To Network For A Job - Jobseeker Basics XIV

By Greg Wyatt • January 26, 2026
The following is Chapter 42 in A Career Breakdown Kit (2026) . In a sense it's a microcosm of how any commercial activity can see a better return - which is to put the needs of the person you are appealing to above your own. It feels counterintuitive, especially when you have a burning need, but you can see the problem of NOT doing this simply by looking at 99% of job adverts: We are. We need. We want. What you'll do for us. What you might get in return. Capped off by the classic "don't call us, we'll call you." If you didn't need a job, how would you respond to that kind of advert? In the same vein, if you want networking to pay off, how will your contact's life improve by your contact? What's in it for them? 42 - How to network for a job Who are the two types of people you remember at networking events? For me two types stand out. One will be the instant pitch networker. This might work if you happen to be in need right now of what they have to offer or if mutual selling is your goal. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this but it’s a selling activity pretending to be networking. If you want to sell, go and overtly sell rather than disguise it with subterfuge. Lest we mark your face and avoid you where possible in future. The second is the one who gets to know you, shows interest and tries to add to your experience. You share ideas, and there’s no push to buy something. They believe that through building the relationship when you have a problem they can solve, you’ll think to go to them. It’s a relationship built on reciprocity. One where if you always build something together there is reason to keep in touch. And where the outcome is what you need if the right elements come together: right person, right time, right message, right place, right offering, right price. Job search networking is no different. The purpose of networking in a job search is to build a network where you are seen as a go-to solution should a suitable problem come up. In this case the problem you solve is a vacancy. Either because your active network is recruiting, or because they advocate for you when someone they know is recruiting. It is always a two-way conversation you both benefit from. Knowledge sharing, sounding board, see how you’re doing - because of what the relationship brings to you both. It is not contacting someone only to ask for a job or a recommendation. A one-way conversation that relies on lucky timing. That second approach can be effective as a type of direct sales rather than networking. If you get it wrong it may even work against you. How would you feel if someone asked to network with you, when it became clear they want you to do something for them? You might get lucky and network with someone who is recruiting now - more likely is that you nurture that relationship over time. If your goal is only to ask for help each networking opportunity will have a low chance of success. While if your goal is to nurture a relationship that may produce a lead, you’ll only have constructive outcomes. This makes it sensible to start by building a network with people that already know you: Former direct colleagues and company colleagues Industry leaders and peers Recruiters you have employed or applied through Don’t forget the friends you aren’t in regular touch with - there is no shame in being out of work and it would be a shame if they didn’t think of you when aware of a suitable opening. These people are a priority because they know you, your capability and your approach and trust has already been built. Whereas networking with people you don't know requires helping them come to know and trust you. Networking with people you know is the most overlooked tactic by the exec job seekers I talk to (followed by personal branding). These are the same people who see the hidden jobs market as where their next role is, yet overlook what’s in front of them. If you are looking for a new role on the quiet - networking is a go-to approach that invites proactive contact to you. Networking with people who know people you know, then people in a similar domain, then people outside of this domain - these are in decreasing order of priority. Let's not forget the other type of networking. Talking to fellow job seekers is a great way to share your pain, take a load off your shoulders, bounce ideas off each other, and hold each other accountable. LinkedIn is the perfect platform to find the right people if you haven't kept in touch directly. Whatever you think of LinkedIn, you shouldn’t overlook its nature as a conduit to conversation. It isn’t the conversation itself. Speaking in real life is where networking shines because while you might build a facsimile of a relationship in text, it's no replacement for a fluid conversation. Whether by phone and video calls, real life meetups, business events, seminars, conferences, expos, or in my case - on dog walks and waiting outside of the school gates. Both these last two have led to friends and business for me though the latter hasn’t been available since 2021. Networking isn’t 'What can I get out of it?' Instead, ‘What’s in it for them?’ The difference is the same as those ransom list job adverts compared to the rare one that speaks to you personally. How can you build on this relationship by keeping in touch? Networking is systematic, periodic and iterative: Map out your real life career network. Revisit anyone you’ve ever worked with and where Find them on LinkedIn Get in touch ‘I was thinking about our time at xxx. Perhaps we could reconnect - would be great to catch up’ If they don’t reply, because life can be busy, diarise a follow up What could be of interest to them? A LinkedIn post might be a reason to catch up When you look up your contact’s profile look at the companies they’ve worked at. They worked there for a reason, which may be because of a common capability to you Research these companies. Are there people in relevant roles worth introducing yourself to? Maybe the company looks a fit with your aspirations - worth getting in touch with someone who may be a hiring manager or relevant recruiter? Maybe they aren’t recruiting now. Someone to keep in touch with because of mutual interests. Click on Job on their company page, then "I'm interested" - this helps for many reasons, including flagging your interest as a potential employee Keep iterating your network and find new companies as you look at new contacts. This is one way we map the market in recruitment to headhunt candidates - you can mirror this with your networking The more proactive networking you build into your job search, the luckier you might get. While you might need to nurture a sizeable network and there are no guarantees, think about the other virtues of networking - how does that compare to endless unreplied applications? I often hear from job seekers who found their next role through networking. This includes those who got the job because of their network even though hundreds of applicants were vying for it. While this may be unfair on the applicants sometimes you can make unfair work for you. It can be effective at any level.