Most people just launch right in to writing their resume and start looking at the job boards. Then, after some time, they become frustrated and start jumping at all sorts of avenues to pursue. Often this leads to discouragement and uncontrolled frenzy. Sound like you? Well let me help you get organized and get out of the whirlpool.
Start by making some key decisions. Then prioritize your time after the decisions are made. Set up a schedule of prioritized activities, assign times for each and stick to the plan long enough to evaluate if it needs modification.
First Decision: Will you Broadcast for jobs or Target specific opportunities.
Broadcasting:
Advantages – least amount of in-depth research required; a single resume and cover letter may cover all or most situations; can work well for lower level positions and for skilled trades-people.
Disadvantages – could lead to conflicts if you do your own broadcasting and also use a recruiter; definitely not helpful to professionals; may cause you to ‘spin your wheels’.
Targeting:
Advantages – is responsive to specific openings; is the most effective way for professionals to market themselves.
Disadvantages – it’s more work; to do it effectively it requires tuning your resume and cover letter to specific opportunities described in job ads; requires careful preparation of documents; requires extensive searching for specifics needed to properly tune your documents; requires excellent record-keeping and tracking; requires a great deal of networking.
Second Decision: Will you use a recruiter or not?
Recruiters can help, but if they are not competent, they can hurt.
If you are an “MPC”, Most Placeable Candidate, a good recruiter can make your life easier – and they can also destroy your chances if they are not capable of handling your situation correctly.
Success with recruiters depends upon a lot of factors. You need to know what types of recruiters there are, how they are paid, how they work.
You need to get to know and become comfortable with the specific recruiter who will represent you and the recruiting company s/he works for.
You need to establish an understanding of how well are they connected in your industry, how well they understand what you do and how you do it.
You should establish how well they communicate, how often they will update you and what they will do with your resume (e.g., you don’t want them to broadcast it).
You need to get to know and become comfortable with the specific recruiter who will represent you and the recruiting company s/he works for.
You need to establish an understanding of how well are they connected in your industry, how well they understand what you do and how you do it.
You should establish how well they communicate, how often they will update you and what they will do with your resume (e.g., you don’t want them to broadcast it).
If all the stars align you could decide to leave the search entirely up to your recruiter, that is, IF you’re really comfortable with doing that.
If you decide to do your own searching in parallel with your recruiter, you need to cross-communicate everything you and they are doing. There are serious pitfalls for not cross-communicating.
After making the second decision, things get easier because most of what follows doesn’t require making a decision. You need to do everything that will work.
Start by getting your marketing documents, your resume or CV and your cover letter in order.
You don’t want to find a great opening you fit like a glove and not be prepared to properly apply without delay.
Consider paying for professional help in order to present yourself in the best manner possible, particularly if writing, spelling and grammar is not your forte. Also, good professional resume-writers will know how ATS software works and prepare your documents to let it work for you, not against you.
After that’s done, explore the resources that will help you find out what opportunities are available that meet your needs:
Network to find the known openings and the hidden job opportunities.
Apprise everyone in your network of your situation and objective. People love to help – ask them for help, but do not ask them for a job.
Ask them who they know that you should contact.
And don’t let them “represent” you; they may suggest it because they really want to help, but you are the only one who can represent yourself best. Also you do not want to lose control of your campaign.
Your connections may know about jobs that are open. They may know managers in the company. They may even know the hiring manager. Just get names or hiring departments and telephone numbers if you can.
Expand your network and keep it going – even after you find the job you want. If you help others, they will remember you when you need help again.
Pursue company “Job Openings” web-pages.
If you come across a company opening on your own, find out the name of the hiring manager. Contact that person and present yourself before ever sending in your resume. There are ways to do this and things to say to make it work. There are also gatekeepers’ along the way that are there to stop you. You have to figure out how to get around them, to schmooze them and use them. A good job search consultant can help train you to do this as well.
Use Job Boards (e.g., Career Builder, Monster, Dice, The Ladders)
There are real jobs despite things people say when they’re frustrated. Read my blog on “Are on-line job postings real?”.
When applying to on-line jobs, comply with their submission requirements exactly. Look at the ad for the keywords contained in it and tune your resume and cover letter to include them. In this way you will have prepared your documents for scanning by ATS software. Failure to do this will probably get you rejected within seconds of submitting. At can happen that fast.
Use social media, but do so carefully.
LinkedIn is an excellent site for job seekers. It’s really a must join. And most employers understand that you’re very likely a member. Your boss is likely to be on it as well. After all, it’s a social media aimed at helping others, and each other.
On facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, etc., you need to be very careful because hiring companies are likely to search for your name on them to see what you post, who and what you associate with, and anything that can be damaging to you. Just like the “Santa Claus is Coming Tonight” song says, you better not cry, you better not pout …. and you better not post anything or link to anything that could ruin your chances of being interviewed or hired, or even get you into trouble after being hired!
Using Paper vs. Electronic resumes and Cover Letters
Certain industries, and certain positions within those industries, require hard copy CV’s and Cover Letters. Most industries do not want anything but electronic resumes and cover letters. Some companies do not care.
Find out more about Job Searching by visiting http://www.hoochresumes.com or by emailing me at kl@hoochresumes.com.