Job-Hunt Intelligence - To Succeed Today, Execute a Targeted Job Search

Published: Tue, 01/10/17

By Debra Wheatman

Unemployment can be scary and overwhelming. It’s not only the uncertainty of not having a steady paycheck; it’s also the disruption to your routine, and the loss of your work social life.

Compounding this is advice from well-meaning friends and family, many of whom have no experience in conducting a job search in today’s environment. Many people who find themselves unemployed are encouraged to apply for and to pursue every single opportunity that is out in the market. This feels productive, but it is often a waste of time.

4 Steps to Targeting Your Job Search

Chasing every job posting is an approach that is almost guaranteed to set you up for disappointment, as it lacks any real strategy. What you need to do to be successful in your job search is to create a plan of action outlining how you are going to target your efforts.

To create your action plan, take a personal inventory of your career goals, and then do the following:

1. Decide what kind of job you want.

This seems obvious, but I often work with clients whose strategy is simply to obtain the same type of position they just left.

Frequently, this approach is a default response rooted in emotion rather than in critical thinking.

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By Hannah Morgan

If your job search was a stool, these 3 elements would be the legs supporting that stool, and keeping it in balance.  Without all 3 of these legs, that stool - or your job search - would not be completely functional or effective.

What are the three legs of a successful job search? Based on the feedback from job search experts, many of the mistakes job seekers make happen as a result of lack of focus, structure, and discipline. These are ways you can build a stronger, more effective job search.

1. FOCUS

There are two ways your job search needs focus: certainty about what you want to do next and clear goals and actions for how you are going to achieve your targeted job.

Before you begin your job search or even after you’ve started, be sure to answer these important questions:

  • What do you want to do next?
  • What is important to you in your next job?
  • What companies hire for those positions you are seeking?

Once you know the answers, begin communicating this to people, clearly, and in terms they can understand and relate to.

Without a clear and specific direction of where you want to go, how will you get there? How can others help you get there?

Have you ever heard someone say this: “I am a scientist (or insert any job title here) and I am looking for a job just like the one I used to have.” The vast majority of people hearing this will not know how to help you. They are not a walking job board and most likely, do not know of companies hiring scientists (that is, unless they are a scientist too!). It would be more clear if the scientist were to say “I help pharmaceutical labs test drugs in order to get them to market as quickly as possible. I would love to learn what XYZ and ABC are doing to improve their testing processes.”

Establishing focus doesn’t end once you’ve answered these questions about what you want to do and where you want to work. You should also establish clear goals on how you will get there. These can be daily, weekly or even 3-year goals. Goals might include things like:

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Best Career Change Advice: Target and Plan

By Susan P. Joyce

Looking back at my career, I have probably made more career changes than many people - at least 9 of them - from high school civics teacher to officer in the United States Marine Corps to president of my own company (including 2 layoffs).

It was a very educational process (never dull!), but I wish I'd done a better job of planning and managing my crazy career. Here's how you can learn from my mistakes.

Most of us don't do much research into what we enjoy doing or what we would succeed at doing. Particularly after a layoff or school graduation, we just leap into the job market, feet first, accepting on the first job offer we receive with gratitude, looking forward to pay days and paychecks.

Understandable to accept the first offer received, particularly for that first job or when unemployment has stretched out longer than expected. Definitely understandable. However, you might have a better outcome next time if…

For Your Next Career Change

New college graduates are expected to change jobs at least 15 times in their careers, often making career changes.  So, for the long term, smart people look ahead carefully, and don't just jump at the first opportunity. For your next career change, try these 3 steps:

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Editor’s Choice

It has always been true that networking is the most effective way to find a new position. And now LinkedIn has made networking even easier. However, with people being bombarded by digital messages, you need to consider how to get your message noticed and answered. Here’s how to break through the noise.
Today, successful job seekers select the kind of job they want (e.g. bank teller, entry-level professional, senior executive), the industry (e.g. banking, retail, healthcare), and then the local employers that they prefer. Once they determine the target employers, they focus most of their job search efforts on those specific organizations. This article explains the difference and how to succeed.
Once a year, smart corporations will go through a strategic planning session where the executives review their mission, vision, and results, and tweak their priorities and execution plans accordingly. Called S-W-O-T (for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) we should also perform this analysis on our careers at least once a year, and January is usually a good time for this exercise.
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