Lesson 5: Targeting Job Search:

Mobilize your Network

 A job search strategy involves the long-term process of acquiring the training,
background, and experience needed to be competitive in the job market
associated with your anticipated career goal.
 Your job search must be conducted consistently over a period of time. Studies
indicate that it can take many months of searching to land the job you are
seeking. Regardless of how certain or tentative you are currently feeling
about your career alternatives, you must have a specific occupation in mind.
 The underlying and most important concept, however, is focusing on what you
want. Without this concentration, you run the risk of being swayed by random
opportunities and jobs that don’t live up to your expectations. Focusing
means evaluating and comparing all new information with your personality,
needs, values, interests, and skills. Remember, the first job you seek should
not be considered an end in itself. It is one job on the way to several more
that will compose your total career. As the dictionary defines career, it is a
“pursuit of consecutive progressive achievement in public, professional, or
business life.” Career experts predict that the average worker can expect to
make 3 to 5 major career changes and 9 to 13 job changes in a lifetime,
which means that you will have many opportunities to arrive at your ideal
career.
Designing a Comprehensive Job Search
Strategy
 A comprehensive job search strategy involves much more than just
researching to decide what your ideal job is, or simply identifying areas of
employment in which you expect to find such jobs. A comprehensive job
search strategy empowers you to consider many variables to attain your ideal
goal, including education, training, experiences, as well as geographic and
compensation issues.
Designing a Comprehensive Job Search
Strategy
 Assuming you have adequate skills and background and that you have identified a job
for which you are 100 percent enthusiastic, the following approach will work for you: 
First, you must make a contract with yourself to complete all the tasks necessary to get
the job.
 Next, you must become totally informed about the tasks and responsibilities of the job
you are seeking. Much of this information can be gained from the written and electronic
materials previously cited.
 Additionally, you will need to augment any researched information by making personal
contacts with insiders.
 Once you have identified your ideal job situation, investigate activities that may be
indispensable first steps toward your goal. Such activities may be temporary, volunteer,
or entry-level jobs in your chosen field. They can be critical in adding to your
experience and connecting you with the right people to make you a better candidate for
your preferred job.
Designing a Comprehensive Job Search
Strategy
 One final suggestion before you conduct further research: You may find your
ideal job is years of education and experience away from you, or you don’t
have the dedication or talent to make it in your ideal field. If so, you may be
just as satisfied if you work in some job related to the career of your dreams.
Your Job Search: Getting Started

 To improve the chances of getting your ideal job, use a variety of strategies.
Using a wide variety of options will increase your chances of success. Using
only a few strategies—be it the Internet, a resume, job advertisements, or an
employment agency search—is hardly enough in this competitive job
environment. Typical resources include reading newspaper want ads and
trade journals, using the Internet, sending resumes to potential employers
through the mail and by e-mail, using permanent or temporary employment
agencies, and volunteering, interning, or joining clubs and professional
associations while in school.
UNDERSTANDING AND USING
CLASSIFIED ADS
 Although printed media has diminished in usage, employment and classified
ads are still published in local newspapers, newspapers from your desired
geographical area, trade journals, and supplements (such as the career
section of the Wall Street Journal), as well as association magazines and
related online resources that are listed at the end of this chapter. Other job
listings are found in the state employment department, county and city
human resources (HR) offices, college placement centers, private
employment offices, and the HR offices of individual organizations and
websites.
UNDERSTANDING AND USING
CLASSIFIED ADS
 Another way to increase your chances of finding a job involves combining a
newsprint want ads search with your active accumulation of Internet
information about companies. When you see a job opening at a firm you’ve
already visited or reviewed online, try to establish a contact in that company
to call and ask for more information about the opening.
PROMOTING YOURSELF THROUGH MAIL
AND E-MAIL
 Because postal mailings are not often used these days, you might want to
consider a mail campaign, as it might differentiate you from the crowd of job
seekers. Some career fields such as sales, marketing, advertising, and graphic
design lend themselves to this type of self-promotion.
 In the case of e-mail, you will obviously be able to cover much more ground
for less money. Additionally, online programs in Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter,
and YouTube can send your resume or other promotional material to
unlimited specific groups and organizations.
Some Unwritten Rules for Job-Search
E-Mail
 Getting your e-mails read requires strategy. Remember to customize your
cover-letter message and resume for the unique requirements for each job
opportunity. A mass-mailed flyer is ignored among hundreds of others because
recruiters do not have time to figure out which job you are seeking.
UNDERSTANDING AND USING
EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES
 Before you register with an agency or website, check carefully on its fees, the
types of positions it handles, and its reputation. Some agencies simply place
you on a job with limited concern for your satisfaction. Good agencies, in
contrast, are very concerned about matching people with jobs that suit them.
 Temporary employment agencies provide excellent ways to get back into the
workforce or to test the climate in a variety of companies.
 For energetic, industrious workers, part-time and temporary assignments may
lead to full-time employment and the opportunity to move up to better
positions.
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

 Most industries have professional associations that bring together

professionals in a particular industry for disseminating relevant information,
networking, and continuing education.
 Go to any association’s website to find information about paid and unpaid
positions. For example, the Association for Multimedia Communications at
www.amcomm.org encourages you to join them on Facebook. Since most
associations have a presence on Facebook, it is also a good place to search for
information.
VOLUNTEERING

 The importance of getting job-related experience cannot be overestimated.

Many people have negative images of volunteering. They think volunteering
means doing paperwork or “go-fer” work. However, you can create
meaningful volunteer positions for yourself rather than taking whatever is
available. To optimize your chances for obtaining such useful experience,
look online and or go through a community voluntary action center.
INTERNSHIPS

 Your college or university may help to arrange internships in some fields of

study. Internships may be paid or unpaid and are usually restricted to
students who have studied in the subject area of the internship.
 Many colleges have career centers, internship offices, or experiential
education offices that arrange internships of different types, including
fieldwork, which involves work required as part of a major.
 Internships can be used to build valuable experience and contacts.
 Cooperative education is used to gain experience that may lead to a full-time
position.
USING SOCIAL NETWORKS
Starting Your Own Business

 One more way to have a job is to start your own business. College students
faced with limited job prospects have been starting businesses in record
numbers—in essence, creating or inventing their careers. From franchise
investments to short-term freelance assignments for specialists in accounting,
marketing, management, and other traditional business functions,
opportunities abound.
Using Career Services

 Check out the college career development and placement office at all stages
of your career exploration.
 College career centers offer job search workshops covering resume writing
and interviewing techniques, and will also prepare you for interviews.
Graduate School as an Alternative to a
Full-Time Job
 Be prepared to be flexible when considering job offers. College graduates
often find it difficult to land their ideal first job, and they often need to
lower their expectations regarding starting salary.
 Remember, a job that seems less than ideal may lead to one at which you can
truly excel.
Networking

 Networking refers to the activity of developing and maintaining contacts.

Contacts, if cultivated and used wisely, can lead to or become potential
employers. Contacts make the strategic difference between being selected or
passed by. This is true for several reasons.
 The best networking is a personal interaction. The meeting is not a hard sell
or a sales transaction. It
 is all about gaining trust, building visibility, and listening carefully to the
contact’s wisdom, experience, and insight.
 The term network is both a noun and verb. As a noun, a network is defined as
a group of individuals who are connected to and cooperate with each other.
As a verb, to network is to develop contacts and exchange information with
other people for purposes of developing personal or business opportunities.