Here is Your Checklist
by Mac Byrd
Included below is a laundry list of websites that, with the help of several of my colleagues, we believe are excellent resources for people looking for smart ways of finding meaningful employment. If you have additional resources that you have found to be efficient and effective, feel free to chime in and share them with us.
First, please know that all job boards are broken and are not efficient. Although you will feel like you are accomplishing a lot by sending hundreds of resumes from these sites, you are really only reaching less than 20% of the opportunities and most of the jobs posted on these sites are already filled. Even the president of Ladders.com (a high-end job board for people seeking $100,000 + salaried jobs) states that these sites are broken here.
Realizing that job boards are not efficient is a first step to success. The following steps are sequential, meaning that for best results, tackle them in the order that they are listed – no matter how desperate your situation may seem.
1. Build and expand your network. Let people know that you are investigating new career options. Make new friends and connections. Stay active. Keep social appointments. Find out what resources other people have that may help you, AND what resources you have that may help them.
LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com
Groups on LinkedIn:
- Job & Career Network.com
- The Job Board.com
- Career Central Group
- Others targeted to your industry, function, specialty, and geography
Plaxo – www.plaxo.com
Facebook – www.facebook.com
Twitter – www.twitter.com
2. Prepare for your search. In this step, two very important things you MUST do may require some objective help. First, you must refine your elevator speech to reflect your strengths. Second, you will need to update your resume.
To do both of these essential tasks, you must research the new and relevant keywords that are being used in your industry and your profession – especially in your job function. Make a list of target companies in your target area and research what business challenges they are experiencing or will have to face as their market evolves. In other words, try to discover what talents that you have and that they are going to need in 3 to 6 months from now.
I have found that the absolute best objective resource to help you with this task is Phil Rosenberg’s Re-Careered website:
There are other resources that can help, but none that offer the breadth of services and personal access that Phil does here.
3. Target your potential employers. To find which companies in which locations are hiring use these sites – not to apply for a job, but rather to find out who in your industry is hiring, what the key search words are for your specialty, what trends are occurring in your industry and in what areas are businesses anticipating growth.
4. Research the financial stability of your target companies. Within the last two years, many companies have hired people or relocated them to targeted areas only to have to lay these people off within a year of the move. This is a very unfortunate situation for both the employer and the employee, but more so for the employee. They can be in an area where they are not well-connected with local support or a highly-evolved network. Use these resources to get you information that will help you determine if indeed you want to pursue employment with a specific company:
For Public companies:
- Their own website
- Their LinkedIn corporate profile
- www.google.com
- www.Hoovers.com
For private companies:
- Their own website
- Their LinkedIn corporate profile
- www.Manta.com
- www.Forbes.com
5. Use the recommendations of your connections. Within your network, you will find companies that may need people with your talents and skills – if not today, then sometime in the future. Go after these leads first. Sometimes these connections will lead you to opportunities that are not even advertised or posted on the company’s website, but may be considering establishing a new initiative. This is the ideal situation in that the candidate has the opportunity to define the scope of the opportunity.
6. Start applying for positions that appeal to you. To start the process of actually looking and applying for a position, use this site and apply directly with the job posting hiring manager. Places like monster.com, careerbuilder.com, Jobfox.com and yahoojobs.com have a terrible record of successful placement. LinkedIn on the other hand has a great record of success. It’s smarter to use a resource that has greater success…
LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com/jobs?displayHome=&trk=hb_ft_jobs
I know these steps and recommendations sound simple. They are not.
It sounds easy to accomplish because it’s only six steps. It is very difficult.
But if you follow the steps in sequence and approach your job search with positive energy and expectations every day, you will find that these steps are the most efficient way to achieve success in your career pursuit.
Be prepared for a tough period of searching. But, I promise that following these steps will be well worth it.
Let us know what you think. Share you ideas, experience and recommendations with us. Share your knowledge and help others in their search.
Pass it on…
Very interesting!
Thanks for the tips.