How to Find a Job
- Determine what you want to do: This may be easy for you. If you have had a job in the past that you enjoyed and would like to do the same type of work again, you have your answer. If you had a job in the past that left you unfulfilled though, you have to determine what would have made that job better and find a new position that will put you in a position to achieve your goals. Tools: Career Goals Worksheet
- Identify target companies: Identify the companies in the area where you would like to work and look for the right position within that company. Tools: Target company worksheet, Monster, Corporate Web Sites, The Street.com
- Tap your network: The best way to find a job is to use your network. Sometimes people you know within a company will know about jobs that haven’t even been posted yet. Who do you know at your target companies? Who do you know that might know someone at your target company? Tools: Address book, Business cards, Rolodex, LinkedIn.com
- Identify target positions: Once you have identified a target company, you need to narrow your focus to a target position within that company. Tools: Company jobs boards, Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, Newspaper.
- Market Yourself: Many people start with creating a resume, and a good resume foundation is essential. It can be reused with several positions, but you should never send the exact same resume out twice. Look at the position you are applying for and adjust your resume to have the same types of key words, to showcase the pieces of work that are mentioned specifically in the job posting, and to minimize irrelevant pieces of information. Recruiters are trained to scan a resume and cover letter in 15 seconds. Make the relevant information obvious for them. Make sure you keep copies of each of your resume versions. During interviews, the interviewer will likely reference the resume, so you want to be looking at the same piece of paper. Tools: Resume template
- Plan your search: You have to treat your job search like a job. Plan your day every day. Know who you are going to call, where you are going to post your resume, and how long you are going to spend working on your job search. Tool: Job search planner template
- Track your progress: Keep weekly track of your activities and progress. This can serve to help you adjust your strategy as you go and can be a morale boost if you start to get down. The job search is two things. First, it’s a numbers game. Every call you make, and every interview you attend gets you closer to the right job. Second, it’s a quest. I didn’t say this is a journey, because it is more like a classic quest. Odysseus was trapped on an island, chased by Neptune, and tricked by Circe before making his way home. Know that there will be steps forward and backward in your search, but you must continue on. Tracking your progress can help you keep track of where you’ve been. Tools: Weekly Activity Worksheet
- Follow up: Actively schedule your follow up activities. Put recruiters, hiring managers, and networking contacts on a follow up list. Avoid the temptation of following up too often. If you speak with someone who doesn’t have any progress to share, ask when you can follow up, and make a note on your follow up list. Tool: Follow up sheet, Outlook tasks
- Prepare for the interview: Find out as much as you can about the position and the company before the interview. Prepare questions you would like to ask for clarification. Recruiters are trained that they are judged by the quality of their questions rather than the quality of their answers. They tend to expect the same of candidates. Make sure you are ready to ask the key interview follow up questions.
"Did you see anything in my answers or background that concern you, or that you need me to clarify?" Asking this question will allow you to speak to any issues the interviewer has and know where you stand.
"What are the next steps in the process?" This puts you in a position to have your expectations set and further clarify where you stand. This also forces the recruiter or hiring manager to give you a deadline and therefore the right to follow up if they don't meet the expectation they set.
Tools: Company web site, Google, Other research web sites - Negotiate Salary: This is a tricky piece of the job search process. You will be asked on several occasions to supply your expected salary throughout the job search process. The company will use this information as a starting point and will tend to negotiate down from there. I tend to advise candidates not to give this information if at all possible. Sometimes you have to. The bottom line in a salary negotiation is that the person who names a number first tends to be in the weaker position. You should know what you want and what your minimum acceptable salary is in order to keep your family in a good financial position. Tools: salary.com (job salary survey)
Top 10 Job Boards/Job Search Sites
Here are the top ten web sites you should know about in your job search.
- Monster - the grandaddy of them all
- CareerBuilder - AOL and MSN align themselves with this board, it also has a network of newspapers and some pretty funny commercials to help drive traffic
- HotJobs - Yahoo bought this board several years ago, and they continue to drive decent traffic through Yahoo network advertising.
- Dice - specializes in technology jobs
- LinkedIn - Yes, this business networking site has job postings and is great for networking as well
- Craigslist - this is the most basic bulletin board type system that is available. It is also the easiest to use.
- America's Job Exchange - This is a site that all corporations are required to post job to in order to keep federal contracts. It is the most comprehensive site available even if it is a bit difficult to use.
- Jobster - Jobster is a networking site strictly for people seeking jobs. It allows you to search for jobs, post a resume, and even rate interactions with companies you talk to
- MySpace - Finding a job is about networking. Myspace is one of the ultimate networking sites. Use it to get your network mobilized to help you find a job.
- Facebook - along the same lines as MySpace, you can use Facebook to find people at a company of interest and ask friends to assist in finding a new gig
Labels: CareerBuilder, HotJobs, Job Boards, Job Searching, Monster, Resume Posting
What Do You Really Want to Do?
It has been said that "if you love your job, you never have to work a day in your life." The question is, how do you find a job that you love? How do you even know what you really want? A friend of mine from Cisco developed a way to map out the things that are important to him and the degree to which various career options help him to achieve his goals. He maps out several key factors:
- Risk/Adventure
- Money
- Challenge/Learning
- Friendship
- Freedom
- Prestige/Self Image
He mapped these factors on curves to identify their relative importance. The interesting thing is that he noticed that too much of a good thing can be bad. For example, too much risk can be a bad thing while not enough gets boring. Too much freedom can keep you from getting anything done. Here is a snapshot of his career assessment.
How would your factors map? What career options would help you to meet your personal goals?
Labels: Career Planning, Job Searching, Success Factors, Talent Management
Questions YOU Should Ask in an Interview
There is a lot made of the questions that people should be expecting to answer in an interview. Many prepare answers to things like: what is your biggest weakness, where do you see yourself in 5 years, etc. The question they rarely prepare for is perhaps the most difficult of all, do you have any questions for me? The funny thing is that this question is almost always asked by recruiters and hiring managers. It feels rude to sit and ask questions for an hour without giving the other party an opportunity to ask something of their own. As a recruiter, we are trained that we will be judged by the quality of our questions rather than the quality of our answers, and we tend to apply the same standard to candidates.
There are 3 main goals you should achieve when asked if you have any questions:
- Clarify points you didn't fully understand: During the interview, have a legal pad available to jot down any notes or questions that come up. Use this opportunity to seek clarification. Be careful though, despite what you may have heard in the past, there really are stupid questions. You don't want to ask one in an interview.
- Understand how you did: You can gauge how you did in an interview with one simple question: "Did you see anything in my answers or background that concern you, or that you need me to clarify?" Asking this question will allow you to speak to any issues the interviewer has and know where you stand.
- Understand what to expect going forward: You can simple ask: "What are the next steps in the process?" This puts you in a position to have your expectations set and further clarify where you stand. This also forces the recruiter or hiring manager to give you a deadline and therefore the right to follow up if they don't meet the expectation they set. No one wants to sit waiting by the phone for 3 weeks constantly checking in with the recruiter.
Does anyone else have questions that have worked for you in this situation?
How Headhunters Make Money
I have been asked by several candidates in the past how headhunters or agency recruiters make money. There are two basic models for search firms to earn revenue, retained search and contingent search.
Retained Search - In a retained search, a client company will retain the services of a recruiting firm to fill a specific position. The recruiting agency will be paid a fee that is between 30 and 45% of the newly hired employee's total annual compensation package. They are paid this amount whether or not they find the candidate that is ultimately hired. These types of searches are typically reserved for executive level hires, and there are executive search firms that will only work in this model.
Contingent Search - Contingent search firms will take several requisitions on contingency. This means that the agency has the right to search for candidate's on the client's behalf and submit those candidates to the client for review. The agency is typically paid a fee of between 20 and 30% of the new hire's annual compensation package, and they are only paid if a candidate that they find is hired. There are often several agencies working on the same requisition in this model.
Notice that in both of these models, the client is the hiring company, not the candidate. This means:
- The agency is always looking out for the client company's best interests.
- If you see a search firm that wants to charge you a fee for being a candidate, run the other way!!!
What have your experiences with search firms (headhunters) been?
Maximize Your Job Board Usage
Job boards are extremely popular for searching for jobs, but a much smaller percentage of people who search for jobs actually post a resume. Posted resumes allow recruiters to be active in a search rather than waiting for a reply to a job posting.
Job board packages are sold based on the number of seats that can search for jobs and the number of job postings. Job postings are the most expensive part of contract agreements and as a result, some recruiters may choose to search for resumes before putting a posting out to see if they can get any results. By choosing to put your resume on a job board, you are making yourself available to a group of recruiters who may not have seen you before.
Resume posting tips:- Use keywords or buzzwords that will be picked up in a recruiter's search
- Update youre resume daily - it will show up as a new resume on the top of the list in the next recruiter's search. You don't have to make major changes, just a little character here or there to make the system think your resume is fresh.
- Treat your online profile as a marketing piece - sell yourself
- Never post anonymously. Confidential resume postings with blinded contact information and contact strictly through the job board's system are simply annoying to recruiters. You have to be a really good match for the recruiter to even bother with this.
Top 10 Job Search Tips
1. Network - The number 1 source of hires in any industry is employee referrals. Use your network to have your friends submit your resume for you.
2. Maximize your visibility on job boards - every time you make a change to your resume on Monster, Career Builder,
HotJobs and other job boards, your name goes to the top of the search results for recruiters. Try to make a small update to your resume first thing in the morning before recruiters start their searches, and you will show up on top.
3. Don't rely too heavily on job boards - Job boards are the low hanging fruit of job search, but they are responsible for less than 1% of hires in the US.
4. Talk to a person - Don't simply leave messages and apply online. Voice contact is essential to begin building a relationship with a recruiter or hiring manager.
5. Don't rely on an online application - Applicant tracking systems that receive online applications are like black holes. If your resume isn't obviously relevant to a search, it will be overlooked.
6. Be wary of headhunters - Headhunters make money by filling jobs, not finding you a job. They are a valuable resource for assisting in a job search, but you should know who they work for. The company that is paying them is the client. You are just another candidate.
7. Get to the decision maker - Hiring Managers often have a better understanding of their needs than recruiters. Find a way to talk directly to the hiring manager as soon as possible.
8. Don't over-apply - This is a recruiter per
peeve! Don't apply 15 times the same position. If the
recruiter thought you weren't a match the first time, they most likely won't change their mind because you send your resume again. This is a waste of your time and theirs.
9. Treat your job search like a job - Set business hours for yourself and use discipline in your search. Time is always working against you, and you have to take advantage of what little you have. If you are not currently working, the longer the gap in your resume, the more wary a recruiter will be of you. They start to wonder why you haven't been able to find a job.
10. Find a job you love - This may seem trite, but the bottom line is that you will enjoy life much more and be far more successful doing a job you love. Passion is obvious, and recruiters can smell it a mile away.
