Finding Job Openings

Knowing all the places took look for a job is important. Many miss out on great opportunities because they don’t even know they are out there. Make sure you are connecting with all the job openings listed.

Through our job hunting information system, you will be able to connect with virtually all openings from all worthwhile sources. But, the first thing that is important to understand here is how the public job market is formed.

When employers decide to hire someone… there is an event that leads to their decision. Typically, someone has retired, quit or been separated. Turnover leads to over 95% of all jobs opening up. Now once that decision has been made to fill a job, what do employers do first? Well, they look within their company… and they look at candidates on file in their recruiting database.

If they can’t fill a job that way, what do employers do next? Some consider referrals and those who network their executives. If that doesn’t work, they need to go public and see if they can fill their job openings.

Let’s briefly talk about public openings. Over 300,000 employers now post their openings.

You can also find openings in 2,000 newspapers, 2,100 magazines and over 1,500 job boards. Employer websites represent the fastest growing means of recruiting staff. There are more than 300,000 employers who recruit this way… and many of them recruit through their website exclusively. The sole exception may be when they go to an executive recruiter for a very senior executive. So, if you’ve pinpointed your best prospects, check out their websites.

Newspapers have declined rapidly, but in many instances can still be a good source for lower and mid-level openings for professionals. Trade magazines are a worthwhile source for those seeking middle level and upper mid-level openings. Many director and vice president openings, where industry knowledge or experience is important, can still be found in these publications.

The problem with all the job boards is simple. Once you get past the major boards, most will have only a few listings suitable for you. Even on the largest boards, a person can waste an enormous amount of time, only to find out that there are many duplicate listings, and some appear over and over again for months. By the way, whenever you respond to any type of opening, if you respond by email, also send a response by first-class mail.

One way to increase your number of opportunities is to understand the process of upgrading or downgrading ads. For example, a company advertising a Vice President position may be willing to hire an Assistant Vice President or Director, who could move up to Vice President within a year. After all, it isn’t so much the title they are after as the skills and talent. That’s an example of downgrading the opportunity you see… and encouraging you to respond to situations you might have otherwise bypassed.

For more Free Job Hunting Info be sure to follow us on Twitter, check us out on Facebook, read our blog, or visit our website!

Have a Plan

Just like with most things in life, the better you plan, the better off you’ll be on your path. Looking for a good job is the same in this regard.

In today’s competitive arena most people will never get enough interviews with a hit-or-miss approach. This leaves too much to fate. Think of it this way. Chances are you’re marketing a “product” with millions of dollars of earnings capacity remaining in your career.

That much value deserves your best effort. Besides, job hunting is a numbers game. So, why take a chance at doing a lot of things haphazardly, without a well designed plan? Similar to any company who is about to market a new product, a good plan can cut job hunting time in half and save money. It also helps people produce better results, and when people generate a lot of activity in a concentrated time period, they feel better and do better. Much better.

Recapping the components of your overall marketing plan

Job hunting goals:

We surface all critical information about you and then decide on the goals that will best advance your career.

Liabilities: We identify liability issues that might restrict your success… and arrive at ways for minimizing their impact.

Assets and transferable skills: We pinpoint these and incorporate them into your resume, letters, and your personal website.

Industry alternatives: We will suggest the industry alternatives that we feel are best for you.

Action plan for getting interviews: We will lay out a step-by-step plan… a weekly agenda… that will guide your search. This is your complete track… a game plan. It will include a plan for your approach to interviewing and negotiations.

We all have seen many career fields change dramatically over the last decade. Fields that once offered great opportunity have become financially confining with limited growth possibilities. Does print advertising offer the same career possibilities as it did a decade ago?

Does selling in the steel industry? Does being a doctor and a general practitioner? Career fields change at a much faster pace than most people realize. Experience has proven that if you take a narrow view of yourself, you could be making a mistake. For example, if you see yourself as a specialist (e.g., a banker), you may believe you are locked into a given career. On the other hand, you may feel you have few options because you are too much of a generalist.

The better you plan your search, the better your results. Do your homework and find out what is best for you. What do you really want?

For more Free Job Hunting Info be sure to follow us on Twitter, check us out on Facebook, read our blog, or visit our website!

Marketing Your Skills

Knowing all that you have to offer is important. You may not being finding the work you want because you are not marketing yourself. This may be because you don’t realize all you have to offer. You may have skills that would crossover into other industries that you have not considered.

You’ll need to do more than just present your background. Don’t trap yourself by thinking, “This is simply who I am, where I’ve been and what I’ve done.” People fail because they never surface and communicate all that is marketable about themselves… and they never build their appeal beyond factual credentials.

Using our career history and marketability profile, our starting point will be to organize your lifetime of experiences and achievements. Whether you are a young attorney or a company president, there is probably much more to your story than meets the eye. We’ve learned that people need to identify 10 to 12 skills that can make a major difference in their career opportunities.

About 20% of the clients who come to us have settled for less, simply because they are not able to communicate their real skills. One client was earning a $65,000 base after almost 20 years. Three years later, she is earning $180,000. Another executive came to us at $125,000. Three years later, he is a CEO at many times that amount.

The key in both situations was to market their true assets. Psychologists, spiritual leaders and coaches have often said that the most restrictive limits you face are those you put on yourself. So, don’t put any limits on your thinking, and look at some factors that you may have overlooked… which will expand your marketability.

Identifying transferable skills is critical (e.g., organizing, group presentation skills, problem solving and so on).

Employers place a premium on men and women who can move from challenge to challenge, handling assignments that draw upon skills. Your experience can also be reviewed according to various “functions” that apply to most businesses, such as sales, production, accounting and human resources.

All areas in which you have knowledge should be identified. At the same time, you need to think of your experience in terms of “action words” that describe what you did, and then translate those activities into achievements, e.g., controlled, wrote, reshaped, etc.

Do you have knowledge of a job, a product, a process or a market… from work, hobbies, alumni relationships, research or suppliers? If so, it may be marketable. Personality, of course, is just a word for that combination of traits that either attracts us to someone or leaves us unimpressed. More employment decisions are based on personality and chemistry than any other factor.

For example: “He’s certainly professional and quick-thinking. I like him, and better yet, I trust him. He’ll fit in with our team. I need to get him into the firm.” The perception of your personality has to do with your interest and enthusiasm. How many people get hired because they showed real interest? A lot.

For more Free Job Hunting Info be sure to follow us on Twitter, check us out on Facebook, read our blog, or visit our website!