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| Conducting an Effective Job Search | ||||
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Putting Your Resume & Cover Letter
to Work for You Your documents can't get you interviews until you get them in front of the right employers. To do so, you will employ one, several, or all of the following job search techniques:
Recruiters (headhunters, employment agencies, search firms) Success rates for obtaining work through recruiters can vary tremendously depending on the position and industry you are pursuing. Individuals in fields enjoying high employer demand will have much more success utilizing recruiters than those in occupations where employees are more plentiful. Additionally, you are likely to experience greater success with recruiters if you are currently employed and/or at the managerial or executive level. One clear exception to this, however, relates to temporary agencies, which routinely work with junior level administrative people. Most recruiters specialize in certain fields or industries. They may focus exclusively on technology, finance, public relations, not-for-profit, or administrative support, to name a few. Therefore, you must select agencies that work with candidates in your field. To find the best agencies for you, peruse classified ads, both in print and on the Internet, and relevant periodicals such as trade magazines. Look for agencies that regularly advertise the kinds of positions you seek. Several large employment agencies are located in the Melville, Long Island business corridor. For your convenience, they are listed here.
Adecco Staffing Lloyd Staffing The Internet Essentially, there are three ways to use the Internet in your job search: 1. To research information about companies and organizations Targeted Job Search (The most effective method) Did you know that many great jobs are never advertised? They are never on a recruiter's desk, never posted on the Internet, never in the classified section of your local paper. That is because those great jobs get filled before any of that needs to happen. They are snatched up quickly by people who made the right connections ahead of everyone else. Therefore, my advice to you is that you need to be one of those people who make the right connections ahead of the pack. The strategies I am advocating are frequently referred to as networking and targeted mailings. Career experts agree that these are the most successful job search strategies with 60-70% of the job-seeking population finding employment using these methods. The premise of networking is that you know someone who knows someone who can introduce you to many of the employers you would like to meet. As such, networking involves telling many people you are in the job market and looking for leads. Begin your networking strategy by writing down the names of all your acquaintances. Include all relatives, friends, neighbors, your hairstylist, people at your gym, professors, physicians, dentists, fellow commuters, and colleagues (only those that you can really trust). Make this list as large as possible. Keep it with you for several days so you can write down the names of people as you meet or remember them. We will call these people your primary contacts. After you have created your list, call or visit each of your primary contacts. Tell them about your job search and ask for leads. Example of what you can say to your primary contacts: "John, I was wondering if you could help me out. I'm looking for a job in corporate training and I' m targeting companies in the financial services industry. Do you happen to know anyone who does corporate training? What about anyone who works in the financial services industry?" As your primary contacts provide names of others, contact these new folks who become additional (secondary) contacts. At a certain point, depending on the situation and on your personal style, you will switch from calling people to sending your cover letter and resume, which makes it a more formal job search inquiry. Imperative to this whole process is keeping good records of who you have contacted and when. Doing so will enable you to evaluate if you are reaching out to enough people (volume is important) as well as tracking your activity for follow-up with employers. The approach called targeted mailings, is closely related to networking
but gives you the opportunity to contact companies you are interested
in working for, even if there are no advertised job openings and even
if you can't identify a single insider. It starts with developing a "hit
list" of employers to target. You then send your resume
and very compelling cover letter directly to them and follow-up with a
telephone call.
The list you develop should include addresses and (ideally) the names of the best people to send your resume to within those organizations. It will also be helpful to collect some information about these businesses-information that you can use to customize a cover letter or help prepare you for an interview. The targeted mailing strategy has the great benefit of allowing your resume to arrive solo, not in a pile with dozens or hundreds of others, which is what always happens in response to an advertised job opening. Though your resume and cover letter will sometimes arrive when there is no opening, sometimes there will indeed be one. When that happens, you become the front-runner. Additionally, even if there are no current openings, your quality resume and cover letter will surely be saved for future reference. Sounds great? Well, there is one catch. The catch is that targeted mailings can be a lot of work and you will need to invest some serious time and energy. A Pep Talk on Job SearchKnow that job searching is inherently frustrating and time consuming and some of what happens, or doesn't happen, is beyond your power to control (such as competing with another applicant who has a better background for the job in question). However, work hard at what you can impact, such as your overall knowledge and proficiency levels, your proper targeting of employers that may need you, your persistence in following-up, and your interviewing skills. Stay positive and focused and believe in yourself. Press on in the face of turndowns, which are experienced by virtually all job seekers. If you find yourself needing additional assistance, please call. I can probably help by answering a quick question, or suggesting a career counseling session where I can fully customize a job search strategy for you. |
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