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Job Search Tips

These tips were compiled by employment counselors at the CRC.
1. What do you want to be doing?
Think about what is important to you in your life as you consider the type of job you'd like to have. The better you understand yourself, the better you'll be able to make the right choices for your future.
2. Are you flexible?
Don't be too set on what you want to do. Be willing to explore different career alternatives.
3. Would you hire yourself?
Take a good hard look at yourself. Consider your skills, experience and training, as well as your appearance and personality. Figuring out your strengths and weaknesses will help you better sell yourself to prospective employers.
4. What are you good at?
Identify your job-related skills, your adaptive skills/personality traits, and your transferable skills.
5. What made you successful before?
Write a history of your accomplishments and examine the skills that helped you achieve success in other situations.
6. Job Search
Treat your job hunt like a job; spend as much time as possible looking and following up on any leads you develop.
Contact employers directly. Remember: Most jobs are NOT advertised and most people work for small employers.
Be clear about what you want.
Apply to Internet/newspaper ads only on weekends so you have more time during the week to contact employers directly.
Use old want ads to get job leads. Just because an ad is old doesn't mean the position has been filled.
7. The Hiring Authority
If you don't know the name of the person you need to speak to,
ask for it.
If you are referred by someone the employer knows, tell the receptionist that so-and-so suggested that you give the employer a call regarding a personal matter.
8. Don't be afraid to ask for an interview.
If you know there's an opening, ask if you can come in and talk about the particular available job.
If there are no open positions, then ask to come in to discuss future openings.
If you're told that the company currently has no plans for hiring, then ask to come in for an informational meeting.
9. Sending your resume
If an interview is scheduled, then send the hiring manager your resume. Make sure you have the correct spelling of his/her name. If you're not sure, call the receptionist and get the information, along with the correct address.
10. Keep trying if you can't get through the first time.
If the hiring manager is busy and you cannot set up an interview, then ask for names of other people you might contact, or ask when you can call back (and make sure to get a specific time to do so). Ask if anyone would mind if you kept in touch and called every week or so.
11. Follow up and send thank-you notes.
It is important to follow up with the people you contact and to send a thank-you note immediately after a phone call. Enclosing a resume with your note is a good idea. When you arrange an interview, send a note saying you look forward to your meeting. And when someone gives you a referral, don't forget to let him/her know how things turned out.
Other Tips:
Fifty to 75 percent of good jobs come by word of mouth from friends—or friends of friends. The higher the level of the job, the more that rule applies. At the senior executive and professional level, for example, as many as 90 percent of jobs come through personal contacts. So it's extremely important to involve your friends in your job search ("I'm out of work. Let me know if you hear of anything.").
Job campaigns often stall because job hunters leave their personal networks too quickly to go off into the world of "strangers." Strangers will seldom be as responsive to you as people who you've met before, even if only briefly. Surprisingly, your attendance together at a trade show can qualify you as a "friend" in someone's eyes.
Make sure you get your job hunt strongly established with personal friends and business acquaintances before you spend a lot of time answering ads, working with recruiters or cold calling. Cold calling isn't very appealing -- that's why they call it cold calling!
Keep the ball rolling. Sooner or later, every job search becomes mostly follow-up. It gets to a point where it's poor marketing to continue to initiate new contacts, because you spread yourself too thin. It's better to hammer two or three opportunities to conclusion than to start off in a dozen new directions. Aggressive follow-up often ends a job hunt quickly, and there are literally hundreds of creative ways to follow up without pestering. For example, clip pertinent magazine or journal articles and send them to your friends and prospects as a subtle reminder that you're still around. You need not mention your job situation. Attach a note that says something like, "Just thinking of you" or "Thought you might find this interesting."
It's important to pick the right article for the audience. Don't send a technical scientific publication full of equations to a general manager, and don't send "The Art of Leadership" to a PhD research scientist (unless the scientist is also a manager).
Following up means not letting things slip through the cracks. A letter that arrives the day after a special event says, "I really care. This is important to me." I'm amazed that job hunters wait days, sometimes weeks, to send important follow-up letters. A letter that arrives late says either, "I don't care very much," or "I'm slow." If that's the case, it might be better not to write at all.



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