The 6 Components of a Job Search … and the Oscar goes to ….

My partner and I are career coaches, and we founded company after running recruiting efforts at 4 Fortune 500 companies, so we know exactly what employers want since we’ve hired thousands of individuals.  In fact, we’ve identified these 6 steps to the job search that work for anyone who works them.  So, in honor of the Oscars last week, here are the six categories we’ll consider today:

1)       Best target identification:  What is the industry, the function and the geography that you are looking for?  Without identifying these three components of your target, you’ll not launch a focused and effective search.

2)       Best creation of a Compelling Marketing Campaign:  With so many talented candidates out there, you need to have a compelling resume, cover letter, pitch and on-line profile.  Put yourself in the seats of the hiring manager.  They want to hire the strongest candidate who can proactively improve the status quo and move the needle on revenue.  Whether you are front, middle or back office, you must create a compelling reason why they should hire you and not the countless others.

3)       Best Research in a job search:  Research is the ugly stepchild of any job search but it must be done.  Primary research is anything you can find that is written about the company, and/or the hiring manager.  Do you create Google Alerts that could drive this information to your email.   Do you conduct secondary research which includes informational interviews that gives you the ability to showcase your research and build upon what you may not have found out as yet.  Informational interviews also impress people enough to want to refer you to others or to positions they know of?

4)       Best Networking and Interviewing:  The 2 behemoths of the job search!  Networking and Interviewing will be successful if you practice and learn strategies that work.  Networking must be genuine as we can all sniff it out if it is not!  Interviewing, you would think, is most similar to acting, but again – the more genuine the more effective you will be.  They go together because a networking interaction is a mini-interview and interviews can and should become networking interactions.

5)       Best Troubleshooting, and most able to stay Motivated and Organized:  why would anyone make the same mistake twice?!  Troubleshooting is essential to getting it right and we recommend keeping an interview journal to identify what went well and what did not.

6)       Best Negotiator and Closer of an Offer:  Negotiation isn’t only about compensation.  It’s about cash and non-cash components of an offer.  Staying focused on getting the offer is paramount at the later stages of the interview process, as you’ll need to walk that every narrowing space between communicating wisely versus pestering!

And now, the moment we’ve been waiting for … the most important step of the job search … and the Oscar goes to …..  

Step #1:  Identifying your Target.  Without this step, nothing else could be possible!  We recommend that our clients identify 10 targets that are a very close fit to their talents, passion and abilities.  With 10 targets, 3 or 4 may go cold, but that leaves you with 6 possibilities still.  When one goes cold, fill it in with another opportunity you’ve found.  Managing a constant 10 targets will get you to your goal of an offer, and hopefully multiple offers!

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career, information, job, jobsearch