Nuggets of Knowledge
Job Seeker’s Plan/Road Map
To be successful, job seekers need a plan/road map to make their job search smarter and more effective.
Road maps will help seekers find the job they will treasure:
- A place where they enjoy going to work each day, either physically or digitally.
- A position where they have an impact—where they make a difference to the company and the people around them.
For more about defining your road map, please read Section 1, Knowing What You Really Want.
Define Your Personal, Professional, and Financial (PPF) Job Requirements
By detailing your “must have” job characteristics in the Personal, Professional, and Financial dimensions, seekers will be able to reduce the “between employment” time and ensure that they capture a job that allows them to grow and feel personally, professionally, and financially satisfied.
Chapter 2 provides examples, strategies, and a Personal Assessment Review Tool that seekers use to create their list and assess job opportunities against their PPF requirements.
How to Research to Win
An early step in job seekers’ SMARTer Job Hunt is learning what’s out there that interests them. The seeker’s keyword search has the potential to point them toward new industries or at least new companies in the industry they have identified. This research will result in the jobs the seeker will apply for.
Chapter 4 details research strategies and workflow diagrams on how to use formal and informal search methodologies to uncover job opportunities.
Creating Campaign Collateral
An effective campaign plan includes several components, such as business cards, elevator pitches, writing traditional and SMARTer resumes and cover letters, and a portfolio.
After your self-appraisal, creating an online presence, networking, and researching the industries you’re targeting, it’s time to prepare campaign collateral for the actual job hunt with cover letters, resumes, and your Elevator Pitch. You’ll be creating not just one set but potentially several tailored for each job you’ll be hunting.
Chapter 7 details how to create, personalize, and deliver these tools.
Tell Your Story: Be Outstanding
Most job seekers present themselves as a set of facts, assuming their future boss makes decisions based purely on logic. But that’s a myth; it’s not how humans function. Simply repeating the same formulaic phrases will not make you stand out. A hundred other people have described themselves as “a team player,” “showed leadership,” “works well with others,” or “got outstanding reviews and results.”
Interviewers like to hear stories about the interviewees. So make sure your story has a great beginning, a compelling middle, and an ending that shows you as a winner and makes the interviewer want you to win the job.
Chapter 8 helps job seekers find their voice and highlights different storytelling approaches.
Using LinkedIn to Network
According to Monster.com, 80% of employers use social media as a recruitment tool. LinkedIn is a great source of contacts, especially in other fields. Employers at even small (under 100 employees) companies that interest you will likely have a Company Profile page. You can understand what the company values by looking at its LinkedIn presence.
Chapter 5 provides job seekers guidance on using LinkedIn to network, communicate with members, find groups to join, and uncover job opportunities. If you are new to LinkedIn, this chapter also provides instructions on setting up your profile.
SMARTer Job Seeking Over 50
Being over 50 and looking for work may offer additional challenges that can be overcome with proper planning. If it’s been a while since you last went job hunting, a personal coach could be a critical asset to help you in addition to your support group. Your coach should not be a relative but someone who can advise you objectively and keep you on a schedule.
Chapter 11 helps job seekers over 50 navigate the perception and define the advantages of their experience.
Military Retirees and Spouses
If you are exiting from a military or similar government position, you have some positives and negatives. On the one hand, it could be assumed that you work hard, can take direction, and function well as part of a team. On the other hand, your military MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) skills may be hard for most individuals to translate into a civilian position. For example, you might have to explain to the hiring recruiter or executive how your skills as a tank commander translate directly into skills as a team leader for detailed planning and rapid reaction to unplanned circumstances or problems.
Veterans’ spouses have an additional job-seeking handicap: they suffer from constant relocations, moving every two to three years. This makes it difficult to gain and hold a normal on-site job and results in an unemployment rate of over 20 percent of spouses who have been in the labor force.
Chapter 13 helps Military Retirees “translate” their military job experience into what civilian employers want and need. This chapter also provides job ideas for Veterans’ spouses who need flexibility in work hours due to time zones or changing addresses, or the need to personally spend time on childcare or eldercare.