THE SIX-STEP JOB SEARCH

April 12, 2010 on 1:37 am | In career coaching | 3 Comments

There are six steps to the effective job search:

Define what you want; 

Create your marketing campaign;

Research your targets;

Network your way into your targets;

Keep motivated and organized; and

Close the offer.

These steps are sequential but also concurrent, and this is not a contradiction.

If you don’t know what you want, you can’t create relevant materials (i.e., resume, cover letter, and other business communication).  If you don’t have your materials ready, you risk researching and networking your way into someone actually showing interest in you, only to have no materials to present.  If you don’t research your targets, you can’t effectively network into them.  If you don’t network (i.e., get out there among potential employers), you won’t need to stay motivated and organized.  If you don’t stay motivated and organized, you risk blowing the offer.

However, the job search is not a linear process.  Opportunities arise unexpectedly, or circumstances change.  You may get to the offer stage, only to realize that you don’t want this particular job (maybe the competitive office environment made you realize you’d prefer a friendlier place).  Therefore, closing the offer (step six) actually helps you define what you want (step one).  Similarly, in the course of research and networking, you might realize that your resume is not as targeted as it can be.  Steps three and four help you refine step two. 

You need to observe the sequence of an effective job search because you need to be as prepared as you can be.  However, you also may need to do the steps concurrently or even out of sequence because you want to be flexible and opportunistic and in tune to how your individual search progresses.  In any case, by minding the above steps, you will be well-positioned for any job search.

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  1. I am a Career Coach at Fresno County Library where I established a full service Career center in 2002. I have been very happy with my career that gas shifted my service focus at reference to the unemployed in Centaral Valley in California. With my outreach programs, my ideas of encouraging, stimulating, and leading the job seekers to be responsible to their career destiny have shown positive result. I engage myself in learning full time.
    When I read about the six steps of job searching, it reminded me that tomorrow night I am in the speech contest of Didtrict 33 of the Toasrmaster International in Modesto, Ca. My topic is “Jobs, Jobs, Where Are You?” I invite audience to join the 3-H Club (Head to write a compeling resume with matching qualifications to the targeted position/company/industry, Heart to communicate your passion to contribute to the potential employer, and Hands to develope your job search strategies with plan A, B, and C.) Make sure you are listening, learning and leading your self to the next step. Be proactive. Looking for your next job is like branding. Take computer technolology for an example, resume writing is like your computer fram, the size, shape, color, and keyboard are pretty much standard. Your past work histry is stored inside. Not much you can alter it. Your interview skill is the only software that you can bring everything alive.Here we are, hardware, software, what we need is to use our hand to turn the program on. Does that gaurentee every program work? Maybe yes, maybe no. The things to remember is that we have useed our 3-H membership, we have turn on the branding machine, in case one search doesn’t work, we will reboot. We have used our Head, Heart, and Hands, let our internal GPS guide us to another direction. Jobs, Jobs, Where Are You? Soon you will hear, “Job, Job, Here I Am!”

    Comment by Bernice Kao — May 7, 2010 #

  2. Thanks for sharing Bernice! Good luck on the speech contest!

    Comment by Caroline — May 7, 2010 #

  3. Caroline,
    I discovered that my last comment had some typos. Do you know how can I fix them?
    Though I didn’t win my last District speech contest, I received many positive feedbacks. I’ll try harder next time. “I’ll be back!”
    Bernice Kao
    Career Coach
    Fresno County Library
    http://www.fresnolibrary.org

    Comment by Bernice Kao — June 10, 2010 #

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