Feb 28 2009
Sushiattack guide to getting a job part 1
This will be a four series about my job hunting tips and suggestions.
Part One. - The plan
As the other Japadamus authors know quite well I’ve had a difficult career. Although I’ve made good amounts of money and have worked for some of the best known(in my world) firms. I’ve also been laid off three times in the past and had the unfortunate experience of having no family “connections” in which to leverage off. My job hunting efforts were strictly my own. In doing a lot of applying through trial and error I have learned the art of job hunting intimately. I now am pretty comfortable in applying and do quite well. I am happy to report I accepted an excellent job last Friday after being unemployed a little under 3 months. Hopefully these tips help you along the way.
Have a plan-
A. Know what type of job you are looking for. I find it helpful to know in plain English how to describe your dream job. This will serve several purposes first, it will allow you to focus your search on job sites. You’ll be able to quickly search for key words that relate to your dream job. Second, it will help you describe what you are looking for to recruiters, friends, family and prospective employers. I have found that this is very important employers want to see that you understand the profession enough to identify what you want to do and it shows that you aren’t someone merely applying to anything in hopes of landing something. In my mind every employer wants to believe that they are offering the opportunity for someone to have the perfect job. No matter how terrible the job really is they want someone to say they are excited about the prospect of joining XYZ company and want THAT specific job. Nothing else. In my experience employers look unfavorably on candidates that admit they are using something as a “stepping stone” or “foot in the door opportunity.”
B. Do extensive research. Who are the main players in your industry? Those are probably the easiest to identify. Look at their corporate job sites, read the descriptions and get an idea of what are the day to day functions of people in that position. After doing this for the top 3 companies you should have a good sense of what the job is all about. Write all your research down. Keep organizied, use a spreadsheet or word document to create a list of what you are learning about each firm. This will come in handy when you get to the second part of the search, right now just use this database to start collection information on potential targets. Start looking for derivatives, by that i mean who are the second and third tier players in that industry? In most cases the founders of the second and third tier firms usually have worked in the first tier places and have later decided to branch off into a specialty. This is good for you since those will be the firms that allow you to get a lot of responsibility and experience quickly without a ton of big firm bullshit. After all, the founders left big firm life for a reason. I would now begin to start Googling, the names of the firms that you have identified. Look for articles and about them and read, read, read. This part is also very important. You need to know what is going on in your industry corporate wise. Are firms laying a lot of people off? Did XZY firm just hire a group from another firm? All this is important because it identifies opportunities. Expansion and contraction are normal parts of business and it doing so, it shakes employees loose from the slots that you are trying to get in. Make notes in your database of firms hiring or firing in areas you are interested in joining. In addition, look at professional networking sites like Linked in to get a sense of how people in your dream job have found their way into the business.
Part 2 tomorrow! - The Application
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