When I found myself in a precarious employment situation, I started browsing job boards. I ramped up my networking, research, internet searches and began applying for jobs. Though I did receive some response from my efforts, I wasn’t getting the results I wanted.
A good friend, career/networking coach and recruiter, Cindy Schneider offered to meet with me to brainstorm ideas for a creating strategic job search plan.
During our meeting, Cindy shared with me a template for creating a job search strategy. Through this exercise I discovered that though I was doing a lot of the right things, my job search lacked focus.
In the two weeks since designing my personalized strategic job search plan I have been called for three new interviews, a second interview at one company, and a third meeting at another company where I previously interviewed. All this and I was on vacation for one of the last two weeks!
Focusing my job search has helped me generate better job leads and more effectively communicate my skills, experience and value to potential employers.
Strategic Job Search Plan Exercise
Goal: Develop a Strategic Job Search Plan that will result in a __________(direct hire/contract/full-time/part time) position as a __________(title) at/in __________ location(s), type of company, etc.) earning __________(income range) with __________(benefits/perks).
Job Titles:
Skills/Experience Keywords:
Part 1: Include as many specific solutions as possible for each category below:
Search Job Databases:
Resume Posting (Job Boards, other):
College/Alumni Associations:
Professional Organizations:
Targeted Companies:
Internet Search:
Events (Job Fairs, State Workforce Center Training, other):
Networking (LinkedIn, Networking Groups, other):
Agencies (Staffing Agencies, other):
Campaigns:
Other:
Part 2: Rank the previous categories by their respective Tiers.
Tier 1 – Definitely include in strategy:
Tier 2 – Nice to include in strategy:
Tier 3 – Used only when personal needs justify (i.e. past X days, financial impact, etc.)