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The Plan: A Career Search Strategy for the 21st Century

Monday, 17 January 2005 16:00

Part 1: Starting Your Search

This is an ongoing article series focusing on Job/Career search techniques for today’s economy and the evolving job market. In this series, we’ll talk about everything from creating your plan of action, to how to negotiate an offer.

For some job seekers a career search is easy and for others it is the hardest thing they’ll ever have to do in their lives. However you have found it, a career search today is much different than it was in prior years. There are fewer published jobs, more candidates than ever before and overseas outsourcing is making it more difficult to find careers within the major corporations.

While you sit there reading this article, preparing your career search, 5,000 more candidates just like you posted to Monsters-R-Us.com. How are you going to get there ahead of them? How are you going to beat them at the job search/interview game? How are you going to find that “Ideal Job” before they do? How in the world are you going to find something before your funds run out and you end up as a “greeter?"

The answer is simple, you’re going to put together a plan of action. Then, you’re going to implement your plan, monitor the results of your plan, modify your plan as needed and re-implement with changes. It is most important to monitor results and tweak your plan/implementation career search program until you succeed in finding your “Ideal Career.” You’re going to do for yourself the exact same things you would do before you would ever implement anything for your company you or your department created. You’re going to create success on paper before you spend resources in reality.

To begin, you need to create a new file. Call it "My Career Search Plan of Action" and start your due diligence, research and documentation. Next, begin phase one of your plan.

Self Analysis

Ask yourself the following questions:

What are your strengths?
What are your weaknesses?
What are your greatest assets?
What are your greatest resources?
What are your greatest employer benefits?

Write down the details to these questions. Be as specific as possible and look deep within yourself for the truth about “who you are.” Honesty is everything here. You are doing this for yourself and only you will be hurt by missing the mark.

Information Tidbit:

Resources are; people who might be of help to you, mentors and coaches who can guide you through difficult times, other career searching people whom you can team up with, other persons who can assist you in your career search. Teamwork usually beats individual effort.

Look hard into your past to determine what you liked and didn’t like about your career/s. You’ll not want to make the same old mistakes over and over again if you can avoid them now. If you’ve moved around the country during career changes, where did you like living the most? Possibly, you might want to consider relocation, or travel?

Next look at how and employer will benifit from hiring you. You will want to write down on a piece of paper, so that it’s personal, 20 reasons why someone should hire you. These are your “Accomplishments.” They have nothing to do with job descriptions or job functions but rather with what you truly accomplished and why your boss was glad she spent the money to employ you at that time.

I strongly recommend you spend several days working on this initial step of your plan. Until you understand the past you cannot realistically see the future. So be certain you have a solid picture of who you were, who you’ve become, and why you’re pleased, or not, with the journey.

Career Evaluation

Step two is to evaluate your own career. What do you think of your past career/s?

Was the ride what you thought it would be?
Was it worth what you sacrificed?
Do you want another identical ride?
Is there another identical ride to be had? If so, where?
Is it time to consider a different ride? If so, where?

Insanity is, doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.

Do you really want the same job you’ve had before? Can you get it if you do? Is it really worth it? Are you sure?

Most people find that during a career transition, making a total career change is a consideration. Some acquire continued education to obtain new skill sets or enhance old ones. Some people buy or start businesses. Others move across continents and start all over again.

Ask yourself a few more solid questions.

What other careers did you consider before you chose your current career? Are they still viable opportunities for you? Are you interested?
Are you interested in consulting? Maybe it’s time for you to consider independent contracting or working for a local or national consulting firm.
Have you ever thought about starting your own company providing a service, or selling a product. Maybe you could open a restaurant, a shoe store, pet care business, flower shop, franchise, photo lab or coffee house.
Is it time to move to a different city?

Next, it’s time to visit your local library for Industry Research. The information you need is on the web and at the library. You can get 100% of what you need on the internet but it’s typically free at the library. Check out Hoovers.com, Reference USA and WSJ.com. These three services will give you just about all the company and contact information you’ll ever need for any kind of career search.

Information Tidbit:

75% of all newly created positions are never posted in the want ads or on dotcom boards. 80% of all newly created positions are from within small business.

In your research these are some questions for which you’ll need answers.

Where are the growth markets?
What are the growth industries?
Who are the “players” in your area? Best to work for? Fastest growing?
What companies interest you?
Where do you have contacts?
Who are the companies within your career target group?
Which companies outside your career target group would you consider for a totally different career?
Are there enough “career target” companies in your area for you to justify your staying where you are at this time?

Information Tidbit:

Career Search Resume Mailing Services send out upwards of 10,000 resumes per individual candidate. Never feel like you have sent out too many resumes.

Spend your research time well and make certain your information is correct and documented. You’ll need a list of 100 companies and 3-4 contacts per company. Reference USA will give you that information for free at most libraries. Build your lists and create well defined categories and logs to record your activities. Make notes as to why you chose specific companies. You’ll need to know later.

Next time, we’ll talk about how to write an exciting resume that will help get you in the door. Then how to make introductory calls, follow up calls, personal visits, building a marketing strategy, interviewing tips and traps, negotiating a good deal, and how to prepare for the next “Networking Search.”

Happy Hunting
Don M. Reid

Don M. Reid has been a Career Coach for over 20 years and teaches Career Search Workshops for executives, managers, project managers, programmers, accountants, pencil pushers and rocket scientists. Mr Reid is President of DMReid & Associates www.dmrnet.com, a national retained services executive search firm headquartered in Brentwood TN. www.dmrnet.com

You can reach Don by email at dmr@dmrnet.com

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