Focus And Speed

 

        The key to an effective job search is focus and speed. You need focus so all of the time and energy you expend gets you closer to your goal. With the proper focus you should throw yourself into your job search and tell yourself that you are going to move quickly and make things happen quickly.

        Focus  Employers like people with focus and they avoid people without focus. The branch manager of a savings and loan once asked a young applicant why he was interested in the position. His response, “Because it’s available.” An applicant interviewing with a large manufacturer was asked what types of positions he was interested in. His response, “What have you got?” Neither of these people were offered jobs.

        Having focus does not mean you have reduced your career choice down to one narrow field or job title. Employers just want to sense that you have direction, that you know where you want to go. The S&L manager was not expecting that the young man had wanted to join a savings and loan since age 12. The young man, having been invited to an interview, however, should have researched the industry.

        When you’re focused you make things happen. Take the time now if necessary to establish your focus.

        Speed  Once you achieve focus, speed is of the essence. The most successful job seekers know what they need to do and do it. They have a plan and they carry it out with dispatch. They also derive great satisfaction from checking off items in the job search that they have completed.

        There are several activities that once done, they are basically done for the remainder of the job search. As an example, after posting your resume to several appropriate commercial resume databanks, your task is com­pleted. If you get your resume into the hands of 50 key friends and relatives, that portion of your search is largely over.

        Here’s my list of things to get done quickly:

1.             Define your job/career objective.

2.             Research your desired industries and learn the jargon.

3.             Create your initial resume.

4.             Create your key word/plain-text resume.

5.             Post your resume to 5-25 resume databanks.

6.             Explore the web and identify the 5-10 web sites you intend to visit on a weekly basis.

7.             Identify 5-15 web sites that post job openings that you’ll visit weekly.

8.             Identify the newspaper want ads that are posted online that you will visit weekly.

9.             Develop answers to at least 60 of the 101 most difficult and most commonly asked interview questions.

10.         Develop an overall strategy for your job search.

11.         Develop a weekly plan and follow it, but build in flexibility.

12.         Determine what days of the week and what time of the day it works best for you to carry out certain tasks such as calling employers and asking for brief appointments.

13.         If it is appropriate for you to contact employment agencies, temporary agencies, or recruiters, identify who they are and complete the contact within two weeks.

14.         Conduct practice interviews and hone your skills and confidence.

15.         Develop a list of 50-250 prime employers.

16.         Identify the 50-100 people you know who know the most people.

17.         Give those people your resume, tell them what you’re looking for, and show them your list of your top 100 employers. Ask if they know anyone who works for any of these employers.

18.         When given names of people, call these contacts of your friends and relatives and learn more about their organizations, including whether they are growing and are good organizations to work for.

19.         Develop a script for calling people with the power to hire and asking for fifteen minutes of their time.

20.         Create a marketing letter to send to people with the power to hire.

21.         Make calls to determine who has the power to hire you in your desired organizations.

        If you’re unemployed and you devote 30-35 hours per week to job hunting, you can complete these 21 steps within three weeks. Once you’ve laid this foundation, good things begin to happen.

        Although I’m encouraging you to move with focus and speed, these things do take time. For example, even if you applied online today for a job that perfectly matched your background, it could still take two or three weeks before they call you and another week before the interview actually takes place. Build a solid foundation first, take care of all the steps, and you’ll find yourself in that next job sooner than you expected.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright, Tom Washington, 2000, Career Management Resources    425/454-6982

mailto:tomw@cmr-mvp.com         http://www.cmr-mvp.com/