Setting Up a Base of Operations
Your job-search campaign needs a campaign headquarters- a center of operations. It can be the office you worked in when you still had a job (assuming, that is, you've made arrangements to work there until you relocate). It can be a desk in the office of a friend or business associate. It can be a room or section of a room in your house or apartment.
You won't need much in the way of furnishings. A desk (or similar work area), a chair, a phone-those are the basics. A storage unit-a filing cabinet, perhaps-will be useful. So will a typewriter, if you know how to type.
Without investing too much money, make your work area as pleasant as possible. You want good lighting, for instance. If you're setting up shop in a basement area, spend a few hours and make the area around you as clean and as bright as possible. Keeping your morale up is going to be tough enough under normal circumstances. A dismal environment could make it tougher.
If you're working out of your home or apartment and the area you've set aside doesn't have a phone, have an extension installed, or get an extra long wire attached to your existing phone. The point is to have a phone within easy reach of your desk. An extension phone won't add all that much to your monthly bill and you can always get it taken away once you're working. In some situations-if, for instance, a spouse or room-mate or children in the family use the phone frequently-consider having a separate phone installed specifically for job hunting. You'll incur some expense, but weigh the expense against the value of having a phone available to you whenever you want it, and against the tension that could arise when you want to make calls (or are expecting calls) and somebody in the house is on the phone. Generally, expenses related to changing jobs are tax deductible, but check this with either your tax advisor or the IRS.
If there isn't somebody-a secretary or spouse-who is competent and polite and has a pleasant voice to answer the phone for you when you're not at your headquarters, consider using either an answering service or a telephone answering machine. Relying on children (even teenagers) or domestic help to take your calls and collect your messages is risky. Heaven only knows how many jobs have been lost because a message was either not delivered or delivered incorrectly.
It's hard to say whether you're better off with an answering service or a phone machine. With an answering service, you have the advantage of an actual person taking care of the call, and you don't have to be actually at home to get your messages- assuming, that is, the phone machine you get doesn't have a remote device that lets you call in for messages. Another advantage of an answering service is that you pay as you go, on a monthly basis; there is no initial investment.
On the other hand, answering services with too many clients can be a little tardy sometimes in picking up the phone and have an annoying habit of putting the caller on hold. Then, too, if you want twenty-four-hour service, you'll have to pay extra. Neither of these things is a problem with an answering machine.
If you're buying a phone answering machine, there's no need to get every feature available, but don't stint too much on the price, either: you want a machine that's reliable. Check the consumer magazines in your library for some comparative studies. Do some research among friends? Don't worry that having a machine might not make a good impression on a would-be employer. So many machines are in use today-I have one myself at home-that they've become an accepted part of business communication. When setting up the machine, have it answer on the first or second ring. Don't allow too long a gap between the end of your recorded message and the beep that signals the caller to leave his or her message.
The message itself should be brief and businesslike, but shouldn't sound too stiff. Here are a couple of suggestions:
"This is Sorry I missed your call, but if you leave your name, number, and message after the beep, I'll get back to you just as soon as I can . . ."
"Hello, this is I'm not here right now, but leave your name, number, and message, and I'll get back to you soon. Please wait for the beep before you start your message."
Some Added Basics
The big things you have to do throughout your job search will be easier for you if you do the little things in an organized manner. Here are some added items and suggestions that could help your campaign run more efficiently.
Personal stationery: All of your correspondence should go out on personalized stationery, the sole exception being your resume. For most purposes, the standard 8V2 X 11 inch will serve you well; but if you're in a high executive bracket, I recommend the monarch size (slightly smaller than standard) with your name engraved at the top (not raised lettering) in a simple, businesslike style. Just the name-no address or phone number. You include the address and phone number under your signature in each letter you write: it's a nice touch. Get a reasonably heavy bond, stick to basic colors (white, off-white, or ivory), and remember to order some plain sheets for the second page of your letters. The envelope should include your address (I like to see it on the flap), but if you live in a private house there is no need to put your name. A local quick copy center should be able to handle basic stationery needs, but for engraved stationery you may have to go to stationery or a department store. You may bridle at the price, but it's a worthwhile investment. Think of your stationery as being part of your appearance. It's often the first part of you that gets evaluated.
Secretarial service: Unless you're an excellent typist-and most of us aren't-make arrangements with a typist or a typing service. If you do type well, use a typewriter that has a clean, businesslike typeface: avoid the script or Roman-style typefaces. Your letters must not only be letter perfect, they have to look good as well. There are several ways you can handle secretarial service. You can use a commercial service, if one is convenient, but it's less expensive if you find somebody nearby who types part time. Check with friends whose secretaries might be interested in making some extra money.
Set up a system whereby you're feeding several letters to be typed at one time, as opposed to doing it on a hit-or-miss basis. (Simply having a person expecting letters could in itself be an inducement to write more.) Look into the possibility of having a secretary come into your headquarters for a few hours a week to take dictation. Or, experiment with dictating your letters into a tape recorder or over the phone. It all depends on the volume of your correspondence and the way you like to work. Hiring part-time secretarial help will cost you money at a time when you might not be able to afford it, but your time is worth money, too. If it takes you two hours to accomplish what a secretary could accomplish in fifteen minutes, you're wasting two hours.
A briefcase: A little thing, perhaps, but I know of many personnel executives who will judge you, in part, by the kind of briefcase you're carrying. If you don't own one already, buy a nice-looking briefcase or attaché case-something that doesn't look as if it came from a discount drugstore. Make it large enough to carry whatever you might normally want to take into a job interview, but not so large that it looks as if you're going away for a weekend trip. A good leather briefcase can be expensive, but it wears well. I advise against the ostentatious designer logo briefcases. I know more than a few executives who would drop you from consideration on the spot if you carried into an interview a briefcase on which you had spent an additional 50 percent simply for the sake of the name. By the same token, don't use the tattered and battered case you unearthed in your attic.
Directories: Having appropriate phone and address directories handy can save you an enormous amount of time and effort. If you live in a suburb but are concentrating your search in the city, get both a white pages and a yellow pages directory of that city, and make sure that both are current. Your local phone company will provide these directories to you free of charge, but it may take a while before the company gets them to you. To save time, pick them up yourself. Directories relating to your particular occupation or field should have a permanent place in your work area. If you haven't already discovered it, you can waste a ridiculous amount of time scrambling around looking for numbers or addresses.
A Filing System: You may not think so now, but once you get into the swing of your job search, you're going to begin to accumulate a ton of paperwork, and the better you're able to organize this material, the easier you will make it on yourself. For starters, get a 5 x 8 file box and cards to serve as a permanent file of job situations, leads, and influential business people. Each job situation you look into, whether it's a company or a specific job, should have its own card containing names, numbers, and other relevant information. You can use the cards to write yourself little reminders. Maybe the executive you spoke to this morning had a terrible cold: mark it down on the card. Two weeks from now when you call back, ask how he or she is feeling. A little thing, yes? But these are precisely the kinds of things that often make the biggest impressions.
A Logbook: I call it a "logbook," but it's nothing more than a loose-leaf notebook to be used as a daily operations log. Get into the habit of recording everything-everything-relating to your job search into this notebook: calls you've made, calls you want to make, names, numbers, reminders, ideas. Do it on a daily basis. At the end of each day, go through each listing, crossing out anything that is no longer important, keeping track of what has relevance for the future. To play it safe, keep on hand for at least a month or two daily log sheets you've gone over just in case there's a number or name you've recorded incorrectly.
A few other items that could make your job search run more smoothly:
Appointment calendar: Buy one that allows for hour-to-hour notations. It's a good idea to get one you can carry around in a briefcase or purse.
File folders: For sorting paperwork-letters, carbons, clip-pings, etc.-into easily located categories.
Bulletin board: Not essential but useful if you have room for it in your work area. A space 2 feet square should suffice. Use it to post notes and make reminders to yourself.
Stamps: Keep a supply of them on hand at all times. You have better things to do with your time than stand in line at the post office.
Other office supplies: A stapler and staples, paper clips, scissors or ruler (for cutting out clippings and ads), scotch tape, and wastebasket.
Some of the suggestions above may strike you as simplistic and not really important in getting a good job. But I urge you to follow up on them. The pressures of job hunting, as I've said, are tough enough when all the little mechanical details run smoothly. The minute you begin losing numbers, misplacing letters, or running out of basics like stationery, stamps, and so on, you burden yourself with concerns that can only reduce your effectiveness. The small amount of time and effort (and, relatively speaking, expense) it takes to put together an efficient job search headquarters is minor compared to the time and money you'll waste along the way if you don't get organized properly. Most job seekers don't pay nearly enough attention to keeping track of, and following up on, job leads and situations. Setting up a system that pretty much forces you to do so give you a big competitive edge
Setting Your Sights
Once you've set up basic organizational machinery, the next step in your job campaign (if you haven't already taken it) is to formulate job targets. Get a fix on what you're looking for.
You can't get away with saying to yourself, as too many job seekers do, "I'll know whether I want the job when I hear what it's like." It's too passive an approach. You may think that by expressing a willingness to do "anything that's interesting," you're broadening your chances, demonstrating a flexibility that is going to impress your would-be employers. But it doesn't work this way.
This is what a friend who heads the personnel department of a major industrial corporation has to say about candidates, especially recent college graduates, who come into job interviews without a clear idea of what they're looking for:
"They act as if I'm a career counselor, which is not what I get paid to do. I don't mind answering some questions, but as soon as I get the idea that the person I'm interviewing isn't sure of what he or she is after, I immediately lose interest. I figure if people haven't taken the time before they come to see me to think about what they want to do, why should I take the time to solve their problems?"
A job that's "interesting." A job that's "challenging." A job that offers "opportunity," that will allow for "personal growth," or "personal expression." These are all admirable objectives. But unless you can tie these personal considerations into some fairly concrete goals, you run the risk of alienating a lot of would-be employers, regardless of your personal qualifications.
This isn't to say, of course, that you need to articulate the exact job you're looking for before you can start your job search in earnest. Indeed, as we'll see later, having too specific a job target can be almost as damaging to your chances as having no target at all. Nor is it necessary to have only one target in mind. Depending on who you are and what your background is, you could well devise a campaign made up of several different occupations and different fields-each of them, of course, requiring a slightly different approach.
How you go about formulating these targets is up to you. The most practical and realistic job target is one that relates closely to what you were or did in your previous job or what you're doing now. This is particularly true in the high salary brackets. It is almost axiomatic that the closer your job target is to your most recent job or to your past experience, in general the easier it is going to be for you to find a job you want, and the more money you can expect. (There are, of course, exceptions, the biggest being the possibility that you're in a field in which the job market is extremely limited.)
Beyond this basic criterion-that your job target be tied to your past job experience-the appropriateness of a job target has to do with your personal goals and attitudes: how much money you want, what kind of environment you're looking for, what specific features interest you in a job. Conceivably, these considerations may not be consistent with what you've done in the past, but this doesn't mean you have to disregard these considerations. Remember, you don't have to do anything you don't want to do in a job search. Just keep in mind that as important as these personal objectives are to you, they do not necessarily enhance your attractiveness as a job candidate. The person who hires you is obviously concerned about your involvement and commitment, but is more concerned whether you are the right person for the job.
Constructing Job Targets
A marketing position in the food industry that offers a salary of at least $25,000 a year-preferably with a small but up-and-coming company
An editing position on a consumer magazine that pays at least $20,000 and carries, with it the chance to become a managing editor within a few years
An account executive position with an advertising agency that works a great deal in television, with a starting salary of at least $30,000 a year; preferably a job that doesn't involve much travel
A controllership position at around $45,000 in a manufacturing company
These are four job targets that meet the criteria I like to set for job targets in general. They are specific but not overly so. Each represents a mixture of requirements and preferences.
Each job target you formulate should represent a similar mixture: a mixture of what you need and what you would like to have. The degree to which this target is shaded in one direction or the other will, of course, depend on you and on the marketplace. The general guideline is this: the stronger your background and qualifications, and the more favorable the job marketplace, the more you can allow the luxury of incorporating preferences-as opposed to needs-into your targets.
But there's a personal dimension here that doesn't lend itself to generalizations: your current employment status. Depending upon how long you've been out of work or how anxious you are to leave a job you now have, the relative importance of preferences and needs to the targets you set could vary. Job targets, in other words, are not fixed entities. A month ago your salary "requirement" may have been $30,000. If you've been running into a stone wall, you have to switch that "requirement" to a "preference" and set a slightly lower "requirement." Reexamining from time to time the job targets you set is a basic ingredient in a well-organized job search campaign. You should be doing it at least once a month.
