Entrepreneurial Tactics of Seeking Employment

Who needs it? That's the main question in your marketing plan. To answer that question, you're in the second phase of your job search: learning about them, the employers, the industry, companies, and decision makers. That's a lot of information to acquire quickly, so you'll want to plan to make the best use of your time and energy. Planning doesn't insure success but prior proper planning prevents perpetually poor performance. Who needs what you’re offering?

Who Is Your Ideal Customer?

Now that you're thinking entrepreneurially, you know that there are many more needs for your services than just "openings." One way to discover who needs it is to start by describing your ideal customer (employer) in terms of the:

• Type of organization
  
  
• Size
  
  
• Location etc.?
  

Additional Questions You'll Want to Ask

• How many customers are there?
  
  
• Why would they buy your product/services?
  
  
• Why would they not buy your product/services?
  
  
• What other kinds of customers do you have?
  

To target your market, you'll be;

• researching organizations which are potential buyers of your services
  
  
• prioritizing them into A, B, and C companies
  
  
• contacting them to learn more about their needs
  

Keep Score

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! Monitoring your progress is essential. At the end of each day, take half an hour to review your Employer Contact Forms. Measure your results against your plan.

• How many calls did you make?
  
  
• How many appointments with hiring authorities?
  
  
• How many other relevant appointments did you set?
  
  
• Did you get any offers?
  
  
• What did you learn?
  
  
• What can you do better?
  
  
• How can you waste less time?
  

Review your activity. After 21 days, review your activity and measure your progress? Are you making enough calls? Are you seeing enough hiring authorities? Some people work well in a pattern of intensive activity and a break. If you've made dozens of calls and seen 10 decision makers, you deserve a nice, long weekend. Other people prefer the slower, steadier approach. It doesn't matter whether you're a turtle or a hare. Just be sure you have enough activity going so you'll reach your destination,

If you cannot meet your goal, don't sweat it. Reset it! Revise your 6-month goal. If you have accomplished only half of it, you're still way ahead of all those people who have set no goals at all?

One way to take a positive look at what you've accomplished is to use a cumulative graph rather than sheer numbers. If your objective is to make 10 calls each day and you make only 7 on one day, 9 on another and 3 on another, you'll see yourself falling short and you're apt to be disheartened. By putting the same figures on a cumulative graph, however, though it's still apparent that you haven't met your goal, you can see that you have accomplished a lot. You'll feel better about yourself and what you have achieved?

Manage Your Time When You're Employed

Job hunting while you're employed is both a blessing and a curse. The good news is that you're more employable when you're employed. From the employer's perspective, you're more desirable. And you're probably feeling more confident and better about yourself than if you were unemployed.

Take advantage of the many resources you have as an employee. That does not mean the photocopier and fax machine. But as an employee, you are usually in a much better position to change jobs because you're in contact with many people who could help you.

Some questions you might ask yourself:

1. Are there opportunities right here in my organization?
   
   
2. Are there people I interact with (clients, customers, suppliers) who can help me learn about opportunities outside my organization?
   
   
3. Are there professionals who can help me make a job or career change?
   
   
   

• There might be an excellent opportunity right down the hall-or on the next floor. Why not put on your Sherlock Holmes hat and find out more about your organization? Depending on the size and type of company, you could learn a lot by getting to know people in other departments. If you're in the retail department at your bank, get acquainted with some of the folks in the trust department. And advertising. Who are they? What do they do? Does it sound interesting? How is their work changing? What skills do they value? Are they skills you have? What would it take for you to acquire them?
  

There may be no "opening" right now, but what about the future? Because you're enterprising, you're looking beyond the immediate situation and exploring ways you might be helpful to them. As an employee, you have a great advantage because most companies prefer to hire from within.

• Internal networking is easy and accessible, yet most people tend to limit themselves to the group they work with. That's unfortunate, because your next job could be much closer than you think. That was Norman's experience. A researcher in organic chemistry, he was about to relocate to another state for a job he was not particularly happy about. Fortunately, before he accepted that position, he discovered a more interesting opportunity in a lab right down the hall.
  

The people you do business with are another terrific resource. Laura, a 42-year-old dental hygienist, decided that she didn't want to spend the rest of her life cleaning other people's teeth. Although she wasn't sure what she wanted, she was intrigued by the idea of being a pharmaceutical rep. "But I really don't know much about what they do," she confessed, "or if I could get that kind of job."

Laura's best resources-representatives from many major pharmaceutical houses - came into her office frequently to see her boss and her. Laura's second job now is to begin learning about the industry and what pharmaceutical reps do. By contacting the reps she knows on her day off, Laura can learn about their jobs and can get the inside story about their companies.

Laura also has a chance to judge the products and the way they're sold. She can ask her boss-as well as other dentists-which products and presentations they like. And why. After a trip to the library, she can pull all that information together before she contacts the companies.

• Recruiters and career management consultants are professionals who may be able to help you. As an employed person, you may want to develop a relationship with a recruiter who specializes in your field and works with people at your level of experience. If you're an upper-level executive, a retainer search firm may be appropriate. These recruiters are paid by corporations on a retainer basis to locate top executives for specific positions.
  

Contingency search firms are another type of recruiter. As the name suggests, they are paid by the company seeking a new employee only when the recruiter's candidate is hired. Contingency search firms usually place people in mid-level positions, although there is some overlap with retainer firms.

To have a good working relationship with a recruiter, you'll want to do more than mail your resume. Meet that person, be sure you are comfort able with them and that they understand your job needs.

Time Management Is Essential

There is, of course, the downside to finding another job while you're working. Obviously, it's a squeeze to find time to call, do research, and meet people. That makes planning even more important. You have no time to waste. Take full advantage of the hours before and after work, as well as lunchtime. Then, of course, there are vacation days, which no one likes to sacrifice. But once you decide what's important, you'll use your time accordingly.