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Getting Started: It's Time to Get a Job

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It's time to get a job. Whether you're changing positions, reentering the job market after a long absence, trying to put your college degree to work, or conducting your first full fledged job search, you should be familiar with certain basic principles that are essential to finding professional employment. This book will introduce you to those principles quickly and concisely. The most important of those principles is a simple one.

It underlies everything else you'll do during your job search. That principle is to think like an employer.

This article will start with the basics on virtually every aspect of the job hunt; however, one of the working assumptions is at you already know the answers to a few very important questions. These "fundamental" queries include: What you want to do? What industry you want to do it in? What are some pertinent facts about the companies that you wish to target for your future employment?



If you feel that you need some extra ideas in tackling these matters, take some time to look over the end of the article before beginning your job search in earnest. This section provides you with an easy to follow program that will allow you to conduct a complete research campaign. It also offers some important tips on identifying your professional strengths and weaknesses.

For now, the concern is with the fundamentals of executing a winning job search. That means that topic number one is "people."

People: Making Contact

People are perhaps the most important source of information about new jobs or, for that matter, whole new careers. This may seem obvious, but it's a point that many fail to catch. There's still a great deal of truth to the familiar phrase, "It's not what you know, it's who you know that really counts." Today, though, the more accurate summation might begin, "It's not only what you know..."

Make no mistake. No matter who your contacts are, you will never stay in a job for which you do not have the skills. But the fact remains that the most successful way to get a new job is with the help of other people. Ultimately, you'll have to rely on people even if it's only the person making the final hiring decision!

In practice, you'll incorporate a great many more people into your efforts than the one person hiring you. In fact, the more people you involve, the better. It is essential for you to develop a network of people within an industry with who you're on familiar terms.

You'll be approaching these people for information. You won't be asking for a job... yet. You're after hard facts right now. These facts will be invaluable to you when you pursue the employers you've targeted.

At this point you may be saying to yourself, "I don't know anybody! I'm doomed!" Don't panic. Nobody begins life with a full complement of professional associates. Everyone starts somewhere. As a matter of fact, "starting fresh" may work to your advantage in some instances.

Consider the case of the job hunter who asked a friend to "put in a word for him" to the search committee pondering his application. A number of words got put in with the best of intentions but these included some awkward facts the job hunter would have rather detoured around. The "contact" chattered away about how her friend was looking for something that would leave him plenty of free time to pursue other activities on the side, and that he felt he'd been badly overworked at his previous job. Neither revelation scored points with the committee. His application was shelved.

So: where to begin?

Suppose you're interested in a position as a guidance counselor at a small area college. Your academic background provides a good match, and you feel perfect for the job, but you don't know anyone at the college. "What should you do?

Go to the guidance center. Ask the people in the reception area for some information about the services provided pamphlets; brochures, bulletins, or news letters are probably on display there. If anyone asks why you are interested in these materials, be honest. Say that you are applying for a job and that you want to get some information about the center, its staff, and its facilities so that you can make an informed application. Be pleasant. Act professionally. Ask politely for the name of the person to whom you're speaking. Later, you'll probably want to jot this name down for future reference for instance, as the contact in a cover letter. It's a good idea to keep up a "job search notebook": a repository for all the pertinent information you come across.

Chances are that the person helping you will ask for your name as well. You may want to take the opportunity to inquire about who is responsible for hiring decisions if this seems appropriate.

With any luck, you now have one or two names, a number of pertinent materials about the center, and perhaps seven a vague idea of what the job outlook is like. Not bad at all.

Going straight to the source, then, can be an effective for you to begin building a contact network. But it's not the only way.

Your local newspaper will feature a classified help wanted section; the listings in it are good sources for leads and potential contacts. A complete discussion of how to use the classified section as a reference can be found; however, it should be noted here that classified ads can provide names that will add measurably to your contact pool. About 75% of all ads will contain the name of a contact person. Though this individual is very likely part of the personnel department (and therefore highly unlikely to make a final hiring decision), make a record of the name if the company or position appeals to you. It can be useful to have an up to date name to use in your future discussions at a given firm.
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