"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." -- Confucius
Finding a job and finding a good job are two different things. If you want to be successful in your job search, you should focus on finding a good job. An important key to accomplishing that goal will be to spend the time necessary to properly prepare yourself for your job search. It's not enough to sign up for a few on-campus interviews, take your best shot and hope for the best. An offer may come, but it may not be for the type of job you are truly seeking. Or, worse yet, an offer may not come. To prepare yourself fully for your job search, you will need to understand more about the job search process. You need to understand what is happening on the other side of the resume read. You need to understand what is happening on the other side of the job fair booth. You need to understand what is happening on the other side of the interview desk. You need to understand what is happening on the other side of the telephone. You need to understand the process. Job search is a process. Actually, it is a multi-process, with many concurrent processes (based on multiple employer contacts) taking place at the same time. To reach the next level of the process, you need to successfully pass the previous level. So start your job search on a solid foundation by understanding how the process works and work your way successfully through each level toward your ultimate goal.
The Job Search Process
Your ultimate goal is your new job. Yet there will be several steps of completion required along the path to this goal. Following are the basic steps in the job search process:
Establish your career objective
Self-assessment
Personality
Aptitude
Interests
Values
Identify skills and abilities
Career exploration
Researching career types
Researching industries
Researching geographic locations
Understanding the career requirements
Career preparation
Academic - major, classes, projects
Extracurricular - activities, clubs
Experience - work, internships, volunteering
Prepare your job search tools
Resume
Cover letter
References, letters of recommendation
Find hiring companies
Identify on-campus employers
On-campus interviews
On-campus job fairs
Identify off-campus employers
Building and activating a career network
Utilizing employer research materials
Off-campus job fairs
Prospecting and following up on referral leads
Secure the interview
Make contact
Request and confirm interview
Interview
Prepare for the interview
On-campus interviewing
Phone interviewing
Company-site interviewing
Offer
Post-interview follow-up
Job offer negotiation
Accept and begin new job!
Seems simple enough, right? Just follow the yellow brick road to job search success. Unfortunately, what the above process flow does not show is the iterative nature of the job search process. There will be failures along the way and you will be repeating many of the steps (from “Find hiring companies” forward) for each employer you are pursuing. And, being a linear process, it is subject to time and timing. Namely, you may find yourself at square one with Employer #1 at the same time when you have already completed the process and have an offer in hand from Employer #2. Worse things can happen in your job search, but this type of timing situation does provide a dilemma of its own. Overall, you should seek to master each step of the process so that each eventual employer interviewing process will continue to a potential offer, so that you can choose. Mastering the job search process will result not only in a job offer, but in the right job for you. This Web site is not just about getting a job. It is about getting the right job.
Developing Your Marketing Strategy
Do you consider yourself a good salesperson? If yes, good for you--you will be putting your skills to work throughout the job search process. If not, get ready to become one--because in order to be effective in your job search, you have to become effective at marketing.
Your "product" is you and your "market" is the segment of the employment marketplace that is a potential purchaser of your product.
Remember these two key points:
No one knows your product better than you.
No one can make the sale other than you.
If you don't market you, who will? Successful job search is not just a matter of taking a couple of on-campus interviews and waiting for the offers to roll in. You need to fully prepare yourself for a highly competitive entry level job market.
No matter what your major, no matter what field you intend to enter, you must be ready, willing, and able to market yourself. Just as it is difficult to market a product you do not truly believe in, it is difficult to market yourself if you do not believe in yourself. First and foremost, you have to believe in you. Do not expect me to believe in you if you don't. How can I be expected to "buy in" if you don't buy in first?
Take a long hard look in the mirror. Don't look for the bad--look for the good. Look for all the good points. Look for all the aspects about you and your background that make you an outstanding job candidate. Those are the attributes that I want to see when I meet with you.
The reality is, it's easy to market yourself into a job or company that you love. If you are enthusiastic about your work and your ability to complete the necessary tasks and activities, you will not even think of it as marketing. But if you are doing it "just for the bucks," then you are just selling your services to the highest bidder. And eventually it will burn you out.
In preparing to meet the needs of the marketplace, make sure you are comfortable selling your talents and skills to that market. The reaction from the other side of the desk to true enthusiasm will almost always be positive.
Sit on the other side of the desk. Imagine interviewing yourself for the position you most desire. Would you hire you? If not, why would anyone else? Work on yourself, your appearance, your attitude, your enthusiasm, your product, before you bring your final product to market.
You never get a second chance at a first impression. Make sure your first impression is right on the mark.