Timely tips for your job search

photo by Andrea Eads

The job search is often a challenge. Now is a particularly difficult time. I hope that these six brief tips are helpful to you in your job or internship search process.

1. Narrow down your search. This means taking things off your list of possibilities. This seems counter-intuitive because more options feel better, right? However, when we have a narrower focus we can home in on the best places to spend our time. This narrower focus could be one or two cities instead of a national search. Why look for jobs in places that you don’t want to live? Or, narrowing may mean identifying the top seven companies that you want to work for. Or, it may mean two job titles instead of “anything in business” or “I just want a good job.”
2. Fact find within your narrowed search. Now that you have a narrower focus, identify people who work within that sphere. Do you have friends or family at those companies? In those cities? Doing those jobs? Can you search LinkedIn and find people? Now, fact find. Reach out to those people with the job you want and ask them how they got to where they are. Ask the people in the cities that you want to live in whether they have any tips for searching for opportunities in the city. Ask the people at the companies that you want to work for what the culture is like and how they ended up there. This is just fact-finding. You are not asking for opportunities. You are simply doing research to develop a more focused and informed search.
3. Thank everyone. Tell all of these folks thank you. Write them thank-you notes.
4. Allow yourself more opportunities. Your list of folks to fact-find from will eventually run short. However, you can prevent that from happening. Here’s how: at the end of every fact-finding conversation say to your new friend, “You have been really helpful to me as I fact-find and prepare for my job search. Are there two or three other people that you think would be helpful for me to talk with as I continue my research?” When they offer a couple of names say “That’s great, thank you. Would you like to introduce me or would you prefer that I reach out to them and let them know that you directed me to them?” Once you meet with the new person for fact-finding be sure to let the first person know and thank them again for the generous referral. It will be very helpful to have a spreadsheet to track names, conversations, referrals, and to be able to track when and if you sent a thank-you, etc.
5. Invite more information. When you have had conversations with new people be sure to connect with them on LinkedIn. This will allow you to receive valuable information as you move forward. For instance, you will begin to see how small the world is because you will now be able to see when your connections know one another. This will also come in handy when you are applying for a job through LinkedIn and it tells you that Jayne works at this company and Jayne knows Todd and Todd is the person that you had coffee with two weeks ago. Now you can reach out to Todd and say, “Hey Todd, I see on LinkedIn that you know Jayne. Would you be willing to connect me with her? I would like to learn more about the company that she works for.” And then you get to fact-find with Jayne. It’s like magic. But we make our own magic.
6. Go with your gut. Have you ever not been called for an interview? Or, had an interview but not landed the job? Are you asking yourself, “I wonder how they perceived my resume or my interview?” Well, why don’t you ask them? This isn’t always possible. But, it doesn’t hurt to reach back out to them and say, “I am glad that you were able to find a good fit for your position. I would love to be better prepared when the next opportunity comes up in your company. Would you be willing to meet with me and discuss my resume and interview and give me feedback on what I can do moving forward to be a great candidate for this position?” You can gain invaluable feedback by doing this.

All the best to you as you seek what’s next. It can be a lot of work to get to where you want to be. Feel free to reach out to me if you would like to have a longer conversation about the process.

Jeff