Managing Change During a Job Seach

Finding a new job involves making changes and handling transitions, which we can manage very well when prepared. Change is a part of life, and changing jobs is a part of the world of work in many ways.

Everyone's adjustment period to change is unique. It is easiest for those who are flexible in their approach in different circumstances at life and work but can be devastating for people who cannot let go. Change can be awkward at first, but it can also be exhilarating, like being propelled into a steep turn on a roller coaster. It can motivate you to do your absolute best. During change, time can seem to move very slowly for the reluctant, but it can be a whirlwind for those ready for it.

Change is needed if we are unhappy with where we are, when old practices or processes no longer work, or when a job no longer exists. It can be like pulling a new sweater on over your head; for a moment, you cannot see, but you know you will feel warm and comfortable once you can get your head out of the hole.

How Does the Job Search Pyramid Work? Step One

Let's first look at how to use the Pyramid to manage your entire job search from beginning to end. Then, I'll walk through it step by step, just as you might look for a job.

Before starting your job search, you need to know what type of job you want to pursue. So, you decide to explore several areas, both inside and outside the industry in which you've been working. First, you research several industry trends using the Internet, newspapers, and trade journal articles. Then, you look at job listings to help you understand what challenges these industries currently have and who is hiring.

The word "industry" refers to an industry, a job field, or both. For example, you may define the type of work you are looking for by naming an industry such as health care or food service. Or it may make more sense to describe it by naming a job field that exists in multiple industries, such as information technology or accounting. In some cases, you will narrow your definition to include industry and job fields, such as health care accounting. Think of your industry as being the phrase you use to complete the sentence, "I'm looking for a job in…"           

You contact professional associations that support the industries you are exploring and arrange for informational interviews with people experienced in those fields. Conversations with people in your current sector point you toward an area where they need people with your experience. But you also discover through researching some specialized job listings that your skills would easily transfer to a completely different industry, which interests you more. So, you decide to pursue this new career change when looking for your next job.

My favorite way to help know what you want is to use one of the O*Net Interest Profilers at MyNextMove.org. The Occupational Information Network (O*Net) is a free online database that contains hundreds of occupational definitions to help students, job seekers, businesses, and workforce development professionals to understand today's world of work in the United States.

Using the interest profiler at MyNextMove.org is free and straightforward to use. It helps you identify where your career interests lie, then points you directly toward career paths that might match those interests. 

Are you ready to graduate from Knowing what you want to Finding contacts and opportunities? Then, watch for our next post!

Climbing the Job Search Pyramid

Your job search journey may already feel a lot like climbing a mountain. Yet you may not have realized that some pre-planning could help make it easier. There are some stages of your climb when you don't need much help; in others, you could use a better map, advice from other climbers, and improved equipment. If you choose one specific stage of your job-seeking climb to focus on, you'll be able to put the extra effort exactly where it is needed.        

While each person's job search is unique, you may be surprised to learn that every job seeker's general route is the same. The Job Search Pyramid provides a sketch of the journey ahead. The Job Search Pyramid comprises five separate stages:

1. Knowing what you want

2. Finding opportunities and contacts

3. Applying to employers

4. Getting interviews

5. Landing the job

A series of typical activities occur in each stage, and these activities can change from person to person or job to job. Knowing more about how the Pyramid works will enable you to focus more time and energy on your job search precisely.

Knowing what you want stage, you define the type of job for which you are looking. In creating that definition, you determine which positions, organizations, and industries match your unique and marketable skills and fit with your vision for your career. Just like a company targets the market that is best suited for its products, you also must make choices about where your skills, abilities, and desires will fit best.

Once you know what job you are seeking, you enter the Finding opportunities and contacts stage. In this stage, you look for people who can help your job search and for specific job opportunities—advertised or not. Advertised positions are found through newspapers, trade journals, the Internet, recruiters, agencies, and your network. Unadvertised positions are those you discover through networking, referrals, research, and contacting employers directly.

In the Applying to employers stage, you make contact with companies regarding the opportunities you have uncovered. The word "apply" isn't meant to suggest you are necessarily filling out applications or sending résumés to human resource departments, although you might be. You also apply for advertised and unadvertised jobs by placing phone calls, writing letters, and scheduling meetings with people who are in a position to hire you. These people may be individual managers, not human resources staff.

 In the next stage, Getting interviews, you convince organizations to interview you. The interview may be formal or informal; it may occur in person, over the phone, or in an online video chat. During an interview, you discover an organization's needs and desires for a position and demonstrate how you can meet them. You may have multiple interviews with several people from the same organization.

In the Pyramid, you will notice that areas labeled "Follow up" appear in both the applying and interviewing stages. Following up with contacts and opportunities is essential at any stage of the job search process, but it is in the applying and interviewing stages that follow-up becomes critical. You'll need to follow up with your referral sources, hiring managers, recruiters, human resources staff, and any other key players. Following up is how you will keep your job search in constant motion and avoid getting stuck.

In the final Landing the job stage, you successfully manage your job search from being interviewed to receiving a job offer. When you get an offer, you may need to do some negotiating. When you don't get an offer, you'll want to follow up to determine how you compared to the other candidates and what held the organization back from hiring you.

What Works and What Doesn't in a Job Search

You may have heard that the first secret to finding job opportunities and eventually getting hired is to connect with the people who will help you find the job you want.

Here’s the second secret: a successful job search is more like a marketing campaign than an actual search. The traditional picture of job-seeking is that you look for open positions posted somewhere and follow a formal application procedure to be considered for them. But if seventy-four to eighty-five percent of jobs are never advertised, how effective can this be? And with thousands of job-seekers applying for only those announced positions, the competition can be overwhelming.        

While a portion of your job search may be devoted to locating posted positions, the only way to beat the odds and the competition is to market yourself and find positions before being advertised actively.        

Marketing yourself as a job-seeker means locating the people who can offer or lead you to opportunities and telling them what you are capable of, over and over. You do have to seek them out—you can’t wait for them to find you. There are many ways of telling them what you can do—in person, in writing, by phone—but you must tell them. And you have to tell them over and over. No one will remember you if they hear from you only once.

Just as any company selling a product or service works from a strategic marketing plan with proper tactics to put the plan into action, so should you. In this case, you are the product. 

Finding job opportunities takes a disciplined approach using strategies that are proven to work. The three most effective job search approaches are networking and referral building, making direct contact with potential employers, and arranging informational interviews. Each of these approaches can produce:

• Contacts—An increased number of people in your network helping you seek out opportunities.
• Referrals—Introductions to new people for your network or people with the power to hire you.
• Leads—Information about open positions or companies that might have opportunities for you.       

Networking and referral-building will provide you with the maximum number of all three payoffs, so that approach is ranked as the most effective. Contacting prospective employers and informational interviewing are about equal in terms of their potential gain, but contacting employers (once you are ready) is more likely to lead directly to a job.

 

Support for Your Job Search

A job search buddy is a friend or colleague who also wants help to get into action and stay on track with his or her job search. The two of you assist each other in reaching your goals by setting up a regular check-in, with each of you reporting on progress, announcing successes, and stating challenges. The buddy’s job is to listen, celebrate, commiserate, and be a brainstorming partner.

Job search support groups serve the same function for a group of people who wish to work together. Again, there’s a wealth of information Online about job search support groups. Or, you may be able to find an existing support group for job-seekers through career centers, schools, and industry associations.

You can also hire your coach or life coach, a professional trained in assisting people in setting and achieving goals. Some coaches specialize in career transition and working with job-seekers. They may call themselves career coaches, job coaches, or career consultants. Ask your friends and colleagues if they have worked with a coach to whom they could refer you or perform an Internet search.

Keep in mind that support from a buddy, group, or coach does not involve in-person meetings and travel time. Many groups meet via telephone conference lines or live online chats, and your buddy or coach can work with you by phone, e-mail, or an online chat service or all three.

Where Do You Think Your Job Search Needs The Most Work?

If you are still seeking employment? Where do you think your job search needs the most work.

 

• Knowing what you want. Determining the industry, field, and type of job you are going to pursue.
• Finding opportunities and contacts. Seeking out new people to contact, companies to approach, and positions for which to apply.
• Applying to employers. Applying for the openings you already know about; approaching the people and companies you have already found.
• Getting interviews. Turning your applications and approaches into interviews.
• Landing the job. Converting your interviews into job offers.

 

Do you already know where you are stuck or lost? If not, try asking yourself the following questions:

 

• Are you newly entering the job market or re-entering after a long absence?
• Are you uncertain what you want to do next?
• Have you been applying for a wide variety of jobs?
• Do you find yourself constantly revising your résumé?
• Are the job opportunities in your field extremely limited?
• Are you thinking of changing careers?

 

If you answered Yes to the questions above, you probably need to focus on knowing what you want.

 

Or:

• Are you just beginning your job search?
• Does none of the opportunities you are finding seem right for you?
• Is your personal network very small or nonexistent?
• Are you relying on the Internet to find open positions?
• If you sat down to contact every lead you currently have, would you be done before it was time for a coffee break?
• Have you already followed up with every one of your contacts or leads within the past thirty days?

 

If you answer Yes to the questions above, you probably need to focus on finding opportunities and contacts.

 

Or:

• Do you have a stack of leads and opportunities on which you haven’t followed up?
• Have you been in the habit of applying only for posted positions or only by contacting human resource departments?
• Have you applied for positions for which you did not receive a response?
• Are you wondering how to go about pursuing opportunities you’ve uncovered?
• Do you struggle with composing cover letters or what to say when you phone a prospective employer?
• Do you give up when an employer doesn’t respond to your first letter or call?

 

If you answered Yes to the questions above, you probably need to focus on applying to employers.

 

Or:

• Have you applied for a number of positions for which you felt well qualified, but didn’t get an interview?
• Are you following up consistently on y our applications and approaches, but interviews do not have positive results?
• Are you relying on your qualifications alone to get you in the door?
• Do employers refuse to take your call or brush you off when you do get through?
• Are the companies you’re approaching telling you they don’t have any openings?
• Are you approaching only companies in which you have no contacts?

 

If you answer Yes to the questions above, you probably need to focus on getting interviews.

 

Or:

• Are you getting preliminary interviews but neither second interviews nor job offers as a result?
• Do the jobs for which you’re being interviewed seem off-target or too low level?
• Do you feel awkward or wonder what to say during an interview?
• Do you walk into interviews knowing little or nothing about the company?
• Do you get the feeling your interviews aren’t going well?
• Have you gotten job offers that you couldn’t take because the salary was too low or there wasn’t much opportunity to advance?
• Do you feel your only option is to “do nothing but wait” once an interview is over?

 

If you answered Yes to the questions above you probably need to focus on landing the job.

 

Wherever you feel stuck or lost, there is an approach and an action plan that will help you get you back on track to a successful job search.

 

Let me know where you think you need the most help and we can discuss what success ingredients will be most helpful to develop a job search action plan.

 

Caring for your success,

 

Lee Gamelin 

Job Seeking Methods, Post One

Whatever job search methods you use, it is essential that you understand that most jobs are now with smaller organizations.  More than 70 percent of all nongovernmental workers now work for employers with 250 or fewer employees.

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Meet the interviewer's oddest questions with answers that illustrate your creativity and problem-solving skills, advises Lisa Quast. Such questions aren't meant to solicit perfect answers, but to give the hiring manager insight into how your mind works

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