You are on the ledge, inching forward one tiny step at a time. It took a lot of courage to get up here, now you just need to step off. You know that once you step off there is no turning back, but you hesitate yet again. It’s a beautiful day, sunny and no clouds in the sky, a great day to be out here. You finally find the courage to move to the end and you step off. You drop quickly and look up at the brilliant blue sky before you hit. Your journey ends and you plunge into the water, the pool water is not as cold as you thought and, now that you think about it, the diving board is not really that high.
If you are serious about your job search you need to take the plunge! Leaning towards the edge you may get a little wet but the fastest way to get a job is to be fully engaged in the process. If you’ve not started yet, visit the Job Marketing Toolkit page to get the basics on:
If you have started the process, how do you get focused? First, you need to have a plan to focus your search, set goals and track your progress.
- Job Search Checklist – This article, from quintcareers.com, provides an excellent guide for developing a plan of attack. The article has 5 parts with quite a few links, but the very first section (Part 1) focuses on planning and preparation with 10 or so points (like understand the process, understand the jobs that interest you, creating your list and more).
- Job search planning – steps, tips and tricks – Keppie Careers offers this blog post which has a number of great tips, such as “Identify you 3%” (I don’t want to give this one away so read the post) and Identify companies. There are quite a few more, and all are worth the read. There are additional links at the bottom of the page for related posts.
- Create a Job Search Plan – A short article by Careeronestop.org provides two job hunting truths – Job Search takes time and you need goals and a schedule. The blog provides some useful links (like a job hunting schedule, job web sites, finding potential employers and a few more (including resumes and networking).
- CareerAlley Website Tracking Template – This template, created by yours truly, is posted on a shared section of Google Docs. You don’t require any special software as this is a Google Docs spreadsheet. Use this to keep track of which sites you’ve visited, when you visited and any special comments. Once you load the document you will want to click File, Export, select .xls and then save the file to your local directory. Keeping track is an important part of the process.
- 5 Great Job Hunting Strategies that Will Get You Hired – This article, published on Zoomstart.com, provides a number of tips (5 to be exact) on cover letters, resumes and interviews as well as some other advice. Certainly worth a read as you build your Job Search Plan. There are also some key facts at the top of the article (like the infamous “90% of jobs are not advertised”).
Good luck with your search.
