Developing Your Job Search Strategy: Highlights
February 25, 2009 by Darlene McDaniel
Filed under Jobs
Last night I facilitated a workshop called Developing Your Job Search Strategy. It was great fun for me and very useful for the job seekers who attended. Here are the highlights of our workshop:
1. Developing your Job Search Strategy requires an investment of your time, energy and attitude. It is very important that you understand that there is a correlation between the number of hours you spend vested in your job search. If you sow sparing, you will reap sparingly. Remember that it is numbers game. If you are unemployed, your full time job is to get a job.
2. Developing your Job Search Strategy requires you to invest time preparing for your interviews. Invest time evaluating your job skills. Review job descriptions and compare your skills to the skills being asked for in the job description. Take time to write down how you will respond to questions concerning those job skills. Your preparation will help differentiate you from other job seekers. Again there is a direct correlation to your readiness to discuss your skills and abilities and your ability to convert your interviews into job offers.
3. Shameless Marketing must be a part of your Job Search Strategy. By definition Shameless Marketing means you have the ability to communicate “who you are and what you bring to the table, unashamedly.” Can you talk about yourself, sharing your skills and abilities? Can you say, I am the best candidate for the job? If not, you will never sell the product – YOU! If you master the art of Shameless Marketing, you will have no problem discussing who you are and what you will bring to any organization you may pursue.
4. Developing Your Job Search Strategy includes becoming a subject matter expert on your product. The Product is YOU! Simple! Either you know your product well and can sell it, or you don’t and you won’t. Either way, you are responsible for helping the hiring manager get it about your product! It requires time analyzing your skills, your abilities, your experiences and developing your plan for discussing your product with a potential buyer – hiring manager.
5. Professional and Social Networking must be apart of your Job Search Strategy. LinkedIn, Twitter, JobAngel, are my favorite recommendations. Whichever avenue you choose to network in, make sure you invest time working your network. Professional networking may involve taking people out for coffee. Or as I shared in the workshop, if you can’t afford to go out for coffee, invite people to your home and make them a cup. It doesn’t matter where you take them, as long as you are connecting to people and involving people in your Job Search Strategy.
These are the highlight from the Developing Your Job Search Strategy workshop. If you have questions or would like additional information, please feel free to scroll down and leave a comment. I am happy to answer questions. The next workshop in Baltimore, Maryland will be at the end of March. I will announce the date in the next week or so right here! If you are interested in attending a workshop, let me know. I would be glad to have you!
Tags: Interview Chatter, Tough Questions, Great Answers, Developing Your Job Search Strategy, Shameless Marketing, Job Seeker, Hiring Manager, Interview, Job Angel, LinkedIn, Darlene McDaniel, Job Offers, Networking, Workshop, The Product is YOU
Image Credit: sxc.hu
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I enjoyed the workshop and learned some valuable information. I have a better understanding of the importance of networking as a primary means of getting a job in today’s market… I was still operating under the “old” technique of finding a job on the internet! Also, I now understand that I must have a paradigm shift of seeing that I can operate on the “offense” during a job interview rather than from a defensive stance. That is really empowering. I recommend this workshop.