Looking for a Job? Here are 4 Steps to Find a Great One

The first strategy is to open up new opportunities on as many fronts as possible. This is illustrated in Ecclesiastes 11:

“Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again. Give portions to seven, yes to eight……Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.”

Your goal is to be aware of all the great job opportunities for which you are qualified as soon as they become available. Then apply for each new opportunity you find as quickly as possible because you do not know in advance which one will work out.

I recently described a job hunting approach that was very successful for me in a post about recovering from a layoff. It was really easy for me to obtain the rights to copy a portion of that advice here considering that I was the one who originally wrote it, so here it goes….

Post your resume to every large job board on the internet. Really spread it around. Start with Monster, Dice, Career Builder, TheLadders, Net-temps and others. Then do a Google search on job listings to find all the smaller and regional job search sites. Most folks fail to search for new openings on the smaller sites after being laid off. You should not make that mistake. Do not stop with just posting your resume either. Also be sure to search the listings every day on each site and respond to jobs that look like a great fit. It is important to run your search for openings every day so that when new job opportunities appear you will find them quickly and be among the first to apply. Remember that most folks do a lot of job searching after being laid off so the market for opportunities can be rather competitive. It pays to be first in line.

Make a list of every company you would like to work for. Try to find at least 30 - 50 names…..and the larger the business the better. Then check the job listings on each corporate web page at least once per week to see what new opportunities might be there. Most large firms post each new opportunity on their corporate web site as it becomes available. You should keep looking for companies to add to your weekly list until you find that every week you have at least 10 new openings to pursue.When you find an opportunity that looks good, fill out an online application and submit your resume. Then record the title, id number, date you applied and the phone number of the HR department for each of these opportunities in a notebook. You will need this information because you should then call the HR department to follow up on every opportunity you apply for. When you call, ask if your application has been forwarded to the hiring manager, if the hiring manager has provided any feedback and if there are any other openings that you might be qualified for. One of the advantages of being laid off is that you have lots of time available to look for opportunities. Use that time to search as thoroughly as possible.

Make a list of everyone you know who works at a company that might offer the type of opportunity you are looking for. Send each person on this list a copy of your resume and ask if they are aware of any openings at the company where they work. Then ask them if they have friends at other companies that might be aware of an opening. This kind of networking is important because many jobs get filled before they are ever advertised because somebody knew someone who was looking for work.

Try creating a job opening where none exists. Sometimes, through shear persistence, you can get someone to hire you when they are not even looking for help.It worked for Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks. He got his first job at Starbucks by walking into the store and asking the manager to hire him. The manager rejected the offer at first so Howard returned to the store every chance he got and each time repeated his request to be hired. This continued looking for almost a full year until one day the management gave in and hired Mr. Schultz and the rest, as they say, is history.

As you follow this plan it is very important to remember to search for openings in many places as possible and to persevere over time. If you are not finding many openings it means that you must expand your search by looking in more places. Jobs always exist somewhere. Even in recessions you can still find some firms that are looking to hire. If your search covers 20 corporate web sites and you are not seeing new openings every week try widening your search to 40 sites. Don’t stop with just looking on one internet job board. Try looking on 5 or 10 of them. The more places you look for opportunities = the more openings you will find = the more interviews you will get = the faster you will land a great job.

So what do you do if even after chasing lots of opportunities you still do not have any job offers? There are a couple of key points in this process where things can break down and it will seem like things are not working. Fortunately, I have some suggestions to resolve these common job search problems. Most of the problems fall into one of the following categories:

– You send out a lot of resumes but do not get many opportunities for interviews

– you get plenty of interviews but none of them result in job offers

– you have successful interviews and receive job offers but these new jobs do not pay much more than your current job.

In the next few posts I’ll be taking a close look at these problems and I’ll be sharing some ideas for solving them.

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Tags: career, Christian, job, work