Laser Focus or Spraying and Praying

Too many job seekers are looking for work the wrong way, not that there is only one right way, but they go about it randomly or over zealously (ie. I can do anything).

I understand that being without a job can be frightening.  But are you letting your emotions drive your ability to clearly think about what you are saying and doing?

The good news is that there are ways of fixing this and options!

Know what you are good at doing and what you ENJOY doing

Explore, reminisce, assess…whatever it takes to figure out what you are best at doing.  Deep down, you know the answer.  It may take talking with co-workers, friends and family.  By no means is this easy, but it is THE most important part of job search and managing your career.

Now, if your “Aha moment” is that you are good at working with people, I challenge you to dig a bit deeper.  What kinds of people do you enjoy working with most?  I am pretty sure there are some people you would prefer not to work with.  Think about it.  Is it students, parents, accountants, IT groups, board members, share holders, cross functional teams- who is it that you enjoy working with really?

You aren’t done yet, when you say working with people, what kind of work do you mean?  Physically helping, providing advice, organizing, supporting, leading, teaching?

I used to be called X, what else do they call it?

ONet might be the most helpful tool.  Here is the link to this free resource.  Type in your old job title or the occupation/job title you would like to pursue in the Keyword box.

Once you do this, select the occupation that most closely matches what you are looking for.   What you will see early in they results are the many other job titles that fall into that occupation.  These are gold.  These are the job titles you should be looking out for on job boards and talking to people about.

This is your focus. Avoid applying for jobs lower than you are qualified for initially.  Work your search efforts focused on this job level and work it hard through networking with everyone you know, attending professional associations, etc.  Tell everyone what you are specifically looking for!

Let’s say you’ve been doing this already and there are NO JOBS to be found.  Could you expand the geographic region you are looking at? Could you relocate? If both of these answers are no, then perhaps you can look at tangent or related jobs.

Go back to the search results you got from ONet when you entered in your job. What are the titles immediately below?  Investigate those jobs and the other related titles.  Start networking using these additional titles.

Another way to uncover similar job titles is to access mySkillsmyFuture

If you are interested in knowing the similarities and differences between these other jobs, click on the “compare skills” link and it will show salary, skill and education requirements.

Be focused!  Be relevant!  Be known!