Planning the Job Search
Printed Page 391-393
Planning the Job Search
Once you have constructed your personal brand online—a process that can take weeks or months—you can start to plan the job search. Planning calls for thinking about the type of work you want, learning about employers, and preparing the materials you will need.
- Do a self-inventory. Before you can start thinking of where you want to work, you need to answer some questions about yourself:
- — What are your strengths and weaknesses? Are your skills primarily technical? Do you work best with others or on your own?
- — What subjects do you like? Think about what you have liked or disliked about your jobs and college courses.
- — What kind of organization would you like to work for? For-profit or nonprofit? Government or private industry? Small or large? Startup or established?
- — What are your geographical preferences? If you are free to relocate, where would you like to live? How do you feel about commuting?
Read more about interviewing in Ch. 6.
- Learn about potential employers. Once you’ve identified a company of interest—maybe because you have seen an ad for a position, know someone who works there, or have always thought about working there—start learning about the company by studying its website. But don’t stop there. Conduct informational interviews with people who have worked there or who know people who have; ask your professors if they can help you identify people to interview. Search the company’s name; the results will point you to articles in newspapers and magazines, as well as to blogs, discussion boards, and podcasts. Search for the company on LinkedIn. Many companies use LinkedIn as a hiring portal. Figure 15.1 shows a portion of the LinkedIn portal for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Learn about the organization through other means as well:
Many companies and other organizations use LinkedIn as a hiring portal. A typical portal includes descriptions and videos about the organization, lists of all open positions (and links to the organization website, where you can apply online), and profiles of employees. Because organizations want to attract the best candidates, they put real effort into presenting the information you will need to decide whether to apply.
Figure 15.1 One Agency’s Portal on LinkedInSource: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014: https://www.linkedin.com/company/157336.- — Attend job fairs. Your college and your community probably hold job fairs, where employers provide information about their organizations. Sometimes, a single organization will hold a job fair to find qualified candidates for a wide variety of jobs.
- — Find out about trends in your field. Read the Occupational Outlook Handbook, published by the U.S. Department of Labor, for information about your field and related fields. Talk with professors and with the staff at your job-placement office.
- Prepare a résumé and (perhaps) a job-application letter (a cover letter). You will need a résumé, a one- or two-page document that describes your most important credentials. In most cases, you will upload a résumé to a job board such as Monster or to a company’s website; in some cases, you enter the information on a company’s web-based form. Some companies also request a job-application letter. Start planning early by obtaining materials from the career-placement office at your college. Talk with friends who have gone through the process successfully; study their application materials. Read books and visit websites about different aspects of the job search.
- Put your portfolio items online. A portfolio is a collection of your best work, including your résumé, letters of recommendation, transcripts and professional certifications, and reports, papers, websites, slides of oral presentations, and other types of documents you have written or created as a student or an employee. You should put your portfolio on your website and other online locations, such as your LinkedIn account. The more items you have online, the more likely it is your name will appear when a potential employer searches for applicants.
If you wish to apply for a position in another country, keep in mind that the conventions of the process vary—sometimes quite a bit. You will need to adapt your résumé and letter to the expectations of employers in the country in which you would like to work. For instance, résumés in the United States do not include information such as the writer’s height, weight, date of birth, and marital status; federal legislation prohibits organizations from asking for this information. In some other countries, however, personal information is expected on a résumé. Consult one of the following sources for advice on drafting résumés when applying for international positions:
- Goinglobal.com
- Monster Global Gateway
- OverseasJobs.com
- The Riley Guide: International Job Opportunities: Resources Covering Multiple Countries and/or Regions