The Internet
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Creating an action plan, your Personal Market Plan during career transition, will reap rewards during your implementation campaign. Success in market plan implementation, your job search campaign, takes the randomness out of job search. Effective use of the Internet and other uses of technology can leverage your time and effectiveness. A well conceived Personal Market Plan helps you to manage your time to get the best results for your efforts. Networking through personal contacts is the first method/ pathway directed toward seeking your next right work... for the rest of your career. In the marketing metaphor, these five methods would be your "distribution channels."
HIGH TECH - HIGH TOUCH A well conceived Personal Market Plan can bring you face-to-face with "insiders" and even with unadvertised positions before anyone else learns of them. It is tempting, in our age of electronic communication with e-mailing and voice mailing and relaying information rapidly to one another, to want to over-rely on electronic job searching activities. As we said earlier, job seeking is the business of developing relationships with others. Career Continuation is a Contact Sport! Its important that you view networking is a two-way street—sometimes with you, the information seeker, being able to provide information to the same person from whom you are seeking it—and at other times being a source of information to other people. In order to get information from others, we must be a good source of information. All it takes is being willing to share information, ideas and resources. Further, many employers prefer to hire someone they know personally or hire someone who has been referred to them by a mutual acquaintance. Familiarity and referrals reduce much of the uncertainty involved in hiring a new employee. While e-mail is too easy to delete from an unknown party... it becomes an effective communication tool with people who are known to each other--and it can contribute to rapport building, as well. The TOP TEN Internet issues relative to job search... 1. Using more than simply the big name Web job sites... Many of the "big names" are great sites, but they can also be expensive for employers to use and not focused for some job opportunities. So, in tight budgetary times, employers save money using smaller, less expensive or "niche" sites that may have exactly the applicants they want, like an industry- or location-specific job site or even the Web site of a professional or industry association. 2. Posting your resume without worrying about privacy. Identity theft is the top Internet fraud. Millions of complete resumes make it easy! As importantly, if you are employed, protect your identity and your existing job. Limit the access to your contact information (address and phone number). Many employers do search for their employees' resumes in the job site resume/applicant database and/or the search engines. Those employees' jobs are at risk when their resumes are found! On a related note...
Using your employer's assets to job hunt at work may cost you your job, if you
have one, by inappropriately using company assets (the computer and software you
use, even your Internet connection), by violating the company Internet
"acceptable use" policy, and/or simply by revealing to your employer that you
are job hunting. 5. Depending on e-mail as your
only method of contact. Spam, defined as unsolicited bulk commercial
e-mail, comprises up to 55% of e-mail traffic in mid-2003, and it's become a
significant expense for many companies. The sad truth these days is that most
employers have "spam filter" software screening e-mail before it reaches
recipients. Your messages may look like spam to the filter and be deleted,
unread, without any notice to you (the suspected spammer). So, always
follow-up your e-mail message with a phone call - or, better, call first
and ask to be added to the "friends" list of addresses allowed through the spam
filter. A headstart for you bookmark junkies... |
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... but the REAL MESSAGE, here, is to not become dependent on bookmarks that easily become out of date. Its much more effective to develop your skills in Internet search. Learn the advanced syntax that will allow you to narrow your search formats. KEY STRATEGIES And TIPS...
LAST WORDS... Resist the temptation to spend too much time on the Internet. Networking and job search is a contact sport. Use technology to leverage your most precious commodity, TIME.
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Personal Contacts | Information Network | Target Firms | Internet | Recruitment Firms |
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