Job Search becomes easier and systematic if you will try to develop a comprehensive job search program. The below mentioned are the areas you should work on at the time of making a job plan.
DEVELOP A PROGRAM
A comprehensive position search/marketing plan consists of all or many of the following areas of activity:
- Letters to a selected few employers
- Want ads
- Executive search consultants
- Letters to many employers; mass mailings
- Business, professional, and personal contacts
- Trade and professional associations
- Other sources
Don't confuse these comparatively few letters with employer mass mailings. These letters are individually typed (sometimes automatically typed if the quantity justifies), hand signed, and mailed using a commemorative stamp. Each employer is carefully selected after full research. Each letter is addressed to an individual who is in a position to hire you. Good research provides the list. These employers should be your prime sources because you have made the effort to select the organizations where you would like to work and those that might need you. You have, in effect, prescreened potential employers.
Alternatively, these selected employers might be the result of leads from one of your contacts. Such leads should be treated confidentially, acted upon promptly, and be given your best handling. If these leads don't produce a job offer, they may just produce more leads. You might get an employer name from want ads placed by that employer for other positions of no interest to you. You can decide whether or not to enclose a resume. If it's good enough, your letter by itself might draw a response.
Want Ads
Want ads are a good source of job possibilities. They do tell you, about 95 percent of the time, that an unfilled position exists.
From a national or regional standpoint, major metropolitan newspapers have Sunday editions that normally carry the bulk of the display ads, such as the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and many others. The most important national paper for this purpose is the Wall Street Journal. Check the regional edition for your locality and the other Wall Street Journal editions if you want to or are willing to relocate. Normally, most ads appear on certain days of the week. Check the Wall Street Journal daily, not only to get the big-day pattern but to watch for key ads that appear on the off days.
If you do not live in or near a major city, check the nearest large city newspaper ads or the papers in the locality you are interested in. For your reference, here are principal newspapers located all over the United States, listed alphabetically by city. The list was prepared from data supplied by a public library. Your library will help you, too.
Stop and think about blind ads. An employer sometimes uses a newspaper or trade journal box number rather than disclose the organization's name and address. If you are unemployed or being terminated, go right ahead and answer blind ads. But if you are still employed and your search is confidential, be careful. The ad might have been inserted by your current employer.
If you want to relocate, subscribe to the leading newspaper in the city of your choice. Read it for a couple of months during your search. It will expose you to the display ads, as well as to the flavor of the community. It might produce unexpected ideas.
Executive Search Consultants
Any middle management, senior management, or executive job search should probably include executive search consultants or executive recruiters as they are sometimes called. The likelihood of your getting a response from them isn't great, but the possibility does exist. One consultant, when queried, estimated that of all the searches made in one year, 5 percent or less of the executives placed were secured as a result of receiving unsolicited resumes.
Search firms are paid by employers, not applicants. Hence, their loyalty is first to a client firm or organization. Most recruiters will accept resumes mailed in by applicants. Many will not acknowledge a resume, however, unless they have an interest in the jobseeker.
What does a search firm do with a resume they have no need for in their current assignments? Often, they toss it in the "round file." Other firms maintain extensive files for possible future requirements, saving those they want and discarding the rest. Should you send your resume to a corporate outplacement firm? No. These firms are given job-seekers by their client companies, so they have no need for others.
What does an executive recruiter do with an applicant who does not have a good resume but needs one? Nothing -which reiterates what has been said in the previous sections. Search firms need a complete resume to work from. They want to know all about you, including birthdate, health, handicaps, marital status, children, willingness to relocate, and willingness to travel. They want to know who employs you now, for how long, and current position and salary. They need to know what your employer does. All of this requires full disclosure, preferably in your resume, but at least in a cover letter.
Search firms tend to reject any resume that doesn't fit current needs, omits full details about current employment, or tries to hide age, youth, terminations, or unemployment periods. Recruiters have a lot of experience and can seldom be fooled. Don't try.
Here are a few "rules" for dealing with executive search consultants:
- Send a resume and a cover letter if you feel that you are an above-average professional or executive.
- Tell all about yourself, but concisely. Don't send three-to-four page letters; one page will do.
- Be honest.
- Don't walk into a recruiter's office without an appointment.
- Don't phone recruiters; write.
- Don't follow up by phone or letter.
The Appendix tells you about the best source of information on search firms: the Directory of Executive Recruiters. This invaluable book may be at your public library. Use only the current annual edition for names and addresses. Buy a copy if you can't borrow one.
Letters to Employers: Mass Mailing
In contrast to letters to selected employers, individually tailored to each, the mass mailing or broadcast letter uses one well-written letter, produced by word processor or some form of automatic typewriter. For best results, each letter is addressed to the individual who has the authority to hire you. This is by far the best way to do it. Failing that, each letter can be addressed to a title, the holder of which would normally be able to hire you. Mass-mailing letters are sent out in quantities of 50, 100, or many hundreds. Hand-sign all your letters.
Directories are your sources of employer names. In the Appendix, a representative list of directories is provided. If your field isn't listed, try the Directory of Directories.
For more localized potential employers, or smaller ones, check with the Chamber of Commerce for a membership list. See the local Yellow Pages. Printers often maintain and rent lists of employers in the community.
Broadcast letters are sent without a resume. Your goal is to get a phone call to set up an appointment, or a letter requesting a resume. Either way, the door is opened and you have a lead.
Business, Professional, and Personal Contacts
Some experts say that this is your single best source of job openings. They certainly may be right. Much depends on your relationship to these contacts and what you can persuade them to do for you. Most people seem to want to help their friends, although they may not always be able to do so. Contacts who want to help but don't may be too busy at work or plagued by personal problems. They may be immersed in some outside activity or just plain lazy. You must make an effort to secure their interest and then activate their help through regular reminders. These reminders should be made often enough to get them moving, but not so often as to pester them.
Hosting a lunch is a good way to go one-to-one with a friend. Don't waste the hour explaining why you are changing jobs. Tell it in one or two short remarks and get on with your request for help. This isn't easy. Your friend might want to commiserate, and you might want sympathy. It is better to skip all this, however, because it won't help your job search. Give your guest a couple of resumes, explain your objective clearly, and say that you'll phone in a week if you haven't heard from him or her before then.
If you've built up many contacts in your career, you won't be able to take them all to lunch. Instead, use personal notes and enclose a resume. Write a short, friendly note asking for help, making clear what you are seeking. Follow up with a phone call in five to seven days (your note might have landed in the big stack of "no rush" papers). Then, in another two weeks, send a follow-up note, along with another resume. Perhaps you can arrange to run into this individual at a trade or professional meeting, a committee meeting, or at some community affair. Don't do anything but say "Hello." Seeing you is reminder enough.
Have you made a list of these contacts? Sometimes it is easier to prepare a three-by-five card for each one, showing name, work address and phone, home address and phone, and any pertinent data. Use the cards as your record of calls and notes you initiated, calls and notes you received, and other key information.
Your contacts may include professional associations, trade groups, and civic groups. It probably should not encompass your neighbors and relatives; you might have many conversations with these individuals but little action. You cannot expect much from people who are only slightly acquainted with you; you probably shouldn't ask them.
Other Sources
These sources range from "less-than-likely to be productive" to "practically useless"; some are too costly for what you get. One reason they are discussed here is to alert you to some factors you may want to consider.
What about employment agencies? Without getting into the question of what separates a good agency from a poor one, the prime reason against using them is that they usually can't serve middle management executives, professionals, and senior executives. They do not handle assignments in the middle to upper dollar brackets. All the sources already discussed are more likely to be of help to you.
Should you place a position-wanted display ad in a newspaper? Probably not. It is costly and may create an adverse reaction in some employers. If you can afford it and feel sure you can reach the right readers, you could certainly try. You will get responses, but many will be from people who want to help you in your job search, for a fee.
In the Wall Street Journal and major metropolitan newspapers, you will see large display ads placed by firms known as Executive Guidance Counselors, Executive Career Counselors, or Outplacement Counselors. Investigate these firms if you wish, but don't do more than investigate until you feel comfortable about what they can do for you, and for how much. Be careful. Don't sign up on your first visit. You need to separate the competent and sincere from the incompetent, whose first concern is your wallet, not you. Some of these companies have very good salespeople. Some offer such a range of services that the fee you pay can be as much as $5,000 to $6,000. There is no guarantee of the right position for you, or of any job, for that matter. Exercise great care. There can be value for you if you find the right firm and the right counselor. Perhaps a friend can recommend a particular organization.
FOLLOW THE PLAN
Now comes the hard part. You must follow the plan. As that work setting up your search methods is not an end in itself. It's only the means of making your search successful, with as little time-loss as possible.
It is a big mistake to decide you need a rest before starting your search. Perhaps you've been terminated with fairly good severance pay, so you won't run out of pay-checks for a few months. Maybe you have concluded that some part of a pension-plan payment will be a lump sum in cash. So why not take a month off first, for a vacation or just to relax at home? Because it is a bad idea. You lose time, potential earnings, your drive to get established again, and some of the immediacy with your contacts. New employers won't react well when you try to explain what happened during the time when you were on "vacation." It pays to get going, certainly after a week or two at most.
Following your plan means doing what has to be done on schedule. Let the search plan become your way of life until you succeed.
