One of the top New Year’s Resolutions made by people across the world is to find a new job. If you will be searching for a new job during 2008, I would like to discuss 3 mistakes that most job seekers make.
1. Believing A Résumé and Cover Letter Is Enough To Land Interviews. Today’s job seekers should be focused on packaging and marketing their talents and credentials, and not simply relying on a professional résumé and cover letter to land interviews. Your job search campaign must be multi-faceted if you want to be highly successful in your job search.
Compare your job search to a company and the way they market their products. No company or marketing leader would ever rely on one form of marketing and advertising. For example, a Marketing Director of a $10 million company would not simply use TV advertising. Indeed, their marketing campaigns would be multi-faceted and would include industry tradeshow participation, professional networking, Internet advertising, billboard ads, radio advertisements, customer loyalty programs, referral programs, public speaking, strategic partnerships and alliances, and so on.
Job Seekers today must integrate a myriad of strategies into their marketing campaign. For example, it is becoming extremely important to have a website that profiles your career. You will be “googled” by hiring decision makers, and when you are “googled” you must be found! Other strategies include reaching out to recruiters, conducting e-mail campaigns to send your résumé to recruiters and/or companies, writing articles and blogs to become more visible, networking professionally via one-on-one events or group events, conducting cold calls to companies and decision makers, creating scores of additional marketing documents such as Leadership Addendums, Project Profiles, Brand Statements, and other documents. You must market yourself very well through the use of other career documents. If you are not integrating other documents into your job search, now is the time to do so.
2. Failing to Network Correctly. Most people believe that telling a few friends and co-workers to “keep their eyes and ears open for jobs” is networking at its best! Sadly, that’s not a good way to build a network. Networking is a huge topic, and I could write a book about the subject. In summary, you need a powerful network comprised of friends, co-workers (past and present), managers (past and present), neighbors, relatives, people you socialize with, and so on.
Never discount the value of anyone as you do not know who is in their network circle. For example, even a Cashier at a retail store could hold a key to your job search success. You do not know who the Cashier may know. Your neighbor may know about a great job opening, a recruiter, or a person you should contact. Every person has a network, even children have a network. Consider new possibilities. Let 2008 be the year that you build, rebuild, or accelerate your network to new horizons! Think of the possibilities. Don’t forget e-networking as well. Consider joining Internet sites such as linkedin.com to build your online network.
3. Failing to Build a Professional Team To Support Your Job Search. Job searching should not be conducted in a vacuum. It is not an event you should try to hide from other people. There are many professionals that can help you be more successful in your job search. For example, consider hiring a Certified Professional Résumé Writer to help you with your professional résumé, cover letters, and other marketing documents. Other professionals can include a Career Coach, Recruiters, and a Certified Professional Brand Strategist. You should build a professional team (Board of Advisors) to support your job search. Perhaps you need someone to handle administrative tasks related to your job search or someone to make phone calls and order marketing and public relations information from companies.
Trying to conduct a major job search campaign while juggling a stressful work schedule and other responsibilities can be quite challenging. Building a professional team to support your job search can be rewarding!
JoAnn Nix is a Certified Professional Résumé Writer and Career Coach with more than 15 years of experience. She can assist you with professional résumé development and other projects to help you be successful in your job search. She can be reached at 1-800-265-6901 or at info@agreatresume.com. Her website is www.agreatresume.com.
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