Think of your job search as a journey, one of the most important you’ll ever make, along the lines of a flying an airplane across the ocean.
Have you ever heard of a pilot who didn’t consult his maps before and during his journey?
Do you think the flight is perfect?
Do you think the winds and rain and other airplanes don’t effect the flight?
Of course not.
Pilots who don’t adjust and monitor their flights won’t last long — it’s too easy to get off course just a little bit each hour, until the airplane is hopelessly off course.
The same will happen with your job search if you don’t consult your “plan” at least once a week, and make course corrections.
To do this and stay on course, you should hold a 30-minute meeting with yourself weekly. Do the following:
- Repeat out loud and reaffirm your Job Search Objectives:
- What’s the exact title of the job you seek?
- What salary do you want?
- What 3 skills do you want to use?
- What’s your target company or working environment?
- Regular repetition of your objectives will burn your goal into your brain. I read my goals every morning!
- What’s working? Do more!
- What’s not working? Try to figure out what is wrong and make an adjustment or just drop it.
I’m reminded of the forlorn and pathetic-looking man on the front page of The Wall Street Journal. He had had been standing on a street corner for nearly three months holding a sign that said: “I NEED A JOB … 36 YRS EXPER; INSUR/MNGMNT.”
Apparently, this man had never thought long and hard enough about his job search to STOP doing something that clearly was NOT working. He remained out in the wind and weather begging for work, hoping something would fall into his lap. For all we know, he’s still there ….
Don’t do that. Don’t be the fellow doing the same thing everyday, the same things that don’t work.
I do this for each of my businesses. I actually spend 2 hours every week compiling different numbers from my Curves business for the express purpose of taking 10 minutes to review the numbers. I look at how many calls we get from new potential members, how many turn into members, from what sources. Then I look at how many members are working out, how many haven’t shown up, and then I look at the core sales and expenses.
I compare each week to the same week in the previous month, and the end of the month I compare my numbers against the last three months.
Guess what? Every Thursday the exact status of my Curves business. I can see what is working and what is not working. I can see when problems are starting and when they are getting better.
There are many more positive things that happen from this.
Action Step: Have a 30-minute meeting with yourself every week and analyze your job search activities. How many resumes were sent, how many people were contacted, how many job boards were check, what was the response, how many LinkedIn connections do you have. Count everything and analyze the results. Then decide what’s working? Do more of that. What’s not working? Change your approach, or drop it altogether. Then plan your efforts for the next 7, 30, 60 and 90 days.
Do you actually have a job search plan, if not Guerrilla Job Search System gives you what you the job search plan to get you the job you want.
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This job hunting post was adapted from content provided to by my good friends Kevin Donlin and David Perry, co-creators of the Guerrilla Job Search System.
Kevin and David have been interviewed by CNN, New York Times, Fortune magazine, and the Christian Science Monitor about their method to finding a job.
Get a free audio from Kevin and David on how to get your job search into high gear
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