Beginning your job search with clarity is the most important thing your can do.
Unfortunately, many times it’s the most difficult for many people, because it requires you to do two very difficult things: think and say no.
You must first think and get clear about the job you want and the employers you want to do it for. This stymies many, because, as Henry James wrote, “A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.”
I have a friend who has been job hunting for months, has had no success, he refused to this simple step.
Once he took the step, all of a sudden he was activated and things started to happen.
Second, you must say no to a huge number of potential jobs and employers, so you can focus your efforts on the “vital few” areas where you could get hired fastest.
This is difficult, because our instincts are to avoid closing the door on any possibility for work.
Thus, instead of telling folks that we’re looking for a position as an office manager with a mid-size law firm in Chicago, for example, we say we’re looking for something in administration or human resources at any company … and then we wonder why the phone doesn’t ring.
The phone didn’t ring because none of the people you know knew in detail what you wanted. If they know where and what, when its presented to them, they will think of you.
This is a common problem found in marketing as well. When you say everybody is your customer, you spread yourself so thin, nothing can be done.
A simple story to explain the mechanics of it.
When I receive a FedEx letter, it gets my attention, and I open it immediately. I can almost bet, everybody else is exactly the same.
Imagine that you FedEx your resume to “everybody”. You certainly couldn’t do it on a $200 budget. But if you had a list of 20 companies, a $200 budget will pretty much cover your costs to send each one of them a FedEx.
Now don’t run out and do that. There are a couple of things you need to do first:
- Do your research properly. That does not mean five minute review of the website.
- Make sure your resume meets the Guerrilla Job Search system standard.
- Write your cover letter with the Guerrilla Job Search four paragraph format.
- Properly prepare for the interview as if it was the first day on the job.
- Have your follow up plan in place.
To achieve success in your job search, narrow your focus. You can always change jobs or careers later, after you’re hired. But to get hired, you must do the thinking for employers and tell them how everything you’ve done before qualifies you for that one, specific job you want to do next.
And it all starts with clarity.
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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.
Finding a job is hard, most people don’t know how to do it, and the results are months of needless waiting.
I recommend that you check The Guerrilla Job Search System to get a job and stop waiting.
Click here to understand how the Guerrilla Job Search System can shorten your job search significantly.
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