How To Create Your Job Plan
The Problem
Wanting a great job is only the first step to getting a great job. But do you know what the next step is? And the step after that? Most people find a job in the same way they might pan for gold: Kinda pick a spot based on gut feeling or circumstance, and just start digging up every rock. Not only will this process take forever, it probably won't deliver a great job.We're here to help you get a job using the tools here inside MicroTrain. We'll show you the process of planning for a job search as well as the steps needed to become a visible and exciting job candidiate. You don't have to use the tools we've set up, but we've developed them specifically around this process, so it will probably be easier.
Because planning your job search can be a complicated process, we suggest you read through this once to get the gist of it, and then come back for more details as you use the tools.
Ready?
Let's Get Started
Now more than ever, a well developed job plan is essential to an effective job search. Your job plan is your personalized sales plan which will help you market you! Like any good plan, there are key elements that are essential for success. Here is a description of what they are and how you should build them.Job Seeker, Know Thyself!
- What city/part of town do I want to work in?
- Do I have adequate transportation to get to that job regularly?
- What job titles am I looking for?
- What kind of salary am I looking for?
- What kind of company do I want to work for (big or small, formal or informal, for-profit or non-profit)?
- Do I know what kind of skills and experience I need to get that job?
Now that you have an understanding of what you’re looking for, let’s figure out how to make it happen.
Be Your Own Boss
Getting a job is a full-time job so you have to be your own boss. That means putting in a full day's work and managing your time. We've tried to help you out on that front by giving you the Job Planner tool. It's just like a calendar, except it's only goal is to get you a job. You can put in activities for a given day (so if you decide you want to spend the morning researching companies, schedule it! If you get an interview for next week, put it in the Planner!) and it will help you keep track of your time. You'll notice that the head's-up display (the area at the top of all the pages when you've logged in) will show you what your next job search activity is on the right.When you've completed an activity or at the end of the day, go back into the planner and mark that you completed it. You should also note how much time you actually spent doing the activity. Don't cheat, because your boss will find out!
To start, go ahead and create an activity to build your resume. Give yourself a few hours to work on it. Don't worry if you haven't build one before, or if you hate working on your resume: we've got tools to help with that.
Create a Set of Professional Marketing Tools
Employers are eager to identify you as the right candidate, hire you and get you started to help their business excel. A resume and cover letter that precisely and clearly present how you are a good fit will capture their attention and spark their interest in you.To help you out, we're created a few videos with documentation and examples that help you understand what's in a good resume and how to build a great cover letter. If you need to find them, they are listed on the Get A Job page and you can watch them as many times as you want.
Once you understand what goes into making a great resume, you might feel a little lost on where to start. Not to worry. Go to our Resume Builder tool. It will walk you through the resume process step-by-step. Start by downloading the resume you submitted to MicroTrain when you first spoke to a Program Director. You can cut and paste from that old one or you can start from scratch. Follow the rules from the resume video and focus on building a resume that shows what value you bring to the employer.
If you're a MicroTrain client, you can have your resume reviewed by our Career Services team by clicking on the Review Resume button, but don't do that until you're completely satisfied with what you've made. When it's done, you can print it as a PDF or Word doc and save it to your computer.
Now that you've got your materials ready, go mark the activity as complete in your Job Planner. Now it's time to find some leads.
Job Search Strategies
Target Company List
Do you have a list of companies you would like to work for? Researching information regarding these companies, open positions and key company contacts can move your job search forward. But how do you determine who to target? Here are a few things you should consider about a company before you add it to your target list:- What is their Vision/Mission
- What are their Products/Services
- Do they show solid Profitability/Growth
- Who are their Competitors
- What is the Location
- Job Opportunities (i.e., types of positions, salary, etc.)
How to Research Your Target Company
Once you have a list of companies to look at, you need to do research. If the company is kinda big, you should start with Google News (http://news.google.com). If you haven't used it before, it's a collection of thousands of news sources online that are bundled togetehr and are searchable. Start by typing in the company name and doing a search. You'll probably see a lot of press releases (and duplicates of press releases), which is a fine place to start. If you're getting a lot of stuff that isn't helpful, try adding the city the company is based in. Spend some time getting to know what people are saying about the company.Next, go to LinkedIn.com and log in (don't have a LinkedIn account? Get one now, they're free). Search for the company (filter by city, if you need to). See what people are saying about the company, what openings are listed, who just left the company and who just got hired. You can even subscribe to the company news and when things change about the company, it will show up on your LinkedIn home page (it's an easy way to keep tabs on your targets).
Finally, go to the company's web site. Read everything you can find. Discover what the company's mission statement is, who their clients are, what industries they focus on, what they are selling, etc. This will help you come up with better questions in the interview and set you apart from the rest.
This doesn’t mean you are going to ignore other places, but that you have a starting place. As you find opportunities that appeal to you, add them to your list. Later, when we hunt for openings, we have a tool to help you do research on prospoective companies in the Job Finder.
Online Job Hunting
Looking for employment online? Great! And even though your online job search is only one aspect of your job plan, it can prove to be effective if done correctly! Identify general job sites (i.e., Indeed.com, CareerBuilder.com, etc.), identify industry-specific job sites (i.e., Dice.com, Jobsinhealthcare.com, etc.), identify regional/local websites (i.e., gcherc.org, etc.), and research websites of target companies.You can use our Job Finder tool to search for jobs in the major feeds (Indeed, Dice, CareerBuilder, Craigslist and Monster) or you can add leads you find elsewhere. Our tools allow you to save job leads, even after they've been removed from other systems and add your own data to the leads. In the Notes field in every lead, you can add your notes, mark the lead as a favorite or that you applied to the job. If you add the company to the lead, you can even use our tool to do research on the company.
Networking
Networking has become one of the most important aspects of a job plan. Thousands of jobs are never posted and having a network contact or “inside connection” can put you in the right place, at the right time, to find the right job! Joining job clubs or establishing a job network of friends, family members or former coworkers improves your connection to opportunities! The goal at each networking event is 5: obtain at least 5 new contacts and speak with at least 5 people regarding your career goal, qualifications and potential openings they can direct you towards.
Social Media & Branding
Think of the hiring process as your future employer deciding whether or not to make an investment in you. And just like you wouldn’t invest without researching all of your options, neither will they. These days, that starts with a thorough internet search of each candidate. So remember to make your online presence solid and professional. It does matter! Where can an employer find you?For more information on how to use social media to enhance your job search, take a look at our video series, cleverly entitled Social Media for Job Hunters.
Job Fairs
Attending job/career fairs can provide opportunities to obtain information regarding job openings and other career resources. They can also provide “live” opportunities to polish your interviewing skills and build your networking list. Just remember this is an interview situation so be prepared: resumes, professional portfolio, business attire.You should add job fairs you know are coming in the future to your Job Planner to make sure you don't forget them. Just click on Create a New Activity and the Attend a Job Fair with the date and how long you expect to go for. If you know of any companies you're looking forward to talking to, add them in the Notes field. When you get back, add companies to your address book and mark the activity as Completed in your Job Planner.
Placement Agencies
A contract position might just be a stepping stone to your ideal job, and many placement companies have full time positions available with solid companies. Many businesses entrust placement agencies to prescreen job candidates and submit them for hiring consideration. So if you are not registered with placement agencies, you might be missing out on a perfect opportunity to find your ideal job. You should add upcoming appointments to your Job Planner to make sure you don't forget. Just click on Create a New Activity and the Talk to a Recruiterwith the date and how long you expect to go for. When you get back, add companies to your address book and mark the activity as Completed in your Job Planner.Move Along The Path
The hardest part of this kind of projects that are big and complicated and have many moving parts, is that its very easy to get lost. What should you do next? Is it a good day to look for jobs or update my resume? Speaking of which, when was the last time I updated my resume? When is that job fair you were thinking about attending? That's why we encourage you to use the Job Planner. Add all your activities for the week on Monday morning, and all week long, you'll know what you need to do next.
Stay on track using our Head's Up Display!
How to Pitch Yourself to Targeted Companies
So you've selected a few companies you'd like to work for. Now what?Well, you could just keep an eye on them through LinkedIn or Google Alerts for when they announce job openings. You'll be ready when they do, as you've researched their business pretty well. But in that case, you're waiting. It's not a very proactive stance, is it? Plus, what if this is a company that doesn't post to the job boards, but instead looks to its friends and people it already have a relationship with? You'll never hear about opportunities that way.
A different approach to take is to not wait, but start to build a relationship with people within the company and pitch yourself as someone who can bring value to their organization. This is a lot more work that waiting for job leads to come to you, but it can really pay off.
First, know that no one likes to be pitched to in a generic fashion. Even if your standard cover letter is all "To whom it may concern," that won't show the level of research you've done. You need to show them that you understand them. Only then will they listen to your pitch. So craft a message specific to that person in that company. Not just in the "Dear..." line, but the entire letter should reflect your knowledge and interest in them, not in a job.
End your pitch with a request to talk more with that person, face-to-face. You want to talk to them, not so you can show off your resume (though you will, in time), but to learn more directly what they do and what they need. In that meeting, ask good questions about what they do, what their challenges are, where they expect to reap the biggest rewards, etc (my favorite question is: What keeps you up at night?). Write it all down. If there's an obvious place to say that you have a resume handy, take it. Otherwise, let it go.
Remember to keep track of all your notes and activities in your Job Planner.
When you leave, craft a follow-up message. Thank them for their time and help. Explain how, based on your conversation, you think you can help them (and be specific). Include your resume and end the letter asking for another meeting to talk about how you can help. Proceed as per usual.
This is how you build a relationship and pitch to a targeted company. Learn about what they need, and show them how you can help them solve their problems. There might not have been a position available when you started, but if you effectively communicate that you can specifically and directly help them, they will find a place for you.
Job Plan Schedule
Remember, searching for a job is about marketing yourself. Everything you use in the job search – the resume, business card, cover letter, blog, twitter, linkedIn profile – is about how to help people see you as someone who is talented, skilled, motivated, and worth employing. No one is going to give you a job because you’re a pretty face, but they will walk across hot coals for someone who knows how to help organizations be successful. You want to be seen as that person.Everything you do during this period should be seen as marketing. Don’t post a lot of gobbled-gook on your blog because your name is attached to it. You want a potential employer to Google your name and see nothing but shining examples of your amazingness.
Think about the job hunt as the tactics you have to employ every day to make it happen. Let’s get started.
Each Week
No one can tell you that all the jobs are in this place or that place. You’re going to have to cast your net wide to find what you really want. This means you’ll need to spend time in a bunch of different places: online, in the field, at networking events and job fairs, and talking to professional recruiters. But you can’t do all those things all the time. That’s why we recommend you spread it out across the whole week:Each week, pick one day and spend it doing one of the following things:
Attend a Job Fair/Job Club/Networking Event. Be sure to bring business cards, resumes and any other personal marketing materials you have. Dress to impress, wear a big smile and be friendly to everyone you meet (you never know who’s a hiring manager). Then follow us with everyone you met when you get home. 4 hours including follow-up time.
Apply Online. All those jobs you found online and in the paper? Pick a two days and apply for all of them. Some companies require you fill out their application on their website with their tools, and it can take a lot of time filling out each field just right. Depending on how many jobs you found, this can take 2-6 hours.
Go Talk to Recruiters. Call a recruiter or two and schedule meetings with them. Treat it like a regular interview: bring your resume and all your marketing material and get dressed up. If these people are impressed with you, they will pass that along to hiring managers. 2-4 hours.
Check In with Career Services. If you’ve a client, you have access to help from MicroTrain. If you have any questions or need someone to take a quick look at your new resume, we’re here to help!
Take Time to Review. Once a week, look over what you are ending out. Could your resume have more power words? Could your cover letter get to the point faster? Could you word that part better? Maybe a blog post suggested something to add you never thought of? Once a month, try re-writing your resume or cover letter from scratch to see if you can make it better. Then incorporate the new with the old to make something great. Remember, you’re never “done.” Until you get the job. Your material could always get a little better, but it won’t if you don’t put in the time.
Day to Day
So just like you plan out your day at work, you need to plan out your day. If you’re going to spend seven to eight hours a day searching and working, how are you going to spend that time?Spend an hour going over your favorite job boards looking for openings. You don’t have to apply immediately, but save them and do them in one big chunk twice a week.
Spend an hour every day reading. You can read about your industry (stick to trade journals and more official sites with short trips to the gossipier blogs), you can look for job hunt hints (for example, we offer a Hump Day Hunting Help blog that shows you 8-15 good links to job hunting help), or reading news about a target company.
Spend an hour every day being social. Write a blog post, comment in LinkedIn group conversations, Twitter, or get on some industry forums. Make your presence felt and your expertise obvious. And remember, anywhere you post, leave your URL!
Spend 15 minutes updating. Go report your resume on all those job boards and maybe tweak something in your LinkedIn profile. This keeps all your material sparkling fresh and up to date, but also helps your resume show up towards the top of search lists (they are commonly sorted by “last updated” date).
Spend 5 minutes noting your time spent. Use out Time Tracking Tool to keep track of how your spent your day and where all your time went.
Here’s an example of a week-long plan you can follow to make sure you stay on task:
| Monday | Research Internet job sites and newspapers for job leads and submit resume (Minimum 15 verifiable leads). Then, network. |
| Tuesday | Online application Day for Fortune 500 companies & Government agencies. (Check the Business section of your favorite newspaper for listings, Minimum 15 verifiable leads.) Then, network. |
| Wednesday | Seek out recruiting firms. The more recruiters you have working for you the chances of gaining employment is greater. Set up a time to meet with the recruiters in person and/or follow up on leads and interviews they have arranged. Then, network. |
| Thursday | Follow up Day. Go to your documentation from Monday through Wednesday of the companies or agencies you submitted to for employment. Find out the status of your resume or application. Then, network. |
| Friday | Get out of the house! While you’re out, stop by several local companies to inquire whether there are positions available and leave your resume with the manager. Be sure to document for follow up next Thursday. Go home and reflect on all of your accomplishment over the past 5 days. You’ve done a GREAT job … now go network. |
