Getting Started in Career Transition

If your goal is to identify and secure a new position, then you should prepare your search as a "business model", manage it accordingly, be flexible, and be ready for the unexpected. Here are some time tested tips to get you started:

1. Have a "business-as-usual" attitude...Manage your search as you would your business or job and you will earn success faster. While rejection may be part of the process, it can be avoided. The skill of being recruited can be learned.

2. Have reasonable expectations...Analyze what you have to offer, listing your abilities, marketability, compensation, work environment and relocation, then validate these expectations with peers, other job hunters, and/or recruiters.

3. Determine your career objective...This will help focus your actual search. Have a Personal Market Plan, including identification of key Professional Resources Online. Look for specific titles, target industries and companies. This focus will expand your possibilities, not limit them.

4. "WORDCRAFT" your resume...Create “The Book on YOU,” a forward looking "story" of what YOU CAN DO. Target your accomplishments, such as increased sales and profits, reductions in costs, etc. Focus on achievements that support your qualifications for your job goal.

5. Develop confidence in your ability to answer anticipated questions throughout the process...Prepare as you would for a business presentation; don't try to wing it. High impact, polished “verbal collaterals” that support your resume and other “written collaterals,” are critical to your success! Be prepared for basic questions and tough issues in advance and study them.

6. Modify and improve your Personal Market Plan’s implementation model as needed...As you move through your search, make adjustments as you would a business model. Ask for input from people you respect. Account for BOTH the traditional and “the other” job market in your planning and implementation tactics.

Embrace The Other Job Market!

You see, in every marketplace, there are buyers and sellers. In the traditional job market, the one that our Department of Labor measures for us, job seekers are the sellers and their potential employers are the buyers. The commodity is productive work and the competition is fierce.

In the OTHER Job Market, buyers and sellers hold equal responsibility for the recruitment process. When employers have a need for someone to fulfill a specific role, often the most desired candidates are employed individuals with the credentials they seek. Thus the employer must sell their Company to potential employees in the marketplace in order to attract the best of the lot. Once identified, they simply select their choice and buy their services.

On the other hand, if an individual is under-employed, seeking a change, or actually unemployed, they must be visible to potential employers who are seeking their services. Creating this visibility is strategic, personal market planning and execution—in can be marketability without rejection!

Personal Marketing is a contact sport.

The very nature of traditional job search takes the job seeker right into the teeth of the Corporate screening process, and subjects them to maximum competition.

WHY DO THAT?

Rather, come to understand the “hidden reality” that there are two job markets out there, tied together like the double helix of the DNA molecule. Combined, the two marketplaces form a 24/7, 365 days a year opportunity of employment. Enjoy the “shopping” ahead.

>> MORE on "Embracing the OTHER Job Market."

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