10 Job Hunting Tips - Investing in Education that leads to Careers

Posted by: Jan Reha, MA, LHMC (Seattle, Bellevue WA) | Sunday, January 25, 2009 | 0 Comments

On Sunday, January 25, I reviewed the Seattle Times Job Market section, a daily practice of mine to research the job market.

Nick Corcodilos, Ask the Headhunter, speaks about one of many major concerns about the value of degrees or training courses in his article titled “Treat interview process like a courtship”.  Many college degrees or training programs, in fact do not lead into well paid careers.  You need to know where you are going to develop your educational, career and job strategy.

Following are 10 job hunting tips:

1)  To find the right career fit, start with you—what are your interests, motivations, inclinations, natural talents and skills.  Some of the tools include constructing a Genogram to identify your natural and learned inclinations.  5 excellent career inventories including the Strong Interest Inventory, the Jackson Vocational Interest Inventory, the Campbell Interest & Skill Inventory, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the 16 Personality Factors Inventory measure your interests, personality traits, learning style and skills and identify which occupations best fit you.

2) Once you have identified several career options, research the job market to determine the availability of these careers.  Speak to advisers to the college programs to see how many of their graduates obtain employment after graduation.  Check the job market using the search engines like Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, Craigslist.com, local newspapers to note job listings and what skills employers are seeking. Determine what industries, companies within the industries and positions are actually located are in your area.

3) Conduct informational interviews with people in your career choices as well as check out professional organizations to research current job market information.

4) After pin pointing your career and job choice, join professional organizations and specific networks in your specialty to develop contacts.  Volunteer in them to develop a presence and recognition of your skills and talents.

5) Become Internet saavy—create a brand image and web brand by writing blogs to develop credibility in your area of specialization.

6) Now employers search social networks for their employees.  So you need to develop a powerful profile to place on LinkedIn.com and other Social Networks.

7) Next search the Social Networks in your area of specialization, for example, Internet Advertising, to find new contacts to build your Industry Connections.  You can also join vertical industry groups within Social Network Website that exposes you to members of that specific group in this case Internet Advertising.

8) Always stay in touch by reading national and international newspapers, business magazines, journals, and industry publications to discover trends and where money will be invested for job development.

9) Unlike the days of having one job in one company forever, in this Information Age, job hunting requires a continuous, on going, daily effort. 

10) Research companies to determine their corporate culture. Then, determine if you fit their dress style, values, age range and norms.

For more information on career and job trends as well as job hunting tips, subscribe to my email newsletter and Career Blog - About Jobs, Counseling (Bellevue, Seattle, WA).

Filed under: Career Counselor • Career Planning for Young Adults • Career Seattle Bellevue • Educational Planning for Young Adults • Job Hunting Tips •