By Rich Albright
A good number of us have spent time searching the job boards, coffee cup in hand, pen and paper standing ready to send off our newly polished resume in hope of landing that next job. A vast majority of job seekers have a keen awareness of their goals and skills and have a well-planned job search campaign. In today's market, however, they still come up empty-handed.
With millions of people out of work the experts predict the average job search will be carried on for six to nine months before the candidate finds a job or gives up trying.
New Job, New Career
Career changers should emphasize their transferable skills. Review your resume. Have you articulated your experience clearly and emphasized the transferability of your skills? Have you included experience you gained from volunteer work? Have you removed jargon related to specific industries? Examples include industry specific acronyms. After all, the big project you completed last year using "ROMTiL" will be completely foreign to recruiters in a different industry.
Don't forget to look at the non-profit sector jobs. Many of these positions require people with skill sets you may possess.
Leverage Your Experience
Leverage those tasks and activities that worked for you in your current or previous career. Are you great at working in groups? Can you take on projects single-handedly? Are you adept at using all the new software found in most offices? Keep all these aspects in mind and fine tune your resume to draw attention to your skilled experiences.
Recruiters
All job searches are about making contact with the recruiter. You need contacts, and plenty of them. Seek out recruiters in your industry. If you are switching careers, build a network of new contacts. Seek out alumni, organization members, church members, and community leaders. All of them know a recruiter. Recruiters do talk to one another, even across industries. Getting your name mentioned could mean the difference between either getting the interview or going unnoticed.
State and Federal Positions
Opportunities exist at both state and federal government levels. The competition, however, is just as stiff as it is in the private sector. Local searches for these positions are easier, but those out-of-town openings come with the added difficulties of geographic distance. In these cases it might serve you well to rely on a recruiting agency with internal contacts.
Beware the phishing scams
Job searches can become labor intensive. As time passes you may be inclined to use recruiting agencies. That can be a good move, but unfortunately, there are "recruiters" out there ready to empty what remains of your bank account. They prey on your emotions and make promises of a job opportunity or a great money making scheme only to leave you poorer and still searching weeks later. Let your common sense prevail - it's the old saying - if it sounds too good to be true...
The End Game
Be persistent. There are literally hundreds of job search engines online. Some are industry specific, while others offer jobs in just about every category imaginable. Place your resume on the big job boards as well as the smaller ones. Niche job sites might provide you greater opportunities; it's the numbers game. If you are offered a job with lower compensation than you are accustomed to or wanted, weigh all the factors, especially if you are unemployed before making a decision to accept or decline the offer. Remember a career in a new field may not pay as much, even with your great transferable skill sets.
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