Find a Job: The Best Ways and the Worst Ways

As with every thing else in life, there are best and worst ways to find a job.
There are effective and ineffective methods of job search.

In general terms, when you do something that does not actively involve interacting with another human being, you will be less successful. When you contact individuals, you will be more successful.

Least Successful Ways of finding work:

1. Answering newspaper, magazine or online job advertisements.
This method averages around 7% success rate, and yet it is the only form of job search that many people engage in. Think about it, when you apply for an advertised job, you are in competition with everyone else who is doing the same. In a tight job market, this can mean hundreds of other job seekers.
It’s by no means impossible to land a good job through the classifieds, or the employment pages on websites, but it is not one of the more successful methods.

2. Mailing resumes to employers, unasked.
If the employer is not actively looking for an new employee with your skills, and your resume arrives uninvited in his/her inbox, (paper or electronic) s/he is unlikely to bother much about it. Of course, if you are lucky, you’re resume will arrive just as someone has handed in their notice … but what are the chances of that!
If you do send out resumes to employers unasked, to make this method at all productive, you must follow up promptly with a phone call (tell the employer in your cover letter that you will do so – the do it!)

3. Listing your name with Employment Agencies
Again, you may get lucky. In the more general jobs, like office administration, you may well get several short term postings, and may even eventually find a company who wants to “buy” you from the agency and give you a permanent job. The lower paying the job you are seeking, the more chance you have for success with this method.
According to Richard Bolles of “What Color is your Parachute”, these methods outlined above all have a below 10% success rate.

However, that does not mean there is no work out there. There is. You just have to know how to find it. Read on:


Most Successful Ways of finding work:

1. Talk to people, everyone and anyone. Ask them not only if they know of any jobs in your field, but also if they know anyone who works in your field that you could talk to – not to ask for a job, just to find out where they think there might be possibilities for you. Usually people have a pretty good idea what is out there in their own field of employment.

2. Cold call on employers even if they don’t appear to be hiring. Phone and ask if you can come in to see them, on in smaller companies, just show up and ask to see the manager or human resource person. If they are busy, ask to make an appointment. Dress professionally, and have your resume with you.

3. Use the Yellow Pages. Look up the index in the Yellow Pages for every heading that might apply to you, the read the entries under each heading. Write down the names of any company you think might employ people with your skills. Either online, or by phone, find out the name of the hiring manager, then proceed as above with a cold call.

The most successful method of all:

Combine all of the above.

Here a great resource to help you find a job.

Job Hunting: let your fingers do the walking

Less and less of us let our fingers do the walking through paper pages any more. It's all online. But ye olde yellow pages still have their uses in job search.

Here is one.

At the front of your yellow pages is an index. It lists all the categories that appear later on in the book.

By scanning down the index you may come up with some category names that are a fit for your job search, that you hadn't previous considered. The reason is that there are so many ways to word various types of businesses, that you may not think of them all.

Reading the index in the yellow pages can show you the ones you've missed.

Of course, what you then do is go to these sections and go down through all the listings and contact each and every company that seems at all likely to hire people with your skills.

This way of job searching has a very high success rate.

Working from home can be a full time, or a part time alternative to a "job."

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Consider less obvious employers

When you're looking for a job, the natural thing is to think of the employers who are most likely to use your services. A Plumber works for a plumbing company, and computer programmer workd for an IT services company, a trainer works for a training company.

These are the obvious.

But when you can't find work with the obvious, or even before trying the obvious, take a look at the less obvious.

An IT guy can work for just about any company. If the company is small, he may work for 2 or more companies.

Any large institution needs all types of maintenance, including a plumber. Industrial plants need plumbers. Hospitals need plumbers. So do hotels.

And training ... government have trainer positions, many organizations use facilitators on a regular basis, that that is just another form of training. With people requiring retraining to find work these days, trainers/ facilitators are in high demand.

These are just a few suggestions. I'm sure you could come up with many more for these 3 jobs.

The point is that whatever your job, you can find work in the unlikeliest places.

So try this exercise.

Look in the yellow pages. I know - no-one reads the yellow pages any more, we all "Google" the company we want on the computer. But for this exercise, use the yellow pages.

Look at the index, and as you read down the list of the various types of companies consider how this industry might use your skills. If you think it's possible, go to the section listed in the index, and read the actual companies. Look at the ads. Consider, again, how could I fit with this company.

When you find something that might work, go to webpages as well as reading the yellow pages ads, and find out more about the companies, what they do, what they want, how they operate.

Work out for yourself how you fit, because when you contact the employer (which is the next step) YOU will have to be able to show him how you fit into this company and industry. He will probably not "do the math" and work it out himself.

Example: I am a Career Counsellor. Once, looking for a fill-in job for a while, I applied for a job as a weight loss consultant. How is this a fit (especially since I had never been on a diet)?

As I told the manager when she interviewed me, in career counselling people come to me with a problem (in this case, they need a job), I have the knowledge to help them, I am willing to listen and encourage. I support them in their transition.

As a weight loss consultant people come to you with a problem (in this case they want to lose weight), I (the job ad said they would train me) have the knowledge to help them, I am willing to listen and encourage. I support them in their transition.

The only difference is the type of knowledge I need. It's the same job. The manager nodded at my explanation and hired me.

So take time to think out where your skills, experience and training fit that is not the obvious. Then take the time to think it through so you have a viable, convincing argument for why you'd be good in this job. Your cover letter is a good place to write that, or face to face on "cold call".

In tougher times, creativity is the name of the game.

Looking for more job search help?
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If you can't get one job, have you considered two or more?

Although less than 50% of workers in North America have full time (37+ hours a week) jobs, that is what most people still think of when they think about "getting a job."
But it's not the only option.

2 or more part time jobs can be a solution. And I know, many people don't want to have several part time jobs, and often the benefits that come with a full time job are not there.

But if you can't get that full time job at the moment, it can be a very viable option.

The benefits of more than one part time job are that you gain a wider variety of skills. Perhaps your 2 jobs are quite different, or perhaps they are doing the same type of work for more than one employer. Either way, you will learn more skills and, if you do a good job, gain more great references.

If boredom has ever been an issue in your work, 2 different part time jobs can ease that considerably.

You will meet more coworkers, and have the opportunity through that not just to make more friends, but also, to hear what else is going on the outside world of work from more people ... giving you a greater chance to hear of full time work when it reappears.

Try looking on the positive.

When you look on the negative all you see are the negative points. But everything has a positive side. Actively look for the positives in the concept of more than one part time job, and you will be surprised how many you will find.

As a confirmed part-time-in-more-than-one-job worker myself, I can tell you quite honestly that I love it, and would never want to have one full time job ever again.

Think about it ... what part time work could you do?
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Informational Interviews: question for the job seeker to ask.

Informational Interviews: questions for the job seeker to ask.

So you're looking for a job, and you've bought into the idea (the GOOD idea) to do informational interviews. You've phoned the appropriate person and arranged a 10 - 15 minute meeting.

What are you going to ask when you get there?

Before you go, write down everything you really want to know from this person.

• How did you get your job?
• What are ways, other than the formal way, to get into this job?
• Have you any tips that might help me get into this type of work?
• What do you like most?
• What is most challenging?
• What do you like least?
• What advice would you give someone getting into this work?
• Any job specific questions, such as what accounting software do you use/ is most widely used in this work?
• What is the salary range? Or, what is a good starting salary?
• Are there any short courses I could take that would make me more employable?
• Is there anything else you think it would be helpful for me to know?
• Do you know of anyone who is hiring at the moment for this work?
  

And the last questions, never to be missed:

• Can you tell me two other people I can talk to about this type of work? and
• Can I mention your name?

Leave when you're time is up, even though you haven't finished your questions ... just jump to the last two ask them, thank the person for their time and their help and leave.

Send a thank you letter within 24 hours, and if you end up through one of the people they recommended, send them another note then to let them know you appreciated the referral.

Remember that you are talking to someone in the same position as you want, or their immediate supervisor. Unless the work you want is in Human Resources, so the people you are interviewing are also in human resources, the person to whom you are talking cannot hire you.

If they say their company is hiring, ask if you may mention you spoke to them when you apply officially to HR for a job.

Keep going. Ask everyone you speak to for 2 other names, and then ask these 2 for 2 other names, etc. This not only has the best chance of landing you a job, it also builds you a network, that properly nurtured can last you a lifetime.

Informational interviews work. Yes, you may get a few rejections, but so what. Keep on going till you find the job you want.

More help finding work.

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What is an Informational Interview?

What is an Informational Interview?

Well, yes, obviously it's an interview where you get information.

But how, where, when and why do you do informational interviews?

You can do them for any of three reasons.

If you want to decide what training or education to get.
If you want to know if a particular job is for you.
If you want to find a job.

An informational interview involves talking to the person who already knows what you want to know and asking them the questions to which you want answers.

How do you set up an informational interview?
You just phone, or e-mail and ask if the person could spare 10 -15 minutes to speak to you, and tell them what you want to speak about.

More detail in exactly how to go about this on other upcoming posts, but for now, just be working out who knows the information you want. Make a list and you're ready for the next step.

Need more help to find that ideal job?

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