“Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.” ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Job-Hunting Avenues and Job-Finding Correspondence

Job-Hunting Avenues

The Worst Ways to Look for a Job The five worst ways to look for a job:

The Worst Ways to Look for a Job The five worst ways to look for a job: 1. Using the Internet—posting your resume, job boards— 4% effectiveness (Great tool for researching a company) 2. Mailing out resumes to employers at random—7% success rate 3. Answering ads in a professional or trade journal—7% success rate 4. Answering local newspaper ads—5-24% success rate 5. Going to private employment agencies or search firm for help—5-28% success rate

The Best Ways to Look for a Job 1. Ask for job leads from: a. Family members b. Friends c. People in the community d. Staff at career centers, especially at your local community college or the high school or college where you graduated—33% success rate 2. Knocking on the door of any employer, factory, or office that interests you, whether they are known to have a vacancy or not—47% success rate 3. By yourself, using the phone book’s Yellow Pages to identify subjects of fields of interest to you in the town or city where you are, then calling up the employers listed in that field to ask if they are hiring for the type of position you can do and do well—69% success rate

4. Same as number 3, except work in a group of other job hunters—increasing motivation— 84% success rate 5. Do a life-changing job hunt—86% success rate (this method is 12 times more effective than mailing resumes) a. Identify what you want to do b. Identify where you want to do it c. Information interview d. Research the company e. Spend quality time f. Market yourself

Tips for a Job Hunt 1. No one owes you a job. It won’t be easy—you will have to work hard to find it. 2. Job hunting success is in direct proportion to the effort you put out. 3. Job hunting involves a willingness to change your tactics, if you are trying one method and if it is unsuccessful, change the method. 4. Talk to family, friends etc., to see how they got their job. 5. If you work full-time at it, the shortest job hunt averages 2 to 18 weeks.

6. Forget what is available out there—go after the job you want most—tell your contacts what you are looking for. 7. Go after places that interest you. Don’t wait for a vacancy; go after many different organizations—working with one organization is “job hunting death.” 8. Go face to face with four employers a day or if contacting them by telephone, 40 a day minimum; or if you are contacting them only over the Internet there is no limit. 9. Don’t make excuses. 10. With each rejection you are closer to getting a job.

Do you have tips you’d like to share?

Job-Finding Correspondence

What are we talking about? Resumes Cover Letters Follow-up Communications Applications Portfolios Have you created any of these?

Let’s knock out applications right away! Even though you provide a resume and cover letter to an employer you will often also be required to complete a job application too! Might seem a bit redundant, but if the employer wants it you should complete it Collect application information ahead of time lication.pdf

Resumes....How do I get started? Brainstorm! – Jot down things you have done in... prior and current work experiences clubs/organizations/community volunteer experiences anything you can think of! – Don’t worry about format or organization at this point

What have you done? I worked at Menards OK But what did you do there?

Team Activity In groups of two – Review each other's assignment 1 (exercise 1-1) – Help identify potentially missed skills and abilities by asking your teammate questions about their experiences

Words for resumes An effective resume grabs a reader’s attention, and wording plays a huge part – utilize action verbs or resume power words – mix it up – you’ll often find these words right in the job announcement your applying for anage

Resume Organizational Formats Chronological Functional hybrid mat.html