Finding the Job Part I: General Advice

CareerCatalyst > Career Ref. Center > Finding the Job: I. General Advice [II] [III] [IV]

I. General Advice
Job-Search Preparation
Miscellaneous Tips
First Job/New Grad

II. Job-Search Strategies
General Advice
Networking: Advice, Online Networking Resources
Internet
Want Ads/Classifieds
Temping: Advice, Major Agencies/Staffing Services
Employment Agencies: Advice
Executive Recruiters: Advice, Directories
Career/Job Fairs: Advice, Listings
Teaming
Volunteering
Hidden Job Market
Job Hunting While Still Employed

III. Job-Search Maintenance
Organization & Time Management
Staying on Track
Handling Rejection

IV. Company Research
General Advice
Finding the Right Fit
Resources
Company Job Listings
Top Companies (listed in separate section)

Job-Search Preparation

• Job Search Preparation
Planning and organizing are critical to job search success. This outstanding step-by-step guide should be required reading for anyone beginning a job search.

• Job Hunt Preparation Checklist
This checklist is designed to help you with your job search, but it will also help with other areas you need to consider in making a transition to another job. Geared toward those who have involuntarily lost their jobs but useful for all job seekers.

• Career Search Readiness Assessment
Are you really ready to search for the ideal job and career? This assessment educates you on preparedness and measures how ready you are to actively look for a job or career change.

• Employment Search Readiness Inventory
A 13-question assessment tool. Employment search readiness refers to those actions that each of us should be doing in order to maximize our chances of "getting ahead" or taking advantage of new opportunities.

• Employability Quotient Quiz
Do you know your employability quotient (E.Q.)? Here's a quick quiz to find out how career self-directed you are.

• Marketability Test for Job Seekers
Ask yourself these 25 questions.

Miscellaneous Tips

• How to start a job search
When you start your job search, don’t skip the obvious questions. But, don’t let convention keep you from addressing the difficult ones.

• ResumeMaker's 25 job-hunting tips
Here are 25 tips to learn how to maximize your time, your effectiveness, and your chances of success in your next career search.

• A job-search primer for executives
By learning the ABCs of successful job hunting, you’ll accelerate your campaign and wrap up your search while other candidates are still preparing resumes.

• The myth of the last-minute job search
One of the greatest mistakes people make when job hunting is starting late. They wait until the last minute -- when they've lost their job, or when they're itchy to move. The earlier you start your job search, the better prepared you
will be to find the right job.

• Job-hunting fallacy #1: Don't worry, it's a job hunter's market!
So, by merely tossing your resume up in the air, you should be able to get an interview and a job offer, negotiate a great compensation package and get a job, right? Think again.

• Job-hunting fallacy #2: Job hunting is a numbers game!
The ease with which e-mail can be sent to thousands of employers turns otherwise talented, smart people into hopeful gamblers. But the numbers strategy is not the best way to win a good job.

• Eight tips that can help you land a job
Practice your elevator speech and don’t get thwarted by the gatekeeper when you try to storm the castle.

• Secret to job hunting: Go where others don't
Job-hunting is a sophisticated art. The trend is away from "applying for a job"
someone else has vacated, and toward "marketing your services." Here are six lessons from advertising that may help you.

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• One way to get a foot in the door
Volunteering: Consultants say the route has become a popular one with savvy
job-seekers -- especially in today's highly competitive employment market.

• Top 10 secrets to job search success

• Creating a job -- when one doesn't exist
One of the most common misperceptions by job seekers is that if a company is not advertising for a specific individual or if the human resources department is not actively looking to fill a position, there are no openings in the organization.

• Top 10 ideas when pursuing a long-distance job search

• How to target the job you want
A job target means selecting a specific geographic area, a specific industry or
organization size, and a specific position within that industry.

• The Zen Buddhist way to find a good job
Central to any successful job hunt are a relaxed, positive attitude, a clear understanding of aptitudes and interests, and an ability to perform effectively while networking and interviewing. Zen can be applied to all of these aspects of the career search.

• Six job search secrets they never tell you
Once mastered and employed, these "laws of the job search" can make the
job search interesting, fulfilling and actually productive.

• Secrets of an effective job seeker
An effective career seeker has these thoughts -- and takes these actions -- in the process of finding the right niche.

• The three secrets of successful job hunting
Why are some people so successful at job hunting? Here are three reasons.

• To get that job -- communicate
The bottom line: The better you communicate, the better job you'll get and the sooner you'll get it.

• Navigating the new job market
Take some initiative and "follow your bliss."

• Should you consult while job hunting?
The benefit is that consulting projects are often easier to land than a "real job," because the employer has to make less of a commitment. It's rather easy to connect two or three part-time positions to replace your full-time income.

• Following the other's instinct to find a job
Men and women may be created equal, but it's not unusual for each to search for a job in demonstrably different ways. To increase the job-hunt odds, men and women might do well to take tips from one another's instinctive approaches to the challenges and stresses of finding work.

• Preferences, biases and prejudices are reaching epidemic proportions
Thousands of job hunters have become stymied in their search to find new positions because they are suffering from severe cases of "I-don't-want-to-itis."

• Job choice must always further career goal
Though most individuals acknowledge the importance of having a job, many do not recognize the importance of occupying the right job. You must know how you fit in order to best benefit yourself. These four guidelines may be helpful in arriving at a successful choice.

• Competition, standards tough in job market
Because of increased competition and higher hiring standards, it has become more important than ever for a job applicant to convince the interviewer that he or she is the best person for the specific job. Here are tried-and-true tips for coming out on top in today's rigorous job market.

• Becoming the total employee package: Marketing yourself as a
product to potential employers
The key in marketing yourself as a job seeker is to show the potential employer how you can meet his or her needs.

• There's not time like the holidays for making contacts
Reasons to job hunt in December.

• Basics 1: Everything you know about job hunting is wrong
When you start searching for a new job, place a renewed emphasis on your work and your ability to do it. That's what yields a job offer -- not your resume or clever answers to the Top Ten Stupid Interview Questions.

• Basics 2: The $30,000 strategy
This headhunter will tell you what distinguishes the headhunter's approach -- and his point of view -- from that of the typical job hunter.

• Basics 3: Job hunting skills
Any good headhunter will tell you that employers don't pay for job-hunting skills. On the other hand, every personnel jockey will emphasize the importance of "learning to play the game."

• Will job seekers take all tax deductions?
If accurate records of job-search expenses are not maintained, the chance to
benefit from tax deductions could be missed.

• How a job search could affect your tax return
Q&A with a CPA.

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First Job/New Grad

• It takes more than a degree to get your career started
A clear understanding of the differences between job and career becomes critical when graduates consider their initial decision between employment options.

• Ten commandments for career success

• New grads need to adopt realistic salary demands

• "I'm just starting my job search. How do I begin?"

• "I'm just graduating from college. Should I approach my job search
differently?"

• "How do I re-enter the job market after a few years off?"

• Job Hunting 102: I have my new degree so where's my job?

• 25 tips to being organized in your first job

• Look in unlikely places to find that first job

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CareerCatalyst > Career Ref. Center > Finding the Job: I. General Advice [II] [III] [IV]

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