Chapter 1. Job Search as my own Business

Unemployed = self-employed?
Yes, you have that right! Corny as it sounds, searching for a job IS a job in itself, though it’s rare that anyone takes this statement seriously. Who wants to get up at 9:00 a.m. to work on job searching until 5:00 p.m.? Not many people, that’s for sure. It’s tough to stay focused and motivated, but unless you make it a point to spend at least three hours a day devoted to yourself AND your search, you will find your search progressing longer than you’d like.

Start from little
All this sounds nice at the onset – after all, we know that we’re great, right? We think that posting a resume on a few websites and sending a couple of cover letters will convince employers to seek us out. Not so, especially when your resume is frequently competing against 300+ other resumes! In addition to an aggressive resume distribution (via blasting sites, direct contact, newspaper ad responses and networking), you have to be sure that you’re using the right resume, are following up and are sending out enough of that “perfect” resume. Additionally, you need to be utilizing ALL job search avenues, not just part of some! Although you’ve already heard a hundred times that job search is a kind of job, it can’t be stated enough. As with any other serious work, job search activity has to be strictly organized. More precisely, we have to organize ourselves, the hardest part of all! I am not convincing you to become an iron-willed giant, of course, but why not to start from little? From a career organizer, for instance.


What is a career organizer and how can it help me?
Take a blank letter size multi-subject notebook with color dividers between sections (similar to one that a student would use) and write down the main components of your job search process on the dividers. However, it really doesn’t matter how it’s organized, as long as you understand it AND you utilize it! The organizer should keep everything you need for job search together (your job search strategies, various versions of your resume, your interview appointments, where you’ve sent your resume, etc.)Your personal organizer is better than all websites and software designed for job search planning because it will save your time and money and is customized BY you FOR your needs! You may create such an organizer in electronic form, but, I think, a paper organizer is better due to its portability. Additionally, when completing job applications, you’ll need to revert back to good old handwriting, not computer typing – so this is good practice! You can also take your organizer to your job interviews and if your prospective employers/ recruiters are enough curious demonstrate it to them as the first proof of your self-organization. Finally, in the future you will have the pleasure to present your friends or relatives with this unique step-by-step guide to finding a job.

How to keep the career organizer
If you have no idea how to keep this organizer, here are a few things we’ve learned ourselves:

Create four basic sections in it including:
1. My career strategy
2. My job search process
3. My resumes and cover letters.
4. Scheduling of my calls, visits and interviews.

Leave a room for additional sections as well.

The Career strategy can be used to make a research work such as defining your career goals, your personal marketing and other strategic staff. In job search process section I would plan the using of five major job search approaches I know (Internet, job agencies, newspapers, networking and cold visits).Resume and cover letter sections would definitely contain the drafts and final copies of my various resume and cover letter versions and in the Scheduling section, you may just wish to paste an agenda.

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