Job Search Strategies

A LITTLE MORE ABOUT SELF-ASSESSMENT

Your future success hinges upon your unique combination of skills, abilities, and qualifications that are highly marketable. These skills and abilities could be as simple as reviewing large amounts of material quickly, and being able to assess the utility of these materials in consideration of organizational goals. I.e. you just said you are:

• Able to prioritize, organize, and manage time wisely...
• You also said you are: Detail / Result oriented...
• Did you do this by yourself: Able to work independently...
• Did you do this as a group: Work well as a team member...
• Easily establish rapport and productive work relationships...

See how it works! You must think about and realize how important each of your attributes are and how they apply to a particular, concrete circumstance. How do your skills and abilities apply to the needs and requirements of a prospective employer?

Another example: Let's say you have excellent written communication skills. How have you used this attribute - you researched, analyzed and wrote in-house newsletter informing and recongnizing employees of educational and community service opportunities and reward. What were the results? Motivated employee interest in company tuition reimbursement educational program and community service. Received positive response from phone and letters - increasing response by 40% over last year.

Don't be afraid to use single words in your resume's QUALIFICATIONS category: Dependable; Result-Oriented (it's only one word when hypenated); Analytical; Published. Do not use several single words. One or two is sufficient.

And remember, use the language and skills of the career you are pursuing, not of the one you are leaving. Example: You are a teacher moving into industry, describe your skills in terms of training, development, planning and evaluation. Example: you are a nurse moving into sales - use terms such as product knowledge, utilization, interpersonal skills, establish confidence and rapport ...

There are miriad of software packages and resume books available to you, but if you don't use your imagination and creativity to prepare a powerful self-portrait, you will end up with a resume / cover letter exactly like hundreds of others. Remember, your presentation (resume / cover letter) could be competing with from 10 to 500 other presentations. You must pay special attention to the creation of your presentation so that, from the start, it piques the interest of the reader and READS like no other cover letter / resume they have received.

In order to obtain a satisfying career position in today's competitive job market you must be prepared to work at - 'job-finding.' Treat your job search AS A JOB IN ITSELF.