Your Individual Job Hunt

Increase your effectiveness in finding work by tailoring your job hunt to fit your individual situation. As you’re exploring job lead sources and job opportunities be clear about the parameters of your career search.

Position Preferences to Consider

• Pay Rate One of the first things people want to talk about when discussing a job hunt is. "How much am I going to get paid?"

  Your desired rate of pay needs to be within a range supported by the job market you're in. If it isn't, there is no job lead source that can help you. (I offer an in depth discussion of pay rates including how to determine market rates here.)
  
  

• The types of employment you're interested in. There are four kinds of employment. (Not to be confused with Types of Placement.) They are part-time, full-time, contract/temporary or self employment.

  Part-time employment is less than 40 hours a week. You could be employed directly on the company's payroll or you could be on a staffing company's payroll. Generally speaking if you work for less that 30 hours a week you won't qualify for company benefits.

  Full-time employment is work consisting of 40 hours a week. When people use the term full-time most of them also mean you're on the payroll of the company at which you work.

  Contract or temporary employment generally means you're on a staffing company's payroll. You aren't on the payroll of the company for which you're performing the job.

  Self Employment means you're on your own payroll, make your own hours and generally control most of the factors surrounding your employment. You could be working as an independent contractor or running a company. By definition you're paying yourself out of revenue generated by your company.

• The type of pay you're most comfortable with. Some possibilities include: Hourly vs. Salaried; Exempt vs. Non-exempt; or by finished project vs. time spent working.

  Hourly workers keep track of their hours worked either manually or electronically and are paid accordingly. Hourly workers get paid for overtime. The rate of pay for anytime worked over 40 hours is usually higher.

  If you're a salaried employee you will be either salaried exempt (from getting overtime pay) or salaried non-exempt (you get paid for overtime). Non-exempt salaried employees are usually self directed but they do get compensated for overtime hours.

  Exempt employees generally have a higher degree of responsibility such as for hiring and firing employees. Their performance expectations are usually based on delivering a particular business outcome.

• What kind of work you've done in the past. Think in terms of your on-the-job accomplishments as well as job function and if appropriate industry

• What you would like to do next. Think in terms of what you do best and what you've most enjoyed doing.

• Your knowledge, skills and abilities.This typically includes 'soft' skills such as industry knowledge, management skills, people skills and other personal aptitudes as well as hard (measurable) skills such as computer skills. Don’t forget abilities you've demonstrated through volunteer or community service work.

• How current your skills are.This of course depends upon how recently you've used them and whether you've stayed current in skills you're not actively using. (If you need to brush up on spreadsheet, word processing or other software, look into applying with a local staffing company. Many full service and temporary help firms offer free access to software tutorials.)

• The benefits that you need. Benefits could include health insurance, life or disability insurance, vacation pay, sick pay, dental insurance etc. While it's generally true that larger companies tend to offer more benefits, there are also a fair number of small to mid-sized companies that do as well. Which makes this aspect of your job hunt connected to....

• The type of company you want to work for. Are you most interested in large national or international corporations; medium sized regional offices or locally owned companies; or small businesses? The more limiting you are on this one, the fewer choices your job hunt will uncover.

• Whether there are few or many jobs available for people with similar skills. If there is a shortage of people with your skills and those skills are in high demand, you're in a strong negotiating position. Your job hunt should uncover many appropriate opportunities.

  On the other hand if there is an abundance of people available in your area of expertise, your job hunt needs to include a wider range of job lead sources. You will also need to be creative in presenting your unique attributes.

• Your location and how far you're willing to commute. The most limiting words a job seeker can utter are "I'm only interested in jobs in my area." With the price of gas going up, up, up, you may be tempted to go there too.

  Self employment or telecommuting may be options to consider if your desired function allows for that. But generally speaking, the closer your geographical boundaries are, the fewer job choices you will have.

  If this is your situation, your job hunt should include a wide variety of job lead sources. In any case, your best bet is to make a balanced decision by considering pay rate vs. cost to commute.

• Whether or not you’re currently working. What you've heard is true…The best time to find a new job is while you’re still employed. To take that even further, the less time between jobs, the greater your odds are of finding work. Don't get discouraged though if you've been out of work for a while now, there are actions you can take to increase the odds of your success.

• How much time you have before you must earn some money. If you need money yesterday, consider short term temporary work as a way to bridge the gap. (Since you would typically be working for the staffing company at their clients' place of business, you can honestly list this experience as working for one company; even if you go on several "assignments".)

• The level of the position you seek will also impact which job lead sources will be most effective for you. For example: executive or higher level management positions are less plentiful and recruitment is generally conducted on a confidential basis. Peer-to-peer networking and headhunters or executive recruiters would be good job lead sources to pursue in this case.

  Compare that with say call center customer service positions. Corporate recruiters will typically cast a broad net to find individuals when they have a lot of openings to fill. In that case applying directly to the hiring company you are most interested in is usually (but not always) the best course of action.
  

• How broadly you want your availability known. There are two schools of thought in this area. One is the blast approach which holds that the more resumes you get out into the marketplace the better. The other is a more focused approach in which you are selective about where and to whom your resume is sent.

  If you’re currently working but looking to make a change a more focused approach makes sense for a number of reasons. But if your need to find a job is more immediate you should be open minded about where your resume goes.

Keep in mind that every limitation you place on the positions you're willing to consider will decrease the number of opportunities your job hunt will uncover.

Not all considerations listed here will come into play for every individual. But if you spend a few minutes considering your personal situation before you start your job hunt you will save yourself valuable time. Not to mention keeping yourself out of situations that might cause you to burn bridges.