Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 27, 1994                   TAG: 9402220253
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GERTHA COFFEE COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: ATLANTA                                LENGTH: Medium

HOW TO SEARCH FOR WORK

There are many reasons for that fear, of course. But experts agree that what people fear most is rejection.

You can minimize rejection, says author Richard Nelson Bolles, by approaching your job search as if it were a career decision rather than a loss, and by carefully choosing the places where you want to work. At that stage, you should ignore whether those employers have vacancies, Bolles says in the 1994 edition of "What Color Is Your Parachute?" a manual for job hunters and career changers. The point is to pin down exactly what you want to happen.

That contrasts with what most people actually do, he added. The usual job-hunting process in this country - resumes, classified ads, agencies and the like - "is no system at all," Bolles says.

"In any given city, there is an employer wandering around trying to find somebody with particular experience and skills, while at the same time there is in that same city a job hunter wandering around who has that experience and those skills, and neither of them knows how to find each other. That's Neanderthal, believe me."

In that spirit, Bolles offers the most and least effective methods of finding a job. He compiled the following list by reviewing surveys, including one that included 10 million job hunters:

Use the placement office of the school or college you attended (successfully leads to a job for 21 of every 100 job hunters).

Ask relatives for job leads (success rate is 27 of every 100 job hunters).

Ask friends for job leads (34 of every 100 job hunters).

Apply directly to an employer, factory or office in person (47 of every 100 job hunters).

The creative approach to job hunting (86 of every 100 job hunters). This process includes identifying the skills you most enjoy using, determining where you most want to use those skills, and finding jobs that use your favorite skills and favorite fields of knowledge.

The five least effective methods for finding a job, according to Bolles, are:

Using computer-bank listings or registers (failure rate is 96 of every 100 applicants who try it).

Answering local newspaper ads (failure rate is up to 95 of every 100 applicants).

Going to private employment agencies (failure rate is 95 of every 100 applicants).

Answering ads in professional or trade journals (failure rate is 93 of every 100 applicants).

Mailing out resumes by the bushel (failure rate is 92 out of every 100 job hunters).