ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 28, 1996 TAG: 9601260015
SECTION: ECONOMY PAGE: 17 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CAMILLE WRIGHT MILLER SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
The perfect want ad would end by listing your name and asking you to call. Or the company, despite receiving 150 resumes, calls because only you fit its needs.
Lovely daydreams.
And far from reality. Job searches are daunting, depressing, demoralizing and often fruitless.
Unnecessarily so, considering most people seeking new jobs already know the person who can help them find employment. Seekers, unfortunately, seldom take advantage of that knowledge.
More than 80 percent of all jobs are found through personal contacts. The remainder are located through a small number of avenues.
People who find jobs use a strategy, a written self-marketing plan. Carefully followed, it should lead to employment within six to nine months.
Successful strategies use all of the following paths, from networking to newspaper help-wanted classifieds, simultaneously.
Networking, the most important tool to employment, is asking for help in locating possibilities. The more people involved in helping identify possibilities, the sooner one is employed.
Complete networking entails lists of friends, family, colleagues, friends of family members, and every organization one belongs to along with its members. Additional lists include high school and college friends with whom one keeps in touch.
Former employers and colleagues also should be included in the network. A recent survey by Lee Hecht Harrison, a New York-based outplacement firm, found that, of 540 unemployed executives, one-third of job seekers get networking help from their former bosses.
Call everyone, explain job interests, and ask for help in identifying prospects. Many calls will end with referrals being offered. Then make follow-up contacts by sending resumes and thank-you notes. Keep calling helpful individuals until employed.
Information interviews are successful - and underutilized. Gaining an interview is usually as simple as calling and asking for the person who has or supervises the position you want.
Express interest in that field, and ask for a short meeting to learn more about the profession. For those already in the field, the focus shifts to talking about changes and opportunities.
Candidates prepare a list of questions that demonstrate both interest and knowledge of the field. That knowledge and their demeanor often lead to job offers or additional referrals.
The Internet is a growing source of employment leads, with thousands of job listings posted. One new free employment service (located at http//www.careerpath.com) features job listings from major newspapers. Some employers require modem transmission of a resume, others request mailed hard copies.
Targeted direct-mail campaigns, although not notably effective, shouldn't be ignored. Targeting only companies where one would really like to work, applicants call for the name of the person who should receive the resume.
Cover letters highlight, along with one's skills, reasons why employment there is desirable. Targeted mailings are followed by phone calls asking for an interview. Caution: When using a computer, be sure to change all details for each company in every letter lest you end up as the recent job searcher who wrote Disney applauding them for their commitment to quality in pharmaceuticals.
Temporary work through temp agencies has a good success rate in landing full-time employment. If the company likes a temp's work, a job offer often follows.
Executive recruiters, or headhunters, are hired by corporations to fill positions. Recruiters are experts in the "hidden market," those jobs that are never advertised. Getting a resume on file with an executive recruiter requires experience in mid- to upper-level management. Executive recruiters are listed in the Directory of Executive Recruiters, (603) 585-2200.
Employment agencies, another avenue to employment, are of two types: general and specialist.
General agencies, such as the Virginia Employment Commission, are good sources for applicants with little work experience. Specialist agencies, targeting specific professions, are best for people with extensive work histories in particular fields. Before working with any employment agency, ask about their credentials, placement record and fee arrangements.
Finally, classified ads in newspapers and specialty trade publications still offer employment opportunities. For specific career opportunities, invest in subscriptions to relevant trade journals. Job opportunities often are advertised only in journals supporting certain professions.
Most successful searches are conducted as 40-hour-a-week jobs with more than 20 resumes and 20 phone calls generated every week. Creating and following a strategy is a challenge; the greater test is maintaining a positive outlook throughout the search. Both take self-discipline, and both are crucial to gaining and successfully completing the much-desired interview.
Camille Wright Miller is a columnist whose Working It Out feature appears Sundays in The Roanoke Times Business section. She also is president of The Virginia Group, a Lexington-based organizational consulting firm.
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