What habits have you created for your job search?
In a roomful of
jobseekers last week, I proposed that Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits as described
in his book, Seven Habits for Highly Effective People, has relevance for
managing an effective job search. Especially significant are the four quadrants
that identify activities by Important/Urgent; Important/Not Urgent; Not
Important/Urgent and Not Important/ Not Urgent.
Dr. Covey
states that “hanging around” in the Not Urgent/Not Important and the Urgent/Not
Important Quadrants leads to failure to meet our goals. Although Covey’s work
looks at these concepts from a “life” perspective, they apply to the job search
process as well.
In a highly
competitive, high tech market, old practices do not work. Looking for jobs
online, and sending out resumes in response to job announcements yields few
results. It is estimated that less than 2% of good jobs are posted on job
boards today. When a search team member shows me his or her activity tracking
sheet from the previous weeks, I am dismayed to see that so much time has been
spent in the online job search and so little in
- creating a dynamic profile on
LinkedIn and maximizing their online presence by using LinkedIn features
and
- little time is spent “out and
about.”
Each week in
newspapers you can find multiple opportunities for meeting people who can offer
suggestions, contacts and referrals. You can attend a presentation at the
Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, or the library…there are so many possibilities.
How are you spending
your time these days? Watch for my next post with a list of the activities that
yield the highest return on investment – those that get the best results.
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