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Are you feeling a bit of holiday malaise? Back in college I used to refer to the time period between Thanksgiving and right after Valentine’s Day as the "dark ages." While involved in career transition, these same few months are very productive times.

Don't waste them by falling into the dark ages...Networking tends to be easier during holidays, you have many distractions...Now's the time to ramp up for a productive job search in the New Year. If your goal is to find a new position, then you should prepare your search as a "business model", manage it accordingly, be flexible, and be ready for the unexpected. Here are some time tested tips to get you started:

1. Have a "business-as-usual" attitude...Manage your search as you would your business or job and you will earn success faster. Remember, rejection is part of the process.

2. Have reasonable expectations...List your abilities, marketability, compensation, work environment and relocation, then validate these expectations with peers, other job hunters, and/or recruiters.

3. Determine your career objective...This will help focus your actual search. Have a Personal Market Plan, including identification of key Professional Resources Online. Look for specific titles, target industries and companies. This focus will expand your possibilities, not limit them.

4. "WORDCRAFT" your resume...Create a forward looking "story" of what YOU CAN DO. Target your accomplishments, such as increased sales and profits, reductions in costs, etc. Focus on achievements that support your qualifications for your job goal.

5. Develop confidence in your ability to answer anticipated questions throughout the process...Prepare as you would for a business presentation; don't try to wing it. If there are any "issues" in your career history, develop a positive spin before you are asked about it. Prepare for basic questions and tough issues in advance and study them.

6. Modify and improve your Personal Market Plan’s implementation model as needed...As you move through your search, make adjustments as you would a business model. Ask for input from people you respect. Account for BOTH the traditional and “the other” job market in your planning and implementation tactics.

Embrace The Other Job Market!

You see, in every marketplace, there are buyers and sellers. In the traditional job market, the one that our Department of Labor measures for us, job seekers are the sellers and their potential employers are the buyers. The commodity is productive work and the competition is fierce.

In the OTHER Job Market, buyers and sellers hold equal responsibility for the recruitment process. When employers have a need for someone to fulfill a specific role, often the most desired candidates are employed individuals with the credentials they seek. Thus the employer must sell their Company to potential employees in the marketplace in order to attract the best of the lot. Once identified, they simply select their choice and buy their services.

On the other hand, if an individual is under-employed, seeking a change, or actually unemployed, they must be visible to potential employers who are seeking their services. Creating this visibility is strategic, personal market planning and execution—in can be marketability without rejection!

Personal Marketing is a contact sport.

The very nature of traditional job search takes the job seeker right into the teeth of the Corporate screening process, and subjects them to maximum competition.

WHY DO THAT?

Rather, come to understand the “hidden reality” that there are two job markets out there, tied together like the double helix of the DNA molecule. Combined, the two marketplaces form a 24/7, 365 days a year opportunity of employment. Enjoy the “shopping” ahead.

>> MORE on "Embracing the OTHER Job Market."

Targeting The Best FIT for Your Career...CareerFIT!

KEY NOTE: Both physical fitness and CAREER FITness are gifts that you can give yourself this time of the year. Your FIT in the market doesn’t change relative to time of the year or market conditions...Understand the nature of FIT. You understand that managing your own career involves three key ingredients:

1. Confidence in knowing that your career is on the right path and moving forward
2. Continuous research and networking leading to awareness of potential "next steps"
3. Competency with job-changing skills

What is a Good, Career FIT For You?

To achieve a good "fit" between you and any future opportunity, you have to ask yourself some basic questions about yourself and your prospective employers. The fit depends on how well the jobs meets your needs and how well your skills and abilities meet the employer’s needs. The employer will make a decision and extend an offer to you: now it is time for you to make your decision.

Write out the factors that are important to you in a job...actually write out your list. During your career transition, learn the value of setting your offer criteria, a key element of your Personal Market Plan:

1. Creates an objective target for your efforts ahead
2. Gives you a meaningful set of questions to ask during research and networking
3. Provides an objective way to analyze and react to offers as they occur

And, what about YOU?

SELF-ASSESSMENT of your skill sets, knowledge, experience—as well as the softer measures of who you are -- will determine your communication strategies for marketing yourself efficiently. In order to be visible to those who can hire you, to stand out in the crowd, you will position and target yourself specifically and clearly when setting your career objectives.
>> MORE on CAREER FITness

WAYPOINTS To Your Personal Market Plan

Knowing yourself and knowing the marketplace is what its all about. ASSESSMENT is the starting point for your journey. You must assess your strengths and determine and SET YOUR CAREER OBJECTIVES. For the rest of your career, you should always be aware of “next steps.” You should always be working on appropriate positioning and targeting your efforts to achieve CAREER FITness, a worthy goal.

Having set your course through assessment and analysis, you are now ready to reflect your “communication strategy” through GREAT collaterals—keeping your RESUME DEVELOPMENT in synch with your verbal collaterals. When you’ve created a good draft, you’re ready to COACH YOUR REFERENCES with it, asking their suggestions on “anything you might have missed” – all the while putting them in a position to support your communication strategies.

At this point, you have “market tested” your resume template. To be prepared for the diverse correspondence needs of an active “campaign,” create your CORRESPONDENCE TEMPLATES at this point. While you’re doing this task, you should begin (continue) to CONDUCT INITIAL RESEARCH to determine potential employers and trends that may reveal opportunity...Success is where preparation meets opportunity!

KEY NOTE: The HOLIDAZE time period, with all its distractions and chaotic activity, is the perfect time to focus on the ramping up of your Personal Market Plan implementation, so that you are fully prepared to be “full speed ahead” in the new year.

You’re almost ready to launch into an effective career transition “journey.” There are two sets of directions (charts) that will guide you. First, pull together your unscreened, PERSONAL CONTACT LIST of people you know and/or can easily reach out to. Second, begin to compile your TARGET ORGANIZATION LIST, those employers that are attractive to you or may be interested in securing your services.

Your first mission is to simply get the word out of your situation: highly qualified, available, and motivated to perform the work that you have positioned yourself in… seeking leads into targeted organizations that need your services. THIS initial mission does not include applying for a specific JOB. Take that word JOB right out of your vocabulary for awhile.

KEY NOTE: Premature use of the word JOB forces the marketplace to judge you before they know you...actually creating the rejection you want to avoid...why do that?

Your initial personal contact networking will identify a wide range (in quality and FIT) of potential job leads. Analyze each to determine the value of your time and effort in securing actual job interviews. Also, keep your better contacts “in the loop,” following up with them periodically to extend your network. EVERY CONTACT IS A REFERRAL SOURCE! Any and all conversations should close with your networking theme...“WHO else or WHERE else might I go for this sort of help and advice?”

Turning qualified job leads into actual job interviews represents the “challenging waters” of any career transition. To this point, your journey has been a very linear, controllable journey that can be planned out and executed efficiently. NOW it’s time to get to work!

In active JOB search mode, you will want to blend tactics to address both job markets, seeking the returned “control” of predictable job interview process which results in offers and your next employment. Target organization networking will blend with your developing personal contact network to generate leads, gain valuable information, and secure actual interview activity.

While actual interviewing and placement activity is historically low between Thanksgiving time and when the kids go back to school in early January, it is actually a more relaxed time to conduct productive networking.

KEY NOTE: Adopt a high tech-high touch approach to the “challenging waters” of career transition. Use technology to leverage your time and effort, manage your activities, and conduct necessary research to guide you toward a successful LANDING.

Considering the use of a skilled and experienced pilot to assist you through the “challenging waters?” Consider the Careerpilot. >> MORE
 
Robert J. Maher, CMF, has been in the career services field since 1980, and mostly as an independent since 1983. Bob has provided services or spoken to audiences in most major metropolitan areas of the US, and several in Canada and the UK. He has served a very broad-based and diverse clientele over the years with a solid reputation for effective group facilitation, one-on-one coaching, marketing support and consultation at all levels, including executive.

Bob served as Vice President of Consulting Operations for OPTIMANCE during the implementation of a large scale, three year project - the largest ever undertaken by a non-national firm. He is on the Founder's Council of The Association of Career Professionals International, currently serving on its US Country Board. Current President of the Dallas/Ft. Worth Chapter, Bob was awarded the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award by the ACP International in 2006.

With the advent of the Internet age, Bob served as President of the E Chapter, first of its kind, virtual Chapter, receiving the Association’s Leadership Award in 1995. He is focused on technology applications as a resource in both career transition and electronic recruitment services, often assisting his clientele with their personal development of technical skills.

Bob served on the Professional Development Committee that conceived of and developed what has become our Profession's credentialing body, the ICC International, now the only international and independent credentialing body for the career services profession. He was one of the first in Texas to be awarded his CMF certification.

For more information, visit www.careerpilot.com.