Job hunting demands creativity
By Lily O’Brien
Communicators who are looking for work, contemplating a career transition, changing jobs, or planning to re-enter the job market, get ready to give your mental muscles a heavy workout. You will need to be in exceptional shape to find a job in today’s highly competitive workplace.
Although the economy is still going strong and prospects for employment in our profession have never been better, the days of perusing classified ads, using employment agencies, or blindly sending out resumes to the human resources department of large companies in your area are over. Although these methods may still have their place, research shows they have the lowest rate of success.
Richard Bolles, author of the best-selling novel What Color is Your Parachute?, lists three essential steps all job seekers must take:
1) Determine what you want to do using your favorite skills and experience.
2) Decide exactly where you want to do it. Which field? Which company? Is self-employment an option? Can you start your own business?
3) Figure out how to get hired in your field, by a particular company, or get clients who need your services.
Bolles stresses in his book that the job seeker must take control of his or her job search. “Job hunting is like dating, the job hunter and the employer are like two people trying to size each other up, without wasting too much time.”
According to Bolles, the methods employers use to fill open positions tend to be diametrically opposed to the methods job seekers use to search out openings. “Most job hunters want to do what is easy so they send resumes out, answer newspaper ads, and use the Internet. Employers, on the other hand are looking for familiarity, or a known quantity.” As a result, most companies prefer to hire from within, or use a referral from someone they know.
Bolles feels the Internet could have bridged the gap between employers and employees, but instead is being misused. “If a one-stop job market had been developed on the Internet, where everyone came to one central place to get what he or she needed, it could have changed the job hunting process dramatically,” says Bolles. Instead, job sites on the Internet tend to view their audience as consumers, promising to help them find jobs, while they often gather and sell their profiles for advertising and marketing purposes. For this reason, Bolles advises job seekers to use the Internet as part of a larger strategy that centers on more creative methods.
In today’s primarily hidden job market, listings for actual jobs are scarce, so forming an extensive network of personal contacts in the communications field is essential for generating job leads. This network can include family, friends, co-workers, and even casual acquaintances. Joining professional organizations like IABC is also an effective way to build contacts.
When former IABC/San Francisco president Tom Hill was looking for a job, he sent out approximately 50 resumes over eight months, with little success. Then Hill took a more targeted approach, and sent out 24 resumes to IABC members, obtaining eight responses and three interviews. This kind of creative approach often yields a higher rate of success.
IABC member Rich Karat saw a newspaper article about a company that interested him; he developed a contact there, and got in for an informational interview. His contact passed his name along to a recruiter with an opening that led to his present job. The bottom line: Be creative and use every resource you can think of to get a job. You never know what may happen.
Taking a creative approach to job hunting has also worked for current IABC/San Francisco president Heather Keith Spellman. Armed with her Rolodex during her first job search in San Francisco, she called people she had worked with on IABC committees. Three weeks later, she had a new job. Years later, after becoming an independent contractor, she found many of her clients through IABC/SF’s Independent Communicators’ Roundtable meetings. One client quickly offered her a permanent position.
Not everyone, however, should expect such fast results. Even if you practice creative job search strategies, many professionals say you should prepare to spend four to six months searching for that perfect communications position, and much longer if you are establishing yourself as an independent communicator. This can be discouraging unless you are mentally prepared for it. The key to success is to maintain a creative, focused approach and a positive attitude. To stay in shape, keep flexing those mental muscles, be creative in your networking, and remember that jobs are out there waiting to be discovered.
[Source: IABC/San Francisco’s Communiqué.]
