Commanding officers and enlisted service people in every branch of our military often strategize and live by an interesting and sound concept whose adage advises, “If you want to eat an elephant, eat it one bite at a time.”  Unless stranded on the African veldt or the jungles of India with the barest of supplies, our armed forces are not advocating initiating a giant barbeque featuring a pachyderm as the main menu item.  Rather, the United States military recommends that, when confronted with an enormous task, one should break it down logically and methodically into manageable parts and then tackle each portion one step at a time.

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The process of confronting one’s own termination can be rather similar in its phases to the loss of a loved one.  This is especially true of employees long embedded in their career with one particular company.  The immediacy of disbelief is followed by a sense of betrayal, engendering the next stage, which is anger:  itself a two-edged sword.  Properly channeled, righteous anger can serve as the impetus through which you vow to succeed and begin to do so by devising a well thought-out job search.  Directed inward, however, with self-recriminations of – “What did I do wrong?” - anger may lead to depression and ultimately, inertia:  the inability to move forward.  The longer you are held captive by your emotions, the more difficult it is to resume your entry into the work force.

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What separates job finders from job hunters often comes down to the techniques that they employ in their searches.  While most people are relatively passive about their job search – posting resumes on major job boards and responding to advertised and posted opportunities, some people go the extra mile.  They seek not merely to respond to published opportunities in the job market, but also to uncover opportunities that may or may not be advertised.

For those candidates who desire to be more proactive in their job searches but do not know where to begin, consider utilizing the following approach:

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Understanding the critical role of online job sites in a serious employment search, and given the plethora of such sites, the situation begs the question, “Where to post your resume?”

The most obvious answers to “Where to post your resume?” are the giants whose names, as a result of their scope and longevity, are renowned.  These include but are not limited to Monster, Yahoo Hotjobs, and Careerbuilder.  Although it can be time-consuming to post one’s resume on and navigate through these super boards, it is advisable not to avoid them for the reason that employers don’t.  In addition, the super boards boast hundreds of partner sites; careerbuilder, for example, currently enjoys more than 1,100 such partners representing that many more potential opportunities.
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“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.  If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were.  Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee…” 
(John Donne, Meditation 17, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions)

The English poet John Donne expressed this sentiment almost four hundred years ago.  Yet, it seems particularly appropriate today.  Bad economic news abounds across the globe.  And, since domestic business in every nation is dependent upon global markets for significant portions of their revenues, the American sub-prime mortgage crisis has spawned a worldwide economic meltdown of epic proportions.

Recently, in the U.S., CitiBank announced plans to lay off more than 50,000 employees nationwide while senior executives of the three major domestic automobile manufacturers pleaded their cases before Federal legislators, desperate to obtain funding that would enable their corporations to stay afloat.  Added to the unprecedented federal bailouts of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Goldman Sachs, and AIG, these more recent developments indicate that as the “bell tolls” signaling layoffs and unemployment for millions of Americans, it also “tolls” an alarm for the rest of us who are still employed.
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One of the questions that clients frequently ask me is “how can I conduct an effective job search?”  While some of the tools used to conduct a job search today are the same or similar to those used decades ago, much has changed.

At one time, an effective job search entailed simply checking the employment classified section of the area’s Sunday newspapers and responding to advertised openings.  Today, such an approach seems parochial at best and patently ineffective at worst.

Today’s job search, if one is seeking the right position, is akin to a marketing campaign.  If you were planning a product marketing campaign, you would establish a budget and determine the allocation and mix of media you would employ to transmit your marketing message.  The exact nature and content of your message aside, you would consider all the media channels – print, broadcast, Web, outdoor, etc. – and determine how to structure your campaign to optimize its effectiveness within your budgetary constraints.
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