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.

Thrust into this plummeting economy, job seekers can derive genuine benefit as well as emotional relief from this military strategy.  The task of job-hunting, when viewed in its entirety, appears overwhelming and even insurmountable.  When it becomes patently clear that the search for a new position is itself a full time job, many applicants press the panic button.  They immobilize themselves with fear, making little progress toward their goal or worse, running on an ever-spinning hamster wheel by approaching their search via tried and no longer always true methods.  If you number among the swelling ranks of the unemployed or soon to be unemployed, consider that these counterproductive methods include leaping directly into the job market the way that a person who cannot swim may jump into the deep end of the pool.

Viewed systemically and logically, the proper steps that you will wish to take in your job search include the following:

• A genuine, unbiased evaluation of one’s background and skills
• Understanding that your career has been marked with accomplishments, even if you were a member of a large team striving toward common objectives
• A true understanding of the state of the industry in which you may have maneuvered for many years
• Creatively assessing how and where your existing overall skills and strengths can dovetail and have true value via a new job title or a different industry
• Deciding upon the direction or directions of your search; meaning, knowing where you would like to see yourself
• Resolving what you will and will not do in order to achieve placement in a new job.  Will you pull up stakes and move to another State?  Will you accept a position that you may have held prior to your latest promotion(s )? Will you perform the same or similar functions of your last job for a notably lower rate of pay if the salary is bolstered by the provision of benefits, which you may have lost when your former job went away?
• Designing and preparing the strongest resume, cover letter, and follow up letter that you can either craft yourself or contract a well-established professional resume writing service to generate
• Networking, networking, and networking through every viable source, even the ones that you may feel uncomfortable, at first, accessing.  Networking opportunities include the following -
  - Internet job boards both massive (highly generalized) and niche (industry-specific or company-specific)
  - Business networking sites such as LinkedIn
  - Independent, recruitment-oriented sites
  - Social networking sites, including Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace
  - Expanding the scope of all potential leads by joining a charitable organization, connecting with former schoolmates and faculty at alumni events and whenever possible, employment-oriented meetings, and becoming a member of pertinent industry associations.
  - Alerting virtually everyone you know that you are seeking a new position. This includes vendors to whom you give regular business, as well as your priest, deacon, minister, or rabbi, your neighbors, and the parents of your children’s friends, to name a few.

Approaching your job search by way of this manageable, step by step approach, you will not only ingest the elephant more easily, you will see better results, and more of them, faster than you would have if you view the pachyderm as “biting off more than you can chew.”

Although your termination may have had nothing whatsoever do with your performance and everything to do with a lackluster economy, it may nevertheless be inevitable.  Before you succumb to the fears that can leave you wondering how you are going to get up off the couch much less conduct a job search, pull your head up out of the sand.  Rumors of takeovers and downsizing usually have their basis in reality.  The signposts pointing to layoffs and company closures are usually quite visible; face them squarely in order to be prepared.  The most glaring signal of all is the advice of an employer who assures you that you have absolutely nothing to worry about.  In most cases, we have usually found the opposite to be true.  So as not to precipitate a mass exodus of employees who must run the ship until it sinks, an employer is compelled to paint a rosy picture for you.  Don’t believe it.  The bloom is off the rose, so be proactive.

Conduct an honest assessment of your skills, strengths, and weaknesses.  No one can do this for you, and if you cheat, you only cheat yourself.  Your lists should indicate our specific skills (i.e., sales presentations, establishing meaningful relationships with clients) and accomplishments (i.e. “increased sales volume by 6% over the prior year”).  If you have traveled 60% of the time as a sales representative, for instance, and are weary of the road, determine what percentage of your week, month, or year you are willing to travel for business.

Make a second list.  What if the well of your industry is running dry?  What if, for example, the widgets that your company has produced for the past forty-three years are now being manufactured more cost effectively overseas?  If you had to transition into another industry, understand and be able to speak intelligently about the transferable skills that you have acquired, which will have value in another industry.

Start your job search.  Your first steps are a well-crafted resume, cover letter, and follow-up letter. Without the resume and cover letter that must sell your skills and drive a potential employer to contact you, you have little chance of getting your foot in the door.  And without a follow-up letter, you may be perceived as uninterested in the jobs for which you have gained interviews.

Network.  If you are a member of a professional organization (i.e., the American Nurses Association) and have caught the wind of change blowing through your company, take a more active role in terms of your professional affiliation(s).  Attend meetings regularly and speak with your peers, including those in the position to hire.  Join your local Chamber of Commerce, or several Chambers of Commerce, in order to make those vital professional connections.

If you have been blessed with a job that has provided you with a customer base satisfied with your service, and if you feel safe enough with several of your customers, you may wish to “put feelers out” concerning potential positions.

The Internet.  Never underestimate the power of the job boards:  the most wide-reaching tool for your employment search.  For additional information and guidelines, for those not quite familiar with the major job boards, please see other articles on our Website.

Interview, interview, interview!  Even if you are not fully prepared to make the break from your employer before he is forced to terminate you, arrange as many interviews as you can.  By familiarizing yourself with the questions that employers will pose, and by understanding the questions that you yourself should be asking the interviewer, you will gain the knowledge and confidence that you require to sail through what you may not have experienced in a number of years.  And, you never do know when one of those “test interviews” will yield your next job!

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:

1. Research 10 or more companies for whom you would like to work.  For job seekers today, the Internet is a treasure trove of information.  With a little effort, one can find business news and review the Websites of desirable potential employers.  Often, the Website includes investor information indicating the firm’s current financial position and plans for growth.  Other independent Web sources, like Hoovers.com, can provide additional information.
2. Find out the name and contact information of hiring managers within the company.  You are not looking for the name of a Human Resources representative or manager, but rather the people with the authority to hire.  Here, you may have to be a bit of a sleuth.  Of course, a good deal of information is available online.  If your online efforts, however, fail to bear fruit, then you may have to pick up the phone, call the company, and get that information from an employee.  You will need to use tact, courtesy, and relationship building skills.
3. Focus on the company’s needs and wants.  If you have done your research correctly, you will have identified the company’s mission, perspective, position, and outlook.  This information will be invaluable to you in the next step.
   
4. Write a letter directed to the person in charge of hiring.  Make him aware that you know the company, like the company, and have something specific and valuable to offer.  The goal is to get this person to contact you one way or another. 
5. Listen.  Once you have initiated a dialogue – via telephone or correspondence – with the hiring manager, listen.  Ask questions.  Delve deeper into his organization’s problems, needs, and wants, and offer solutions as to how you can contribute to the achievement of those goals. 
6. Follow up.  Regardless of the outcome, always send a follow-up letter or a thank you note.  This will serve as a reminder of your initial contact, set you apart from potential competitors, and position you as a professional and prospective valuable addition to the company.

And, in all of your efforts to contact prospective employers, always consider the company’s point of view.  If you do not know or cannot articulate why it is they should hire you, then it is extremely unlikely that they will know either.

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.

Hub sites are the next best bet for “Where to post your resume.”  The hubs are often industry-specific or geography-specific, providing postings within, for example, the IT industry or jobs within the entire State of New Jersey.  Employers find these sites attractive as their rates are more cost-competitive than those of the super boards.  Employees find them appealing for their specificity as well as the industry news and general information that they provide, that can be useful when facing the “where to post your resume” issue.

Serving smaller populations of job seekers (specific professions, age groups, industries), niche sites can be valuable outlets for “Where to post your resume.”  The niche sites are usually affiliated with professional associations or other professional groups that engaged in business prior to the emergence of the Internet and now have a presence on the Worldwide Web.  More cost-effective than the larger boards, the niche boards represent savings to employers.  What they represent to recruiters are targeted means of identifying qualified candidates more quickly than trawling through the super boards.

On our Resources page, you will find a broad array of super, regional, and niche sites to which to post your resume.

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.

As the value of stocks plummet and consumers curtail all but the most vital spending, the axe continues to fall on the American workforce.  How solid is the company in which you are employed?   How safe is your job?

Like the early bird that catches the worm, the proactive job seeker stands a greater chance of securing employment than those who adopt a “wait and see” approach.   Armed for a targeted job search, a current resume and persuasive cover letter will enable you to get a head start on your competition.

As the economy spirals downward, don’t despair, act!  Develop a resume and cover letter that will maximize your strengths and entice potential employers to grant you interviews.  In that way, if the “bell tolls” for you, you will be prepared.

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.

Planning a job search is similar.  You need to consider how much time and effort you have to devote to it.  If you are unemployed, seeking employment perhaps should be your full-time occupation.  If, however, you are working, you need to determine the time that you will allot to your search on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

Having established a time-budget, you can now proceed to determine how you will tackle maximizing your exposure within the job market.  If this is beginning to sound like an involved process, consider that the quality of your plan and job search will, in most cases, define the quality of your results.

And so, you will need to establish a plan to uncover as many relevant job opportunities as possible.  This plan should take into account the fact that, in the typical calendar year, job openings are relatively evenly split between those that are posted or advertised and those that are not.

If you consider published openings, your resources include newspapers, trade publications, recruiters who advertise openings, and of course, Internet job boards.  Therefore, you will want to designate some of your time and efforts to uncovering openings via each of these sources.  You will need to plan to check newspaper employment classifieds as well as opportunities listed in applicable trade publications.  You can research and identify contingent fee recruiters who specialize in your employment category and contact them.  Ultimately, you will want to post your resume on major and specialty job boards and set up those email alerts that will notify you of new job listings that meet criteria that you will establish.

Now, consider those opportunities that are neither posted nor advertised.  These opportunities will be more difficult to uncover, but more potentially rewarding if identified since these opportunities will have far fewer applicants.  One way to find such opportunities is through networking.  You will need to contact people whom you know that may be of assistance in your job search, as well as establish contacts with others whom you may not know but with whom you may have some commonality (alumni of the college from which you graduated, membership in an organization, etc.).

Another way to identify unadvertised opportunities is via keeping abreast with business news.  Any business event, positive or negative, may result in the need for new personnel.  In such instances, you can research the company’s organization and select appropriate management personnel to whom you will draft and send a letter acknowledging the business event and suggesting your relevant qualifications and prospective benefits to their organization. 

A third approach to reaching the unadvertised job market is blasting or mass mailing your resume.  While this approach usually generates a very low return rate, it only takes one employer contact for you to secure rewarding employment.

Lastly, contingent fee recruiters – the true headhunters – may be researched and contacted in the hope that they may be currently seeking a candidate like yourself.  As in the case of resume blasting or mass mailing, expect a low rate of return for your efforts in this area.

As you can see, developing and conducting an effective job campaign in today’s market is both complicated and time-consuming.  If you utilize these techniques, however, you may be pleasantly surprised by the result.

1.  Where to go and how to get there 

Typing the name of a specific business into a search engine, such as Google (http://www.google.com/) or Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com/), will deliver choices that include direct access to the company site.  The same procedure provides wider options for entire industries.  A more focused quest is achieved by asking for a particular State or region of the State in which you are seeking employment.

2.  Compiling company information

Once you arrive at the site of your choosing, you will be provided with data options, which usually entail:
-  The company’s mission statement
-  The history of the firm, including information concerning its founders
-   Annual sales volume
-   Press releases and news articles regarding recent accomplishments, such as new technological or clinical advances, and changes in structure
-   Client base.  Although a corporation may not list the names of its accounts, you will gain a sense of the markets and industries that it services
-   Career opportunities, displaying entire job categories as well as openings for specific positions

Because of the need to encapsulate data into a site, much of this information will be broad.  However, you will gain an overall view of the company, thus facilitating your decision to apply.  Should you become a candidate for employment, your search will have yielded valuable information allowing you to appear knowledgeable and formulate meaningful questions during an interview. 

3.  The monster of this world 

You may also locate your future employer through the online job boards.  These are sites specifically designed for employers to attract new staff by posting openings for available positions.  Monster (http://www.monster.com/), Yahoo Hotjobs (http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/), and Careerbuilder (http://www.careerbuilder.com/) are some of the major boards devoted to this pursuit.

4.  Applying online

Each is unique.  Some will require a simple “cut and paste” of your resume while others will request that you complete a detailed application.  Still others will insist upon a cover letter.  Providing your potential employer with its exact requirements will ensure that your application is accepted and processed.

As an expedient and far-reaching instrument for serious job-seekers, the Internet has become perhaps the most viable tool through which you may achieve job placement and career advancement.

You may be asking yourself, “what does this have to do with my job search?”  At first blush, one might discern no connection between the respective subject matter of the story and that of your job search.  The surprising answer, however, is “more than you can possibly imagine.”

Consider for a moment the purpose of your job search.  If you are thinking “to find a job,” then you are only partially correct.  The purpose of a job search for the vast majority of seekers is not simply to find a job, but to find the right job – the job fulfilling a litany of different job-seeker requirements in areas including compensation, challenge, advancement, and geography to name just a few.

If your purpose is to find the right job, then you need to begin by developing or securing materials that will define and describe you to a prospective employer.  These materials may include a resume, cover letter, letters of recommendation, a portfolio, certifications, licenses, and a host of other such materials specific to the particular employment search.  Of course, the quality of these materials will be critical to your potential job-hunting success.

Assuming that these materials are of impeccable quality, however, what should be the next step in your process?  Quite obviously, the answer is to commence a job search.  Given that your goal is to find the right job, the underlying, more significant question is “how will you conduct an effective job search?”

The information and other resources available to today’s job-seeker are staggering in their volume and scale.  How will you efficiently employ the resources available to optimize the success of your efforts?

In a sense, you – as a job-seeker – are very much like a political candidate or a product or brand seeking recognition in a crowded marketplace.  How will you capture the attention of those who might might be searching for a candidate like you or who may be of benefit to you in your search?

To gain optimal exposure and recognition within your market, you need to develop a plan, an organized course of action enabling you to systematically utilize all available job-seeking resources to your maximum benefit.  Too many job candidates employ a haphazard approach in their job searches; thereby, leaving their job-hunting success, careers, and futures to chance.   Even if these candidates find jobs (as most all will ultimately do), it is unlikely that they will find the right opportunities.  And, since one job influences the next job and so on, one can only speculate on the damage done to such careers.

Without a plan, its execution, and effective materials promoting a candidate, the job-hunting process is very much like that of Griffin, the mad scientist.  Your efforts will produce relative “invisibility” in the employment market, make it difficult for you to return to the right career track, and utlimately become a source of concern and vexation in your life.

I often deal with candidates who have never had any particular difficulty in securing a top position relative to their background and level of experience, but nonetheless seem to hit an obstacle to their job-seeking success in their early to mid 40’s or 50’s.  Speaking with me, they express astonishment that their current search efforts are so far removed from their previous experiences.  They had heard and believed that age discrimination existed, but never considered that it would happen to them.

Of course, we all know that age discrimination exists and that it is illegal under Equal Employment Opportunity legislation.  Yet, not many of us consider the actual sources and motivations for the illicit practice.

When contemplated, one realizes that, as with all forms of human behavior, discrimination has its basis in primal human emotions.  The decisions made by human resources professionals and hiring managers are, like all human decisions, based upon reason, instinct, and emotion.  Hiring a job candidate is as much about appearance, interaction, and personal compatibility as it is about skills, experience, and education.

Consider your own reaction to the subject matter.  What concepts do you associate with aging?  If you are like most people, you think of loss of vigor, infirmity, inability to adapt to change, changes in posture and appearance, and perhaps even death.  Conversely, what do you associate with youth?  Health, vitality, comeliness, a thirst for knowledge, adaptability, and open-mindedness are among the characteristics that come to my mind.  And so, when one considers the emotional basis of age discrimination in the workplace, one must conclude that its roots lay at least partially on commonly-held perceptions of youth and age.

The other primary component of age discrimination, I believe, is economic.  Companies behave very much as do individuals.  When we as consumers shop for an item, we usually seek the best possible product at the lowest possible price.  The same, I believe, is true of companies.  Most companies establish compensation ranges for positions within their organizations.  When filling an opening, they attempt to begin the selected candidate at the lower end of the range for that position.  More seasoned candidates usually command, expect, and require a higher starting salary than do more youthful candidates.

Thus, for reasons of both human perception and economy, the younger candidate most often appears to be the better choice to a prospective employer.  The more seasoned candidate, therefore, must attack the potential for age discrimination at its roots.  It is imperative that he or she have better marketing materials (in the form of resumes, cover letters, and ancillary documents that do not reveal a potential age liability), a better strategy or plan to penetrate all areas of the job market, and the appropriate appearance and attitude at an interview to dispel any concerns of the hiring manager(s) associated with the candidate’s age.

Today, virtually all of us need to work – if not to provide us the means to live, then to give us a sense of worth and meaning.  And so, even those classified as “idle rich” require something to occupy their time, minds, and energies; whether that something be gaining a formal education, learning informally via travel or recreation, or volunteering services in support of a charitable endeavor.  In the latter instance, “work” – counter to the common perception – may provide no tangible benefit to the worker.

In common parlance, however, a “job” is something that one needs to do in order to be paid or, as stated in Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, a “regular remunerative position.”  In my opinion, however, the word “position” connotes something entirely different from the word “job.”  To my thinking, a “position” is a point of demarcation, a step on a path.  And, the path of which a “position” is one of a number of points is a person’s career.

While a “job” is often a means to a particular end – paying the bills, purchasing a desired product, etc., a “position” opens its holder to much more.  A “job” and a “position” may have similar responsibilities.  Yet, a “job” ceases when its function is completed or no longer needed, while a “position” inures to the benefit of its holder – providing experiences and offering the opportunity to build skills essential to advancement into other “positions” of increasing responsibility.  A job leads to a dead-end; a position to a doorway.

To an anxious job-seeker, the distinction between a “job” and a “position” is not always clear.  For the job-seeker intent on building a career, the key is in developing and executing a job-hunting plan that uncovers multiple “positions” correlating with his/her qualifications and offering stimulation, challenge, appropriate remuneration, and the opportunity for continuing growth and advancement.

Of course, any such effective job search must begin with materials of impeccable quality.  The job-seeker’s resume, cover letter, and any other ancillary documents must be articulate and must distinguish that particular job-seeker from all similar competitors.  Then, those documents must be used in a way that enables that job-seeker to optimize his/her exposure within the targeted job market.

While we may all fantasize about the delights of living and “working” in a Garden of Eden such as that experienced pre-Fall by Adam and Eve, the reality is that our careers and our lives are of our own making.  How we prepare and how we act are determinative of the success and prosperity we will enjoy in this life.  Each step that we take is influenced to a great extent by the previous one.

The end-result of combining the best possible materials with a sound job-hunting strategy is the uncovering of multiple opportunities from which the job-seeker can analyze and select those “positions” most appropriate and beneficial to his/her desired career path.  Make no mistake – a successful career begins and matures in accordance with a well-defined plan supported by the job candidate, his/her qualifications, and the marketing materials enabling that candidate to secure the right “position” to advance his/her career path.  Anything less leaves one’s career to chance.