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December 2017
Welcome to the December 2017 Treasury showing you how you can direct your job search, manage your career, or work as a consultant -- with content you can use now.
It's the holidays, which seem like they've come up on us fast, once again. Happiness to you and your family at this festive time of year!
Speaking of the holidays, if you're trying to get to your next career step, don't stop now -- December is vital networking time, and companies do end-of-year hiring. See my free Your Holiday Job Search guide at my LinkedIn profile Summary.
- Joanne Meehl, aka The Job Search Queen -
With over
14 years
guiding job searches
and advising professionals on career strategy!
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The narrower your target, the higher your chance of success
When I hear a professional in job search (or a consultant after certain clients) say, "I have 250 companies on my target list", I have to respond, "That is simply not possible". Perhaps that person has a list of 250 companies that are of
interest. But it's just not possible to do a good job of
targeting that many companies.
A true target "list" has only one or two companies. And maybe one runner-up. That's it.
Why? This is the biggest, most overriding reason: Because with each of your finalist targeted companies, you will be expending every imaginable effort to get inside: You have weekly goals for coffee meetings and maybe lunches or breakfasts (or even dinners) with contacts inside the companies. You are a demon about going to any and every event that might put you in contact with key people who work there. You are setting up LinkedIn and social media alerts about news from your targeted companies. You are doing searches on LinkedIn that result in yet more meetings. And so on.
Your goal: to be the person they think of when any number of opportunities arise. And to have champions inside who will speak well of you when management wants to add to their team.
It's a truism I've seen for over 20 years, no matter what level you're at: The more of this activity you do earlier in your search, the shorter your search. And the more of this activity you do at your target company or two, the much higher the likelihood you will land a great position there.
So reason #1 that smart job hunters or consultants target only one or two companies: This kind of tireless campaign and the time necessary for doing it well precludes you from having active job campaigns in more than one or two companies, simply because of limits on your time and your energy. You have only so much time, even if you're between jobs.
Reason #2: Smart job hunters know the people in their network can't possibly hold their 250 "targeted" companies in their heads, on their behalf. So do what they do: Make it easier for contacts to help you by giving them only one or two names, the companies you're burning to get into. Sure, there are the outliers and you're open to them, but smart job hunters don't get pulled off track from pursuing their top priority organizations.
Reason #3: Having the discipline of a narrow focus keeps up your spirits, your energy level. It's mentally impossible for you to "target" 20, 100, 250 companies. Trying to do so only results in you feeling out of control, overwhelmed and spread too thin. Doing so is not a good way to treat yourself, and you need all the energy you can generate right now.
With this kind of narrow focus, you will succeed, and in less time.
For some additional tips on how to come up with your 1-2 target companies, click here.
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Want to know the difference between a recruiter and a career/job search coach?
Our friend Kurt Rakos at SkyWater Search, the region's largest recruiting firm, has a very helpful article in the SkyWater blog.
He addresses the differences between recruiters and job search coaches, and how both are vital but are not the same. Click here to read what he says. You'll see a few quotes there from yours truly, as well.
Thank you, Kurt, for sharing your wisdom.
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Yes, Joanne helps people to make career shifts and changes. Contact Joanne today to start your change!
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All that we are
is the result
of what we have thought.
- Buddha
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Your career is the treasury of your life.
Joanne Meehl
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Face2Face, Connecting with the next generation of leaders
- career and job networking for managers, Directors, VPs, GMs and similar, in the Minneapolis area.
featuring the Give & Get networking half of the meeting, then speaker Kat White, Transformative Business Coach, will do a highly interactive talk on Becoming An Influencer.
Useful Links:
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More:
Do you know a December 2017 college grad who's in job search and not getting much traction? Tell them about Joanne's videos and many other resources from the panel of career experts: CollegeRecruiter.com
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If you want to launch a consulting business, it's vital that you map out your income. How to do this? Simple math.
First, decide what your goal is. Then: Determine how many consulting assignments, and at what fee, you need to do per month -- while deducting costs -- to add up to this goal amount. That tells you how many "gigs" you'll need to reach your goal.
Doing this simple yet powerful exercise will tell you if this career direction is a financial fit for you.
Want to launch your own consulting business but don't know how to start? Contact Joanne for more.
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