Your Job Hunting Trip: Start With The End In Mind

"Start with the end in mind."

­­–– Stephen R. Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)

When heading off for a trip, you don't just get in the car and drive, right? You check the map, get some directions, see how it takes to get there, basically you make a plan. Job-hunting is just the same. To successfully and efficiently get where you're going requires research and planning. And you need to know what your destination is before you leave the house.

There are many steps to the job-hunting process, and each step has pitfalls. Hit a pothole, get a flat tire or end up in a major pileup, and you may never get any further on you trip. To get where you're going you have to plan every step of the way from starting up your car (or identifying what you have to offer) to pulling into your friend's driveway (or the driveway of your new employer). You have to follow the directions and make the rights turns to get where you're going.

To figure out the steps required, start with your end result in mind and work backwards:

• if you want a job offer, you'll need to have a great interview (or two or three)
• to have a great interview, you need to do your research and be prepared
• getting the interview means you have to make it through the phone screen
• to get called for a phone screen, you'll have to get your resume considered
• to be considered, your resume has to be compelling and in the right hands
• writing a compelling resume and getting it in the right hands means you have to understand what you can bring to that company
• to figure out what you could bring to that company, you need to know what they do and the challenges they're facing
• understanding what a company does and the needs they may have requires research and investigation
• knowing which companies to research means understanding what you personally have to offer an employer
• And to know what you can offer, you'll need to do a hard assessment of your skills, talents, background and experience

Most job-seekers skip straight to writing a resume (with no insight about themselves or the company they are targeting). Then they send it off to an unknown person who may or may not the best contact, and expect to get an immediate job offer or at least called for an interview. You wouldn't just get in the car, start driving, and expect to end up in California instead of Louisiana, right? Approach job-hunting with a plan too, it will be a much more efficient and successful trip.

This article may be reprinted when the copyright and author bio are included.
©2010 Kristen Harris, Portfolio Creative, LLC.

Kristen Harris is co-founder and owner of Portfolio Creative, a workforce innovation firm that was named the 326th fastest growing company in the U.S. by Inc. magazine in 2009.  Portfolio Creative helps companies streamline and innovate their creative work to save time, energy and money.  www.portfolioiscreative.com.