The first of our 10 tips for anyone looking to progress their career. A two-minute read on preparing your job search campaign plan might be all the inspiration you need.
Mastermind your Job Search – Tip 1 of 10
Trying to identify and secure a new role is hard enough but launching a campaign without clear focus and thorough preparation will invariably lead to a less than optimal result. Therefore, your pre-campaign preparation should include:
- A Career Search Objective that answers the question, “So, what are you looking for?”
- A powerful CV, Capability Profile and LinkedIn Profile aligned to your objective and a comprehensive set of marketing messages.
- The actions you need to take to respond effectively to advertised positions, approach head-hunters and recruiters, make targeted direct approaches and network confidently.
- How to manage the interview so that you optimise impact, credibility and fit.
- How to negotiate effectively to increase the offer and secure other benefits.
Assuming that you can tick the above 5 points, over the next 10 weeks we will be sharing with you 10 things you can do to ensure that your job search is an effective one.
Tip 1 of 10: PREPARING YOUR CAMPAIGN PLAN
Decide which of the four routes you plan to use, these are the advertised route, the recruiter route, the targeted direct route, and the networking route.
Develop a plan to show what you are going to do, when you are going to do it, how you are going to do it and when you will have done it by – use an action planner to help you.
A planner can help you to set out what you want to achieve – setting goals to get there and charting your progress. You can set specific tasks or activities and track your results and performance.
Alternatively, if you are familiar with a software programme such as Act! or Microsoft Project use it, if not Excel or Word will suffice.
Decide your target rates for personal contacts and referrals, recruiter contacts and direct approaches. Do not try to schedule too many referrals in the first week or two until you get a feel for how many referrals you are getting and how useful they are. You can always increase the pace later, but it is harder to slow the momentum if people are offering to put you in touch with others.
Enter all your planned activity, including contacts, recruiters, direct approaches, news monitoring, events, research, and advertisement responses.
Add follow up dates to all your activities. Only put into your campaign plan that which you really intend to execute. See your campaign plan as a personal commitment to yourself.
So, managing an effective job search campaign might not be as daunting as you first thought and may not require anything more than a fresh perspective. It sounds simple and it is, it’s just not always easy, especially when trying to do it alone.