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Search for a job just like you do your job.
I have been an executive recruiter in the nonprofit world for 20+ years, so I talk to job seekers for a living. I’ve seen, over and over, how highly skilled people (communicators, advocates, fundraisers, leaders) seem to forget, or abandon, their most effective skills when it comes to searching for a new job. Marketing professionals do not effectively market themselves; issue advocates do not advocate.
So, when people ask me for advice about finding their next job, I always encourage them to start with the skills they already know best, but do not necessarily associate with job hunting:
- Plan out the search like you would any project you would do for your paid job.
- Focus on starting your search with your strongest skills first.
- Be sure to do occasional check-ins with yourself to see if you need to change things up.
Perhaps the most critical activity for a job seeker is networking: getting people’s advice on where to look or what to do next, while also making sure they have you on their radar.
Here is a simple, four-step job-search plan that you can implement at your own pace:
Step 1: Brainstorm your networking list. Think broadly—and remember that brainstorming means THERE ARE NO BAD IDEAS. Continue growing your list throughout your search.
Step 2: Organize this networking list. Once you have 40-50 people on the list, think strategically about who your first ten calls should be. They should include people whose advice you value, people who work in the field you want to explore, and/or people you would love to be your coworkers.
Keep track of your calls in a spreadsheet, noting the date of the call and whether the conversation was helpful. Ping the helpful people two months later to get back on their radar. Even your best friends might forget that you spoke a few months ago, so you need to remind people that you are still looking.
Step 3: Have a goal for each call and a plan for getting there. Before making a call, be sure to develop your hopes for the outcome. As you would in your work life, be prepared for every meeting: this can help to write out what you want to say (you should not read it like a script, but it may help keep you focused).
The key points for each call include: what you bring to the table, what you are looking to do next, and how the person you are talking to can help you. Anyone who takes their time to talk with you wants to be helpful with your search in some way, but they may not know how to be the most helpful—so be prepared to tell them.
Your talking points will also help you review the call afterwards and determine what you might want to do differently in the next one.
Step 4: Take a breather at the two-month point. Mark your calendar for two months from now for an appointment with yourself: at this point, stop your search, take a deep breath, and, for 15 minutes, look back at what you have accomplished. This provides you with both a head check and a gut check.
Ask yourself: How is the search going? How do I feel about it? Do I need to change anything I am doing? Are there any areas I have missed or would like to pay more attention to? What am I learning about what I want? Do I need to shelve the search for a while?
If this check-in is not firmly scheduled on your calendar, chances are it will not get done—and an important opportunity for being as effective as possible will be missed. If it helps to set interim goals for yourself, put those on the calendar too.
There’s no doubt that looking for a job can be overwhelming, especially when you have a busy full-time job already—not to mention if you’re also a parent or have other significant responsibilities or commitments outside of the paid workday.
But you can succeed if you organize yourself like you would for any project and do the search on your own timeline. Whether you can commit one hour a week or ten, do so regularly for a month and see how the process goes.
Good luck, pace yourself, and call me if you want to talk!
Sherry Ettleson, Principal
