Job Search Process

The crucial first step toward your future is looking back at what you've done with your career so far. No experience you've ever had, regardless of how it ended, has been a waste of time. Everything that happened to you has taught you more about yourself - what you're capable of doing, what you like, what you dislike, and what you need. Now that you have a bit of distance from your last work experience, you can look at your past job from a new perspective.

Ask yourself the following questions about your last job:

• What did I like best, and least, about my last job?
• What did I like best, and least, about the company?
• What did I like best, and least, about the people with whom I worked?
• What did I like best, and least, about the people for whom I worked?
• What did I like best, and least, about the people with whom I worked?
• What were my most important accomplishments?
• What were my most significant failures?
• What are my plus points?
• What are my setbacks?
• What was missing from my last job that I should seek in a new one?

Now ask yourself the same questions about other previous jobs that you've held. Knowing where you've been before is the first step toward building a new career in which you can achieve a higher level of personal satisfaction and professional success.

While you are journeying back in time, you should remember all the jobs that you've held. Compare them and ask yourself the following questions:

• In which job(s) were you the happiest? Why?
• In which job(s) were you the most successful? Why?
• Who was the best boss you ever had? Why?
• Who was the worst boss you ever had? Why?
• What significant barriers have arrested your career growth?
• If you could start your career over again, how would you do things differently?

Sometimes you may not be sure about what you want to do. Here are a few exercises that might help you to identify your changing skills, needs, and goals.

• Write down your ten greatest accomplishments and your ten greatest disasters. Be sure to be realistic. Look for the commonalties between your successes, and then find out what your failures share. This will give you some insight into your strengths and weaknesses.
• Invite some of your closest friends to offer their input on your career path. Ask them to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. Friends can have most helpful insights.
• Diagram your career path until now noting its highs and lows. Note whether you've consistently moved ahead, stalled, or rolled backward in your quest for career satisfaction and success. When you are done, ask yourself the critical question: Do I want to "stay the course" and see where the path I've traveled so far will lead, or is it time to move into an as-yet-unexplored territory?

Losing your confidence comes easily when you've recently been terminated. However, losing a job doesn't make you any less of a professional. It simply presents a challenge to be overcome. Take the opportunity to assess yourself as an employee. The following questions could be of help:

• How do I describe myself as a professional?
• How have I typically reacted to extreme stress and pressure?
• What have been the most difficult kinds of work problems I have had to handle?
• How do I typically react: when I am criticized? When I am angry?
• How would I define "success"?
• What do I like and dislike about work in general?
• What are some of the rewards I expect from work? Are they reasonable?
• What are my short-term and long-term career objectives?
• Have I in the past ruled out any career alternatives that I would now like to reconsider?

Like most people, you've been living for more than just work. Many times the things that you most enjoyed doing and received the greatest level of gratification from were non-work related. Don't minimize your hobbies and interests; what they've taught you and what you value about them are important considerations now, too, as you prepare to step back into the workplace. Look for transferable skills that you've acquired in your leisure time. Perhaps you've conducted research, tutored, written, coached, collected, analyzed, programmed, or managed. The knowledge that you've gained, and the skills you've employed, might qualify you to pursue a new career or go farther in your old one. Indulge in daydreaming.

Could turn your hobbies and interests into a moneymaking venture for yourself? Close your eyes for a few minutes, and see yourself engaged in your dream job. Alternatively, you might imagine yourself doing what you like best, or something you've done in the past that's given you incredible satisfaction. Visualize, down to the smallest details, your environment, the people and objects around you, and what you're doing. Use all your senses. Hear the sounds, feel the textures, smell the aromas, and taste the tastes. Take time to fully experience your imagination. Then open your eyes, and keeping hold of the image, consider the following:

• What are the most appealing aspects of your day dream?
• What are the most realistic aspects?
• What are the most absurd?
• What goals would you have to achieve to make your dream come true?
• What are the barriers to achieving those goals?
• How can you overcome those barriers?

You might have been working in the same industry throughout your career, but that doesn't mean you have to stay in it all your life. Before you commit yourself to a job search that once again targets that industry, do a little homework. You are already in the experimental mode, so how about being more objective than you were in the past about what you'll do next? It might turn out that you are able to transfer many of your skills and interests to another industry. Weighing the option of a change in industry can sometimes lead you to better success!

For example, if you've been working as an economics educator at a university for the past fifteen years, you might find it easy to crossover into publishing math textbooks. Even if you've received specialized training that you can't immediately envision using in another industry, there's no reason to feel stuck or pursue a future in a field that no longer interests you.

Keep an open mind about what kind of company/venture you want to approach next. Ultimately, your field survey and career direction will come to a meaningful conclusion and direction when you begin informational interviewing. However before you begin to penetrate the hidden job market through informational interviewing, continue with your field survey by reading trade magazines, industry newsletters, and local and national business newspapers. Attend trade shows and association meetings. Assess the current state of your industry and the changes that are in store for it. The following questions may be good for a beginning:

• How is the field's health today rated by industry experts?
• What major changes are being envisaged for the field?
• What will be the determining factors for the industry in the next decade?
• What are the biggest threats the industry will face in the next decade?
• In what geographical areas will the field be the strongest?
• What types of people and skills will be in the greatest demand?
• What are the biggest advantages and disadvantages to working in the field at present?

You should also consider asking the following questions:

• Are you still a good match in the field with the skills you have?
• Do you need to consider taking additional classes to hone your skills further?
• In the long run, will the industry be able to offer you enough financial gains?
• Can stay close to your family for the foreseeable future if you stay in your field?
• Would you be willing to relocate your family to the geographical areas where the industry is growing?

Be sure to consider your needs and preferences, as well as those of your family members. Are there other industries to which you could transfer your job skills and interests? Would any of these be a better match for you? It is a good ides to put other industries that show potential through the same rigorous examination.

Using charts to structure your thoughts can be an important part of the process of reentering the workplace and considering career changes. Writing out a career plan creates personal direction and focus. A written personal career plan is a tangible, measurable outcome of the self-commitment that can reinvent the professional in you.