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10 Rules of a Good Job-Search

The bulk of the many emails I receive from job-seekers deal with frustrations caused from innocent errors or omissions they unknowingly make in their job-searches. Letting valuable days pass while doing nothing toward their job-search. Time — countless hours — wasted applying to far too many jobs posted online and hearing nothing back. Posting resumes on a large number of job boards. Applying to jobs using a generic resume. Not understanding the immense value of relationships and the power of networking. Blowing interview opportunities by making a bad first impression or providing weak interview responses. Waiting days, weeks, and even months without following up.

The antidote to these and other common job-search errors is to follow this article’s 10 rules of a good job-search.

Following these 10 job-search rules will not guarantee your job-hunting success, but will reduce your frustrations and time wasted on fruitless activities — while directing you to the best and most efficient job-search techniques.

1. Use time wisely. For most job-seekers, finding a new job takes significant time, effort, and hard work. Some job-seekers, though, waste valuable time by mistakenly using weak and ineffective job-search techniques. The most important source of job leads is people in your network; the weakest sources are general job boards (many of whom have misleading or outdated job postings). Do not waste your time engaged in useless activities for the sake of doing something. Instead, follow the other rules in this article for the best uses of your time.

2. Understand your unique brand. It’s critical that you understand the key characteristics that make you unique on the job market — that make you stand above other similar job-seekers. (These characteristics could include your past experience, education, training, skills, and traits.) Not only must you be able to understand what makes you an attractive prospective employee (from the employer’s prospective), but you also must be able to communicate these attributes in your job-search correspondence and in the job interview. Do you know the value of your career brand? Take Our Career Branding Quiz — and learn more in our article, Building Your Brand: Tactics for Successful Career Branding.

3. Have a specific job goal. If you don’t know the type of job(s) you seek and how you’re qualified for them, how will any prospective employer? Take time to research the jobs you are qualified for — jobs that also interest you — and carefully document your qualifications (previous work experience, education, certifications, skills, and the like) you have that meet or exceed what each job requires. Once you have identified your job goal, develop a plan to achieve it. (See Rule #4.)

4. Develop a plan to achieve your job goal. It’s one thing to have a goal, but without a plan on how to achieve that goal, you may never reach it. Your plan should include detailed steps for how you will work at your job-search to identify, apply, interview, and accept the ideal job for you. If you must, put your plan on paper so that you review it regularly, making positive steps toward your goal. Read our article, For Job-Hunting Success, Develop a Detailed Job-Search Plan.

5. Work on your job search daily. After developing a plan, your next step should be to pull out your calendar and set a daily job-search agenda. No day should pass that you do not achieve something related to your job-search. Possibilities include attending a networking function, applying to a job opening, going on a job interview, following up a job lead or after a job interview, attending a job fair, requesting or going on an informational interview, researching prospective employers, catching up with a network contact, attending a job-club meeting, seeking advice from a mentor or former professor/boss/co-worker, updating your resume.

6. Create, edit, polish basic resume. While you will rarely use your basic uncustomized resume as part of your job-search, you must have a good resume before you modify it for each job opening, as discussed in rule #8. Virtually every resume could use some tweaking — and because the resume is the key that opens doors to the interview — take a hard look at your resume, making adjustments as necessary. If you have not needed to update your resume — or you never written a resume — carefully review current trends and rules of resumes. Review (or start) your resume using some of the resources we offer in the resume section of Quintessential Careers.

7. Talk to people you know (your network) to obtain job leads and gather insider information. Repeat this mantra to yourself and use it to motivate you to strengthen and expand your network of contacts: “Networking is the BEST tool for helping me find a new job.” All the other job-search tools combined do not equal the power of networking in helping you find that next great job opportunity. Traditional face-to-face networking is still the best method for building and maintaining valuable relationships, but don’t ignore online networking opportunities, such as with LinkedIn and Facebook, among others. Read more in our articles, Networking Your Way to a New Job and Frequently Asked Questions About Career Networking.

Read more | livecareer.com