Organizing Your Job Search

1. Organizing Your Job Search 
2. Researching/Locating Employers
3. Marketing Yourself to Employers
4. Job Search Assistance

Match Your Criteria
Once you know what you want to do, you need to begin to identify those organizations offering employment compatible with:

• your established criteria
• your education and training
• your qualifications (skills and experience)

Easier said than done, you say? Here are some suggestions of where to start:

Target Geographic Areas
If you are targeting a particular geographic area, subscribe to the local newspapers. Read the business pages to get a sense of which organizations in the area are expanding, "down-sizing," developing new products or markets,changing leadership and other important information.

Subscribe to Trade Publications
Subscribe to (or go to the library and read) magazines or other publications which are intended to inform people of developments in your field.

Conduct Informational Interviews
Do "informational interviewing." Make an effort to talk with people who are in the career field. Ask questions like:

• What do you do in your job?
• What preparation did you have for this job?
• How did you find your job (or how do people in this field find jobs)?
• What do you like about your job?
• What don't you like about your job?
• What are the primary skills I would need to do well in this field?
• Could you refer me to someone else to whom I could talk about this career field?