Depending on how you start your job search, you could end up with hundreds of thousands of Google links when looking for career and job hunting advice. How do you even begin to manage the information overload created by your job search online? Let me offer three ways to narrow down and focus your efforts.
- Develop a sequential plan of action. Most job hunters spend most of their searching energy visiting recruiting sites like monster.com. Others go directly to companies' web sites to submit their resumes. The process becomes opportunistic and unfocused. By having a checklist with an action plan of activities to accomplish per day or week, job seekers will have a better idea of the progress they are (or not) making.
- Limit your time online. Before you spend hours searching the internet, ask yourself: Why am I on this site? How much time am I going to spend here? If you consciously want to spend a day surfing online, do it. What I am warning you about is falling into the trap of spending most of your job hunting efforts wandering aimlessly in FaceBook or other sites and then complaining that no one is getting back to you. If you know you are prone to wander around online, add a column to your plan of action to track time spent online and after a week or two see what results you are getting from your efforts.
- Consider offline job hunting resources. Don't forget the library, community centers, alumni offices and professional associations. Even churches are involved in helping their parishioners brush up in their interviewing skills. An added bonus to using job hunting resources offline is the potential for face-to-face networking.
