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PROJECT 14: The Independent Job Search Strategy |
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OVERVIEW: |
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Chapters 14 and 15 in
the textbook focus on the job search process. Students who are seeking
employment soon after college in a given locale or in a specialized job
function often use the independent job search strategy. They typically would
not be seeking employment with the medium- to large-sized firms that
typically recruit on campus. Job location is often the driving decision. The majority of job
growth in the world comes from firms that employ 20 or fewer employees. The
specialized employment opportunities are located in smaller boutique-sized
firms or specialized departments within larger firms. Rarely do budding
entrepreneurs seek career options from the type of firms that recruit on
campus. Chapters 14 and 15
discuss the common methods that are used by candidates who desire to
interview for nontraditional jobs, smaller firms, specialized jobs,
not-for-profit organizations, and start-up options. If you find yourself with
needs that fit these employment options, you need to use this independent job
search approach. The first step in the
search process is to clarify the type of employment options you are seeking.
This usually means that you have created some type of job description using
an outline like Figure
9.1 in your textbook. You have summarized this into a few job titles and
brief job summaries similar to the career objectives shown in Figures
11.3 and 11.4. With your qualities
in mind, this project asks you to create a job search plan and implement several
components of it. You probably already have a cover letter and resume as part
of your tool set. You will now be asked to identify the jobs and create a
plan that fits your unique talents, timetable, and future plans. If you are going to
graduate school, you can use this process to review the process that you will
use to seek employment (or an internship) after you complete your advanced
degree. |
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PROJECT
INSTRUCTIONS: |
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Read Chapters 14, 15 and
16 in the textbook. Figure numbers listed with the project refer to Career
Planning Strategies: Hire Me! (5th Edition). Browse several of the
websites in Career
Links and from the UCSO website under Career
Resources. The following websites are examples of ones you may find
useful in this project: Your finished project
should fulfill ALL of the
requirements below. THE INDEPENDENT JOB SEARCH STRATEGY A. Prospect
Cards: Read Chapters 14 and 15 thoroughly.
Your main sources of job leads will come from publications, third parties
(agencies), job fairs, and web job boards. Identify your
needs: job title, job description, location, industries, job functions, array
of potential employers, and target markets. What is your most likely market
to sell your talents to? Using publications, websites, job fairs, employment
agencies, etc., identify at least five potential employers in your field or
geographical area. Using Figure
15.3 as a guide, complete a prospect
card database on each of the five
employers. You may use a copy
of Figure
15.3, Outlook contacts, Excel, or any other methods to organize your
search projects. B. Job
Leads: How do you propose to
identify an even broader list of job leads? According to Chapters 14 and 16
in the textbook, you will need to research publications, websites, job fairs,
newspaper classifieds, and other productive job lead producers. Given your
background and interests, review the various job listing resources that are
most likely to generate job leads for you. List the three resources that your research has shown to be most
useful for you. Most are shown in Figures
15.1 and 15.2
in the textbook. In C. Ad
Response/Research: After using one
of the three sources of job leads
in your targeted job market(s), select one
of your choices and use it. Identify and copy three jobs that result from your research. These would be in the
form of a recruitment advertisement, preferably from a website that you can
cut and paste into a Word document. Under each of the
three job advertisements, discuss why you feel that you would likely be among
the top 10 candidates who might apply for this job. Describe your specific
competencies that best fit the parameters noted in the ad and what you know
about the more detailed job descriptions behind the recruitment ad. In other words, you
are writing your own ad, usually in the form of a cover letter with attached
resume. What parts of your background would go into a one-page cover letter?
For each of the three jobs identify the top three to five characteristics
that you feel would entice this potential employer to select your application
from among scores of others who might also think they are excellent
candidates. These points can be in short paragraphs or bulleted listings.
Consider the sorts of ideas you would put into the body of a cover letter.
Make the points especially relevant for each of the three job ads that you
have resourced. D. Web Job
Analysis: After conducting this
research and analysis, describe how successful these approaches are likely to
be in your job search. Critique your sources. If you used a
website as one of your search vehicles, criticize the website that you used.
How should it be changed to better meet your needs? Jobsites such as
MonsterTrak, Career Builder, JobWeb, Monster, HotJobs, etc. all have pluses
and minuses. Will you now likely use these? If you used other
non-website approaches in sourcing job leads, please do a similar critique of
those sources. Deliverables: Turn in to your Career Counselor: Ø
Five prospect
cards, preferably in Word, with contact information filled in Ø
Description of
three best job resources—and sites used--for your interests Ø
List of three
real jobs and three to five of your competencies that you would describe in a
cover letter for each job. Ø
Critical
analysis of your three identified job sources for your specific goals. |