Life Management

Before you begin your job search campaign you must have a Personal Marketing Strategy. A personal marketing strategy provides you with a game plan for your job search campaign.

You should look at the job search as a marketing campaign, with you, the job seeker, as the product. Every product, even the best ones, won’t succeed without a strong marketing strategy. This begins with a comprehensive, yet flexible plan. First you must know to whom you are marketing. You must identify the types of employers who would be looking for an employee with your qualifications. Are they all within a certain industry? Are there many industries that hire employees with your background?

Career Management – Locating Job Leads

Next, you must decide what sources you will use to locate potential employers. Everyone you speak to will have a different opinion on this. Some people feel that classified ads are a waste of time and that networking is the only way to go. Others believe that executive recruiters will get them the job they want. To use an old cliche, you should leave no stone unturned. Use all methods of tracking down potential employers.
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The time has come for a career change. You wish to switch careers and it’s the only thing on your mind these days. Bored, fired, low pay or high ambition, there are any number of reasons for a career change. First things first! Don’t fret. A career change is not as bad these days as it was made out to be in the olden days when there were fewer options for employment. But now, with highly paid jobs available and new skills that can be learnt over a few weeks, things have changed drastically. Many people have given up seemingly secure banking, government jobs, etc. and have opted for software jobs, creative jobs and even freelance options. All you need then is a bit of courage, a dash of self belief and some clarity of thought and you can join the band of people who have successfully changed careers.

If you are on the edge of changing careers, here are a few things you may want to do to get more clarity on your thought process. As always we must begin the process at home, i.e., with ourselves. Firstly take an honest look at why you want to change your career. Junk the trash about bad boss, bad conditions, etc. because these reasons do not help you in your decision making process. Instead identify aspects about the job that you want, about qualities within you that you feel can be commercially and creatively expanded. In simple terms find out what excites you – meeting people, negotiating, writing, traveling, sports, communicating or whatever else.
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You would think the tough part would be over now since you have successfully passed the interview stage and have in your hands a signed contract for your new job. This may not be the case as the final step, while not difficult in the same sense as the others, can often be the most emotional. We are talking about the resignation.

If you’ve enjoyed working at the company you are about to leave, resigning can be a nerve-wracking and heart-wrenching process. But if you keep in mind the reasons you decided to leave in the first place, and realise that looking after yourself and your career is very important, then resigning doesn’t have to be such a difficult process. In contrast to a disgruntled employee, you have the opportunity to turn this into something which may benefit you in the future by making the execution of your resignation a highly professional undertaking which holds you up as an example of a desirable employee or business partner.
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