Donald Asher’s first step in a job search is identifying job targets. A job target has 3 components: industry, function, and title. Before doing anything, you need to know what job you’re looking for. You will not contort yourself to fit posted jobs; you will go after the jobs you want.
Go crazy with your job targets. Sky’s the limit.
I’m a freelancer, but if I were looking for old-fashioned employment, my job target would be publishing/editorial/editor.
Think big during your job search. What else would you love to do? At one time, I thought about the fitness industry, but after looking into it, I found out that I would need to spend time and money getting certified, and I’d rather put that time and money into my professional development as an editor. Although I love fitness and nutrition, I’m probably better off keeping them as a hobbies.
There is, however, another target I dream about. Actually, it’s more like a venue. Okay, it IS a venue: Rogers Centre. How cool would it be to hang out there all day, and if I happened to cross paths with the odd Blue Jay, well… let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
I’m thinking maybe groundskeeper, dome operator, bat/ball girl… You get the drift. Definitely not interested in admin at Rogers Centre. I was in the offices one day, and you wouldn’t believe the questions people were calling with — I felt the pain of the receptionist. From her end of the conversation, I could tell people were calling about game schedules, parking, seating. Who needs the Internet when a land line is available?!
To clearly identify my job targets with Rogers Centre, I’d need to do a little research. I’d check out the company website, of course. But when you want to break into a new industry, you may not know the job title you’re looking for. One resource to identify job targets is the National Occupation Classification. Also check out professional associations. Here are more helpful sites:
- Working in Canada
- Ontario Job Futures
- O*Net
- Government Jobs (Never hurts to try, right?)
Dream a little (or big!) dream, do some research, and come up with 2 to 3 job targets.
You’re on your way to successful employment.
[…] post is part of a continuing series about job-hunting the Donald Asher way. In step 1, you identified your job targets. Now that you know what job you’re looking for, it’s […]