A Systematic Approach to Job-Hunting: Step 2

This 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 time to find the employers who will hire you to do that job. That’s right — you’re ready for step 2: identifying raw leads.

Asher groups raw leads into 3 categories: organizations, people, and ideas. Start building a list consisting of these 3 things. Include all the businesses who hire people who do your type of work, all the people you know in real life and online (yup, every last one of them), and all the ideas you come up with as you listen to the news or talk to people.

First, list businesses. This will take some research. Ask a reference librarian for help researching businesses, visit your university career centre, consult business journals, contact your local chamber of commerce and other business associations. Heck, check out the Yellow Pages.

Next, list everyone you know. And trust me when I say Asher wants you to list everyone. List your family members, your friends, your family members’ friends, your friends’ family members, your dog walker — everyone. Don’t stop there. List the groups and associations you belong to in real life and online, and then start making contact with the individuals in these groups. You get a job by talking to people, and Asher has plenty of stories of people finding work because someone — and it’s always the person you’d least expect — had a vital piece of information that led to a job.

Third, list any ideas for leads that occur to you as you listen to the news or read. Asher suggests doing things like finding out what businesses in your area have recently signed new leases — a sign that business is booming.

Your goal is to create a list of 100 leads, which you will maintain at all times. Once you pursue a lead to its conclusion, you’ll need to replace it on the list. According to Asher, telemarketers claim to get a yes about 4% of the time, so having 100 leads means you should get 4 job offers along the way.