Jobseekers: Plan to Succeed or Fail by not Planning

What I emphasize to new clients and people who attend my presentations is that the key to a successful job search is no different than how you go about launching a successful new business. After all, the desired results are both the same! 

Statistics on small businesses trying to get off the ground will tell you the failure rate is astronomical. Most new businesses do not take off as quickly as originally anticipated and struggle to survive until they learn how to do it right, and too many run out of money and either close, or sell whatever they have built up at a loss, within the first 12 months. Then again there are people who get their business off to a smooth start and reach or surpass their desired expectations From Day One and continue to grow and prosper. How about you, do you plan to succeed or fail in your job search?

The most important factor defining who succeeds, who fails, and who underachieves in opening their small business is planning for success before you begin to take action. Just as most successful aspiring small business entrepreneurs do their research and develop a business plan at the onset, so too must a jobseeker who wants to succeed and a get the right job as quickly as possible. 

So here is a list of common sense things for opening a new business and how they are juxtaposed to conducting a job search. 

A: You need to know your niche in the market and why people would want to do business with you. For a jobseeker this means you need to know which jobs you qualify for and why people would hire you for them.

B: You need to know as much about your customer base as possible and what they are in the market to buy. For a job seeker this means you need to know about the companies you are applying for and the type of person and skills profile they are looking to hire.

C: You need to know the marketplace’s and competitor’s price points, where you and your product fit in, how much your overhead is, and how much of a profit margin you’re seeking to begin with until you become established. For a jobseeker this means knowing the salary range for the jobs you’re applying for, understanding your budget factoring the cost of paid or unpaid health insurance, and determining what your worth is and how much above or below this figure you will accept the right opportunity for.

D: You need to have the right marketing tools, marketing / advertising plan, a website, and a defined budget. For a jobseeker this means you need to have a quality résumé, an appealing and optimized LinkedIn page, and a networking plan. Some of you will also benefit from having a website or some examples of your work that can be viewed online. Most important you need a budget to acquire and execute your marketing program.

E: You need to have of a team of experts i.e. an attorney, accountant, banker and a marketing and social media consultant etc. to help you get off the ground offer professional advice during your incubation and start up stages. As a job seeker some of the people you may want to have as part of your team are industry specific recruiters, a job search coach or advisor, a social media strategist and a résumé writer.

Once you have all the information and the people you need lined up and ready to go, then it is time for the final step; to come up with a written game plan of how you will conduct your job search and your budget.

You will outline the specific job search actions you will take and the amount of time you will spend on each in terms of day-to-day activity and set for yourself daily and weekly goals i.e. the number of people you networked with this week, the number of résumés you sent out to people where there were no actual jobs but there might be hidden opportunities, the number of jobs you applied for, the number of recruiters you contacted, and the follow up for each activity.

I do not mean to make a job search sound so simplistic, there is a lot of hard work that goes into the planning and execution stages. However I can tell you that if you have something worthwhile to offer an employer and you can discover what it is, and you then go about your job search ad-[hoc with a well-conceived plan and the proper support network and checks and balances you will find a job in much less time than if you approach it with a casual flying by the seat of your pants approach.

As always I am available to review your resume at no cost if you email it to perry@perrynewman.com