How to Choose the Job, Part 4 Print E-mail


Compile Powerful Profiles of Your Target Companies

Wow...now you're really on your way. You've selected a job search focus, and begun building your list of target companies. As a final step in this process, you'll collect important details about each of your target organizations to help launch your search successfully. For the companies on your list, aim to gather the following information:

Organization name
Address
Phone, e-mail
Summary of the organization's purpose, mission, products, and services
Details about the business's customers
Key decision makers in the company, particularly those related to your specialty (such as the Director of Sales, if you're seeking a position as a sales representative)
Bonus Information Recent announcements provided on the company's Web page, or through news sources, such as newspapers

Are you feeling overwhelmed with the amount of information you'll need to gather? I don't blame you! You're not the first job searcher to feel this way. In fact, most job searchers quit at this point. It takes discipline to pull together all of these details, and most people just aren't willing to do it. Plus you might be asking yourself, "Is it really worth it?" Here's the scoop: Each piece of information you collect is one more brick in the foundation of your solid job search. The data you gather will help you present yourself more successfully to potential employers, giving you a huge advantage over your competition. So yes, it's worth it to gather all of this data about your target companies. Just keep nudging yourself to take tiny steps forward. Pick an organization that seems especially interesting to you as a place to start. You'll most likely discover that gathering the info doesn't take that much time or effort, and might actually be fun.

In total, aim to compile a list of 25-100 potential employers, researching as many key pieces of information as you can. Your target list will be one of your most valuable job search tools.

I'll admit it right up front: This stepdeveloping a list of target employersis one that is especially difficult for me to nudge job seekers to do. Creating a list of target employers is hard, tedious work. So why don't I just give up on nagging job searchers to do it? Because this single activity can make the difference between conducting a job search that is energizing and successful, or one that is a disappointing failure. Yes, it's that important.

Still not convinced? Well, consider it from this perspective: When they're job hunting, most people (about 90 percent of them) will only pay attention to jobs that are clearly advertised as being open. And, as a result, they only look at companies who announce positions this way. However, about 70 percent of businesses (the majority of them!) never advertise openings. They fill them through better, higher quality avenues. So unless you strategically research a list of organizations that interest you, you might never learn about businesses that would benefit from having you join their teams, plus you run the risk of missing out on 70 percent of the job opportunities that are available! So is it worth it to spend a few hours developing a list of target companies? You decide.

In some ways, it can feel safer not to get too specific about what you really want in a career opportunity. Subconsciously, many job seekers believe that if they don't put too much hope into defining what they truly want, they won't be as disappointed if it doesn't happen. But does life really work this way? You can most likely answer this for yourself. Which technique has worked better for you: articulating details about your hopes and dreams, or vaguely wishing for something better? For most people (especially job seekers) putting in the time and effort to define what they wantsuch as developing a list of target employers is a much more effective technique. Yes, it might seem tedious and overwhelming at first, but you can do it.. .and you'll be much better off for the effort.


 
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