Job Search – Do You Have A Strategy?

Memories of the Big Top
When I was a kid I used to love the circus act of plate spinning – all those plates and only one person keeping them afloat! The beauty of it, of course, is the efficiency of only re-spinning the plate when it starts to slow down.

The Analogy for Job Search
As I was in the middle of a recent job transition, plate spinning struck me as a compelling analogy for job search. So I started to think about plate spinning as it related to my own efforts to find that perfect next position. In the analogy, each plate represents the different sources of information or resources used to network ( I call them micro networks). How many plates was I spinning and how often was I going back to each one?

How Was I Doing?
After a quick review, I found that I had too few plates spinning and was re-spinning the same ones way too often. Sound familiar? I was inefficient by definition! I also found that I had my favorite plates, many of which were really fun to spin but were either not very effective or didn’t respond to extra spinning. Here were my core plates: recruiters, job search engines, and on-line networking groups.

Compelled by Instant Gratification
If you are like me at all, you love sites like LinkedIn®, The Ladders®, Monster® and RiteSite®. The visits are highly rewarding for those of us who need immediate gratification. They also play a clear and important role in maintaining a wide scope in your search effort. The reality is that there are many more plates out there to spin. And, as you might expect, each has its own value.

So, do you have a strategy or are you just spinning?

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job title, keywords or company	city, state or zip jobs by