Finding Job Leads: Networking

It's important to get as many job leads as possible. So, no matter how embarrassed you are that you lost your job, or your emotional state, tell everyone that you meet that you're looking. You are STILL whatever you were at your last job, but you just don't have an employer right now. So when you meet someone at the grocery store or at church or wherever you meet people be sure to let them know that you are looking for a job. Tell all of your friends. Tell them to tell their friends. Use your social network for everything it's worth.

And don't let the social network end there. If you don't have a facebook, plaxo, or linkedin page, you should have one. On all 3 places. And with your facebook page, don't put pictures of you out at the bar... potential employers really do look at that stuff hese days. Also, don't use the myspace or facebook blog. Those things are overly accessable for potential employers. You want a page, and you want to make it look like you have friends, and you want to make yourself look like you have personality and are fun, but you shouldn't look like a frat boy, and don't want to inadvertently say anything that might be embarassing.

Post your resume on careerbuilder.com and on monster.com and make an update to it every 3-4 days. When you update your resume it goes back to the top of the lists. Also set up automated job hunts for those two boards to email you with new job leads that fit your criteria. But those should not be your primary places for your job hunt. They pretty much take care of themselves; you just need to keep your resume up there for potential employers to find you and have them email you offers.

Instead use www.indeed.com and www.simplyhired.com for your active job searches. They have fewer listings, but they also are aggregators for smaller sites and give you jobs where the employer is looking to move more quickly. In addition there are dozens of job boards for certain professions. I know for myself I can use www.dice.com and www.guru.com if I need some quick cash flow. I can't help with everyone's profession, but google can.

The main thing is that you now have your friends looking for you, 2 websites looking passively for you, and 2 more you're actively searching. The last step is headhunters. If there is a lot of demand for your skill set then the headhunters will call based on your monster and careerbuilder resumes. If you aren't so specialized then you'll need to find some headhunters to help you. Regardless, find someone else in your industry, preferably in HR in your industry, and find out who the companies are that have a good reputation and get placements. Then get your resume to those people as well. I tend to hate headhunters generally, but they find job leads and give you information like what you can expect to make in your next job, what your resumes strengths and weaknesses are, and how to present yourself better.

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