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Job Search Handbook
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9 — Follow a Daily Schedule
Plan your Work / Work your Plan
If you are unemployed, your job search is your work. Now you are
working like a commission salesman. Only now you are working for
yourself. Your payday is when you get the job. Therefore you must set
goals and deadlines for carrying out your plan. Make yourself
accountable by using deadlines. Develop a written work schedule.
Spend six to eight hours per day looking for work. Relax. Read, and
relate to family members. Get a good night’s sleep. Take care of
yourself physically; eat normally and exercise regularly.
Seek good counsel: someone to share ideas on job search,
someone to encourage you when you are down, someone to hold you
accountable; prod you to stay on schedule in your job search.
Keep focused; expect difficulties and discouragement.
10 —Interviewing Guidelines
Everything you have done to this point, identifying your
objectives, crafting résumé, writing letters, making personal and
phone contacts, has been for one purpose: to get an interview.
When you get an interview, put the question out of your head “Am
I qualified for the job?” The answer is yes. You would not have gotten
to an interview if your qualifications
were not what the company wanted.
The purpose of an interview is to
determine if you represent the company
view. How well will you get along with
the other employees — after all a
business is team work? The interview
process identifies if you will be an
overall contributor to the corporate
goals.
No matter how well planned your search has been, how
professional your résumé is, or how eloquent your phone
conversations were, the interview alone is what will get you the job
offer. Do not underestimate the importance of this phase of the job
search. Companies do not just interview applicants without
purpose. Once you have been asked to interview, you have reached
one of your goals successfully; but the next goal, getting the job
offer, requires keen preparation.
You need to do some more research about the company you are
interviewing with. It is well worth traveling to your local library or
to research companies. If your local library does not contain the
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