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Job Search Handbook


                                     Copyrighted Material
                                    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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