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To some degree, everybody plans what they are going to do in a job search. However, some people plan more effectively than others. This section presents some basic strategies for planning that can help you out in both large-scale and small-scale job searches. There are four topics addressed here.
Identify your personal and professional values and interests
Write a personal mission statement
Develop a system for organizing your search
Identify the next step
(Note: This page is set up with anchor links, so you can click down to the section you want and return from it to this table of contents for the Planning section.)
Many people enter the job market with no real sense of what they want to do or where they want to do it; such people go after jobs because they are there. There is more to life than work, and work is a significant part of our lives, so a little advance thinking goes a long way to making your life and career more satisfying.
Before you look at job postings, sit down and think about what you value in your personal and professional life. List the the qualities and characteristics of your ideal job, location, life. What personal and professional opportunities do you want to have? Who else do you need to consider in your decision-making? Is there a part of the country you know you want to focus on in your search? Prioritize these lists according to what is most important to you. Make note of the things that you won't compromise on.
Example. When I entered the job market in 1998, I was looking for a faculty position somewhere. I considered the kind of school I wanted to go to, the kind of school I was actually well-suited for, employment opportunities for my spouse, schools for my kids, general community appeal, and so on. We did not want to live in the deep south (we like snow and cold weather). We did not want to live in a big city if we could avoid it. We did not want to live on the west coast. We wanted to live in a "nice" place if we could find one. All of these factors figured in to that job search.
I don't know many people who actually do this, but it is a big help when you consider what you need to do to make a life-changing transition. Moving from university life to professional life is a major transition for most people. The people who don't think about what that means usually wind up dissatisfied, at least for awhile.
Once you've thought about your aspirations, values, and all that stuff, try to write out a simple mission statement that you can use to remind yourself later on of what you set out to do. This can be a valuable tool. My mission statement changed a bit from time to time, but I stayed the same general course; it helped to remind me of what my family valued and what I wanted to get out of my first faculty position.
Imagine for a moment that you are only applying for one job. "Organize? System?" you think, "Sounds complicated." Change the scenario. You've sent out 110 applications over three months and the phone just rang. Where did you put the info on that company? Hmmm? Get organized first, and you'll know the answer to that all-important question later.
Designate a place where you can gather materials related to each company. Make a master calendar that shows the jobs you've applied for, their deadlines, the dates you mailed materials, dates of responses, dates of interviews, offers; you should get the picture.
Example. I applied for 33 faculty positions. I assembled a binder for the search. I began by setting up a section for each job using plastic binder sleeves. Each section included the original job post that I responded to, materials that I printed from the web for each program, and a place where I could store the letters and other documents that I mailed to them when I got to the point where I was actually putting stuff in the mail. At the front of the binder, I placed a master printout from my job search spreadsheet. That document listed the kind of information I mentioned above, and I used that page to check off milestones in the search.
Once you have thought about how to get organized, and have actually taken steps to be organized, then it is time to think about finding some jobs to apply to. That topic is addressed in the section on Researching Jobs.