Work search strategies

Generating work leads

To be successful in your work search, you need a thorough, organized approach—invest into your work search you effort you'd put into a full-time job. Whether the desk in your home office or a corner of your kitchen table, set up a work space for yourself. You will need pens, paper, good lighting and a telephone. Keep a calendar handy as well. Be sure you choose a place that is free of distractions. You may find that conducting your work search during normal business hours will help you stay focused. Dress as you would if you were going to work.

Work search journal

One tool used by job seekers to look for work is a work search journal. A work search journal is a good place to keep to-do lists or an agenda of your day, business cards of people whom you'd like to contact or with whom you'd like to follow up, phone numbers, records of conversations, notes, interviews and so on. You can also use it to file job descriptions and/or job ads. This will help you identify not only the skills employers are seeking, but the types of functions you can expect to carry out as well as the names and contact information of potential recruiters and employers.

Your work journal is an indispensable tool. It will keep track of your current work search, and it will help you in the future as well. Consider the sample below. If you wish, you can print out a few copies of our work journal worksheet and use it to keep notes while you look for work. (The work journal worksheet is a PDF file; you will need Adobe® Reader® to download and print it.)

Date: August 3

To Do	Contact	Phone	Type	Comments	Follow-Up
Check classifieds	James Smithson ABC Widgets	555-1234	Previous employer	Suggested that I...	Drop off a résumé
Make phone calls	Mrs. Enid Blythe	555-9876	Personal (church)	Referred me to...	Call Janis Rand
Follow up on last week's job interview	Christie Lexus	555-4321	Referred by Jamie Scott	Not applicable	Call again in 2 weeks
Attend XYZ luncheon	Dennis Braun	N/A	Guest of Sam Jones	Suggested I apply for membership...	Submit member application and résumé

Review the worksheet you've just completed. Does it give you any ideas in terms of generating some work leads? On a separate sheet of paper, jot down some ideas.

Where to look for work leads

A work journal is only one way to generate work leads, but in fact, there are over 20 sources of work leads. Consider the list below and feel free to add to it if you think of others.

The visible market	The hidden market
Classified ads in newspapers The Business or Careers section of the newspaper Job bulletins Employment centers College or university career centers Career/employment agencies Personnel/employment agencies Headhunters Career fairs Trade shows Conferences/conventions Electronic résumé banks	Newspaper/magazine stories/articles The Internet Labor/trade publications Employer directories the Yellow Pages Personal contacts (e.g. friends, family, acquaintances, colleages, former employers) Cold calling Information interviews Volunteering Chamber of Commerce Professional associations or societies

In looking at the two columns above, think of three sources you think will bring the highest number of work leads. If you said classified ads or newspapers, you're among many people who use newspapers as their main source of work search leads. Statistics show that over 75 percent of people rely chiefly on newspaper classified ads when looking for work. The reality, however, is that fewer than 20 percent of job vacancies are formally advertised. Why? Well, consider the following:

1. Because of today's highly competitive market, employers feel less compelled to advertise because motivated, skilled candidates make themselves known before vacancies occur
2. Advertising is time consuming and expensive. It also invites hundreds of application packages—again time consuming given the effort required by recruiters to sift through résumés, screen out underqualified/unqualified candidates and create a short list.

So, given between 75 and 80 percent of job seekers are vying for fewer than 20 percent of advertised jobs, what should you do? The advertised vacancies represent the "visible job market." Keep in mind that most vacancies (nearly 80 percent) are never advertised. You should look for work leads in the "hidden job market." Women's Web isn't suggesting you should ignore sources in the visible job market altogether, but we do recommend that you focus the bulk of your energies going after those sources proven most effective: the hidden job market.