Well, you're finally here. It's time to find the employers who might hire you. Who would've guessed that actively job hunting is the third step in the process? Don't even think about taking a rest. Now it's time to dig in and really work. Expect to devote 40 hours a week to Steps Three and Four if you have no job and 20 hours if you currently have a paying job. For many people, job hunting means reviewing and answering the want ads. And there's a reason: people do find jobs this way. Relying on ads as your sole job search method, however, is not a good strategy. You should also search for job openings that aren't yet "on the market." There are several reasons to look beyond ads. Most estimates suggest that only one out of twenty jobs is advertised in the first place. The rest are quietly filled by word of mouth-an employee tells a friend about a position and the friend gets hired. Some companies only hire friends of employees; they don't take in strangers "off the street." Sometimes when companies do advertise, the positions really may not be available. Some organizations have policies that require them to advertise and interview applicants even when they plan to hire someone from within. To job hunt successfully, then, you need to use as many methods as you can, especially one called "connecting with others" or "networking." "Having connections" doesn't mean you know the president of a company; it means you know an assistant who can mention you to the hiring manager. Or your child's youth group leader has a brother who works in that company and might know of positions that are open. These are the kinds of loose connections you need. Soon you'll find that your search efforts build on each other. One contact leads to another, which leads to two more, and so on. You'll have a lot of information to juggle, which is why job hunting requires you to keep good records. The average job hunt lasts several months, so you can bet that it will all start to blend together quickly. When an employer calls and you have to ask "Which job is this again?," you send the message that you don't really want that job. No one likes to feel that they're just one in a crowd-not even employers who know that you're looking at several jobs at once. Tracking your actions and interactions will help you avoid that pitfall. All the effort and tracking pay off when your search leads to contacts with the employer (Step Four) and to interviews (Step Five) and eventually to a new job.
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Step Three: Search