Moving around the job market
What a strange expression. I have heard the terms job search or job hunt, but never “moving around the job market.”
What does it mean?
It is the key to finding the job that you want, that important promotion or career-related introduction. Never before in human history have we been so connected, and yet so isolated. Sitting in front of our computers thinking that we are doing great things to advance our careers when in fact we are operating in a narrow alleyway and ignoring the adjoining doors of opportunity and possible intersections to prosperity.
Successful job searching is all about people; technology is handy but secondary. In the end, it is always another person who decides to give a candidate the job, not a computer.
The methods for human interaction may have changed, but the fundamentals haven’t. People talk, recommend, have acquaintances, colleagues, and friends. Never underestimate the power of people you know and who they know.
Accept the fact that the job market really is only a group of people who need other people with a particular skill set…it is that simple.
Now imagine that you are invited to a party by one of your colleagues and by mistake you go to the wrong house next door that is also having a party. You walk in the door, and nobody there knows you, and you suddenly realise that you are at the wrong venue. So you leave and go next door walk into the room, and your colleague immediately greets you and starts introducing you to like-minded people.
You then spend the evening “moving around the room” talking and connecting with the right people and you have a fabulous night.
The job market in principle is no different from the two parties. If you go to the wrong area you will get nowhere, be rejected and waste your time. However, by targeting your efforts at "the right party" you have a much better chance of accessing that critical part of the job market, and have fun at the same time.
Your job search/hunt needs to concentrate on potential employers that would want your education, experience, and background. Once you define your target market and its various companies, you are at “the right party”.
Now it is time to “move around the room”, talk to people in these organisations, attend industry-related events and professional development activities.
Develop your human profile directly with likely referrers or decision-makers within these organisations. By all means, connect with them on LinkedIn etc., but keep talking, asking for information, job opportunities and dare I say it HELP (it is not a four-letter word).
Technology is great, but people are greater! Move around the job market as if it is a continuous circle because career opportunities abound for the brave.
Just as I am proofreading this article the attached email has just arrived from a current client (this validates all of the above).
“Last week, I attended the CPA Annual General Meeting and met -------, CEO of CPA Australia. I talked about my current job searching situation and he said that he would send my profile to the division manager. Now -------, CPA General Manager of Victoria would like to arrange a time to meet with me. He is also my connection on LinkedIn.”
"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it." - Thomas Jefferson
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Note: A Career Development Association of Australia research paper found that when professional career guidance occurred that the participant was 2.67 times more likely to secure a job.
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