Successful Job Search

Successful Job Search “success is a personal journey”. Define it on your terms, focus on making progress towards your long-term career goals, and don’t be afraid to adjust your course as you learn and grow. With these tips, a positive attitude, and a relentless hustle, you’ll be celebrating that dream job in no time!

Step 1: Know Your Skills

A survey of employers found that 90% of the people they interviewed could not explain their skills. They could not answer the question, ?Why should I hire you?? The consequence of not being able to answer that question is that your chances of getting the job are greatly reduced. Knowing your skills (and having the examples to back up your claims) offers you an advantage in the job search and helps you write a more effective resume.

If you have not spent time on this issue, you should. It is very important for both planning your career and carrying out your job search.

Step 2: Have a Clear Job Objective

Having a good job objective is more than just part of your resume. It is essential to carrying out a productive job search. Even if you don’t know exactly what you want to do in the long term, you at least have to decide what you want to do next. One of the beautiful things about the massage therapy industry is that every job or experience you have makes you a more desirable candidate for your next position ? whether you change your focus or not. For example, working for a spa will teach you things that a chiropractor will find valuable, and vice versa.

Do not be afraid to make a decision! The biggest reason a graduate ends up not working successfully in the field is INDECISION.

Step 3: Know Where and How to Look

One survey found that 85% of all employers don’t advertise at all. They hire people they already know, people who find out about the job through word of mouth, or people who simply happen to be at the right place at the right time. This is especially true in the massage therapy industry for two reasons:

1. Employers don’t advertise for massage therapists because they don’t know where to find them
2. This is a young industry and we are creating the job market. Many people who currently employ didn’t even know they needed a massage therapist and/or skin care specialist until or the graduate contacted them and educated them about the benefits.

Listed below are some ways you can increase your odds at finding job opportunities.

Career Opportunity Lists: The Career Services Office at SEG keeps classified listings of employers who have current openings for massage therapists, private practice opportunities and professional resources.. All graduates and students have access to these lists, so applying for these jobs may be more competitive than some of the other methods listed. It is still worthwhile to apply, just be sure to spend time on other job search methods as well.

Career Services Referrals: This is a placement service offered by the Career Services Office. After you meet with your Career Advisor, will match you up with potential employers and schedule interviews for you. This method is more individualized and finds faster results than only using the opportunity listing. It also requires a bigger commitment of you. While involved in this program, will obtain feedback from employers about how well you interviewed and where you can improve in order to make future interviews more successful. It is still wise not to rely solely on the referral service and to utilize other methods to access the maximum number of possibilities for yourself in the industry.

Sending out Resumes: In most career fields, your resume alone may not be the most effective tool for getting interviews. One survey found that you would have to mail more than 500 unsolicited resumes to get one interview. The odds are higher in the massage therapy/skin care industry, but the idea is the same. A better approach would be to phone the person who might hire you to set up an interview directly, then send a resume. However, it is never a bad idea to keep as many options open as possible. If you would like to send out unsolicited resumes, take advantage of the Career Services office. Career Services will do all the work. That way you can save your prime time for more effective job search methods.

Most jobs are filled by someone the employer meets before a job is formally open. So, your challenge is to meet people who can hire you a job is available. Instead of saying, “Do you have any jobs open?” say, “I realize you may not have any openings now, but I would still like to talk to you about the possibility of future openings.” This is a great way to start a network of people who know you are looking for work and understand the skills you have to offer. If the employer you’re speaking with doesn’t have any openings in the near future, their friend who owns a spa across town might. If you get some employers interested in you and on your side, they will pass the word along to others who may be able to hire you NOW.

Develop a Network fo “Warm Contacts” Among People You Know: One study found that 40% of all people found their jobs through a lead provided by a friend, a relative, or an acquaintance. Since you already know these people, they are called “warm” contacts, and they are the most important group of people in your job search. If you are organized in asking them to help you, they can provide you with many job leads that you will not find in any other way. They can also lead you to other people they know. Developing new contacts from people you know is called “networking” and it works as follows. (You should also use “networking” to build your clientele.)

Make Lists of People You Know: Develop a list of anyone you are friendly with, then make a separate list for all your relatives. These two lists usually add up to 25-100 people or more. Then think of other groups of people with whom you have something in common, such as people you used to work with, people you went to school with, people in your social or sports group, members of your professional association, former employers, and members of your religious group. You may not know many of these people personally, but most will help you if you ask them.

Contact Them in a Systematic Way: Each of these people is a contact for you. Obviously, some lists and some people on your lists will be more helpful than others, but almost any could help you find a potential job lead.

Start with your friends and relatives. Call them up and tell them you are looking for a job and need their help. Be as clear as possible about what you are looking for and what skills and qualifications you have. Remember, these people watched you go through school and have a vested interest in your success ? it’s their pleasure to help you.

Develop a system for contacting these people. Keep track of who was very helpful and which leads they provided. You will need this information later when sending your thank-you notes. Remember, good manners never hurt and you may need the assistance of these contacts again someday.

Ask Them for Leads: It is possible that they will know of a job opening just right for you. If so, get the details and get right on it! More likely, however, they will not, so here are three questions you should ask.

1. Do you know of any openings for a person with my skills? If the answer is no, then ask:
2. Do you know of someone else who might know of such an opening? If they do, get that name and ask for another one. If they don’t, then ask:
3. Do you know of someone else who knows lots of people? If all else fails, this will usually get you a name.

When you get in touch with these leads, you should ask them the same questions. For each original contact, you have the potential to expand your network of contacts by hundreds of people. Eventually, one of these people will hire you or refer you to someone who will!

Use “Cold Contacts” / Contact Employers Directly: This approach takes more courage and perseverance. Next to getting leads from people you know, contacting employers directly accounts for about 30% of how all people find jobs, making this the second most effective source of job leads.

Lists of cold contacts are available to you from Career Services, the yellow pages, the Department of Commerce, direct mail houses, the Internet, and through job-search books.

There are three basic techniques for contacting cold contacts:

1. CALL THEM: Use the lists of cold contacts you receive from Career Services to identify the employers who could use a person with your skills and the places where you are interested in working. Then call the organization and ask to speak with person who is most likely to hire you. Following is a sample script of what you may want to say:

   Hello, my name is Susie Q. I am interested in a position as a massage therapist. I understand that you may not have any current openings, but I am a graduate of the [school name], and am very interested in learning how I could join the team at your spa. In addition to over 800 hours of massage therapy/skin care training, I am very reliable, hard-working and deliver excellent customer service. I was wondering when I can meet you and share more about what I have to offer?

   Don’t forget to offer to mail or fax your resume following the phone call. When calling a business that may not offer massage therapy at the present time, you will want to adjust your script to ask the employer if you can discuss the benefits of massage therapy/skin care with them and offer a demonstration.

2. DROP IN: You can also just walk in and ask to speak to the person in charge. This is particularly effective in small business, but can work well in large organizations as well. Remember, you want an interview even if there are no current openings. If your timing is inconvenient, ask for a better time to come back for an interview. Bring your resume with you, so you can leave it with the employer if needed.
3. COLD LETTERS: Some people feel uncomfortable with the assertive approaches described above. While they show the most immediate results, sometimes people just can’t bring themselves to be that direct. A less effective, but still worthwhile approach is to send out a “cold letter” to the cold contacts you have chosen. It will most likely still be necessary for you to call the organization in order to find out whom you should direct your letter to. A cold letter introduces you in the same way the script for a cold call does. Be sure to close the letter with an invitation for the employer to contact you ? but don’t leave the follow-up up to them! Make a schedule to call all the people you sent letters to within the next two weeks. Talk to you Career Advisor about sending out a Broadcast Letter for you.

Step 4: Spend at Least 25 Hours a Week Looking

On average, most job seekers spend about five hours weekly actually looking for work. They are also unemployed an average of three or more months. People who follow the “25 hours per week” advice spend much more time on their job search each week. They also get jobs in less than half the average time. Time management is the key.

Deccide how many hours per week you plan to look for a job. At least 25 hours per week is suggested if you are unemployed and are looking for a full-time job. The most important thing is to decide how many hours you can commit to your job search, and stay with it.

Decide on which days you will look for work. How many hours will you look each day? At what time will you begin and end your job search on each of these days? Create your own schedule on a piece of paper, or set up your schedule on a daily planner. Enlist at least two friends to support you remaining faithful to your job search commitment.

Step 5: Get Two Interviews a Day

The average job seeker gets five interviews per month ? fewer than two interviews a week. Yet many job seekers who utilize as many of the above-mentioned job search techniques as possible find it easy to get two interviews per day. To do this, you must redefine what an interview is.

A New Definition of an Interview: An interview is face-to face contact with anyone who has the authority to hire or supervise a person with your skills. This person may or may not have a job opening at the time you interview with them.

With this definition, it is much easier to get interviews. You can now interview with all kinds of employers, not just those with current openings. Many job seekers have used the yellow pages to get two interviews a day after just an hour of calling by using the telephone contact script mentioned earlier. Others simply drop in on potential employers and ask for an unscheduled interview. Getting two interviews a day equals 10 a week ? more than 40 per month! That’s 800% more interviews than the average job seeker gets.

Step 6: You Must Do Well in the Interview

No matter how you get an interview, once you are there, you will have to create a good impression. One study indicated that, of those who made it as far as the interview, about 40% created a bad first impression, mostly based on their dress and grooming. First impressions count and if you make a bad one, you will never get a chance to recover and your chances of getting a job offer will rapidly decrease.

Step 7: Follow up on All Contacts

People who follow up with potential employers and with others in their network get jobs faster than those who do not. Here are three guidelines to follow to get the best results from the contacts in your network:

1. Send a thank-you note to every person who helps you in your job search.
2. Send the thank-you note within 24 hours after you’ve spoken to someone.
3. Develop a system to continually follow up on all good contacts.

After an interview, sending a thank-you note accomplishes several things: first, it creates a positive impression that you have good follow-up skills and good manners; second, it creates another opportunity for you to remain in the employer’s consciousness; third, if they have buried, passed along, or otherwise lost your resume and previous correspondence, sending a thank-you note provides one more chance for them to find your number and call you.

Step 8: Use Job Lead Cards to Organize Your Contacts

If you follow the previous suggestions, you will soon begin to forget who is who or who gave you which name. For this reason, you need to have a system to organize your many contacts. You can use a simple 3-by-5 card to log essential information about each person in your network. File the cards under the date you want to contact the person, and the rest is easy. It has been found that staying in touch with a good contact every other week can pay off.