Managing your career search campaign

Published on: 13 Nov 2013

Discipline, energy and a positive attitude are prerequisites for a successful career search campaign. This advice is provided by Appleby Associates, Executive Career Consultants.

 

Answerable possibly only to yourself, you must take full responsibility for managing the next and therefore the most important phase in your career. Doubts, distractions and disappointments can all conspire to slow you down, but even without the normal accountabilities that accompany most roles, you must exceed the realistic targets you set yourself if you are to meet your career objective.

 

Planning has featured throughout the preparatory work which has taken you to the starting point of your campaign. You need this activity as much as ever to form a structure for your work and to allow you to use the tools of the trade:-

  • effective network building
  • targeted letters
  • successful referral meetings
  • stand-out applications for advertised roles.

The setting of activity targets and timescales involves detailing the percentage of effort to be expended between the various routes to your goal - all can be planned and should be logged. Planning is, of course, an ongoing process but can only be successful if it is based on a level of activity and results – but be aware of the difference between these two.

 

Your campaign will face different pressures whether you are between positions or in full-time employment. Time management applies to both scenarios, as does creating the most productive working environment and understanding how to tackle different tasks promptly.

 

Combining activity will give you a clearer picture of how to order and fulfill your priorities. The expansion of your network of contacts and the arrangement of referral meetings will need to interchange with the direct approaches made to recruiters and time spent addressing the advertised job market. Even if one method proves the more effective, do not be tempted to abandon the work undertaken on other fronts.

 

It is important to stay current within your network and to the recruiters you’ve identified. Allocate time to get out to relevant events where you can revisit some relationships and introduce new ones into your campaign. Social interaction can be the perfect antidote to a full-time career search when not in employment. Do not lose your market knowledge as it is important that time away from work does not leave you trailing behind in your chosen field.

 

The investment of time and effort in preparing yourself to manage your career search campaign can be repaid through a disciplined and sustained approach to meeting planned targets of activity – this is the most important project you will ever be assigned.

 

This brief article was provided by executive career consultants, Appleby Associates. To find out more visit www.ApplebyAssociates.com