Quick Tips: Starting Your Job Search

The process of finding your next great adventure can be daunting. You have spent your career becoming an expert at your discipline within your industry. CPAs and financial professionals especially find themselves in this position. With a task oriented personality many CPAs tend to deal with current issues rather than laying the groundwork for future potential opportunities.

Many times per week if not every day I hear the following:“I haven’t had to look for a job in many years! People seek me out and I get recruited by former colleagues or their referrals. So how do I even start this job search?” This has been a very common refrain I hear going back years as a recruiter.

Here are some quick tips to help get your search off to a good start.

First things first – Get off the job boards

Not knowing where to start most people grab a cup of coffee and sit down to respond to ads on the job boards. Let me save you some time, frustration and aggravation by suggesting that you allocate a couple hours one day a week to this activity and that’s it. You will be better served spending your time doing much more productive activities.

Network. Network. Network.

A 2016 informal survey of over 3,000 people found that 85% of all jobs are filled through an internal referrals and/or through networked friends.  That said – get into your Rolodex, LinkedIn and Facebook accounts and make a list of your key business contacts. Don’t concern yourself about whether you will be contacting these people for a specific job at their companies. At this point you are setting up your network. Most important during this process is identifying your COIs (Centers of Influence). These are the contacts in your network who are most connected and who can be in a position to help you with crucial introductions.

Start researching industries and companies which interest you

There are free resources such as Reference USA (which can be accessed through your public library), LinkedIn, Google or pay sites such as Hoovers and/or your local Business Journal. Research and target growing companies or companies that you find interesting and don’t worry about whether they have a specific opening at the moment. Write them down & keep a list of (potential) contacts to whom you may be seeking an introduction.

If you are targeting an industry make certain to use industry resources to determine if you are in the right market. For example – if you’re targeting software or SaaS companies and you live in say Brewster, Florida you can expect to have fewer opportunities than if you were in Austin, Boston or San Jose.

Partner with a trusted recruiter

Selecting a recruiter is much like selecting a doctor. Each one has his/her own style so pick one with whom you are comfortable and one who will comply with your desired level of confidentiality. Having your resume blasted all over town may not be desirable if you are currently employed and confidentially looking for your next position. Pick a recruiter whose personality works for you and who specializes in your targeted industry, discipline and/or geographic location.

As you begin the search for your next career opportunity do not confuse activity with productivity. Stay on productive tasks which keep you moving in the direction of your targeted location, industry and/or discipline. At the outset of your campaign rule out nothing (within your chosen space) but commit to nothing. Keep an open mind and have introductory conversations whenever invited. You never know where one connection or introduction can lead. Remember that it’s not necessarily important how many irons you have in the fire. You can ultimately only hold one job anyway. Using the above tools it’s better to have fewer high quality leads than many lower quality.