Day 6 – Reaching Out
If so, continue on with today’s lesson. Just a warning for those starting a business, today’s e-mail is more related to those looking for a job, but you can still apply the same concepts to find information on your industry.
Lesson #1: Researching Specific Career Types
Now it’s time for a bit for research. Please note: Online research can be a very big time waster, so be careful with this step. Have specific goals for what you are looking for online and set time limits for the research sessions.
Now that you have created the target profile, you can take time to learn more about the industry, companies and jobs in the industry.
Industry Associations
A great first step is to search online for industry associations in your particular filed of interest. Many of their websites provide great information about the industry as well as specific companies that are members. They often have news stories that include information on which companies are hiring.
Career Information
There are a variety of research tools available to specifically investigate potential career options. If you are interested in further career research or future trends, you may look at the Occupational Careers Handbook and find additional information on your career. It also shows the education that is needed to enter this profession:
www.bls.gov/oco
When considering a career, you can learn about it by:
• Reading the industry’s trade journals
• Getting to know the people in that industry or field
• Joining the industry’s organizations and attend meetings
• Take relevant courses, part-time jobs, or do volunteer work related to the industry.
Take a minute to summarize your thoughts on the above research. What did you learn from reviewing information on the web? How does this augment the information that you learned about yourself in the previous Excursions? Please record some of your thoughts gained from this exercise in the space provided below.
Job Boards
Remember at the outset of this program, we said job boards would not be an effective way to go. There are massive amounts of postings on the job boards and an even larger number of people applying to these positions. As mentioned, few jobs actually come from applying to the job boards blindly, but they can be a great resource.
If you are looking for a job, now is the time that they are a great resource. Now that you have created exactly what you are looking for, you can conduct targeted searches.
We suggest the Job Board on our site at:
www.PathInsight.com/Job-Board
Plus, when you find a position that matches your interest or you see a company in your industry that is hiring for a number of positions, you can add them to your target organizations.
The next section shows how to find more of these organizations and the following Excursion shows you how to network into them.
Research Databases
There are a number of databases online that allow you to research company information. If you already have a subscription to one and have had success in it, then you can use it to add companies to your target search profile.
If you have not, one of the best methods is to utilize the resources of your local library. You can check and see which subscriptions they have to databases with company information. Many of the libraries also have access online, so you can login through your library’s website with your library card number. Contact your library about how to do this.
Once you have access, you will be able to search by company name, size area or industry. Most of these databases have a field where you can search by SIC code. You can look up a company that you know in the industry to obtain their SIC code. Then, enter this code in your search along with any other parameters you like and it will show you all the companies that meet your search criteria. Again, these can be added to your target employer profile and used in your networking, which you will learn in the next Excursion.
Enjoy Life,
Patrick
Return to main page for this e-course by clicking here.
