Find a Job in the classified ads or newspapers

Job searching has many avenues to success. I found 3 of my jobs during my career through the classifed ads. Obviously it is a lot easier today to look through the newspaper ads today because you can view most of the job postings online. Here is a sample of some of the online job posting that are associated with local newspapers.

Michigan Career Builder
Career Builder Port Huron Area
New York Times Job Market
Chicago Tribune Career Builder
Tampa Bay Classifieds

Another cool site on lines is called www.50states.com. It has information on all 50 states. For example is you want to see all the newspapers in Florida and do a job search just click here.

Another way to save time and money is to visit your local library or a larger library of a nearby city to view all the ads in several different papers.

If you are thinking of relocating to another area some of the larger book stores also carry paper from different regions. So you might be able to purchase a Sunday paper for a Florida City.

On line job searches

Online job searching is a very popular way to find job listings. Thousands of jobs are listed each day on the online sites. You can even post your resume onto these sites so employers can find you. Some of the largest sites like http://www.monster.com are well know sites however there are other competing sites that you may also want to try.

Standing out from the crowd: One of the biggest problems in applying for jobs through an online service is that you will be competing with a very large crowd. Any time I have ever applied for a job through one of these services nothing happened. The on time I made any progress with these sites was when I posted for the job and then ruthlessly followed up with the employer. You have to get the company name, phone number, and hopefully the name of the hiring manager to make any progress. Talking to HR is fine but they are not the ultimate decision maker.

Job search agent: Another popular feature is the job search agent. You can set an email agent to notify you of jobs that me your specific criteria. The agent will then email you each day with the jobs that would be relevant for what you are searching for.

Popular job search engines: Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, Hotjobs.com

Direct Mail

Believe it or not most of the jobs that are available are not through recruiters, online postings, or newspaper ads. In other words, the jobs are not advertised. So how do you find those jobs? One way is through networking, you can see my other post for tips on that.

How to do direct mail: Unfortunately you cannot just mail you cover letter and resume to the companies you are targeting. You can do this however, you will not stand out from the crowd. Here are the steps that I have used to do direct mail marketing, whether is it email or snail mail.

1. Identify the companies that you are interested in.
2. Determine who the hiring managers are, whether they are VP of sales, President of the company or a supervisor. It really depends on what type of job you are looking for.
3. There are several ways to find out who the hiring managers are. a) Call the company and sometimes they will tell you. b) Network with other people about that company c) obtain a list of industry contacts such as a list of members to a proffessional association in you area. This is probably the best way to really find out fast who the management are at each company in your specific area or industry.
4. Send your information to the selected people.
5. Call them in 5 days to confirm that they received your information. If you have the name of the person most of the time the receptionist will put you through to the person. If they have a administrative assistant they will want to take a message. If you can't get through that way try calling after hours and use the company directory to leave a message directly for the person on voice mail.
6. They might not be hiring right now, however, they might need someone at a latter time.
7. Additionally once you have made contact with them if they are not hiring you can also network with them on who they know is hiring. If you have someone on the phone explain what you are looking for, confirm that they have received your information, and if they are hiring this type of person. If not wrap up the call quickly, as them if they know of other companies that are hiring for this type of position. Finally, ask them if it would be ok for you to followup with them in 1 month.

Networking

You need to find a new job or you are currently out of a job. Your most powerful method to find a new one is your network. The classic rule of six degrees of separation applies to finding a job. First of all dig out all you old contacts and get organized then follow the following steps in networking

1. Number one rule in networking is don't as the person you are talking to if they have openings at there company. This may sound silly but you don't want to pressure your contacts.
2. Simply inform you contacts of the situation and describe what you are looking for. Ask them if they know of any companies that are looking for this type of employee. If they happen to be looking for this type of employee great you now have a good lead. Write it down in your contact log as a followup item.
3. Let you family members and friends know you are looking for a job.
4. Talk to your current customers if you can trust them. You don't want to inform them you are leaving if they won't understand and keep it confidential.
5. Call previous co-workers and bosses and quiz them on who is hiring.
6. Network with your neighbors again everyone knows a lot of people you don't know and it could be good lead for you.

The key on networking is continuing to make contacts everyday. You cannot stop. If you are currently working I would suggest making 2 new contacts or followup contacts per day. If you are not working I would suggest 10 a day. 10 contacts a day is a big challenge because after 2 weeks you may run out of initial contacts however if you are digging hard for leads you will find many new people to call.