I found this great article by Melanie Szlucha about using key words strategically to help you find jobs. It’s short and to the point. After you read it, see what I say about this in terms of “right fit” work.
This week’s I did what felt like a million consultations with people who saw me speak at a few events last week. I love doing these, they give me the chance to hear the specifics of the job search and we brainstorm some new ideas.
One of the easiest, biggest breakthroughs was having clients simply search the mother of all job search sites indeed.com simply for specific words associated with their experience, rather than sticking to job titles.
So for example, one client’s last position was as a Business Analyst-so he had all of his searches set up to pull jobs with that title. However when I looked at his resume and we talked about his position, I realized that he’s actually a compensation (salary) and commission analyst. This is what the vast majority of his experience is in. So while he isn’t the guy who ultimately decides the new structure, he figures out glitches in the system and is the liaison between the sales force and finance.
As we were talking on the phone, I popped onto Indeed and simply did a search on the words salary, compensation, and commission-and came up with several different positions than what he had been finding, but at least at a cursory glance he looked very qualified to do. They each had slightly different titles-none of them Business Analyst.
Companies aren’t consistent in their labeling. It’s not as if they get all of the HR Directors and hiring managers in a room and come up with consistent job titles, descriptions, resume formats they like and ways to conduct a job interview that actually makes sense.
Looking for a change, but you know that you love giving presentations? Then play around with all the different permutations of that word to see what comes up. They have some nice filters along the left hand side that allow you to screen by location and salary. It might give you some new ideas of companies, industries or networking opportunities.
Keep your options-and search terms-open.
Melanie Szlucha has been a hiring manager for over 15 years and a career coach for over 4 through her company Red Inc. She writes resumes, coaches clients for job interviews, and works with them to strategize networking opportunities and job search tactics.
She offers a packet of FREE job search articles–worth over $100, through her website:http://www.reallygreatresume.com.
Following her on Twitter ( http://www.twitter.com/Red_Inc ) gives you one great job search tip per day for FREE!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Melanie_Szlucha
The core takeaway from this article is that job titles are not by themselves good key words for a search. Skills are.
When I work with people, we focus on the skills and talents they love to use and want to use again. Their “right fit” work is a position that will allow them to exercise their abilities and have their desired impact on a company, their own lives, the world. So let’s use that information about your Core Value Proposition and your Must Have List to find jobs that will be a “right fit” for you.
I suggest you search job sites – including Indeed, LinkedIn and Idealist.org (for non-profit jobs) – for those skills and see what job titles come up. Usually there are many different ones. Skills are what an employer wants, not someone who has had a specific title. So this focus is more likely to unearth the kind of jobs that will be a “right fit” for your abilities and preferences.
If you want, you can start to search sites for those job titles. Just make sure you continue to search for the skills you want to use, or you might miss some great opportunities.
Knowing the various possible job titles also will allow you to give people examples of the kind of work you want when they ask “so what are you looking for?” – a question I tell you how to answer in my blog on December 14 “Be Specific About Your ‘Right Fit’ Job.”
