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Taking Advantage of the Freedom in Your Schedule

July 3, 2009 by

There’s a saying “The problem with unemployment is that when you wake up, you’re on the job.” – Actually that’s not completely true, though it does feel like it.

Outplacement firms and fellow candidates will recommend you spend 35 – 40 hours a week on search.   After 40 hours, your productivity begins to slide.   In discussions with fellow candidates, we all agree as you tend to focus on issues with diminishing returns.

Your weekly priorities should be to dedicate time to your search and then dedicate time to yourself.  

Use the extra time to take some on-line courses/seminars to develop your skills, volunteer, etc. – it does not matter.   Just think of all the stuff you never had time to do when you were working.    If you can, sleep in on Wednesday.  

The non-search activities allow you to make progress and accomplish tasks.

For ideas on your schedule, look under Candidates Tools for “Organizing Your Search Week”

Filed Under: J. Keeping Your Pysche Strong Tagged With: , ,

Organize Your Search Week

December 15, 2008 by

The toolkit has a method to organize your search week.

As you adapt the timing of activities to meet your style/situation, I’ll offer two thoughts

1.       Set a specific time each week for business development.  Given busy schedules, this week’s activities usually fill spots in your calendar out two weeks or more.  So if you skip a week, you may up with some big gaps in your networking.

2.       Spread out your follow-up activities – so you don’t fall asleep at your computer or make mistakes.  Assume you have 12 meetings a week and each person gives you three names to follow-up on.   That is forty-eight “thank you” and “invitations to network” notes.

Filed Under: D. Organize Your Networking Tagged With: , ,

How many hours a week should you search?

December 15, 2008 by

There’s a saying “The problem with unemployment is that when you wake up, you’re on the job.” – Actually that’s not completely true, though it does feel like it.

Outplacement firms and fellow candidates will recommend you spend 35 – 40 hours a week on search. After 40 hours, your productivity begins to slide.

In discussions with fellow candidates, we all agree as you tend to focus on issues with diminishing returns – but it is also a way to drag down your attitude which is even worse than wasting time.

Your weekly priorities should be to dedicate time to your search and then dedicate time to yourself.

Use the extra time to take some on-line courses/seminars to develop your skills, volunteer, etc. – it does not matter. Just think of all the stuff you never had time to do when you were working. If you can, sleep in on Wednesday.

The non-search activities allow you to make progress and accomplish tasks.

For ideas on your schedule, take a look under Candidates Tools, you will find “Organizing Your Search Week”

Filed Under: F. Getting Out There Tagged With: ,

Dividing Your time by type of Networking contact

December 15, 2008 by

The four categories of people with whom you’ll network:

1.       Target Company Decision makers – The people who participate in or influence hiring decisions regarding positions you seek

2.       Target Company Insiders – People usually outside of the department/division in which you are seeking a position.   They can get you connected to the decision makers and give you valuable insight into how you desired department/division and position is viewed within the company.

3.       Peers – Individuals who hold positions that you seek

4.       Advocates – These are people outside the company who can help connect you in (family, colleagues, bankers, fellow candidates, recruiters).   Professional service providers (lawyers, insurance agents, etc.) are very popular because they work with so many firms.

Here’s the rule to networking: Work up the food chain

This was my own ratio for the contacts sought and dividing up my networking time – 4:2:1   4 advocates/peers, 2 insiders, 1 decision maker.  

I targeted to have 15 meetings a week:  9 advocates, 4 insiders and 2 decision makers.

I had to meet with numerous advocates to get an introduction into a company insider or decision maker.  Also, I used advocates, especially fellow candidates, to fill in the gaps in my calendar – since getting to people inside companies was often rescheduled.

Remember that meeting decision makers is always good, regardless if there is an open position or not.  So keep working up the food chain!

Filed Under: D. Organize Your Networking Tagged With: ,