Job Search Budgeting for Job Seekers

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job search budgeting

What’s the alternative?  Search budgeting.  Focus your job search on a small number of high payoff tactics and perform them in a way that captures 100 percent of their advantages for you.  Do that and you’ll have no problem standing out, even in an overcrowded job market.

The 100 Percent Solution

Search budgeting involves concentrating on just three tactics in your hunt for employment.  They are:

Networking.  In a search budget, the goal of online networking isn’t to increase the number of connections you have on LinkedIn or the number of friends you have on Facebook.  More often than not, those are people who can’t help you because they either don’t work in your field or have no experience in your industry.  With a search budget, therefore, the goal is to ensure that 100 percent of the people with whom you interact are in your field, your industry or both.  They are the individuals who can and most likely will help in your job search.  Therefore, network online only at the discussion forum of your professional society or trade association and/or in a LinkedIn group that serves the same people.  They alone put you in touch with the unique insights and access of your peers

Research.  Research is the one sure way to put yourself in a position to succeed.  It enables you to identify and avoid bad employers – those that can’t or won’t promote your career advancement – and the wrong employers – those with values and/or practices that preclude your doing your best work.  Similarly, research also enables you to identify and select the right employers – those that provide the resources and support you need to perform at your peak and the environment that empowers you to do so.  Therefore, only consider employment with organizations where you are 100 percent certain you will fit in and focus your research on finding them.  They alone put you in a position to achieve real and lasting success.

Job Application.  The Internet has made it easy to find and respond to a large number of openings in a relatively short period of time.  As a result, many people today shoot out resumes like rocket launchers, applying for jobs whether or not they can do the work or even want to.  Employers, however, are much, much more picky.  They will not consider let alone select a person who isn’t a perfect match with the requirements and responsibilities they’ve listed for their vacancies.  Applying when you don’t fit those criteria, therefore, is a waste of time, both yours and the recruiters’.  The better tactic is to apply only to jobs where you are a 100 percent fit with the employer’s specifications and thus exactly match its ideal candidate.  They alone put you in genuine contention for employment.

You can’t land a great job in a crowded job market by hard work alone.  Instead, you have to work hard and work smart.  You have to stand out from the herd by focusing on a small number of tactics and performing them in a way that delivers 100 percent of their benefits to you.  That’s the power and promise of search budgeting.

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