What Color Is Your Parachute? (37 page)

Identify the Members of the “A Team”

As you become familiar with your new work environment, begin to meet and observe people throughout the organization. Who are the up-and-comers? Is there a manager you would rather work for or a division you would rather work in? Get to know the people who have the jobs you want. Get to know their managers too. Don’t go around saying, “I want your job”; you won’t build good relations with your colleagues that way. But do ask people about the specifics of their jobs. By doing information interviews
at work, you can develop a plan for the next step in your career.

Watch, Listen, and Learn

If you join a business, division, or department that has two or more people, be aware that you’re entering a situation that has a history. There are ongoing dynamics and power struggles about which you know nothing yet. As you learn your way around, observe everyone and everything. Don’t overdo sharing of personal information or get overly friendly until you know someone’s motives. After a few weeks of watching the scene, you’ll probably put together what’s going on.

Find a Mentor

In fact, find several
mentors. If this is a company in which you hope to have a long-term career, find a mentor within the company. (For more on mentors, see
chapter 5
.) If you like the industry, find one or more mentors outside the company. You can pick people who are still working or who have retired. Choose someone who has achieved the level of success to which you aspire. Meet with your mentors at least twice a year.

This has been a long chapter. That’s because there is so much to learn if you want your job hunt to be successful. We hope you’ve learned a lot about how to search for and find your dream job. In the next chapter, we’ll look at the top ten mistakes job-hunters make—and how you can avoid them.

IF YOU WANT TO EXPLORE FURTHER…

Job Hunting: General Information

Bermont, Todd.
Get the Job You Want: 10 Secrets to a Winning Job Search.
Troutman, 2009.

Coon, Nora.
Teen Dream Jobs: How to Find the Job You Really Want Now!
Beyond Words Publishing, 2003.

Fox, Jeffrey J.
Don’t Send a Resume: And Other Contrarian Rules to Help Land a Great Job.
Hyperion, 2001.

Levinson, Jay.
Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters.
Wiley, 2005.

McIvor, Brian.
Career Detection: Finding and Managing Your Career.
Management Briefs, 2009.

Reeves, Ellen.
Can I Wear My Nose Ring to the Interview? A Crash Course in Finding, Landing, and Keeping Your First Real Job.
Workman, 2009.

Vernon, Naomi.
A Teen’s Guide to Finding a Job
, 2nd ed. AuthorHouse, 2003.

Webster, Jeanne.
If You Could Be Anything, What Would You Be? A Teen’s Guide to Mapping Out the Future.
Dupuis North Publishing, 2004.

Get all kinds of ideas for your search from career strategist Marty Nemko, PhD, at his website:
www.martynemko.com
.

What to expect during your job search:
www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/what-to-expect-in-your-job-search-1.1480682
.

This fun site has career advice and job listings for the upper Midwestern states:
www.jobdig.com
.

A site with job listings from around the country and around the world:
www.craigslist.org
.

For links to Internet employment resources, check out
www.jobhunt.com
.

Bob Rosner’s site tackles getting and keeping a job in tough times:
http://workplace911.com
.

Job Hunting: Interview Preparation

Beshara, Tony.
Acing the Interview: How to Ask and Answer Questions That Will Get You the Job
. Amacom, 2008.

Gottesman, Deb, and Buzz Mauro.
The Interview Rehearsal Book
. Berkley Trade, 1999.

Kador, John.
201 Best Questions to Ask on Your Interview
. McGraw-Hill, 2002.

McIvor, Brian.
Be Interview Wise: How to Prepare for and Manage Your Interviews
. Management Briefs, 2009.

Porot, Daniel.
Best Answers to 202 Job Interview Questions: Expert Tips to Ace the Interview and Get the Job Offer.
Impact, 2008.

This link will show you some dos and don’ts of dressing for an interview:
http://jobsearch.about.com/od/teenstudentgrad/ig/Interview-Attire/
.

Job Hunting: Special Resources

Bolles, Richard Nelson, and Dale S. Brown.
Job-Hunting for the So-Called Handicapped.
Ten Speed Press, 2001. This book deals with the specific challenges faced by job hunters with disabilities.

Cooper, Barbara.
The Social Success Workbook for Teens: Skill-Building Activities for Teens with Nonverbal Learning Disorder, Asperger’s Disorder & Other Social-Skill Problems
, 2nd ed. New Harbinger, 2008.

Kruempelmann, Elizabeth.
The Global Citizen: A Guide to Creating an International Life and Career.
Ten Speed Press, 2002. This is geared toward people who want to work and experience life abroad.

Landes, Michael.
The Back Door Guide to Short-Term Job Adventures
, 4th ed. Ten Speed Press, 2005. This book includes information on internships, seasonal work, volunteer jobs, and adventures abroad.

Career coach Robin Roman Wright works with all young adult job seekers. She’s a specialist at dealing with the job-search frustrations of those with ADHD. Contact her at her website:
www.youthleadershipcareers.com
.

Mentoring

This site has general information about mentoring. Enter your zip code to find programs in your area.
www.mentoring.org

For links to teen mentoring programs around the world, go to
www.yess.co.nz/RobinsGreatLinks.html
.

New Jobs—After You’re Hired

Kitson, Michael and Calandra.
How to Keep Your Job in a Tough Competitive Market
. Adams Media, 2009.

Williams, Anna, et al.
The Family Guide to the American Workplace
. Learnovation, 2003. See, in particular,
chapters 3
(Beginning Your New Job) and
4
(Learning the Job).

Salary Information

Porot, Daniel.
101 Salary Secrets: How to Negotiate Like a Pro.
Ten Speed Press, 2000.

Canadian readers can check out salaries in their country at
http://swz.salary.com/csalarywizard/layoutscripts/cswzl_newsearch.asp
.

The Riley Guide is a dependable resource for job seekers. You can find salary info at
www.rileyguide.com/salguides.html
.

Some job descriptions give salary information based on national averages. The area where you want to live may have salaries higher or lower than the national norm. To check out salaries by zip code, check out this website:
www.salary.com
.

10

The Top 10 Mistakes Job Hunters Make—and How
You
Can Avoid Them

Along with the job-search strategies and techniques you’ve learned in the previous chapters, avoiding the mistakes job hunters commonly make will help you win the job-hunting game. Here are the ten
most common mistakes and how you can avoid them.

1. Acting As If Someone Owes You a Job

In the job-search process, it’s important to remember that no one owes you a job. You have to earn it yourself. Successful job hunters don’t act as if an employer owes them a job, but they do make every effort to let the employer know that they would be an excellent employee, thus impressing the employer with their enthusiasm and attitude. If you want a particular job, put all your effort into going after it and use everything that you’ve learned about yourself and how to be an effective job hunter.

2. Spending Too Little Time on the Job Search

Successful job hunters quickly learn that the amount of success they experience in their job hunt is in direct proportion to the time they spend at it. Two-thirds of all job hunters spend five hours or less a week on their job search. If you are unemployed, you should spend six hours a day at your job search. If you are employed, you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish in twenty minutes a day. Let’s say you know it will take you two hundred hours to get a new job. If you put in six hours a day, five days a week, it’s quite possible you’ll be starting your new job within seven weeks. If you job-hunt one hour a day, five days a week, it will take you forty weeks (ten months) to find a job. Which approach seems best to you?

What accounts for the difference between greatness and mediocrity? Extraordinary drive.

—BENJAMIN BLOOM

Obviously, it’s not possible to know exactly how long it will take you to find a job because the job hunt is full of factors you can’t predict or control. If you are spending six hours a day (or twenty minutes if you are employed) and you aren’t getting the results you want in your job search, meet with a couple of members of your job search advisory board. Tell them what you’ve been doing to find a job and ask for their suggestions.

3. Continuing To Use Techniques That Aren’t Working

Successful job hunters change tactics when change is needed. When any job-hunting behavior, attitude, or technique doesn’t work for you, try something new. (See
chapter 9
for specific tactics to use.) For example, if you haven’t had any interviews after a month of using a certain technique—say, sending out resumes or answering ads—change your tactics. Start doing more information interviews and spend more time researching organizations that you find interesting.