Professional Assistance–Job Search Lessons Learned: 12 Key Take-Aways (12)

I will be transparent with you. After about six (6) months of actively looking, I really was starting to wonder what I was doing wrong. All this time spent trying to learn the new, proper way of doing things. The follow-ups. The tweaks to the résumé and cover letters. I had nothing to show for it except for a long list of jobs applied in the wrong status. So, I decided I needed some professional assistance. I looked into free résumé critiquing, résumé writing, headhunters, and even career coaching.

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Applying–Job Search Lessons Learned: 12 Key Take-Aways (10)

Finally! After nine (9) steps you are ready to start applying for the job of your dreams. Welcome to your new part-time job. If you have a job, and you are looking for a new one, you want to spend about five (5) to ten (10) hours a week networking and applying. If you do not have a job currently, welcome to your new full-time, 40-hour work week. We are going to be pulling out of the tools in our job search toolbox and get to work. What will you need?

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Networking and Referrals–Job Search Lessons Learned: 12 Key Take-Aways (09)

“It’s not what you know, it is who you know.”

This comes up twice in this series. That is how important networking is. Wait, is there an echo in here? Well, this is different from before. Now, you are an active job seeker, which means you have to ramp up your network activity and turn those connections into referrals. This article, and the next article, Applying, are done in parallel with each other.

In this article, I will cover the network interaction before and during the application process. In the Applying article, I will specifically touch on the applying and follow-up process.

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