11 Steps To Follow In Order To Obtain A New Job.

The necessary steps to find a new job.




The Preliminary Question.

The starting question is: "Will I still be working or do I want to stop working?" If you answer “I’d like to work" then the searching process just started.

First Step: what, when, where, why?

If you do not know what you like to obtain then it becomes very hard to find what you’re looking for. Why? Because you don’t know what you’re looking for! How can you start searching? You cannot.

One has to find answers to the following questions:
What kind of a job or function do I like to perform?
What are my capabilities or skills or "know hows"?
What are my interests?
What are my values that I like to take into account?
What kind of organization do you want to work for?
Where do I like to work? In my region, country or abroad?
Etc…

Step 2: Consider to follow courses.

Make a list of work-related skills you'd like to learn. Think about which skills will make you more competent in the position you're applying for.

Public speaking, project management, team leading, and computer programs are usually beneficial.

In an interview, tell the employer what you're reading and learning, and that you'd like to continue doing so.


Step 3: Write your letters.

Only after you decided in which direction you like to evolve, will you be able to write a resume which is focused on the job and the sector. Your job target must be clear and concrete (leaving no trace of doubt in the mind of the reader). It must specifically link your qualifications to the hiring criteria for the jobs you are applying for.

Secondly you have to be able to write a cover letter enabling to arouse the attention of the recruiter.

Both letters should be of such a level that they trigger a reaction from the reader: an interview request.

Step 4: Where to look and search?

What are the interesting job sites? Where can I find (executive) search and selection companies? Where are the “temp agencies”? Which search engines will I use? Where are the companies with vacancies?

Check job search engine sites, job banks, company web sites, networking sites, niche job sites, and sites listed by type of job and region. Consider working with a recruiter or outplacement consultant or career management consultant to maximize your opportunities.

Use the job search engines to find jobs by using keywords that match your interests and the location where you want to work. Narrowing your search criteria will help you focus your job search and will give you more relevant job listings to review and less non-relevant job listings to weed through.

Step 5: Build Your Brand.

Which job sites or websites are well-known and often used by recruiters and employers? There you have to create your profile in order to be found by those who are looking for valuable candidates.

Create profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Visual CV, just to name a few.

A strong personal brand that portrays you in a professional light will provide recruiters, employers, and contacts with a strong positive impression of you as a candidate they should be interested in.

Step 6: Connect with your contacts.

Now that you've created profiles on networking sites (such as Linkedin, Xing, Plaxo, Facebook, etc…)  use them intensively.

Get in touch with everyone you know, because you never know which contact may be able to help you with your job search or put you in touch with someone who can.

“Tell friends and family that you are job-hunting”.

Step 7: Unsolicited Applications.

Do you have a list of companies you would like to work for? Why not building a list of companies you’re interested in according to: region, sector, products or services they deliver.

It's a very good idea to research companies and create a list of companies to target in your job search.  Find detailed information about potential employers online.

Use this list (and maybe also simultaneously your connections).

Step 8: Interview Preparations.

Obtain information concerning the company, CEO, products, services, organigram, …

What’s your labor market value (in terms of salary)?

Do you have connections you can contact to in order to be introduced by “acquaintances”?

What will be your answers to the questions of the recruiter? Practice answering and asking interview questions (role play with or without tape)

What do you have as questions in order to obtain every information during the interview?

Step 9: The Interview.

Are you able to talk yourself to a signed contract?
Sell Yourself !
Dress appropriately and make a cooperative effort to impress the interviewer with your skills, experiences, confidence, and expertise.
Negotiate !

Step 10: Inform everybody afterwards.

After an interview you just have to inform everybody with whom you had contact concerning this job opportunity: your connections, the recruiter, …

Give feedback, definitely to your connections since it is in itself the reward of their involvement.

Thank everybody you met with.

Repeat your interest in the position and remind the recruiter why you're an excellent candidate for the job.

Step 11: Evaluate a Job Offer.

When you receive a job offer, it's important to take the time to carefully evaluate the offer so you are making an educated decision to accept or to reject, the offer.

You don't have to accept a job just because it was offered to you, but do carefully evaluate it and if you decline, do so politely.

Every ‘no’ is one closer to a ‘yes’. If you are rejected, phone the recruiter for feedback and take it on board.

This is of course an iterative process. One has to go back to step 3.

The 5 barriers to conquer in outplacement in order to obtain a new job.

Outplacement is a human resources oriented service provided by your ex-employer after your dismissal which you can follow at an outplacement or career management company.

The aim is normally to obtain a new job, appropriate to you and dealing with your talents if possible. There is nothing so devastating as having a job where your skills and capabilities are completely underestimated or extremely overestimated. The first leads to boring-out, the second to burning-out.

In order to find a new job you have to overcome 5 barriers. The metaphor is you, having a bicycle and riding in a landscape.

The first hill (question) you need to overcome is called: "Will I still be working or do I stop working?" If you answer "I still like to work" then you have to ride to the second hill. Otherwise you jump off the bicycle and go to retirement.

The second hill possesses the question: " In which direction will I go?" Otherwise said: " What kind of a job do I like to obtain and in which sector?"

If you cannot answer this question, it is in vain to start riding because today your direction points to north, tomorrow to south, etc...

Otherwise said, if you do not know which job you like to obtain, then it is impossible to start searching for a job. Yesterday you started looking for a job as a manager. Today you look for an employee job and tomorrow you go for a blue collar job. Going nuts will be the end result. You will find nothing and reach nothing.

Once you have decided what you're preferred job (read direction) will be, you can start searching for it (read riding to the third hill).

The third hill is called: "Looking for opportunities and vacancies." All kind of paths can be used to find vacancies and opportunities.

Within the internet-era it becomes more and more easy to find jobs, vacancies and opportunities (even global wide). What company and position suits you is however a completely other question.

The fourth hill is not a hill but probably, according to your preferred job and age and the area where you're living, a mountain you have to overcome.

The goal is here to obtain an invitation for an interview. You can find thousands of jobs and vacancies but do you get interviews?

The final hill and arrival is called: " Sell yourself!" You can have thousands of interviews but can you sell yourself? Are you able to talk yourself to a signed contract?

Now, this said, the goal of outplacement is to level the hills in such a way that you will obtain a flat track enabling you to cycle through the countryside efficiently and with the least amount of efforts.

In other words, the aim of outplacement is to level the difficulties and barriers enabling you to go through this job searching process easily and "expeditiously".

Therefore you will get a mix of information sessions (workshops) in group and individual coaching meetings with an assigned consultant.

The time scheduled for this task depends on the money spend by your ex-employer. It may be short, it may be long.

Resume Tracker Freeware Software Organizes Your Resumes

Windows Only: You probably don't send the same exact resume for every single job opening and will fine tune it according to the vacancy. Keeping track and holding control of what you sent can be a pain in the ass (excuse me for this expression). ResumeTracker does a smart and simple job of organizing and labeling your multi-versioned  resumes for later reference.


The application itself is still in its early stages, and there are two things to note right off the bat.

First of all the application really requires Microsoft Word, unless your non-Word editing tool happens to agree with it.
And secondly the application also requires Administrator access to run well.

Those complaints aside, ResumeTracker works just fine for the common Job Searcher (using MS Word), providing an organized way of creating a Master Resume, creating new entries for each vacancy or job title, then linking a customized version of that master resume to each job pitch, with notes on when you sent it, who it was sent to, and the like. So you keep a good registration of each slightly or heavily changed Resume assigned to a specific job.

ResumeTracker is a free download for Windows systems only. What's your preferred multi-resume tracking system, other than remembering to rename your .doc files for every single job?

The download link is this sentence.

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Do you have to be visible on the internet? Is it crucial?

I’ve heard an argument that’s become more and more popular amid people who haven’t been in a job finding situation (but have been attached to internet and/or social marketing).


The argumentation is that hiring responsibles, recruiting staff and decision-makers can check Google very well,fast and efficiently and search for (job)titles and/or people and start to get a list of potential candidates.

They say that if you aren’t on Google (in other words, if you don’t have a web presence and or not visible), you don’t exist.

Isn’t it more easygoing to get around traditional and expensive ways to find a potential new colleague (whatever jobsite, which costs money for an employer, or networking, which takes time and who knows days and weeks, or using recruiters, which is expensive and also time consuming), and tempting to just go to the Internet?

As I’ve watched this over the last 3 years I agreed, but I’m more dubious of it now than before.

I do think it might be important for candidates to have a web presence which they can control (own blog, a LinkedIn Profile,a Twitter Account, etc...), but I don’t think it’s so critical or crucial that you have to have it or “you don’t exist.” It sounds like the academic slogan:"Publish or Perish!"

If you network (not on a virtual level but in real life), pick up the phone, communicate with people on a one-on-one basis, you definitely still exist. Just because many hiring and recruiting responsibles are searching for talent online doesn’t mean that only candidates who are online will be found or hired.

You can have a strong personal brand and not be online! Isn't it right?

I’ve seen it happen with some people. Take part in local events where your friends, colleagues and network contacts are, you’ll get well-known.

You don't need to be visible on the virtual (internet) level. You can only be visible on the real level (life) and obtain an efficient social network and in the end obtain a fine job.

The definition of outplacement according to Merriam-Webster

Main Entry: out·place·ment (listen to the pronunciation)

Pronunciation: \ˌau̇t-ˈplās-mənt, ˈau̇t-ˌ\

Function: noun

Date: 1970

: the process of easing unwanted or unneeded executives out of a company by providing company-paid assistance in finding them new jobs