Competency #18: I Can Identify and Target Employers I Would Like to Interview

Competency #18:  I Can Identify and Target Employers I Would Like to Interview

Many of you don’t think of yourself as particularly empowered during the job hunting process, but you are. This competency addresses an important aspect of managing your career: information-gathering- identifying and targeting employers with the purpose of finding out more about their organizations. 

This skill is NOT merely perusing job boards.  It is also not finding jobs per se, and then applying for them.  Of course, those skills are surely important, but these methods alone will rarely score you a phone call, interview, or offer.

Would you like to know names of companies that sound interesting, employ people with your skills, in your preferred geographical area, with adequate compensation, and a culture where’ll you’ll be able to shine?  Of course you do.

The recent article, Three Ways for Job Seekers to Gain Inside Company Information  provides extremely useful information regarding this topic, and also discusses what inside information can help job seekers the most.

Additionally, don’t forget to check out GlassDoor – it provides company salaries, reviews, interview questions, and more - all posted anonymously by employees and job seekers.

Of course, as I’ve said many times in previous blogs, the prerequisite is (always) knowing what you are looking for.  What are the “keywords” of your career path- the jargon people use in your industry or occupational area?  Most searches are based on your inputting these words, so they can sort through the mountains of information to deliver what you’re looking for. For help with this, spend some time researching specifics of your career area, or one you’re working towards on America’s Career InfoNet, the “mother of all occupational databases.”