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Goals - First, define your career goals for both short- and long-term.
Personal Branding - Second, determine your personal brand to see how you are unique from everyone else who has your same job title. What are your strengths, your team and leadership roles, and so on?
Online Identity - Check your online identity to see what employers, recruiters, and hiring managers find when they google your name. Do the results paint a consistent story about your strengths and expertise?
Build Your Visibility on Google - Your visibility on Google is an important step since most employers, recruiters, and hiring managers will google you before contacting you. We will look at five strategies to build your results and portray your personal brand for your digital footprint. Target/Research Companies Where You Want to Work - Develop a list of companies in your geographic preference where you'd like to work. Use the research tools provided to find companies that are within a certain radius of your zip code, company size (how many employees, how much revenues, and so forth), industry, etc. Next, visit the company websites of your targeted companies. Do they have job postings on their website? If possible, set an RSS feed or an email alert on positions of interest.
Develop Your Career Marketing Material - Write a branded résumé that is customized for each position for which you apply. Develop a cover letter that shows not only your interest, but also your knowledge about the company. Demonstrate how you are the best fit for a position by using a customized strategy on your cover letter. Create business cards, online and offline, for networking events and online platforms. Follow up with a thank-you note after an interview.
Leverage Social Media - You can use social media platforms, such as LinkedIn and Facebook, to create a professional profile that is searchable to employers, recruiters, and hiring managers. Social media also creates a platform for you to forge and maintain networking contacts within your industry. Networking is one of the biggest keys to your career transition success! Additionally, LinkedIn and Twitter post jobs; this gives you access to job postings that may be exclusive to these two platforms.
Network in Person - Maintain your existing network and find events to expand it. Find ways to help others in your network and remember that networking is ongoing. You need to network when you are in a position AND when you are in a career transition.
Understand How to Relate and Work with Recruiters - Jeff Lipschultz gives valuable information on how best to work with a recruiter. Remember, recruiters fill positions for companies. They are not looking for positions for you.
Identify Vertical Job Boards and Niche Job Boards - Again, set up RSS feeds and email alerts to let you know when a job matching your criteria is posted. Automate this process as much as possible and spend your time on other multiple strategies for your career transition.