Managing Your Job Search

by Phakeme Mtheku

Phakeme, the Founding Director at 189Xchange, the home and job hub for job seekers who have lost their employment as a direct impact of section 189. As an experienced (15 years) Talent Acquisition Specialist, Phakeme is obsessed with positively

impacting the lives of hardworking South Africans through the work that he is most passionate about. Which is positioning Talent with meaningful and gainful employment. Experts often suggest “Looking for a job is a full-time job.” Great cliché, but untrue. Instead an effective job search (plan) should focus on essential activities with strict measurements and benchmarks.

Such as:

• Having a strong communicating strategy.

• Constructing a CV that strikes a perfect balance between your achievements and responsibilities.

• Ensuring that you’re tapping into your network.

• Growing your network.

• And most importantly, applying realistically, for jobs that you’re a strong match for.

We’ll speak about these in detail in our follow up issues and as we go along in this journey together.

SO, why is “Managing the project of search” important?

As with any project, your job search requires that you establish ways to measure your progress. This ensures that you keep track of how well you are executing your search and evaluates the effectiveness of your methods.

KEY productivity measures:

HOW MANY HIRING MANAGERS DID YOU SPEAK TO?

This DOES NOT include HR/recruitment officers and recruitment agencies. Since an  obvious part of your search strategy is to talk to as many appropriate hiring mangers as you can, tracking those conversations is a key productivity measure.

• Follow up with hiring managers every 3 weeks (or as and when agreed by H/M)

• While your primary tactic is to get to the H/M, it is also very important to seek out and talk to people who might lead you to them: friends, peers and others.

SOCIAL MEDIA IS A TOOL!! Use it.

Track and log all interactions in a chart or even simple diary notes.

What to track:

1. Total hours: spent on job search, education, research, email writing, admin and talking to people

(phone and in person).

2. Emails sent out.

3. Total job search conversations and opportunities

FACT: some searches will be shorter than others. Why?

• Luck may be part of the answer, however…

• There are good job markets and there are Tight job markets.

• Consistency on search

• The effectiveness of follow up with H/M (makes you a known candidate, thus increasing your chances of employment)

• Personal barriers.

For more info and more career resources, please visit the 189Xchange website.

Happy hunting!

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