Researching Your Target

April 17, 1998 --- BigBook is a solid directory of 11 Million US Businesses. It's great for tracking down the phone number of your targets. It even includes a map that you can download as you're preparing to run to your interview.

You can stay pretty well abreast of changes in the Web marketplace by reading the articles in Webreference.com

Finding A Job: Getting Started

April 16, 1998

1. Take A Deep Breath

   In our culture, job hunting is a terribly under-appreciated discipline. No one ever says to their parents, "I want to be a great job hunter when I grow up." Almost all job hunters would rather have the job hunt completed and fading into memory. It's an anxious time. The pressure to produce immediate results is usually extreme.

   There are literally millions of job listings on the Web. Given the current economic abundance in America, finding job openings is easy. The problem you will face on the web is figuring out how to choose from all of the opportunities. It's not such a terrible problem to have. But, it can lead to a lot of frustration and the feeling of being overwhelmed.

   Job hunting is a job. The very best tools and skills you can apply to the project are your own curiosity, organization, goal setting and planning. The first items you will have to handle involve serious thought and evaluation.

   So, before you start, take a deep breath. As you work your way through the job hunt, remind yourself to take another. Wander outside and watch the sunrise or sunset. Maintain your perspective.

2. Find Out What You Want

   The most vexing questions are often the simplest. Having a clear answer to the question "What do you want to do with your life?" is neither easy nor straightforward. Finding an answer involves hard work and some soul searching. Knowing the answer puts you way ahead of the competition.

   The web has a number of resources to help you wrestle with this question. Most notable is the old industry standard "What Color Is Your Parachute". The online version is no substitute for the book itself. Order a copy from Amazon.

   Like most books, some of the information is useful and some of it is bogus. We'd suggest that you pay particular attention to the chapters dealing with Life-Work Planning. They are designed to help you wrestle with questions concerning your goals and aspirations.

   It is very easy to overlook this important step in job hunting. The urge to put out a resume and start getting results can be powerful. But, your ultimate success depends more on goal clarity than it does on immediate action.

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   The Winner Is...

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   April 15, 1998

   4work.com is not your typical job search site. That statement in itself should be enough to make you want to visit it.

   Of course the 4work.com site offers employment listings, searchable by state and keyword. That's a given. But it also offers much more.

   When you search for a job by keyword, you'll probably find at least a few. Interestingly though, you'll also get a listing of other keywords you might want to try. Excuse us? What's this? An employment site that attempts to help you wade through the logic they use when posting positions?

   Most sites that post job ads do so by requiring recruiters and employers to fill out online forms in which they describe the position available. On those forms, often the employer-to-be is asked to also include keywords that s/he thinks the hunter will look for. What 4work.com does is make those keywords available to you. It's no longer just a game of hunt and seek. You are given the tools you need to make your search more productive.

   But, 4work.com offers even more.

   Are you between jobs and bored? Are you employed but have extra time on your hands? Or do you just want to give something of yourself? Check out their internship and volunteer listings.

   Do you want them to do the hunting work for you? Subscribe to Job Alert. A quick registration and input of up to 5 keywords becomes a personal job hunting robot. Once you register, you'll be notified by email as soon as postings are available that match your keywords and are within the geographic area you want.

   There's a Human Resources Directory as well. The directory lists links to resume services, conferences and workshops, other job sites, and relocation services. There's also a ReThinking Work section. This area covers the typical areas of working and finding work, but also reminds us of our human side and includes "some wise and wonderful essays on topics relevant to your life like Social Security, building equity in yourself, and sacred violence." ("Sacred Violence" is a marvelous essay based on the ideas of René Girard, a French literary critic, philosopher and anthropologist.)

   4work.com works. It blends the acts of hunting for work and recruiting workers. It automates that which it can and provides insights into the logic and categorization used in its database. It provides easy access to information related to employment and issues related to living.

   In essence, from a job hunter's perspective, 4work.com treats the hunter as a person with a life and needs--not merely as one who is hunted, in demand, and destined to become a recruiting statistic.

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   Researching Your Target

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   April 14, 1998 --- BigBook is a solid directory of 11 Million US Businesses. It's great for tracking down the phone number of your targets. It even includes a map that you can download as you're preparing to run to your interview.

   You can stay pretty well abreast of changes in the Web marketplace by reading the articles in Webreference.com

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   Getting Flamed

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   April 13, 1998 --- If you broadcast your resume, you will get "flamed".

   According to Joe Vitale, Houston net marketing specialist and author of the new book, "CyberWriting: How to Promote Your Product or Service Online (without being flamed)" (AMACOM, $18.95) there are several appropriate ways to handle flames:

   1. Remember the new prime directive of cyberspace.
   "Write in kindness," says the author. "As long as you soften your heart, take a deep breath, and write a kind message back to the flamer, you will end the flame war, neutralize the flame you received, and make yourself and the flamer feel better."

   2. Delete the message before reading it.
   "If the header on the message you are about to read says something like 'YOU FOOL!,' you know you are about to read a flame," says Vitale. "You would be wise to delete the message and save yourself the aggravation of reading it."

   3. Forget it.
   "A fundamental truth in human psychology is that people will defend to the death their belief that they are right," writes Vitale. "You have to be secure enough in your own self-esteem to let the flamer off the hook and not retaliate."

   4. Save them for fun.
   Did you know that Mark Twain and P.T. Barnum collected crank letters with the idea that someday Twain would write a book about them? Twain never wrote the book, but the idea made receiving those awful letters easier.

   Vitale's 180-page new paperback also offers an adapted 1903 secrets for making money online, shows how to write cyber-sales letters and e-news releases, and describes a new formula for writing ads online that get results.

   "CyberWriting: How to Promote Your Product or Service Online (without being flamed)" is Vitale's seventh book. He also wrote "The AMA Complete Guide to Small Business Advertising" for the American Marketing Association.

   "CyberWriting" is published by AMACOM, the book division of the American Management Association, and will be available in bookstores on September 1st. It can also be ordered online at http://www.amazon.com.

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