Читать книгу How to Find Work in the 21st Century - Ron McGowan - Страница 22

Most of the opportunities that exist today never hit the mainstream media or get posted on a website. The ways to find them include:

• Becoming a newshound and staying on top of trends in the workplace and in society. If you find that you are constantly being surprised by events when they are reported in the mainstream media, you’re not doing as good a job as you need to of monitoring what’s going on.

• Creating your own database of news sites and job sites and monitoring them regularly. Indiscriminate web surfing is not the answer. You need to approach this area in a diligent, intelligent, and creative way to ensure that you know more about what is going on in the workplace than the average person does. Many websites offer free newsletters filled with current news, and you can have them sent to you automatically on a regular basis. For example, if you want to keep abreast of events in the IT sector, www.wired.com is a good site to be connected to.

• Attending seminars, meetings, conventions, trade shows, and courses in your community. You need to be monitoring these to make sure you don’t miss out on an event that could be important to you in your search for work opportunities. They also help to keep you informed about what is going on.

• Networking effectively. There’s a whole section devoted to this later in the book, but let’s recognize at this point that you must be constantly networking in a creative and effective way. Word of mouth is a pretty low-tech way to advertise in today’s world, and many employment opportunities are still filled this way.

• Using your imagination and being creative. Maybe the employment opportunity that you’re looking for hasn’t hatched yet in the mind of the employer who could benefit from your set of skills. Look for unmet needs, and the better you’re connected to what is going on in the workplace and the world, the more likely you are to identify these. Maybe you need to create your own work opportunity by going directly to an employer with an idea whose time has come. Smart contractors and job seekers are doing this all the time.

• Getting involved with professional and business organizations. That means volunteering and being active on the executive level, not casually showing up for an occasional monthly meeting. Also monitoring the websites of professional and business organizations both within and outside of your community is a good way to keep up with what’s going on. Most chambers of commerce have a website today, and you may pick up some useful news items by monitoring them. Some of them also list their members and the companies with which the members are affiliated. You could pick up some useful contact names. As long as you approach these people professionally and you are polite, they will probably be willing to give you some information.

• Notwithstanding all of the preceding references to the Internet, do not discount the print media, particularly trade magazines and professional publications. You will find useful information in these that you won’t find on the Internet. Most cities have one or two primary publications that focus on business and industry, and if you don’t subscribe to these, you should at least monitor them regularly. To get an overview of all of the main business and industry publications, including international publications, look at www.ceoexpress.com on a regular basis.

• Your local library is still a very useful resource for keeping in touch with what is going on, and accessing their services can save you a lot of time. Many libraries offer courses on how to use the library and the Internet as research tools.

Obviously, looking for work today is radically different from what it used to be. Key differences between people who are regularly employed and those who are struggling is how well they are informed about what is going on and how systematically they monitor workplace issues and trends.