Chapter 6 Finding a Job

Lesson 6.1 Gathering Leads

What is involved in a job search Discover What is involved in a job search

Key Terms continued work permit job lead networking career fair contact list referral classifieds school-to-work program database employer annual report continued

Word Wall Terms professional mentor qualifications

Why It’s Important One day, you will be looking for a job. You’ll want to know where to look for information about job openings.

Gathering Leads Once you have an idea of what you want to do, you can take the next step and start your job search. To apply for some jobs, you’ll need a work permit. (Under age 16)

Starting Your Job Search A large part of a job search is detective work-tracking down leads, clues, and evidence. Your search for the right job will begin with a job lead. A job lead is information about a job opening.

How talking with people can turn up job leads Discover How talking with people can turn up job leads continued

Networking Networking is one of the best and most successful way of finding job leads. Networking is communicating with people you know or can get to know.

How Networking Works It’s easy to start networking to find a job. You can begin by just talking with people about your interests.

How Networking Works Ask people you know to spread the word to others for you.

Start Building Your Network School clubs and events such as career fairs are great places to network. A career fair is an event where employers offer career and employment information.

Start Building Your Network The steps in networking are simple. First, make a contact list, which is simply a list of people you know.

Grow Your Network With Referrals The next step in networking is to get referrals from each person with whom you speak. A referral is someone to whom you are referred, or directed.

Try This Activity Get Started Start a Contact List Include everyone—family members, family friends, neighbors, teachers, classmates, friends of friends. Keep your list up-to-date by adding new people you meet or get to know.

Lesson 6.1 Part II Gathering Leads

Bell Ringer Make a list of ways to get information about job openings.

Ways to find out about job openings Discover Ways to find out about job openings

Grow Your Network With Referrals Your contact list will grow with each referral.

Q and A If a contact has no job leads or referrals for me, can I cross this person off my list? continued

No! You aren’t finished with this person yet. Q and A No! You aren’t finished with this person yet. Keep in touch with your contacts. Who knows, they might have a job for you next time.

Phone Businesses for Leads One of the first things many job seekers do is call businesses they might like to work for. They ask about job openings and whom they can talk to about them.

Phone Businesses for Leads Calls like these are known as cold calls.

Try This Activity Practice Cold Calling In groups of two, practice calling one of the contacts from your contact list. continued

Search Internet Job Sites The Internet is another place to look for job ads. On the Internet, you can find jobs far beyond your own community.

Ask for Help and Advice at School In high school, your school counselor may be able to help you get into a school-to-work program. A school-to-work program brings schools and businesses together.

Check the Classifieds Many job hunters go straight to newspaper classifieds. The classifieds are advertisements that are organized in classes, or groups.

Check the Classifieds Classifieds list job openings, often in the region the newspaper serves.

The Classifieds: Commonly Used Abbreviations EXEC. SECY (Executive Secretary) V.P. (Vice President) Approx. (Approximate) Indiv. (Individual) Inc. (Incorporated) Corp. (Corporation) Co. (Company) Appt. (Appointment) Pre’d (Preferred) Expr. (Experience) Excel (Excellent) W.P.M. (Words Per Minute) Loc. (Location) Min. (Minimum) W/ (with)

Try This Activity The Classifieds Classified Ads Complete the activity titled What Do I Need to Get a Job?. Required Skills Read and identify the universal skills (transferrable) needed for all jobs. continued

Ask for Help and Advice at School You can also look for help or advice about jobs at your school. Make your counselor part of your network.

Critical Thinking Review Is it important to know what kind of job you want before you start looking for a job? Yes; if you don’t know what kind of job you want, your job search will lack direction and focus. You need to target your efforts in order to be effective. Critical Thinking Q A continued

Critical Thinking Review Why do you think most people get their jobs through networking? Networking works because it gives you inside information about job openings, and because the people you meet by networking may recommend you for a job. Critical Thinking Q A

Organizing Your Job Search Lesson 6.2 Organizing Your Job Search

How to keep track of job leads Discover How to keep track of job leads How to gather information about jobs and businesses

Important key to Success: Why It’s Important Important key to Success: When you’re organized, it’s easier to use the information to get the job you want.

Key Terms database employer annual report

Keeping Track Being organized is the key to a successful job search.

Setting Up a System A simple way to organize your job search is to record job leads on index cards or sheets of paper. If you prefer working with computers, you can organize your job leads in a database program.

Getting the Details Down Create an index card or a database entry for every person on your contact list.

Getting the Details Down If there are any businesses you’d like to work for, create a card or database entry for each.

Getting the Details Down You can also create card or database entries for classified job listings you are interested in.

How the System Works After you’ve made a card for each contact or lead, make contact.

How the System Works After contacting the person or business, make notes on the card.

How the System Works If someone you’ve talked to calls you, get out his or her card. Use it to refresh your memory. Update the card with new information.

Researching Jobs and Employers In between getting a job lead and getting a job, you must do some investigating. Research shows that you are serious and genuinely interested in the company.

The Benefits of Research You want to find out as much as you can about possible jobs and employers. Knowing about a job or business will give you self-confidence, which will help you make a good impression. What you learn will also help you decide whether a particular job is right for you.

Questions to Ask You can get some basic facts about a business by asking questions like these: What kinds of goods or services does the business offer? What kind of reputation does the business have with its workers and customers? What types of work do people do there? Is the business growing and expanding? Is it possible to move up in the business?

Ways to Get Answers to Your Questions How do you get answers to your questions? Here are a few suggestions: Talk to employees. Talk to customers. Visit the business. Read the company’s annual report. An annual report describes the company and reports yearly financial results. Review the business’s Web site. continued

End of Chapter 6