1. Finding Job Openings
Stephen Wood
TCCC

2. Success Rates for the Various Places to Find Job Openings
Posting a resume on your own web site - 0% success rate
Computerized lists and job registers - 4% success rate
Private employment agencies - 5% success rate

3. Private Employment Agencies
Be careful about applying -- the application form is often structured as a legal contract
Be careful about paying -- find out the fees up front. Be wary of agencies that demand money up front. Some agencies are paid a percentage of your salary as commission. Also, if the employer pays, keep in mind that the agency works for them, not you.
Be careful about claims of success -- often agencies inflate success rates by cooking the numbers.

4. Success Rates for the Various Places to Find Job Openings
Posting your resume online at an employment site (like Monster.com) - 10% success rate (for certain technical professions, much less for other types of jobs). The rate of success also drops as the salary for the job increases.
Local newspaper want ads - 10% success rate at best. The rate of success drops as the salary for the job increases.

5. Local Newspaper Want Ads
Watch out for certain phrases:
“energetic self-starter” - you will be working on commission
“good organizational skills” - you will be filing stuff
“make an investment in your future” - multi-level marketing / pyramid scheme
“much client contact” - telephone sales work, especially “cold” calls
Avoid fake ads
Scams to get your money or personal info
Ads that are actually for employment agencies
Avoid being screened out over the phone

6. Success Rates for the Various Places to Find Job Openings
Ads in a professional or trade journal - 11% success rate
Government employment agencies - 13% success rate
Shotgunning resumes to lots of employers at once - 15% success rate
Job placement office at your school - 20% success rate

7. Success Rates for the Various Places to Find Job Openings
Asking relatives for leads - 27% success rate
Asking friends for leads - 34% success rate
Asking instructors for leads - 34% success rate
Applying directly to individual employers - 47% success rate

8. The Parachute Method
According to Richard Nelson Bolles, the most productive method of finding a job is to apply to a targeted employer; this method has an 85% success rate. This is the method he has developed over the years in his series of books entitled What Color Is Your Parachute?.

9. The Parachute Method
The Parachute method involve applying directly to employers that you have targeted. You target those employers by identifying your ideal job, using the flower diagram.

11. The Parachute Method
With the filled out flower diagram, research possible employers with the following process:
Your preferred geographical setting
Your preferred field
Your preferred tasks or skills
Your preferred people, things, and info
Your preferred working conditions
Your preferred prestige, salary, benefits, power
Your preferred spiritual values

12. Parachute Method
This will provide you a list of potential employers that are best suited to your skills and values. Apply directly to these employers.