Finally, even if you know what you are doing (function) and who you are doing it for (industry), you need to know where you’ll physically be. Geography is the third element of a well-defined target. How many potential art museums are located in your desired area? If your desired location has few or no art museums, then your search is unrealistic, and you have to expand your industry (to include other types of museums or other types of art-related organizations) or change your geography. If there are art museums in your desired location, but they are all small and do not need the fundraising skills you have, then you need to expand your function (do something else within the art museums) or change your geography.
Geography gives you another critical point of focus for your job search.
Aside from physical location, some jobs have another type of geography consideration. You might be targeting a job whose customers, research subjects, or constituents are of a specific geography:
- Chicago-based (geography 1) curator (function) for an art museum (industry) specializing in East Asian Art (geography 2)
- New York City–based (geography 1) equity research analyst (function) specializing in transportation projects (industry) in sub-Saharan Africa (geography 2)
- Washington, DC–based (geography 1) lobbyist (function) specializing in raising awareness for energy alternatives (industry) in the Mississippi Delta (geography 2)
- Austin-based (geography 1) marketing manager (function) for a computer manufacturer (industry) is charged with opening up the China market (geography 2)
Your job interest may be related to a specific geography, and this definitely should factor in your search.
You also must then factor in your physical location.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- You cannot consider every job available, so you need a structure to filter through the possibilities and narrow your job search targets.
- Three elements of a well-defined job search target are industry, function, and geography.
- Each element can be further specified and may need to be, depending on how broad it is.
EXERCISES
- Can you see how industry, function, and geography characterize the jobs around you? Look at friends and family members who are working, and practice categorizing their jobs.
- Do you have an idea for jobs that you want to do? How would you categorize jobs you are interested in by industry, function, and geography?
- Take a specific industry of interest, such as arts, energy, or sports, in the previous examples.
Write out all the different subsectors you can think of.
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