In step 1, we describe a well-defined job target as one with a specific industry, function, and geography.
You can then map this to your decision criteria, or your personal values and interests. You look internally for your values and interests, but to understand how these might translate to different industries and functional areas, it is necessary to look externally at what is happening in the market. Social media enables you to look at other people’s careers and find prototypes (i.e., models or examples) that your own job search might follow. LinkedIn is most conducive to this type of search because the profiles are laid out like résumés.
If one of your potential job function targets is public relations, look at people in PR:
- What is their career path? Do you want these jobs?
- How are they describing their jobs? Do you want to work on these things?
- Look at the organization profiles for where they work. Do these types of organizations appeal to you?
- Join Groups related to PR and follow discussions. Are you interested in what is being discussed?
- Ask questions using the Groups function or Q&A function to get specifics on what it is like to do this job.
Do you like what you find out?
If one of your potential industry targets is nonprofits dedicated to children and the arts, pick a specific nonprofit in that space (or several) and look at people who work there:
- What different roles do people have? Do you want these jobs?
- How do people describe what they do? Do you want to work on these things?
- Look at the different profiles in relation to each other. Are a lot of people in programming or development, or do they cover several functions? Does this structure appeal to you?
- Join Groups related to children’s education and follow discussions. Is most of the talk about fundraising, programming, and operations? Are you interested in what is being discussed?
- Ask questions using the Groups function or Q&A function to get specifics on what it is like to work in this industry. Do you like what you find out?
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