Understanding the

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• Understanding the
• Job Search Process

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Brought to you by The Career Center _at_ ECU
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• Why do job openings exist anyway?
• Replacement of employees who have left.
• New products/projects/services.
• Expansion/growth/increased demand.

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• At any given moment between 10 and 15 of
  employers are advertising job openings due to
  needs, problems and challenges they are facing.

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• Are you one of the 15-25 of
  job seekers who can land a job
  in the published job market?
  
• Or are you one of the 75 who are NOT qualified
  due to lack of experience or other qualifications?

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• If you are not qualified without experience, but
  
  
• no one will hire you so
• you can get experience,
• how will you ever get a job?

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• By focusing not on an employers openings, but
  on their NEEDS, and by talking to
  decision-makers, not human resources.

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• You ask But if an employer doesnt have an
  opening, why would he/she hire me?

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• There isnt a company in America who doesnt
  have a need, problem or challenge. The question
  is, are their needs in your area of knowledge and
  expertise?

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• Finding and hiring new employees is a pain!
• The single biggest expense in most companies is
  human resources.
  
• Employers spend an average of 30 of the first
  years salary to hire someone.
  
• The average hire takes 180 days.
• The average employee stays in a job only three
  years before moving on.

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• Employers will hire you because they need help
  and to save the time, trouble, and expense of
  going through a formal job search.

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• Effectiveness of Job Search Channels
• Networking 30-49
• Direct Contact with Decision-Makers
• 19 37
• Published Job Openings 15 24
• All others 1 16

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• Getting a job is sales
• You are the salesperson of this product.
• Your resume and cover letter are your marketing.
• You must focus your marketing on the needs of the
  buyers.

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• Your marketing must talk about what you can do
  to address the needs of the buyer.

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• Which means you must know who the buyers
  (employers) are and what they need you to do!

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• KEY RESOURCES
• Occupational Information Network job
  descriptions describing what they need.
  
• Employer Locator Lists of employers for any
  city in the U.S.
  
• Reference USA List of 12 million employers by
  industry and location.

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• Career Connections Database of
  employers who are interested
  in ECU students.
  
• To log in go to www.myinterfase.com/ecu/student
• Pirate Alumni Network.
• Job Banks listing entry level openings that exist.

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• Key Questions
• How do you get to decision-makers?
• How do you get them to talk to you?

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• Employer Locator is updated twice a year.
• Most employers have websites which list key
  decision-makers.
  
• Ask customer service/public relations for the
  name of the manager in your field.
  
• Use our ECU/Pirate Alumni network to get
  referrals.
  
• Use the employer contacts in Career Connections.

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• What do you say?
• Ask open-ended questions that probe into the key
  responsibilities of the job.
  
• Refer to specific programs/problems you have
  identified in your research.
  
• Follow their answers with stories of examples
  when you used the required skills.
  
• Ask for a face-to-face meeting to discuss ways
  you could help them.

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• Your goal is multiple job offers!
• You have the most control when
  you have choice.
  
• You have no decisions to make until someone makes
  you an offer.
  
• Pursue every option until you get an offer.

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• Students fail to realize that each of us is
  endowed with the inner strength to exert a
  powerful influence over those we meet, that our
  attitudes can be the contagious motivating factor
  that causes an employer to want our services.
• -Richard Diggs, author of Employability Plus