Job Search Strategy: Job-search questions to ask yourself

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A job search may be greatly enhanced by contact with those business relationships you have built up over time.Shutterstock

Are you recently laid off, or are you still in an extended job search? Start 2013 on the right foot by asking yourself some serious questions about your job-search campaign.

The best way to get the most out of your time is to challenge yourself to do more and work smarter at the same time. Here are a few key questions to keep asking yourself:

1. Am I depending on my resume to find my next position? Overreliance on a resume can slow down a job search. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but it's often true. While an effective resume is important, it cannot do much by itself. Focus more on finding and building professional relationships with those who can directly or indirectly help you in your job-search campaign.

2. Do I know what I want to do when I grow up? I often find those in a job search, especially when it is taking longer than expected, are willing to take just about anything. Looking for "a job" is different from looking for a career opportunity.

3. Am I meeting enough professionals in my career area? Great salespeople know that sales is a numbers game: The more qualified prospects you have in your sales pipeline, the greater your chances of converting more business over time. Not a month should go by without your adding new professional relationships to your database (think LinkedIn, which is basically an online professional database).

4. Am I engaging my professional contacts? It's great to collect business contacts over time, but it does little to advance your job search and career efforts if they sit in the database untouched.

5. How am I portraying myself in the digital world? Google yourself and see what comes up. Does anything related to your career come up? I practice what I preach, so type in my name as "David Dirks" and see what comes up.

6. What am I doing to set myself apart from my competition? If you look plain vanilla, don't complain when you get plain-vanilla results. In most cases, you have to create that level of differentiation that will separate you from your competitors. Starting a professional blog or hosting a professional online radio show ( are great examples of creating an edge. Trust me, your competitors aren't doing this, even if they are thinking about it.

7. Do I live in an area that has a healthy need for my career skills? A tough but true question to ask yourself. If you live in an area that doesn't really support enough job opportunities in your career field, you must consider moving to an area that does.

A winning job-search campaign is not an easy task for anyone. Keeping your focus, expanding your professional network and finding ways to differentiate yourself from your competitors will eventually win the day. Keep the faith.


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