How to Keep Up With Career Opportunities

QOne of our registered users sent us the following query for our Ask the Expert "Your Career" segment:

Something I'd love to see are some recommendations on the best ways for professional women who are looking to move on from their current role to find great new roles. Obviously, word of mouth / your own contacts are often the best way, but what if you really just want to see what's out there?

AWe thought the best approach to answer this question was to create a 'keeping up with opportunities' methodology. It's designed for those times when you're not in a desperate hurry to find your next great role. We believe that's the best time to start looking!

Word of mouth and your own contacts are indeed a good start, but by no means the only way. There are many things you can start doing methodically which will help you keep up with opportunities and find your next best role.

We'd suggest three key approaches:

1. Leverage and extend all networks available to you.
2. Be smart in your use of key online job search sites.
3. Identify and talk to the right recruitment agencies.

We believe you should always tap into all your relevant and appropriate networks even if you're not actively looking. You may find a nugget of information just by keeping in touch. The internet option is also a great one as it enables you to keep constant tabs on what's out there from the privacy of your own home.

Using agencies is appropriate once you've made up your mind to move on. If you're not quite there yet, you might want to leave it for a while. Recruitment agencies can be trusted to keep things confidential, but New Zealand is a very small place. If you're not ready for your employer to find out, even by accident, you might want to wait.

1. Leverage and extend all networks available to you

If you're a professional working woman in New Zealand, chances are you'll have many networks you can tap into. The trick is recognising them and using them in a way that is time and energy efficient.

So, ask yourself:

• Do I keep in contact with clients I enjoyed working with?
• Do I keep in contact with professional service providers I enjoyed working with?
• Do I keep in contact with old colleagues who've moved on?
• Have I participated in the alumni networking opportunities organised by my university?
• Do I attend or keep in contact with my profession's associations? Examples include HR Institute of New Zealand, Corporate Lawyers Association…and the list goes on.
• Am I leveraging past networks, associations, workplace alumni functions I have access to? Think about your high school reunions, previous workplace alumni and so on.

Once you've been through this exercise, chances are you'll come up with at least ten names of individuals and associations that you can aim to become more actively engaged with.

You could then prioritise them in terms of how likely each is to help you find a great job. I personally don't believe in doing that, as I've found exciting opportunities can come from the most unexpected places. My approach has always been to network with people I enjoy meeting and to attend interesting events and talks. But, of course, it's your call.

If you're really serious about finding out what different opportunities exist, make it a point to attend one networking opportunity at least fortnightly. A network opportunity can be a two day conference with your profession's association or a quick coffee with a former colleague. In both cases, make sure you ask about trends in the industry/organisation and the opportunities that exist 'out there'. I believe in being up-front and saying that at the moment you're happy where you are, but you'd like to keep tabs on opportunities and will consider moving on for the right one.

Finally, there are more and more new networking opportunities for professional women, so try new networking events every now and again, even ones you might not normally think of attending. It's always good to extend your networks; you never know where great opportunities may come from.

To those of you who find networking difficult, and most people do to some extent, we've put together some quick tips for networking in the take-away box at the end.

2. Be smart in your use of key online job search sites

As a couple of women who really value the power of the internet, Sarah and I simply can't look past the options that the internet provides career seekers. We believe that a web strategy must form a part of your methodology for keeping up with opportunities. The question of course is which ones to use and how to use them without wasting too much time?

There are quite a few online job search sites. After some surfing, I decided to take a detailed look at two of them for our readers' benefit. The way I narrowed them down was simply to ask myself, 'If I were looking for a job now, which sites would I gravitate to'?

The two sites I chose were:
a. www.seek.co.nz.
b www.quietagent.com.

a. www.seek.co.nz

This search site requires little introduction. I compared it to others like search4jobs and found it to be far superior in terms of the volume of jobs advertised. It seems popular both directly with employers and indirectly with recruiters. It has extensive search facilities and it allows you to search for a specific job in a specific location as well.

The site also has lots of additional career resources such as a quick CV template, a guide to writing a successful CV, salary negotiation and job interview tips. It also has a free psychometric test that looks at your preferences for work and working environment and compares them with your capabilities.

The CV example seemed to be quite straightforward and easy to use, so that's a big plus. The psychometric test (which we both did) was pretty generic. If you're very uncertain about where you're headed it might be useful to take it just in terms of getting your head around the many careers available to you out there. But if you're quite clear on the direction you're heading in, then I wouldn't bother.

Advantages:
Volume. Lots and lots of jobs on the site. Spending some time at Seek is helpful just to get a feel for what jobs there are in your industry/profession of choice. From my limited digging, there seemed to be everything from partnership opportunities in inner Auckland law firms to water treatment technician trainees in Whangarei.

The free career resources are mostly helpful and are well worth having a look at if you've never done this before.

Disadvantages:
Volume, again! It is extremely wide in terms of the jobs advertised, and even when I tried to pinpoint it to strategic HR jobs in inner Auckland it still kept coming up with jobs like training and accreditation specialist.

I also found the site a bit confusing in terms of navigation. I ended up getting 'lost' in it a couple of times.

Having said all that, I don't think you can look past Seek if you're series about keeping up with opportunities. But you will need to put plenty of time aside to do it!

b. www.quietagent.com

Now, this one's different. Basically, it's a site for people who aren't looking but still want to keep abreast of opportunities. There are no jobs advertised on the site. You can give them as much or as little information about your preferences for a job and your idea of an ideal employer as you wish. You're not required to give your name, just a contact cell phone number or an e-mail.

The way it works is that employers can search anonymous profiles and if they short list you, quietagent contacts you on the employer's behalf to see if you're interested. It is global so employers from all over the world can search your anonymous profile.

Advantages:
It's exciting and perfect for those of you who want to find out about opportunities without actually looking. It's extremely confidential and from what I saw there's virtually no chance of your employer ever finding out. You're in control of the process and can block certain employers from ever contacting you. And for all us very busy women, it's relatively non-time consuming and easy to use.

Disadvantages:
They tell you up front that it might take many months before you get contacted. With no job listings it's hard to tell if your area is even one they're looking for. So if you're more in a hurry, it might be a bit frustrating.

I believe that these two sites really complement each other. You'll be best served by registering with both to ensure you're keeping up with employment opportunities through the internet.

3. Identify and talk to the right recruitment agencies

If you're getting to the point where you feel you need professional and personal input into your future career prospects, it's time to talk to one or more recruitment agencies.

Many people make the assumption that you approach recruitment agencies only when you're applying for a job. It's good to know that most recruitment agencies will meet with you and talk you through the opportunities that exist in your market even if you're not applying to them for a particular role.

Most also keep a database of potential candidates and will give you a call if a good role is available. Not all roles that recruitment agencies fill actually get advertised.

However, recruitment agencies tend to 'specialise' in particular fields of employment such as local authorities, IT, or fast moving consumer goods. So the question is which ones should you contact?

A quick four step research effort on your behalf will save you time in the long term:

1. Monitor which agencies advertise the kind of roles or industries you're interested in, in the daily newspapers.
2. Monitor which agencies advertise the kind of role you're interested in on the main internet job sites.
3. Ask your networks which recruitment agencies they recommend; word of mouth is often the best indication of quality.
4. Once you've got a list of about three to five agencies, carefully study their website and see which one strikes you as the most professional and up-to-date.

Before you approach the recruiters, find out which consultants are the most appropriate to your field of work or industry of interest. Some advertisements in the paper will have the name of the consultant who's handling them. Good recruitment websites should also list their consultants' names and areas of speciality.

We recommend that you approach a specific consultant. The best start is to call them and introduce yourself. You might want to say you've identified him or her as a specialist in the area of interest to you. Ask if you can meet to have a chat about opportunities in the market place. Of course, don't forget to stress the need for confidentiality if you're quite happy where you are and just wanting to see what's 'out there'.

Your Feedback and Advice

That's our take on things. We've tried to be thorough and cover the key options. But we know you'll have your own stories to tell, including the ways you've found to be the most effective in finding a great role. They may be completely different to what we've written!

Please e-mail us on feedback@professionelle.co.nz with your story and advice, and perhaps we can turn advice on finding a great role into a constant on Professionelle with regular input from you!

© Professionelle Ltd 2007