Develop an Action Plan

Turn wishes into reality - Organise your job search

and get to work sooner.

Before you start your market research and job search it is advisable to develop a research and job search action plan

There are many types of action plans. Some are comprehensive and look at doing a SWOT analysis, anticipating any obstacles you may come up with and how to overcome them. This type of action plan is not necessary. Ideally, of course, it should be comprehensive. This may be ok if you are already employed. If you are unemployed you need to get on with your job search and write a simplistic plan.  Some people like to work with flow charts and boxes and other people may prefer lists. 

Why use and action plan?

Action plans save time

It is important to set a few goals to manage the research process more easily and to save time.

Goals turn wishes into reality

If you do not set goals and write them down they merely become a wish. Goal setting makes your goals a reality.  For example, if you want to buy a particular car and don't plan how you are going to get it, it just becomes a dream or a wish.  On the other hand, if you decide you are going to get this car in 18 months you need to do an action plan. You would work out how much it cost and maybe divide this price into monthly payments. You know that you have to save that amount every month.  You may need to prioritise your spending and take into account any emergencies etc.  This is an action plan. Your dream is now achievable.

If you do a job search plan it will make it much easier to see where you are going and keep you focused.

"If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there"

How to Source: How to Manage and Market yourself, McInnes, Johnson and Marsh

Develop the right attitude - Visualise yourself in your job

It is no use writing an action plan if you lack the motivation to commit to it.  How badly do you want a job? You need a good positive attitude and determination to succeed. This is where visualisation is very effective.

• Picture yourself going to work happily with your lunchbox tucked under your arm.

• Picture yourself arriving at the workplace eager to earn that weekly pay packet. 

• Picture yourself spending your pay packet on something you have longed for

• Picture yourself paying those overdue bills.

Visualise what is important to you.  For example in the car scenario you would envisage yourself at the wheel or polishing the chrome.

Define your goals

Setting  goals will assist you to focus your energy on job opportunities.

What is your primary goal. "to get a job within three weeks".

If this is your goal you need to:-

• Decide how much time per week are you going to spend on you job search

• Divide this time into the primary areas where you are going to spend your time.

Example

If you only have 20 hours per week and 60 hours in total, you will assess how much time you have to spend on research, and to gather job information  For example, you will probably want to know the following:-

• The latest labour market statistics to find out where the jobs are.

• Potential employers and sources of vacancies.

• How many methods of contacting employers and decide which is best for you.

• The latest job search techniques that work.

• contact employers by any one of the many methods shown on this site.

Now set goals for each of these areas, "i.e.  find 10 employers to cold call by (date). Always set a date or time to achieve each goal.

The "to do list"

Once you have your plan you then need to allocate time to each activity. Do a daily "to do list".  Prioritise the tasks you hope to achieve each day, from most important to least important. Be realistic.

If you find you are carrying over the same tasks to the next day  they are probably not important, so scrap them.

Utilise this site to look for comprehensive resources and job opportunities.  For labour market information, potential employers and sources of vacancies go to Employment Opportunities.  For recruitment methods and developing a job search strategy go to Find a Job.  There are also 17 other sections on job search techniques and resources.  These sections will give you an idea on where you need to focus your job search. See Index

Write your goal down

As stated it will turn your wants into reality.  Reward yourself if you meet these goals daily. Plan for the unexpected,  so make you goals realistic.

Conduct research

It is very easy to get bogged down at this stage so you do need to develop a research plan to keep you on the right track and to stay focused. If you develop a plan you will make faster progress and move on to actually targeting employers.

Take what you need for your job search or career planning and move on.

Comprehensively covered in Employment Opportunities

Good record keeping

I cannot stress how important good record keeping is to job search in general.

Contact sheets

You need to capture all the information you have collected.  When you get to the stage of contacting employers you will need a contact sheet.  Spend some time making one.  You can use a spreadsheet or just an A4 notebook. If you don’t make  notes  after each contact  you could find yourself in an embarrassing position if you speak to the same person twice.  You think you will remember, however when you are making a lot of calls you do forget.  Ensure you use codes or you will run out of space. Make up a set of codes and stick to them.

For example

On holidays until August 1^st.  In follow up section use code   hol. 14/8 = may mean the person is on holidays and you should contact him/her a week or two after he returns.

R/B  = Ring back unavailable at that time.  You may put a date  R/B 30/8

am = morning

NA, m = You have phoned once today and he is not available until Monday.  Cross it out when you ring again.

Networking

Prioritise your lists, i.e. colleagues first.  Use most probable to least probable.  Now you need to find their addresses and transfer onto a contact sheet.  Decide on how you will contact them and write it down. 

Then find out where they can be contacted and write this information onto the record. (See Networking)

Cold Calling

You have looked at all the information given in the previous pages and decide on the most probable to the least probable.  (See Cold Calling Tips)

Firstly, prioritise the types of companies from the largest to the smallest.  Then categorise into regions or suburbs if you have a lot of companies to contact.  .  Find out the contact persons name.  However, don’t approach this person yet.

Secondly, make a contact sheet for each category.

Thirdly, make out a list of people or companies you will contact.

You should now have a good idea which industries will have jobs in your area.  The next step is to work out a plan of who to contact first and how. If you have done your research correctly you will have identified the most likely contacts.

Try a combination of contacts

The best approach is to test about a dozen contacts in each of the categories and find out which ones are giving you the most leads and best contacts.  Don’t waste time on areas where you are not getting results.

Lastly, target the area where you are getting the best results

You will also find some very useful information in the Newsletter archives

Learn new skills

Learn how to beat the odds- Certificate IV in Business (Small Business Management)

Achieving just got easier- study online with Accredited Online Training

http://www.proactivehrm.com/JobSearch/Action_Plan.html  

© Copyright Pro-Active Human Resource Management  1992-2008